In my last post I outlined a lesson plan and I provided links for two PDF files. In order to get the files, you need to click on the link that will take you to the file page. Well, that is the usual procedure. The only problem is that the readers will then leave your page and might never return. Why should they continue reading your carefully written post once they got the PDF files?
There has to be a better way.
There are quite a few tutorials on how to embed PDF files, but I used this one. It worked like a dream, as you will see in the comments, but then Fileden got infested withTrojans. I was going to delete this post completely, but then I decided to follow S. Bolos's advice and try EmbedIt. Here is the result:
So, what do you think? When you read a blog post, do you prefer the traditional way (clicking on a link which takes you to another page), or this? And, if you are a blogger, do you think embedding PDF into your post would encourage the readers to stay on your page?
By the way, you can also upload your files to Scribd and it will generate the embed code for you.
I am going to share with you a role play I created a while ago.
I don't know what gave me the idea. Must have been the fact that my students constantly forgot to turn off their mobiles. There was this one student... The class started at four o'clock. His phone always rang at 4.30. He would try to hide under the desk and he would say in this loud, hissing whisper "I'm in class. I'll call you later." They informed me afterwards that he had this really jealous girlfriend.
Or maybe it was another student who ran a multi-level marketing business. Her phone rang several times during the class and I somehow managed to teach her to go outside while she talked to her clients.
Anyway, I had a long break between two classes and that's when the idea hit me. I could see the following bit of news in my head:
I wrote it down. I had some empty library cards in my handbag, I was doing a project or something, I can't remember. Anyway, haven't I told you that it's always useful to have things in your handbag? You never know when you are going to need library cards, for example.
So I took those cards out of my handbag and I wrote the roleplay onto them. I put the cards into my handbag (you never know when you are going to need stuff) and went into the next class.
The last class that day was with a very lively and creative group of intermediate students. We opened our books and started doing whatever we were supposed to do that day.
It was boring.
I don't remember what the topic of the class was, but I still remember the blank expression on their faces.
"Is this boring?" I asked.
"Yes," they said.
"Would you like to do something else?"
"Yes, please."
I pulled out my handwritten role cards. You really never know when you might need stuff. I explained about the angry teacher and about the phone. I spread the cards onto a desk and let each student pick one.
They screamed at each other. They argued. They negotiated. They went on and on for about an hour. They reached a compromise. I didn't have to do anything, except sit back and enjoy.
It was a magical experience.
It never happened again quite in the same way, of course. Still, whenever I did my little role play, the students liked it.
It had to evolve over years. What started as a discussion over how old children should be before they get their first mobile and whether mobiles should be allowed at school at all changed into how we could use mobiles in a constructive way in class. Some characters left the play (teachers who were firmly against mobiles at school and students whose parents couldn't afford to buy them mobiles) and new characters replaced them (the under-cover journalist and the geeky teacher).
The procedure for this lesson is really simple and you can improvise as much as you want.
I would start by asking them whether they had ever been in an awkward situation because they had forgotten to turn off their mobile. That serves a double purpose - it introduces the topic and it reminds them to turn off their phone in case they haven't already done it. Then they can talk about the mobile they are using at the moment, the mobile they would like to have... It depends on how much time you have.
After that, introduce the topic of the lesson. You can simply read out loud the bit of news about the angry teacher, or you can download it here, cut it into little strips of paper and give it to them. Ask them to discuss what might have prompted the teacher to do that. Ask them to try and predict what is going to happen.
The main part of the lesson is the role play which you can download here. Cut it into role cards and give each student a card. There are nine roles in the play, but it can easily be adjusted to suit your class. The first four roles are crucial (the student's parent, the principal, the student and the teacher) and if your class is small you can choose who else you want to keep. Some roles can be repeated (the journalist, the student's friend, the teacher's friend...). If your class is large, you can put the students into groups of nine.
By the way, you might want to pre-teach the language for agreeing and disagreeing and (why not?) a couple of taboo words.
As a follow-up, you can discuss various ways in which mobiles can be used in class in a constructive way. There are tons of great blog posts on that subject. This one, for example. And here is a nice vocabulary test connected to this topic.
And if, like me, you teach in a country where geeky teachers are an endangered species, you might enjoy this little video (which is not a part of the lesson plan, but, shall we say, a freeby). So, sit back and enjoy:
If you decide to try it with your students, do let me know how it went. Just post me a note in the Comments section. I have only ever done this with adult learners and I am really curious about what would happen if you gave it to teenagers.
And, in case you got so carried away by my elegant prose that you somehow missed the download links for the worksheets, here they are once again:
I am not going to talk about the tools here. There are lots of great posts on that topic. Or you can go through the Images4Education wiki. You can even download this wonderful ebook free of charge.
I am going to concentrate on a single question:
And if my new habit of speaking in pictures is starting to get on your nerves, do stop reading, because there is more coming.
To answer my own question (I know, I am a bad teacher), when you are telling your story, sometimes you will write the story first and find or create the pictures afterwards. I often do that in my blog by searching for Flickr photos that could illustrate what I am trying to say. Or you could start from the pictures and use them as an inspiration for your story, the way Janet did here.
Why are images important in TEFL in the first place? To answer that, I will have to use more images, I am afraid. So here is a slideshow I created during the third week of Images4Education:
I am an extreme right-brainer and I really do think in pictures all the time. Even if we take different learning styles into consideration (not everyone is a right-brainer), images are always useful in a TEFL class. They help us explain new vocabulary, they can serve as speaking or writing prompts, they can make grammar less boring... I am not going to talk about what you already know.
Even if the image has no immediate practical purpose, it is still good to have one. Let's say you are writing a blog post and you don't know how to end it. The words just won't come. You can place a nice image where your conclusion should have been and make your readers wonder what you were trying to say with it.
EVO sessions are now over. I participated as much as I could, if you take into consideration the fact that I was trying to attend four of them, while working. I was absent during the second week of February (Week 5 of EVO) and after that it was really difficult to catch up. However, the first thing I did when I got back was the Myna task.
Myna by Aviary is one of the tools we did in DMPT. It is an audio editor. It lets you mix music, add a recording of your voice and apply some sound effects. Our task was to record a poem (ours or somebody else's). I chose one of my own. I have never read my poetry out loud and if I had to do it in public I would probably die, but doing it while I was alone in my room somehow made it all right. I wasn't quite alone, my pet turtle was right behind me and it is the sound of his water pump that you can hear in the background.
Aviary tools are easy to use, but make sure you have watched the tutorial before you start (I cannot stress this enough). The tutorials are what makes these tools easy to use, your intuition won't help you here, I am afraid.
Let's see how we can use these tools in the classroom:
Myna (the audio editing tool) could be used to record poetry, the way we did in DMPT. It could be a fun way for you to introduce British and American poetry into your class. Alternatively, your students could record the poems they wrote or collaborated on. Or you could record different sounds on Myna and then ask the students to guess what they heard. The students could use the large music library Myna provides and mix their own music. This could be used to practise adjectives (How does this music make you feel?), or to serve as a story prompt. I guess it would be possible to create short listening tasks on Myna, though I would probably use something more straightforward, such as Podomatic, for this purpose.
As for the image editors (Phoenix, Peacock, Toucan, Raven and Falcon), think of all those images you and your students could create from scratch and then put into blogs and wikis. It is often so difficult to find the exact image you need online, why not create one?
I really enjoyed playing with these tools. The combination of sound, images and text has made me think... All the possibilities you have these days to create something beautiful and to tell your story. Don't you think that we are witnessing the birth of new forms of art? I would like to leave you with this question:
This week in Images4Education we did digital stories. We were given a large choice of tools, but I chose Mixbook. I like the idea of creating something that actually looks like a book, where you can post pictures and text.
I first wrote a short story, a sort of fairy-tale with my son in the main role. I shared it with him and he liked it. Then I got him and my husband to act it out with me. We had a lot of fun and here is the result:
Obviously, the same thing could be done in class. The students could collaborate and write a story, then they could take photos of each other acting the story out. Finally, they could create the Mixbook. One word of warning: Mixbooking is highly addictive. Your students could spend hours changing fonts and backgrounds and experimenting with different stickers. The result is beautiful, though I have to say that Mixbooks look much nicer on the site than when they are embedded. The Mixbook site gives you the option of flipping through pages at your own speed, and the book resembles a real book. If you can find a few extra minutes, you can look at my book here.
Then I decided to use the same pictures and tell a different story altogether. There is a group in Flickr where members tell a story in five frames and I wanted to try something similar. I called the story His Favourite Toy:
I have a pretty clear idea about what I wanted to say, but do you? You see, the fun in the "Tell a story in 5 frames" starts after a member has posted the story. This is what they say:
"Tell a Story in 5 Frames has two important parts. The first part is creating and telling a story through visual means with only a title to help guide the interpretation. The second part is the response of the group to the visual story. The group response can take many forms such as, a poetic or prose rendering of the visualization, a critique on the structure of the story, comments on the photograph, or other constructive forms of response. Telling and enjoying stories should create entertainment for the group as well as offer insight into the universal elements that help create a story for an international audience. The more people who respond , as either story tellers or respondents, the greater the reward for all. "
And, again, what a great tool in the classroom. The pictures would have to be prepared in advance, either by the teacher or by the students. Then the students could create their stories in groups or on their own. This activity can also be used to practise grammar and vocabulary. The format of the writing could be predetermined (Write a letter of complaint, an email to a friend...). If the students like the activity, it could be done over and over, each time with a different set of pictures.
And now... I have an idea...
You see, I'll be absent for a week. Going somewhere really nice, will tell you all about it soon. In the meantime, why don't you make yourselves at home in my blog? Try and respond to my story. Pretend that you don't know who the people in the pictures are. Or you can write a poem. Anything you like.
When I come back, I'll try to gather your comments in another post.
If you haven't been here for a while, the first thing you will notice is how beautiful my blog looks. This is all thanks to the Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates. The template was easy to install and all my widgets clicked into place. The only problem was the size of the font (some people complained that the letters were too small and I agree). So, I decided to change the size of the font, only to realise that the Fonts and Colours option was gone from my Blog Layout screen. I had to do something about the size of the font, so I decided to tackle the HTML.
I clicked the HTML button. I stared at it for a long time. It stared back at me.
However, after I had stared at the code for half an hour, it started to make sense. It is, after all, in English. Sort of. I wanted to change the font size, right. I managed to locate the word Font somewhere in the code. Next to it was a number so I changed it. Once I knew I was changing the right number, I just continued doing it until I was happy with the result. Then I changed the colour of my links. The original colour made the links hardly visible. I learnt that each colour had its code and that you just needed to copy the colour code and that was it. There are a lot of places where you can find the colour codes and this is just one of them. I also found this page really useful.
Then I changed the tagline. The tagline is the short phrase you put under the name of your blog - like a subtitle. Now, Karenne gave us this challenge in BELTFree - she asked us whether our tagline corresponded to what we blog about. My tagline didn't pass the test. It used to be "A teacher's journey through the world of Web 2.0". While this was true two years ago, it isn't quite true any more. I mean, you expect someone who writes only about Web 2.0 to post more links to different applications, while I write... Let's see, what do I write about? I slept on it and came up with: "TEFL, Technology and the Meaning of Life." That's it, take it of leave it.
Giving a voice to a webpage adds a dimension that is simply not possible with the written word. That is especially true for a foreign language teacher. Students need to hear the target language being spoken as they read the text. Quite a bit of research on language comprehension reveals that sub-vocalization improves comprehension in individual's struggling to read. Beyond the research, I would also argue that subtle intonations and pauses in the text lead to natural speech, which is critical for students who seek to use their language abroad and be comprehended by others.
Finally, cognitive scientists are busy uncovering natural differences among learners, a fully differentiated blog will take into consideration that aural dominant learners learn best with sound.
We did Vokis both in DMPT and in BaW this week. That's why I decided to bring the Voki back, this week of all weeks, but to give her my voice. The previous version had one of those computer generated voices. But wouldn't my readers like to hear me speak? Personally, I don't like listening to my own voice and I really hate the way you have to say a simple sentence over and over again before you get the version that is decent enough to post. Still, now having a Voki in my sidebar makes sense. And now I see how it could be used in education. If you want to create listening comprehension exercises, then maybe computer generated voices would be a better idea. If you want your students to hear themselves speak, then let them record themselves and listen to their own voices. And you can bring all those funny avatars to life. You can have dogs talking, cats responding... Anything you like.
I have gained certain wisdom with years. I have a few grays and I have started spending more money on face creams, but at least I have gained wisdom.
Together with my wisdom came this uncontrollable urge to share it with other people. My wisdom, that is.
Which is why I started a blog in the first place.
Two years ago I didn't know what exactly I was going to blog about and I believed it didn't matter. Because, my wisdom would shine through whatever I wrote about. And so the first year passed.
Now my hair was even grayer and I was even wiser. Which I wanted to share with others.
In the meantime I learnt something about blogging and now I didn't want to blog about just anything that crossed my mind. I decided I was going to blog about TEFL.
And so another year passed.
And that day has come again. My blog's birthday. Which happens to be my birthday too. Because, conveniently, my blog and I were born the same day. I am a little older, that's all.
I've reached a certain mature age when I might want to redefine things (my life, my choices, my dreams, my face cream). The right thing to do in such cases is to go back to the beginning.
Which is where the Images4Education Week 2 task 1 came in handy.
If you are too lazy to follow the link I gave you above, the task is called Where I am From. The participants post a picture which symbolizes the place they are from and write a little poem underneath.
And, here is the result:
I am from the fields I am from the whisper in the grass I am from the earth From the dirt Under your fingernails I am from the boy Who went to war When he was 12 I am from the tiny woman Who raised four children All by herself I am from the lawyers And the peasants From the teachers And the doctors From the nameless housewives Who told beautiful stories I am from the singers And the dancers I am from the morning mist Above Kalemegdan park I am from burnt lunches And overcooked vegetables I am from a room Where pigeons nested On the window-sill I am from a dream Hidden inside a notebook I am from this very day Forty-three years ago.
If you have read this far, you know that ocassionally I still give in to my desire to write about non-TEFL-related topics.
Thank you for being such patient readers so far.
P.S. If you are really, really patient, you can read the poem I wrote last year for Images4Education.
