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 :-((((