Tellagami - for writing and listening

It's not the first time I mention Tellagami as a fun way to tell a story or present a report. A couple of weeks ago in this post I used it for speaking and listening - for book recommendations, chapter summaries, a short story, picture description... Another possibility is to use the same mobile app por writing and listening, in other words: students choose and personalise their avatars, voices, backgrounds and are asked to type a short text about the topic being taught in classes. The text students introduce will turn into voice. Shall we listen?

Happy listening, y'all!

Welcome March!

And miles to go before I sleep...

When times are hard, when you're overwhelmed with work, and despair takes over you...one just feels that maybe "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, / I took the one less traveled by, /..." (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-road-not-taken/)
I hope better times will come but, the truth is that right now, I see everything pretty bleak (is it also a reflection of the weather???). For this week, let me just leave you a poem...
Also by Robert Frost, here is another text I love and whose last lines make so much sense for me at the moment:

Credit: www.biography.com

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though:
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse may think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-2/

More Students' Readings

Another book recommendation.
Another talking photo.
Another photobabble.
Catarina, a 15-year old student of mine and one of my tenth graders' avid readers, has read a heartbreaking book, based on a real story. She liked it so much that she would like to tell us about it. Listen:

Soon it will be available in our school library as it is included in our PNL (Plano Nacional de Leitura).
So, what do you think about this one?

Fotobabble - talking photos

By Christmas I left you this post, namely a talking photo, my personal Christmas card to all of you. To do that I used Fotobabble a very easy tool to use. After registration, 

1. Upload a picture

2. Choose Theme

3. Give it a title

4. Write tags

While one does not necessarily need to follow this order, I did leave the recording for the end. Just click on Record (Orange Icon) and then stop in the end. To check it, click on Play. After all steps, don't forget to save (right corner, below)! Easy, fast and FREE!

We can use it in classes for a listening activity; students can do it as well and share their recordings with the teacher and fellow mates and all can be embedabble into blogs – tutor blogs, class blogs, whatever. A great tool for students to develop fluency, to engage and attract!

My latest Fotobabble was to promote a book / reading for the school library ;)

The student didn’t want her own picture and therefore I just uploaded the book cover and then recorded her voice with my own computer. Please listen:

So, what do you think?
Two remarks: a bit fast, yep, I know, but the student "read" instead of simply using the info ;). The book cover is in Portuguese because I couldn't find any in English ):
Let me know what you think, will you? Thanks.

(Personal) Calendar

Tellagami for listening / speaking

Some of my academic readings have recently included the listening and speaking skills. As much as I like

designing activities and developing materials, I have to admit that these two skills have been somehow more neglected. I have therefore decided to invest more and more time and effort to activate them.

I shall start with Tellagami, a free mobile app, that lets you share a quick animated video, a gami.

In education gamis can be easily created by students as a speaking / listening activity; as a teacher and having my last blogpost in mind, I came up with a book recommendation.


Here it is:

Procedures

First of all, download this app for your Android (version 4.1 and above) or iOS and then you can start creating  your gami in 3 easy steps:

1. Customise a character and choose your background; alternatively, you can personalize with a photo background (I chose the book cover);

2.  Record your voice or type a message for your character to say;

3. Share your gami on FB, Twitter,… or send it by email; there is also an embed code available.

Steps 1 and 3 were fast and fun but step 2 took me longer than all the others: the recordings have to be real short (around 20secs) and I had some problems stopping where I should as there was so much to say.

Hope you enjoy. Please share your links and/or resources, too.

Thanks to Zeljko for sharing the link J

The Book Thief

About a year ago, I read and published in my one of my Padlet walls my recommendation of an awesome book, The Book Thief by Australian writer Markus Zusak.
I absolutely loved every page but do not wish to tell you more than the site has published because you should really read it. According to the official website, "The Book Thief" "tells the inspirational story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a new family in World War II Germany". It has already been translated into Portuguese and already belongs to our PNL (Plano Nacional de Leitura) for our 9th graders. In case you do wish to read it, or have read it already, I've embedded below a discussion guide.

Anyway, this week, on Jan 23rd (Thursday) the film will be screened around the country and I'm looking forward to watching it! Here's the trailer. Mind you, young Liesel Meminger, aka Sophie Nélisse, has won the "Breakthrough Performance Award" for her work in "The Book Thief" movie at the Satellite Awards in 2013!



Further info / links:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-07/the-book-thief-reveals-australian-connection/5189576 - interview

http://zusakbooks.tumblr.com/post/67323859561/little-free-libraries-and-the-book-thief - Zusak's Tumblr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75qIV9qM228 - a relevant bit from the movie: it's a dictionary!

ExamTime

For their Christmas break, I asked my 10th graders to watch the movie Spanglish, and to prepare a 5-minute presentation on it. I would be naive if I was expecting all students to do it... so, I created a set of flashcards using ExamTime for review and consolidation.
ExamTime is a free tool that allows us (or the students themselves) to create, share and discover resources and in which we can build mind maps, flashcards, quizzes and notes - all for free. It's a very user-friendly tool, but in the cards in which I chose to introduce images, I couldn't add any text, ie, a question.
Below is my first set of flashcards with Examtime!


by Teacher Alex

(Personal) Calendar - January 2014

Happy New Year and a Happy Return to School, y'all!

Happy New Year

http://www.buncee.com/buncee/45122

2013 Reading Review

Joining Goodreads in Jan 2012 was one of the best things I have ever done to improve my reading standards. As you may know, this website was founded in 2006 and "allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists" (Wikipedia) 
It's now the world's largest-site for readers and book recommendations and by allowing readers to set goals, I (certainly like so many others) do my best to achieve them!
For 2012 I had set my goal in reading 24 books and tough as it was juggling reading, schoolwork, housework, kids... I promised myself I would do it. And I did!!!
For the current year, I was more modest and my Reading Challenge was 20 books. Besides the easiness with which all readers can keep track of their readings (or lack of them!), the visual reminders (or rather, the gadgets with the shelf and counting the books on the right bar of this blog) also work for me either telling me I am one / two books ahead or behind and I become aware that I have to allocate more time to my reading (even if that means sleeping fewer hours ;) )
In the beginning of December, as soon as I completed my reading goal, the nice folks at Goodreads sent me this:

How pleased I was!!! This is another reason why I'm definitely joining their 2014 Reading Challenge Goal!!! Another one, yes, because, I've already used this website countless times (also for quizzes, quotes, reviews, recommendations by other readers) and do not wish to stop.

What about you? Why don't you try it for 2014? 

Happy Reading(s) and a Happy New Year, y'all!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

My (digital) Season's Greetings (using Google Maps Street View).

From Condeixa, a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!
Please click on the link below:

http://www.itsamessage.com/holiday2011/#bDE9TWVycnklMjBDaHJpc3RtYXMmbDI9ZXZlcnlvbmUhISEmcz1UZWFjaGVyJTIwQWxleCZhPUNvbmRlaXhhLWEtTm92YSUyQyUyMFBvcnR1Z2FsJmF1dG89MA==

Christmas Countdown 3, 2, 1

Almost Christmas Eve!!!
Today I'm sending different ecards to my visitors, acquaintances and friends but there are so many and different that's not easy to choose.
1. Here you have four different backgrounds which you can choose with the arrows (below, right hand side where it says "Wonderland").

It includes music and after writing your message, you can send your ecard. Just select: Facebook, Twitter, Email or if you wish to get a URL to embed it.

2. You can also send a Christmas ecard here. Start by choosing one of the twelve images for your ecard, a new window will pop up with your chosen ecard and then just follow the steps mentioned.

One can enter up to five e-mail addresses separated by commas and choose the font. If unsure how it looks like, preview. And... done!

3. I've used this source before but as far as I remember not for Christmas though there are dozens of ecards you can choose from, including youtube videos. Here is my choice and below you have its printscreen:

Then click on "Send this ecard to Multiple Recipients" and besides writing you message, you also write the receiver's name and email address; if you wish to send it to several people, just click "Add Receiver"; if you want your ecard delivered any other date, click on the calendar. That's it!!!

As I was writing this blogpost, I obviously tried all the tools and sent ecards to myself. 123Greetings took a lot of time and worse than that, there's a lot of advertising...anyway, it's great if you'd rather send a video.

Merry Christmas, y'all!!

Christmas Countdown 3, 2

With so much to do, for the first time I haven't even sent a traditional Christmas card - handwritten ones sent by post as I have been doing ever since I can write! I'm therefore going to send different versions to my visitors, acquaintances and friends (:
What would you say about a talking photo to send my season's greetings?


http://www.fotobabble.com/ is a possibility; another one is an avatar - check it out below. At http://www.voki.com/, a free service, we / sts can
- create their customised avatars by choosing characters, backgrounds, accessories...
- add their own voice or use the text-to-voice option (the one I chose)
- post vokis to blogs, websites, profiles - they're embeddable!

A short video is also great! Have a look at this 30sec. free video I created in less than one minute!

Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, y'all!

Christmas Countdown 3

OMG, I've left everything to the last minute! Reading, baking, shopping, blogging...everything!
That's exactly why I like the internet so much - we can do stuff so much faster than before, don't you agree?
I'm planning to send Santa Claus some letters to try my luck with presents but first I'll try to strike up a conversation with him.

At http://www.santabot.com/ we / learners can chat with Santa forever! Not a single question goes unanswered, it's free online chat with Santa Claus.
Have a go or invite your kids / learners / students to practise their English during the Christmas break!

Now, letters!
Though this is the busiest time at the North Pole, be sure that Santa will answer evey single letter he gets.
I've followed all the steps and given the right email address and in the twinkling of an eye, my letter was answered (: For that I've used http://santa-at-home.com/writesanta.shtml and after reading the instructions you see below, you just have to scroll down and you'll find the electronic sheet of paper and the envelope for your letter.

and http://www.merry-christmas.com/santa/send-letter-to-santa

This last one is a very comprehensive website so be sure you / students don't miss the music, traditions or recipes. Yummy!!! 

Keep students entertained while practising and learning English!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Mourning Nelson Mandela

The prisoner-turned South African President, Nelson Mandela, passed away yesterday at the age of 95 leaving behind a legacy of courage and inspiration for generations to come.
The news is everywhere. No need to say much more, I guess, but below I've embedded a multiple choice doc to check one's knowledge on Mandela - and why not ask students to fill it in as a warm up for a lesson on Nelson Mandela, an icon of Freedom and also a Noble Peace Prize winner?

World AIDS Day: 25 years on

Source: LIFE magazine - The photo that changed the face of
 AIDS (pic by Therese Frare)

It was back in 1988 that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared to promote AIDS awareness on Dec 1 each year. Today, 25 years on, what are the results?The war on th epidemic is clearly being won, but what about battling the stigma?
We can prevent being infected, record numbers of people are being treated worldwide, yet "homophobic laws" in over 70 countries, discrimination against sex workers, people who inject drugs among other most-at-risk populations, demonstrate that there's still a long way to go.
Moreover, austerity-stricken Europe, namely Portugal due to successive budget cuts in health services, I fear, can be at risk of HIV outbreaks...
New infections are still high among adolescents though - whether in Africa (where there are still to many teenage girls with a "sugar daddy"), or in Europe, which have led to further action by Advocacy Group ONE and The Global Fund.
Below is a short video by The Global Fund to "Be the Generation to Defeat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria" - the moment is NOW, right now!

Interactive Theatre

Last Wednesday 20th over 200 students went to the theatre. Once again InterActing Theatre Company came to Soure and this time performed "WHO SHOT SHAKESPEARE?", a fantastic play with obvious references to Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Students had a lot of fun and, in the end, even asked to take pics with the actors.
Below is the slideshow created only with pictures taken by my own students. I simply added them as they were being sent to me and the result is a fantastic mix of wonderful pics by amateur photographers though there is a preference for selfies :)
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

It's today!