Voice #237 on an edventure

Once in a while someone catches me off-guard and this is one of those times. Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, runs a personal blog, www.dailyedventures.com, where he speaks to "heroes in education worldwide".

Each day the blog features an interview with someone in the education sector: "teachers, school leaders, policy-makers, business leaders, celebrities, NGO leaders, researchers - people who have embraced enhancing education as a core facet in their lives." Anthony tries to find out who these people are, what inspires them, what frustrates them, and what hopes they hold for the future of education.

So, when I was contacted to participate, how can I possibly refuse, right?

You can read about the interview here.

A case for CPD and PLN...

Photos by me. See more here.

Here's an example of how a seed is taken and planted with care many miles away where it soon grows into a pretty flower. This flowering stem is again taken some distance away, where it grows and grows and we now have a lush beautiful garden...

It all started with a comment I made in Scott Thornbury's post on iTDi's blog "How important is homework?" I'd first talked about it in The Dogme Diaries, but I don't suppose many people read that ;-)

I mentioned that the homework I set a class of adult teachers was basically three questions:

• What have you learnt today?
• What part of the lesson did you like or dislike in the class today?
• What would you like to do in class next week?

A couple of months later, Alexandra Chistyakova wrote to say that she'd used the questions with her class of university students, and how well that had gone down. You can read about how she moulded my homework to suit her personality and that of her class here:

http://eltdiary.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/who-to-ask/  and

http://eltdiary.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/who-to-ask2-or-what-do-students-want/

Then, a little while later, Barbara Bujtás read Alexandra's posts and decided to adapt it to her class of 3-year-olds! You can read about it here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458868754141154&set=a.420855051275858.108546.100000541016537&type=1&theater

You can see the beauty of her work here:

So, if you're not involved in a PLN (personal learning network) or have not been convinced of it, I hope this little episode will serve to change your mind!

Alexandra and Barbara, you both rock!

Learn about continuing professional development here: http://www.scoop.it/t/continuing-teacher-development

Learn about the benefits of Twitter here: http://www.scoop.it/t/why-twitter-for-teachers

Grammarly Blogathon: How to be a "superb" writer

These helpful hints are brought to you in partnership with the Superb Writers' Blogathon by Grammarly grammar checker. Grammarly understands the importance of the written word.

When Grammarly first approached me and asked if I would like to contribute a short post to the blogathon, my first thought was, “Mmm… so I’m a superb writer, am I?”

I know that not to be true, of course, although I have to admit that I do spend a lot of time mulling over words and sentences. I accepted their offer, the sucker that I am for such things, and here then are some of what I consider essential ingredients of good writing.

Grammar

Primordial. I’ll include spelling and punctuation under this section, too. Bad grammar makes reading difficult, worse, if your readership is likely to include teachers! A grammar checker, such as Grammarly, can help you sometimes, but you must know your stuff first, to be able to decide if the corrections are right or wrong. I’ve seen typical bad errors such as you’re-your and their-there-they’re even in professional writers’ blogs, and that’s just so embarrassing. These errors are common because the signal connecting the fingers to the brain sometimes fails, which is why it is imperative to proofread over and over again - see below.

Contentious issues such as split infinitives, or beginning sentences with a conjunction, are fine, in my opinion; if you know what you’re doing, they may mark your style and they are not necessarily wrong. But where mistakes are glaringly obvious or when they affect meaning, then they are definitely a no-no.

If you know that you make the same errors over and over again, it’s useful to compile a list of such errors so you can check your drafts against it. Here are some common ones:

• subject/verb agreement
• incomplete sentences (fragments can be all right, but you’ll have to be sure)
• prepositions
• tenses - be consistent
• collocations (a good collocation dictionary is useful)

Vocabulary

It helps to have an extensive vocabulary. By this, I don’t mean you need to know “big” words which will send most of your readers diving into their dictionaries, but rather so that you don’t use the same words repeatedly. In any case, in these days of free online dictionaries and thesauri, it takes only a matter of seconds to look for alternatives. Having said that, there are times when words are repeated to create impact, especially in speeches. A good writer knows when to employ this technique.

Who’s your audience?

Knowing who your audience is important because it will (or should) affect how you write. Should you be writing in a formal or informal register? Longer or shorter sentences? Are you too technical or are you too condescending? Do you use too much jargon? Do you know what they are expecting to read? Is the language level appropriate? Will they find it interesting?

Style

“Style is a simple way of saying complicated things” -  Jean Cocteau

Bear in mind the pace in which we live. Most of us don’t spend much time on detailed reading, especially on the web. We mainly skim through lots of material until we find something that catches our eye, something that is of interest to us. So, be clear and concise. Are you saying something to the point or are you being excessively long-winded? Is your use of language and content correct? Is it easy to understand?

Organization

Is your material well organized? Is there variety in sentence and paragraph lengths? Does it flow smoothly? Have you made good use of strategic linkers?

Proofs

Proofread your output over and over again. Sleep on it. Read it again the next day. Read it aloud. I do this all the time because often when we read silently we miss certain things as the eyes seem to register what the mind wants to. Reading it aloud has always thrown up weaknesses I’d failed to spot while doing it silently. This is especially true with repetition.

Though by no means a comprehensive list, nor are these innovative ideas, I nevertheless hope that they will put you on the right path towards superb writing!

How to overcome the Lonely Teacher Blues

Image by @ij64 on ELTPics;

Teaching is, often, a lonely job. If you're lucky, you get to talk about your problems, exchange ideas, or periodically receive some level of motivation in the staff room. Most of the time, however, you get thrown in the deep end, with only a marker and the coursebook to clutch.

Some seek to fight this problem by attending conferences, and others do courses, but these tend to be costly, and teaching is not noted for a generous pay scale. So, unless some form of backing is available, most of us can't do either of those.

However, the situation has improved tremendously in the past decade or so. As Barbara Sakamoto said in my interview with her, "Get online!" There's a bewildering amount of information and resources available on the Internet, so much so that one can easily get lost. If you're reading this, you're probably among those who are already fairly knowledgeable about the world of blogging, Twitter, and webinars. It is our duty, then, to enlighten the uninitiated.

If you want to know which blogs to read, a good place to start is my recommended blogs list. This list is, naturally, constantly updated. Twitter is an incredible world, but I'd probably need a few hours to explain its ins and outs - why don't you get your school to call me and I could give a talk? ;-) Alternatively, read the articles which I've scooped here.

If you're interested in personal professional development, follow my scoops here, and if you're in need of some motivation, why don't you check out some of the teachers here.

As for webinars... these are getting more and more popular, and it's easy to see why. Most of them are FREE, and you can attend them from the comforts of your own home. Don't you know what webinars are? They are basically online conferences. To attend them, you are sometimes required to register. You will be given a url (the address of a web page) to go to. When you enter this page, you'll be asked to download a small Java file. Follow the instructions from there and before you could get comfortable, you'd be 'apparated' (to borrow a word from J K Rowlings) to the conference room!

Talking of webinars, next Saturday, 17th December is a very special day. Two free webinars are taking place, practically one after another; here's a terrific chance to experience first hand what many other teachers around the world are doing!

iTDi (International Teacher Development Institute) will be running, very shortly, online courses, designed by teachers, for teachers. Their free webinar has already attracted 300 teachers from 57 countries, but they are still accepting people for their waiting list, so don't wait any longer. It's free, isn't it? The webinar is titled "What is a teacher?" For the full line-up of internationally-acclaimed presenters, schedule and registration, go to:  http://itdi.pro/webinar.html
It runs from 09:00 to 13:00 UTC.

Right after that, from 14:00 CET onwards, TeachMeet International start their own exciting event. This promises to be a truly dynamic affair, each presenter being given 3 minutes of "floor" time. Don't miss that either!

For those who are not able to attend either of these conferences, there is a good possibility that the recordings will be made available, but you'd need to be in touch with "us" to know where and when they are released!

   

#ELTBITES Challenge: We like to move it, move it

Once in a while I read something and I find myself thinking, "Now, why didn't I think of that?". Well, Richard Gresswell had such an idea. He started a blog, called it ELTBITES, and challenged us:

"Describe an activity that requires no more than the teacher, students, and possibly making use of the board, pens, and paper. Describe the activity aims and procedure concisely in no more than 200 words."

Here is my contribution, which may not be all that original.

Image from ELTPics by @yearinthelifeof

Level: any
Time: as long as interest prevails
Material: your tongue, and students who obey instructions
Aims: vocabulary, warmer, filler, exercise, fun, ...
Procedure:

This is a simple activity to get the students moving, but, be warned, it can be addictive. I had students wanting to do it again and again, but, perhaps, it was just an excuse for them not to do any 'school work'! ;-)

Think of the language you want your students to work with. Say, you want to revise colours and clothes:

Those of you whose bedroom is white, stand up. (Notice use of relative pronoun, imperative.)

Remain standing.

What about blue?

And black? (I once had a student who has a black bedroom! Of course, we started a mini-conversation.)

Now, if you're wearing white trainers, sit down.

If you're wearing blue jeans, stand up.

You can vary the movements:

If you don't have a belt on, take one step to the left.

If you're wearing black underwear, take two steps back. (This will raise a lot of sniggers!)

Keep it dynamic. Think of unusual stuff (if you can touch your nose with your tongue...). Get them to observe each other (those who have short curly hair...). With higher levels, think of more challenging questions (those who believe in... those who would like to...).

Basically, the limit is your imagination. Hand the activity over to your students. Get them to ask the questions, and use their own commands. Encourage them to be creative.

If you do use this activity, tell us about it!

Top Tools for Learning 2011

C4LPT (Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies), run by Jane Hart, is taking votes for their annual Top 100 Tools for Learning. This is the fifth time they'll be compiling the list, and voting closes on Sunday 13th Nov. To be honest, I've never participated in their previous compilations, nor, for that matter, in any other such lists run by others. There are so many so-called tech tools for learning, that one just becomes overwhelmed, and, furthermore, it's an area that doesn't remain static. Free sites may start to charge, software disappears, but for each that dies, 5 more are born, so if you don't keep abreast of the situation, you will simply lag too far behind.

I decided to participate in this year's compilation, but I had to think long and hard for my list. My criteria may be different to that of others, though. I thought to myself, which tools are imperative to my needs? Which would cause me the worst hardship were they to be removed? Which tools do I use, day in, day out? I'm sure some of these on my list would not appear on the list of others because they're simply so taken for granted that they're no longer considered a tech tool as such!

Here are my choices, in no particular order.

1. Gmail: I've been using this since their beta days, and it's just revolutionised the way I manage my emails. Without Gmail, I don't think I'd have subscribed to so many sites, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to archive so much mail.
2. Twitter: At first, I didn't understand what the fuss was about. Who wants to know about who you're having coffee with or how many miles you've run? Who has time to read a constant barrage of 140-character snippets? This was until I decided to take a look at...
3. Tweetdeck, and when I found out that there are so many people who are using it not so much for social but for professional purposes, and when I learn about hashtags and such, I became hooked. Incidentally, Tweetdeck has been bought by Twitter a few months ago.
4. Blogger: I've seen the other platforms, and I even have two wordpress blogs, but blogger makes it to my list because of its user-friendliness and versatility. Handling widgets is a piece of cake, and even if your knowledge of HTML is null, you'll be able to get a blog up and running in no time. Wordpress, on the other hand, gets to be such a pain, sometimes. It doesn't accept iframe code, and even putting line spaces in your post becomes an art form.
5. Google Docs: I'm using this more and more, especially for written work. I hardly use paper if I can avoid it, and how many students do you know file their compositions systematically and refer back to them? Using Google Docs, they can access their past work much more easily, they can quick search for words or expressions, and if teachers use the comments feature to provide feedback, they are there for the students to refer to as and when required.
6. Scoop It: This is my latest 'toy'. I use it as a sort of bookmarking tool. With so much information available, it's hard to keep track of it. You know how it is - you come across something that is interesting, but you either have no time to study it or it isn't something that is of use now, but might be for later, so you want to save it. Bookmark it? Only to forget, months later, that you had it bookmarked? I was never fond of Diigo, and although I have stuff in Livebinders, I find I hardly refer to them. ScoopIt is fast and its layout makes it easier to find what I'm looking for, and, if you share your scoops, you'll help others find what they're looking for, too. The Internet is all about give and take! Have a look at some of my ScoopIts: Why Twitter for Teachers, or Grammar Exercises.
7. PowerPoint: Relatively easy to manage, and it's improved a lot since its inception. I don't like Prezi, to be honest. Sorry!
8. Google Search: How did we find information before Google? Can you imagine life without Google Search? A lifesaver in many occasions. The world at our fingertips, literally.
9. Wikipedia: Encyclopaedia for the masses. Fundamental.
10. Audacity: A basic (and, importantly, free) sound editing tool which I use quite a bit.

      

SpiderScribe mindmapper now allows embedding and exporting

Followers of this blog would have seen me using a few websites to produce mind maps for various purposes. For a list of free mind mappers I've used, see the useful resources page.

To see examples of the mind maps in action, see Cokey Monkey, Ideas on a silver platter, and How to create an interactive mind map.

Lately, my favourite has been Spiderscribe in spite its having certain weaknesses; however, I'm pleased to announce that they have now allowed embedding, and exporting to either jpg or png format.

Below are examples of a png image, and an embedded map. These maps were used to demonstrate collocations of the word 'holiday', first seen on The Dogme Diaries, my reflective blog.

To navigate around the mind map, simply click on it and drag as you wish.

   

Grammar Blog of the Year Deadline Extended

It has been such a frantic weekend that Grammar.net decided to extend the deadline by 3 days, after disqualifying the 'top' two blogs. The official deadline now is Thursday, 20th October, 23:59 PST (Pacific Standard Time), and the winner will be announced on Friday 21st October.

So, I don't have to say it - we're currently leading, so keep it there! Oh, please do be careful - it's one vote per person, although it's still unclear how they are going to control that. Thanks to EVERYONE who has voted and who has been keeping the campaign going on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere in the cyber world! 

Thank you!

Best Grammar Blog 2011

We're getting into the final countdown, and there seems to be a strong surge in voting. A CLIL To Climb is currently lying in second place, with fans of the third-spot blog frantically voting to move it up, while the top-spot contender is also strongly defending its position. And the pig in the middle?

I'm getting a fair number of visits from the Grammar.net nomination page, but are you voting for me? ;-)

Regardless of my final position, I'd like to thank each and every one of you who has voted! I'm honoured to be up there especially taking into account the fact that this is a one-man show, sustained by little more than pure love of sharing.

Blog Challenge: Compare & Contrast

This challenge has been suggested by Anne & Brad.

Although there are many personal photos in my collection that I can choose, I decided on these two, which weren't taken by me. And that's all I'm going to say about them!

What can you say? Add your comments below.

Best Grammar Blog 2011

I'm very pleased to be able to say that a cLiL to cLiMB has made it to the finals of Grammar.net's Best Grammar Blog 2011 competition. Voting lasts for three weeks, from today, 26th September until 17th October. The winner will be announced on or before 27th October.

Of course, I will be chuffed if you were to vote for me (thanks to those who voted to ensure that I made it to the finals), but even if you don't, have a look at the terrific list of finalists.

Good luck to all finalists!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today, this blog celebrates its 2nd birthday, and I'd like to think that it has helped some of you some of the time during this period. Thank you for your support, even though most of you have been rather quiet!

I have been too busy blogging ;-) to bake a cake, I'm afraid, so a virtual one will have to do!

According to Blogger's statistics, the blog has received a total of 80,464 page views over these past two years, and here are the top 3 posts:

Label the animal cell (1,366 page views)

Classroom objects tagging game (1,232 page views)

Daily Routines tagging game (1,127 page views)

New Blog: Dogme Diaries: Plugging the unplugged

For those of you who have been following my tweets, you may have read that I promised 2 new blogs. The first promise was fulfilled yesterday with the publishing of Exclusive Interviews. Today, I unleashed the second, The Dogme Diaries! Here's hoping you'll enjoy them!

New Blog: exclusive interviews

As if I didn't have enough work with this blog, I've started up another. This one's dedicated to exclusive interviews with teaching professionals whom I consider important to us all. I hope the interviews will be a source of inspiration to everyone. The first one is with none other than the great Scott Thornbury.

The blog's called IAskU. All the names I wanted had been taken, so I settled with this.

Top 5 posts of May 2011

According to Google Analytics, here are the top 5 posts for May:

Photos + Mind Map = Ideas on a Silver Platter (201 Page views)

Is this the best interactive multilingual dictiona... (171)

Time to vote! – Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Lover... (164)

Fantastic new tool for annotating web pages (154)

Every Picture Tells A Story: Let The Students Spea... (141)

The top three traffic sources (apart from Google) were:

Lexiophiles

Sunflower-efl

http://www.stpatsasquith.dbb.catholic.edu.au/myclasses/Class,102612958455871

Thank you all!

Guesting on Teaching Village

Read my analysis of emergent language based on lessons using the above image in my guest post for Barbara Sakamoto's Teaching Village. Thanks, Barb, for the invite.

Related posts:

Speaking lesson using close-up images

Photos + Mindmap = Ideas on a silver platter

Cokey Monkey lesson plan

Every picture tells a story - let the students speak!

Time to vote! – Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Lovers 2011

Each year, Lexiophiles hold a competition for the top 100 language lovers based on user votes (50%) and their own ranking criteria (50%).

This year, they're hosting their fourth edition, and are looking for the best in four categories: Language Learning Blogs, Language Professionals Blogs, Language Facebook Pages and Language Twitterers.

Once again, a cLiL to cLiMB has been nominated, and this year, it's in the Language Learning category. The voting period ends on 29th May. Results will be made known on 1st June.

Each person is allowed one vote, so, please ask your friends, family, students, neighbours, etc to vote for me! Your vote counts!

To vote, click on my voting button. You can see it at the top of the home page, at the top of this post, and also on the right, under AWARDS. When you click on this button, it will bring you to Lexiophiles' voting page, and, easy for voters, a cLiL to cLiMB is the first on the list. Check the circle to its left, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on VOTE.

Each person is allowed to vote once. But if you're sharing one computer, you'd need to clear your cookies to be able to vote again, or use a different browser. Don't cheat, as Lexiophiles will remove any votes they consider fraudulent.

Thank you kindly!

If you wish to know how the competition works, go here.

Top 5 posts of April 2011

Do you read your analytics? Which do you use?

It's rather curious to see how each service reports differently. Lately, I've been looking at Blogger's, more for the convenience than anything else. In case you haven't noticed, on the posting page, there's a button, alongside the others such as settings, design, and monetise, which says STATS. Click on this and you'll see all kinds of statistics for your blog.

I made a quick comparison between Blogger and Google Analytics, and was rather surprised at the differences. Don't they belong to the same company? Here are my top 5 posts for the month of April.

BLOGGER

1. Help Japan if you can (250 page views) (published 15 March 2011)
2. Interview with Nicky Hockly Listening Activity (168 page views) (Published 21 April 2011)
3. Tweeting is for the birds - Debate Activities (167 page views) (Published 21 April 2011)
4. To be like a dogme with a bone (113 page views) (Published 27 April 2011)
5. Barcelona vs Real Madrid Cincomentarios (110 page views) (Published on 30 Nov 2010)

Total page views for April 2011: 8,481

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

1. Help Japan if you can (127 page views)
2. Prepositions of time and place: at, in, on (105 page views) (published 29 Mar 2011)
3. Tweeting is for the birds - Debate Activities (103 page views)
4. We are the champions: One song, countless activities (101 page views) (published 3 Apr 2011)
5. Transcribe text to phonetic symbols (94 page views) (published 25 Feb 2011)

Total page views for April 2011: 6,099

One thing worth noting is that if someone visits the home page (902 visits according to Google Analytics), the posts they read aren't recorded.

What they both agree on are the top 2 referring sites, which are Google (a long way in front) and Facebook. What they disagree on is the third spot. Analytics gave it to Oxford University Press, while, for Blogger, it's That's English. Direct visits coming from email (Feedburner) are excluded as Blogger doesn't seem to record these.

If I were to look at the figures controlled by other analysts I use such as Sitemeter, Blogpatrol, and StatCounter, they all give varying results. It doesn't really matter much to me, but I do wonder which of these potential advertisers look at.

V Premio Espiral Edublogs 2010 Update

They have decided to accept comments over at their website now; if you wish to do so, just click on the image above. Much appreciated. The language you write in shouldn't matter - I can always use Google ;-)

V Premio Espiral Edublogs 2010

Another year's gone by, and the time for the V Premio Espiral Edublogs is here with us again. a cLiL to cLiMB, just as in 2010, has been submitted for consideration. You can see it at this link.

This year, unlike last year, it appears that they won't be asking for comments on their website, but if any of you have any opinions regarding the blog in the past, present or future, or if there is something you like to see more or less of, or just to say hello, please do leave a comment below.

For those who still don't know how to do it, to leave comments, just scroll down slowly until you reach the end of the post, and click on comments.

It will reload the post but, now, with the comments section appearing below.

Type in your name, and in the body, replace the default message (I don't know why it's there) with your own, and click enter!