Connect me education

I'll be sharing some of the apps I'll be experimenting . I was informed by the course I'm taking with teacher Ana Maria Camin titled  Connect me education. It's a 4- week course in which we have many articles to read and a lot of ideas to experiment using mobiles in the classroom. It's been very enriching.

My little baby

Just to contemplate my little treasure . My little girl is now turning 3 months old.

http://animoto.com/play/Q3vO2YpnVXvecyxJOQhIWg

Quiz tool

This is another good tool I learnt. With this tool you can prepare quizes so that students can take them at home .This one I prepared for my intermediate groups . It's a revision of vocabulary that they can study at home.

http://www.proprofs.com/ 

Revision of vocabulary test1 » quiz software

Using showbeyond

This is another fantastic tool for presentation and for narration of stories. What is good about it is that you can upload up to 24 pictures , you can insert a text and audio to your presentation without the need to syncronize it.The tool I'm talking about is  showbeyond.   I prepared this activity for my Basic course. The topic is present perfect. I'll show the slides once and then I'll divide them in pairs. With the friend they will have to try to write as many questions as they remember. After this they will see the exercise in their books.

Presentations with audio

The tool I explored this week is very good to present things. Actually I used two tools . I used slideshare to upload my powerpoint slides and then I used aviary to record my voice. I prepared this activity for my Upper level . The topic is comparison but I used the tools I mentioned to present the new vocabulary related to animals that is in the lesson.Firstly I'll  show the slidecast twice so that students will listen and try to memorize new vocabulary. Then I'll separate them in pairs  and I'll show the other sequence of slides without my voice. They will be supposed to write down the phrases describing each animal. Finally I'll repeat the slidecast for them to compare. The pair that gets more correct phrases will win sweets.  Animals that... Uia 5a

View more webinars from Andrea Menezes.

Working with recordings

The series of posts you'll see below is about recording yourself. There are many available options in the net for us to use.I decided to try one by one with all my levels.As this coming week I'll be dealing with revision for written tests , most of them I prepared to give students a chance to correct some exercises and one of them I'll give as a listening activity.They are not dificult to prepare and they offer a very good quality of sound.The one that I found easiest to use was vocaroo. I'll be using it twice. I'll present you the tools I used which were:

a) recordr

b) Aviary

c) Audioboo

d) Audiopal

e) Vocaroo ( 2x)

In this post I'll describe a project I'm planning to do using Vocaroo. I'm thinking to use it with my Pre- Intermediate group level 3. In their book there's a text they are supposed to read and later on mark some sentences true or false.My plan is I recorded  myself reading the first paragraph and I'll post it in another blog I created . I'll ask some volunteers to record the other paragraphs of the text  at home and send me via e-mail. Later I'll post all in this blog. Whenever I receive all the text recorded I'll  play the recordings to all class who will listen and then mark some sentences true or false.

Recording - Using recordr.tv

The second tool I used  is recordr.tv. It's also a good tool and  what is good about this one is that it offers the possibility to record yourself using only the microphone or the webcam. I prepared this one to my Upper level. Now the topic is relative clauses. They will have to fill in a text using relative pronouns. I recorded the text with the answers so I'll be playing the text to give them a chance to correct it. 

The Alchemist UIA 4B recorded by guest

Recordings - Using Aviary

The third  tool I used  is Aviary. What I liked most in this tool is the possibility of uploading intros in my recordings wherever I want. What I prepared this time was a recording to check a grammar topic which is the superlative. This I will give to my Basic level 3. They will have to  fill in the questions from a quiz using the superlative. After doing the activity I'll play the recording so that they will have a chance to check. After that they will have to ask the questions to a partner who will have to choose one from three given alternatives.

B3 12A The best quiz of the World.egg on Aviary.

Recordings - Using audioboo

This fourth  tool I tested is  called  audioboo.  I thought of using this tool to record one text  that is actually a pre- writing task. I'll be giving this one to my Pre-intermediate group level 3. There's an article in their books which they are supposed to fill in with some given words.After doing the exercise I'll play the recording for them to check,since it was not recorded in the book.I'll use it to correct the exercise in a different way.

Recordings - Using audiopal

Now I'll be talking about  the fifth  recording tool called audiopal. It's another easy tool to use. What is good about this one is that it offers  the possibility to record  your messsage using the telephone, microphone , you can upload audio files and you can also write a text.  What I didn't like about this  is  that as you don't need to sign in you don't have your recording saved in one page. This time I prepared a recording for my Upper level. In their books they are supposed  to read one paragraph introducing the topic Urban legends. Then I had the idea to record it and transform it into a listening activity. There will be one question per pair and to answer the questions they'll have to listen to my recording.

Recordings - Using Vocaroo

Again I recorded myself using this tool called vocaroo. I liked this one because it's very easy for students to use at home. I prepared this for my UIB group  Unit 10A. The topic is causatives ( have/get something done). As they are supposed to fill in a text with causative expressions I had the idea to record the text. After doing the exercise  I'll play the recording to give students a chance to correct it in a different way.

working with tutorials.

 The two posts  you'll see are about tutorials. The tools to record tutorials are not only good to help people to use specific sites in the net , as you'll see in the post below,  but also for us teachers to show our correction on students's pieces of writing as I'll be showing you in this post.
This was an attempt I did using screenr. It was a suggestion of a workmate then I decided to try on. As I received a piece of writing from a student via e-mail I decided to use a tutorial to show her my corrections on her writing piece. There are some options of tools such as  (  screentoaster   and jing   ) . They are very good ones as well but due to  the fact that I couldn't manage to publish my recordings using the ones I've just mentioned I decided to use screenr. If you want to use a webcam while showing the movements of the screen the only option is screentoaster.

Working tutorials

The first time I saw this tool  I couldn't believe my eyes. I was having problems to use a specific site and then I received the explanation via tutorial. My reaction was: wow, How can it be done? As a student I felt very comfortable because I could see the movements of the mouse and I could pause to do the same at the same time as if I had a person next to me teaching me to use it. I'm talking about  screenr . Last semester I started using Edmodo with my students. I was a little resistant before but after some time I decided to try it. Then I had the idea to prepare a tutorial to help my students to use it.I tried to use simple language so that they could follow the steps. You should give it a try. You'll be surprised with the result of it.

Video Creations

As I was experimenting video creation  tools, I decided to use  two of them with the same pictures for different purposes. The post you see below I used one of them called animoto. The second one I used  the tool called Jaycut to prepare the video with pictures. Both tools I 'll use to revise items of vocabulary.

Let me talk about this post. As my students from Pre- intermediate  need some help to memorize phrasal verbs I decided to use this tool with the same pictures to give them a chance to memorize them.In the first post ( below ) I'll use  the tool as a game. In this post I'll use the tool as a quiz but in pairs. Students will see the pictures and choose 10 of them. After writing the list of  10 phrasal verbs  they will be asked to build up phrases with them.They will be given extra points for that activity.


http://jaycut.com/content/23-october-2010-628

Video creations

This is a very good tool to present vocabulary or revise it. I thought  to use this tool called animoto, to revise vocabulary. I prepared it for my pre-inter group. As the topic is phrasal verbs I decided to use this tool which is very useful and easy to use. I will devide class in 2 groups. I'll show the pictures and students will be supposed to write down the phrasal verbs that are associated with the picturesTthe group that has more correct ones will be the winner group.

Sing a song project

It's so good when you have groups that like trying things on. This morning my students  decided to record themselves singing a song from their books. This was suggested by a junior group  I have.Last class it was decided that each one would bring a piece of clothing  to use during  the recording.We had a lot of fun while rehearsing it. I hope you like it. There's also the link in case you can't see it via the poster.

http://andreaborges.glogster.com/Glog-4813/

Presentation tool

This is another presentation tool I found  in Nik's list of posts.It's called 280slides and it's very easy to work with. I recommend it whenever you need to present something. Well, to test it I prepared this sequence of slides  to be used in my children group.  I want to present the most commom animals since the topic we are learning is this. In the same sequence I prepared some without labels so that students will be asked to remember the names by saying them and in a following class they will be asked to write down the names of animals that they remember. There's the link below in case there's a problem with the presentation.

http://280slides.com/Viewer/?user=54732&name=animal%20slide&fullscreen 

Working with animations

This is an excellent tool for dialogue animations. I read about this tool in Ana Maria's e-book. It's very worth reading  because it brings a lot of interesting  and useful tools for teachers and for classroom situation. The tool I'm talking about now is  goanimate. It's very cute but  its creation demands some time. You have many options of characters ,background, music and even effects. Why don't you try and create yours?

This is the second time I use it. This time I prepared this cartoon for my Pre- Intermediate group. In their books there's a listening exercise without the tapescript.Then I had the idea to use this tool so students will have a chance to see the tapescript in a different way. First they will listen to the dialogue. at the second time I'll show the cartoon .They 'll listen , read and try to do the exercise which is answer some questions about it.

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0kb6pvbNm8ZU?utm_source=emailshare&uid=01_TNU6tdCZw




GoAnimate.com: Are you a morning person? by andreaborges


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Wall communication

I was checking our communication site  and I came across this other option to work with walls. I've already used wallwisher  but I believe this one ( stixy ) offers more options and more space for students to come and participate. It can be used in various ways depending on the group and the teacher's creativity. Just to try on and see if it works I prepared this wall to use with my Upper level. The grammar topic is 2nd conditional. I will ask  them to come to the wall and tell me what they would do in the 3 situations suggested on the wall. I'll ask them to do at home but if they don't I'll give it in class.


http://www.stixy.com/guest/86755 

Working with video quiz

This is another  wonderful tool to work with videos. It was taken from Ana's e-book. The tool I'm talking about is Eslvideo. Last class I showed a scene of a film to my Pre-intermediate group as I found the video in youtube I had the idea to prepare this quiz as a follow up activity.They will have the chance to watch it again and then do the quiz.