Tag Archives: students

Voicethread and my students

Create your own stuff, Resources, Slides, Speaking, Writing, Writing skill, , , , , , ,

I’ve been meaning to use this tool for  quite a long time but  the right time never seemed to come.

I think this little dialogue performed by my most elementary students is a nice way of showing you what Voicethread is. VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam).

I want to thank María Sánchez and Rocío Ibias in the first dialogue and Eva Bedia and Ainhoa Nuevo in the second (from IES  Cesar Rodríguez – Grado) for their enthusiam. Thanks girls, I would never  have done it without you!

To use Voicethread you need to register but it only takes a minute and it can help you a lot improve your speaking and writing abilities. How ?

  • You can  record yourself describing pictures
  • You can  add comments to photographs
  • You can tell a story using different pictures

It also has a lot of potential for teachers.

  • I intend to use it for debates on issues: by asking students either to record themselves or  type their own ideas
  • I have already used it to record students doing role-plays

I’m sure you have plenty of ideas to use VoiceThread. Why don’t you share them with us ? Please, send a post if you want to contribute with your own ideas.

You’d better stop…

In the Computer Room, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Listening, Music, , ,

I angrily whispered to one of my new students.
Stop is the title of a song by Jamelia (I have to confess that although I had often  heard the song I didn’t have a clue about the singer)… anyway .. the idea for this post comes from this change of career I’m experiencing. I must admit that I’m not used to teaching teenagers;  well, you can hardly call them teens as some of my students are about 12.
In a week at a high school I’ve accumulated more anecdotes than in my whole life teaching adults.
Apart from the innocent “Teacher: Do I have to draw a title?”,” Can I go to the toilet? or What-d’ye -call-him said I was an idiot”, you have the not -so -innocent teens who try to challenge the teacher’s authority to show the other classmates the extent of the power of their arrogance and bad manners. It ‘s to one of these students that ,on the second day of my new experience at a high school, I had to say in a very low voice loaded with venom…. You’d better stop!! The amazing thing is that she … because a “she” she was…. Stopped!!. It must’ve been the tone of my voice that led her to think that I wasn’t one to be played with. Anyway, too bad!
Another anecdote but on the funny side of the story is when I asked my 12-year- students to stand up, mingle and do a communicative activity and one of the shiest students in class came up to me and whispered.. “Teacher! V…. has pinched my breast!!”” What?” I asked absolutely astonished! “Yes, teacher !He has just done the same to me ! “cried another. I looked at the so called V… and he blushed and answered that he wanted to feel if they were stuffed with cotton … Gosh!! What a mightmare! What do you think? Will I survive my students ?
Anyway , this and the reference in a reading text to Jamelia gave the idea of using this song a more serious classes where they’d appreciate the structure You’d beter+ infitive, which , as you know, in used to give very strong advice. Enjoy this beautiful song and if you want to do a “fill in the blanks” exercise ( elementary/pre-intermediate students) click on the button

Talking Photos: Fotobabble

freeware, In the Computer Room, Resources, Speaking, , , , ,

What a great tool this is!!

The Certificación exam is  just around the corner and bumping into this little tool right now got me thinking whether some things  happen by sheer chance or by  some divine intervention. Choose the one you feel most comfortable with .

Now, as you know , in the oral part of the exam you’ll be asked to describe  a/some picture(s)  in three minutes. Well, here’s a good tool to help you rehearse for this part of the exam. It’s called Fotobabble and it looks promising.

This is what you have to do to use this app:

  • First, sign up. Don’t worry it’s free and it only takes a few seconds.
  • Upload a photo from your computer.
  • Record your voice using a microphone
  • Listen to your recording.

This is quite OK as far as you are concerned but I’d like to see what you are doing , so why don’t you send me your fotobabbles ? No idea how to do it ? Click on the link below and in  a video and in Spanish I’ll explain it all to you. No excuses now!!

http://www.screencast.com/users/cristinacd/folders/Jing/media/a9ed9e6f-4356-468f-82d9-8c10558a9a8b

Avilés

General, Students' Corner

Sent by Fanny García López, from the pre-intermediate level. Many thanks , Fanny!

I live in Avilés, which on the coast in the north of Asturias, Spain. It has a population of 86.000 inhabitants and it’s the third biggest city in Asturias.

It’s an industrial city near the river. There are lots of enterprises like Aceralia, Cristalería, Asturiana de Cinc..

There are different restaurants and a lot nature around the city.

Here, it’s always cold in winter and in summer it’s hot.

Avilés is famous for its iron and steel industry which transports a lot of building material.

I like living here because it’s beautiful and quiet and I have here my friends, my family and also because I am studying here .

Guess the Game

Games, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Students' Corner, Writing, , , ,

Still on the subject of sports, today let’s focus on a writing activity where you’ll have to make use of lots of things learnt this week, namely

  • Modals: have to/don’t have to/ must/mustn’t
  • Vocabulary related to sports
  • Prepositions of movement

What to do?? Simple!!! Look at the following  pictures. What do they all have in common? Exactly!! They’re all sports.

What do you have to do? Choose a sport and give a good definition for it, mentioning everything you know about it as regards equipment, rules of the game, where you can practise it…etc. Make sure you do not write the name of the sport as we, readers, will have to guess the name of the sport you are describing.

Need a dictionary? Here : Monolingual http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Bilingual  http://www.wordreference.com/es/

Ready??