Janet's Reform Symposium 4 Feedback

I am still on a high after one of the most enlightening weekends of Professional and Personal Development I have ever experienced. The 4th Reform Symposium Econference was a very exciting event!! A full list of all the session descriptions can be found here.  All the sessions were recorded and you can scroll down the list and choose which one you would like to view at your leisure. Here is the recordings link.

To imagine that the Reform Symposium Conference was all for free is an incredible thought.  I appreciate all the tireless support and great dedication by all the superb organizers included in the note below.  Each and every single one of them played a massive role in ensuring that everything went according to plan, each with their own specific duties to accomplish. They all did brilliantly!!

What can I say except that I was blown away by the whole event.  I actually felt as if I was physically present at the conference.  Everything was carried out in real time via the sessions, and the special Future of Education Ning chatbox area for presenters, which was buzzing with messages. For a period of time, I felt totally connected in a truly global way and it was exhilarating. It was just as good if not better than attending a conference in person.  I was in the comfort of my own home and it was very relaxing, attending whilst drinking endless cups of coffee.

A United Show
The presenters, moderators, organizers were all sharing, enjoying, helping, supporting each other as a united group and for me personally, this was a huge motivational boost.  I had been temporarily feeling very down and low immediately prior to the event starting on Friday.   However, attending inspirational sessions, presenting at my own session on Sunday, and moderating on the lovely Jennifer Vershoor's session,  was just the tonic I needed.

Some Highlights
With over 100 presentations over the 3 day event and with so many members of my PLN doing sessions, I knew it was going to be very difficult to choose which ones to attend in person, inbetween other duties.  All the sessions I attended were wonderful and I learned a lot from the presenters' input. I will outline 5 of the sessions below. Apologies for not mentioning everyone's presentation, but rest assured, the level and quality of every session I attended was superb and thanks so much to you all!  I have earmarked so many recorded sessions for viewing as soon as I can.......

The Welcome Address and Nicky Hockly's very informative Keynote, The Future Present set the tone for the whole magical event and I was well and truly hooked!! Musical entertainment was provided by the Bookseller.
Recording HERE.

Dr Sugata Mitra's opening plenary, The Future of Learning, provided great food for thought and left me feeling so impressed with what he has achieved in his life, and how he has helped transform the lives of pupils in areas of great poverty, especially with his hole in the wall initiative, which originally started in India.
Recording HERE

Cecilia Lemos :  'I am NOT just a teacher. A new mantra'  This talk was excellent and thought-provoking. It provided great tips on how to value ourselves as teachers.
Recording HERE.

Carla Arena :'Digital Metamorphosis based on Sir Ken Robinson's Three Flourishing Principles'. I enjoyed listening to how Carla successfully applies these three principles into her own teaching.
Recording HERE

Jennifer Vershoor's Jazz Up your classes with technology, which I moderated for.  I always learn so much from Jennifer, and feel very inspired by the creative work she does with her students.
Recording HERE.

Information to access all the other wonderful RSCON4 sessions and links to all recordings can be found on this page:  http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/2013-reform-symposium

Visually Inspire Your Learners!
Finally, I would like to mention my session.  I had a lovely time and I really enjoyed interacting with the audience via the chat box.  Apologies if I didn't catch all the comments while I was speaking.  A huge thank you to everyone who came to the session.  It was so nice to see so many familiar faces and new ones, too. Also a very big thanks to everyone tweeting about it before, during and after my session had finished. I appreciated all the lovely support, very much indeed.

My fabulous moderator Marijana  very kindly introduced me to my audience and the scene was set for an enjoyable time going through the 35 slides.  I have embedded the presentation below and the recording link is HERE.  It lasts for approximately an hour.  I do hope you will find it of some practical use.

RSCON4: Visually Inspire Your Learners! from Janet Bianchini

Marijana took a screenshot of her tweet during the presentation and I have reproduced it here with her kind permission: 

You can view some more details about my presentation on my JanetAbruzzo wiki page, called RSCON4.   If you scroll to the bottom of the page I have added some links to resources connected to the subject.  I hope to add some more...

Background to some of the slides chosen
I spent  about 2- 3 weeks on and off, preparing my RSCON4 presentation. I really enjoy the whole process involved in deciding what to include.
I would like to share some of my personal thoughts on five of the slides that I carefully selected for my rscon4 presentation.

Slide 1: Abruzzo Eagle

Abruzzo Eagle

At this particular moment in time, I wish I could be as free as this Abruzzo eagle, without a care in the world, surrounded by peace and tranquility.  For me it represents total freedom.

Slide 2: Solitary Motorbike in Abruzzo's 'Little Tibet'

I desperately want to get on this motorbike with my hubby and 'ride free' and totally immerse myself in the spectacular grandeur of Abruzzo's wild and mountainous scenery. This area of Abruzzo is totally unspoilt and far removed from the hustle and bustle of an everyday life. I feel blessed to be living in such a beautiful region.

Update Sunday October 20th 2013
My wish was granted and I had a fabulous trip to this area today.  Images below!!

Janet & moto in 'Little Tibet' October 2013

Abruzzo National Park October 2013

Autumn colours

Riding on the back of the motorbike through such beautiful scenery today was so relaxing!!

Slide 3: Snowed Under!

This image represents how I have felt at times during 2013.  Snowed under with paperwork and compiling reports that have absolutely nothing to do with teaching.... However, on a positive note, this image represents hope. The bulbs in the pots totally covered in snow actually survived this heavy snowfall and went on to become beautiful tulips in the spring.  The motto is, 'Never give up hope!'.

Slide 4: Big Brother is Watching You!

1984 written by George Orwell, predicted a 'Big Brother' society, one where nobody was free and everybody was surveilled 24/24.  This graffiti image I came across recently represents for me a chilling reminder that we are living in a closely monitored and controlled society.......

 I would love to know who drew this image on the wall, and what it symbolises for the artist.

Slide 5:The Joy of Teaching

This collaborative word cloud was compiled by a recent f2f class consisting of Swiss teenagers.  They chose the adjectives to sum themselves up and they also chose the shape of the word cloud.

I still feel a sense of 'Joy' after teaching for over 34 years. Teaching has always made me feel alive and provides incredible and unforgettable moments in my life. This last weekend was defnitely one of the highs of my professional life. It certainly offered 'more valuable and professional development than money could ever buy'.

Final Thoughts about RSCON4

Created with Witty Comics

Please watch some of the recordings if you can!  The full list can be found via this link: http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/2013-rscon-recordings

This motivational poster I created with bighugelabs says it all. Thanks once again to all the organizers, presenters, moderators and volunteers for making The Reform Symposium E-conference 2013 such a resounding success.

SEETA: Humanism and Modern Technology

Comic created with Lego.com. Comic Builder.

I have recently attended another excellent free online course thanks to Seeta (South Eastern Europe Teacher Association), called Humanism and Modern Technology. Our very knowledgeable and highly experienced tutor was Hanna Kryszewska , a teacher trainer, the editor of Humanising Language Teaching Magazine, and also a renowned author and co-author of many books including Learner Based Teaching by OUP.

I have "The Standby Book" in my library from Cambridge University Press. It contains a lot of practical ideas from my tutor :-)

Below is a wordsearch puzzle I have created for fun from The Ultimate Word Search Maker. See how long it takes you to find all the words hidden in the puzzle! How do you think the words are connected to the course?

Make Your Own Word Search

What is Humanism?
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. You can read further information about the meaning of this word from Wikipedia.

The course brought humanism and modern technology together and required us to reflect on our current teaching practice.

Humanism values creativity and we explored how to use web 2.0 tools selectively and creatively. I hope the 6 tools I have chosen for this blog post reflect this creativity.
Self-directed learning is also one of the key traits of humanism. I have often written about the classroom without walls that is now available to all of us. For our own Continuous professional Development, it really is up to us to become our own Director of Studies in this modern era.

The Course

The course did not have many attendees for some reason, but no matter, the few who did attend made the most of the discussions and debate that was generated and it was very enjoyable to participate actively. In particular, I shared many interesting discussions with Lesley Cioccarelli, whom I had met on a previous SEETA M-Learning course.

Lesley has just written a fantastic feedback post entitled Humanism and Modern Technology - another fabulous SEETA course.

One of the tasks was to use a new tool of our choice. I chose and wrote about Storybird. I have embedded a rather large Fotobabble below, which explains my choice of tool.



Our tutor Hanna divided the course into 5 main topic areas, each section with a 2-day gap inbetween. I liked this, as it enabled me to keep up with the course content, which was very interesting and challenging. Each section consisted of a question, links to excellent resources and then a task in a forum discussion. I got a lot out of this course as it made me think of the way I teach and use technology with teachers who maybe are resistant to change. We delved into the reasons for this resistance and I will definitely bear this in mind in future teacher refresher courses.

A Change of Attitude in the 50s
I too was resistant to change in the past and it took me until I was in my 50s to actually begin to embrace the Brave New World of Technology. I must never, ever forget the scary feelings I had at the beginning towards the road to accepting that I had to change, otherwise I would get left behind!! This push came from myself. Nobody forced me or put pressure on me to change my attitude.

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Just remember one thing: You are never too old to learn new things!!! It might sound like a cliche, but honestly if you tell yourself you are "too old, too comfortable in my present situation, too this, too that", you are actually doing your own future a great disservice! You are actually stopping yourself from personal growth and development, by the words that you choose to use. So the answer lies below in the comic:

Comic created with ArtisanCam.

Audioboo Thanks
Finally, a special word of thanks via Audioboo!
I am still very new to this podcasting tool, so for some reason the sound cuts out in some places. I have got lots to learn still!



Useful References
Teaching Online
Blended Learning
How to Teach English with Technology
8 Keys to Integrating Technology into the Classroom
Flow
A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more presentations from Sacha Chua

Comics and Cartoons - My RSCON3 Presentation

I had the greatest of pleasure to present at the Reform Symposium 3 yesterday and I have just uploaded my presentation on Using Comics and Cartoons to Slideshare. I would like to share it with you below. Thank you so much to everyone who attended last night at 6pm London time. The time flew past for me and I really enjoyed myself, once I got going!!!

A huge thanks to my lovely moderators Clive and Sabrina de Vita. They really took care of everything and the whole presentation went off very smoothly, thank goodness :-)

In addition, I would like to thank all the incredible organizers- Shelly Terrell, Kelly Tenkely, Chris Rogers, Lisa Dabbs, Melissa Tran, Clive Elsmore, Mark Barnes, Ian Chia, Cecilia Lemos, Jerry Blumengarten, and Kyle Pace- and Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 and The Future of Education online communities for making this incredible conference possible!! Their dedication has no bounds, and they all did a grand job of making sure that everything went off smoothly. A million thanks!! I feel so proud to have taken part in RSCON3 and to have shared what I am passionate about with other educators. It was a truly fabulous experience!!


I had great fun creating all the comics and cartoons!! I am thrilled that I was able to show off quite a few comics created by my students as well, and also one by my young niece. I asked her to do some research amongst her school friends. The result was that she and her friends absolutely love using comics for creative story writing and literacy sessions at her primary school!

I will be uploading the live session as soon as it becomes available on this post or a new one. Watch this space!

UPDATE: LINK TO LIVE SESSION
I have the link to my live session now, and you can view it here. Once again, thanks to all the many attendees and lovely moderators!!

Fun with Comics and Cartoons

View more presentations from Janet Bianchini

You can view my presentation on Youblisher if you prefer to read it as a clickable book!



View the fun news headline below, which is hot off the press!

25,000

I'd like to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone from all the countries above, who reads or has read my blog in the past 2 years and a half since its birth in November 2008.

The figure 25,000 just seems to have a special touch about it and this is what my Clustrs map has just told me. This amount of viewers is very modest in comparison to a lot of the leading ELT bloggers. To me, it means a huge amount and I can't believe how my very modest blog has evolved since November 2008.

I have readers from over 100 countries from as far afield as Guam, Tanzania, Qatar, Belarus, Swaziland, Dominican Republic and it seems every corner of the world. I am absolutely thrilled and deeply touched. Thank you very much to every single person who has ever stopped by to see what this blog has to say!!

Design 565
Nothing much has changed from the original layout. In fact it has remained exactly the same. My one attempt to jazz it up and bring it to the modern world went totally unnoticed until I actually mentioned it to one of my fellow bloggers (thanks Chris) who actually said he liked the new style. However, I decided to re-instate the status quo without undue fuss and here it still is. Design 565 as seen below:

I have sometimes wondered if the blog layout is too fussy and cluttered, but then I actually like it this way and don't have the heart to make it minimalist, as that isn't my character. The same Voki cat is still here with the same message.

So, here's to the next 25,000 viewers or readers. I'll do my very best to write about EFL matters, Abruzzo news and anything else that randomly comes up in my life. This blog is my

• personal and very public virtual Learning Diary
• e-portfolio
• repository of free lessons and lesson ideas
• window to the world outside
• daily source of inspiration
  
• cherished labour of love

The Time To Blog Is Now!
If you do not have a blog and you are a teacher who wants to reflect on your teaching practice, listen to my words of wisdom: start a blog now! I can assure you, you will not regret it.
Below is a list of useful sites and information about blogs and blogging, which will help you learn more about this wonderful subject. Hopefully they will inspire you to want to set up your very own first blog:

Russell Stannard's Teacher Training Tutorials on Blogger.
The Edublogger's Introduction to Blogging
Larry Ferlazzo's "The Best Sources of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers"
Ed Blog Collection by Clive, Sir

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.

The King and I @ IATEFL Brighton 2011

MagMyPic

The King and I
You may be wondering why I chose this title. Well I had a picture taken with the King of Rock at the Honey Club in Brighton!! Elvis Presley was there!! Well, actually an Elvis impersonator who was very, very good indeed. I couldn't resist it, but I had to have a photo with him. As soon as I saw him, this blog post title flashed through my mind and here it is!! That's the way my mind works. Title first, blog post second.

The occasion was the onestopenglish 10th anniversary birthday party celebration on the beach front. The wine was flowing, the food was delicious, and the partygoers were lively and dynamic! I went on my own but within seconds I had met up with lots of lovely people, who I chatted to throughout the evening.

Janet with Shelly

Sue, Tara, Brad and Marisa

Sue, Petra, Janet and Burcu

The Tagxedo below in the patriotic shape of England is a summary of my thoughts and feelings of the 45th IATEFL Brighton Conference. I have read so many fantastic summaries already that I'm afraid I feel that I wouldn't be able to add anything new or fresh, so I have decided to sum it up briefly using a few Web 2.0 tools, images and links to some fab blog posts with great reviews.
Every single session I attended was inspiring, and you can view most of the presenters' materials and resources in the index here.

I was in 7th heaven throughout the 4 days in Brighton. Or more to the point, on cloud 9!! There was so much to see and do that I was spoilt for choice!! The weekend was like the merry-go round below - full of action, fast and furious!

Now I am slowly but surely going through the links to presentations and slides that presenters have kindly uploaded on their session page on the BrightonOnline site.

I couldn't attend all the talks, but I have been reading a lot of summaries from my PLN. One talk I missed was "Web 2.0 Tools for IELTS speaking and writing success" by Amanda Wilson and Susan Dempsey. This is interesting for me because I have taught a lot of IELTS examination classes and anything to make them more dynamic, is most welcome!! I like all the web 2.0 tools that are suggested in this session.

Tech Gurus
I met someone I owe a lot of my technology awareness to: none other than Mr Russell Stannard himself. His presentation was wonderful and I enjoyed finding out so much about different web 2.0 tools and their applications. A Channel Live reporter from Tuxpi was able to snap the photo below!

The room was packed full and I enjoyed the talk immensely. Click on Teacher Training Videos to see all the fabulous tools that Russell shows us how to use.

I also attended another of my Tech Gurus presentations. Nik Peachey's fab talk on "Digitising your ELT Course Book" proved to be very exciting, and it was great to see him in action in person. You can view the full session details here.

World Premiere
The world premiere of An Idiomatic Story 2011 took place in Brighton & Hove. It has now been made into an award-winning film!! You can view the original screenplay on Slideshare here.
Please click on the promotional film poster produced by BigHugeLabs in order to view it better.






Brighton Images

The Brighton Pier was lovely by night. I had to have fish and chips as soon as I arrived and I bought them from the Pier. The chips were absolutely delicious!

Brighton beach was empty while I was there, as you can see. I enjoyed eating my sarnies on the pebbles, and just watching the ebb and flow of the waves. I also reflected on the variety of the pebbles
The sunsets were lovely.

The B&B was conveniently located near the seafront and Brighton Conference Centre.

A Busman's Holiday
Brighton's colourful red buses reminded me that I was having a "busman's holiday".
A busman's holiday is when you go on holiday and do the same thing that you would normally do in your job. In my case, I am a teacher and I had my first proper holiday in ages in Brighton by attending a Teachers' conference, so I was actually learning and talking all about my job the whole weekend!! I am not complaining, though. Iwould do it all over again and I feel lucky to have been there.

Some Feedback Blog Posts
Finally, for some links to some fab feedback blog posts please see below!

Phil Bird's Classroom 201X - IATEFL - On Tech
Brad Patterson's A Journee in Language - The WHY, WHY NOT, and WILL of IATEFL
Tara Banwell's My English Club - IATEFL Wordle Reflection
Mike Harrison's collection of feedback on his FaceBook Blog
Mike Harrison's collection of feedback on Scoop It!
Marisa Constantinides' TEFL Matters -Reporting after IATEFL Brighton
Shaun Wilden's Blog - What I Learned in Brighton
Sharon Hartle's Blog - Post Iatefl Blues
Profesorbaker's Blog - IATEFL 2011 Highlights: Magical memories

This Youtube video by OUPELTGlobal sums up the wonderful Brighton conference. Thanks also to Eva for her very kind words about my session!!



Tying the Knot
Sadly, Frederick was denied the pleasure of tying the knot with his beloved Isabella, so I'll have to make do with the Royal Wedding instead, which takes place on Friday 29th April.

I'll be in Abruzzo on the actual day. I wonder how Italian telly is going to cover the Big Day? Watch this space!!