Have a look at this site… CREA is a section of edu365.cat. It offers reference of different collaborative and innovative tools, most of which can be successfully used in our English classrooms.
I’ll be posting articles about these so called 2.0 tools. Let’s create cartoons, movies, stories, posters, polls… let’s create real time collaborative writing, timelines, and many other things… let’s make things catchier in our lessons!
Let’s forget this is an ELT blog for a while. This video from Matt Harding shows us the plain truth: The world is full of good people who are always ready to start dancing when they hear the simple beating of a rythm. Dance is in our souls, and when we take out our inner child and start moving, jumping and swinging to the rythm of music, we take the best of ourselves. This is just a tribute from a simple language teacher, to all those teachers of the most important language across boundaries: Dance
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Still, there’s room for ELT, as usual!
Visit Matt’s webpage Where the hell is Matt? This website offers different possibilities for us teachers. It is worth reading the section “About Matt” after you have watched the video with your students. It tells Matt’s story… really interesting, and easy to read. In the section “Journal”, a blog shows different articles concerning Matt’s project… his travels, his meetings…
Use this website to talk about values, about friendship, peace, music, dance, life… I knew we would end up saying we could use it in our lessons!
People from Amanita Design have produced a beautiful online videogame for the BBC educational website: Questionaut
Travel with a friendly voyager in pursuit of his friend’s windswept hat, and answer multiple questions from different fields in a dream-like world, flying with your balloon and winning oxygen by answering correctly. There’s fun and learning, and it’s in English! Worth a visit!
After a while without posts, here’s one with interesting websites for your lessons. They are worth a look during the coming holidays: ESL and Clil have room here… enjoy!
This website has a large list of online activities to foster reading and writing skills. Among the long list, I have chosen two applications:
Character Trading Cards is an application based upon the popular trading cards students use. Here students can customize their own cards making up different characters with their specific features: Mood, weaknesses, strengths, problems, approach to life… Students fill the card with the information required in an easy step-by-step process.
These trading cards can be printed and used in order to create stories or role play situations. Writing, reading and speaking in a bunch!
Fractured Fairy Tales helps students create brand new stories out of classical fairy tales which are fragmented and reused after changing some of its characteristic traits (part of the plot, characters, end of the story…) An easy interface with easy write and click instructions. Really catchy!
An extremely nice website for young students created by the New York Zoos and Aquarium Authority. Choose the animal parts you want to have in your own wild self, and create a new species in the animal world! Navigation is easy and the library has many different options … good fun!
The parts you have chosen will help you make up the name of this strange creature. Learn about its habitat and how it reacts to the world around it… Your students will love it!
Good website with animations and road education! Hector’s Home gives students a very good time with some very spooky short films where Hector, the main character, moves about the city and learns the most important aspects of road education.
You can watch the films and do the activities and games that appear as you move around.
Teachers can enter a special area where very useful lesson plans are provided. They’re worth a look, believe me!
A really catchy website, they learn road education as they practise their English.
Nice and easy website for early learners. English for Little Children has a wide range of activities for the youngest ones. Lots of activities with colourful images and pictures. Very easy to navigate.
The British Council’s site Learningenglish brings us Wordshake, a nice online word game for students of all levels. With a very good interface, its easy rules will quickly motivate students in your class.
Watch and learn!
This short films from Animals save the Planet give us the chance to help our students learn the most important concepts of global conscience and sustainability. Funny animals show our children how to be green! Language is not very difficult, and of course, there are lots of other possibilities to exploit.
This is a nice way to introduce internet guided chat in the classroom.
Thanks to amycapdet, author of the ELT blog Cloudy Seaside Mood, who has showed us this interesting website.
Poptropica is a website where young people can create a very simple character which can be customized with a few details.
This character is taken to Poptropica, a world with different continents where he/she will be able to carry out different activities: Chatting with friends in a very guided way (the content of what is said comes out of a list offered to the player, so everything is under control as players can choose out of a limited list of possible sentences).
As players travel to the different parts of Poptropica, they can play different games, and what is most important, pay attention to what people in Poptropica say to them, as they must gather information and objects in order to succeed in carrying out different missions across that world. Once all activities are carried out, theer’s nothing to be done. That will avoid having students constantly hooked on the game.
A nice way to introduce Primària students to the world of adventure games and quests, simple, catchy and always under your control (as long as they play in the school, of course)
Interesting article from the British Council on learning English through sharing picture books. It provides links to very good sites where you can get hold of materials and stories. There’s a nice booklet you can download and read.
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!