Scoop it!

Scoop it is  brilliant tool that I just discovered through Nik Peachy (another winner!). I've already loaded up three different pages and it's a quick and easy way to put all of your internet 'goodies' in an easily accessible basket for people (learners/ trainees/ fellow teachers etc) to view.  In some ways this is like an on-line noticeboard.  You can add links to sites that you like and readers can follow the page (and get new links as they are posted) and/ or comment on the ones that are there. 
Here's a peek at one of my pages that has lots of ideas for lesson plans and materials to use in class.

I've also made pages with ideas for teacher development and with useful sites for learners - have a look and see what you think.

One of the best things about the tool is that it makes it so easy to share informatin in an attractie way.  All you need to do is add the url to the site you like and all of the text/ pics etc come up automatically, so it takes no time at all to do.  I particularly like the idea of having one for each class you teach with sites customised to their needs on it.  It searches the net for sites that might be useful to you, too, if you put in some key words.  The only problem with this is that there is a bit of information overload, so you need to be able to scan through and sift!

To get started, you have to send an e-mail to get registered.  You are then given an access url and you can put up as many different pages as you like.  Simple!

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Nik's Daily English Activities

This blog is absolutely brilliant!  Nik Peachey has so many great ideas for using the internet, and this is a list of dozens of websites for learners to use outside the class.  It's also a great one for you as a teacher as many of these ideas can be adapted to use in class. 

Here's an example - A city love story  using a short film (9 minutes) from You Tube about Beirut.  I used this is class - opening with a discussion of places you have been that have surprised you (because they've been better or worse than expected) and then discussed people's impressions of Beirut.
I then showed them the first minute (showing what a beautiful city it is) and asked for impressions.



They then watched the next 6 minutes and noted the things that the girl and the boy like.  It's not in English, but there is really nice language in the subtitles (he likes the elasticity of cheese, for example!).  We did watch  the end of the film, but my main focus was then on the learners writing what they like about their cities or towns.  It was really inspiring!
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Slide Share

This site is really interesting.  It's a huge bank of slide shows on any subject you care to imagine.  I searched for 'efl' and found this one.  There's no sound, it doesn't give you a presentation, but it's a great way of getting information on all kinds of subjects.

Teaching EFL with the Brain in mind

View more presentations from Bertha Leiva.

Image Slideshow using Gif Up

GIF animations generator gifup.com

Gif Up is a really great website for creating slideshows for use in the class.  You can use pictures of your own, or from Flickr (which has thousands of images of all sorts of things) or from websites.  to use it, just go to the website, click on 'Select from Flickr', and put in a word to search for (I used 'africa')

Then select up to 9 images and the site will make a slideshow for you.  It's designed to make animations, so put the speed on 'super slow' if you want it to be more of a slideshow.

This is a nice tool for use as an introduction to a topic or a reading, for example.  You could show them the slideshow and ask them in pairs to think of as many words as possible to describe them.  You could then elicit more vocabulary and add to theirs.  My class also wrote poetry from this:

Africa
Elephants roaming the savannah
Boabab trees sheltering herdsmen
Buffalo stampeding
Children playing in the rain
Africa.

Breaking News English

What is this?
click here for the site

This site is a teacher's dream.  It has an enormous amount of topical material on it, prepared in a manner that means it is very easy to 'download and teach'.  The site consists of an archive of news items, to which a new story is added every three days.  These are all current affairs stories, but are on a wide variety of topics such as politics, sport,  news, health, celebrity.  It would be hard not to find something that would be relevant to your learners.  Each article is also available as a podcast for listening practice.

This side of the site is its main focus, and you could be forgiven for using only that, but in fact, there is a wealth of other material here, too - interactive quizzes, dictogloss activities, matching, hangman, flashcards.  The are also links to Sean Banville's blog which has some great ideas for classroom activities and methodologies, and to his other websites which include News English. com (a site with easier news items) and Listen a minute.com, which has easier listening activities. And all for free - the man deserves a knighthood!

Why is the content good for language learning?

The content is generally of quite a high level.  However, the texts are generally quite short (some are marked 'easier') and so, with preparation it isn't unreasonable to think that this could be used with intermediate level students or above.  As has been noted - the content is authentic newspaper text and as such, with repeated use, will help learners to develop the vocabulary they will need for reading text of a more formal genre.  This might be particularly applicable to learners who are aiming to use their English in a context of academic study or business.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

How you use this will depend on the facilities available to you.  Even in a class with no computers, the text and some of the activities can be printed off and photocopied for use in class.  If you have access to computers, the possibilities are more numerous.  Possibilities include predicting content and checking against the text, written or aural and using the games and quiz software to increase learner's awareness of vocabulary, collocation and structure.  It would also be easy, given the amount of material on the site,  to set up a jigsaw reading/ listening exercise where each pair int he class have the autonomy to choose a text that interests them, read/ listen to it and subsequently report back to other learners what they have found out.  Tasks could usefully be set for homework, and there is sufficient variety of material and activities to help to maintain learners' interest and motivation.

Limitations

As the text is all newspaper based, the themes are largely of interest to older teenagers and adults, so the site is not so useful for teachwers of yound learners.  Also, as has been noted, the level makes it less suitable for learners under intermediate level.  Apart form that, the only difficulty in using this excellent site is in being selective abot the material you use - there is simply too much and it can be a little overwhelming!  It is perhaps a little churlish, though to be ungrateful when confronted with such riches!
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Welcome to my Blog!

Today I start a new project - the first time for me to write a blog.  I'm a little anxious as with any new activity, but if I'm hoping that my learners might be abe to take advantage of this technology, then I'd better be able to use it myself!

I'll be looking at a range of websites that may be useful for use in language learning and also in teacher training.  My background is that I teach ESOL to adults and run CELTA (initial teacher training courses) at Solihull College, a large college of further education, in the West Midlands.  I tell you this so that you'll see that  my viewpoint is going to be skewed towards adult learning in an environment where most learners have access to computers outside of the classroom (although some may have limited IT skills in the case of some migrants who come with little eduaction).  In the ESOL department, we don't have access to a bank of computers for lesson time use, but most of our classrooms are equipped with Smartboards.

This is the (lovely) building that I work in!