Author Archives: rgarcia5

About rgarcia5

ELT teacher, based in Molins de Rei (Barcelona).

On writing

Do you remember ZimmerTwins? There’s a tutorial in this blog. It was a very good example of Internet resources that foster creativity and help students to improve their writing skills. we are going to see some other possibilities we can find in the www.

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Short Stories is a very simple application in edu365

Teachers and students upload sets of 3, 6 or 9 pictures, and they are stored for their use within the application. You only need to choose the set of pictures, and order them as you like, write the story, be it short, long, complex or simple and have it printed. It is a very simple tool basically for primary students, with direct tangible results. You ca also record voice to be played. Stories cannot be stored yet, although this feature will be available very soon.

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Bookr lets you create your own picture books out of the photographs you have previously uploaded in flickr. Even though it is more of a photo album than a book, it can be used by your students to make albums of the school trips or more visual projects they can carry out. Here’s an example from a couple of pages of a very simple but nice book:

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Bubblr creates comic strips out of the whole flickr archive. add bubbles and create the stories that your imagination can produce. Primary school students will love it. They can also upload their own pictures.

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These easy and rewarding tools show us writing activities are not only limited to pen-to-paper drills.

In plain English

This is a good way to teach things! Visually, and with a very easy script. The Lefever brothers have created a series of videos with easy explanations on diverse issues, mostly ICT related. Information is easy and the pace is not too fast. Students will easily undertand it. You can find them in their own Youtube page

Why not trying to create similar presentations with our students?

Here’s a video on how podcasting works:

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This one is a very clear explanation on blogging:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NN2I1pWXjXI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Back to the oldies

We often look into the future trying to find newbies that make our teaching catchier. These videos from Schoolhouse Rock are still nice to watch. With the teacher’s assistance, primary students can learn a lot as they have a very good time. Just go to YouTube and type Schoolhouse Rock, and there you are: adjectives, prepositions, verbs… There’s an unofficial website where you can listen to the songs and read the lyrics. Up to you!