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....

A Few Fun Lesson Ideas with Images and a Blog, Starring Fluffy - The Blogging Mega Star!

Insert a picture of yourself or a pet into the Gallery section of a photo editing site such as Tuxpi, Photofunia, and then ask this question:

How did X get to be exhibited at the National Gallery, London?

Set a time limit of 5 minutes for students to come up with an inventive story either written or orally. The class gets to choose which story they like the best.
This is a fun activity and works well as a filler / warmer /
Invite students to photo edit a photo of theirs and get the class to imagine how they came to be in the particular situation. An example is below:

Fluffy has become a world-famous feline mega star after her Storybird Fluffy The Mouse Catcher sold millions of copies around the world! Her portrait is now hanging in the National Gallery and thousands of visitors are flocking to view it.
Fluffy purrs contentedly when she explains her newly acquired superstar status: "I always knew it would happen one day!"

You can do the same sort of activity with a billboard poster:

Victoria - The Reclusive English Moggy

Image above edited with Dumpr and then screenshot taken.

Lesson Idea to practise Idioms / Expressions
Write a paragraph based on an image of your choice such as the one above of Victoria, Fluffy's house-mate, and create a Wordle by copy pasting your paragraph. Try to include a few examples of idiomatic expressions as a review. Ask students to predict the main content of the short paragraph.

Can you guess some of the content from the words in the Wordle? Sample paragraph is below.


Sadly our English moggy Victoria has been completely overwhelmed by the presence of 5 Italian felines, which include the mischievous Fluffy, and she keeps them all at arms's length. She eats separately from the gang, and keeps herself to herself during the day. Whenever a little mischievous kitten approaches her to try to make friends, she stiffens, hisses and gives it a wide berth.

Victoria's Daily Routine
Ask your students to imagine the daily routine of their favourite pet or animal. Get them to write a few sentences using the present simple. In the past I have used the example below with beginners to practise present simple, and adverbs of frequency. Using images of animals is just a change from always using images of famous people. Young learners in particular find this activity fun.


Fluffy's Blog - World Premiere!!!
Fluffy has agreed to star in her very own blog, which has been set up on Posterous Spaces. The title of her blog is The Hectic Life of a Fluffy Kitten. She may decide to change the name of the blog, so watch this space! It's been kept private for a few weeks while she got a feel for the blog space, but now she feels comfortable with it and I am delighted to feature it here on Janet's Abruzzo Edublog.

She has an "About" page, and also a special page dedicated to Fluffy Idioms!!!

The very first post is entitled "Welcome to Fluffy's World!". I hope you enjoy following her adventures in Abruzzo.

Why set up a blog for Fluffy?
Well, it is to showcase what can be done with a blog, and also to encourage all age groups from young learners to adults to see how much fun it can be to play around with a theme that you are passionate about. It improves literacy skills and writing skills and practises web tools in a fun context!!

I hope these ideas inspire you to try out some of the activities and have fun with editing your images!!

English Raven's Blogging Tips
I have been following Jason Renshaw's fantastic posts on why blog with students, and the posts offer a more in-depth analytical argument for starting a blog. I hope you will be inspired to get your students to write a blog!

Blogging with students (1): Why get them blogging?
Blogging with students (2): Choosing a blogging platform

2011: The Year of Living Simply Yet Fabulously!

2011 was a simple year, yet full of exciting, fabulous events. My current life in the Abruzzo countryside is a mixture of down-to-earth living and connecting with people from all over the world via the Internet.

Helping K carry logs chopped for firewood in our jungle.

A new olive tree, my Xmas pressie!! This 3-year-old olive tree cost 8 euros from our local garden centre, Rosa D'Oriente in Cepagatti. Dr Luigi very kindly selected this Leccino variety for me. The idea that this olive tree will be here in a hundred year's time, long after I am gone, gives me a good feeling. It should withstand all that nature will throw at it and it will survive to grow into a venerable tree, I hope!!

The happiness I derive from living amongst chickens, cats, dogs, falcons, the occasional wild boar, olive groves and vineyards is one that invariably transcends having the latest material goods. However, I have to confess, I do get the odd pang of desiring something, but I content myself by saying I can't have it NOW, but hopefully at a later date. This usually does the trick....

I know this solitary lifestyle could be transient, so I am making the most of it, and yet at the same time, trying to do my utmost to further my teaching career, whether virtual or face to face, which is now in its incredible 33rd year!!

Many Heartfelt Thanks to....
.......all the wonderful team at The Lake School of English, Oxford for their continued support. I enjoy teaching there so much, and the course participants are always so keen! Many best wishes to all the lovely staff, and teachers and students I have had the pleasure of teaching this year.

In addition, I would like to say a very special thanks to all the fabulous team at The Consultants-E for making this year very interesting and varied with the different online projects I have had the pleasure to have been involved in.

To everyone I know, via this blog or Twitter or other projects I have participated in this year, I would like to say a very, very BIG thank you to my PLN - Passionate Learning Network. I appreciate all the support and guidance that I receive. I hope I can give the same back to you, I really do.

So, 2011 is nearly over and it's time for a few reflections!!!

Blog ChallengesI took part in 6 blog challenges! Thank you to each and every challenge organiser. It was a pleasure to be a part of the EFL community. Below are links to the original blogs, which hosted the challenges.

Dave Dodgson : Truth or Lie?
Vicky Loras: What's Your Story?
David Warr: A Word Cloud Blog Challenge
Adam Simpson: 11 from'11
Ann Hodgson and Brad Patterson: Compare and Contrast
Anna Loseva : ELT Workplaces

Blog Carnivals
I took part in two fabulous blog carnivals this year.
Eva Simkesiyan: Warmers, Fillers and 1st Week Activities.
Berni Wall: The Most Popular Posts on your Blog

The Year of Webinars and E-Conferences
I continued to attend and present at international webinars and Virtual conferences. I feel immensely happy that I participated in them and I still can't believe it's true!! My trusted and faithful laptop has taken me on a rollercoaster virtual ride and I was in 7th heaven!! Thank you to all the organisers of the following events!

Connecting Online 2011
Virtual Round Table
Reform Symposium 2011

The Year of Firsts!
I tried out quite a few new tools for the first time and you can see which ones in the Tagxedo below. You can find out how I got on with them by searching for the labels on the sidebar.

Scoop.it
My Scoop.it web curation site on Comics and Cartoons was begun in July 2011 specifically to house the links and resources connected to my Reform Symposium online webinar on Fun with Comics and Cartoons in the Classroom. I would like to say thank you to all my fellow "Scoopers" for suggesting new comics and cartoon sites and posts to add to this growing collection, which I hope is useful in some way! In particular, the BookChook blog has very kindly suggested lots of materials to add, and I appreciate this collaboration very much!

The Comics and Cartoons Scoop.it site is doing very well! It now has 100 followers, and has had 2,000 page views, with 1,200 visitors! I am delighted by this, and would like to thank everyone involved in making this particular project such a great success. I don't plan to curate other topics for the moment, as I already follow quite a few topics anyway. However, I don't know what 2012 will bring, so it will be interesting to see what happens in this area.

Electronic Village Online 2011
I attended a 5-week course in January 2011 on Digital Storytelling and learned so much from my lovely tutors and fellow participants. What I gained from the course helped me to produce my very own digital story called "An Idiomatic Love Story". This formed the central part of my first ever presentation at IATEFL Brighton 2011. You can find all the materials I created here.
The Year of SEETA Courses!
I attended 4 marvellous free online courses via SEETA and I had 4 of the best tutors in the world as moderators! Interacting with fellow teachers from around the globe was also amazing. If you would like to read my feedback on each of the courses below, please look under the label SEETA in my blog Sidebar!

• mLearning with Nicky Hockly
• Creative Reading with Marisa Constantinides
• Jazz Up Your Digital Storytelling with Ozge Karaoglu
• Humanism and Modern Technology with Hania Kryszewska

IASKU
A special mention to Chiew from IASKU blog for the fantastic interviews that he is recording with teachers from all over the globe. It was a huge honour for me to be interviewed by him during the summer. Click here to view all his guest interviewees.

ELTChat

I would like to say a big thank you to all the fab moderators and team of ELTChat, held every Wednesday at noon and 9pm UK time. They are doing stirling work in givng teachers from all over the world the chance to discuss pedagogical matters of great interest. I hope to be a more active member in 2012!! To find out more, click on the ELTChat wiki link here.

QR Codes

Writing a blog post on QR codes was one of my most researched topics this year and has led me to be curious about how they will impact on the future of learning. Already I can see that they are playing a big role in a lot of areas such as marketing a product, for example. Recently, I have read a piece on Motorcycle News quoted as follows: "BMW is now incorporating QR codes into the camouflaging used on disguised road-going prototypes, so sharp-eyed and curious onlookers can use their smartphones to scan the codes and go to an official website to find out exactly what they have just seen."
I have discussed the use of QR codes with my hubby K, and I think I have imparted a curiosity in him to find out more about their use. I am thrilled that he has taken on board some of the ideas. He is now busily researching ways to deal with such codes in his industry, high level motorbike training. He's already experimenting with a QR code for his blog home page.
To the left, you can see a photo I took of K riding home on his motorbike after testing out the new road surface!! It passed the test, thankfully. You can see the same photo here.







Wallwisher Resolutions for 2012
I'd like to invite you to add your wishes for 2012!! Hope they will all come true!! Just double click on the Wallwisher to post a stickie and add your wish or resolution.

Abruzzo Diary of a Country Lady - Part 2: Voltaire & Wild Gardens

This view from home formed the basis of my recent "unplugged" lesson here.

A growing squadron of toads in pots, chickens crowing ever more heartily and fluffy kittens up olive trees is all part and parcel of the country jetset lifestyle. All slugs and snails have miraculously disappeared since I last wrote on this topic in Part 1, and I guess it's all due to these lovely creatures below, one of whom is seen squatting comfortably in my prized pots.



An image-edited photo of mum Samantha and kitten in the garden.

Wild Nature versus The Internet
The pull of nature or the pull of the Internet? These are things I have been thinking of recently. It's difficult to manage the two together as I can't be in two places at once. The more work I take on online, the less time I can devote to trying to keep the vegetable plot in order and tame the weeds that threaten to engulf the plot. This leads me to the next paragraph, where the eminent French gentleman below has a lot to answer for...


Il Faut Cultiver Votre Jardin
Voltaire famously wote these words in his mordant satire called Candide. I read this for my French degree and it made me realise that yes, it's true. A wild garden reveals a lot about the owners. You really have to "cultivate your garden" in the most basic sense of the words.

As I write the strimmer is whirring away in the distance. K valiantly and single-handedly trying to keep the ever growing jungle in check. The state of the garden is a constant topic of household conversation. Voltaire's words keep ringing in my ears. Why do these simple words have so much resonance after 32 years since I last read Candide??

"You have to cultivate your garden". If you don't cultivate your garden, it will become unruly and unmanageable. If it becomes wild and untameable, it will dominate your thoughts. If it dominates your thoughts, it will affect your life. If it affects your life, things will stand still. If things stand still, you are lost or doomed.

I guess that's the pretty hard-hitting message that I imagine is contained in these few simple words. So, what to do? Maybe this gentleman will have the answer?

Before I sign off to cultivate my garden, I'd just like to point out this great quote by Thoreau I found on this very interesting blog post simply called "Cultivate your garden". It's a good quote for discussion, don't you think? I'm not sure I agree with it entirely, though.

Anyone care to make a comment?

"In wildness is the preservation of the world."
You might also like to read this fantastic guest post by Eric Kane on Teaching Village blog, called "Proactive Discipline - Tend to your Garden". I love the gardening analogy!

Kittens in Olive Tree
Below is a short video of 3 of the kittens playing happily, freely and fearlessly amongst the olive tree branches high up. This video was taken this morning in the garden.

Having Kittens, Literally!!

From being a kitten to having kittens herself very soon, Samantha's life has been a dramatic rollercoaster ride in just 8 short months. Having been cruelly abandoned by her owner, she found her way to our home and this is her amazing story "Welcome to Samantha's World". You can also read "An Open Letter to Valentina from Samantha".

She's been wandering around like the cat that got the cream recently, and has according to a very reliable source, been getting bigger and bigger by the day. I would like her to organise herself so that she can have her kittens when I get back to Abruzzo, so that I can enjoy the excitement and all the fun involved!!

Click on the image below from the Visual Thesaurus to find out some synonyms for the idiom "To have kittens".


The Imminent Arrival of Frederick!
Yes, you may by now know that Frederick had his literary debut at IATEFL Brighton. I can now purposefully "let the cat out of the proverbial bag", or in other words, reveal a secret! Frederick is also the name of the future cockerel that I will buy as soon as I get back to Abruzzo. It has always been the intended name, just as little capon "Al Capone" was named way before he was ever bought!! Unfortunately, Al didn't last long. In fact he suffered a very untimely and gory ending at the talons of a wild local hawk. I doubt whether a baby cockerel would experience the same exit, but I guess I had better not tempt fate!

Below an image sent to me by K of a bird taken in the garden in Abruzzo yesterday. What is it? A falcon? An eagle? A buzzard? It looks quite pretty, anyway!!

You can view a video from BBC News ( 2008) about Basil the noisy cockerel here.
A story about an interesting hen can be read here.

Tulip Fever
How is my garden faring? I have to content myself with images of my tulips such as the one below, sent to me by my hubby K. I do hope I will see some of the many tulips and spring flowers I planted before I left! Apparently all my seedlings are growing dutifully, and I can't wait to inspect them in military fashion, and then transplant them.

The photo of my tulips has been embellished with the use of Tuxpi, my fave tool of the moment.

A chicken-proof area has been set up and so hopefully this year, my veggie crops won't be decimated and trampled over by the last four chickens left standing!

Happy Easter!
I wish all my readers a very happy Easter 2011. I hope you are enjoying the same kind of weather as in the UK at the moment - sizzling sunshine!!

Breaking News on Easter Day!!
Samantha has had 4 kittens today. Please see the first born below. More pictures to follow later!! It's a pity I've missed out on all the fun. Can't wait to see them all soon.

Learning Curves: Lake School of English, November 2010

Photo above courtesy of Veselin.

I was very excited when I was asked to teach on the Teachers' Refresher course "Learning Curves: Making Use of New Technologies in English Language Teaching" at the Lake School of English, Oxford. Without hesitating I immediately agreed to do this exciting new course. Teaching with technology seemed like a tailor-made project for me, especially as I enjoy using new technologies.

I hope to showcase some of the tools demonstrated to the 11 teachers during the one week intensive course, and also anything that is created by them after the course, which is sent to me. We covered a lot of ground in the one week intensive course, culminating in a workshop / swapshop on the final day, with some Karaoke music and singing, courtesy of www.tuneintoenglish.com, and lovely drinks and nibbles in the last half an hour!

My lovely group of "Learning Curves" teachers at the Lake School of English, Oxford.

The course comprised of the following:

• Introductions and Icebreakers with web 2.0 tools including Wordle, Xtranormal, Photopeach and Go Animate.
  
• "Coat of Arms" introductions: drawing and speaking activity
• Presentation and discussion on a wide range of web 2.0 tools including Voki, Glogster, Voicethread, Wordle, Wallwisher, Fotobabble and ToonDo amongst others.
• Language update comprising of idioms, phrasal verbs and colloquial English including examples of new acronyms in the context of authentic materials. I showed the teachers this recent lesson from my archives.
  
• Presentations on the Interactive Whiteboard at Oxford University Press, and also at the Oxford and Cherwell Valley College. The talk and practical demonstration at the vocational college included references to digital materials and VLEs. We were then treated to a fabulous 3-course meal prepared for us by the hospitality and catering students, who also served us in a very efficient and friendly manner.
• Presentation on the use of images, with reference to image editing sites, such as Image Chef, (always a winner!), Tuxpi, Big Huge Labs etc.
• A session on "Britain Today", which included a discussion on current social issues. We also looked at some Cockney rhyming slang for a bit of fun. We learned "Take a butcher's at this!" = Take a look at this! and also "Not a bad Dickory Dock" = clock!
• Discussions based on input from the teachers, eg dogme teaching, the validity of text speech etc
• Pair forms / group forms using language / vocabulary taught in class
• Storybuilding from picture prompts.
• Community dictation activity using new words studied. Please see below.
• Introduction to the social networking site Twitter, with a live exchange on Twitter with my PLN and the teachers. (Thank you so much once again to all the members who responded to my call out. It was lovely to see so many messages and my teachers really appreciated it all. Unfortunately, we were not able to participate in the ELTChat as originally planned.) Hopefully, there will be some new members of Twitter joining the ranks soon!
• Other topics which cropped up "unplugged".
• Introduction to "Quizlet" a site for creating dynamic quizzes for revision purposes. I created a set on "New Words".
  
• A lovely presentation on Webquests by Elena from Romania on the final morning.
• A final workshop / swapshop where participants were able to practise what they had seen during the course.

The classroom became a hive of activity with fabulous creations on computers including blogs, wikis, animations, wordles, glogsters and wallwishers. I floated around the classroom(s) monitoring the teachers' experimental activities. I stressed to them that learning new tools needs a bit of practice and patience, but with Russel Stannard's excellent Teacher Training Video Tutorials to hand, they would easily pick up how to use a lot of these web 2.0 tools.

Below is a lovely photo of some of the teachers taken by Veselin Chantov, from Bulgaria, and turned into a Glogster.



Below is a Fotobabble created by me of Veselin's photo.



A screenshot of a lovely Glogster created by Stella Mastruzzi, Marinella Adamo and Paola Biancolini from Italy.


Here's a fab Glog that Stella created on Environmental issues. Please click on the link below.

http://stella50.glogster.com/glog-1208/

Below a fab "Wanted" poster effect from www.tuxpi.com from Veselin, who embraced the new technologies with great enthusiasm. I think this is brill!

You might like to read more about Tuxpi "Photo Effects" by the amazing Alex Francisco, on her Zarco English Tool of the Day blog.

A lovely Wordle of some of the new expressions we looked at, from Lorella Paltrinieri.

A poster that we saw, which contained a lovely example of a phrasal verb we had discussed in class. Photo courtesy of Lorella .

Below is a wordle summary of Day 2 vocabulary, edited with Tuxpi in 3 different ways.
I had a lot of fun!!  Which one do you prefer???

A Wallwisher Feedback for all the group. This will be added to over the coming weeks. Contributions so far: myself, Connie Burchert from Germany, Dana Muntean from Romania, Stella and Lorella from Italy.



"The Oxford Experience", a fantastic Bookr created by Dana, using www.pimpampum.



You might like to view this lovely post entitled "Drilling with Bookr" by Eva Buyuksimkesiyan.

My very first Voicethread! This was a great opportunity and learning curve for me as well to try out something new. I had contributed to other people's Voicethreads many times, but not created one myself.



A lovely newspaper article feedback summary of the course by Veselin:

www.fodey.com

GoAnimate.com: Talking about a city also by Veselin.

A Special Message
To all my Lake School Learning Curves teachers: many thanks for being such a fabulous group! Keep in touch! I really enjoyed teaching you, and sharing lots of new things. Take care.

To all my lovely Lake School colleagues: It was fantastic being in the staffroom again for 2 weeks. I loved all the chats and fun that we had. Hope to be with you all again in the New Year.

To Susan, Carmel and Lilly: Thank you for welcoming me back so warmly. I look forward to working with you again soon.

Future Blog Posts in the Pipeline
TESOL-Italy Rome National Convention 2010
Packt Publishing - Moodle Book Review:Moodle 1.9: The English Teacher's Cookbook
Olive Tree Picking - Back in the Grove!
My 2nd Year Blog Anniversary.

All Worthy Winners

I would just like to say many congratulations to all the members of my fabulous PLN who have been voted in the Top 100 Blogs by Lexiophiles. You can find out the results from Bab.la here.

Talk To Me In Korean has been voted the number one blog for 2010. Well done!



A blog on the Italian language and culture I mentioned in an earlier post has also been included in the Top 100- "Diario di una Studentessa Matta", by Melissa Muldoon. It is a great way for me to brush up my language, because the blog contains a rich variety of different topics and language points.
The lovely wordle below shows the Top 10 in the Language Teaching category blogs and it is great to see people I know via blogging, Beltfree Ning and Twitter.

It was a thrill to be included in the 495 nominations, and I would like to thank everyone who voted for me this year. It was a great experience.

Coming Soon!
Book review of Moodle 1.9 Theme Design: Beginner's Guide
Wine review of the divine "Anima Petri".

How to live before you die

Earlier today I came across this talk below given by Steve Jobs via TED's Best of the Web videos. I confess I didn't really know a lot about his background. It didn't matter who he was, however. The point was that in the 15 minutes that he had to address new graduates from Stanford University, USA, in 2005, Steve Jobs had me gripped right from the very start. I was totally engaged by what he was saying and the strong messages that he conveyed, taken directly from his very own tumultuous life. I urge you to watch the video if you have never seen it and prepare to be inspired.



Generating Conversation
The following are quotes that I liked from his talk. They are quotes that I want to remember. They are quotes which have a meaning. They have a forceful potency. You could use these quotes in a conversation class to encourage debate and speaking practice.


Choose one of the following quotes from Steve Jobs and give your opinion about it. Which one do you like best?

• "Keep looking for what truly inspires you. Don't settle".
• "You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart".
• "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition".
• "Don't lose faith!"
• "Stay happy. Stay foolish".
• "The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Phrasal Verbs

www.wordle.net

The video contains some great examples of Phrasal Verbs. This is how I would exploit them.
Make a wordle as a preteach for the video content as above. Students find out the meaning of the phrasal verbs and then think of example sentences in which the verbs could be used in a meaningful way. Students predict what the video is about.
Students watch the video and take down notes as if they are attending a "live" lecture. While they watch, they listen out for the context in which the phrasals above are used. Discuss answers as a class and compare their original predictions.

Gut Feeling
There is a fabulous 3rd conditional sentence which Steve Jobs uses during his talk. "None of this would have happened, if I hadn't been fired by Apple." Imagine how his life would have turned out if he hadn't been fired by the company he had originally co-founded? Would he still be where he is today? What an interesting thought. My gut feeling is that he would definitely have got where he is today by following his heart and intuition. So the underlying principle of his talk is the following. Believe in yourself and do not lose faith. These are indeed inspiring words of wisdom.