I have stumbled upon the easiest poll maker ever. Thanks to my Facebook ELT friend David K who definitely writes an interesting and very useful blog that you can check out here. I really like this Pollmo he has presented.
Pollmo is still in beta version and I would say it's a three step poll maker. You need to write your question, possible answers and choose the template colour. When you create your poll you can get both embed code and URL to share it with the rest of the world :) The most important thing is that you do not need to sing up for it.
Check out the poll I have created. I will soon have a talk with my students about youtube, so vote please. Thank you. Also, check out David's webpage and his post about Top 10 Sites for creating Polls or Surveys.
Dear participants and mods of BaW2012. I created a Voki which you can find at the bottom of this post. This Voki is sort of a Welcoming note to BaW2012 family!
To embed a Voki in a post you need to choose its embed code from the Voki page that you get
when you create one!
Here are some images on creating a Voki:
Image1: If you use mic to record the message click "allow" button in Adobe Flash Settings window & type of mic
Image2: Press "record" and save your message - max 1 min.
Image3: If you want to embed choose above code, if just want to share URL, click chose Standar Voki link and copy URL
To paste it in your blog you need to choose "HTML" section that is shown in your post window.
This is how it looks in my Dashborad, as I have new blogger settings. (Check images)
Then you return back to "Compose" where you can continue writing your post, if you want.
Here are the images of my design dashboard in the Blogger- the process while creating a new
post on the blog and adding embed code!
Image4: Add title; under "Compose" you write your post BUT to add embed code press "HTML"
o
Embeding HTML code!
Back to "Compose" - also click "preview" before you "Publish"
My Voki!!
As you have noticed I have chosen small size of a Voki, you can see
the choices availabe in the Voki image Nb 3 above.
I am sorry if the photos aren't so clear. This is my first so to say Image tutorial!
This is a presentation that I had for my collegues at the ELT Regional Meeting. I think it can be very useful especially for a newbie. I want to thank my PLN for many useful informations and for encouragment. Using web tools in an English class
It's very hard to choose your favourite blog, wiki, twitterer, video site and so on, as for me, there are so many great things and it's so difficult to decide.
But, being a part of a wonderful online community for let's say almost a year I decided
to nominate those who shared the things that had been of the most interest to me at least this year.
Here are my nominees:
Best educational wiki:Welcome back Egypt, - really nice and beautiful blog created by Azhar and her wonderful students.
Best teacher blog:http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/ by Shelly Terrell as I have really learned a lot by visiting her blog and her wonderfull Free Friday TESOL Webinars. Go,go Shelly!
Best individual tweeter, there are so many but the one who shared some great resources relevent to me is @missnoor28
Best new blog: A journey in language by Brad Patterson - funny, imaginative and creative Best individual blog, hard choice again,but I pickedDave Dodgson's blogas I read it reagulary and Dave really has some great and simple ideas on teaching and things in general.
I hope I am not too late to submit my top 10 tools for this year. I became an avid user of Internet and web tools almost a year ago. I read a post at aCliltoClimb written by a great PLN and a friend on how"Jane Hart, is taking votes for their annual Top 100 Tools for Learning", so I became encouraged to write my own 10 tools.
I have chosen those I have been using almost every day for the past year, and I must say some are same or similar to the ones Cheiw Pang mentioned.
My top 10+ - no particular order
1. Google - have it as my homepage, use it every day, I remeber I was still at University when it was presented as a new search engine. Wow, long time ago! Am getting old!
2. Google Translator - use it now and then, have some good laughs sometimes, but in general when I can't think of the right word in my head, it helps a lot.
3. Blogger - Oh, yes I have used it for the past year, maybe not often as I should have. I still don't have time to write more. I hope to be more encouraged as I write in English which is not my mother tongue.
4.Facebook- well this is a social network I have been a member since 2008. There have recently been so many changes . Some don't prefer it any more, some are still too addicted to it. I know that I haven't been to aware of its posibilities until I found out about some great FB teacher groups, and great webpages. I don't use it any more just for fun and family, but also for education.I also have a FB secret group with some of my students.
5. Twitter - WOW! I became a real fan of it during RSCON3. It's like a big "global staff room" as my friend Arjana Blazic would say.
6. Youtube - I love it so much. My sons have become aware of it's possibilities so when they search for some game tutorials they first visit Youtube. I found a lot of great video materials there, that I can use in class, or sometimes I just watch movie trailers as being a big movielover.
7. Skype - use it everyday, in class too, had my first class project by using Skype. Will continue using it for the same reason. I love when my students have a posibility of interviewing other English teachers world wide.
8. Almost forgot Gmail - but mentioned so many Google tools. This is so far my favourite email,even though I must say I am getting use to Yahoo mail as well.
9. Photopeach - love this slideshow tool. I was introduced to it at BAW11, and it's so easy to use, I have already created 3 videos. A lot for me.
10. Linoit - my PLN use it a lot on Twitter, so I gave it a try and I loved it. Easy and simple, I have introduced it to my students, and one has created a Halloween lino we used later in class.
10+ Wordle(Tagxedo) love them both, as I like to create word clouds. I use it a lot in class for motivation, grammar practice,everything...
This was written in a hurry, so don't mind any grammar or spelling mistakes.
There are still so many new tools I am getting used to, hope I can share them next year.
My husband and sons' creations, right from our own garden
I wanted to share with you the lesson I did with my high school students.
Few days before the Halloween one of them created a Linoit, that you can check on my previous post here.
I've asked them to add photos, comments or music videos related to Halloween. It was also a great way of introducing Lino to them. We even had some let's say guest posts by fellow teachers such as Shelly Terrell and Sandra Rogers. Thank you for that.
This online discussion was before our lesson that actually took place on Friday 28 October, just few days before Halloween. I usually teach Halloween as a Culture Corner, and I always like to stress out that it's more an American holiday than ours.
The first thing I asked them to do was to show me some scary faces.
I said, i.e."If you are in a haunted house how would you react when you hear screams..."
OR "You see a dreadfull scene but you mustn't yell as they will hear you, show me some scared faces"
They were so funny and so into this Drama part!!!
Then we looked at the lino and checked what they and mentioned teachers posted.
(They loved Shelly's dog Rosco)
Then came the Brainstorming part. I wrote Halloween on the blackboard and asked them to share their ideas. The first thing they can think of!
This is what they have come up with. I've created a Wordle of their ideas.
Some Halloween vocabulary without Justin Bieber even though he was mentioned?
We had fun and I explained some unknown vocabulary for those who didn't understand.
Later we had a listening activity. The plan was to listen some spooky sounds and to try and recognize them. They were so into it that they asked me to darken the room with the curtains to make it even more scary. Have to mention here that most of them love watching horror films with few exceptions so some girls have got rather scared with the sounds I've played.
I found some interesting videos on Youtube, but I didn't prepare any worksheet for them just told them to write down the sounds they hear.
The first video
The second video (You don't have to do both videos, or just choose certain sound effects from both)
Instructions: "Write down all the creepy sound you can here, and try to recognize who or what is making them."
When they gave me their answers such as: "I have heard a wolf, door, wind, witch laughing....."
I introduce them to more vocabulary. Asking them and writing on board.
Example: "What does a wolf do?
"Describe a witch's laugh!"
"What about the door!"
They didn't know all the answers, even though they are intermediate level so we had them written down: wolf howls
a witch laughs (cackle, snigger and so on)
a door creaks.....
a wind blows
thunder stroke...
To finish my lesson I had some writing activity as well. I found this lesson in my email. It was sent to me by Croatian ELT Pearson Longman as newsletter. And it was actually a part of another lesson.
I had them write scary but aslo funny stories.
The Activity is called "Scary Consequences", but I rather prefered, "Funny and scary in a parody style".
You can check the original pdf lesson on the google docs link above.
This is what I have writen on board:
1. A ______________(male scary person, zombie, werewolf....)
2. met a_____________(female creature, witch...)
3. at _________________ ( a place)
4. They were eating _____________________(sts own ideas)
5. He said to her "_________________________(sentence spoken ny male)
6. She said to him:"________________________( female sentence)
7. The consequence was______________________________(sth that happened as a result).
Here are some of the stories written by my students. They gave me the permisson to publish it here, and I will add the rest later in my google docs.
Beware: the stories are rather creepy, a true Halloween spirit.
FIRST STORY:
A zombie met a black cat on the graveyard. They were eating human bones. He said to her:" One bone got stuck in my stomach" She said to him: "ha-ha-ha, you will throw up your blood and organs, ha-ha-ha" The consequence was that the zombie threw up all day and finally died by falling on
the black cat.
SECOND PARODY Like STORY
A vampire met Cinderella in the wood under the tree.
He was drinking blood out of human body.
He said to her: "Yummy, want some too?"
She said to him: "No, I want salade, you know I am on a diet"
That was wrong answer for Cinderella as Vampire ate her.
Am I crazy for creating this parody like writing, would you allow it in your class?
Please bare in mind that my students love horrors, love to read ghost stories, and are 17.
My Voki!!
