Reform Symposium - Fab CPD for July 2011

If you are after a weekend full of fantastic free webinars and presentations for Continuous Professional Development purposes, then book your computer for the weekend beginning Friday 29th July to Sunday 31st July. The place is the Reform Symposium and you can find out all about it from the link.

Presenters from all over the world will be speaking on diverse subjects such as Technology Integration and Educational Reform and much, much more. The organisers are currently busy preparing for what promises to be a HUGE global event.

I am very pleased to say that I will be presenting on Saturday 30th July at 6pm UK time and my theme is going to be "Fun with Cartoons and Comics"!! I decided to do something new rather than a previous presentation, as that will give me motivation to do a bit of research over the coming weeks....I enjoy creating comics and using them in class, so the preparation should be great fun.

Janet's Daily Archives

I have looked through my archives and below you can read my feedback on RSCON 1 and RSCON 2.

2nd Reform Symposium in January 2011.

1st Reform Symposium in August 2010.

I'll keep you posted on the updates regarding the 3rd Reform Symposium. I do hope you will be able to attend some of the sessions, and that you will enjoy the whole amazing experience. I know you won't regret it!! You have two months to add this action-packed weekend to your diaries!!

Have a look at this post by What Ed Said blog called "10+ reasons to participate in RSCON3". I love the cartoon at the end!!

Here's another inspiring post to read about the forthcoming RSCON3 e-conference by iLearn Technology.

Seeta Jazz Up Your Digital Storytelling - Feedback

Storytelling is big news at the moment, and so it should be! I have recently finished another wonderful e-course via the SEETA (South Eastern Europe Teachers' Association) on Jazz Up Your Lessons with Digital Storytelling with the lovely Ozge Karaoglu as the tutor. I knew I wanted to do this course, come what may, as soon as I saw that Ozge was going to be the tutor. She is the Queen of tech tools and her vast repertoire of sites and amazing experience in dealing with digital stories with young learners was a guaranteed sign of an exciting and jazzy course. I had the great pleasure of meeting Ozge in person in Brighton.

Press the link to listen to my Fotobabble feedback on the fab course!.

So, did I jazz up my digital storytelling skills on the course? Yes, I did! It gave me the chance to review some sites I already knew, but it also contained some really nice new tools which I'd like to look into, time permitting.

I was inspired to create a new comic to illustrate how you could use ones like makebeliefscomix.

Seeing so many faces I recognised was also a lovely feeling and everyone was very keen to share and encourage each other to do our best. Taking part in e-courses such as this one is also a great way to learn how they flow and to see the dynamics and interaction patterns within the forums.

I liked the way Ozge organised the course. It was very effective. Links to a pdf sheet of carefully selected tools in 6 different categories, and then the chance to participate in a forum to give our feedback on one or two of the new tools. I found that this was very manageable and I could easily pop in once a day to add to the forums and comment on other course members' work. A lot of creativity abounded and I learned a lot from everyone!

You can see a lot of Ozge's amazing links and resources from her blog here: 100 Digital Storytelling Tools.

I love "Daisy and Drago" that Ozge wrote herself.
Daisy and Drago

View more presentations from ozge

You can also view the amazing video of her fabulous story "Daisy and Drago and the Magic Wand", created by her 6-year-old pupils.

Thank you very much Ozge and all the course participants for helping to make it a very enjoyable and worthwhile course!!

ELTChat - Storytelling
Last Wednesday I missed one of the most interesting topics that have been discussed recently. Yes, you've guessed it already. I missed the ELTChat session on Digital Storytelling!! It's one of my favourite topics and sadly, I couldn't attend. However, Leahn Stanhope, a teacher from Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands, has done an incredible job of summarising the session in great depth. Just reading through all the links, resources, tips, ideas shared in ONLY one hour, will give you enough information to keep you doing "Storytelling" lessons happily for a very long time!! Here is the link for you to copy and then share with your colleagues. Enjoy looking at all the resources at leisure. Thank you Leahn!

http://earlyefl.blogspot.com/2011/05/eltchat-summary-storytelling.html

A Few More Links
Eva Buyukesmiyan from A Journey in TEFL blog has also written a fab blog post called "Teachers as Storytellers"

This blog post by Anita Kwiatowska caught my eye: "It was a dark and stormy night..." The blog post has some great ideas for exploiting this theme.

I recently gave a presentation on Storytelling in the Digital Era. Ana Maria Menezes from Brazil, invited me to hold a session via Wiziq. She then kindly wrote a lovely feedback post entitled "Learning with/from Janet Bianchini."

Below is my very own digital idiomatic story that took me months to create! "An Idiomatic Love Story."

An Idiomatic Love Story

Finally, one of my favourite (true) stories I've ever written is "And Then There Were Three".

Remember!
Everybody has a story within them just waiting to come out. Don't wait too long otherwise the moment will pass. Life is one big evolving story just waiting to be written!

Quote made up by me!

Top 100 Language Lovers Blogs 2011

Press here to vote!

If you would like to vote for one of the amazing blogs in the Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Lovers Blogs 2011, simply press on the link under the button, and then go through the list of nominated blogs until you find one you want to vote for!

Voting ends on Sunday 29th May.

In A Jam! - Part 6 of An Idiomatic Story

Frederick gets into a bit of a jam or indeed a pickle in this episode of an evolving digital and Idiomatic Story. Both these idioms mean that Frederick gets into trouble!

I have used Bitstrips, a nifty comic strip maker to embellish my digital and idiomatic story. I first found out about Bitstrips via Ana Maria's fantastic Life Feast Blog here. This tool is easily embeddable as a sliding strip or as an image. It has lots of lovely functional features which I found easy to use. The comic strip only took a few minutes to create.

I have included both types of style as I can't make up my mind which is better. I like them both!! Do you have a preference??

Please click on the image below to enlarge it.


You can view a YouTube video of the amazing effect Bitstrips has had on motivating school children to create comics here.

The Future of Frederick and Isabella is Up in the Air!
I feel that Frederick needs to be brought back to Isabella very, very soon. The reason being is that they have to have a meaningful ending before my presentation at IATEFL Brighton, where I hope to introduce this story to the audience. A suitable conclusion to this evolving story is therefore on the cards.

OR..
... maybe I could leave it as an open-ended grand finale and let the audience decide on how it should end?? I will have to put my thinking cap on for this proposition.....

Anyway, the next exciting installment will be "The Brutal Road" - Part 7 of An Idiomatic Story.
I have no idea what this chapter will consist of. I just like the title, so hopefully my creative juices will start flowing soon..

More Lovely Idioms!
For some enjoyable lessons on Idioms, please take a look at a Clil to Climb's blog posts featuring some fabulous idioms, in particular FOOD idioms here and here. However, I have to confess, I absolutely love Chiew's amazing interactive EGG idioms! They are right up my street, so to speak, what with my Chicks'R'us..

Looking for Caterina:Continue the Story
If you are up for an even more exciting storytelling challenge, why don't you have a read of this amazing interactive opportunity to continue a love story???
ProfesorBaker has set a challenge: to bring a Princess and a Pauper together. The title is "Looking for Catarina". Why don't you try it??

Winter Wonderland in Abruzzo & News Update

A very well wrapped up Janet in her favourite winter jumper!!

These are the wintry scenes that greeted me this morning. The weather forecast predicting buckets of snow proved to be correct! My concern is for the 20 young olive trees that were planted recently. Will they survive this patch of cold weather? Will the part of the house which has no roof yet, be ok?

The Dream
When we bought our abode a few years ago, there was a huge amount of work to do on it. Having sold our house in Oxford to buy this house outright, we were able to do up the kitchen and the upstairs sleeping quarters, slowly but surely. There is still lots of hard work left to do, but Rome wasn't built in a day!! Now, with an irregular source of income coming in from time to time (lol), each step is taking that little bit longer.... My optimistic aim and dream is for us to live off the land in the future and thus be completely self-sufficient.

Living off the Land - The Reality
Well, with each year that passes, we are getting a bit more off the land and via our livestock, namely from these eggceptionally lively chickens here. With fresh eggs being dutifully laid every day, we can make fresh pasta, pancakes, omelettes, fried eggs, scrambled eggs and so on. Unfortunately, the chicks haven't been laying as many eggs as usual during this cold spell, but egg production should pick up again very soon.

Last summer, we had enough tomatoes, peppers, runner beans, French beans, melons, cucumbers, lettuce, apples, peaches, olive oil, eggs, almonds, figs, a few cherries, pears, and various fresh herbs to keep us from the wolf's door. I need to learn so much, though, about farming the land and to be honest, it's still a hit and miss affair!! I can't say I've got green fingers, just lots of enthusiasm!

Soil, Humus and Manuring
I have just finished reading a fascinating horticultural book by Shewell Cooper called "Shewell Cooper's Guide to Soil, Humus & Manuring", published in 1952. I learned an incredible amount about the value of worms in the soil as a guide to the soil fertility, and found out more about the joys of composting. I enjoy making my own compost to put back into the land. I wrote a review of "How to Cook Compost" a while back, which you might like to read, if you are interested in this topic.


I also love dipping into "Food from your Garden". Published in 1977, this book is a fantastic compilation of everything you need to know about growing your own food. I bought it from Oxfam last year for a few pounds, and it was a real bargain! It contains a lot of fantastic and timeless tips which are highly relevant even in 2011!

News Update! New Seeta Course
I have signed up for another Professional Development mini course on the SEETA site. The tutor is Marisa Constantinides, a highly experienced teacher trainer, with her own teacher training centre in Athens.

The course title is "The Reading Challenge: Motivation and Creativity in Reading Lessons". It starts on 27th February for 7 days, so please do sign up, and learn with me and lots of other keen teachers!! I hope I can be a good student and keep up with the course content. A lot of people I know have already signed up, and it promises to be a very exciting and enriching few days of learning.

Why do I Blog?
I have just submitted a guest post on the subject of blogging to the British Council Teaching English site. It is an honour to be included as a blogging guest in the blogging marathon. You can read the post here.

Countdown Challenge
I have been featured in Bits 'n 'Bobs/Show and Tell blog recently. The "Countdown 28 Challenge", which ends on Monday 28th February, is of a very innovative nature. Will my suggestion of "is" as the final word on the 28th day of the countdown challenge be the one that is indeed chosen by the author? The tension is mounting...

Electronic Village Online - Digital Storytelling
This fantastic 5-week course on Digital Storytelling finished a few weeks ago, and I am planning to write a feedback post shortly with my impressions and some of the work I was inspired to create during the weekly sessions. Watch this space!!

An Idiomatic Story - A Series in Motion
I have been busy drafting more episodes for my digital series of An Idiomatic Story and have been experimenting with Bitstrips and Dvolver. This evolving series is very exciting, and I am having fun using different digital media and Web 2.0 tools. The story of Frederick and Isabella is developing in an interesting way. Anyway, I'm doing my best, and the latest installment is due out tomorrow. Can you ermm...feel the excitement bubbling away???

Post Scriptum
I was very surprised just now and delighted to see that Part 4 Go Animate installment has had 18 views since I created it a few days ago. Maybe I am doing something right? I hope so!!