Happy Easter... with Vine!

Easter is approaching and it’s high time I wished you all a very Happy Easter. This time I decided to do that with a new app which is also one of the fastest growing social networks (6 million members!!!), Vine.
Here is the result: my first Vine (ever!):

Please click on the top left icon for sound!

App Description: Vine is a mobile app owned by Twitter, available for Android  here, iOS devices here and Windows Phone here that lets users create and share very short, looping videos by pressing and holding our finger down on the screen. Even though videos are limited to six seconds, it doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful and meaningful; besides, one can start and stop recording as many times as one wishes to during those 6 secs to include several different scenes.
Getting Started: download the app but do check if your version is compatible as not all devices are able to record (camera icon on the top right corner of your screen)

Then set up your profile and you can start creating Vines! Vine is video for the masses, led by youngsters all over the world, being Nash Grier the top viner with over 7,2M followers.

Just like in other social networks, use hashtags for your Vines; you can like, “revine”, comment, share and embed your 6 sec videos, and yes, uploads are unlimited.

Now, as teacher trainer, author, online professor Shelly Terrell points out, what are the benefits of 6 sec videos? What can be taught / learned with Vines?

Well, with so many social networks and easy access to new technologies, the truth is that our students spend more and more time connected and learning – the scary thing is that they may even learn more with the internet than with us in class… they love their mobile phones, their tablets and laptops, so why not make use of them to teach and learn?

Even with 6 secs videos there is a great potential for teaching and learning, and because vine videos are looped, they continuously play what one records which is great for the memorisation of concepts, of small chunks of language; we can also ask students to recreate scenes, events or characters from books, to record wishes (for instance Happy Easter), experiences or simply create something funny to share with the family and friends.

I have just challenged my students to create meaningful vines taking advantage of this Easter season, what about you?

Many Vines and Happy Easter!!!

My son's 18th Birthday!

A different post today and for a very special reason.

My eldest kid turns 18 today! I'm so happy and proud of the young man he has become. Though it's his birthday, I feel I have received from God the best gift of all: two wonderful sons, one now to become an adult. All these years, João Diogo has been my right hand, a real blessing in my life. I'm the happiest and the proudest mum in the world, but so unwilling to let go...let's keep this short otherwise I'll keep on crying forever and ever!

Dedicated to him, a maginficent poem by Rudyard Kipling:

IF-

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Happy Birthday, my son!

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 :))