Self - Assessment

This training course on Multimedia Resources for the teaching of English was a very interesting and rewarding experience for me.
 Now, I know how to have accesss to motivating and effective material ready to be used in my classes.
 It will be a challenging job to involve my students in different activities related to Multimedia after I have been  given such extremely resourceful tools for classroom usage.
 I 'm aware, however, there is a very long way of hard work in the future.
I' ve learned the most important (know-how) then, I have to be ready for going on practising, improving my skills and making my classes more appealing.

Webquests & Podcasts

On the 4th April, during the last session, we learned about :
- types of search tools
- search engines like google http://www.google.com/ in various languages and
 Yahoo  http://www.yahoo.com/ among many others.
We were also taught how to look for information in different search engines at the same time, meta search engine WebCrawler http://www.webcrawler.com/ with images, news, videos ...
 Webquests
 This type of information gives you a structure approach with different pieces of information together combining them in new ways.
The project may obey to the structure:
- Introduction
-Task
-Process
-Evaluation
-Conclusion
 Building Blocks for Webquests: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
We were given some examples of webquests. Here you have only one to have a look: List of webquests http://www.bestwebquest.com/.

Podcasts for ELT

Podcast which means i-Pod + broadcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video).
You can find them on the web or create your own to use in class.
We were given some tips on the use of technology and videos in ETL : Russel Standard's Website http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/  and explored the software Audioboo iTunes and PodOmatic.
You can find some Podcast examples in:
BBC Podcasts :http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcast
ELT Podcast http://www.eltpodcast.com/
This session was long with lots of interesting material to use in our classes so, to finish up this training course, we were given some bibliography and sitography.

Different activities for different skills.

During the eleventh session we browsed through many interesting sites about: Grammar & vocabulary / Writing resourses / Listening resourses / Pronunciation / Songs & Lyrics /Reading / Games, Crosswords and Quizes /Cultural Info/ Movies and Videos /Blogs ...
Among so many  I decided  to choose:
- English verbs with Cartoons http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/ . Here you have english tense exercises to improve your knowledge. You've got the explanations about grammar and little videos. It organizes things quite well. It has many exercises,explanations and teacher resources.
- The Internet Grammar of English http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/ This site is very reliable. On the left we can see the list of things: contents of grammar, glossary of terms, index, search and lists of exercises. It is good for upper levels.
- In what the Writing Resources are concerned I'd like to mention the National writing Project http://www.nwp.org/ which is, in my opinion, very professional and interesting as it is oriented to writing and encourages the creative writing too.
- About Listening resources, I particularly enjoyed a few : Randall's http://www.esl-lab.com/ . It looks very appealling with pre-listening , listening and post listening. The listening is slow , so the students can follow it.
- In Pronunciation I' ll refer  BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron .It has four floders: Introduction, The sounds of English, Features of English, Quizzes, programmes. On the left we have many sessions we can choose according to our interests. For teachers http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teach/
- Songs and Lyrics, English Teaching songs: http://www.eslgames.com/teachingsongs Here you are taught how to teach English with this site. You have the lyrics but you are invited to buy the CD.
- Cultural Info: http://www.projectbritain.com/ .It's a guide to British Life, Culture and Customs. It's totally free and very attractive.
There are also many other interesting sites I didn't  refer, although, I guess we will use in our lessons.

Teachers' Associations

During the tenth session we browsed through some Teachers' Associations.
APPI  http://www.appi.pt/ it should invest a bit more in its layout as it doesn't have images and doesn't provide any kind of material for teachers. It is very theoretical and the articles are not appealing.
JALT: http://www.jalt.org/ It's Japanese. They give us publications, conferences and discussion forums.
 TESOL : http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp  its layout isn't much appealing, however it has blogs, different types of information (carreers, interest areas)  resource centre and online discussions.
The Association for Language Learning http://www.all-languages.org.uk/ has a very appealing homepage and gives information about news, language today and journals.
  ARLFE is a Spanish association http://www.aelfe.org/ and registration is required.

Then we learned about websites where we may get information about jobs we search and receive information in our e-mail
 International Language Job Centre.http://www.europa-pages.com/jobs
We talked about Meeting Points: Dave's ESL café http://www.eslcafe.com/

: http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp: http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp

Resource Directories

- Aardvark's English Forum  http://www.englishforum.com/ looks crowded. Information is fairly a bit repetitive and not very appealing for students. For teachers it has more or less the same, as usual, nothing special.
-Abteach-The Educators Online Centre http://www.abcteach.com/ .It has a great layout but it requires subscription.Powerpoints are free.
- Barry Fun English  http://www.barryfunenglish.com/index.php . It's one of the best in terms of language resourse room with Worksheets, Games Vocabulary, Flashcards, Powerpoint Viewer and tools.You have resourse ready to print or you may make your owns and print them. It's good for beginners and not very high level.
- BBC Learning English http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ It's extremely reliable, very well organised, huge range of information, the homepage is very attractive, totally free.
- Busy Techers' café  http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/ It's quite a disapointment because it looks very interesting but doesn't have many resources.
We critically analised :
- Mapzones http://www.mapzones.com/home.php Its homepage is colourful. In the central area we have a map in different colours according to the different continents. On the left there is world info. with 21 different topics.
When we click on the left section, introduction, we have a very boring presentation of the names of the countries. When we click on the name of the country we get information related to it. It gives us very complete and useful information but it's disapointing because some information is out of date.
- NASA http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html It has six folders :

1- Home
2- News
3- Missions
4- Multimedia
5- Connect
6- About NASA

They are directed to different publics.Seven different receptors:

1- For Public
2- For Educators  http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html
3- For Students http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html
4- For Media
5- For Policymakers
6- For Employee
7- My NASA

For students - we search by grade, information is up to date with lots of multimedia resourses (videos and images galleries, Nasa TV and picture dictionary)
For Educators -  we have educator features and articles, education image galleries and career information. We also find teaching materials:

School Discovery http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers It has four folders:

1- Administrators
2- Teachers http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/index.cfm?campaign=flyout_teachers
3- Parents
4- Students http://www.discoveryeducation.com/students/index.cfm?campaign=flyout_students

It has free resources which are printable by grade and subject.
Students have games, webmath, homework help and videos.

School Express http://www.schoolexpress.com/. It requires payment for most resources and has 9 folders . You can download thematic units and eworkbooks if you pay. It gives access to sample pages.

Electronic European Language Portfolio

Electronic European Language Portfolio

  During the fifth session, on 28th February, we learned about the

-ELP,  http://eelp.gap.it/download/registrationNew.asp , which is a pedagogical tool because it gives information about our language and intercultural competence in an international recognisable way and it's a tool to support our learning process.

It has some advantages and the ones I consider the most important are: 

1-  It can be easily modified and updated by teachers and learners;

2-  It is user-friendly,

3-  It allows the coexistence of many languages in the same digital portfolio.

 It has three parts:

   1- Language Passport;
   2- Language Biography;
   3- Dossier.
 
These parts are a summary of your language and intercultural experiences with documents that show the development of your proficiency.

Working with this electronic tool we don't have to carry documents, drawings, photographs and we can share information whenever and wherever we need.

Publishing, Blogging and creating websites

During the 8th and 9th sessions we learned how to read teen magazines online.
http://www.ehow.com/how7663758read-teen-magazines-online.html
and how to create ideas for teens http://www.ehow.com/how_5019010_create-ideas-teen-magazine.html
Both websites provides us lots of resourses: woksheets, printable quizzes and graphic organizers.
We learned how to use the Microsoft Publisher to create a newsletter.
1-Menu
2-Iniciar
3-Todos os programas
4- Microsoft Office
5- Publisher
6- Boletins
7-escolher ( ex: picotado e clicar em criar, se não gostamos clicamos do lado esquerdo em alterar modelo)
We also learned about the use of  blogs, types of blogs and how to create  them http://www.blogger.com/
It was an interesting activity, everybody was engaged in the activity and all of us created our own blog, which
 will serve to record our learning during this training on Multimedia for the Teaching of English.
Then we went through some blogs:
http://www.claudia-sn-martins.blogspot.com/
http://foreignlanguagesenglishspanishipbpt.blogspot.com/
and finished the session learning how to create a website which I think is a very hard work.
This was a different session from the others once we were taught how to create so many different types of online products/tools. I enjoyed myself a lot. It was a pleasure to attend this session.

Publishers

During the fifth session we browsed through this website http://www.heinemann.com/.
Heinmann is dedicated to teachers. It requires registration and the only product you have free access are online Catalogs. They give us free books only if we have extra credit programme.
At the top there are 5 folders to teachers:
1- Books and multimediahttp://www.heinemann.com/books-multimedia.aspx You can read a sample chapter online and then you have to buy.
2-Classroom materials http://www.heinemann.com/classroom-materials.aspx, we have sample videos an overview on slide show presentation and sample chapter. We may browse by author, grade/topic and there are Dvds. We find new and recent materials to buy according to the list price and web price.
3- Professional Development Serviceshttp://www.heinemann.com/PD/default.aspx. There are three folders with three different kind of programmes get professional development.We also have access to Webinars (Seminars on the Web)
4- Fountas & Pinnelhttp://www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinnell/default.aspx with 4 folders which provide lots of Teaching resourses and professional books about reading assessment resourses and reading intervention. It gives you access to Copernicus Educational Products Inc.

5- Teacher's Lounge http://www.heinemann.com/teacherslounge.aspx You can share your day to day challenges with colleagues and find the support you need.It's a place to talk with peers and find solutions.
Podcasts are totally free and you can enter the forum.
In What the possibility of using the website with students is concerned, it's not likely to happen because the website is dedicated to teachers and doesn´t provide appealing activities.

British and American Newspapers

On  the fifth session, we also browsed 2 among 5 British and  5 American newspaers. We  looked up the news related to  the Academy Awards:

The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/entertainmentnews/academy-awards-2011/index.html

The Daily Telegraph  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/8351615/Oscars-2011-The-83rd-Academy-Awards-in-quotes.html

The headlines  are not the same while the articles sometimes are related to the same person.We have different  photos, The Daily Telegraph more than The Washington Post and a small text or indication about the event or personality.
The Gallery of the Daily Telegraph is more complete as, apart  from showing more photos, it cares about the British awards almost the same way as the American ones.

Encyclopediae

On the 23rd February we learned about the Encyclopediae. We browsed through http://www.britannica.com/.
On its homepage, at the top we have seven folders and on the left we can see seven seccions:
History & Society, Arts & Entertainment, Travel and Geography, Science and Technology, Featured video, Britannica Blog and Advocacy for Animals.
Then we have a seccion with Research Tools where we can:
Browse, Compare countries, World Atlas, World Data Analyst.
In the browse section we can scan through encyclopaedic contents and other content sourses.
Finally at the bottom we have a Spotlights section where we find Special features from the encyclopedia.
On the right we have a free 3o day trial Britannica online for kids and a seccion of selected New & revival  Articles.
The Media Gallery section is very interesting.
We also browsed through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
The wikipaedia is boring, good for outside class activities but not for indoor activities  and it's not reliable.
The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=HomePage &Params=A1
Cia the world fact book
We searched for information on the least known country which use English as their official language or língua Franca:
Belize https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bh.html
Brunei https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bx.html
Kiribati https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kr.html
Nauru https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nr.html
Swaziland https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wz.html
Tuvalu https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tv.html


Lovely pictures you can appreciate. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Etimology and Idiomatic exercises.

We pratised etymology matching exercises in order to show our knowledge of the languages from which common Engish words come.We went through  http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/etymolquiz.htm.
It was a surprising and different activity but a bit difficult.
Then we did another activity related to idiomatic expressions.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
checked the meaning of the following  idiomatic phrases:
Lose one's marbles. marhttp://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/marblesbles
Let the cat out of the bag. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/let+the+cat+out+of+the+bag
Live in the fast lane. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/lane
Be off one's rocker. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rocker
Flip's one's wig. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wig
Burn the candle at both ends.  http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/burn+the+candle+at+both+ends

Try and learn new idiomatic expressions.