Goodbye "Teaching English in the 21st Century"

The semester is over and it's time to say goodbye to this course.

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Great job everyone.

Final Week

I really like the idea of using QR codes in class. I think it is a great tool for using other technology in class. It links websites to a physical piece of paper. A teacher can prepare a worksheet, a listening segment, a video, an article and more online. Then if the teacher wants to give them for homework, all she has to do is make a QR code and give that to the students. 

This is an especially good idea because kids often lose the homework given to them between the school and their home. When it's online, they can't complain that their dog ate it! Kids backpacks are often way to heavy for them. Help ease their load by giving them online homework instead of schlepping a book back and forth. 

I think giving homework online through a QR code in addition to emailing it to them is a good idea. I think that the homework given has to be short and to the point. QR codes are aimed at phones. We can't expect anyone to read an entire article on a tiny screen. For that reason, I think it's a practical idea to email the homework to the students as well. 

An example of an activity might be to introduce the upcoming lesson through a short clip. I am teaching a lesson about Martin Luther King Jr. day. If this wasn't my avdaha massit, I might have asked the students to watch the speech "I have a Dream" prior to the lesson. I would handout slips of paper with the code on it that links to the speech and ask the students to watch the clip before the next lesson.

Week 10

Research Tools

There are really so many things out there that interest me. I'm the kind of person who can go to a museum and enjoy it. Museums are great because you can see the artifacts right in front of you and it makes the topic you are learning about much more tangible. The downside is that going to a museum is a whole ordeal, takes up a lot of time and in some cases not easy to get to if it's in another country.

Sweet Search  gives me a lot of what seems to be reliable information on any subject. It's a search engine with informative results but at the same time not academic.

The CIA (The Centeral Intelligence Agency) publishes a Wold Fact Book. For each country they write about everything, From the geography and the history,all the way to how many miles of paved runways there are. The information is organized well. I think this would be a great tool in researching the topic of countries aroung the world.

I think it can be interesting to have students compare modern coutries found in the link above with underdeveloped countries. UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and People Organization) can teach kids about those contries.  Aside from giving you the basc facts, and the history of the country, the website also writes about the current ssues that that specific contr is dealing with. I think it might give the students a broader view of the world when they see the two types of countries.

Week 6

Although this unit is on writing, I would try to use different graphic organizers as post reading activities. I would use them to make sure the students understood the story. If it's a short story, I might ask the students to read the story for homework or in class I pairs and then to make sure the story was understood by all, I would fill this out together with them. Another idea I have is to use graphicorganizers as a writing prompt.

  For example with this graphic organizer, I would ask students to write from the top to bottom something that they like to the bottom, something that they really dislike.  This could be a writing activity using the language of rating (least, most, best,better). Students will have to write sentences using this language. For example, if the topic is sports a student might write:  I like bike riding better than playing tennis.

I think using the SMS generator is a great way to teach dialogue to the students. This tool makes it relevant to the students, it brings it down to their world. They are much more willing to accept something when they feel that it is closer to their world. Their affective filter is wide open. There are two ideas that come to mind with this tool. Either the teacher can prepare a dialogue in advance using the relevant grammar and lexis, or the teacher can record a live conversation that students create in the classroom. The teacher can bring two imaginary characters, tape them to the board, and have the S make up conversation between the two.

I had an idea for using  Skype in the classroom. It can be very beneficial for Israeli EFL learners to converse with native English speakers but what do they have that others can learn from them? I think that there are many English speaking Jewish communities that would be eager for their students to talk with "real" Israelis living in Israel. For example, in this current situation, referred to by some as the "knife intifada", Jewish students abroad might want to know what life is like here. Skype is an upgraded version of having a pen pal. I will call it Skypal (skype+ pal). I will have a pair of my students team up with a pair of students abroad and give them different topics to talk about. I think in pairs it will be less awkward for the students and in addition they can help each other out and keep the conversation flowing.

I think using GoogleDocs in the classroom can be very useful. When students are writing a book report, they can write it in a GooleDoc, share it with the teacher and the teacher can comment on the work that was done and request that certain changes be made. This is a huge advantage for the teacher because this way, all the documents are saved online and they don’t flood the computer's memory. In addition, this is an easy way to avoid spelling errors. The S can see right away where they were mistaken.

Another tool that I sometimes use for checking the correct spelling is my phone. When I start typing a word as if I am texting someone, the phone tries to guess which word I am typing. I usually am not so off that the phone can guess what I am trying to say. This is a good way to use technology in the classroom. Instead of fighting that kids put their phones away, ask them to take them out! This way, at least you know what they are doing with their phone! (I hope this works and kids don’t take advantage of it).

Week 4

This week I am going to talk about the use of pictures in the EFL classroom. Like Scott Thornsbury mentions, our students all have different ways of thinking and acquiring knowledge. Students who have a strong spacial intelligence can really benifit from the use of pictures. I know that I am like this. When recalling a conversatin that I've had for example, I can easily picture in my head where I had that conversation which helps me remember other details about that specific conversation. So I'm all for including pictures in the classroom. 

In the past I have introduced new vocabulary with pictures by showing a picture on the screen together with the word in English. I would ask students to write in their notebooks what they think the word means in Hebrew and NOT call out the answer. With each slide I would repeat this request because as you can imagine they seemed to have been so excited with the lesson that they forgot not to call out. After we saw all the pictures we reviewed all the words and I confirmed the correct meanings. I found these images usually on Google but Pixabay has much better results. It might be fun to surprise the students by inserting a picture of the principle, the gaurd, or even one of the students with the help of this cool site called LunaPic.

The difficulty in teaching EFL (English as a foreign language) as opposed to ESL (English as a secnong language) is that the environment that the students are in all day long is not one that speaks the new language they are learning. When a student exits the classroom they probably won't hear English again till the next lesson (assuming they didn't do their homework :) ).

Scott Thornsbury talks about a Linguistic Landscape.This view changed my perspectiveon EFL. He points out that there is English everywhere! On street signs, shop signs, logos and more. We just have to train our students to look for them! I think that a good idea for younger students, when introducing the alphabet would be to ask them to take a picture (if they have a phone)or write down, a word that starts with the letter being learned that they find on the street. I think that this can keep the learning going even outside of the classroom!

Week 3

Week 3

I read an article that actually wasn't from the blog I've been following but it was a link on the blog I was following and I think I am going to follow this new one now.

The writer makes a case for allowing cellphones into the classroom. I will summarize some of her points here or you can read the full post here.

Today most adults (welll at least those who are tech-savvy) use their phones to organize their daily schedules and meetings. Why should kids not be allowed to do the same? We can teach them from a young age how to organize themselves and their time and as a result be more efficient. We should teach them how to do so with the tools they will eventually be using as adults! Students can plan their after school activities, set reminders about tests and keep lists of homework all from their cellphone!

Have a student use his/her cellphoe for small tasks instead of taking up time on the school's computers

Having cellphones within arms reach but not using the, teaches the students a valuable lesson: self discipline. 

Soon parents are going to demand cellphones in class for safety reasons. Let's learn to utilize them before that happens.  Better to get ahead of the problem that will undoubedly arise in the near future.

On Edudemic, I read a post about how to better use YouTube in the classroom. This right away caught my eye because I sometimes use clips from youtube in my lessons but it's nearly impossible to find the perfect clip to fit your needs.

One suggestion is to crop the video and add your own audio over it. Edpuzzle looks like an awesome and user friendly website that cn help you accomplish that. I haven't tried it myself but the tour makes it look easy.

On TeacherTube, you can find tons of videos with educational content. I also liked Explore. This is a website dedicated to nature videos. Often I find there are units involving animals.  I think a short clip on that animal could be a great hook for the unit. Similar to that is National Geographic.