tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87523198829577408542024-02-18T22:39:08.303-08:00Maria´s blog, becoming a connected E-ducatorAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-69019956613841161432017-01-09T16:31:00.000-08:002017-01-09T16:32:01.205-08:00Electronic Village Online, 2017<div style="text-align: center;">
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Teaching Listening: Principles, techniques and technologies</div>
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<a href="http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/113682973/2017_Teaching_Listening" target="_blank">Link to the session description</a></div>
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I´ve decided to use the ideas in Lizzie´s presentation to reflect on what trails I´ve followed and where I am now to help me focus on what I can profit from by doing this session of the 2017 EVO.</div>
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I´ll start by sharing what I thought would be useful for my students, what proved not to work and what they have chosen to use as out of class self directed practice.</div>
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To begin with adult students have a very low self esteem when it comes to their listening skills performance. When asked how they rate themselves, they always give themselves a very low mark and often comment that they are helpless at listening. Consequently when I announce a listening task, the usual response is one of nervous expectancy as they prepare for the upcoming ordeal. No amount of reassuring or strategies seem enough to counteract this perception. The high affective barrier built around this skill results in an immediate rejection of the task or anything to do with trying to decode an oral message that does not come from the teacher. I often hear my students say: "I understand YOU, but it´s very difficult for me to understand a native speaker." This happens because as an experienced teacher (I´ve been teaching for over 20 years now!) I know that a strategy I often follow is that of automatically trying to adjust my grammar and vocabulary to one that matches the level of the student in front of me. This results in mutual intelligibility during the class, but unfortunately does not expose them to the nuances of trying to communicate with a stranger. To compensate this, I make sure to provide multiple sources of oral input for them to explore on their own outside the classroom walls.</div>
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This year I found and shared with my students the following links. Each of them was received with varied degrees of enthusiasm as follows:</div>
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<a href="http://www.justjared.com/2015/12/28/lukas-grahams-7-years-full-song-lyrics-jj-music-monday/#annotations:8048253" target="_blank">Just Jared</a> </div>
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I thought this was a wonderful idea: Song Lyrics with annotations. I was wrong. No interest to my student.</div>
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What I like about this kind of website is that they often give me new ideas such as <a href="http://www.justjared.com/2016/12/21/watch-grace-vanderwaals-charming-new-beautiful-thing-lyric-video-exclusive/" target="_blank">this young singer´s video</a> that contains the lyrics, in the form of the artist´s handwriting in the video, a feature I always thank when artists decide to use in their productions. Who knows maybe this one is more appealing to my students.</div>
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<a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/master-of-light-a-close-look-at-the-paintings-of-johannes-vermeer-narrated-by-meryl-streep.html" target="_blank">Open Culture</a></div>
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They have lots of content and I decided to share this link about Vermeer, because the conversation at one point in the lesson derived to that topic. However it turned out to be too demanding for my students, it appears it was more interesting for me rather than my students. My mistake!</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWNWt3kiTWc&list=RDFWNWt3kiTWc#t=1" target="_blank">Cats, songs with lyrics</a></div>
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My student was travelling to New York and had tickets for this show. Learning the lyrics beforehand proved to be both motivating and conductive to learning. It was a smash success.</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k33ZQ4I4p24" target="_blank">Do Re Mi, from The Sound of Music</a></div>
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A spontaneous google search for a karaoke version of the song turned out to be a fun classroom moment as we all joined in singing this classic song.</div>
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<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/jocelyne_bloch_the_brain_may_be_able_to_repair_itself_with_help/transcript?language=en" target="_blank">My dear TED Talks</a> !!</div>
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I have always been a fan of TED Talks and when I introduced this site I explained the whole process from what they were to how to look for talks that match your interest and how to activate the interactive transcript and how to use them for vocabulary learning. Another smash hit that give them plenty of content to browse on the Summer holidays. (which are right now by the way!)</div>
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Using Lizzie´s words I see I use the Menu approach in the form of a list of links in a shared google doc I design for each of my groups of students.</div>
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I have to make it clear that I am dealing with Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate students here, B1 level students are already equipped with the strategies to navigate these waters, given the appropriate guidance. </div>
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I also fully agree with the idea of getting to know your students preferences and interests. I always take them into account in my searches. About this I also have to say that most of the extra content that I decide to share with my students comes to me via my Twitter PLN, a carefully chosen group of educators who tweet educationally relevant material.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-80366981021126517342016-09-23T05:34:00.000-07:002016-09-23T05:34:05.236-07:00Sismofobia<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Diariamente se producen más de 25 movimientos telúricos en la región centro-oeste de mi país, la mayoría de los cuales son imperceptibles para el hombre común ya que sólo son registrados por los aparatos sismológicos que monitorean estos fenómenos. Un terremoto es el resultado de la liberación de energía producida por la fricción entre las placas tectónicas de la tierra en constante movimiento. Su energía se mide comparándola con la producida por explosiones. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Ha</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">ce aproximadamente un mes, con un grupo de amigos y con mi esposo e hijos, escalamos el cerro Uritorco, ubicado en la provincia de Córdoba. Era un día espléndido de sol y la brisa nos refrescaba mientras subíamos por la pendiente verde del cerro. Entre chistes y charlas nos encontrábamos alrededor de la mitad del recorrido cuando escuchamos un estruendo. Todos nos miramos y buscamos en vano la fuente del sonido. Mariano, que había vivido en Jujuy, casi inmediatamente concluyó: es un terremoto. Mi mente no quería aceptarlo, así que yo me quedé con que la explosión provenía de una cantera cercana de la cual emanaba un humo blanco. Luego escuchamos en la radio que habia ocurrido un sismo de escala 3 con epicentro en las inmediaciones del Valle de Punilla.<br />Aunque sé que Santa Fe no está dentro de la región afectada por terremotos, por las dudas cada vez que voy a caminar a la costanera, cruzo el puente colgante rápidamente, en caso de que se le ocurra a la tierra moverse y quede atrapada en la "falla de la Setúbal".</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-50707721520643179602016-07-08T20:51:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:51:53.087-07:00My reflections on teaching and singing the best that you can I simply had to watch this film. It was about a "not perfect woman" who found inspiration in art to pursue a dream. I thouroughly enjoyed watching the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HszfdNS0JSc" target="_blank">Florence Foster Jenkins</a> and I just couldn´t stop myself from thinking about the importance of art in everyone´s life. I remember that this week I had to substitute a teacher friend and I saw a poster announcing a play, <a href="http://plateasantafe.com.ar/detalleagenda/4629" target="_blank">called Richard, a farce</a> (a play I had the chance to see and enjoy last year) Being of both literary and historical insterest I thought about recommending it to my students. When I asked them if they ever went to the theatre. they said they didn´t because they didn´t like it. I then went on to ask them how many plays they had seen, they told me that many. So I urged them to go on seeing until they saw something they liked. In fact I told them to go to the theatre, cinema, museums, art galleries and concerts and never stop doing that. Art is necessary in everyone´s life.<br />
In my city and my country in general there are many opportunities to enjoy art and the many offers cater for different tastes. It is a great thing to be able to enjoy such a variety at reasonable prices, often for free! I usually check what´s on offer and mingle with the crowds and enjoy the influence of that "artistic feeling" long after I have come back home. Sometimes when it is a concert I sing the songs and they stay in my mind for days. <br />
That is why I googled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMu9PKWthLE" target="_blank">Florence´s original recording</a> as soon as I sat down at my computer. When one of the soldiers from Florence´s audience commented that his mother sang better than her, I felt identified because I grew up listening to my mother singing songs from every possible genre you can find in Spanish: tangos, zarzuelas, religious songs... even today she has a song for every comment you make for example if your sentence ends with the word "fish" she could probably begin singing the famous José Luis Guerra´s song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF1GgXmdMWI" target="_blank">Burgujas de amor</a> which chorus says "Quisiera ser un pez..." (I´d like to be a fish") My kids say: "Granny has a song for everything!"<br />
What I loved about the film I have just seen is how it shows the healing, nurturing nature of art. It´s not about mastering every given discipline, but about thoroughly enjoying experiencing it. I can cook, and I do it on a regular basis, but I don´t aspire to get a <a href="http://www.bocusedor.com/en" target="_blank">Bocuse d´Or</a>, in fact the roasted meat today was a bit overcooked, but I enjoy what comes around the ceremony of cooking: shopping for the best quality ingredients, getting inspired at the supermarket, inviting my parents, opening the bottle of malbec just before we all sit together to talk and eat. The same applies for going to the cinema, theatre, etc.<br />
When we teach we are also responsible for lighting in our students the love for what they are learning. We have a great responsibility, and it hurts when we discover that our students will not be "virtuosos" of the language. However I agree with <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud" target="_blank">Prof Mitra</a> and the inspiration behind <a href="https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/" target="_blank">the School in the Cloud</a> . Sometimes we just have to be supportive and encouraging. In another class, I was asked to make my students talk and I arranged a circle of 7 chairs to have a speaking circle activity where all of them should have to talk for one minute about something. Of the seven students, one of them left (she is above 18, this means she can do it, and it also means that she couln´t care less about participating in this activity, judging from her behaviour during the class), another one invented some story just to "do the exercise" and the last one was releaved that the bell rang before she finished. However, the other four shared stories of learning to ski, participating in writing contests, conflicts they´ve had at work and regrets. Needless to say they spoke for more than one minute and they communicated fluently and openly. As a teacher I focused on the message and I can´t say I noticed many mistakes, because there weren´t and because I was making sure they felt I was listening. With my full attention. I was also inviting everyone to contribute to the conversation. <br />
Learning is a painful process, we are constantly exposed to losing face in front of others. Florence was as well. However, as she said in the film "People may say I can´t sing, but no one can ever say I didn´t sing." In a world where many talk about "giving our students voices", let us, teachers be the first ones to listen. We have a ticket in the best possible location, even if sometimes our ears can suffer a little. Let´s be our students´inspiration!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-41251685274537861732016-05-14T08:56:00.000-07:002016-05-14T08:57:20.774-07:00I am finally teaching online!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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And the day comes eventually when your dreams come true. Back in 2012 when I started exploring the affordances of the web, when I didn´t even know how to spell "Prezi" or "Edmodo" I made an amazing discovery. I heard that there were teachers who where teaching online and I just fell in love with the idea whereas at the same time lots of questions arouse regarding the changes that this new modality of teaching implied. With time and with the help of many of my online mentors I started to learn how teachers could resort to different tech tools to make an online class possible. On my journey of discovery I volunteered to teach, I organised online meetups, I regularly met online with my mentors and I got the chance to hear about and play with many web sites and tools I found interesting. <br />
Many times I offered my prospective students, who are always busy people, to not leave their houses and have the class online instead of having to come to my office. For some reason they preferred to take the face to face class.<br />
Last week I was contacted by my coordinator who needed a substitute teacher for a city that is located 200 kilometres away from home and is worldwide famous for being the homebirth of <a href="https://www.google.com.ar/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/lionel-messi-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/lionel-messi-5242.php&h=750&w=900&tbnid=pdywdao4D4SxFM:&tbnh=166&tbnw=200&docid=-KtY9_RVZmEzaM&itg=1&usg=__LtNoFZ9z5cmIgxmDPfRcSD8we2Y=" target="_blank">Lionel Messi</a>. I was obviously thrilled at the chance to finally be an online teacher for the first time in my life. I must say that I loved it. I should also mention that I felt quite nervous before the class in spite of my over 20 years of teaching experience. My strategy to fight off fear was preparation. I wanted to make sure I was "over-ready" for the class. I made contact with my students via email to make sure they did the necessary arrangements before the class such as contacting me on Skype and making sure they have downloaded Skype properly. The online way is filled with unexpected stones such as surprise power outages, or your neighbour chopping tall tree right next to the place where your pc is located and playing dangerously with the telephone lines. So, apart from dealing with these sources of extra stress an online teacher has to make sure they establish a good relationship with the students asap. A substitute online teacher does not have much time for this and given that for my students it was the first time ever using skype I had to put extra attention to making them feel comfortable to allow learning to happen. Luckily the students were extra nice and willing to participate, so the class went on normally and by the end of the clas I felt as if I´d known them for ages.<br />
As I said, having everything set before the class, eg the material, the extra grammar, the windows open and ready to be shared made me feel in control. Today, however as I am writing this blog post I have come to realize that there was another important factor that added to my confidence. I was part of a global online community of coleagues who were willing to help me test the screen sharing feature from 3 different continents at a short notice before my class was scheduled. My confidence is based on my knowledge of the tools, the pedagogy and the content of what I have to teach, but also on the knowledge that I have several communities of practice that have helped me shape the teacher I am today. And I can´t but feel grateful and lucky for this. <br />
I am looking forward to my future online lessons. I feel lucky to be part of several online communities where sharing best practices is an everyday thing. I plan to continue learning and enjoy my teaching!<br />
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(The image above was generated with <a href="http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/#create" target="_blank">Keep Calm-O-Matic</a> )<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-18232964575995374592016-05-05T14:29:00.001-07:002016-05-05T14:29:14.002-07:00De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de docentes o aprendizaje conectado<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="auto" src="https://www.smore.com/5r8zy-el-aula-global?embed=1" style="border: none; min-width: 320px;" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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En ocasión de la <a href="http://www.globaledleadership.com/" target="_blank">Global Leadership Week</a> tuve la inmensa alegria de compartir un encuentro de docentes amigos latinoamericanos en lo que dimos en llamar <a href="https://www.smore.com/5r8zy" target="_blank">El Aula Global</a>, una charla informal entre educadores apasionados por el aprendizaje global. Los cinco integrantes de esta iniciativa pertenecemos a paises diferentes, excepto Viviana y yo, que incidentalmente nos vimos personalmente el año pasado en un congreso, pero que hacia ya un año que nos conocíamos virtualmente. A pesar de las distancias entre nuestros campos de acción, nos fue fácil establecer conexiones entre lo que cada uno de nosotros tenía para decir con respecto a los beneficios de la apertura de las aulas al mundo real. Me animo a decir que todos nos sentimos muy cómodos haciendo nuestros aportes y reconociendo desafíos comunes en los problemas que cada uno planteaba. <br />
Me pasa cuando estoy en medio de mis colegas de habla inglesa, constantemente veo reflejadas mis preocupaciones, mi realidad, mi experiencia en el aula. Y la conclusión es siempre: No somos tan diferentes después de todo. Al compartir la mesa (virtual) con colegas de mis vecinos países, las coincidencias son aún mayores, las realidades se sienten mucho más cercanas y la conexión es inmediata. Entonces vuelvo a esos dias de 2012, cuando no sabía nada respecto a las comunidades virtuales de docentes que se reúnen para tratar temas relacionados con tecnología aplicada a la educación, por ejemplo, y a través de Twitter me entero de la <a href="http://www.virtual-round-table.com/events" target="_blank">Virtual Round Table</a>, un evento que se realiza todos los años y que casualmente tendrá lugar este fin de semana. Luego de superar las instancias del manejo de las herramientas de la videoconferencia, me impactó la camaradería y la enorme alegría y entusiasmo con que las organizadoras del evento llevaban a cabo el mismo. También recuerdo la calidez con que se trataba a los participantes. Hoy entiendo que el contacto con educadores entusiasmados con lo que están haciendo es vital para el docente en ejercicio de su trabajo. En un contexto cambiante y demandante, encontrar un lugar virtual o físico donde se fomente la experiencia, se difundan nuevas prácticas, se comenten innovaciones en un marco de respeto y reflexión crítica es un descubrimiento invaluable.<br />
Agradezco hoy a mis amigos que me acompañaron el jueves pasado en El Aula Global, y espero ciertamente que éste haya sido sólo el comienzo. Gracias por renovar mis energías y por ayudarme a ser una mejor docente.<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2QwWt8uv8GWOVFTUmlwVTJNUFZKajloMnFTc3BEQXk3VlhB" target="_blank">El Aula Global, grabación</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-74884540572801316432016-01-11T16:20:00.000-08:002016-01-11T16:20:49.292-08:00Electronic Village Online is here again!! EVO sessions 2016!<!-- Start of KnowledgeVision Player -->
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-11564252124684965882015-12-18T11:05:00.001-08:002015-12-18T11:09:42.424-08:00End of Year Meeting with my Travelling Aunts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have named my students this year, the Travelling Aunts, since they have all come to me with the purpose of consolidating their English speaking skills for the sole purpose of travelling. When I decided to hold a meeting with them only some of then had met before. I did not know what to expect or how to prepare for this meetup. I took some notes on an article about travelling and found a cozy place where we could have a cup of tea and a piece of cake.<br />
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The afternoon of our meeting was a typical December day in Santa Fe, 32 Degrees Celcius and 70 per cent humidity, so we ended up ordering lemonade with lots of mint and ginger. The cakes were delicious but what I enjoyed best was the conversation that developed swiftly among people who had met for the first time, who shared a common interest: the awareness of the importance of learning English. Some of my students had been touring different language schools looking for the right kind of class for them. Others had been through difficult situations abroad where they needed to use English to solve a problem. All of them shared their stories as language learners and users with enthusiasm and laughter. By the end of the meeting they were talking as if they were old friends and they urged me to set up another meeting so that they could continue the conversation. <br />
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As for me, I forgot about the notes I had taken and I felt that my job had yelded great results this year in terms of engagement and confidence. It also made me reflect on the value of human contact and community building when we are learning languages. <br />
A final thought. As I was uploading the pictures I noticed the tag on the lemonade: "Hecho con Amor" = "Made with Love". What an important ingredient in the teaching equation!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-46365121775816512292015-12-18T10:29:00.001-08:002015-12-18T10:29:57.551-08:00My Session Recording of FAAPI Conference, Cordoba, September 2015Attending a conference is not only an investment of time and money. For people who live far away from the place where the conference takes place, such as my dear friend and colleage Zoraida Risso Patrón, it also involves a 10 hours´drive from home to cover a distance of over 1,000 km. <br />
This year´s FAAPI host city was Córdoba and the venue was the Languages School of the 400 year old university of Córdoba. For me this year, and for the first time in several years, the trip was only a short 5 hour trip from home and I decided to arrive a year before so that I could catch up with the cultural life of a city I had always wanted to visit managing my own itinerary. I was thrilled to visit the renovated Museum of Fine Arts: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/museoevitapalacioferreyra/info/?tab=overview" target="_blank">Palacio Ferreyra</a>, <a href="http://www.cba.gov.ar/cordoba-cultura/paseo-del-buen-pastor/" target="_blank">Paseo del Buen Pastor</a> and the city´s several Jesuit churches. I even attended a fashion show in a building that used to be a church! <br />
The sessions I attended this year featured the usual tools and techniques for the busy teacher, but also some low tech ones such as the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kennis.look?fref=ts" target="_blank">Kennis Look</a>´s one on Speaking and Listening from the heart, which is an activity by which students take turns to listen and talk without interrupting each other in circles, council-like, which I found particularly appealing for my conversation classses.<br />
As for my session, it was the first time I presented with a full house, with people sitting on the floor! I really hope the attendees found my session useful. I meant to share what I do to try to cope with the various levels, interests and scenarios I have taught this year and I did so in the hope that maybe there were some things that could save my dear colleages a bit of time in their busy schedules.<br />
I am looking forward to next year Teachers of English of Argentina Conference, which will be held in San Juan city. <br />
Below is the video recording of the session called: Web Content Curation: An Inspiration Source for Busy Teachers. Hope you like it!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GGENRv95y6g" width="560"></iframe>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//es.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/sJMCLBG974Obu" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://es.slideshare.net/mariacolussa/faapi-2015-web-content-curation-an-inspiration-source-for-busy-teachers" target="_blank" title="FAAPI 2015, Web Content Curation, an inspiration source for busy teachers">FAAPI 2015, Web Content Curation, an inspiration source for busy teachers</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://es.slideshare.net/mariacolussa" target="_blank">mariacolussa</a></strong> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-48472322102399768752015-09-24T16:47:00.000-07:002015-09-24T16:47:47.741-07:00FAAPI 2015 <div style="width: 640px;">
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="505" scrolling="auto" src="https://tackk.com/pu7wps/embed-canvas" style="border: none; min-height: 325px; min-width: 380px;" width="640"></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://tackk.com/pu7wps?utm_source=tackk&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=share_embed" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 13px; margin: 0 5px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">View full version on Tackk</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//es.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/sJMCLBG974Obu" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="340"> </iframe> </div>
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<strong> <a href="https://es.slideshare.net/mariacolussa/faapi-2015-web-content-curation-an-inspiration-source-for-busy-teachers" target="_blank" title="FAAPI 2015, Web Content Curation, an inspiration source for busy teachers">FAAPI 2015, Web Content Curation, an inspiration source for busy teachers</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/mariacolussa" target="_blank">mariacolussa</a></strong> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-20446250156661624312015-09-10T15:36:00.001-07:002015-09-30T15:13:53.046-07:00´Congreso Internacional de Educación, Santa Fe, Septiembre 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.congresoeducacionucsf.info/" target="_blank">Congress Announcement</a> </div>
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I´m going to start with one the last day´s plenaries, not because of that phrase: "The last shall be first", but because I was startled to know these figures. In Argentina every given day 12,358,248 students and 758,522 teachers get moving during a normal school day. Luz Pearson showed us these numbers during her joint presentation with Pablo Bongiovani. Luz and Pablo shared with us their experience of collaborative work with students who are studying the same thing. They called it "Aula Red" in Spanish, (something like networked classroom?) In Spanish we say "Hay Señal" when we want to say that there is wifi connection that enables us to use our devices to communicate. They showed a slide with the following: "Hay Señal Humana" (There is Human Connection?). I particularly liked this play on words because I´m constantly experiencing the human touch in my daily contact with teachers from whom I learn every day. It has been happening on a regular basis since I started interacting online back in 2012. Today we are not constrained by space and time, they said, on the contrary these boundaries are blurred by the use of technology. I was happily surprised to see Mariana Fossatti, a dear Uruguayan teacher who led me during those early times of web use in one of their slides. Small world!</div>
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I met another person from Uruguay: <a href="https://twitter.com/logobotUY" target="_blank">Jose Miguel Garcia</a> who was responsible for my tears on this congress (I always cry at congresses at some point) when he showed a video made by students who were invited to re-imagine schools. I was delighted to hear his story of how collective knowledge is constructed within the Plan Ceibal, a scheme I have heard of first regarding the distance teaching of English, via Grahan Stanley. </div>
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Several speakers stressed the importance of reflective practice, and the need to create opportunities for critical analysis of media in a country where there are more screens per family than books and magazines. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDhuAxuyEBu3MDRfuTpdzVzi8quB73pvqmE2s1GXtiRr_oCM5-pHXKcScHy6YzYzSVJMpqy0MfXsLJkJ4lJYbCA7VIOcslxVj_4Y1RZOEP3koH8RNlEXZbiVMyjjbjLahoHOtxYTrid_o/s1600/Congreso8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDhuAxuyEBu3MDRfuTpdzVzi8quB73pvqmE2s1GXtiRr_oCM5-pHXKcScHy6YzYzSVJMpqy0MfXsLJkJ4lJYbCA7VIOcslxVj_4Y1RZOEP3koH8RNlEXZbiVMyjjbjLahoHOtxYTrid_o/s320/Congreso8.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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I was attracted by the slogan of the congress and I hope that what the speakers shared during these days catch up in Argentinian classrooms. I am already looking forward to next year´s edition.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-33724200076818673612015-08-28T15:07:00.001-07:002015-08-28T15:09:25.794-07:00I come from a land surrounded by rivers, and the waters are coming...<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.magisto.com/embed/MV0GOUQLAiAvWUxnCzE?l=vem&o=w&c=b" width="600"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-41857541767582942712015-08-21T13:10:00.000-07:002015-08-21T13:12:26.486-07:00Where I stand as a teacher and where I hope to be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">@mariacolussa, Mint. 2015</span><br />
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">As a result of joining the many teachers out there who share their journeys on blogs, I have learned that we have more things in common than I could have ever imagined. Hana Ticha's <a href="https://hanatichaeltblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/a-standard-conversation/" target="_blank">reflections</a> after a casual friends meeting reminded me of several conversations that I took part in where a group of teachers gather over a glass or something or a cup of coffee, or a round of mate, the typical Argentinean drink that inspires and accompanies philosophical exchanges among friends. Just a few weeks ago I heard a teacher say that he wasn´t interested in the "word of online teaching" because he preferred the "human contact" as if they were mutually excluded or as if only one was allowed at the expense of the other. I did not give any thought to that remark at all at the moment. I considered that it was not the time and place to talk about that. Plus I had not seen this person in any of the online events that proved that his remark was absolutely groundless. In fact I consider it a lack of respect towards so many people that have done so much for online teaching and learning, such as <a href="https://www.wiziq.com/nelliedeutsch" target="_blank">Dr. Nellie Deutch</a>, just check out one of her many recorded sessions: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHIzGwXTpbs&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Leading from Within</a>. That´s what I should have said. However I feel that this person was trying to conceal a lack of interest to invest time and energy to learn something new. </span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">Apparently we are all concerned about being the best teacher out there. By 'the best' I mean a constelation of qualities that the mythical foreign language teacher is bestowed with. We should be proficient in the language, the pedagogy, plus we have to somehow integrate technology. </span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">My road so far has been like a ride in the quiet waters of a stream. I started teaching without technology, simply because I did not have access to it. Then I taught like crazy for over 12 years to finally quit out of failing to find relevance in what I was doing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">Today my reality has changed. I was helped and taught patiently by strangers for free online as to how to harness the potential of the web to scaffold learning. I was also encouraged to take risks and pay it forward by sharing what I have learned with my fellow teachers. On the way I had enjoyed myself with master learners/sharers like <a href="http://www.vancestevens.com/vance.htm" target="_blank">Vance Stevens</a>, <a href="http://www.shellyterrell.com/about.html" target="_blank">Shelly Terrell</a>, and the amazing <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/skypershello/" target="_blank">Hello Little World Teachers Skypers</a> team. </span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">I have been enjoying myself learning and teaching with my colleagues and students. I am now teaching in contexts that my teacher training college did not prepare such as adult education, teaching to a visually impaired student, in-company teaching, and soon online teaching. I have also been invited to give workshops on the things I have been doing with my colleagues and students. Accepting every single one of these challenges was a leap of faith. One that I wouldn´t have dared to face had I not been connected to the wonderful people out there who share what they are passionate about. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">When I think about learning and growing as a teacher I immediatelly think about the <a href="http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/FrontPage" target="_blank">EVO Sessions</a>, the Electronic Village Online, which played such an important role in my motivation to explore digital tools with the help of other teachers. When it comes to blogging I think about <a href="http://www.theedublogger.com/about/" target="_blank">Sue Waters</a> and her drive to spread the word about the benefits of bloggins for children and adults alike. This is the kind of professional development that has worked for me during the last three years. I admire those educators who gather together to organize conferences, online or face to face and I attend both with an open mind. Because there are just too many interesting things to learn, I often feel frustrated about not being able to watch recorded sessions or read my favourite blog posts. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">I try to attend and mingle with my master learner teachers as much as I can, because after these meetings I feel energized and full of drive to go about the wonderful job to teach languages.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">What do I want to do next? Well, I hope to continue hanging out with my network of educators. I like teaching adults, so I will probably go on doing so. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;">I will try to concentrate my energies on doing what makes me happy as an educator. I found setting your teaching manifesto a very healthy exercise. It was suggested by Shelly in one of the sessions of her <a href="http://www.30goals.com/conference.html" target="_blank">30 Goals Challenge Conference</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.9999923706055px;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-53602498099404075342015-08-09T19:38:00.007-07:002015-08-09T19:38:59.685-07:00Professional Development Session, Villaguay, Entre Rios. Argentina<div style="text-align: center;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-10827979498592383542015-06-28T06:10:00.001-07:002015-06-28T06:10:16.522-07:00ASPI Practical Issues, Santa Fe, 27th June, 2015<br />
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<strong> <a href="https://es.slideshare.net/mariacolussa/aspi-google-docs-49925880" target="_blank" title="Aspi google docs">Aspi google docs</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/mariacolussa" target="_blank">mariacolussa</a></strong> </div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//es.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/Cy7tBU3vRVsIz" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://es.slideshare.net/mariacolussa/aspi-new-trends" target="_blank" title="Aspi new trends">Aspi new trends</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/mariacolussa" target="_blank">mariacolussa</a></strong> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-2518782454870696532015-05-02T16:41:00.000-07:002015-05-12T16:33:12.906-07:00Spreading the Word about the Benefits of Mystery Location Calls in the ESL/EFL Classroom<div style="text-align: center;">
My demonstration session at the <a href="http://artesol.org.ar/artesol-2015-2242" target="_blank">Artesol Southern Cone Conference</a> </div>
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Buenos Aires, May 8th/9th, 2015</div>
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<b>My notes on the Southern Cone ArTESOL Conference</b></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX790letEsPYbQDFci7NCcHLsFHaMxrFYn0uX4iN19xiBhaLss3z6WbME0O8yOSE9Ug7wNeFvBiVqG0o1VaHX1jgCCMOhHa-VXYyYL-763eGR85DsuvXsgKy56_dO8kkUltjs0umxn8vs/s1600/P1110106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX790letEsPYbQDFci7NCcHLsFHaMxrFYn0uX4iN19xiBhaLss3z6WbME0O8yOSE9Ug7wNeFvBiVqG0o1VaHX1jgCCMOhHa-VXYyYL-763eGR85DsuvXsgKy56_dO8kkUltjs0umxn8vs/s320/P1110106.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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Yilin Sun mentioned <a href="http://blog.tesol.org/what-is-intercultural-communicative-competence/" target="_blank">Intercultural Communicative Competence</a> , and she also talked about the need to help our students become responsible citizens, fully competent language users, critical thinkers and constructive social change agents. Teachers play a vital role in the mission to teach English for social responsability: helping everyone in the world to communicate with each other to prevent global disaster. It is not necessary to travel long distances to do so. Today technology allows us to do so with a fairly cheap technological equipment and a decent internet connection. However the idea of "Glocal" action is also important to become agents of change in our own communities first to later make an impact in the world: Global Perspective, Local Action.<br />
I specially liked a picture she showed us about the "Alphabet taught to kids today" displaying all the technology related words our students come to learn at a very early age.<br />
I agree with Yilin about people wanting to hear your story. This also emerged in Mathilde Verrillaud´s plenary on how to use pop culture in the English classroom. The <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/" target="_blank">Humans of New York</a> facebook page and website aims to show precisely that it is our human nature that binds us together. If we are able to find that connection and use it to our advantage, learning will become memorable as Marge Tye Zuba also showed in her session about teachers´learning preferences. <br />
Mathilde made use of infographics to provide students with culture rich information which they would later have to rephrase or make their own infographics to explain a similar themes in their culture. She suggested <a href="http://piktochart.com/" target="_blank">Piktochart</a> for this activity. An artist I can´t wait to share with my students is <a href="http://nuvango.com/amitshimoni-1" target="_blank">Amit Shimoni</a> for its originality and potential for discussion with my adult students.<br />
Yilin Sun revisited the art of formulating questions not only before but during and after reading. Pre-reading questions activate schemata and stir predictions, During reading questions aid selective reading. Post-reading questions refine our predictions and help us make connections. Our universe becomes richer after reading. I found the "Question Hierarchy Techniques" very interesting and I also realised that I have been using this technique in some of my classes. Here is a question that came to me as I was writing this post: Why not using the same technique for a listening piece? I will give that a try too. <br />
I attended Dana Poklepovic´s session on how games in the Business English classroom are a serious thing. Management techniques can effectively be used in English as well. When doing so we focus on helping our students become fluent and become aware of their strengths not only as language learners but also as members of a team. I was thrilled to have the chance to thank her in person after I attended <a href="http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/71203567/2014_Business_English" target="_blank">the 2014 EVO Teaching Business English Session</a>, where she moderated the topic: "Developing Interpersonal Skills" week.<br />
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Stop and smell the roses.</h3>
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I always like that space that conferences provide for reflection and sharing. It was great to be able to talk with hard working, creative people and I am already looking forward to the next one!<br />
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<a href="http://animoto.com/play/OmqOFwo2riZuZmKJAY0CSA">Artesol, Buenos Aires, May 2015</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-17402018953531289012015-03-14T16:08:00.000-07:002015-03-14T16:11:20.036-07:00My experience teaching English to a visually impaired student<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are many things I was not prepared to do as I graduated from teacher training college. Teaching English to the visually impaired was one of them. There are also many things I dared to do after building a professional network of trusted and likeminded educators. Having them at my disposal via Twitter, Facebook, Skype or Google Communities gave me the confidence to say yes when Gustavo, a visually impaired 45 year old Informatic System Engineer, asked me to teach him English for an upcoming leadership course he was invited to attend in the Netherlands. If I needed help I knew I could always ask my PLN for help.<br />
The first adjustment I had to do was forgeting to work with pictures and paper coursebooks. However Gustavo is able to read digital content at home by means of a special magnifying tool installed in his personal computer, so everything I decided to deal with in class I then transcribed to a shared Google Doc, This document became our online workbook and everything we had to share we did it via this Google Doc. Since he would be asked to interact in English with people from different countries, some of them visually impaired as well, and we did not have much time (only 3 months) I decided to focus on delevoping his speaking skills during classtime and leave him the responsability to devote as much time as possible to listening to everything he was interested in outside class. I compiled a good list of podcasts for him to download and listen on the go, his favourite was <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Flearnenglish.britishcouncil.org%2Fen%2Felementary-podcasts%2Fseries-03-episode-16&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE5OEYxQ6lKNWo-O6AhQz8Po4YoAQ" target="_blank">Elementary Podcasts</a> , a series by the British Council that has often come in handy and is very popular among my students. <br />
I also compiled a list of useful conversation phrases and at the same time I went over the basic survival vocabulary. His previous knowledge was one he acquired from work, which was a good thing in terms of grammar structures, but I still needed to work on personal introduction and group socializing. <br />
In the meantime, he had to prepare some content for the course so we decided to work on that. He had to be prepared to talk about his personal and professional, life as well as his volunteer work in the association for blind and visually impaired people in our neighbouring city of Santa Fe. <br />
As I was surfing the internet, exploring sites related to visually impaired and blind people, I came across <a href="http://www.insightradio.co.uk/#" target="_blank">Insight Radio</a> and Insight Extra, a wonderful initiative to bring blind and partially sighted people content refering to sight loss issues from around the world. My student was able to listen to music as well as people speaking in English online about all sorts of stories. I myself became a listener as I discovered the variety of options available in the different shows.<br />
Then the day of the Skype session with one of the course trainers arrived. Being a <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/skypershello/" target="_blank">Hello Little World Teacher Skyper</a> I could only reassure him and tell him that everything would be all right with me on the side. It turned out to be a wonderful experience where the interlocutor showed herself interested and kind and there were moments when the conversation seemed to flow as if we had been long time friends. All in all it was woth every drop of Gustavo´s sweating! My role was to set up the call, and keep my intervention to the minimum, I just provided the unknown words and intervened only when I realised that the message was not clear. Because I had time and my phone was handy I decided to record the conversation. I had never done it before because the mere thought of being recorded makes my students start sweating. However Gustavo was too engrossed in the conversation to realize that I as recording him (Am I too mean for this?) and I coul not be happier later on.<br />
Many times I heard about the benefits of videoing or recording ourselves while teaching. It wasn´t until I did it that I came to realize how useful a recording version of a class can be. With the digital recording of my student´s performance in my hands I was able to upload it to the Google Doc we used as workbook. Later on I used it to note down grammar, lexis and phonetic areas which needed to be dealt with in the course of the following classes. The recording was a record of my student´s achievements as well. I highlighted phrases and sentences that I considered brilliant and complimented him on them.<br />
My job has not finished yet and there are still many things to be done, but as I am sitting here looking back at the work done during last month I am aware that pulling yourself out of your comfort zone by doing things in a different way is a rewarding experience. I used my PLN when I contacted Shelly Terrell, the I-pad queen, to ask her about orientation tools or other tools that my student can use in his I-pad. She responded asap via twitter message, and I am thankful to her for that. It´s a great time to be a teacher today and I am glad to have taken the challenge to teach Gustavo.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-8187486777561114382015-02-14T16:10:00.003-08:002015-02-14T16:10:58.922-08:00#EVOSessions2015 Flipped Learning<h3 style="text-align: center;">
On the question of flipping</h3>
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(I wrote the draft of this blog post on 31st January, 2015)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buenos Aires Botanical Gardens, by Maria Colussa</td></tr>
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<u>2012 Lesson Planning</u><br />
<i>Previous to class</i><br />
1. Grab Book<br />
2. Check Content<br />
3. Design Warm up, Presentation, Practice, Production activities for the day/week, based on the book contents.<br />
<i>During Class</i><br />
4. Deliver Class - Assign standarized homework. Hope for the best! :)<br />
(Repeat 1, 2, 3 above)<br />
Following Class<br />
5. Check homework.<br />
(Repeat 4)<br />
Note: Teacher is the sole provider of content. <br />
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<u>2015 Lesson Planning</u><br />
<i>Previous to class</i><br />
1. Surf the internet for content with pedagogical potential.<br />
2. Save links in the appropriate place according to age, level, interest, objectives)<br />
3. Sit down in front of the computer and design activities to exploit the material.<br />
(optional: When focusing on specific skills search for ready made systematized tutorials or make them myself to attach to the class material.)<br />
4. Make class available in students´shared folder.<br />
<i>During Class</i><br />
5. The class can start at any point of the previously designed plan. This will depend on how much of the shared content the student has already seen previous to class. The most interesting or challenging material can be tackled at this point of the class.<br />
6. Teacher suggests options for follow up activities for the student to do by himself.<br />
(Optional: Additional content can be added according to student´s interests and needs.)<br />
After class<br />
7. Teacher´s suggested activities or student´s generated alternative ones are done in a shared online document where the teacher can provide feedback .<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Conventional </b> <b>Flipped</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Teacher is Content provider Students gather information and content</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Teacher has absolute control Teacher is a learning facilitator</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fixed Syllabus Part of the syllabus is fixed, most is flexible</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Homework is impersonal Homework is as personalized as possible</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Student is a passive recipient of knowledge Students are actively involved/responsible for learning </span><br />
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On Flipped Learning and how I can make it work for me</h3>
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After attending the EVO Sessions on Flipped Learning I learned a few things regarding this approach to teaching which is here to make our lives easier and help us make the most of our classes.<br />
In times when many people are talking about students´voices, personalized and differenciated learning, what we decide to flip would be the impersonal, yet necessary, part of the curriculum, so that we can devote valuable class time to getting to know our students by listening to them (and I mean Listening). The classroom becomes the space for teachers and students to play with the language, to test their hypothesis, to interact. It also becomes the teacher´s research field, During flipped classes the teacher becomes a learning coach encouraging students to anchor the language to their learning objectives and lives.<br />
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Flipped learning does not solely have to do with screencasting our content , though this is certainly an important technique. It is also about creating spaces and tasks during the class for students to meet other students, to share their learning journeys (just like we have been doing in the discussion groups and google communities during the EVO sessions!)<br />
Flipped learning is about being on the lookout for interesting projects or content with which to make our students engaged beforehand.<br />
I have been flipping things here and there. It will be my personal mission to flip whatever I can in the hope of making each class a memorable celebration of learning for my students and for myself!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-44610388610345410152015-01-29T07:49:00.001-08:002015-01-29T07:49:56.356-08:00Why do we (EFL Teachers) need to know about Copyright?<br />
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Mainly because we need guidance. Can we use internet based material for our classes? The web is populated with lots of interesting authentic material we can´t wait to share with our students. Every time one of my students finds something I´ve chosen for them interesting they say: "I didn´t know this was on the web! It´s amazing!" So when this type of engagement occurs in my classes, it´s like music to my ears!<br />
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Here are my reflections and notes on the second and third week of the <a href="http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/90060257/2015_Educators_and_Copyright%3A_Do_the_Right_Thing" target="_blank">2015 Educators and Copyright, Do the Right Thing</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are the links and notes I consider useful as reference material or that I might use in the future, taking into account my doubts and needs as regards copyright. (from Weeks 2 and 3 EVO Educators and Copyright Session, January 2015)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/diotalevi.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr Robert Diotalevi</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://teflpedia.com/Copyright_in_English_language_teaching#The_UK" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copyright in English Language Teaching</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (The UK)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlhJUJ9DC4A&feature=youtu.be" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CC Get Creative</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.newmediarights.org/guide/how_to/creative_commons/best_practices_creative_commons_attributions" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to attribute works you reuse under a cc license</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CC License</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Useful tool: </span><a href="http://openattribute.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Open Attribute</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> once installed an icon will appear in address bar whenever you´re on a page with CC licenses. Clicking on this icon will give you an attribution line to copy and paste.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">………………………………………………………………………………………………</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: red; font-family: Impact; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A NOTE TO MYSELF!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: magenta; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We can copy and share ALL works with any CC license.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #cc0000; font-family: Impact; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BUT</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #404040; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...only </span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SOME</span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> CC licenses give us permission to</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">edit</span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">remix</span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">………………………………………………………………………………………………</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we have permission to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">use</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Images:</span></div>
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<a href="http://pixabay.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pixabay, Imágenes Gratis</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mixed media</span></div>
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<a href="http://search.creativecommons.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CC Search: Sounds, pictures, videos, etc</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">List of works created under a CC license</span></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_available_under_a_Creative_Commons_license" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wikipedia List of Works…</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<h3>
<b style="font-weight: normal;">A Sample Lesson with my questions about it...</b></h3>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Sample Lesson for an adult upper intermediate student who loves British English but who is about to travel to New York City and wanted to get practice in speaking and listening American English.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sent her the Google Doc below with some links of material I considered useful and interesting for her to start getting used to the American accent and I gave her full freedom to choose the task she felt more comfortable with. We would talk about and work with it in our first class. The doc is shared only with her (and now with you for educational purposes) and we use it as an online notebook where we keep not only the links to the material but also her responses.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you can see I have chosen </span><a href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/media/video/tense-consider-midfulness-mediation/2429776.html?z=3617&zp=3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Voice Of America, Learning English</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which was introduced to us in a TESOL conference last year in my country, but as regards the remaining 2 links (</span><a href="http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/conversation_starters.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESLGold.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.eslpod.com/eslpod_blog/what-is-esl-podcast/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESLPod</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ) I´m not sure if I can use them or how to reference them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travelling with Adriana</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting ready to travel to NYC </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hello my dear student!</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first task for you today is this:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Film.png" height="128px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/9flhjwDQ5rrtZvRvzlcjBwCQ6a4Rn74HIVNs-bRV7_tCgTIcja6djiDVjErhNAdGuhRgXRfzYIZ36HoDDq9fGlHc9bEP-KKDoxCV5E1TfF6kyiG_0vUflQ1Ff9LO2B0FZw" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="128px;" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are going to watch a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">video report</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mindfulness Meditation and Stress”.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Retrieved from </span><a href="https://www.eslpod.com/eslpod_blog/what-is-esl-podcast/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VOA, Learning English</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> )</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you ever meditated? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you ever been to a yoga class?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you pay attention to your breathing?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What do you do (when you are nervous or in a tense situation at home or work) to calm down?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Watch</span></div>
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<a href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/media/video/tense-consider-midfulness-mediation/2429776.html?z=3617&zp=3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tense? Consider Mindfulness Meditation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write down words you consider important vocabulary.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the definition of “mindfulness meditation”?</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are the benefits of Mindfulness Meditation?</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write your personal opinion about the subject. Would you like to try this technique?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…………………………………………………………………...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Conversation</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/conversation_starters.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversation Starters</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Retrieved from </span><a href="http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/conversation_starters.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESLGold.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> )</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In order to listen click on the link that says: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Click for audio” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…………………………………………………………………..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Listening</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESL Pod</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Retrieved from </span><a href="https://www.eslpod.com/eslpod_blog/what-is-esl-podcast/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESLPod.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> )</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Explore the different options and choose one to listen. (Remember you can download the podcasts to your smartphone to listen on the go)</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-71163392066810053432015-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:002015-01-14T11:10:02.115-08:00EVOSessions. Flipped Learning <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8UGQ8eFmbHKSd5-VznijSS0b-gDKp6W5fWxaLqkuofaWzEsrV9TbB1L9HRjdAqJwC1Y0QzW1rWC0qBxb6w1VIPFT3x_hBYuvNMlnKrbpnEm3KYNpfR4WUbKr3Rl72bGz2j-F-VcoWmGU/s1600/Why+not+flipping+your+lessons+.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8UGQ8eFmbHKSd5-VznijSS0b-gDKp6W5fWxaLqkuofaWzEsrV9TbB1L9HRjdAqJwC1Y0QzW1rWC0qBxb6w1VIPFT3x_hBYuvNMlnKrbpnEm3KYNpfR4WUbKr3Rl72bGz2j-F-VcoWmGU/s1600/Why+not+flipping+your+lessons+.png" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-weight: normal;">Photo Credit: Photograph by Maria Colussa</i></h4>
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Discussion Questions Week 1<br />
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Reflecting on what you've read and watched this week, please give a preliminary justification for flipped learning (or not) in your teaching situation. Please use the <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/114672344231951816248/stream/3c921f82-b00f-449b-ab20-aec0157b9a66" style="border: 0px; color: #0062a0; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Week 1 Discussion on Google Plus">Week 1 section</a> of our Google Plus EVO Community to post your comments and to respond to others' posts.</div>
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The case for the Flipped Classroom has been discussed lately as an approach which seeks to both optimize classroom time and cater for students mixed abilities and interests. In my case, a freelance EFL teacher of English working mostly one to one with access to technology such as good internet connection, mobile devices and no behaviour problems, the idea of flipping to enhance certainly attracts me and I have to confess that after I read and watched the material from week one I was happy to see that I was doing some things in the right way. Diving for my students main interests and identifying their strengths and difficulties is something I do and consider when I search for potential content everywhere, mainly on the web. However when we talk about flipping we mean more than that. We also mean producing or looking for content that is specifically designed or tailored for my students. I haven´t swam these waters yet, the production I mean, but I will surely give it a try this year. </div>
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As with the E-book idea last EVO2014 sessions, incorporating these "new" approaches to teaching takes my brain a little while to get adjusted. From what I gathered in the discussions in the Google Community I share some of the same concerns of my fellow "EVOers". Will the students actually take the time to check what I send them? Will they be engaged with the material? How good will I be producing the content? The question could well be: How do I flip appropriately? We´ll see, I guess that as with many things in life I will be learning by doing and this is the place to start my first small steps...</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-73134768808849684342014-12-17T07:41:00.000-08:002014-12-17T07:41:14.160-08:00Here´s to my PLN, a thank you toss.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A couple of weeks ago several of my Argentinian teachers of English friends shared <a href="http://www.clarin.com/sociedad/argentinos-mejores-America-latina-ingles_0_1260474235.html" target="_blank">this article</a> (in original Spanish version, sorry!) via different social media. It shows the result of a survey stating that Argentinians scored the best results in a certain English proficiency exam. Somehow the ones sharing it felt and shared the pride of a job well done. It came as no surprise to me. I am from Argentina. I´ve been shaped by and learned from Argentinian teachers. I have worked with them and I am lucky to have many EFL teacher friends. I witness how hard they work daily to share their passion for the English language. As I was reading the post I remembered the many other language teachers I met face to face in the three congresses I attended in my country this year. I heard their stories, all different yet fascinating.</div>
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I also met other Latin American colleagues face to face and online and I am looking forward to meeting more and hear about what they are up to, their challenges, and achievements. And I don´t need any article to tell me that they are doing the best that they can with what they have.</div>
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If today I can read books, watch films and interact in English it is thanks to a teachers who helped me at different points of my life. I am also lucky to be a native born Spanish speaker. When a student asked me to teach him Spanish this year, I came to appreciate those souls who decide to teach Spanish as a foreign language. (ELA: Español como Lengua Extranjera) This one proved to be another path to grow as an educator, by acknowledging my own language. It was also a humbling experience, my admiration goes to those who decide to swim the waters of the Spanish grammar.</div>
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One must love a language a lot in order to decide to become a teacher of that language withou being born a native speaker.</div>
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My toss this last month of the year goes to those whose job is to spread their passion for a language and in so doing assume as their mission to ignite the fire in others.</div>
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Thank you so much native, nonNESTs, ELA, ESL, EFL and all of you passionate educators out there from whom I get my daily inspiration, encouragement, insights, knowledge.</div>
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Salud! Cheers! </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-63324222075197095412014-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:002014-12-03T10:09:15.095-08:00E-Learning and Digital Cultures, the University of Edinburgh, Coursera<br />
<a href="https://class.coursera.org/edc-003/" target="_blank">Final Assignment</a><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="541" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://www.haikudeck.com/e/g091lw9TGp/?isUrlHashEnabled=false&isPreviewEnabled=false&isHeaderVisible=false" width="640"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"><a href="https://www.haikudeck.com/p/g091lw9TGp/e-learning-and-digital-cultures?utm_campaign=embed&utm_source=webapp&utm_medium=text-link" title="E-learning and Digital Cultures Presentation">E-learning and Digital Cultures</a> - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires</span>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">As with many things in life, taking the middle way as regards the use of technology in education poses a new challenge to the practicing teacher. I meet the pro-technology and the moderates online and the naysayers offline. At this point I have stopped being an advocate to just relax and enjoy my ride, which is precisely what I have been doing since I started mingling with likeminded educators in all the online opportunities out there for learning with others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">As far as I am concerned the interactions that occur in the various networks I have online have helped me in several ways to get outside the narrow boundaries of my classroom. I have learned how to personalise my materials to suit my students´needs, I have appreciated the value of reflection and learned how to make it available online by means of online platforms. I browse new material and methodologies on a regular basis. I have learned not to be afraid about asking questions and try out new things. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">At the same time I have often wondered where my colleagues are and wondering why they are not here with me enjoying themselves. As my husband says "They´re probably busy working, Maria!" This led me to ask myself another question: Why isn´t it a national educational priority to connect teachers and classes around the globe? Maybe I am carried away by my enthusiasm, I teach English and I find that all the contents in the textbook can easily become adapted to be learned with others. In fact adding a global perspective would give a relevant purpose to the idea of learning a foreign language.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Technology will certainly not solve all educational issues, but we can´t teach pretending we don´t know about the possibilities afforded by it. Today more than ever we crave for human contact, for acceptance. Let´s take the chance today to bond, to share and to learn by teaching. Otherwise we run the risk to live how <a href="http://vimeo.com/40524878" target="_blank">Robbie</a> did, isotated, and when the time comes for our batteries to die out, we will do just that: wait patiently for our teaching years to finish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-61610419531300654792014-11-29T08:04:00.000-08:002014-11-29T08:04:53.007-08:00A day in the life of a connected educator in progress, Thursday 27th November, 2014AM<br />
9:00<br />
Meeting for next Sunday confirmed by Vance Stevens via e-mail.<br />
9:30<br />
Impromptu Skype session with Katherine Zablatnik´s students in Austria. Topic: the weather, Christmas preparations.<br />
10<br />
Checking out OCLMOOC by Edinburgh University on Coursera´s resources for week 4. Interesting! I found out in the announcements that there is a live meeting called Office Hours scheduled for today via Google Hangouts. I would like to attend it, let´s see how...<br />
11:09<br />
Using the course hashtag (#OCLMOOC) I tweeted asking for a place in the hangout.<br />
11:30<br />
Jason Levine invited (from Paris?!) via Facebook to a session with Dr Nellie Deutch in Wiziq. Topic: Microteaching. This term is new to me! Let´s check this out!<br />
11:45<br />
I read Dr Nellie´s description of Microteaching in her blog. I find it very interesting, lots of potential!<br />
12:38<br />
Confirmation via twitter of my place in Office Hours session of OCLMOOC<br />
PM<br />
1:00<br />
Hangout session/Office Hours. Topic: Redifining the Human and the last week assignment.<br />
I took the chance to thank the organisers for the great choice of materials in the form of readings and short clips and films.<br />
1:30<br />
Family Lunch!<br />
2:00<br />
Dr Nellie Deutch Wiziq session "Microteaching", in this session Nellie gave practical ideas on how to organise microteaching sessions using the Wiziq platform. A great way to learn and teach based on the premise that we all learn by teaching.<br />
3:00<br />
Wrote a draft blog post based on the material of week 4 from the OCLMOOC, still have to decide what shape my artifact will have, I will need to re-read the assignment lineaments.<br />
4:00<br />
Set things ready for my pre-scheduled Skype session with my friend Athalo´s students from Brazil.<br />
4:45<br />
Jason Levine (again!) suggested via Facebook a storytelling Facebook page and blog interesting for teaching English, inspiring! Re-posted the link to one of my students who will be absent next week.<br />
5:20<br />
Skype session with Brazilian students. Amazed to see they had prepared a presentation! Topic: various: soccer (local football teams), rivers (I mentioned that we share the same river: the Paraná, which is my favourite place to go in the summer) These students are sooooo nice!<br />
6:00<br />
My Spanish language student (a German exchange student) tells me via Facebook that he needs to reschedule the class (probably hanging out with friends!!). We´ll meet tomorrow.<br />
7:00<br />
Inspired by the storytelling session seen before I decide to draft a sketch of my favourite short story by Julio Cortazar: "Continuidad de los Parques" my drawing are not very good but it would be a good way to introduce storytelling in my Spanish class.<br />
11:00<br />
I realised that I missed #whatisschool tweetchat (again!)<br />
11:05<br />
Thinking about Jeff Lebow´s students as I watch some kids dance K-pop on national television :)<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-60835223754521570122014-11-18T15:12:00.000-08:002014-11-18T15:21:51.924-08:00Global Education Conference, Vance Stevens and myself, a joint venture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKX2o9rYo8bh2lsHA8CswVPpJYKCvTz9mVOR-ONwVK0ZBQCTsV2wDhQ8iOY4EGGUclsGcl1lQJLP2-z-9lkVdOWwCIHD2A2w20GHxGu2_fVYhRhjWsMR-4FbOStxQ_owLc30o0EkOL5E/s1600/2014Conference_WebsiteBanner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKX2o9rYo8bh2lsHA8CswVPpJYKCvTz9mVOR-ONwVK0ZBQCTsV2wDhQ8iOY4EGGUclsGcl1lQJLP2-z-9lkVdOWwCIHD2A2w20GHxGu2_fVYhRhjWsMR-4FbOStxQ_owLc30o0EkOL5E/s320/2014Conference_WebsiteBanner.jpg" /></a></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/41692431" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/vances/gec-2014-presentation-by-maria-colussa-vancestevens" target="_blank" title="Gec 2014 Presentation by Maria Colussa and Vance Stevens">Gec 2014 Presentation by Maria Colussa and Vance Stevens</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/vances" target="_blank">Vance Stevens</a></strong> <br />
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<a href="https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/dropin?sid=2008350&suid=D.F618DC49CE5F944F93407753F17C4F" target="_blank">Conference Session Recording</a><br />
How did we meet?<br />
It is often difficult to trace back when exactly one meets another teacher online, that´s why I had to write down the dates shown in the slide to try to remember when Vance´s and myself first crossed paths for the first time.<br />
Between Electronic Village Online sessions and Global Education Conferences there have been lots of other online events where I also came across the same people or met new ones. Instances of these are Virtual Round Table, Wiziq courses run by Jason Levine, the ITDI Summer (my Winter) course, IATEFL broadcast of plenaries and the many events organised by Vance and Jeff in their weekly meetings.<br />
So many times I found myself saying: "This is awesome!" that I started presenting sessions online as well as face to face. Always with the aid and support of my new teacher friends.<br />
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What do I get from connecting?<br />
Free PD.<br />
The present day scenario was unthinkable when I graduated from teacher training college. I am making up for the things that have been going on since then.<br />
Access to experts<br />
Materials that people share. Ideas and inspiration, It´s invigotating to hear stories of achievement, resilience, challenges conquered. I don´t know who or what type of student will come through my classroom door. Being connected exposed me to a variety of experiences which in a way prepared me for future scenarios. I know I can teach anywhere now! Interacting online has given me the drive to try out new things, I am teaching a visually impaired student and I am also teaching my own language, Spanish, in English!<br />
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Discoveries<br />
Collaboration among classes can be very simple sometimes it is just filling in a survey or adding a picture in a <a href="https://es.padlet.com/" target="_blank">Padlet wall</a><br />
I am very active in the <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/skypershello/" target="_blank">Hello Little World teachers skypers community</a> and have fun and learn in each of the sessions I have had with my friends´classes. They are usually delighted to hear I am from the same province as Messi, the famous Argentinian football player. However that is not the end of the conversation because I take advantage of their interest to show them bits from my culture such as "dulce de leche" or "mate" both very important items in our culture.<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariacolussa/9395377519/" target="_blank">Check mate and its process from my Flickr page</a><br />
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I often prepare "presents" for them such as pictures of the river nearby or a short video I record while in the islands near my city.<br />
Connecting has also helped me in another aspect. How do I keep my advanced students engaged? By providing interesting material. My connections are an ongoing source of up to date material that I use with those students.<br />
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Outcomes<br />
As I was walking the five blocks to my friend´s language school, it really felt I was going to a party. And in a way it was! Bettina, my friend, was there together with two more teachers, Marcia and Sofia, and we were joined by my South African friend Steve Sherman, who helped me sort out technical difficulties. Jeff and Vance also offered me their platforms, for me to use while they were sleeping on the other side of the globe. We were joined by Benjamin Steward, from Aguas Calientes, Mexico. The whole thing was possible with only two things: a government provided netbook computer (from the Conectar Igualdad National Scheme) and an internet connection provided by my friend. However the inspiration to go out there came from the OCLMOOC.<br />
The power of the herd<br />
Many teachers believe that they are alone in the world. Today it is possible to join other educators who share our same situation. <br />
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PLN, stands for People you Learn New Things with<br />
As we wait for that ideal time when "global learning" is just "learning" and the research findings get published, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity to become better teachers.<br />
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Which is your favourite beach?<br />
At times I like a solitary stroll by the river. That is when I reflect and think about a future lesson or a blog post.<br />
However, mingling with other educators online looks more like the second picture with lots of people whose paths intercept sometimes and they show us the way, making our lives easier.<br />
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The future<br />
It will be exciting to see what outcomes these global interactions will bring about in the future.<br />
As we see scientists and artists already collaborating to solve problems and create content together, our classrooms can become laboratories where we can try out what we model with our global connections.<br />
I am spoiled by global learning. I know that if I miss an event I can catch up with the recording later. I know that it is ok to just lurk or fall behind in a MOOC. I have discovered the value of reflecting in my blog. I have re-discovered the magic of learning in a community and I can just think of a word: thank you!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-71867903039556315792014-10-20T15:39:00.000-07:002014-10-20T15:39:00.014-07:00My Reflections after teaching (and learning!) for over 21 years.As I was writing the title of this blog post I realized that not only did I start teaching 21 years ago, I also began a journey of discovery that would make me the teacher I am today. On the road, as in every trip I had my ups and downs and here I will reflect about some of them using the guide my friend Benjamin Stewart prepared for the upcoming ELT Live session with his students on Wednesday.<br />
What techniques educators are using to promote reading, writing, listening and speaking?<br />
Apart from the usual textbook material I am also using interesting things I come across online such as Blog posts, Students Facebook groups, podcasts and material from You Tube such as commercials or short films.<br />
What problems do these techniques have?<br />
If you base your lesson on online material, you have to think of an alternative plan in case your internet fails or there is a power outage. <br />
What is your favourite language skill or course to teach and why?<br />
It depends. Grammar based lessons are predictable and I find them easier to teach, but conversation lessons with young adults and adults (intermediate and beyond level) are so enriching! However, you must embrace the fact that conversations can lead you anywhere and that you might not always know all the words for example. Even in the most structured class I find opportunities to personalise the content to make it more interesting and an opportunity to get to know my students.<br />
What was the most difficult experience as a teacher and how did you deal with it?<br />
My worst nightmare used to be disengaged students. When I started teaching I thought that students would be naturally motivated by my wonderfully planned classes. It turned out that it was not always the case. I remember myself not knowing how to deal with it. The answer, I learned with time, is to know your student and to plan within their scope of interest. Today of course it´s much easier with all the available material on the internet.<br />
What are the biggest challenges and how do you address them?<br />
I teach from home one on one mainly to adults. My biggest challenge is to help my students become aware of their capacity to learn English. Also to provide material that show the relevance of what they are doing ie. learning a foreign language, contextualize content. And of course keeping them motivated by praising their successes and learning to laugh at our mistakes!<br />
What´s more appropriate to teach skills in isolation or in an integrated fashion?<br />
It depends on our students´preferences and goals. Once we have considered these elements, there will be times when we should concentrate on isolated skills as the course develops and we discover that there are specific problems to be addressed. There are ways in which we can assign the more structured part to be done at home in a sort of "flipped" mode of teaching and concentrate on less structured and open activities in class, thus optimising classroom time.<br />
Do low level students need to spend more time on receptive skills or equal time on receptive and productive skills?<br />
Probably at first to build up confidence we should provide plenty of comprehensible input to our students, however production shows achievement and the sooner our students begin experimenting with the language the more opportunities they will have to perform and perfect what they are learning. On the teacher´s side I learned to be patient with my students, consider that there is a silent period when they need to feel the language and adapt to the, sometimes for certain people,threatening scenario that constitute the language class. <br />
Things I wished I had known or understood when I was starting out as a teacher.<br />
It´s not always a good idea to force students to participate. <br />
Invest time on getting to know your students. I should say that your whole lesson can fail if you fail to plan according to your students´ preferences, age or level. <br />
How does a language educator design classroom assessment and instruction around conversational language?<br />
Designing conversation classes is very entertaining. Whenever I come across a piece of thought provocking material I make sure I save the link and, sometimes, when I´m inspired, I prepare questions or look for additional related material. I sometimes try the lesson with different levels and it never ceases to amaze me how many different interpretations can arise. I don´t carry out formal conversation tests, having said that the student who is able to articulate his thoughts successfully has a passing mark!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11173682265947457948noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752319882957740854.post-68580784391537865442014-09-27T15:28:00.002-07:002014-09-27T15:28:44.749-07:00Ministerio de Educación, Instituto Nacional de Formación docenteCurso TIC en el aula<br />
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