Category Archives: General

Virtual Travelling: An Innovative Easy-to-Set Speaking Project

General

Virtual travelling must be the next best thing to actually travelling. Arguably, of course.

Using technology in the class is a risk. There are a number of things that can go wrong, so why do teachers still dedicate time and effort to introducing tech in their classrooms?  Could it be because classes become more…

  • fun
  • effective
  • engaging
  • interesting

to name just a few perks?  And if this is not enough to convince you to give it a try, just ask yourself this simple question: can we honestly, in the XXIc, be teaching as we were taught when we were kids? I know taking risks is not at the top of your list, but the truth is that if we want to get different results, we need to start doing different things or at least doing things in a different way ( hope A. Einstein forgives me for tweaking his words a bit).  We need to step out of our comfort area and try new things. Believe me when I tell you, making the effort pays off. If I have managed to pique your curiosity, go on reading; if I haven’t, you may want to stop reading right now because what follows is an example of how easy it is to use technology in our classes.

  • Topic: travelling
  • Level: any
  • Skills: reading, speaking, using technology

The activity

Steps 1.  Deciding where to go
  • Students get into groups of three and decide on a place to virtually visit. Ask them to agree on a second option, just in case another group chooses the same place to visit.
Step 2: Explaining Google Maps Street View

In class, open Google Maps and explain how to use it. For example, in the search box, type Buckingham Palace and drag the little man (called Pegman) in the bottom right corner to the area that you want to explore. Unclick to drop Pegnam on a blue line, blue dot or orange dot on the map. To move around, hover your cursor in the direction that you want to go. Your cursor becomes an arrow that shows in which direction you’re moving. Students love it! ( see the video below for details (0:55)

Step 3: Working Collaboratively on a Google Document
  • Working collaboratively on a Google Doc, they decide three places to visit in that city/country. (see the how-to video below (1:20).

Step 4:  Researching and Writing
  • Students do some research on the Internet and write their speeches on the doc document.  Warn them not to copy/paste the information.
  • Once they have written their speeches, ask them to collaboratively polish their writing, correcting grammar mistakes or spelling errors.
  • Ask students to share the document with you and correct the most important mistakes.
Step 5: Virtual Travelling
  • Students take the stage and give their presentation to the rest of the class.
  • Tip: while one of the students is presenting, another member of the team can be operating on the computer

Travelling at our fingertips!!! Enjoy teaching, enjoy learning!

Dry Erase Boards to Help Fix Grammar and Spelling Mistakes from Essays

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Happy February everyone! Finally January is over, and we can start dreaming with the spring.  And that reminds me that I need to start thinking about losing some weight. Well, every cloud has its silver lining! I know, I know, we are still in the thick of winter. One can only dream…

The second term is upon us and it’s now the time to give students the results of their tests. I am never super excited about it. While it’s nice to see how some students are making the most of the course and will pass with flying colours, some others aren’t that lucky and, believe me when I tell you that even after almost 3o years teaching, it still saddens me to see their disappointment. Some of them are smart enough to admit they have not studied enough but for some of them, it is not a question of how much effort they put into it.

And talking about exams, isn’t it true that students tend to always make the same mistakes? I am talking here about grammar and spelling mistakes. Now, how many of you have corrected the spelling of “writing” or a “people goes”. See? It shouldn’t be that difficult to correct if, when we teach what we know is bound to become a mistake, we teach, revise, reinforce and emphasize the correct form. If only it were that easy… I can hear you say!

Anyway, these are some of the most easy-to-fix mistakes my B2 students have made in their essays. Problem is that if I give them their exams with the mistakes underlined and corrected, they are going to say “oh yes, silly me, I know the grammar for this, teacher!” and after a brief glimpse at the mistake, they are just going to forget it. What? Over my dead body!

On the blog, there are a lot of games and strategies to help students analyze and fix their written mistakes. This is just a new one! Fun, but also hopefully, effective!

For this activity, I have used a template that won my heart as soon as I spotted it on Genial.ly and some dry erase boards, which you can easily substitute by a regular A4 sheet of paper. You can, but it is more fun if you use a dry board. Don’t know why, but it is. Trust me.

Dry Erase Boards to Help Fix Grammar and Spelling Mistakes from Essays

You need

  • Grammar and spelling mistakes  from students’ essays.
  • Dry Erase Boards and whiteboard markers  (alternatively regular A4 sheets of paper).

Note: click on the 3 dots to enlarge the presentation. Notice the Push here button  to advance through the slides.

 

Procedure:

  • Divide the class into teams of three and give each team a dry erase board and a whiteboard marker.  Tell teams to quickly come up with a creative name for its team. Write the names of the teams in a list on one side of the board.
  • Display the first mistake and give students 45 seconds to discuss the mistake and try to fix it. You can use a timer from www.online-stopwatch.com or from classroom screen.
  • When the time is up, a representative from each team needs to raise the board with their guess at correcting the mistake.
  • Ask them to comment and discuss the mistake as a whole class.
  • If it’s correct, they score 1 point.
  • The team with the most points at the end wins.

At the end of the exercise, students do the exercises again but this time orally. This retrieval practice is what is going to help students remember the correct structure or spelling.

The next day, I would suggest asking students to discuss in pairs the mistakes and their correction, to fix knowledge.

Fun and effective! Enjoy teaching!

Spice Up your Class and Maximize Learning with Traditional Games

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What’s the first thing that pops into your head when I say traditional games? Bingos, crosswords, board games? This website has them all. Free. Customizable. Yay!

Let me start by saying that tomorrow is Monday. Monday, and January. Not my fave month, to be honest. I know it has always been there, in between December and February but I find January dull, boring, lifeless and one of the darkest months of the year.  If I were talking about food in this blog, I would say a Monday in January requires comfort food. But this blog is not about yummy recipes, it’s about ideas, ramblings, tools, teaching and learning. So, let’s talk not about comfort food but about comfort digital tools. Tools that can make a Monday feel like a Friday.  Is it possible? It is!! Just have a look at this website.  It has all the right ingredients:

  • It’s free and fun
  • Membership is free but you do not have to register unless you want to save content.
  • You can download the content you create.
  • It has lots of different fun templates you can edit to create exercises relevant for your classes.

It is called Half a Crossword, but don’t let the name deceive you. It is much more than a web to create crosswords. You can create a variety of games but what is most valuable for me are the ideas it provides to make the exercises come alive.

What kind of materials can you create?

  • Half a crossword
  • Sentence correction
  • Sentence Unscramble
  • Number Bingo
  • Board Game
  • Word Bingo
  • and some more….

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTIVITY

  • Choose the activity you would like to create
  • There are 3 steps you will need to follow
  • Number 1. Depending on the activity, enter the word, sentence or question in the space provided.
  • Number 2. Have a look at the maximum of words or characters…etc specified for each activity
  • Number 3. Preview it and print it. You can also save it if you have registered
  • Have a look at the label named HOW, where you can read how to use the activity with your students

Let’s kick off this week with, for example, half a crossword to revise the vocabulary taught the previous week. How does it sound to you?

Ed Tech Quickie: Videocyborgh

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This is a section of the blog I’ve meaning to write for a while. I have called it Ed Tech Quickies because my intention is to write very short posts sharing with you links, tips or tricks that can help us spice up learning or just make our classes more visual and more engaging. Here we go.

If you cannot rely on your Internet connection, Videocyborg is just what you need to download a video from any website, even from Facebook or Twitter

Just paste the URL of the video you want to download in the box, click Download Video and that’s it. Ready to take it to class. You don’t need to register and it’s free.

 

The Perfect Gift: a Listening and Speaking Lesson Featuring Rihanna

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Hiii! Hello! Happy New Year!  Here I am again! Back to the grind or so they say!

Almost a month has passed since my last post. And this break ends right now. The holiday break has me going mad and sometimes I don’t even know what day of the week it is. So, I have started preparing classes. Sort of miss them. Can you believe it?

Anyway, I feel so full of energy and I have prepared so many activities that I have written three posts on a row. I will refrain from publishing them all at once and save them for a rainy day.

This first one has to do with presents, something that almost everyone gets these holidays. I know that some people don’t get any presents; some other people don’t like giving presents and some others don’t like receiving them. It does not matter. This lesson fits all moods.

Warm-up

Ask the class to discuss in pairs or in threes the question: What do you prefer, giving or receiving presents? Why?  Get class feedback.

Ask students if they know the singer Rihanna and the famous American talk show host, Oprah Winfrey. I think Rihanna is world-famous but I am not so sure they will know who Oprah is. If necessary, show them a picture. Tell them they are going to watch a video where the protagonists are Rihanna, her mother and Oprah Winfrey. Ask them to predict the content of the video.

Listening Comprehension: Back to the boards

Ask students to work in pairs: one of them faces the board and the other one faces away from the board. Play the video without sound and ask the student facing the board to describe to his partner what is happening in the video.

Link to video

Listening Comprehension: the questions

You can ask students to do it online or you can print the PDF. If you decide to do it online, you will get feedback immediately; just press, see your score.

After the listening, ask students: What is the most expensive present you have ever given to someone?

Speaking

You know when you are on holidays, and have some time to spare and decide to try some crazy stuff? What you see below is the result of me having some time on my hands. Obviously, the idea can be simplified and the gift drawn on the board. But, as I said, I was feeling creative and with nothing to do.

As I have 24 students, I have designed two identical gifts (one in green as in the picture and the other one in red). The idea is to divide the class into two teams and assign each team a different gift.  On one side, they can see nonmaterial gifts; they should choose the one they would like to possess in 2020 and on the other side, a conversation question about gifts and presents.

Ask students to remain standing. The two groups should not mix – easy, as the two gifts have different coloured cards, red and green- and they should talk to everybody in their groups asking and answering questions. Encourage them to elaborate on their answers but let’s keep it flexible.

Click here to get the PDF with the conversation questions on the other side of the card.

Enjoy teaching, enjoy learning!