Using Wallwisher

Brainstorming new words and expressions that the teachers have come across is being done via a Wallwisher.  This is always great fun.

You can also use Linoit to create an online collaborative notice board.

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.

Red Letter Day in Abruzzo

www.writecomics.com

A huge thank you to all the members of my PLN, friends, family and dear colleagues who have sent me kind wishes for today. A new chapter is beginning, and I am ready to embrace it with the help of you all at my side!

I have embedded the lovely Wallwisher, which was sent to me earlier on via Twitter. It has really made my day!! Thank you for organising it Natasa! I have placed it here on my blog, so that I can look back on it in the future to come....
The Twitter Parade embedded in Shelly's message is awesome! I wonder how it's created? It's very clever!!



You can see lots of wonderful ideas for using Wallwisher below:
Spicing Up Your Posts: Part 2 Wallwisher by Sue Waters.
105 Classroom Ideas for Wallwisher by Sean Banville

Thank you to all my colleagues at the Lake School of English who sent me a series of fabulous Jib Jab messages. I have embedded one of them below, a spoof movie of Star Wars. It's really cool and I love all the ones that were sent to me!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

I'd like to add a series of fab resources by Jerry Blumengarten, Cybrary Man which are very useful for such occasions like "Happy Birthday". These are great to use in class with your students and for historical research purposes.

Once again, thank you to everybody for making January 23rd such a memorable day!

Introductions and Icebreakers

You can click Wallwisher above to add your sticky, or for bigger image of Wallwisher, click here to add your stickies! Many thanks in advance.

Over the next 2 weeks I will be teaching 23 primary and secondary school EFL teachers in 2 groups at the Lake School of English, instead of writing about teaching! I love writing my blog, but it's time to get back to the chalkface, figuratively speaking. So, I've decided to experiment with my lesson planning here, where else? It will be a diary of events and also my learning journal.

One of my favourite icebreakers involves using stickies. I write down a combination of 5 numbers/names/years on the board, related to me eg

• 3
• 1979
• Daphne
• 18
• 30

Students have to guess what these numbers/years/names refer to.

Students then write down 5 things related to them on a coloured stickie. They stick the stickie on themselves, and then walk around viewing as many other bits of information from the other students and trying to guess the significance of the numbers / names they see. It's a fun way of getting to know each other.

Web 2.0 Introductions and Icebreakers
I have experimented with creating introductions using Web 2.0 tools like the following. Please do write a comment about any other tools you have exploited when meeting a class for the first time. How was the new tool received? Any useful tips?

Xtranormal
True or False information about your teacher. Students have to guess which facts are true.

The Power of Images - a Powerpoint Presentation

I would like to present my most recent Powerpoint presentation tutorial via Slideshare on the theme of images. I am still learning the basics, so I decided that "simple" works best as Seth Dickens points out in his excellent "How to Make a Good PowerPoint". I have also read Jeremy Harmer's article called "10 things I hate about Powerpoint" just to inspire me, and I found it very useful. As an addendum, I have just been tweeted this link to a Powerpoint tutorial via @ Seth Dickens. Have a look at this. "Visual Design Basics" from sumeet.moghe. It is very good and its message is cristal clear.

My tutorial shows creative ways to use images and includes a few Web 2.0 tools that I particularly like. I hope you enjoy the show. Click on the "Full" icon for a better view.

The power of images 2010

View more presentations from Janet Bianchini.

FotoBabble

I found out about FotoBabble just now via my PLN's Twitter stream. I read about it on TeflTeacher Blog via the amazing Shelly Terrell from Teacher Reboot Camp. I couldn't resist giving FotoBabble a twirl, so to speak, and here is the result! It's a site which allows you to simply record your voice onto a photo that you can upload from your computer. You need to register (it's free), choose a photo, record your voice, press save and then add to your blog, or email it to your friends. It is that easy! I think the tutorial on TeflTeacher Blog is really helpful and I was able to follow the steps very easily. Next project will be to see if I can embed a talking photo onto a Wallwisher!! Why don't you give it a go yourself? Here is my embedded Fotobabble in a previous Wallwisher that I created.


NB Can you guess what Joey is thinking as Chikita walks past him?

Happy Birthday Princess Caroline!

Princess Caroline of Hanover, formerly known as Princess Caroline of Monaco, is one of my heroines. I have followed her life story from the moment she was born on January 23rd 1957, 53 years ago to be precise. She is the first child of the late Prince Ranier 111 of Monaco and of the late American actress and Princess Grace of Monaco. Princess Caroline's life has been full of adventures and amazing experiences, but she has also had more than her fair share of difficult times.

An Amazing Coincidence
Princess Caroline and I were born on the same hour, same day, same month and same year!! I have written to her twice on the occasion of two of our very special milestone birthdays and she has personally responded twice. I was extremely delighted and honoured by this fact.

I have a collection of original stamps issued in Monaco in 1957 to celebrate the birth of Princess Caroline.

A delightful image below of her beautiful mother, the late Princess Grace of Monaco.



Princess Caroline and I not only share the same birthday and age, but we also share the same values and interests. She is very dedicated to her family, like I am. She has a passion for languages, like I do. She is a keen gardener and she loves socialising. Of course, we share the same horoscope sign and this is also a unifying factor. Like most Aquarians, we are both fiercely independent and loyal companions. We both have 2 siblings and we are the oldest of the three.

Differing Lifestyles
I sometimes reflect on our completely different lifestyles. Princess Caroline is a member of a royal dynasty going back centuries. She is a member of the international jet-set. She is very wealthy. She has four beautiful children. She has a hectic schedule with many responsibilities. She has fabulous homes around the world. Her life is in the public domain. The list is endless. In comparison, my lifestyle is relatively simple, living in rural Abruzzo. I am of very modest means, I have no children, only 5 lovely furkids. I don't physically jet-set around the world any more like I used to but, I guess I'm a "virtual" global jet-setter now, which is equally exhilirating for me. I don't have too many responsibilities. My life is not in the public domain.
The video I found on Youtube below highlights some photos in the life of Princess Caroline.



A Special Message
Happy birthday, Princess Caroline, from one of your greatest admirers. I wish you all the happiness in the world. You truly deserve it. I hope you will have a wonderful day today, wherever you may be.

23rd January 2010
Happy birthday to Silvana, my cousin's wife, and happy birthday to Gemma, my best friend Daphne's daughter. Enjoy your special day!!

Other events and people born on the same day can be viewed here.

A Fabulous Web 2.0 Birthday Surprise!
This is what I received from my absolutely lovely colleagues from the Lake School of English. It made me feel very emotional and I would like to say thank you to all of you for thinking of me. I can't wait to see you next month!

You can press on the Wallwisher link to see all the lovely messages. This has well and truly made my day!!