Reaching for the Stars in EVO Week 3

I came across this saying the other day, and it struck me as being so positive and uplifting, that I knew I had to write it down, so here it is!!

"Always reach for the stars, because even if you don't get there, you will be out of this world."

I am following the EVO Digital Storytelling for Kids session and so far, I am having such a wonderful time.  I just love being a "student" again.  Everyone is sharing so many ideas and being supportive of each other's efforts.  It is a world I love being drawn into, and it helps me appreciate what it is like to be participating in an online course from the student's eyes and perspective.  As an online moderator myself, it is important to be able to feel this perspective, so that in the future, I can incorporate the magical ingredients it takes to make a course a successful and enjoyable one.

Collaborative group work certainly is one of the key ingredients. Having a sense of "belonging" to a community is also fundamental and at the heart of what makes a session run smoothly. Together with excellent, committed moderators who always know the right moment for when to comment and give encouragement, it all contributes to a unique moment in one's personal and professional development.

The truth is that I had planned not to do an EVO session this year, due to a lack of time to devote and immerse myself fully, but as I mentioned in the previous post, I was encouraged to join in, and the rest so they say, is history....I am so glad I am participating!!

Dvolver
Below is a Dvolver film I have created for one of the Week 3 tasks.  It sums up the journey I am following with so much enthusiasm.



The Lillies
Here is a simple story I created with Creaza, called The Lillies.  Can you guess what happens before the final slide?  You need to use your imagination!  Please do join in with your ideas in the Comments' box at the very bottom of the post.

 

Motorbike Stuff
Here's a cartoon I couldn't resist creating, using one of my own favourite images of Abruzzo for the background:

Crazy Rider created with Creaza

The cartoon shows ME doing a wheelie in Abruzzo!!

Can you guess whether the following statements are true about me or not?

 Janet

• has actually been on the back of a motorbike doing a wheelie.
• has ridden thousands of miles on the back of a motorbike.
• lists her favourite motorbike of all time as the Honda Goldwing 1500
• likes flicking through motorbike magazines such as Motociclismo
• has actually seen Valentino Rossi win a Moto GP
• has ridden in formation with a Police Outrider for the former Queen Mother
• has a signed Valentino Rossi original poster called "First Blood" 
• knows what an Akrapovic exhaust sounds like
• enjoys travelling around Abruzzo by motorbike
• has taken training and passed her CBT (Compulsory Basic training) in the UK for riding a 125cc motorbike

Animoto Motorbike Scenes
Animoto is an excellent tool for creating short, snappy slideshows with music.  The free version allows you 30 seconds, which is a bit limiting, but is good enough to create some lovely presentations.

Below is an Animoto video called Abruzzo by Motorbike.  It shows images I took (mostly from the back of the motorbike!) on a trip around the beautiful region of Abruzzo.


Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Answers to the True / False questions are at the bottom!

Using Comics & Cartoons to learn a language
I think learning a language by creating simple comics is an excellent idea. Can you work out what the characters are saying in Itlaian?

An Italian Dialogue created with Creaza

Mille Grazie
I would like to say a very big thank you to all the lovely moderators on the EVO Digitalstorytelling for Young Learners session and also to all my fellow EVO participants for helping to make it such an interesting and valuable learning experience for me so far.  Roll on week 4!!

Post Scriptum
All the statements about Janet and motorbikes are TRUE!!!

Can you believe it?  Sometimes I can't believe it myself, but I'm very glad I tried these things...
When I am old and wearing purple, I will look back on these heady and incredible moments, and they will help me to face the last inevitable journey....

Dvolver Animation

You can watch Russell Stannard's Dvolver Video tutorial to find out how to make these easy animations!



Please note. I noticed that some of the characters are not suitable for younger learners so, a bit of caution is necessary in choosing ones which would be ok.

I've been burning the midnight oil the past few weeks! Teaching Face 2 Face full time by day, and online by night. Inbetween these periods, I have been busy finalising my IATEFL Brighton presentation. I have spent about 25 hours in total now on the preparation and I think I have got to stop!!! I met my self-imposed deadline of finishing my draft yesterday.

I tried out the presentation on my group of teachers today and I asked them about the ending of my Idiomatic Digital Story. They kindly suggested an alternative ending, so I have decided I will let my audience at IATEFL Brighton pick which one they prefer!

You can see a brief preview of my slides on the IATEFL Brighton online site here.

















I will be totally off-line over the 4 days I'm in Brighton. I won't be blogging, tweeting or doing anything technological during these 4 days. It will be back to basics, and I am looking forward to chillaxing by the beach. I really want to make the most of attending as many sessions as I can and also connecting face to face with people I have met online via my blog and Twitter. I am getting very excited indeed! I will try to write up a feedback summary of my experience when I get back.

In the Money: Part 5 of "An Idiomatic Story"

Parts 1 - 4 of this evolving digital, multi-media Idiomatic Story can be viewed here.

Frederick's story continues via Dvolver, a great animation tool!



Lesson Tips for Students:
Watch the video again and find:

• an idiom meaning to work very hard
• 2 expressions which mean to make a lot of money
• an idiom meaning to have a fantastic time

If you like, you could get your students to create a Dvolver scene of their own to show what happens next in this digital story, or they could create their own made up story to embed in their class blog or wiki.

Learn how to create a short animation Dvolver film here.
See Nik's Quick Shout for more tips on how to use Dvolver.
Study Easy Peasy Phrasals!

Next exciting installment Part 6: "In a Jam", coming very soon on a computer near you!!

Teacher Reboot Camp:Guest Post

I have had the great pleasure of writing a guest post on Shelly Terrell's awesome "Teacher Reboot Camp" blog. I was delighted when I was invited by Shelly via Twitter a few weeks ago. I immediately knew what I wanted to do. I was in the middle of creating another Powerpoint presentation, one on Phrasal Verbs. I decided it would be a good theme to expand for a more in-depth post. I wrote my article directly onto Teacher Reboot Camp and did all the research whilst writing the draft there. I will confess now that it's all up and running fine, I was a bit afraid of accidentally deleting stuff, as I did in "Gone with the Wind". It's one thing to mess up one's own links, but to do so on someone else's blog, was absolutely unthinkable and not really an option to consider. I have asked Shelly's kind permission to present my guest post in full on my blog. The embeds and animations are now all in one easily accessible site for me to re-use and show to teachers and students in the future.

An Xtranormal Kind of Introduction

Teaching phrasal verbs is my favourite activity of all! Why is this so? Well, in my experience, I have found that students generally don’t like studying them because they find them “too difficult, miss!” I set out from elementary level to train my students not to be afraid of them, but to look forward to showing off their newly acquired knowledge of them. To stand out from the crowd. To use phrasals in a natural way. In the correct context. How do I do this? I will explain.

I encourage them to chill out during the lessons if I see they look a bit stressed out. I ask them to come up with ways of using new phrasals both in class and outside of class. I encourage them to ask each other this question as a natural starter “Have you come across this word? Do you know what it means?”, if for example, they don’t know the meaning of a word. Instead of asking me all the time, students are encouraged to ask each other first, always using this phrasal verb until it becomes instinctive for them and of course, second nature. On a Monday morning my first question is inevitably “What did you get up to over the weekend?” Students then ask each other in pairs and dialogue ensues following this prompt. Another question would be “Did you get through the weekend homework?” I make sure that these questions are all in context and provide opportunities for practice.

Slideshare

Below is an example of a Powerpoint presentation converted to Slideshare. I have created this in order to maximise opportunities for student discussion. This would either be used as an introduction to this set of verbs, or as a review and recycling activity. I have introduced 18 phrasal verbs with some follow-up activities at the end. I have experimented with whole pictures as background for added interest.

Fun With Phrasal Verbs

Bookr

Bookr by Pim Pam Pum is a nice tool for exploiting images to enhance your phrasal verbs lessons. You can easily create a “book” in minutes by selecting pictures, according to the theme you want to explore, and then simply dragging them into the pages of the book. You can write a short sentence on each page. The example below is one I created especially for this post to demonstrate how it can be used.

Dvolver

This is a great site for dialogue exploitation. The animations are easy to create with a set group of characters. There is a choice of background music which adds to the special effects. There is no sound for the characters.

Go!Animate

This is another cool site for creating animations. Go!Animate can be used by students to recycle phrasal verbs learned or indeed, any item of vocabulary that needs to be reviewed.

GoAnimate.com: Getting Down to Phrasals by Janet Bianchini

Create your own at GoAnimate.com.

The ZimmerTwins

I registered on the ZimmerTwins site for the purpose of researching for this post. I was surprised at how intuitive and easy it was to create my very first animation. I have a feeling that students will love this tool!

Have a look at Phrasals in the Jungle!

ToonDo

I love ToonDo because it’s easy to create cartoons for any topic you like. Students enjoy creating small dialogues or comic strips. Here’s one I created which has a phrasal verbs theme. The cartoons can be easily embedded into your class / student blogs or posted via email.

Create your own Toon!

PhotoPeach

The last on my list of favourite e-tools to make teaching and learning phrasal verbs fun is PhotoPeach. I was able to create a simple quiz using my own photos. You have to select a synonym out of the 3 options given for the verb in the picture. I hope you enjoy it!

Test your Phrasals! on PhotoPeach

Challenge

I hope I have inspired you to use some of these cool sites with your students. You can adapt them to suit whatever theme you are working with. Why don’t you try one of these out for your next class? I am sure your students would enjoy creating short animations and dialogues or short books or indeed quizzes to test each other on new vocabulary or structures they have learned with you.

Have you had experience with any of these tools? If so, I would love to hear from you to learn how you and your class got on with them!

I would like to thank Shelly for giving me this wonderful opportunity to write for her Cool Sites series. It’s a great honour for me to be here.

Easy Peasy Phrasals

Making phrasal verbs fun is quite a challenging task. Today I did a session with my primary school teachers and used a variety of activities and techniques. Creating a quiz with phrasals is excellent for collaborative group work.

Have a go at the following review quiz:

How would you feel if your holiday plans FELL THROUGH?
What does OTT STAND FOR?
If my car is a WRITE-OFF, can I use it?
Do you need to BRUSH UP your phrasals?

Can you unjumble the following questions and then answer them?

RED GOES WITH COLOUR WHAT?

TO ARE FORWARD YOU HOLIDAY ON LOOKING GOING?

TO UP ON DID WERE YOU YOU YOUR USE YOUNGER PARENTS WHEN CHECK?

EXPECTATIONS TO IN UP LIVED HAS YOUR ENGLAND LIFE?

DOWN YOU COLD DOES GET WEATHER RAINY?




The phrasal verb Dvolver scenes above were created in a matter of seconds!

Useful sites to help you pick up more phrasals:
BBC English
esl.cafe

Are you up for some" Slang Fun"?

The film above consists of a little dialogue created in just a few minutes. I was inspired by Nik Peachey's "Quick Shout" Blog post about Dvolver. For students, this scene would be a nice introduction to the new expressions used by the two characters. I am sure students of any age would really enjoy making their own short mini-dialogues to practise slang, idioms or other vocabulary areas.