Become a Star!!

Robbed shamelessly from http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/ which I do recommend people to join as he regularly has winners.

This one Fame Star allows you to create a mini reportage of your scandalous life, which I'm sure will be much to the amusement of your students!

Please do see the above blog for ideas on this and many others.

Bloggers unite!

While I think it's great that Martin has discovered wikis (see his post), don't let what he says put you off starting up a class blog. They can be great fun for you and your students if you use them for task-based work.

I always start off a task in class time and then ask students to complete it (if necessary) for homework. Then, when you next book out the CALL Room, make sure you have a new task ready for your students, so that while they get on with that one, you can talk to them individually about the problems they had with the first.

Here's some ideas for your first blog tasks:

• In pairs, students decide on song in English
  
• They look for it on youtube and then copy the code they'll find next to the video
• They create a new post on the class blog, embed the video in it (by pasting the code in Edit HTML) and then give their reason for choosing the song
• They do a google search for the lyrics and add a link to them on their post
• They then look at their classmate's postings and comment on their choice of video
• Now they go to this karaoke page (thanks to Gary for this one) and see if they can find the song they chose. They get a set a set of headphones with a mike and sing along to it. (If their song's not there, they choose another.)
• Now they check out if the singer or group they chose is on myspace and also if there's an entry on wikipedia
  
• They create a new post. Using the information they've found, they write about what they think is interesting about the history of their singer/group and say why they think they have been successful. Warn them to put it in their own words - no copying and pasting allowed!
  
• Finally, they write a comment on their classmates' postings saying what they think is interesting about the lives and music of the singers/groups they chose.

My Pre FC1 class is currently working through these on their blog, if you'd like to take a look at the results.

Teaching English Website - a must for Dip candidates?

The BCs English Teaching website has undergone radical changes recently and now has become a truly collaborative platform where teachers worldwide can join together in a wide range of debates on teaching practice.

If you're doing the Dip this year (or even if you're not), I'd recommend visiting the Think section, where you'll find some stimulating ideas on all aspects of teaching:

• articles from experienced teachers and ELT professionals
• podcasts (I found those from the BBC Word Service, Innovations in teaching series extremely interesting and informative)
• a teaching knowledge wiki providing a collection of definitions of ELT terminology
• links to top stories related to English Language Teaching
• information on upcoming conferences around the world

In the Transform section there's also a very useful series of training videos which illustrate good classroom practice from language teachers around the world.

Another new feature to the website is the Guest Contributor. At the time of writing this is Barry Tomalin and he has generated an extremely lively debate on the role of culture in ELT. I would particularly recommend watching the video interview with him where he offers up a lifetime of teaching experience and provides a clear-sighted analysis of current methodologies in the world of ELT.

Maverick ICT lesson ideas

For those of you who are fans of of James Keddie's TEFL clips (every week a new lesson plan using online video clips), here are some more regularly-updated blogs with ICT lesson ideas - this time from the maverick British Council consultant, Nik Peachy:

• Daily English activities "This site is for EFL | ESL students. Each day you can find a new simple online activity to help you improve your English."
• Quick Shout "News, Links and Opinion on Learning, Technology, Web 2.0 and EFL, ESL"
• Learning technology teacher development blog "Tips, resources and teaching materials for EFL and ESL teachers"

Well-worth a look.

More links for young learners

There's a useful review on the TESOL Newsletter of websites for young learners.

Also, you'll find a more comprehensive list on TESOL online resources .

Thinking of doing a class blog? Think again!

Well, at least consider doing a class wiki instead.

Fergus and I set up a class blog with our adult advanced 1 students last year. It was quite successful in many ways - the best bit was when they got into writing restaurant reviews. Click here to have a look.

But there are 2 downsides to the blog format. 1) Students don´t get any say in how it´s designed and organised - perhaps this is why they don´t really contribute unless really pressed 2) You´re restricted to just 1 page in effect.

I´ve decided to try doing a class wiki this year and although I haven´t met the class yet, I´ve begun setting one up using the site called ´wetpaint´. There´s not much to see at the moment apart from my corny profile but click here and have a look. The adverts are a bit annoying but it´s got so much more scope than the blog - most importantly you can add as many pages as you like. Also, by its nature it´s meant to be collaborative so I´m hoping students will feel more comfortable starting threads, discussions and creating new pages.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Let me know if you want help setting one up.

Web-Based resources for teaching and practising listening comprehension

Thanks to Susana Gómez Martínez for this list of interesting web sites - which she provided in her talk at our Educational Conference.

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm
2. 2A http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/. 2B http://www.radio-locator.com/?xyz=2
3. http://www.lyrics.com , http://www.azlyrics.com , http://www.lyricsworld.com
4. http://www.youtube.com
5. 5A http://www.script-o-rama.com ,5B http://www.movieweb.com/videos
6. http://www.apple.com/es/itunes
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish
8. http://www.esl-lab.com
9. http://www.EnglishListening.com 10. http://www.dailystep.com
11. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-skills-listening.htm
12. http://www.dy-tech.info/hotpot/quiz_page.html
13. http://www.dictationsonline.com
14. http://www.howjsay.com
15. http://www.fonetiks.org
16. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/songtime/games/karaoke
17. http://www.eslpod.com
18. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts.htm
19. http://www.archiecomics.com/podcasts
20. http://malted.cnice.mec.es