I believe that
many of you already use activinspire. For those of you who do not I would
really recommend it because it is such a great ICT resource. Activinspire is a teaching
software for the interactive classroom. It can be used with all ActivBoards and
can be downloaded from the Promethean website.
There are a lot
of functions that can be useful while teaching. I will mention some of them here.
You can create flipcharts with text and pictures. I don’t have a whiteboard in
my classroom. Instead I only use flipcharts to write or explain something to the
pupils. One big advantage of using flipcharts is the possible to save the
pages. In that way you can look back on what you talked about last lesson. The
flipcharts can also be printed.
When creating
flipcharts you can use text in different style, size and color. This is done
using the keyboard. If preferred, you can use the pen. The pen can be used in
two ways, either controlled by the computer mouse or by hand. It is possible to
use either a pen or a highlighter.
Something that I
use frequently is the function that lets me write or draw on top of websites.
For example I have one copy online of the pupils Swedish and mathematic workbooks.
In that way we can look at the pages we are supposed to work with together. By
using the pens me and my pupils can write on the pages.
Activinspire
provides many activities that the pupils can work with. There are puzzles,
exercises with number lines and symmetry. The pupils work with the activities
by using the two pens.
There are
several additional tools that can be used. For example you have the magic ink
tool that you can hide objects with on you flipchart and there is dice,
calculators, clocks, rulers and compasses.
/Elin Gädda
News in levels - World news för students of English
The web site News in English provides English news in three different levels.
The Easy English news in Level 1 are for beginners. In this level 1000 most important words in English are used. If the pupils read and listen to Level 1 short news every day, very soon they can know and understand 1000 most important words in English. Level 2 is for intermediate students. In this level, 2000 most important words in spoken English are used. Level 3 is for advanced ESL (English as a second language) students. It is not simple English anymore as in Level 1 and Level 2. In this level, 3000 most important words in spoken English are used. The website also provides opportunities to read about people and their stories, jokes and books. There are also videos to look at and Skype opportunities. The exercises have a common goal for the users: Use English every day and you will be better every day.
For teachers
In the website you can get detailed information how to use the site. The pupils can be able to train the receptive skills including reading and listening and the productive skills including speaking and writing. The website makes it possible to use the ”direct method”. The pupils train to understand English with no translation to their native language. There are recommended exercises including translating, but I think there are other better suggestions to train the skills mentioned above. The pupils get the opportunity to read and hear the same words again and again, and get in this way a good chance to understand and remember them.
For pupils
You can improve your reading and listening quickly when you read easy English news. In the same time you practice your writing and speaking skills.
You can read all today´s articles and try to understand new words from the content. You can also read the articles from the day before and see if you remember all new words.
You can listen to all today´s news. You can also listen to news you listened to the day before. Stop the video after every sentence and repeat the sentence.
There are questions under today´s news you can answer and write into the comments. In the chatroom you can write about today´s news.
The opportunity to read short news in different levels I think is the strength of the site. The pupils can work with it on their own level. My recommendation is starting to use the News section with your pupils, and after that you can together with the pupils investigate the other opportunities and areas of use.
I intend to write about Kid’s English
zone. There are certainly many of you who already know about it, but I think
it's worth a post anyway. Kid’s English zone is 26 television programs that
contain brief scenes of everyday life for children and contain cartoon
characters and skits.
It is BBC who produced the programs, which are for children between 6-9 years.
Themes that appear in the programs are close to the student and therefore
easier to grasp. For example can the programs focus on the body and food. The
children also face common phrases, colors, and more.
I have noticed that the students like to sing along and do the movements that
are present in the programs. There is a teacher's guide, and to each program
there is information on what will be discussed and tips on activities that can
be done in the classroom after the program.
At this level the introducing to English
should give a pleasure and a positive feeling for the language. Which I think Kid’s
English zone conveys. Of course this is a supplement to other learning, but a
quite good one, I think.
A disadvantage may be that some songs are a little difficult for children in
this age, who just start to learn English. I have not experienced any major
problems with it, and I have noticed that students have had a positive attitude
and made good attempt to sing along.
Thank you for reading.
There
is a website called eslgamesplus.com. On this website, you can find all sorts
of games and activities to use in your classroom. You do not have to sign in to
use it, it is available for everyone and it is for free. However, if you want
to have access to video lessons, you will have to pay an amount of money every
month. There are a number of different games and activities to choose from. The games and activities often come with different
levels so they can fit many kinds of pupils. The website is available from a
computer, but also on mobile devices such as ipads and smartphones without even
needing to install an app first.
If you click on the link Topics,
you can see all the activities that are linked to a chosen topic on the
website. For example, if a teacher wants his/her pupils to practice different verb
tenses, they can play a Jeopardy Quiz game. This game, and a lot of other games
under a link called Classroom Games,
is a good game for classroom teaching. The classroom games can also be played
in pairs or in smaller groups.
There are a lot of different memory games as well. When your pupils play
a memory game, they will also hear how a word is pronounced. On one card there
is an image and on the other card the same word is written. When you click on the
card, you hear how the word is pronounced. When your pupils play the memory
games, they will practice listening, reading, spelling and word recognition.
You
can also find crosswords and word search puzzles practicing different themes
such as food, animals, clothes, jobs, weather et cetera. The crosswords and other
worksheets are all printable.
If you need help with something on this website, there
is a link called Help in the right
corner of the screen.
This
website has been very useful to me because it has games and activities suitable
for pupils in all ages, no matter in which level they are in their English
knowledge. There are games and activities for everyone!
At the beginning of November I was
attending the SETT-Syd in Malmö, which is a big conference about how to use ICT
in teaching at modern schools. I notice that the difference between this SETT
and the SETT in Stockholm four years ago is that the topic of ICT-teaching in
the school/preschool is not longer questioned. Instead, now we are talking
about how to use ICT in school and make progress with the help of it..
It is quite often we see ICT in
classrooms and more and more teachers are getting used to this. I have been
working with ICT in teaching for many years and have used lots of apps. One of
my favourites is Adobe Spark Video and that is what I have to tell you guys
about. This is the one you should try out.
How does
Adobe Spark Video work?
First you go to the app store and
find Adobe Spark Video, then download it. You can log in from your facebook or
Google account (create one if you don't have an account) and use it for
free. With the app Spark Video you can
make your story in just a few minutes.
When you get your pictures done you
can just go to Spark Video, chose one of the themes such as schoolbook, travel,
film and get started.
In every page you can put pictures
and text. You can even record sound
directly at the same page. Compared with the iMovies direct recording the sound
quality in Spark Video is much better. Besides, you can create as many pages as
you like. You can choose either with music or without music. There are lots of
different music to choose from if you don't want to choose your own. I prefer
to have music.
Before you upload your project, to
Youtube for example, you can preview it and see if everything is ok. Than share
it with friends, colleagues on Youtube, Google Drive or Dropbox. I would like
to share one of my presentations which I made by Spark Video.
One thing I have to mention is that
Spark Video is based on internet, which means you can access it with any
computer, phone or pad as long as you can log in from your facebook or Google
account. A good point in using Spark Video is that it is very effective and you
can have your project done in two to five minute. Adobe Spark Video is not an
app that just aids in language learning. You can use it very broadly.
Why use Adobe Spark Video?
As a teaching resource teachers can
use it for their planning. According our syllabus and curriculum (Skolverket,
2011) teachers should plan their lessons according to what pupils react to,
which is called “formative teaching”. Spark Video is a good combination with
pupil´s feedback and teacher´s planning. You can make a new planning in a few
minutes.
One of the processes of formative
teaching is feedback from teacher to pupils. Teachers can use Spark Video to
make records of when you question your pupils and give feedback.
Spark Adobe can also used as a good
teaching resource for pupils. A good example I can give is once when I worked
“reading and understanding” in Swedish with the year 4 pupils and we made a
drama and theater “Monsterfest”. One of
the pupils was very shy and could not talk fluently in front of an audience.
She agreed to make a record with Spark Video. This took much longer time, but
in the end the pupil was very satisfied with her effort and the whole
team-work. Though this was Swedish teaching, what I mean is that you always can
use this idea in the teaching of other languages.
Like every other technology resource
Adobe Spark Video needs developing to fit our requirements. As an example it
can still not add video into the project, which I feel is a pity. I believe
there will be more people using this app when it gets improved.
