Fodey.com - Make your own newspaper

This site is a really nice one for encouraging your learners to write at home.  They can easily and for free create a newspaper story like the one below or little animations with wizards, squirrels, cats or ninjas - all good fun and very easy.  You don't have to sign up and when you have created your image, you can just download it and it's yours to do what you want with - how easy is that? 

Get them to write a story and send a copy to you by e-mail, or print them out and stick them up on the wall. 

Free website hosting - KompoZer

Here's an interesting tool if you or your learners are feeling a bit 'techie'.  This site allows you to create your own website for free. You just go to the site and download the software on there and Bob's your mother's brother!  My 12 year old son assures me that it works and it's really easy to use (they are using it at school to make websites). The only thing that I'd say is that a quick internet search showed me to this site which gives a guide on how to use it, and it says that this is great for experimental or small scale sites,but that you have limited publishing availability, so you have been duely warned!   It has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style template set up so that you can do what you want really easily (if you can use Word, you can use this).

 There are lots of ways that you could use this for a class - make one yourself for your learners with links to useful websites or upload homework, etc.  If you (and they!) are a bit more ambitious, you could get them to make their own - it's a great motivation to produce writing for an authentic purpose.
Good luck!

Happy Anniversary!

I've just realised that it's a year and a day since my first post on here, so it seemed almost obligatory to add another one!

The big thing that has happened this week is that I have launched my on-line course - it's been nearly a year of trialing different options, but I've finally come up with what I think is a good option for easy access and supported learning.  During the pilots, the most surprising thing that emerged was that the convenience of being able to access things in your own time seems to win hands down over the immediacy of a real-time class (on-line).  With this in mind, I've revamped it all and although you can still hear my dulcit tones talking you through the information, but in a recorded format that you can watch at will.  If you are interested, have a look at www.elt-training.com and follow the links to 'Try before you buy'. 

There are also free teacher development webinars on the site, too, a new one each month. January's is on Continuing Professional Development using ICT - check it out!

Thanks to all of you who have supported me over this first year - it's been a steep learning curve, but soooo interesting!

Movie segments to assess grammar goals

I've just discovered this site and I think it's brilliant!   It has lots of ideas for teaching grammar with snippets of all sorts of films and worksheets to go with them - definitely a great resource.

Here's the profile of the man who has all the ideas....

My Brainshark.com

It's been a while since I've put a new entry on here - a combination of being away all summer and struggling to get back in the swing of things since we got back!
This site is a real winner, though, so I hope you find it useful.  It does the same kind of thing as Present Me, but with audio instead of video, but it is sooooo much easier to use - I really like it.
Essentially, it's a tool to record presentations, but you can also use it to narrate over a document or over pictures.  You have to register on the site, but it doesn't take long and it's free.  Once you've done this, you can upload a Powerpoint presentation or a document, or pics and then record your presentation over it.  I've used it for Powerpoint and the nice thing about it is that you create the presentation for one slide at a time, so (for learners) if you make a mistake, you don't have to re-record your whole presentation, just the last slide, and you have the option to listen to each slide again before you save it.  When it's saved, you can embed it into a blog (see below!) or send the url link to a friend, or your teacher.  This is brilliant for Business and Academic English, but your general English learners might like it, too.  The other way you can use it is as authentic listening practice.  There are loads of interesting presentations on the site that are freely available.  You could assign one for the learners to listen to (maybe with some comprehension questions) or ask them to find one they like and tell another learner about it when they come back into class.

If you want some help using this, here is Russell Stannard's video to show you how.

Quizlet

Quizlet is a great site for giving your learners practice in vocabulary that you want them to learn (or they can make their own!)  You can make vocabulary lists with definitions and send them the link and they can use the flashcards to learn the vocab, or play different games with it, or test themselves as many times as they like. You can also print out the flashcards if you want a set to use in class.  Another great thing about this site is that it gives you an automatic sound fgile for each word (ie it says it for you) - great for pronunciation. The only thing I would say is that it doesn't always seem to work :( but hey ho, you can't have everything!  You have to register witht he site, but it's free.  You can also look at other people's quizzes, which is nice - perhaps you won't have to make your own...

Here's an example of some flashcards I made for my celta trainees to help them learn the names of tenses....

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study grammar flash cards

Glogster

This site is a really nice idea if you want to start your learners blogging but a blog is a bit intimidating! With this tool you can really easily create a page with pictures, text, music, videos etc. It's quick and easy,lots of fun and free!

Here's my example - I had to put it in as a pic, but there is music, too, if you follow this link you can get the full experience!!

You just go to the site, register (it's very quick) and you're ready to go! Nice to find other Glogs that you like, too...
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