Week 3 in Classdigitools

Photo on Flickr by emilybean

It is week 3 in all my workshops. I have a brand new Podcasting blog and I am really, really busy in Webtools. My Webtools forums are bustling with activity and I am having the fun of my life. Meanwhile in Classdigitools we are doing sites for listening comprehension.

Since it is already the second part of the week, I will do all my Classdigitools tasks here in one place:

Tasks 1 and 2 - Find a listening resource that we could use in class. Review the resource.

I am between terms and there are no classes at my school, but I did this task with my Advanced class in mind. Here is what I have found:

Time 10 questions is, in their own words: "A selection of reader-submitted questions on TIME.com serves as the basis for a candid interview with each newsmaker." It is really good for adult learners. The questions are often provocative and I really like the journalist. One way to use the site would be to let the students choose a clip, listen to the interview and report about it in class. As I was "in a hurry, preparing for my class", I chose the video:

I don't think I have to explain why I chose this video, but if you insist - I love the man. And so do my students, as most of them are girls. Apart from that, both the questions and the answers are very interesting. I would have the students write the questions down as they listen. They are not implicitly asked, so the task is not that easy. After that I would let them discuss Sting's answers.

Task 3 was to combine the site found first with one more site offered in the wiki and to combine them into a lesson plan. I will not write a full lesson plan, I'll just think out loud here.

The second site I chose is TED. Most of us have watched TED videos and I think they are a wonderful listening resource for adult students.

This is what I chose:

Discussing this video would probably take one whole class, but since I am going to combine the two together, this is what I would do:

After watching the video where Sir Ken Robinson is discussing education and creativity, I would ask the students to find similarities between his talk and Sting's interview. Are they talking about similar things? How would Sting rate in Sir Ken's school? What sort of school do we need for people like Sting?

I would ask them to come up with ten questions to ask Sir Ken Robinson. Then I would ask the students to write 10 questions to interview each other.

As a follow-up, I would ask the students to find interesting TED talks and to present them in the next task.

Task 3 - Listening List

I will not go into the complexities of this task. Let me just tell you that I need to come up with a list of 12 things I could do with these 2 resources. I have already mentioned the first four.

1. Watch a 10 Questions video and write down the questions asked.

2. Come up with 10 questions for the TED speaker.

3. Find the connection between the two speakers.

4. Interview each other, using the 10 questions format.

5. If you had to give a TED speech, what would it be about?

6. Prepare a short speech on something you feel passionate about.

7. Write a letter to the TED speaker, telling him/her what you think about his/her speech.

8. Which famous person would you interview for the 10 questions site? Write 10 questions for them.

9. Write a new set of questions for the person interviewed in the clip. What do you think their answers would be like?

10 If the people from the two videos met, what would they talk about? Would they like each other?

11. Write 10 questions for your teacher and interview her (ouch).

12. Write an elevator pitch for one of the videos. Why should people watch it?

I could go on, but I believe I have just completed my tasks for this week.

Technorati Tags: #tools12 TEFL

My 2012 Birthday Special

Photo on Flickr by Jon Large

It is my birthday today. Another reason to celebrate is that on this day four years ago I started this blog.

Normally I would share my last year's posts here (see what I did a year ago on this day). Luckily, I already reflected on my last year's posts in My 11 from '11. I say "luckily" because my Webskills course is keeping me very busy and I am somehow managing to follow what's going on in Podcasting and Classdigitools. So, I am afraid that this is going to be a very short birthday post.

What I have finally decided to do here is to share a single post for every year of this blog's existence. There is a catch, though - the four posts I have chosen are the ones that mean something to me personally. Well, it is my birthday, isn't it? So, they might not be particularly useful to you, but those are the posts that are important to me for various reasons. Ready?

Year 1: I was still searching for my voice here. I wasn't quite sure why I had started this blog or what I was going to use it for. So, the topics during the first year vary. I had difficulty choosing something that would look presentable four years later. I chose the post that describes my first EVO sessions. It is called How to Become a Webhead. It is naive at times, as I had no idea what I was getting myself into and how addicted I was going to become.

Year 2: The blog has now found its purpose. This is now a TEFL teacher's blog. The post I chose is called Park Wisdom. It was written during the summer break and it is mostly humorous, but in the second half I reflect on my teaching and letting go of control in the classroom and learner autonomy and... Well, just read it.

Year 3: I had no doubt here. The post I chose is called I Have to Be Who I Am. It could easily be my favourite post ever written by Yours Truly. When I forget who I am, I go back and read it.

Year 4: I wrote What is Your Computer Metaphor for my Multiliteracies class last year. I ranted a little, reflecting on the life on the other side of the digital divide and the general state of digital literacy in my country.

And that's it. I am happy to be here with you four years later. My dear PLN, thank you for listening to me and for sharing with me.

A Five Card Story - The Wall

It is Week 2. I mean, it is Week 2 everywhere - in Classdigitools, in Podcasting and, of course, in Webskills.

In Classdigitools we are doing tools for writing. Our task was to choose one tool and review it. I chose Five Card Stories. My intention was just to review it, but as I chose my pictures, I knew I had to write the story. The story was screaming to be told. So, here it is:

THE WALL

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Five Card Story: The Wall

a Five Card Flickr story created by Natasa Bozic Grojic

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by D'Arcy Norman

flickr photo by bionicteaching

Mike was waiting patiently as his son Tom took photo after photo of the same brick wall. Earlier that day his son had given him a small sea-urchin that he had brought back from the sea-side. Mike felt the urchin's tiny needles press into his palm, the bittersweet reminder that the two of them were soon to part. On his way back home, Mike was thinking about his last conversation with his son. Mike had tried to explain to Tom that the fact that he was divorcing his mom didn't mean that he would disappear from Tom's life. Daddy still loved him. Yet, he couldn't forget the expression on Tom's face as he turned away to go. "You have betrayed me", the boy's eyes were saying. "You have abandoned me."

---

Then Five Card Stories offered me the option of telling a different story with the same set of pictures. I couldn't resist:

YOU HAVE ABANDONED ME

Tom never forgot that day. His father had given him a brand new camera and he still remembered how he kept taking picture after picture of the same stupid brick wall. He had given his father a sea-urchin earlier that day. The needles pricked him, but he was a big boy now, he could handle it. His father kept talking to him for a long time. He couldn't understand a word, except that his father was going to leave him. He wanted to shout out" "You have betrayed me. You have abandoned me. I don't want your stupid camera and I am too big to keep taking photos of this stupid wall." He wanted to shout that out, but he didn't. He didn't say a word.

I really like this tool. The way you 'draw' your pictures is fun. I tried it a couple of times more and each time I had a story in my head. As students are often reluctant writers, having something inspiring to get them writing is great help.

You can embed your story, link to it, or tweet it. It would be interesting to give the same set of pictures to several pairs of students and see what they come up with.

Technorati Tags: #tools12

Rocketing Into 2012

Photo on Flickr by Steve Jurvetson

The beginning of a year is always hectic for me because of EVO sessions. I usually sign up for too many and then I have to deal with the stress of trying to juggle between them. This year, however, I have a real challenge to face.

I was awarded a scholarship for the online course called Building Teaching Skills through Interactive Web, or Webskills as we call it. One of the requirements for this course was creating a new blog, so please welcome Natasa's Webskills Journey. If you want to follow me along this 10-week online adventure, please feel free to keep reading. I will post there at least once a week.

Elsewhere on the web, I enrolled in only two EVO sessions this year - Podcasting and Classdigitools. I was trying to convince myself that the wise thing this year would be to skip EVO sessions completely, but I just couldn't resist. I decided to do as much as I can in these sessions, go into the lurking mode if I have to and even (oh, horror) drop out completely if I am forced to.

I was also thinking of putting this blog on hold while I am busy updating the other one, but I just couldn't resist. This blog's fourth birthday is approaching fast and I'll try to be here then and afterwards... We'll see. I post so rarely that people will probably not even notice if I am absent for a while.

So now just a quick update:

Week 1 is usually all about introductions and in Classdigitools we were asked to use a web tool to introduce ourselves. One of the tools on offer was Animoto and you know how much I love that particular tool, so here is my introduction:

If I had a bit more time on my hands, I would develop this video into a full lesson plan, but I think you can see its potential even without my explanations.

In Podcasting we used Glogster to introduce ourselves. From what I understand we will use that same Glog to add a podcast later. Inspired by that I used an old Glog of mine and added the Animoto video:

I never thought about Glogster as a tool for creating a mini-portfolio, but it's an idea.

What is great about most web tools is that, once you master them, you can combine two or three into one and get something completely different. You can add a podcast to Animoto (as an "audio" from your own computer), you can add the Animoto to a Glog, you can add the Glog to... you name it. But if there is One Tool to Rule Them All, please let me know.

Technorati Tags: evo, podcasting12, #tools12

My 11 from '11

Photo on Flickr by Stephen Heron

It is almost the end of the year and my blog will be 4 years old on 22nd January. What better way to celebrate than with a blogging challenge and one that will make me reflect on my past year's posts?

Adam Simpson posted this challenge in his blog. The idea is to look back at your last year's posts and choose 11 that you think are the best.

I was surprised to find that I actually wrote 28 posts in 2011, 10 more than the year before. I often suffer from blogger's blog and the trick for me is to take blogging challenges and attend workshops and to write about the experience.

So, let's do it:

1. I will start with My Birthday Special, almost a year ago. In that post I wrote about 2010 posts, so if you feel like going further into this blog's past, please do.

2. and 3. A Picture Tells... How Many Words Again and Why I Love Digital Storytelling are inspired by the Digital Storytelling workshop I was attending at the time. In these posts I tried out various activities I had learnt in the workshop.

4. What Is Your Computer Metaphor was written as homework for my Multiliteracies class, but this post is also very important to me. If I was to choose only one post from 2011, I would probably choose this one. I don't often rant, but I came very close to ranting here. I will say no more.

5. Free Tools Challenge #4 - Classtools. The Free Tools Challenge was really great for my blogging. I wrote 12 posts during this challenge and it was difficult to choose only three here. I chose this one, because Classtools are just amazing and I believe everyone should know about them.

6. Free Tools Challenge #12 - Animoto. I was familiar with this tool before the challenge, so I tried to explore Animoto further in this post. I think the result is quite interesting...

7. Free Tools Challenge # 15 - Livebinders. Everyone should know about the wonderful Livebinders. They can be used in the classroom in so many ways.

8. How My PLN Came to Be is a tribute to my Personal Learning Network. You guys deserve it.

9. Get to Know Each Other is a lesson plan, or rather a list of warmers and introductory activities that can be done at the beginning of the school year.

10. Some Important Tricisions is about an online workshop I attended this autumn, but it is also about a useful little tool called Tricider.

11. The Tree: Some Video Activities is again a lesson plan. I won't tell you what it is about, see for yourselves.

So, here we are, many workshops and blogging challenges later. My blog is almost four years old and it is the end of the year. So, let me sign off with the same words I used in my last 2010 post:

It was a good year. The next one will be even better.


Photo on Flickr by Chris Jones


This was true of 2011. And 2012 is going to be just amazing, I know that.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, dear PLN. Thank you for letting me learn with you in 2011.

Technorati Tags: #11from11

The Tree: Some Video Activities

Before we start, please watch this video:

What would you use it for in class?

Here are some ideas of mine:

1. Why did the boy try to move the tree? Surely he knew he wasn't strong enough for that?

2. Why was the boy first joined by the children? Why did they look so happy?

3. Discuss: "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” How would you define the boy? A born leader? A crazy kid? Or just someone who felt that he had to do something?

4. Why did the people join the boy?

5. Give the clip a new title.

6. If you had to define the force that had moved the tree, what would you say? Was it the boy's initiative? Or the team spirit of everybody else? Both? Something else?

7. Can we always change the circumstances in which we live, or are we sometimes helpless? Discuss.

8. How important is team work in today's society?

9. How important is team work in a language classroom?

10. Do you feel that you are a part of a team in your classroom? Why/not?

Now retell the story in the first person singular, pretending to be one of the people you saw in the clip.

I am still attending Adapting Your Coursebook With Technology with Nik Peachy and I am really enjoying the course. So far all the tools we have learnt about have been new to me.

Task 2 was creating activities around a video for students to complete at home. We learnt about Grockit, which enables the teacher to ask the students some questions while they are watching the video. The questions can be timed so that they appear exactly where we want them in the video. It is good for posting videos as homework as it is an equivalent to watching a video in class and stopping it whenever we want our students to tell us what is going on or to predict what will happen next. You can read more about Grockit in one of Nik's blogs. Here is the link.

Unfortunately Grockit videos can't be embedded yet, but here is my example.

The video I have used here is something I have dug up from the archives of my first wiki. It sends a really strong positive message, so I started thinking about exploiting it further and ended up with the lesson plan you can see above.

Technorati Tags: TEFL, Seeta, Grockit, Video lesson Plan

Some Important Tricisions

Image on Flickr by Anne-Lise Heinrichs

I am attending Adapting Your Coursebook with Technology on Seeta. It is a pleasure to learn from Nik Peachy and the participants are a lively creative bunch of people who are eager to share and learn together. The best thing in this course for me is the fact that I have found a large network of Serbian teachers who love technology. I have to say that so far I have had very few people from my part of the world in my PLN.

During the first week we learnt about Tricider. This tool was new to me and it was love at first sight. Tricider is an online brainstorming and voting tool and it can be used for polls, questionnaires and brainstorming sessions. It is very flexible. You ask your question and that question appears as the title of your questionnaire. Then you provide some ideas in the form of statements that people can agree or disagree with. They can vote for the best ideas (useful for collecting feedback) or add comments of their own next to them. Once your interviewees get used to Tricider, they will start providing ideas of their own and this is where the true power of Tricider as a brainstorming tool lies.

We were asked to provide two questionnaires, one for students and one for the teachers participating in the course. This is the questionnaire I created for my students:


powered by tricider

It is a very fast way to gather feedback after each class. They just need to click on the statements they agree with and I tried to phrase the criticism in a positive way, so that they don't feel that they are going to hurt my feelings. Other participants created a wide range of questionnaires, gathering information about the students' learning styles, their likes and dislikes, their opinion on controversial issues... Quite a few participants focused, just like me, on the feedback from students. Tricider was also used for reading comprehension (pre-reading activities) and grammar (What would you do if..., Have you ever...).

But the best fun started with the questionnaires for teachers. Here are some of the questions asked: Are you a technophobe or a technogeek? Is it difficult to be a teacher? What's the worst thing about being a teacher? What is your favourite "teaching hat"? What's the type of student you prefer? What have you got in your bag on a typical working day? What do you do when you get home from a full day of teaching?

I have always found questionnaires addictive. They are a great introspection tool. I ended up doing most of the questionnaires and they really got me thinking. The questions were well phrased and I was sometimes surprised by my answers (the amount of work I do after I come home from my classes). It is good to be understood and supported and very few non-teachers can understand a teacher. That's why this was such a great experience. I really learnt a lot about myself from my peers.

Anyway, here is my questionnaire for teachers:


powered by tricider

This second tricision I have shared is a good example of Tricider's brainstorming potential. All the comments in the middle column were made by my fellow participants, as well as two of the left-column suggestions.

The course is keeping me very busy and I'll post again soon to let you know how I am doing.

TEFL Seeta Tricider brainstorming