Further ICT resources

Today I've hung a few ICT resources that the teachers of St. Mary's university (London) recommended me as a really good way to help shy children to speak. Most of them consist on some sort of digital puppets you can make talk.

The teacher's criteria to choose the apps are:
-It must be easy to use.
-It must be easy to share.
-It must be free (not having to pay for it).

I would , personally, add two more criteria:
-It has to be free (as in free software) if possible.
-It has to run in as many platforms as possible.

Unfortunately, many of the apps that they recommended are for Apple (ipad/iphone mainly) though not all of them.

GO TO THE ICT RESOURCES SECTION AND SEE THEIR MAIN FEATURES AND WHERE TO DOWNLOAD THEM.

Using prezy and other slideshow tools

Prezy Prezy is a new tool which allows you to create more complex slide presentations than other software, and it allows you to collaborate with other people. I think that it can be a very useful tool. However, if we do not use it carefully it can be both helpful or harmful. Why? You might ask. Well, the following tips apply to most slideshow software:
-Do not put a lot of text together. Our mind can manage 7 +-2 elements at the time, so try not to use more than 7 lines and 7 words per line.
-Do not use pictures that do not provide any relevant information, as you are focusing attention somewhere else. As an example, in one of the recent presentations we had, most slides were full of pictures, gif's etc. which were as funny as irrelevant (even two ladybirds having sex on top of a road sign). Use images that provide information related to the matter (sometimes they give you much more than several slides of text) or, within a reading promotion context, use images that work as scaffolding, providing information that your pupils might not be receiving through verbal communication (and therefore helping them to understand).
-Try to use black letters over white background. I know it doesn't look cool, but it makes it accessible to everyone. If you are using a rainbow of colours, be ready to adapt it whenever is necessary.
-When using Prezy, try not to do sudden camera moves. It distracts people and makes the whole thing more difficult to follow. Some people have even reported cases of people feeling dizzy after watching a slideshow with this characteristics.
-Download a PDF version. Not everybody uses Microsoft software, and your internet connexion might fail. If you download a PDF version you will be sure you will have your resources available. As an example I'm going to show you two different presentations. The one that is in English is, in my opinion, the best (although I'm not entirely happy either) as the way the camera moves between rings helps to understand the relations between them (although like I say it has to be improved). The second one pretends to look somehow like a river that flows (it is a presentation about the quality of Burgo's main river water), but that makes the camera move constantly from one place to another.

Using Glogster: an introduction to the Beatles

Among other ICT resources, we have been using glogster. This is a really interesting tool which allows you to create interactive posters. In this case our aim was to introduce The Beatles to the children and hopefully have them singing along with their families later on at home. As a pre-activity we have created this introductory play in which the musicians and their story are told. 

The Beatles (primer ciclo EPO) 

John is sixteen years old and he loves music. He goes to Quarry Bank High School every morning and listens to music in the evening. Paul is fifteen years old and he loves music too. In the morning, he goes to Quarry Bank High School too. One day, John starts playing music with his classmates, because they love music too. They start a band. Do you know what the name of the band is? Its name is the quarrymen because they all go to Quarry Bank High School and they are men. One day, John goes to a party after school and Paul goes there too. 

The Beatles

(primer ciclo EPO)

John is sixteen years old and he loves music. He goes to Quarry Bank High School every morning and listens to music in the evening.

Paul is fifteen years old and he loves music too. In the morning, he goes to Quarry Bank High School too.

One day, John starts playing music with his classmates, because they love music too. They start a band. Do you know what the name of the band is? Its name is the quarrymen because they all go to Quarry Bank High School and they are men.

One day, John goes to a party after school and Paul goes there too.

John says: Hello, my name is John, John Lennon. I love music and I have a band: the quarrymen.

 Paul says: nice to meet you, John. My name is Paul, Paul McCartney and I love music too. Can I be on your band? I love playing the guitar.

John says: Of course you can be on my band! Welcome to my band!!

Ringo and George love music too. Ringo loves playing drums and George loves playing the guitar, but they don’t know John and Paul.

One day, they start a new band together. The name of the new band is the beatles (explicar juego de palabras: sounds like beetles but you spell it like beat).

Do you know what the beat is? The beat is what you do when you clap your hands for a song.

In the new band, John plays the guitar and George plays the guitar too. Ringo plays the drums and Paul plays the bass.

Do you know what a bass is?

The bass is a big guitar with four strings that plays the rhythm of the song (pictures of guitar and bass).

And, do you know who sings in the band? Well, they all sing because they all like singing.

Do you want to listen to one of their songs? No? Nevermind, you’re gonna do it anyway!!!

(just kidding) Let’s see the wonderful poster we have for you!!!   

Later on we will explore the different features of our poster and we will sing altogether!!

As you can see, we have use the song Hello, goodbye to work the concept of opposite. However, its importance within the whole activity is really small and our main aim is to have our pupils singing and enjoying a real text.

In addition we can ask our students to create a Glogster about a story or a topic that we have been working on.

Using nursery rhymes: classified links

We have already talked about the advantages of using real texts such us stories, riddles, tongue twisters and nursery rhymes for our classes. Working with short texts, such as nursery rhymes, has an obvious advantage: those are the kind of texts that are going to be repeated many times without being boring and tedious and after many repetitions they are probably going to have much more educational value than any grammar lesson.

Another of its main advantages is that we have an extremely wide range of topics to choose such as animals, transport, names, seasons etc.

Here there are some useful links classified by topics:

Animals:

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/animals_and_insects.html

 http://www.songsforteaching.com/animalsongs.htm

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/insect-rhymes.htm

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/animal-rhymes.htm 

Maths and numbers:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/store/early-number-and-counting-skills-songs-c-440.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/numberscounting.htm

http://www.songsforteaching.com/math/additionsubtractionsongs.htm

http://www.songsforteaching.com/math/multiplicationsongs.htm

Christmas and other celebrations songs:

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/holidays.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/christmas/

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/celebrations.html

Seasons:

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/seasons.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/calendarseasons.htm

Transport:

http://livelyenglishclass.blogspot.com.es/p/eans-of-transport-songs.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/transportation.htm

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/transport.html

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/transportation-rhymes.htm


There are many other themes that can be explored through nursery rhymes. If you want to explore other pages which provide with good selections of them go to the useful links column.

Classroom English page

Like we have said before, classroom management is very important in order to perform a successful session with your class. Previously we have given a few tips and techniques which might be really useful to maintain silence and attention, to form groups quickly etc. However, as an EFL teachers we have to know the proper expressions for those actions and for other situations which might happen in your class. That's why today I'm showing you a very useful link which includes vocabulary and phrases related with the school/class environment.

http://www.finchpark.com/courses/links/classroom.htm