Google Sites

I´m using Google Apps for education in my work as a teacher. It's a free and easy way to create and share websites.

There are three levels of permissions within Google Sites: Owner, Editor and Viewer. If you create a site, you'll be the owner, which means you have full permissions to modify design and content.

You can share the site with editors, for example your students. They can only be allowed to edit existing pages; they cannot change the design of the site. You can also share the site with viewers, for example parents. They can only view the site and are not permitted to make any changes.

In school you can use Google Sites in many different ways...

You can use it as a web page. At my school each class has its own site, where the children explain what we're doing in school. The children use the site as a class blog and they can update the blog and contribute with their thoughts. The parents are viewers, which mean they can read all the important information. We use this page instead of "veckobrev".

Each child also has their own personal site. It is used by students as a digital portfolio featuring their best work. They upload PDFs, Word files or other documents that they are proud of.

You can also use Google Sites as a wiki. First you need to share your site with the students, and invite them to be owners or editors. Then they can edit the page you gave them access to. They can communicate with each other and comment on each other's texts.

When we work with different themed, for example Östersjöväldet or with a book project, we make a site which holds all the information about the work. The students then publish their work om the site and they can easily comment on each other's work.

Yours Hanna Svedberg

Different programs on your computer!

In year 4, at my school, we work with a material in English, called ”Magic”. The teaching material includes Classbook, Workbook and Wordtrainer.

To the Classbook belongs a Web Part with all texts and listening exercises recorded and self-correcting, varied exercises in vocablary, grammar and self-test.

This material is great. Since we've got plenty of computers all pupils are working at their own speed and with what they need. Each book includes a CD, that you put into the computer. The pupils can practice at home even if they do not have Internet. Of course it´s necessary for them to have a computer. You choose a chapter of the book, then you can practice everything related to that chapter.

There has been a new ”Magic”, called Magic 3. Magic 3 is made for year 3 and it´s based on Lgr 11. You access the Web Part by a code in the textbook.

During the Book Fair in Göteborg 2012 the authors of Magic 3, Mary Robling and Annie Westman held a workshop about how the teaching mateial can be used on the Smartboard.

You can visit the link below and then click on ”Ta del av workshopen” to get tips and ideas on how to work with this material on the Smartboard.

https://www.studentlitteratur.se/#produkt/79/33656/

In year 5 we are working with a material, called ”Spotlight”. This is also a very good material to work with on the web. Web Exercises can be found at www.nok.se/laromedel

 

A program on the computer that I can recommend is

”From word to word”. The program consists of crosswords

that become more and more difficult. You learn English words,

pronunciation and practice spelling.

We use Lexia on the computer for pupils who need extra training. On Lexia you create individual programs for each pupil.You can read more about this on Lexia.nu.

Spellright is also something that is useful. It.´s a program that corrects English spelling. You can read more about this on the following link.

http://www.frolundadata.se/files/prod_271/SpellRight2Snabbguide.pdf

This was a litte about how we work with ICT at my school. I hope that something can be useful for some of you.

Yours

Marianne Öggesjö

 

glosor.eu

Glosor.eu is a free website available for anyone who wants to learn English. Being a free website there will be advertising, not necessarily in everyone's taste but a part from this I find it a very useful tool. Glosor.eu can be used by teachers who have embraced internet as part of their learning method.

                      From a teacher's point of view there are several advantages using glosor.eu. One can get inspiration, create networks and exchange tasks with other teachers. Tasks can be created from the website and handed out to the pupils in class, or you can use the diffrent tasks at glosor.eu as they are. Homework can be set up on the website where then the pupils access through your class network. No need to carry home books (or forget to do so!)

                      For pupils glosor.eu is a new and modern way of practice English. Glosor.eu can be set up and personalized, there is a method for everyone who will make the study more efficient and funny, i.e. there is a spelling/pronunciation function where difficult words will be spelled and read back and there are many games for learning. Who said study is hard or boring? Another aspect is the parent’s participation in the children's education, the website will engage everyone.

                      However, there are a few things to take into consideration before getting all excited and online. First of all, make sure all the pupils have access to a computer and internet at home. In case there are children without, are there any computers at school that can be used for the purpose? Second, everyone needs to create an account, this is an easy step-by-step set up, all written in Swedish on the website. My suggestion is to make sure everyone has an account before getting started.

                      The curriculum of the Swedish compulsory school states that pupils should be put in condition do use different tools while learning, creating, understanding and communicating. In this case the process should stimulate the interest in learning languages. Further should pupils use modern technics when searching for knowledge, when communicating, creating and learning. The teachers will be there to give support but the pupils should take responsibility for their own studies

                      I believe using glosor.eu will improve the level of English in the Swedish compulsory school and help both teachers and pupils to reach the set goal.

www.glosor.eu

Youtube

Youtube.com is a website which I believe most of you ave heard of. On this site you can look at different kinds of videos and upload your own videos. All you need is a computer with an Internet access. It is, however, a good thing to have a projector or an interactive whiteboard so that the students can watch the videos together.

I believe this site is a huge resource in the English language teaching since it has such a wide range of different things you can use in education. Due to my experience I believe that students often find it quite entertaining watching videos which make them attentive during the lessons. By letting students take part of things on Youtube you give them an opportunityto hear the language in many different situations and you let the students listen to the language in it´s real context.

For example you can watch short stories or divide longer stories into smaller parts. The students can work with the videos on their own or you can show it to the whole class at the same time, depending on which resources you have got in class and which strategies you prefer. You can watch video clips from real life situations and take part of actual lessons. Depending on which age you teach there are different kinds of videos appropriate for different ages.

Another good thing to do is to let the students choose songs they like which you can listen to. By doing this you can either use it as a listening exercise or you could print out the lyrics and let the students translate them to increase their vocabulary. There are also plenty of songs that are made to be used in education, for example grammar songs and songs about different topics. You just have to type in what you are looking for on the top of the website and then you hopefully get a huge amount of videos which are useful.

Is is very important though that you take a look at the videos in advance, before you show it to your students. Since this is a site where anyone can upload their videos you never know what might appear in the video. Remember that the video it self does not turn into actual knowledge, you have to discuss the video and do something with it to get the actual learning! :)

//Malin Arkad

Learn by using Skype

Skype

The best way to learn a foreign language, I believe, is to communicate with other people. In this case, I talk about the English language and the people you communicate with can have English as their native language or as a foreign language. They say that the best way to learn a new language is to be staying in the country where the language is spoken ( or to get an English speaking loverJ), but it might only be possible for some of us. But there is another magnificent way of meeting people, over the internet. You can download a free program to your computer called “Skype”. You use it over your ordinary internet connection and there is no connection charge, minute charge or subscription fee, you only pay for your internet connection.  Skype is like a telephone connection over the internet. You just have to open an account and then you can get in contact with friends all over the world. You can also use your webcam, if you have one installed on your computer, so that you can see the person you are talking to. If you want to, you can talk to more than one person at a time. You can also use an ordinary “chat- function”, which means that you can also write a text and communicate that way. 

As the teacher I might be the person to help my pupils to find appropriate friends to contact and talk to, by using Skype. The best idea, I think, is to get in contact with another teacher and connect my pupils with her/ his pupils. Then you will have to give them material to work with, like topics to talk about and later on also tasks that they can solve together.

The first thing they must do is to get to know each other, so at their first meeting they must do a presentation. They will of course tell each other their names, ages, where they live, family, class, interests, favorite things and so on.

For me as a teacher it gives a lot of possibilities to work closely with other teachers all around the world. We can share lots of knowledge and cooperate with our teaching.

This cooperation might lead up to a class trip and we all can meet up in real life. What an interesting and lovely experience it would be!

Screenr.com

During the autumn holiday I have discovered a website called Screenr (www.screenr.com). It is a web-based screen recorder that does not cost you anything and you do not need to download any software. Therefore you do not need to ask anyone for permission to purchase or downloading it. I think that is great!

At first sight it seems to be a quite simple resource to use though I had some another experience at first…

On the home page you can read that it is just to click on the record button, capture your screen & voice. When you are done you just share your screencast through a link. You can also watch a 1-minute tour movie were they tell you and show you how easy it is. And it is very EASY if everything works out like it should!

http://www.screenr.com/

One important thing that they do forget to tell you in the beginning is that you must be logged in to be able to publish or download your screencast. When you sign in for the first time do it right at the beginning because you can not change your username afterwards! If you want to have another username you will have to make a new account with another email address. I had that experience when I realized that I wanted to change my username. They say (in FAQ) that you can delete your account but I have not found how to do it yet!

Yesterday when I made my first screencast test I could not find it afterwards even though I was logged in. All I could see was that I had made a screencast and posted it… This morning I logged in again but it looked the same. Maybe I did something wrong because a couple of hours later it just popped up when I tried to make a new screencast test. I deleted it because I did not want it and started to do the new one. Now it worked like a clock and after a few recording attempts I published it on my class blog (http://katarinasdiamanter.blogspot.se/search/label/Engelska). I must say that I am quite satisfied with it!

As a teacher I can see many opportunities how to use screenr.com. For example I can record an assignment that I want my pupils to make (like I just did), I can record a presentation to show in class or I can record a lesson review. I think it can make it easier for my pupils to understand me. Afterwards I can put it on the class blog or on the schools website so that the pupils and their parents can watch it at home. I think I can use screenr.com in all school subjects!

Most of my pupils have Swedish as their second language and many parents often wonder how we do things at school. They think that they can not help their children at home. Here I think the screencasts will help to explain for example how we count when we have math, how some English words are pronounced or what to think about when you are supposed to write a narrative report etc.

For my pupils there are also a variety of opportunities with screenr.com and I think they can use it in every school subject. For example I can let them do animated movies, presentations about their family, guided tours about their home town or home countries etc. In English I am going to use it together with Google map and Google earth, letting my pupils make guided tours about Hastings (next chapter in our English book).

I only have one or two problems left and one is that it does not work on my own laptop computer at home. It says that I do not have Java installed but I have! In FAQ they talk about some problems with Google Chrome, which I use. Then I did try it in Internet Explorer as well and it did not work there either, though it works perfectly on my desktop computer! On Monday I will have to ask the computer guy at work about that. I will also have to try it on the computers at school to see how it works…. Exciting or…… ;-)

I also have to start download and install Google earth on the school computers... Lucky me, I have admin permission! :-D

//Katarina Forsell