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

Janet's First Jing!

I have been wanting to create Jing screen capture screencasts ever since I viewed Russell Stannard's video tutorials on this versatile web 2.0 tool. It is his favourite tool, and he demonstrates how to use it here. I have to confess I have had to watch this excellent video tutorial a few times today, and I am still learning by trial and error!! That is the only way to do things, I guess. Practice, practice and even more practice!!
I am determined to teach myself how to use this very interesting tool!!

I also viewed this great blog post on Simple K12 site, called How to use Jing in your classroom. There are a lot of useful comments and practical tips in the Comments section of this Simple K12 post.

Nik Peachey has just published "10 Tech Tools for Teacher Training Courses" on his fab Nik's Learning Technology blog. Jing is included in his top 10 tools!!

My First Jing Video
So, this is my first ever Jing screen capture video!! I captured the image that you can see at the top, and then created the video and saved it onto my computer and screencast. I then got the embed code to add to my blog post. Russell Stannard shows you exactly how to do this step by step on:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/Jing/index.html

My aim is to learn a bit more about what to do with Jing and how to use it with students, so I will be viewing this set of Teacher Training Video Tutorials soon:

Using Jing in Language Classes.

You are welcome to join me in my learning journey. I hope to post up how I get on with it as I go along.




My Classroom Without Walls
My virtual classroom and excellent teachers surround me on my blog sidebar! This means that I can enter my very own, custom-designed classroom whenever I want.

This is really cool, don't you think??

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!!

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.

Seeta:Reading Challenge Feedback!

I entered the Seeta Reading Challenge e-course with great excitement. An educator whom I have admired from afar for a long time was to be my tutor. This wonderful tutor was Marisa Constantinides. She organised a fantastic 7-day course on Moodle. It proved to be a real challenge for me and one which pushed me in all the right directions. It was lovely to be a student once again amongst members of my PLN. By chance, the week in question was a good one, because on a few of the days, I had slightly more free time than usual. This was a very fortuitous sign. I approached the course with gusto. This means "with pleasure and enthusiasm".


I would like to share the 3 main activities for reading lessons that I created during the course. I don't think I've worked as hard as this in a long time (lol), and it is all thanks to the excellent motivational skills of Marisa. At one point due to other pressing engagements that cropped up, I wasn't sure if I could do everything. My way to get round the lack of time was to stay up burning the midnight oil and I was able to achieve the tasks.

Day 2 Seeta Reading Challenge: The Man with the Golden Voice
Ted Williams below was part of my reading task for Day 2 of the Seeta Reading Challenge. You may be thinking why is he here? Well, I had to find a text and then devise a series of pre-reading tasks to use with the text. Photo below edited with photofunia


You can read the set of activities that I have published via www.youblisher.com. It's a free and very fast tool, which converts your pdfs into nice-looking "books". These booklets can then be easily embedded on a blog or wiki! Please click on the book to view the activities inside.

Day 5 Seeta Reading Challenge:The Cat that got the Cream
Cats seem to follow me wherever I go online. It can't be helped, I suppose. 3 of them are a part of my life and one of them is my dedicated and trusty logo. The Cat that got the Cream comes as a direct result of a very challenging piece of homework that was set for Day 5 Reading Challenge. We had to devise a set of creative activities for an authentic reading text of our choice.

Below is part of my lesson plan.



I was informed yesterday that my slideshare of this particular lesson plan was a "hot Twitter topic" of the day!

Day 6 Seeta Reading Challenge:Physical Training in Your DreamsPlease see below a list of activities that I created for the Day 6 reading challenge task. Marisa asked us to create some pre-reading, while reading and post-reading activities to share with the group. We had to use the techniques that we had read about in the resources and reading materials that Marisa had included as reading matter every day.

I actually thought of all these activities in the car during our weekly expedition to Penne for our shopping. I was exceptionally quiet and very focused. I just brainstormed a list of things to do with the text that Marisa had kindly supplied us. I really enjoyed having to think up the following tasks, which are, I hasten to add in mixed up order.

I caused my dear tutor a bit of a headache by submitting this homework in this mixed up format. I owe her a few drinks in Brighton as a most humble apology!!

Final Thoughts
I wish to thank Marisa for a wonderful course, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Marisa was able to skillfully select the right level of stimulating reading tasks, and I felt refreshed as a teacher after the course had finished. It made me question some of my methods and it made me want to incorporate new ideas and strategies in dealing with reading skills. A lot of web 2.0 tools were incorporated into the Moodle platform by our expert tutor. It was a great experience for a lot of us to try out new tools in a relaxed and stimulating environment.

I have only included a taster of the course content. There was much, much more!! A lot of superb materials for teaching effective reading skills were shared on the course, and I can't wait to try them out in my upcoming lessons!!

In particular, this post on Advance Organisers was very practical and good background reading matter.
This post on "Tech Tools & Pedagogy 2 - Word Clouds" was great as a review of all the different word clouds that are available.
I also enjoyed this post on "Embedding Creative Thinking Skills Training into our EFL Practice."

Although the Reading Challenge course is officially now over, it is still open if you would like to find out about the reading challenge. All you have to do is register on the Seeta site! There are some more fab courses coming up as well!

Finally, I would like to say many thanks to my co-participants on the course. Together we shared a lot of experiences, resources, ideas, techniques, advice and it was amazing. Most of all, it was great fun learning together!!

Goal 18: Share A Story - 30 Goals Challenge

Inspired by Shelly Terrell's brilliant and inspiring series of posts, this one - Goal 18: Share a Story 30 Goals Challenge, has prompted me to share the following piece of writing which I did recently on my fab EVO Digital Storytelling course.

One of the Week 2 tasks was to post about an object which had a special significance in our life. I didn't have to think too much about the one special object which had helped transform me into who I am today. The single act of owning my very own computer helped liberate me from the irrational fear I once had about technology. I would like to share the story of my change here, and hopefully it may inspire someone else to promote a change which will have positive effects. As Shelly says, stepping out of one's comfort zone, to embrace change is essential for us to transform ourselves. Find out more about this quote - "Soil is the substance of transformation."
I have just read "Soil" by David Warr. It is an amazing post.

It's a coincidence that I mentioned I'm avidly reading "Soil, Humus and Manure" the other day. A very apt and topical subject!! You might also like to view "The Good Earth", a post I wrote a few years ago and which ties in with the same theme....Soil is definitely the topic of the day!!

The image above is one of my favourite ones and I have posted it before. I have just added a tuxpi colour swirl effect to change it a little bit.

My Computer

I can't imagine my life without my faithful and vintage computer. It has become an integral part of my daily existence. Its meaning is immeasurable. And yet, just a few short years ago, this simply wasn't the case at all.

I was a true "technophobe". I lived a simple life. Creating lesson activities using basic Word on the school computer, sending a few emails to friends every now and then. That was it.
No Powerpoint presentations, no Twitter, no blogging, no Web 2.0 tools, no Flickr, no Facebook. A very simple and easy life indeed!

Until that is, something happened which was to change my life overnight. The one and only computer we had, which belonged to my husband, and which he used for his work at home, crashed. It died a slow, painful death, sometime in November 2008. We had to buy a new computer to save the day. It was then I decided that I would like to have my very own computer, but only if the "dead" one could be brought back to life again. My logic in this was that if a computer had already sunk to its lowest depth, then a technophobe like me would have no worries if I accidentally "broke" it again. It wouldn't matter to anybody else but myself. The computer had already "been there, done that and got the T-shirt" to prove itself.

Armed with this very basic logic, and with ever increasing confidence, I set about actually using the computer as you see above, slowly but surely on a more regular basis. I began to use a webcam, I started to Skype with my former colleagues at the Lake School in Oxford, sometimes joining in with the monthly Academic Meetings.

My new world in the Abruzzo countryside with only the gentle patter of hundreds of sheep occasionally roaming past, the swaying of olive tree branches, the barking of wild dogs, the occasional sound of gunshots being fired from hunters seeking wild boar, the chickens clucking merrily away, all these things blended gracefully into my new adventure with technology.

If it weren't for my Gateway 865OGB computer, I wouldn't be doing this Digital Storytelling course today.

I owe it my life, which is full of exciting technology. I will hang onto it tenaciously until the day it eventually bites the dust.

Until that fateful moment comes, it will continue to be my Gateway to the outside world.

Lauretum Vinum et Oleum

Set against the magnificent backdrop of Loreto Aprutino's historical quarter, we spent a very pleasant 3 hours last night at the Lauretum Vinum et Oleum Event. A wine and olive oil event which was fantastic and enjoyable. It was also extremely well organised and exhibitors from the local area were there to explain each of the different types of food and wine on offer. For the modest sum of 10 euros each, we were given a wineglass in a special pouch container to hang around our neck and 2 blocks of 15 tickets each for the samples of delights to come.

15 samples of individual wines, including Kudos, Aternum, ModA from the Cantine Talamonti and many more including delicious wines from Masciarelli.

15 tastings of local delicacies, all from around the Loreto Aprutino area.

No, before you ask, I did not get "legless" by the end of the evening, maybe just a bit happy! This was due to the fact that each sample of lovely wine was accompanied with solid bits of food, such as lentil soup, bean soup,cereal soup, lovely ham slices, lamb stew, "baccala", which is a type of very common salty fish, local "aprutina" tripe, lots of bread liberally covered in delicious olive oil, and I could go on. You get the picture..

The picture below shows you a painting housed in the Olive Oil museum of a family of workers relaxing during the olive picking season.

Part of the "Vinum et Oleum" tour involved going into the Acerbo Museum of Castelli Ceramics.
I loved viewing each delicate and intricate piece of Castelli ceramic art - 579 precious pieces, to be precise. The Loreto Aprutino museum houses the biggest collection of Castelli ceramics in Italy. They survived the Earthquake tremors from L'Aquila intact, whereas some of the pieces in the Castelli Ceramics Museum actually in Castelli, did not survive, and the museum remains closed to this day.

I love collecting Castelli ceramics, and I have a 1950s Castelli vase, which I was lucky enough to find in a second-hand shop for only 50 euros. One of my favourite possessions is this wash bowl with stand set below, which used to be in all the bedrooms of the old "casale", or farmhouses.

Below a flyer of the Wine and Olive Oil Event hosted by Loreto Aprutino.

I love this image below from the wall of the Olive Oil museum which shows a family gathered together for a group photo. I have a similar family photo from Abruzzo taken many years ago like this one, but it is still in one of my boxes somewhere. It's a piece of time stood still.

Below an image of our olives, a reminder that we live in an area blessed with abundant amounts of olive trees, a life force for many of the local famers. Some of the prestigious bottles of olive oil on display at the event cost up to 90 euros for a 750 ml bottle, a very special olive oil indeed! Olive oil has often been alluded to as "Liquid Gold" and I guess there must be a reason for this name.

You may also like to read:

• Lovely Abruzzo Olive Oil.
• The Secret Life of Trees by About Abruzzo blog.
• Worth a Drizzle - Abruzzo Olive Oil Museum by Life in Abruzzo blog.

If you are looking for somewhere to stay in Loreto, maybe this might be interesting for you. It certainly looks comfortable. B& B Lauretum.

Above you can see an edited image of where part of the fabulous event took place. Very Gothic -looking indeed!

A big thanks to the organisers "Lauretum Vinum et Oleum" for this wonderful event, now in its 5th successful year.

Seminar in L'Aquila for Tesol- Italy Teachers: Effective Images for Powerful Activities

In front of my PowerPoint display

It was my great pleasure yesterday to present at the first TESOL seminar of this new school year for Tesol Italy in L'Aquila, Abruzzo. This meeting was organised by Annamaria, the co-ordinator of the Tesol L'Aquila group, and it was lovely to meet her in person. She welcomed me and K (who was my personal chauffeur for the day) very warmly, and then helped me to set up the computer in the designated room, which was in the newly born Resource Centre for Teachers of Foreign Languages, hosted by Scuola Media "Dante Alighieri" of L'Aquila. This fabulous resource centre has been equipped by Tesol Italy with all kinds of materials available for the teachers of L'Aquila.

The session lasted approximately 2 hours, and there were over 20 teachers who were able to attend. My presentation was entitled "Effective Images for Powerful Activities". I showed a combination of slides I have used before, and a few additional new slides. I have embedded a Slideshare below.

L'aquila Seminar: "Effective Images for Powerful Activities

View more presentations from Janet Bianchini.

Feedback and Analysis
It was an absolutely amazing and very moving experience for me to be with teachers, who have been through so much. I was very happy to see all the participants joining in the activities with such a lot of enthusiasm. It was a very interactive presentation, and I liked the fact that I was able to move around everyone and see how they were getting on with the tasks I set. I think we all had some fun and the time literally flew past!

The participants did the following activities amongst others:

• brainstorm adjectives beginning with "C" to describe qualities of an effective teacher
• discuss the qualities of an efffective teacher
• 20 questions "guess the famous couple" (Romeo and Juliet)
• retell the story of Romeo and Juliet in under 50 words in pairs / groups
• retell the story around the class with each participant using only one word (this was fun!)
• guess the story of how a couple met
  
• create a poem/short paragraph from a picture prompt
• read a poem out aloud with correct stress patterns
• complete half a text to recreate a full text
  
• guess a famous person (George Clooney) - relevance to Abruzzo being his latest film "The American"
• briefly touch upon the implications of "teaching unplugged" via a picture prompt

Some Web 2.0 Tools
I introduced and showed examples of the following tools (amongst others), which I had used to create special effects and or edit my own images:

create a newscast picture with tuxpi.com
create a film strip picture frame with tuxpi.com
create a magazine effect and motivational poster with bighugelabs.com (see the one above)
a mind map using www.bubbl.us

The mind map below is one I have just created highlighting the lovely qualities of the teachers I met yesterday. Please press on the image to make it bigger. This has been saved as a .jpeg file.


Below is the same mind map, but it has been saved as a moving file, which is quite fun. This was embedded very easily straight from bubbl.us to my blog. Which one do you prefer?



Teaching Unplugged
I discussed the fact that teaching "unplugged" is a topic which is very topical at the moment. To teach with a coursebook or not / to teach "Dogme" style lessons or not. I introduced this topic briefly by a tuxpi - edited image of myself teaching back in 1981 (!!) in the GDR. Of course, back in those long distant days, I did literally teach "unplugged". Eg I had no internet, no OHP, no modern gadgets. Just the plain old, but incredibly useful, blackboard you can see behind me. The excellent "Streamline Departures" was the coursebook I used with all my Beginner level groups of students for the whole year. That is why after 30 years I still know the book inside out. I have very fond memories of it indeed!

I also showed the following image to generate a short discussion topic on "guess what is Janet saying to her students in 1982?"

As an addendum to our brief discussion yesterday, I would like to add the following excellent blog posts, which are currently featuring the subject of "Teaching Unplugged" principles:

Dogme Blog Challenge by Karenne Sylvester.
Dogme for All? by I'd like to think that I help people to learn English blog.
Unplugged Teaching Journal entry #2: My week with Marilyn by Jason Renshaw.

You might also find the following blog post "Animating your Coursebook", by Marisa Constantinides, very interesting.

On the theme of Romeo and Juliet, have a look at this absolutely amazing "Interactive Romeo and Juliet" resource, mentioned on Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog.

I was very touched when at the end of my presentation, Annamaria presented me with a beautiful book on the history of L'Aquila. I will treasure this book forever.

Many, many thanks Teachers of L'Aquila for your wonderful participation in my seminar. It was a huge pleasure to meet you all. Hope to see you at TESOL - Italy Rome National Convention next month!