Who´s your hero?

Ever wished to be on the Swedish news? Perhaps not but regardless you or whoever you choose can be the star of the viral video that is Tackfilm´s Hero; easy, quick to do and fun.
There´s an example here starring Ann F, also there are quite a few examples on youtube of the different versions.
Kieran´s post on how to use Hero is here from 2010 and from 2012 here (see optional follow up)
A How to Do guide (ppt and handout doc) specifically for version 2 has turned up in the T-drive folder: Tackfilm hero 2 student guide.

Other stuff: Swedes and their tv licences
and something similar to Hero (in French but as exploitable) here
Why some videos go viral TED talk here

TESOL -SPAIN 2012

March 9th-11th was the TESOL-SPAIN conference here in Deusto, in the beautiful setting of the University. Friday evening the conference was opened by Claudia Ferradas, followed by workshops, one of which was given by our very own Steve Bilsbourgh. Saturday dawned bright and sunny and more Bilbao B.C staff were in the arena!! Ann F and Kath were first up and then I followed mid morning with a practical talk entitled, what shall we do in phonics today, I had asked for a small room because I only wanted 20 people but somehow over 30 squashed into the room!! it was very cosy and warm!. The shaving foam and cold cooked spaghetti flowed freely and everybody got stuck into blending and segmenting with said things, we then moved on to using mini interactive whiteboards( laminated card) and different activities they could be used for and the final segment was some games to re enforce tricky words and some TPR games, which was very interesting due to lack of space. Karen followed later on Saturday afternoon/evening giving her talk also on phonics and the message on the street was ,it was very good. All in all a great Conference for BC Bilbao.

3 sites that have caught my eye @tesolspain

1. Lyrics training

This was from a session by Tom Spain on homework. The site has ready-made gap-fill activities for songs. Why run the risk of having your musical taste scrutinized and found wanting by your students? Show them once in class how it works and then let them choose what they do at home.

2. Class Dojo

Kind of an online sticker chart for primary and perhaps junior groups. Pluses: 1) cute avatars 2) class summary possible 3) can turn off negative 'black mark' option 4) can introduce your own criteria e.g 'speaking English'. Saw this in a talk by Graham Stanley. Always slightly uneasy about 'motivating' learners this way but reckon it probably has its place if it's not overplayed.

3. Film English

Lots of lesson plans based around short films. Kieran Donaghy, who gave his talk at the Council on Friday as well as the TESOL conference yesterday, said his ideal film length for a class is 2 minutes!