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!