4+ Tools for Reading Reviews

While I haven’t had much time for reading myself lately, I’ve been instilling reading habits in my teen students.

To be honest, I’m not that demanding in what concerns language. In other words, whether they read in Portuguese or English, what really matters is that they start or keep reading. I do have one demand, though: whatever they read, they’ll have to present a review in English. Fair enough, after all I am their foreign language teacher.

For my students’ book reviews and recommendations, I’ve used the free tools below:

Animoto is an excellent tool for creating audio slideshows the only problem being the lack of space for writing / text; I have created 30 secs videos and  longer but only with an “Animoto for Education” account. 

Here are two examples: 

This is a multimedia storytelling tool that allows us to easily tell stories including photo, video, music, voice recordings and text. Have a look at this bilingual book review:

Fotobabble allows us to create beautiful talking photos / pictures. Listen to this book review now:

Another possibility is the creation of ebooks, flippable PDFs. An example is the one below I created with youblisher:

Let's not forget Tellagami which is also possible for book reviews as I mentioned in this previous post.
Hope you enjoy these tools and examples I've just shared with you. What others can you share with me? Thank you :))

Snapchat: ephemeral photos

Snapchat is an ephemeral photo-sending app and now a huge trend among our students: with this application, available for both iOS and Android, users / snappers can take photos, record videos, add text and even include drawings on the snap and finally send it to one or more recipients. The snaps are automatically deleted shortly after they are opened / viewed according to the time (1 to 10 secs) set beforehand by the sender. In case you do want to keep the snap you got, you can take a printscreen, but the sender will get that notification.

So,

1. Download the app here for Androids or here for your iOS. 

2. When you start the app, you’ll see a large round button on its interface which is the camera button. When you press it, a photo will be taken, and if you hold the button a very short video lasting up to 10secs will be recorded. After that, one can add text by tapping the snap and / or draw onto the image by using an icon on your phone’s top right hand corner. Snaps can be sent to the ones you choose from your list of contacts / other snappers!

I’ve “played” and experimented this app with my eldest kid and I believe we can also use this in class, for example, for a speaking activity if our sts also have it installed: take a snap and send it to students as a speaking prompt!

Check this tutorial, too:

Easy and fast, right? Obviously free to download and install, too! This is one of the coolest tools but also one of the most controversial.

Snapchat has quickly risen much like Instagram while, at the same time, teens are losing interest in Facebook… Indeed, the fact that it allows us to create perishable photos, gives parents and teachers huge headaches. If we think about this for a while, we easily reach the conclusion that if it can be used for fun and for educational purposes, it has been causing a lot of worries worldwide due to sexting and cyberbullying … perverts as paedophiles are also said to be among its top users…

In any case, here is an info guide for concerned parents and educators developed by http://www.connectsafely.org/ .

Happy Snapping :)                

St Patrick's 2014

March 17 every year marks St Patrick's Day - a holiday not only in Ireland but also in the Irish Diaspora, namely in the USA. I've referred to this celebration in previous blogsposts and last year I published here a video, an infographic and then a googleform for visitors to fill in. It was great! This year, I prepared something different, easier stuff, considering I'm teaching younger groups - though basically they all have the same content, it's up to us to choose which worksheet to use :)

Now also watch this positive video "showcasing Ireland's strengths and highlighting the qualities that make this country a great place to be." I wish I could be that proud and positive about my own country...

Child Safe info on this issue here and here .

Happy St Patrick's Day, y'all!