A poem

I've always loved the poem below, and it's very appropriate for this moment in my life.

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference...

I'm back with a confession

Hi!

Please don't think I've abandoned the blog... I have been thinking about it since its last post. The thing is, so much has changed in my life that I simply didn't have neither the time or the energy to post.

Most people know I've changed jobs. Yeah, I've quit teaching at the big school... though I still love teaching. I must confess I was really, really sick and tired of students and of the place itself! The bitter irony is that I started to enjoy teaching back in 1994 because I realized how much I liked being with people, learning from them and sharing knowledge and experiences with them. But I was so upset that when I was offered a new job, it took me 15' to take it, hehehehe...

The new job is very nice... the salary is quite decent, but the greatest motivation comes from the job itself. Professionally, I always need to face challanges, and a position with a publisher has provided loads of learning opportunities. I had never had a 9 to 5 job. I had never had a desk. I had never had a name tag and procedures to follow. OK, all these things sound stupid, but I'm having to get adapted to these everyday things that are quite normal for people who have regular jobs. It was quite tiring at first, because I'm so defensive --- that's something I haven't been able to change in my behavior --- and in the first month I felt I had someone watching my every movement over my shoulders, although I know that these watchful eyes actually came from inside.

Well, I'm loving it and having a great time there. I'm on vacation now and will be back to work on Jan2nd. I'll keep posting here, maybe not only about teaching and/vs. technology, but also about a lot of other things.

Simpsonize Me!!!

What would you look like if you lived in Springfield, the homeland of The Simpsons?

The smiling chick on the left is me... hehehe... that's what I would look like if I lived in Springfield...

Simpsonize me is a great site that, besides making people laugh, can provide authentic practice on describing looks, as you can choose your hairstyle, color, accessories...

In order to be simpsonized, you need to upload a picture with a good close-up of your face. If you intend to use this site with your students, you can either ask them to send you a picture by e-mail or take them yourself using a digital camera (a photo session with your students as models could actually be funnier than the site itself!). The site is quite fast --- it took me less than ten minutes to have the image above --- and safe. In order to save the image, you need to register, though.... and I don't know how much spam this could generate, but that's why we have antivirus software, right???

Useful sites for those teaching Young Learners

Hi, I'm back!!!

Teaching young learners can pose a considerable challenge for those teachers who, like me, lack background in pedagogy... I've been working with kids for three years now and doing some reading has really helped me to understand how they learn and how to cater for their needs.

Teaching English has been a great source on theoretical texts. The article "The Child as a Learner" is short and clear, providing basic information on how children learn. You can find it at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/young_learners.shtml

If your students are learning to read and write, you can use Handwriting Worksheets Wizard at http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/multi-word_handwriting_worksheet_maker.html to make handwriting worksheets with the words students are learning in class. It won't take you more than 5 minutes to do that!

Another useful site for teachers of young learners is Effective Storytelling - A Basic Manual (http://www.eldrbarry.net/roos/eest.htm). I must confess I felt a little silly the first time I had to sit down on the floor and tell my students a story :-) , but after seeing how fascinated they were, I felt much more comfortable and the tips in this website have definitely helped me!

Awesome Cliparts for kids (http://www.awesomeclipartforkids.com/worksheets/schoolwordsearch.html) offers a very efficient wordsearch maker, which is great to prepare that five-minute warm-up to begin your class.

Well, there are lots of other sites for teachers of young learners... any other contributions?

Contributions from the Workshop!

I haven't posted for a week, but I've got a good excuse for that: I got back to classes this week. Lots of group, lots of work...

I'll post some contributions that I collected during the workshop on July 25th:

1. Sites to work with music:

http://www.lyrics.com/ - One of the biggest sites for lyrics on the net.

http://www.vagalume.com.br - A Brazilian site that provides lyrics and their translations. As users add the material, you might find mistakes in the translations, though...


2. Online dictionaries:
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/ - Wow... very nice dictionary... it also offers a thesaurus and translations to other languages. It also has a "word of the day" and quotes.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ - Great resource for language lovers, it also offers word games, articles on endangered languages and a Language ID - links to sites that identifies in which language a foreign word is... I tested the work "obrigado" in on of the sites listed and I had the answer "Portuguese" in two seconds.

http://dictionary.reference.com/ - Multitask website! Check the podcast Word Explorer --- every week it features the origin of curious words in English.

http://www.freeonlinedictionary.com


3. Sites for Kids:
http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/index.htm - Why not using Monica's Gang's stories in class?

http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/ - One of the cutest sites ever!!!! Lots of games and resources for girls. Think Pink!!!

http://home.disney.go.com/ - Several games for boys and girls. The site takes some time to load, but it's worth a visit... or maybe lots of visits, because there are so many things to be seen and done in this website.

http://school.discovery.com/ - This site rocks!!! Check out the out the Teaching Tools page... the Puzzlemaker is quite useful!

http://printables.familyeducation.com/?imode=1:1256&wtlAC=PrintableGen_Google,web-Google&gclid=CLOwoJvO340CFTyKOAodfUCLlg - Yeah, it's a loooong address, but this site has some cute printables, believe me...

http://www.crayola.com/ - Lots of coloring pages, craft ideas and games.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html - Loads of crafts and ideas for busy teachers.

http://familyfun.go.com/

http://www.kaboose.com/index.html


Well... I guess that's all for tonight. Hope teachers find the sites above useful!

Other sites

As I promised, I'll post here other sites I mentioned in the workshop on July 25th.

http://www.eslcafe.com/ - A very popular website for English teachers and students launched in 1996 by Dave Sperling. He also published a book called The Internet Guide for English Language Teachers back in 1997. Dave was a pioneer in using the Internet in EFL.

http://www.sk.com.br/ - This site was developed by a Brazilian teacher, Ricardo Schütz, and it has a comprehensive archive of texts on methodology. There are texts in English and in Portuguese and a very interesting forum.

http://www.onestopenglish.com/ - A teachers’ resource site run by Macmillan. It provides practical ideas and resources for teachers, as well as a community forum. They do have a paid subscription zone, called the Staff Room, but there are still plenty of materials teachers can download for free. Nice example of how blended learning can work... other publishers could do that!

http://www.abcteach.com/ - It provides ready-to-use activities… there’s a membership area in this site too, but there are a lot of free materials for download as well… that’s a great site for those who teach young learners.

http://www.isabelperez.com/ - developed and maintained by an English teacher from Spain. Interesting to see how democratic the Internet is: there are sites run by big publishers and others developed by individuals... check the workshops on using technology in teaching!

http://www.lessonshare.com/ - another site run by a teacher. Don't miss "Sound Bingo", a very nice game to be played with kids.

http://www.bogglesworldesl.com/ - another popular site, maintained by a group of ESL teachers in Asia and North America. Dozens of activities for donwload.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/ - this site allows teachers to upload their favorite activities. I added an activity I prepared using the song "She". If you want to use it in your classes, check the link below:
http://www.esl-lounge.com/songs/song-she.shtml

www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm - wanna try podcasts in your classes? That's one of the best sites for that. It was recommended by Russel Stannard in the last issue of English Teaching Professional.
But what are podcasts and how can they be used in English classes??? Find more info on these computer files at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast .
I'm reading Blended Learning - Using technology in and beyond the English classroom, a very nice book about tech issues in EFL. There's a chapter on podcasts and I'm planning to use them in my classes soon...

http://www.teachertube.com/ - an educational version of the worldwide famous YouTube . I'm afraid you won't find x-rated videos of couples doing that on the beach, lol... but there are some interesting videos registering students' work in EFL / ESL classes. I've found a video with Brazilian students:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6c73dba1250d2beaa81f
I'd really like to share with you some opinions on this video... could you comment on that???

BTW, I recommend you download it first, then try to watch it on your PC!

Wow, I guess that's it! I hope you find these sites helpful!

Teacher's Pet!!!!

Teacher's Pet (www.teachers-pet.org) is one of the most useful tools I've ever found for my classes!

You can download a set of commands --- called macro --- that can be run in Microsoft Word in order to create lots of different activities, like bingo cards and crossword puzzles. Follow the install procedures carefully (I confess I got lost the first time I had to install it) and have fun! Using Teacher's Pet is quite simple and can save teachers time!

Live chat with David Graddol

I'll try to participate... this guy must have interesting things to say:

At 14:00h (Brasilia time) on Friday, July 27th, we will have the opportunity to chat with David Graddol for around an hour. Just visit www.britishcouncil.org.br/elt and click on the blue banner (Community Chat Events).
We will be discussing the new approaches to English and how they create major challenges for ELT. The kind of English required for international communication, the motives for learning it, and the methods employed have all been rapidly changing. Demand for intercultural communication skills is rising whilst the dominance of native speaker models of English is declining.
Biodata: David Graddol is a British applied linguist, well-known as a writer, broadcaster, researcher and consultant on issues relating to global English. He is the Managing Director of The English Company (UK) Ltd and Managing Editor of linguistics books and journals for Equinox Publishing. David is a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Language Problems and Language Planning and Visual Communication.

The day after...

Oh, my God... I was sooooooooo nervous yesterday... Maybe I should've accepted that diazepam Renato offered... maybe next time (if there's a next time...)

Well, I'd like to thank those people who attended the workshop. BTW, was the chocolate good??? My mom made the "trufas" and she makes cakes, pies and other delicious things that make us fat :-)

Let's get down to business. I promised to post here the addresses and comments from the workshop here...

So, in the first part of the workshop, I mentioned sites that could be used for professional development. Personally, I like reading articles and texts about ELT, they actually help me in my classroom practice and that's why I decided to include this topic in my workshop.

The first site I suggested was http://www.teachingenglish.co.uk/

I didn't have time to mention a very interesting feature of this site,

the Teaching Knowledge Database .

"The teaching knowledge database is a collection of information arranged around key teaching terms. It is also an experiment in socially construct knowledge because anyone can contribute an entry to the database. Each entry comprises a definition of the term, an example and information about how this concept can be implemented in the classroom."

http://http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/knowledge.shtml

In order to use the database, download the browser and save it to your desktop!

First post...

Well, I've finally done it!!! I'd been promising I'd start this blog for weeks before I finally sat down and did it...

I must confess I'm quite nervous about the workshop on Wednesday... the last time I gave a workshop I loved the experience, but I think it's just impossible to avoid getting anxious...

Ok... Idid it :-) Now I must get back to PowerPoint :-((((