Vallbona English Corner

I'm taking the second part of the summer course, which is great. I love reversing roles and become a student for a few days. It is true that my role as a learner will be active as long as I'm alive. The day I'm not learning anything, I'll be dead ;-) However, it's nice to have a highly experienced teacher sharing his vast experience with us and very nice teacher colleagues sharing their teaching experiences too. I love it!

Session 1 - 3 July 2017

We've done a brainstorming of the most useful websites and tools for our lessons. Names such as EdPuzzle, Google Classroom, bit-ly, ororo.tv, issuu, kahoot!, Padlet, Quizlet, Plickers, and ideas such as using QR codes for competitions or informing new students for rules have appeared.

I have just read my last year good intentions for applying new apps and tools in the classroom and I realise the only tool I mentioned I've been using regularly is Padlet. I've become a fan of bit.ly.com too. I've been using a blog for my Erasmus outcomes, which still needs updating and improvement. My good intentions for next year is to start using the other tools (kahoot!, quizlet, portfolios for students, etc.) since I am aware of the impact they may have on my regular lessons.

We've been reflecting and debating on the future of education through the video "A Day Made of Glass 2", which was really impressing, and an article by Couros about the 21st Century educator, who should be a relationship builder, a learner, inclusive, reflective, networked, an innovator, a leader, a storyteller, a designer and an artist. The article gives food for thought and provides excellent reflections about our profession.

This is my comment about it:

George Couros places the «relationship builder» characteristic first because, in my view, it is the most important. All children need to feel valued and trusted. They need to feel comfortable and safe in the classroom environment. In fact we all need to feel like this. Both teachers and students need to feel valued. When a child feels he is valued he will feel empowered to do his best. When a teacher feels valued he will do his best too.

We've been creating an avatar with Bitmoji. It was a lot of fun. It's perfect for breaking the ice with students and give feedback to their assignments.

I'm definitely going to use the online-stopwatch next year.

Other interesting websites or apps Abel recommends are as follows:

listen-and-write.com
voscreen (app) clips of subtitled movies
DKreaders (app)
englishcentral.com/videos
Free channels for audiobooks on YouTube - e.g. English audiobooks with English subtitles

The alternatives to ordinary wikipedia: DKFind out! and Simple (English) Wikipedia

Session 2 - 4 July 2017

We have read and reflected on a very useful infography entitled "Bloom's Digital Taxonomy" which can be downloaded and printed. It's impressively extended and accurate. I'll definitely take it into account when planning the curriculum for next year.

The topic of evaluation has appeared for the first time when thinking on skills such as analizing, critiquing and evaluating, which are basic skills our students need to learn.

Neus Santmartí's article "10 Ideas Clave. Evaluar para Aprender" has been discussed.

We have downloaded "ELEMENTS 4D" APP onto our smartphones and are ready to experience augmented reality (AR)

In groups we've been using a pair of scissors and glue to get 3D ordinary cube like those below.

With our mobile phones we've been able to find out the AR of the app as in the photo below. It's been very exciting to see what these elements look like and the chemical reactions.

There are chemistry lessons plans for free at http://elements4d.daqri.com/
I'm sure my chemistry colleagues at school will love it!!

We have also downloaded blippar on our smartphones.

This time we've seen Anatomy 4D. It's been amazing to see our human body through AR. I can't wait to show it to my science colleagues!!

Abel has recommended a new app to create AR. It's called Aurasma.

Finally, Abel has shown us two websites to create infographics: easel.ly and piktochart

I have created an infographic about m-learning called "Why should we encourage the use of mobile phones in our schools?" by using Piktochart. I have used an excellent article entitled "Mobile Technologies in Schools" for inspiration.

Abel has recommended us the book "La Familia en digital. Hiperconectados?" by Jordi Jubany.

Session 3 - 5 July 2017

Abel has encouraged us to use Twitter with a professional profile to be updated with the latest articles and news about education, and find our own PLN (Personal Learning Network). We can also set tasks on Twitter with our students. We've been doing questionnaires at #spiceup2017

Abel recommends smart interactive AR magazines for kids at Brainspace.

We have a look at lyricstraining.com, which is a website I often use with my students.

We talk about padlet and how it can be used to recommend books on Sant Jordi and attach the videotrailers. Another teacher recommends it for mentors especially, so as to compare students' expectations at the beginning of the school year and the accomplishment at the end of the school year.

I explain how I've used Padlet with my Time Capsule mini-projects.

The one below belongs to the Erasmus project I've been working with. I've added an entry called "The Official Report" which describes the whole activity in detail.

The following example is how I've done the same project with 1st ESO students modifying the goals and the instructions.

I've also shared with my colleagues the experience of winning a prize by presenting my students' videos about Leonardo da Vinci to the contest held by mNACTEC "Joves Leonardo 2017".

This is the winning video:

Mònica Carrasco from la Serreta school in Santpedor presented her project with 5th year primary school pupils about Jane Goodall, recycling mobile phones and helping saving the apes in Congo. I was deeply impressed to see how a project can involve the whole educative community and the village so as to make a difference and help. "Think globally and act locally". I love this sentence by Jane Goodall. I will consider holding a project like Mònica's in my school. In fact, we celebrate the science week every year in November and that could be an ideal starting point...

http://www.regio7.cat/bages/2017/06/06/alumnes-serreta-santpedor-recullen-80/418483.html

Abel recommends a pdf book by Nick Peachey and Alan Maley entitled "Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom" which has been sponsored by the British Council and can be downloaded. Why not improving our communities with community-building projects?

Finally we divided ourselves into small groups and started experimenting with Kahoot! Jumble, issuu, tiki-toki, YouTube to subtitle videos, Airconsole, etc.

Session 4 - 6 July 2017

We start the today's session with a demonstration of Plickers' use by Imma Novell. I couldn't believe the smartphone could scan students' answers so efficiently. I have already downloaded the app on my smartphone and I'm looking forward to using it next year. I'm going to plastify a set of cards for re-using them safely.

Kahoot! is similar to Plickers, but students need their laptops or their smartphones to start playing.

We start the topic of virtual reality (VR) and how to take advantage of this new technology in our lessons. VR gives a sensation of immersive reality and participants have the feeling of being inside.

It's possible to find VR documentaries for educational purposes on YouTube 360° videos such as "A journey into your brain", Buckingham Palace tour, etc. Other websites are Sites in VR (app), New York Times Virtual Reality app, etc.

We install camara cardboard app and expediciones in our smartphones and Abel lend us a pair of goggles. The wi-fi at Joviat doesn't work properly and we cannot have the experience at the same time, but we all try the apps. It's a very exciting experience!!

Abel recommends this article entitled "10 simple ways to use google cardboard in the classroom" to get more inspiration on classroom use of VR.

We all get into groups of three and leave the classroom in order to take a VR photo with camara cardboard with audio. Miquel Àngel Fuentes, Mònica Cuadras and me went to the Parc de la Seu to take a photo of the monumental entry to Manresa. This is our photo:

https://goo.gl/vrphoto/zd1QXQUosZDy2C402

The three of us design the following activity for B1 students where we use the 4D photo we've taken.

Student’s level: B1

Warmer (Pre-watching activity)

Have you ever been to Manresa?

Do you know any landmarks in Manresa?

Are they natural or man-made?

Now we are going to watch a VR picture with audio about some landmarks in Manresa. Can you guess which ones are going to appear?

Pair work VR activity (While-watching activity)

Student A watches the VR picture while student B asks a set of questions to student A.

Are there any chimneys in the picture? If so, how many?
Can you see any religious buildings in the picture?
Are there means of transport in the picture? If so, which are they?
What time do you think the picture was taken?
What is the weather like?
…

Discussion (After-watching activity)

The teacher asks students to summarize the information they have gathered with the whole group.

Follow-up

Students are asked to take similar pictures using VR Camera to create a gallery of landmarks in Manresa.

Session 5 - 7 July 2017

Abel tells us about estucinema, a website run by José Pica which offers original movies in local cinemas for students. They have subtitled films and interactive activities for their films. Some of the books Abel recommends for classroom use are: T.S. Spivet, L'Heroi de Berlin, Arrival, Incerta Glòria, Hidden Figures, Lion and Paper Planes.

Another recommendation is EDpuzzle which is a website that allows creating quizzes for videos. It's possible to organize the classrooms and keep a record of students' answers. Both the teacher and students can sign in.

Other websites where we can find engaging stories for students are: BBCStories (channel on YouTube), Learn English Kids by the British Council, Great Big Story (on Facebook)

We discuss the differences between the tools available on the webs 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. He encourages to choose the degree of involvement we want as teachers.

Núria Samsó from Secció d'Institut de Gurb tells us about evaluation at her school. Her school is a role model for evaluating competencially by using rubrics. They have a bank of rubrics which is going to be very helpful in the near future and I'm going to use for future reference.

Núria also tells us about her exchange with a school in New Jersey. We discuss the pros and cons of exchanges where usually "the magic happens".

When discussing about the convenience of using WhatsApp groups to communicate with students and parents, another option such as Remind is suggested.

Finally, Abel tells us about Socrative, a perfect way to test our students without using paper and as a game. It's self-corrective. We have tested it by doing the final questionnaire of Spice Up (even more) your Lessons. I'm happy I got 85% of questions right on the first go and 100% on the second ;-)