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FeaturedTeachers

Page history last edited by Mike Marzio 14 years, 1 month ago

This last section is called "Featured Teachers" but it's also for everyone who participated in this year's EVO Video 2010 Workshop, even if you didn't have time to complete assignments. If you participated in ANY of our activities and have any last remarks to make to any moderator in particular, or to us as a group about the session, please do! Send us picture and text.  Please post to our

Yahoo Group.

 

 


Three Featured Teachers as of Week 6:

 

1 - Elisenda

Elisenda is the first to send us both her text and photos.

So, we're ready to present Featured Teacher # 1 in this series - Elisenda Bargalló Albar from Barcelona

 

Elisenda

Who is Elisenda?

 

This was her first message, introducing herself at the beginning of Week 1:

 

"Hi!

I'm a young English teacher in Spain. I work in High School and in Adults

school. I love working with images so, as long as video includes images I'm

broadly interested in this course.

I'm from Barcelona and I've been teaching for 5 years. I love my job and most of

all, working with teenagers.

Hello to everybody and hope we'll have fun here and learn a looooot! ;-)

Elisenda-Maro0n."

Cora replied the same as I was going to reply, but she replied before I did:

"It's great to hear you saying "I love my job!" Your passion for teaching will

inspire us all."

Elisenda wrote:

 

"EVO SESSION: VIDEO 2010

During these 6 weeks that the EVO VIDEO 2010 sessions last, I have learned how to use different websites that will be very useful for my students.

Firstly, I have had the time to browse Real-English. I already knew this website but I have not found the time to see how interesting it is and how well-designed as well as meaningful the activities are. Now, I have used some of the lessons with my intermediate students and I cannot wait for the advanced videos and activities that are coming soon.

 

Secondly, Ryan Detwiler cleverly told us about www.eslvideo.com, another site that I already use with my students and which is amazingly useful. Students always like the videos I choose from eslvideo and they find the quiz an easy activity to follow and understand the video. What I did not know was that I can be a member and that students can send me their results through the same website. That was a great discovery because now I can keep the record of all my students and assign them videos for homework, from which I will have the results directly in my profile! Marvelous, superb!

 

Thirdly, Jennifer has been such a positive encouragement! She is eager to help all of us, teaching how to use her videos, how to create ours or how to find grammar resources to solve our tricky grammar questions. I have discovered her blog but I was already subscribed to her youtube channel. She is very clear in her explanations and I usually use her videos when focusing on pronunciation.

 

Finally, I did have no clue about USA Learns. Sincerely, I think this is the one I am going to use the less. I do not know why but maybe I feel the website is not as attractive to my eyes as the previous ones. However, some of the videos are clearly explained and I think I have to give it a try and see how my students work with this site. I am not going to register my students because they are young teenagers and I think USA Learns is more an autonomous website for adults, but, I can use some of the videos with all the explanations provided and print the activities for them to work on it. Yes, I will do it soon and give you feedback.

Moreover, we suggested the creation of a space where we could share resources that we use and our moderators nicely provided it for us. I have then learnt even more things since the participants have advised other links that I have also explored and tag to my always growing del.icio.us.

Last but not least, I would like to thanks all the moderators and participants because I am really satisfied with this course and with all the tools I have discovered during this workshop."

Elisenda Maro0n

Elisenda's "students from the school Josep Tous in Barcelona. I have used some of the video resources with them."

 


 

2 - Olga

Olga Malcov from Moldova is Featured Teacher # 2 in this series

 

 
Here is a picture of Olga on the far right, in white, with a group of her adult students.   And another picture of Olga with books!

Plus a mini-movie showing her students and classroom situation at Animoto http://tinyurl.com/yc7xvek

 

Olga begins her summary:

 

"During these weeks we have been working on different online tools as:  

ESLvideo.com, USA Learns.com, Real English, EnglishCafe. All of these I have tried to introduce in my everyday program.

 

For example the first tool (ESLvideo.com) I have tried with my corporate clients. They expressed the desire to do online tests as it is faster, less time consuming and it is much easier, because they can watch a video online and complete the quiz at the same time, and of course it is easier for me to check. I have only to visit the site and look through the results. Usually I ask my students what was difficult and what was the most boring, the things they didn’t like. The only complain was about the quality of the video. Below there is the link to my quiz and my student’s results.

http://www.eslvideo.com/quiz_int2.php?id=4010&pagenum=1

 

 

 

 

 

The second tool that I have been exploring for more than a year and a half is REAL English. As the site has different level exercises I orient different students on different activities. For example for beginners I use simple videos as numbers, greetings and introduction, alphabet, etc.: 

1 - Hi 

2-From, 

3 Alphabet & Spelling, 

4-Color/Colour, 

5-Nationality,

 

For the higher levels I use more difficult videos as : 

13-Americans, 

14-The British, 

16-The French.

 

  

Especially when we talk about "personality" these videos are very useful. Even if it is considered as material for the beginner level, I don’t think that these activities are suitable for beginners. Some of the words we find in our textbooks only at the Intermediate level. (The text book is “English File”).

 

I like that there are a lot of synonyms and antonyms that help my students understand new vocabulary better, as we use the non translating method (English-English approach). Also I admire pronunciation exercises because usually higher level students are very fluent but they are not accurate in their grammar and for 200% in their pronunciation. The higher level student is the worst is his pronunciation.

  

Another tool that was introduced in this online session was Englishcafe. In this section I have uploaded a video from one of the Jennifer’s basic grammar videos (Time prepositions IN, ON and AT) and I have created a quiz based on this topic. My students have received the homework in the online form: to do the quiz as we have recently studied Time Prepositions.

http://www.englishcafe.com/quiz/prepositions-time-and-54693#

 

And of course the last tool is USA Learns. Here I liked the mixture of different activities that I as a teacher try to cover during my ordinary class, including grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and of course phonetics.

 

Usually all new online resources and new methodological approaches I try on my husband. I can say that he is my knowing- all student. I was trying to catch him working on all these sites, but unfortunately I couldn’t because he doesn’t like to pose. And he always has a premonition that I’m going to take a picture of him.  I have never seen him studying English with such a huge desire.

 

Some of my classes start at 7.30 and usually my students are very sleepy. So am I. Sometimes as warming up activities we play online games based on the grammar or vocabulary that we have recently studied.  

 

I want to thank all the moderators of this online session as they brought something new to my class. It made my classes more vivid and bright full of modern technologies and new ideas."

(End of Olga's text)

Finally a few more photos of Olga and her students:

 

Olga's students from the National Police Academy. They were her first of her students to use Real English videos and exercises.
 


 

 

Here we see Olga in the same classroom as above:


I really like this photo of Olga with a... baby goat ??

 

 

 

 

   
  
   

3 - Carolina Lapointe

   

Carolin is from Peru.

"The EVO video 2010 workshop gave me a great opportunity to continue using videos in the classroom in a more informed way. I took advantage of the tools provided and have used them on a regular basis in the last weeks. I have the feeling that a snowball has started rolling and I cannot stop now because my students are asking for more.

In general, I can say that I made my students aware that context, background and body language are always present in a communicative act as well as a purpose and intention on behalf of the speakers. When students pay attention to these factors, a teacher can promote and develop high thinking skills.

 

Another important thing that I have learned is that videos provide audiovisual material that a teacher can exploit in different ways. Videos lend themselves to different settings but it is not only about integrating them into our curricula but also expanding their use with several other activities. Here is where a teacher gets creative!

 

3 of Carolina's students

 

In these marvellous weeks I have used videos to recycle and introduce new vocabulary. The idea was to expand the vocabulary my students were familiar with. One of my students said: “Watching real people speaking is like watching how things happen in real life …they use other expressions and words to say the same thing we are learning in class. It expands our perception of the language.”

 

I have also reviewed grammar structures with videos and could experience creating and publishing my own quizzes online. The issues of pronunciation, variety of accents and speed in speech were discussed and my conclusion is that exposing students to pronunciation videos in addition to the teacher’s instruction improves accuracy and builds-up confidence. Finally, wrapping up lessons with a song or an activity that connects the topic to our students’ lives is an excellent way to send them home motivated and looking forward to their next lesson.

 

A few more of Carolina's students

 

 

To conclude, I have to say that the tools provided in this workshop have greatly improved my daily practice and I feel confident to know that there is a community of teachers willing to share information and experience.

 

Thanks

 

Carolina Lapointe

Peru"

Carolina also wrote about her use of Real English:

 

"Vocabulary: Places and activities


Students had already worked with “want to” and before introducing “going to + verb”,  I presented Real English –Lesson 20.

Objective: To expose students to vocabulary seen previously and to the use of “going to + noun”

 

http://www.real-english.com/reo/20/unit20.html

 

Students watched the whole video once and asked for 2 more times. The information in the video that helped understand vocabulary proved to be really useful since in their second view, they were already answering the questions the interviewer was asking.

After the second view they noticed and were curious about new vocabulary, just the very same words and expressions they are supposed to work with in the activities.

 

We went on with the activities and spent time giving more examples with the use of “heading to” and “on my way to”.

In activity 3, we can’t see the questions students are supposed to answer. (Ask Mike about this) So I used the pictures showing 3 types of transport to elicit answers for Where are they going? How are they going to get there?

 

In activity 4, students used their background knowledge to understand the expression “rushing to” Along the video, there were some nice negotiation opportunities regarding the use of new vocabulary. “Actually” is commonly mistaken with “presently” since in Spanish we have the word “Actualmente”. This was a good opportunity to clarify the use of this word. More examples were needed comparing “actually” and “presently”.

The only feature we couldn’t take advantage of was the “Record your voice” one. After the class was over it struck me that I could have brought my MP4 devise to do this. Better yet, I think I’m going to ask students to bring their MP4s so they can take their own recordings home. I can see a lot of fun doing this.

 

About speed, the only part that was a real challenge was with Passerby 5, who gives directions. I’m not sure about this but the map showing where this man is going is like a relief for students.  Students’ affective filters get high when they are struggling too much when doing a task. The aids included in the video proved to be very helpful and prevented students from giving up.

Finally, watching the video with subtitles raised students’ expectations and prompted more questions for clarification and confirmation.

The class after the video, we worked with “going to + verb” . We commented on the Real English video as a warm up to refer students to their background knowledge.

 

Students’ feedback:

They liked the lesson, felt they had learned new expressions and had expanded their opportunities for exposure to the language.

They also think that it's important to see how English speakers say things using other expressions.

They would definitely like to have more of these lessons."

 

Thank you Carolina. That's excellent work. And thanks to all 3 of you, you Elisenda, Carolina, and Olga for helping us make the Workshop work!

 

 

Carolina's Wordle

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