Teacher Training Videos - Review by Mr Byrne

Free Technology for Teachers by rbyrnetech@hotmail.com (Mr. Byrne)

Teacher Training Videos http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ is produced by Russell Stannard. Russell produces videos demonstrating how to use a variety of Web 2.0 tools. Russell's videos start with the basics and finish with advanced features and ideas about using the tools in education.

Applications for Education
If you're new to using technology in the classroom, Teacher Training Videos is a must-bookmark website. If you're a teacher looking for videos to supplement the instruction you give to students, Teacher Training Videos is good resource for you to have.

Cooking Class in English!

Has the idea of teaching English through cooking ever crossed your mind? Believe me, it is really tasty! Students love it, and better, they'll have the opportunity to experience something "fun-tastic"! Here is a list of ESL (English as a Second Language) cooking activities - Here is the first one about vocab:

ESL Cooking Vocabulary Lesson

There is also this link to several "food/restaurant lesson plans"
http://www.eslflow.com/foodrestaurantlessonplans.html

And this is a book I highly recommend to enhance your cooking skills
"Not Just Hamburgers" by Virginia Klie. She also recommends these sites for the ones interested in both English and Cooking:

1) http://allrecipes.com/

2) The Cook's Thesaurus http://www.foodsubs.com/ is a cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions.

3) RecipeSource http://www.recipesource.com/ is the new home of SOAR: The Searchable Online Archive of Recipes and your source for recipes on the Internet.

And finally, this is my suggestion. Take a look at this great site for online cooking games. It says it's for girls... I am sure boys will also enjoy playing this game! Some of the recipes you can do for real!
Varieties http://www.y3.com/tags/Cooking
Banana pancakes http://www.y3.com/games/16618/Cooking-Show-Banana-Pancakes
Lasagna http://online.brothergames.com/flash-games/lasagna-cooking-game.html
Berry Ice cream http://www.gamesgames.com/game/Saras-Cooking-Class-Berry-Ice-Cream.html

Enjoy your ESL meal!
;)

Comic Master

This is an awesome page to create a Graphic Novel! Do not worry if you don't know how to draw - the characters, backgrounds, speech bubbles and special effects are ready. All you have to do is to create a nice story. Have a try - it is worth doing it!

http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/

There is also a teacher's resource to use in the classroom
http://www.readmeresources.co.uk/pdfs/GraphicsInMe/GraphicsInMeUsefulResources&Links.pdf

A really useful website is www.teachingcomics.org. This has
copyright free resources, exercises and lesson ideas.

7 trunfos para falar inglês (Lilian Prist)

1. Muito Input
Ouvir, ouvir, ouvir. Isso é fundamental. Da mesma forma como aconteceu nos primeiros anos de sua vida.

2. Primeiro a Floresta
Veja a floresta e não apenas a árvore. Dê menos importância às minúcias e às regras gramaticais (fundamentais para textos e literatura, mas não para adquirir fluência).

3. Dê Valor ao Ritmo
Focalize mais a “música” do que a “letra” ao ouvir pessoas falando inglês.

4. Mais Linguagem Corporal
Comece a observar as expressões faciais, os gestos, sem se preocupar com o significado de cada palavra.

5. Maximize o que sabe
Pare de pensar no que falta, no que você não sabe. A questão é valorizar o que sabe e administrar com tranqüilidade o que desconhece.

6. Mais Receptividade
Questione e analise menos, seja mais intuitivo, instintivo.

7. Relax
Tensão e ansiedade de aprender rapidamente acabam causando verdadeiros bloqueios. Dê tempo ao tempo. Segue abaixo a referência bibliográfica para quem deseja adquirir. (Clique aqui para comprar)

PRIST, Lílian. Os 7 trunfos para falar inglês/Lílian Prist. São Paulo: DPL, 1999.

Great Habits of Great Teachers

Great Habits of Great Teachers

View more presentations from Tariq Tahir.

Multiple Intelligences Online Test for Free!

Here is a site I learned from Kevin Cummins http://www.edgalaxy.com/ which gives you a profile of what kind of intelligence you have. It takes about 10 minutes to do it. You can listen to the sentences if you want to by just clicking on them. The graphic at the end of the session is really interesting. One thing to do when the questionnaire is over - record your code so that you may check as many times as you wish.

http://www.bounceapp.com/posts/new?screen_id=81320

Thinking of oral testing in a regular English course

It’s the end of the term in our regular English course. I tested students’ oral production. After doing it, I asked myself:

• What is a good test?
• How does it work?
• How to establish criteria, since it is not clear to teachers and also students? Do you usually let them know how you score their performances?
• How to cool students’ anxiety down during the test?
• How to give proper feedback? One that stimulates and helps them look for improvement in learning English?

By asking these questions, I read some texts related to oral production and testing. Here is the conclusion I’ve reached: A good test covers the content syllabus which students are taught, so that they can do well. The test might even be the opportunity to review what they’ve seen during the course. It might have the following guidelines:

• Ask for students’ permission to record their production (In my opinion, you can have a more precise analysis of their performances, you can focus more on students’ accuracy and fluency aspects)
• Give clear and precise instruction on what to do. What do you expect from students according to their level?
• Give them a few minutes to prepare in written mode: organize ideas, choose proper vocabulary, etc.
• Make them feel comfortable during the test by smiling, nodding, etc.
• Ask questions to check their understanding / listening / promptness;
• Give some feedback as soon as the evaluation finishes, just to cool them down. You can also ask about their expectations, feelings towards the test, etc at the end of the session.

According to Penny Ur in “A Course in Language Teaching – Practice and Theory”, Cambridge UP, 1997, he defines accuracy and fluency as it follows:

(…) language proficiency can be defined in terms of accuracy and fluency; if a learner has mastered a language successfully, that means that he or she can understand and produce it both accurately (correctly) and fluently (receiving and conveying message with ease). When the objective is accuracy, teachers and learners are chiefly concerned with “getting the language right”: forming correct sounds, words, sentences. When it’s fluency, they are concentrating on the “message”: communicating and receiving content (…).

So, when assessing students’ oral production, I take into consideration these two aspects aforementioned: accuracy and fluency. They help me towards my goal – to evaluate what and how I teach classes and how students produce in the target language. I do not simply want to fulfill the school’s expectation or methodology, but to give learners the opportunity to check their progress and usage of English in real life.

Real English

Real English is just great for helping students get used to listening to real English, like ordinary native people from English speaking countries. Different accents and natural conversations which are incredibly challenging for
learners of a second language. I highly recommend it!

This site combines ESL (English as a Second Language) / EFL (English as a Foreign Language) grammar, lexical items, and functions with the spontaneity provided by the people we meet casually during our filming campaigns. You will not find any actors here. All of our clips are based on people being themselves, speaking naturally and spontaneously, just like in the situations which learners will deal with when their training is finished, when they travel to English-speaking countries, or when they welcome English speakers into their homes and offices. Our videos are based on grammar structures, lexicals, and social functions, providing an anchor and a counterpoint to the spontaneity of street video. This unique approach is greatly appreciated by teachers who have been using traditional materials, which present us with actors speaking slowly and distinctly, as if the real world were slow and distinct. The lessons include images and audio files directly related to what the speakers are saying in the videos, providing meaning for beginners and intermediate students alike.

Important: How to Use Real English®
1 - Go here http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp and choose a lesson.
2 - Watch the video at the top, without subtitles.
3 - Click on "Exercise 1". Follow the instructions. Do all the exercises.
4 - Now watch the video with subtitles.

Your pronunciation will be much better!

Fotobabble - Talking photos!

Talking photos!
Very nice tool to make students practice speaking!
Here´s an example of an Intro student (real beginner) from a regular course


Johann introduced himself, gave some personal and physical descriptions. He also talked about his likes and dislikes.

I highly recommend this tool for English Language Teaching!
http://www.fotobabble.com/

Here is a tutorial by Russel Stannard
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/fotobabble/index.html

Accelerated Learning Techniques

Ambiguous sentences

I found myself in trouble this morning, trying to explain ambiguity in sentences. It is tricky. First things first – What is ambiguity? – According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:

1) The state of having more than one possible meaning.
2) A word or statement that can be understood in more than one way.

After defining what it is, let’s take a look at some examples:

a) Students hate annoying teachers.

The problem here is the word annoying. It could refer to both verb and adjective.

Possible solutions:
Students don’t like to annoy teachers (VERB).
Students don’t like teachers that are annoying (ADJECTIVE).


b) Students arrive late and teachers complain about it. It’s not correct.

The ambiguous sentence here is "It’s not correct". "It" is referring to both "students arriving late" or to "teachers complaining about it".

Possible solution:
Teachers complain about students arriving late. It’s not correct.

Note: What do you think of this solution to letter "b"? Do let me know your opinion about it!

Here is what I found on EnglishClub.com about ambiguity. Very good comment indeed!

Source: http://edition.englishclub.com/esl-magazine/q201006/

(…) Yes, it could confuse someone. Yes, it could cause someone to ask you to repeat what you said. Will you still get your point across? Yes. Most likely. Try to avoid ambiguity, but don’t beat yourself up over it. We all use poor construction from time to time. It is more important to avoid ambiguity in writing. Why? Because the writer is not always present to clarify the intended meaning. Reading your writing out loud is a good idea. You may detect your own vague and ambiguous sentences when you hear them. Rewrite the awkward sentence until it sounds perfectly clear (…).

Doing homework and Class Preparation

I realized some students get really confused about doing homework or class preparation.

•Why does that happen?
•Why do some students take it as a burden?
•How can I help them understand the explanation of class preparation and doing homework in a better way?

I also realized students do mix up information! The teacher has to be very clear on instructions. Here are a few tips I found in a really good ESL article on the net:

• Emphasize what you said – ask one or two students to say what you’ve assigned.
• Write the instructions on the board.
• Tell them about the importance of doing it. What they will benefit from doing homework and preparing lessons beforehand.

Want to know more?

Read the entire article "Some thoughts on Homework" by Prentice H. Berge on ESL Cafe's Idea Cookbook:

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?display:913701621-1460.txt

It is really worth reading it!
;)

Using Skype for ELT Lessons: Interview with Marisa Pavan. Watch this nice interview by Shelly Terrell
http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/10/20/using-skype-for-elt-lessons-interview-with-marisa-pavan/

What you need for a Skype English Lesson:
• Skype software (It is FREE!)
• Headphone
• Microphone

Material I recommend for Brazilian students:

• Longman Escolar for Brazilian students (Dictionary + CD)
• Notebook for taking notes

Things to consider:

• Why do you want to study English?
• Where did you study English before?
• How do you study it?
• What do you think about technology for learning a language?
• What are the positive and bad aspects of learning a language through computer?

First things first:

• Let’s have an interview to check your level of English. The first class is for free!
• Let’s see the payment method.


How does a Skype English Lesson work?

• I usually help with learning strategies – how to study, studying techniques, motivation, difficulties, etc.
• The purpose of the course is communication. You do most of the talking in a regular online class. I am just a facilitator.
• There’s some class preparation: listening, reading, and writing.
• There’s a feedback at the end of class: class review, feedback about your performance and class preparation / follow-up.