eLearning Awards 2007: Brussels, Belgium

Dear kids and teacher-friends,

I came to Brussels yesterday morning to be at the EUN eLearning Awards 2007 ceremony. I was one of the 13 finalists. It was a very simple, but very dignified hour-long event.

Our blog – CALL Lessons 2005-2007 – won the international eLearning Awards 2007 Gold Prize in the category of "The school of the future". I am very proud of our work and our achievement at the international level.

At the ceremony I dedicated the prize to you, students and colleagues. It wouldn't have been possible wthout your collaboration. This award belongs to us all! At the Gala Dinner I recorded a few words to you and all our teachers-friends-collaborators.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! 

Your "crazy and radical" teacher,

Teresa Almeida d'Eça

 

 

 

12Dec07

Take a look at the following links:

CRIE – Notícias

eLearning Awards 2007: Winners

Blogue português vence prémio de eLearning

 

Earlier today I went to visit students involved in the project who are now in a different school. I was in 5 different classes and was able to give them all the great news and a very special Christmas present. It was a very exciting and moving event with students with their arms open to hug me and big smiles on their faces.

 

22Dec07

I created a wiki with the messages I received from friends and family in different parts of the world and with photos (though not mine yet!). Take a look!

 

23Dec07

Barbara/Bee Dieu created this very nice post about our work and the award in Dekita.org

 

17Jan08

I gave an hour and half interview about the award and my work with ICTs to Jorge Afonso, "Histórias e Músicas", Antena 1 (national radio). It also features some of my favorite music. VIP: Between minutes 48 and 59 it's the 1:00 am news. You can advance the timer. [I deleted the "news". 18dec09]

 

18Jan08

Here's the certificate of the award. I received it today. (Click the image below for a bigger image.)

    Wrapping up (= resumindo) two years online

In these two years of CALL lessons (5th and 6th grades) I introduced several ideas that you can use on your own (alone) and/or with friends to continue practicing and studying English. I divided them in three groups: (1) sites to create "your own" pages, (2) sites to study English "autonomously" (alone, on your own), and (3) sites to look at the past, specifically, at the work you did.

The image above with Snoopy and Charlie Brown represents, for me, a look at the past and a look into the future.

 

 

GROUP 1

— Bubbleshare (to keep your drawings and photos) [Discontinued in mid-November 2009)]

— Frappr map (to keep friends of a Web site you create) [Frappr will become Platial as of 2010]

— Clustr Map (to have the location of the friends that visit your Web page and the number of people who have visited your page)

— Google maps (to locate where your friends are in the world)

— Zimmertwins (to create animated movies)

— MyChingo (to create a "voice email" board in your site) [This site was discontinued in the last quarter of 2009]

 

 

GROUP 2

— the World Atlas (to explore Geography and the world)

— the Exercises page (all the exercises and activities that I have created for my students)

— the Audio Dictionary (pronunciation of many words in English)

— the Pronunciation pages (that I created for 5th and 6th graders in 2003-2005)

 

 

GROUP 3

— Art Gallery 2005-2006 (5th grade)

— Art Gallery 2006-2007 (6th grade)

— Have Fun with English! 2 (5th and 6th grades)

— CALL Lessons 2005-2007 (5th and 6th grades)

— Rodrigo's FAP blog.

 

Enjoy exploring these sites and pages! And write to say how you are using them.

BTW (= a propósito), I'll always be here to help you, if you need me. We're just an email away!!! 

      CALL Lesson 11 (June 18, 19 & 21)

There are things that we didn't have time to do: (1) explore a link about DST (Daily Saving Time, or "Summer time") sent by our dear friend Dennis Oliver; answer a couple of questions from our teacher-friends in the Google maps you created with messages for them; and, watch a video about bears in Slovenia made by a student of teacher Sasha Sirk. I feel sad, but the end of a school year is always complicated. There are too many things going on…

Today we have another "first time" project. It's a voice chat with someone you don't know and is far away. You prepared the 12 questions for the interview last Thursday, so you're ready for action!!!

Before we start, I'd like to have 4 volunteers – 2 girls and 2 boys – to ask the "mystery guest" three questions each. The interview will be recorded. After it's over, we will listen to it and write a short text about our guest. If there is still time, we will insert that text in a Google map that I created.

 

Objectives

Students will:

— "experience" their first voice chat in English

— practice language learned in a real situation and with a purpose

— have contact with communication tools, such as Yahoo Messenger and Audacity.

 

Activities

1. Find 4 students who will ask the "mystery guest" two questions each

2. Open Yahoo Messenger, then a Conference window, and invite guest to join us

3. Open Audacity and click "Record" when the chat starts

4. Start the voice chat

5. Locate where our guest lives in the World Atlas, after s/he says so 

6. Thank the guest and stop the recording

7. Listen to the recording and write a short text about him/her

8. Write the text in the Google map created for this lesson.

Enjoy! 

 

Work done in class by 6.C

An interview with teacher Michael Coghlan in Australia (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Michael

 

Work done in class by 6.E (19 and 21 Jun)

An interview with teacher Hala Fawzi in Sudan (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Hala

An interview with teacher Cristina Costa in England (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Cristina

 

Message I sent to teacher Michael Coghlan and his reply

Dear Michael,

 

Thank you so much for a lovely time during 6.C's interview this morning. The kids were totally fascinated and absorbed. Their eyes and ears were "glued" to the screen and speakers the whole time. I'm sure that most of them just couldn't believe their eyes, especially, their ears.

 

First, I was amazed at their interest in the surprise about to come when I announced what we were going to do for the rest of the lesson. My amazement continued with the degree of interest and absorption in the dialogue that was taking place. Finally, I was totally surprised by their interest in the recording. I wanted to listen to it for a while to see if everything was ok. It is!!! And when I was going to stop, because I knew they had understood enough to be able to write the text, they asked to listen to all of it. Wow!!! I decided to make some pauses and comment on the content (such as the time difference and the temperature) or explain something (the southern hemisphere and the different season, as well as the difference in size between a twon and a city). It was fantastic!

 

Then they wrote the text about you in the Google map (with a little guidance from me), always following the sequence of the questions. They did a great job with the interview questions and the text.

http://tinyurl.com/2gechl

 

It was a fabulous and very special feeling for me to see those excited and happy expressions. It was a real and totally unexpected treat! When I asked if this had a been a "grand finale", they all said "Yeeeeeesssss!!!" at once.

 

I'll be uploading the recording tomorrow after the second class interviews Hala at the same time as today. You're welcome to take part. BTW, I asked 6.C to keep this a secret from the other class, because they had enjoyed the "surprise" this morning. I sure hope they can keep a secret.

 

I'll send the rest of the links tomorrow: "CALL lessons" blog and recording.

 

Thank you for being there for me and 6.C. It'll be an experience they will never forget!   :-))

 

Warm hugs,     Teresa

 

 

Fantastic Teresa! And what a great paragraph they created on the map. Thank you for inviting me to do this, and for this great feedback.

– Michael

 

Message I sent to teacher Hala Fawzi and her reply

Dear Hala,

 

It was another fantastic lesson! "Thank you" so much for making it possible for my students. They behaved very  well and were also "glued" to the screen and speakers.

 

Right from the moment the students came in I felt that they were expecting something. Maybe someone from yesterday's class wasn't able to keep the secret!!! They seemed very anxious to know what their "surprise" would be, but didn't ask. I could feel their curiosity growing as 9:00 approached and I started to go over the interview with them.

 

I was very happy that two of the weaker students, Barbara and Pedro, volunteered to ask you questions. The other two, Catarina and Francisco, are good students.

 

They loved listening to the recording, writing the text about you and seeing your photo. I explained that you are from a different culture and that you dress differently in your country. Some also noticed a couple of differences from me in terms of pronunciation, which is very curious. Good ear for languages!!!

 

Everything is now in the blog, the recording of the interview and the text in the Google map. I love both, especially the interview.

http://call05-06.us.splinder.com/

 

Once again, I feel that this is an experience they'll never forget!   :-))

 

Warm hugs,    Teresa

 

Good evening there! I was trying to reply to your last email, but my yahoo mail seems to have gone crazy:). I just wanted to thank you for a very new experience that I have not gone through before. Talking to kids synchro in their class and helping them to learn! That was amazing to me too, not only to your kids.I loved the map and the interview.

Beijinhos,   Hala

 

 

Message teacher Cristina sent after the interview and my reply to her

Teresa!
What a great class! What a great blog.
I got really emotional at the end. I had tears in my eyes.
Thank you so much for getting me involved.
It's projects like this that make me believe that it is worth all the hard work.
Way to go.
thank you once again for the shining example.

beijinhos,   Cris

 

Dear Cristina,

 

"Thank you" for being there for me and 6.E this morning. I was happy to be able to have you "live" with us and to have four students in the class who were not present on Tuesday experience this synchronous event. Three of them interviewed you: Martim, Duarte and Daniela from Moldova. I'm sure they loved it as much as you did.

 

I'm listening to the recording as I'm writing: it's very cute. We can hear all the interaction going on. We are all so lively!  And I've just noticed that you were "emotional" at the end. You're such a dear friend.  🙂

 

The text may have a couple of minor incorrections, because we didn't have time to listen to the recording. It was from memory and things I'd jotted down on the whiteboard.

 

They loved to interview you and it was a great second "grand finale" for this class.

 

Beijinhos,     Teresa

 

 

* * * * * * * *

 

 

Report on CALL Lesson 11

6.C (18Jun07): Ten minutes before the interview started, we went over the questions they had written in class last Thursday. I told the students that they were going to interview a mystery guest, a friend of mine who lived far away. Each of the volunteers – Rodrigo, InêsT, Lourenço and Margarida – would ask 3 questions. The interview was going to be recorded and then we would listen to the recording to write a text about the interviewee.

I asked them to behave and not make much noise with the chairs when they changed partners at the computer!!!   😉

We used my laptop, a cable connection, a video projector and speakers. The lesson went on exactly as planned above: (1) interview with timely comments (= comentários pontuais) from me, (2) a look at the World Atlas to locate Australia and see the distance between both countries, (3) listening to the recording and (4) writing a text in a Google map I had created for this purpose.

This was a memorable lesson for the students, for me and, I dare say, for Michael Coghlan.

 

6.E (19Jun07): Ten minutes before the interview started, we went over the questions they had written in class last Thursday, included a comment about the weather – it was pouring at the time!!! – and repeated the questions. I told the students that they were going to interview a mystery guest, a friend of mine who lived far away. Each of the volunteers – Catarina, Pedro, Bárbara and Francisco – would ask 3 questions. The interview was going to be recorded and then we would listen to the recording to write a text about the interviewee.

I asked them to behave very well and not to make much noise with chairs when changing partners at the computer!!!  😉

We used my laptop, a cable connection, a video projector and speakers. The lesson went on exactly as planned above: (1) interview with timely comments (= comentários pontuais) from me, (2) a look at the World Atlas to locate Sudan (they located Khartoum while we listened to the recording) and see the distance between both countries, (3) listening to the recording and (4) writing a text in the Google map I created for yesterday's class.

This was a memorable lesson for the students, for me and, I dare say, for Hala Fawzi.

Two days later I was able to have the Computer Room with 6.E again and have Cristina Costa be interviewed by them. While they wrote down their self-evaluatuion text, I reordered some questions and suggested 2-3 that they translated correctly. This time the volunteers were boy-girl-boy-girl: Martim, Patrícia, Duarte and Daniela.

It was fabulous! I even got to talk about Cristiano Ronaldo, the famous Portuguese football player in Manchester United.

      CALL Lesson 10 (May 28-29)

Since you have your final English test next week, this lesson will be dedicated to revision work. You will complete interactive exercises that I created for you last week. They have been in the "Have Fun with English! 2" blog since May 24 for you to practice on your own (= sozinhos). And you can continue doing them this week for extra practice.

You can choose the exercises that you feel you really need. I hope this is useful. Enjoy! 

Objectives

Students will do revisions for the upcoming test by completing different types of exercises in three specific areas: vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. Different exercises demand different skills, from matching to spelling, reading and writing.

Activities

Choose one or two exercises from each area and complete it with the help of your colleagues, if necessary. Students will help one another and clarify things when there are doubts.

In multiple-choice exercises, students will write the answers in their notebooks while a colleague is at the computer doing the exercise. The correction will be done together.

Follow-up

Send comments saying the exercises you did at home, your scores and if they were useful.

 

Vocabulary
Health	Jigword (drag the piece)
Health	Speedword (spell the word)
Verbs (Port-Eng)	Jigword (drag the piece)
Verbs (Port-Eng)	Speedword (spell the word)
Grammar
S. Past (irreg verbs)	Jigword (drag the piece)
S. Past (irreg verbs)	Speedword (spell the word)
S. Past (reg & irreg verbs)	Cloze (fill in blanks)
Questions and Answers in the Past (1)	Choose the correct Q and A
Questions and Answers in the Past (2)	Choose the correct Q and A
Ask questions	Practice writing correct questions
Reading comprehension
Holidays	Read a text and write answers
Lisa	Read a text and write answers

      CALL Lesson 9 (May 7-8)

Today we are going to continue working with maps. We will look at a table that I created with information on where our teacher-friends are and complete it. Then we will create a map, locate the teachers in their countries and leave a message in the map for each one. This way you will really see how different the times are in different parts of the world where our friends live and work.

This task includes the group of teachers that left comments in the Easter post and in the post about my presentation about our two blogs at the Microsoft Conference. Both these posts are in the "Have Fun with English! 2" blog.

You will work with a table in one window and a Google map in another window. That's where you will locate each city and country, and write a simple message.

Once again, it will be a multidisciplinary lesson: Geography, (simple) Math, the Internet and… English!

 

Objectives

Students will:

— state the current time in other countries

— calculate the difference in number of hours between Portugal and other countries

— create a Google map

— locate each city and country on the map

— write a message in the placemarker.

 

Activities

1. complete information in the table: columns for "time there" and "hours differ. re: Portugal" (remember that we are in GMT +1)

2. create a Google map

3. locate on the map the country and city where each teacher lives

4. placemark it

5. write a message.

At the end of this lesson students should have a good overview of the distance between different locations in the world and the differences in time they represent in relationship to Portugal.

Enjoy the lesson!  

 

Resources (= Recursos)

— Table created by the teacher

— Google Maps

 

Help

How to create a Google map

— go to Google maps

— click the "My Maps" tab

— click "Create new map"

— give it a name and click "Unlisted" (= private)

How to locate a city and leave a placemarker

— write the name of the city and state/country in the "Search Maps" slot and press Enter

— click on the blue placemarker (second icon, top left of the map), drag it (= arrasta-o) to the location and click (for it to stay in place)

— write the message and click Ok

— click on the blue placemarker to see the message

 

Tables

 

Table for 6.C

Name	City	Country/State	Time zone	Time there	Hours differ. re: Portugal
Aiden Yeh	Kaohsiung	Taiwan	GMT +8	16:30	+7
Hala Fawzi	Khartoum	Sudan	GMT +3	11:40	+2
Cristina Costa	Manchester	England	GMT +1	9:48	none
Carla Arena	Key West	Florida (USA)	GMT -4	4:55	-5
Dennis Oliver	Phoenix	Arizona (USA)	GMT -7	1:58	-8

 

 

Here is 6.C's map created in class.

 

 

 

Table for 6.E

 

Name	City	Country/State	Time zone	Time there	Hours differ. re: Portugal
Sasha Sirk	Nova Gorica	Slovenia	GMT +3	11:18	+2
Nina Lyulkun	Kiev	Ukraine	GMT +2	10:33	+1
Ramona Dietrich	Carcavelos	Portugal	GMT +1	9.37	none
Conceição Brito	Setúbal	Portugal	GMT +1	9:37	none
Mônica Veado	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	GMT -3	5:45	-4
Nelba Quintana	La Plata	Argentina	GMT -3	5:45	-4
Berta Leiva	Toronto	Canada	GMT -4	4:50	-5
Jane Petring	Quebec	Canada	GMT -4	4:50	-5
Angeles Berman	Cd del Carmen	Yucatan, Mexico	GMT -5	3:55	-6
Cora Chen	San Francisco	California (USA)	GMT -7	1:58	-8

 

VIP: The kids worked very well and quite fast, but I had to help them finish four entries: Conceição, Nelba, Jane and Angeles. It was a demanding plan even for 50 minutes.

 

Here's 6.E's map created in class.

 

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Follow-up

1. Nina Lyulkun, one of our teacher-friends, left a message with a link to a very interesting map that she created. It's a possible route by land for us to visit her in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Take a look at her map!

2. Sasha Sirk, our teacher-friend in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, left a message with a very interesting video about bears (= ursos) in her country made by Matej, one of her students. Watch the video! And… enjoy it! 

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Report on CALL Lesson 9

The lesson with 6.C went as planned. They read the whole plan carefully out loud (one student at a time for each paragraph or part) and some translated what others didn't understand. There was curiousity about what the plan would really turn out to be, that is, what they would really be doing. They were eager to participate and volunteered enthusiastically to go to the computer and carry out the plan. Margarida, InêsT., Luis, InêsF and Rodrigo were the volunteers this time.

We started out by completing the table with the necessary info (last two columns). To save class time for the map, I wrote down the information they gathered and inserted it online at home. First we revised the concept of GMT. Then I asked in which time zone we were (GMT +1), how many hours separated us from each person and what time it was in their country. Several students quickly grasped that they have to subtract "1" when people are in a "+ / plus" GMT to find out the number of hours difference between us, and that they have to add "1" when people are in a "- / minus" GMT. They created the map easily and immediately grasped how to search for the city and country, get the placemarker in place and write the message. Once again to save class time, they copy-pasted the first message and then just replaced the necessary information.

The bell was ringing when we finished the five entries, but they had time to see the distances between the first person in the table and the last person, as well as notice the number of hours that separate them.

We used my laptop, a school video projector and a cable connection. The lesson was 45 mins. long, but an extra ten minutes would have come in handy.

As to 6.E, I had to add the 10 mins. since I added 5 entries to their table, because I decided not to have 6.D do this lesson. Everything went according to plan, although they weren't able to finish all the entries. It was just too demanding. I completed them at home.

They were also curious and eager to participate, but maybe a bit less enthusiastic than 6.C, and also grasped all the necessary concepts to complete the two columns in their table and carry on with the map.

The volunteers at the computer were Fábia, Rafael, Patrícia, Martim, Catarina and Francisco.

    CALL Lesson 8 (Apr 23-24)

During the 1st Term, at the end of Unit 2 of our textbook, English Train, we read a cultural text about the United States of America (SB p. 22). It mentioned (= referia) that America is so BIG that it has different "time zones" (= fusos horários).

I promised a CALL lesson about this topic. The time is here for the first multidisciplinary lesson about it. Yes, it's multidisciplinary, because it will include Geography, Math, ICTs (information and communication technologies) and, naturally, English!

Interested?! I hope so. Let's start and try to answer some questions.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

— give a simple definition of a time zone and identify simple ideas about time zones

— identify the number of time zones in the United States

— identify the different areas of the world with day and night (at the time of class)

— use given IT resources on the Web to find the information

Activities

1. What is a time zone? Do you know? If not, let's do a search to find out (= descobrir)!

Open a new Internet page and write "time zone" +definition +wikipedia" (you can copy and paste this) in the Google search area (below the Web address area).

When you have your answer, copy-paste it below in the work area for your class.

 

2. How many time zones are there on Earth? Let's take a look at a map that will give you the answer. Let's try to understand what the vertical lines represent and then count the number of spaces between those vertical lines. Those are the time zones.

When you have your answer, copy-paste it below in the work area for your class.

 

3. And now let's do some very simple Math. How many hours are there in a day? And how many time zones are there on Earth? Is there any similarity or equivalence between those two numbers? If so, what is it? How many hours are there in each time zone?

When you have your answer, copy-paste it below in the work area for your class.

 

4. Well, the text on p. 22 of our textbook says that the United States has different time zones, because it's a big country. How many time zones are there in continental America? Let's look at this map to find out. How many shades (= tons) of blue are there? Each one corresponds to a time zone.

When you have your answer, copy-paste it below in the work area for your class.

And now let's look at the map in #2 again to see the U.S. time zones with all the others in the world.

 

5. Finally, let's look at another map of world time zones. Do you notice two different background colors (= cores de fundo)? Why does the map have a white area and a grey area? What do they represent? Let's see which continents are in the white and the grey areas.

What other information does this map give us? Take a good look!

Before we finish, let's look at this map that gives us a different and very nice image of "day and night" in the world at the time of our class time.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

6.C: work done in class (23Apr07)

1. What is a time zone?

"A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time". (Wikipedia)

time zone = local time

2. How many time zones are there on Earth?

There are 24 time zones in the world.

3. How many hours are there in each time zone?

There are 24 time zones and there are 24 hours in a day, so each time zone represents 1 hour.

(24 : 24 = 1)

4. How many time zones are there in continental USA?

There are 4 time zones in continental USA.

5. In what continents is it day at 9:50 (GMT +1), during class time? And in which ones is it already night?

It's night in the Americas and day in Europe, Africa and Asia. The grey area is night and the whte area is day.

* * * * * * * * * *

6.E: work done in class (24Apr07)

1. What is a time zone?

"A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time". (Wikipedia)

time zone = local time

2. How many time zones are there on Earth?

there are 24 time zones

3. How many hours are there in each time zone?

There are 24 time zones and there are 24 hours in a day, so each time zone represents 1hour.

24 : 24 = 1

4. How many time zones are there in continental USA?

24 time zones in the USA.

5. In what continents is it day at 9:50 (GMT +1), during class time? And in which ones is it already night?

 

It's night in the Americas and day in Europe, Africa, Asia and part of Australia. The grey area is night and the whte area is day.

* * * * * * * * * *

6.D: work done in class (23Apr07)

1. What is a time zone?

"A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time". (Wikipedia)

time zone = local time

2. How many time zones are there on Earth?

there are 24 time zones on earth. 

3. How many hours are there in each time zone?

There are 24 time zones and there are 24 hours in a day, so each time zone represents 1 hour.

24 : 24 = 1

4. How many time zones are there in continental USA? (The lesson was interrupted by me before this item could be dealt withe / at this point, because their behavior finally got to me after several "calls to attention" and "requests"!)

5. In what continents is it day at … (GMT +1), during class time? And in which ones is it already night?

* * * * * * * * * *

Report on CALL lesson 8

In the three classes, everything went according to plan. 6.C (20 students) and 6.E (23 students) participated eagerly, were motivated the whole time and enjoyed the lesson, as can be seen in their comments. The same cannot be said for 6.D, a class of 28 with at least half a dozen students who don't seem to be interested in learning English, much less interested in things about our blue planet, the Earth. And they can destabilize the rest in a more or less subtle way.

6.C and 6.E especially enjoyed:

— seeing the map with the 24 little squares at the bottom, learning that each square represents a time zone, counting them all, understanding that "0" (zero) represents GMT – the worldwide standard and where the clock is), and finally understanding the reason for the "+" and "-" signs after GMT;

— noticing the "coincidence" between the 24 hours in a day and the 24 time zones, and why each time zone represents one hour;

— looking at the 4 time zones in the United States (the reason for this lesson); and, last but not least,

— seeing the areas of the globe still sleeping, those in daytime, and those getting ready to sleep!

All these tools are fascinating and keep most students glued to the laptop (those working "hands on") and to the whiteboard where everything is being projected.

I used my laptop and an old video projector from school that needs maintenance. The last Google map didn't come out as well as expected (quite dark), but they came to my computer to see the lights on in the Americas and the sun shining in other parts, such as where we were. I also had the chance to ask them to notice some areas with few lights and what that meant.

I believe it was an unforgettable lesson for many of these students with concepts they will never forget, ecause they had to think about them and come to their own conclusions. Best of all, they can always come back and see things all over, because these lessons stay online.

      CALL Lesson 7 (Feb 5-6)

Today we will do interactive exercises that I have created. Different students will be at the computer to complete them with the help of the class.

Objectives

Students will:

— revise and reinforce vocabulary and grammar already studied

— reinforce listening comprehension.

Activities

1. Do these exercises

a. Listening

— Question words (listening)

— Voiceboard messages (listening) [not working as of last quarter 2009]

b. Vocabulary

— Question words (matching Q & A)

— Geography 1 (multiple choice)

— Parts of the body (flashcards)

c. Grammar

— Simple Present: Short answers

— Do or Does?

— Simple Present (a quiz)

— Best friends (cloze with the S. Present of be, have got & like)

 Learn in a fun way! Enjoy!  

* * * * * *

Report on CALL lesson 7

In general, as I open my laptop, the connection to the school's cable network is immediate. This time it wasn't so. I disabeled it and tried the wireless connection, but it didn't work, so I asked for help. The problem was solved after different attempts (I don't know which, though) that didn't work and, finally, rebooting.

Since we have 90-minute periods, the first 45 mins. are always a traditional lesson, so I had already started class and my colleague was still there dealing with the problem. Good thing that I always go to the classroom 15-20 mins in advance of the bell to set up everything. It gives me ample time to check things and call for help, when necessary.

This time we used the school's new and more powerful wireless network, which worked very well. The students enjoyed doing the exercises and, since there was a different student at the keyboard for each execise, about five them had the chance to work hands-on. They had done these exercises months before and it's curious to notice how much more easily they solved them this time around. However, the weaker students still fall into traps, so I decided to go around the class for answers from one student at a time, instead of letting the better students correct each wrong answer that was given. Since the correction of these exercises gives feedback – it indicates the wrong answers in red and shows the correct ones in green -, students had the chance to concentrate on the mistakes and clarify them.

An interesting curiosity was that thye still remembered the parts of the body, which they only learned in the Halloween CALL lesson through "The Scary Skeleton" song. It shows how effective something that motivates can really be.

    CALL Lesson 6 (Jan 22-23)

We didn't have time (= não tivemos tempo) to finish our plan two weeks ago, so that is "one" thing we will do in today's lesson. But before we do that, let's take a look at our Links in both blogs where you have many pages to help you study English.

In the last part of our lesson we will look at different posts (= pieces of news) that I inserted during the Christmas holidays, when "you" were very quiet…

Objectives
Students will:
— browse relevant links for their study of English
— browse December posts, read comments and listen to some voiceboard messages
— go through the Xmas e-card, and solve the Xmas and New Year's puzzles.

Activities
1. look at the following links in the CALL lesson blog
   — Dictionaries (3)
   — Pronunciation pages (2)
2. look at the following links in the Have Fun with English! 2 blog
   — Activities/Exercises
   — Podcasts
3. browse through some December posts and comments
   — Dec. 22: Merry Christmas (see the e-card, listen to one carol and do the puzzles)
   — Dec 30: Happy New Year (see the image and do the puzzle)

Enjoy!  

* * * * * *

Report on CALL lesson 6

We used the school cable connection, my laptop, my new set of very light and slim Targus speakers (wonderful! fabulous amplification of sound!), and the school's video projector.

Everything went as planned in bothe classes (6.C and 6.E; 6.D is still grounded). The link in the Link area that really got them "hooked" was the audio dictionary. It's organized by topics and there's a mouseover effect: you listen to the word as you drag the mouse over it. They also liked the Pronunciation page, because we follow the same "recipe": Portuguese sounds to help pronounce English words correctly. The Activities page is also a favorite of theirs, because they can see everything that is available to them this year and from past years (organized by school years and by type of exercise), and just click to start.

Another highlight was going through the Christmas post with that beautiful interactive e-card, which most of them hadn't seen at the appropriate time. They enjoyed clicking and seeing all the beautiful effects come to life. The fact that most students were seeing it for the first time confirmed my idea that vacation time is a time to… get away from everything.

    CALL Lesson 5 (Jan 8-9)

Today we're going to look at the December posts and comments in "Have Fun with English! 2" about the nomination and Edublog Award, and about Christmas and New Year's. And then we will send text and voice messages to our teacher friends.

 

Objectives
Students will:
— browse the December links, read comments and listen to some voiceboard messages
— reply to comments and voice messages
— go through the Xmas e-card, and try out the Xmas and New Year's puzzles.

 

Activities
Browse at some December posts and comments
— Dec 8: Edublog Awards nomination
— Dec 17: And the winner is… (listen to the part where I speak in the podcast)
— Dec 20: Thank you!  🙂
— Dec 22: Merry Christmas (see the e-card, listen to one carol and do the puzzles)
— Dec 30: Happy New Year (see the image and do the puzzle)

Enjoy! 

 

Messages created in class

6.C

Hi, colleagues and teachers!
Thank you for all your messages. We feel very proud and happy with our work and winning. "Thank you" for all your votes!  🙂
We are feeling that we are the champions!!! [A the request of the students, here is a a short clip of Queen's "We are the Champions". Please click to listen.]
We're going to continue working well.
Happy New Year, everyone!!!  🙂
Hugs and "beijinhos" from 6.C

 

Listen to it in Have Fun with English! 2, Voiceboard: "From 6C to all our Friends". [the voiceboard was discontinued]

 

6.E

Dear teachers and colleagues,
Thank you for your collaboration and "congratulations" messages.
We are very happy about the blog nomination and winning. "Thank you" for your votes.
Please continue sending beautiful messages. We like reading them.  🙂
Bye! Hugs, 6.E

Listen to it in Have Fun with English! 2, Voiceboard: "From 6E to all our Friends". [the voiceboard was discontinued]

* * * * * *

Report on CALL lesson 5

6.C: It was a 45 min. lesson with a local area network (LAN) connection working very well. Everything went as planned. Juliana was at the keyboard for the first link and Miguel for the second and third, all related to the nomination and winning of our . All students read most of the comments from teachers and colleagues, and felt very happy and proud to have so many messages from all over the world. Then they wrote a message and asked for a class recording. However, when they they heard it, they didn't like it, so Guilherme volunteered to record it. It's in the Have Fun with English! 2 Voiceboard: "From 6C to all our Friends". [the voiceboard was discontinued]

There was no time to complete the last two activities (that'll be for next lesson). Considering their enthusiasm, I chose to let them read most of the comments, which takes its time.

I believe it was another lesson that they won't forget! As expected, they were very involved and behaved wonderfully! 

 

6.E: The plan was carried out in the same way as with 6.C. Catarina was at the board writing the message that the class suggested, so that they could all copy it in their notebooks, and Fábia volunteered to record it. She said that she was very nervous, but I think that she did quite well for a first time (I believe). It's in the Have Fun with English! 2 Voiceboard: "From 6E to all our Friends". [the voiceboard was discontinued]

Once again, there was no time to complete the last two activities (that'll be done next lesson). Considering their enthusiasm, I chose to let them read most of the comments, which takes its time.

I believe it was another lesson that they enjoyed, because they were very involved and behaved very well! 

    CALL lesson 4 (Dec 4-5)

Today we're going to continue making movies with Zimmertwins. I hope that more students have a chance to collaborate.

Objectives

Students will:

— make movies

— negotiate clips (backgrounds, actions, feelings) and language

— practice language and vocabulary already studied and/or reviewed.

Activities

1. log in to Zimmertwins

2. look over the different types of clips

3. make the movie

4. watch the movie.

More activities / Follow-up

— send in comments about the lesson to this post

— make a movie at home and send the Web address / URL to this post.

Movies created in class

— My best friend (6.C)

— Edgar's birthday party (6.E)

Follow-up activities: Movies made at home

— The wonderful (Thiago, 6.E – 31Jan07)

— Day of S. Valentine (Abigail, 6.E – 8Feb07)

— My first visit in the sky (Abigail, 6.E – 13Feb07)

— The adventure in the jungle, part 1 (Abigail, 6.E – 13Feb07)

— The adventure in the jungle, part 2 (Abigail, 6.E – 13Feb07)