So, what do we need to know in order to be able to describe people in our family? After brainstorming different adjectives of personality students knew, we focusssed on the vocabulary suggested by the book which is adopted by the language institute I work at. I used this image below, to introduce the words for the first time. Students would come to the board and click on a word they would like to know and read the definition for the rest of the class. The same image was shared in our Edmodo group for students to go back to it if they wanted to.  We also used some QUIZLET FLASHCARDS to help students learn the meaning of the new vocabulary as well as play the games for recap.  An important moment in class was a discussion students had in pairs after listening to an interview where a psychologist talked about how your position in the family can affect your personality.The CHALLENGE for the lesson then was to DESCRIBE SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY.The instructions were:I gave students the option of using a tool for recording or a tool for using text and image. The tool my students liked best for the task was BUBBLESNAPS as can be seen below.

I've already been to big International conferences and I know how hard it is to choose what sessions to watch. In big conferences in Brazil, we might have about 15 sessions taking place at the same time. However, IATEFL presents a bigger challenge to people attending it, sometimes there are about 22 sessions taking place at the same time, and HOW TO CHOOSE?Well, the first thing I did was try to find the programme. It can easily be found at the IATEFL websitehttp://www.iatefl.org/liverpool-2013/liverpool-2013  or by clicking below.Another great idea, MY FAVORITE in fact, is to download the IATEFL app from here http://www.iatefl.org/mobileapps.html for your iphone/ipad or android devices.Then, explore the programme, bookmark sessions, add them to your planner and you'll have a better idea of what to expect.I've used two different apps to create quick tutorials of how I've organized myself for NEXT WEEK at IATEFL 2013 Liverpool. The first one is a simple SNAPGUIDE,   http://snapguide.com/guides/use-the-iatefl-app/Check out How to Use the IATEFL App by Ana Menezes on Snapguide.The second one is a SKQUEAK which allows you to draw and record your voice as you talk about the images you've selected.  Now, if you're attending the conference for the first time (like me ) it is interesting to watch the WEBINAR presented by Susan Bardhun HERE.

I was planning to write blog posts while attending the IATEFL conference but I'm glad to say I  HAD NO TIME for sitting down on my own to write a blog post; so many people to meet, to talk to and to learn from. Face 2 face interactions definitely won over the magic of blogging.Well,  people who also follow me on Facebook and Twitter know that the beginning of the journey was not  as smooth as I thought it would be (check my furious tweet).After getting to Liverpool one day after I had expected, the days went by very quickly. There were lots of sessions to choose from but I decided to follow a tip given by someone from the IATEFL committee: to focus on one of the Special Interest Groups. Therefore, most of the sessions I attended were related to Learning Technologies.Now, it's funny that lots of people say the virtual environment is cold and the relationships which take place online are superficial. However, as this group is always in contact via twitter, facebook and blogs, I dare say it's one of the warmest groups EVER.During these days in Liverpool, I had the wonderful privilege to meet so many e-friends I had never met f2f and others I've met only a few times.I shared a room with a wonderful friend from Recife, Roseli Serra, who I met online last year during an online course but have kept in contact ever since. The first session I had the pleasure to attend was Vicky Saumell's. I first met Vicky f2f two years ago in Buenos Aires and loved giving her a hug before and after her wonderful presentation on E-publishing in the classroom. Getting to know Michelle Schwertner, another award winner, was also a pleasant surprise. I met Michelle online via two common friends and we decided to meet in Liverpool. We laughed so much together! Meeting Carla Arena, my mentor and inspiration for many years, and being able to learn more from her was a precious gift. I also had the chance to meet for the first time some people with whom I've exchanged messages and tweets FOR YEARS, such as Joe Dale, Nik Peachey, Burcu Ayol, Beyza Yilmaz, Marisa Constantinides. The learning surpassed the room walls and whenever we got together there was some kind of sharing taking place, "there's this app......", right, Joe Dale? Another informal learning moment was the APP SWAP  proposed by Carla Arena where each one shared interesting apps and explained about it. The app sharing can also be followed at the todaysmeet page below.Networking made the IATEFL experience rich in learning and warm in connections.Plans for the future? I've heard it through the grapevine that we could have a LT (Learning Technology) event in Brazil this year. Graham Stanley, I'm crossing my fingers about this one.

When I started attending conferences years ago, I normally used the notepad provided by publishers to take notes during the sessions I attended. I used my pen to jot down whatever I thought was pertinent to my teaching practice and kept these notes stored for some time before I threw them out. I also kept the various hand-outs given by the presenters.This year at the IATEFL conference I noticed a big change in the way people are storing information. First, I could see an ocean of mobile devices being held above people's heads taking photos of slides being shown. Many people tweeted throughout the conference.Others used their fast fingers to blog about the sessions and resources being shared. Check GRAHAM STANLEY's blog posts at http://blog-efl.blogspot.co.uk/Image by Carla ArenaOthers like me, used their ipads for taking notes. I had thought of using the EVERNOTE APP but something went wrong and I decided to give another note-taking app a chance. NOTABILITY was the app I used each day to keep notes and pictures taken during the sessions.WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT?Well, it was pretty easy to type the notes, take pictures from within the app to add to the notes, save them and then share them via e-mail with a friend at the end of the day. It's also possible to share your notes via Facebook or Twitter. Another great difference which I've been noticing more recently is the way people have been sharing their ppt presentations and resources after the session. In the past, most presenters would share their e-mails with the audience and promise to send the ppt to anyone who wrote them an e-mail. Honestly, I hate this method as some presenters never send you their slides later on. Nowadays, there are SO MANY OTHER OPTIONS. Some people like Vicky Saumell and Carla Arena,  shared cards with the link to a webpage with resources and their own presentations. Vicky created a protopage and Carla wrote a  blog post.Vicky's resources: http://protopage.com/saumell_iatefl2013Carla's resources: http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com.br/2013/03/contentcuration.htmlOthers, like Gavin Dudeney shared a QRCODE at the end of the slides so that by scanning it you would be taken to their shared presentation. If you don't have a QR reader, I suggest THIS ONE (for iphones or androids ).Others, like sharing LIVEBINDERS with their links ( I learned this one from Shelly Terrell).http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/202342?present=trueAnd some others, still use two very powerful technologies: PAPER + PEN.Now, is there a best way to store information? I don't know, I think the most important thing is to keep some sort of  information so that you can retrieve later for further reflection.WHAT ABOUT YOU? How do you take notes during presentations and conferences nowadays?

If you've attended the TEACHMEET International 2013, this post is dedicated to talk a little bit more about the project presented this morning.Many beginner students of English tend to learn isolated words and sentences and that's all they seem to use for the first years studying English. These students have very little opportunities for expressing themselves a bit more using the target language.This semester, I'm teaching a group of beginners which have studied English for 5 months only (classes are twice a week). I asked them what sort of writing they did last semester and I was told most of what they wrote was in their workbooks and the few times they wrote short texts the only person who read it was their teacher.Well, aiming to provide opportunity for this groups of students to develop their writing skills in English to express themselves I proposed the following project using the EDMODO platform.Each week, I would share a bit more about myself by writing a short text using language learned that week. Students then would try to do the same over the weekend. But this time, they would be writing about themselves, we would be reading everyone's text and would be able to learn from each other. I mentioned to them, my objective was to give them further reading and writing practice , to learn more about them and to see from their language use where they needed further help.This is how we started:Then, it was my students' turn to write their own texts.I tried to respond to the content of the text and not use the replies for correction purposes. This way, I intend to make students feel more confident in using English to talk about themselves.After reading several texts written by the students, I took notes of the most COMMON MISTAKES and in the following class, without identifying who had made the mistake, I tried to elicit from them how to make the sentence grammatically correct. A big challenge I've been having is to get students to keep the conversation going, like I did with Talita, in the example above. They say they don't have enough time to go back and do more reading. Let's see how it goes.ANOTHER EXAMPLE:These were the slides used to present. Teachmeet anamariacult from Ana Menezes The LIVEBINDER with resourcesResources TeachMeet 2013

WHAT'S AN APP SWAP?It's an informal teachmeet where all teachers have the chance to share apps they find useful.During IATEFL Liverpool, we had a very interesting moment of sharing apps when each one of us suggested apps, explained why we liked them and also used the webpage http://todaysmeet.com/appswap to keep track of what was being shared. Photo by Roseli SerraAs most apps suggested on Todaysmeet don't have a link and descriptions, I carefully explored 50 + of the apps shared and organized them into an INTERACTIVE LIST which can be added by anyone who wishes to contribute as well. To suggest an app, all you have to do is click ADD TO LIST and paste the URL of the app suggested, remember to leave a description.App Swap IATEFL 2013View more lists from Ana Maria Menezes

These are the resources I used for a Cultura Inglesa Workshop this Friday, 26/04/2013. This is the video used to invite teachers to join us. I used an app called TELLAGAMI and then exported it to youtube. https://tellagami.com/. The topic chosen was QR CODES. These are the resources I shared.

I guess everyone who uses the web on a regular basis has a routine for reading and bookmarking what they find useful. The two tools I use the most for BOOKMARKING are Diigo and Pinterest.These are some of the bookmarks I saved this week and would like to share with you.This is a QUIZ SCORER which I've learned via a colleague, Georgia Teixeira. You enter the names of teams and quickly can start keeping the score on the screen. Great for IWBs.http://www.curriculumbits.com/prodimages/details/misc/mis0014.htmlI've always been worried about helping students become aware of the digital footprint they leave behing and this blog post I found this week offers wonderful resources.http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/04/a-great-guide-on-teaching-students.htmlWHAT'S A DIGITAL DOSSIER?Another post I enjoyed reading was one about PLAGIARISM and how to avoid it.http://whatdoyouteach.blogspot.com.br/2013/04/plagiarism-and-google-tools-to-reduce-it.htmlI've also collected some more INFOGRAPHICS to my infographics board at PINTEREST, such as one about the history of smarphones and another about the evolution of the internet.I read Isabella Villas Boas' blog post about her IATEFL presentation where she talks about her experience turning a f2f course into a blended one. I loved the way she described the path she followed. http://isabelavillasboas.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/going-blended-if-i-can-do-it-so-can-you-part-1/Another video I found useful was one created by a chemistry teacher before the beginning of the semester explaining to students about the FLIPPED MODEL which would be adopted that year.Oh, last but not least, I've bookmarked with stars an article about Avatars in Education published at the excellent website MINDSHIFT. I was contacted by them a few weeks ago about my work using VOKI avatars. http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/05/a-new-role-for-avatars-learning-languages/Well, these are just some the bookmarks I liked the most. If you're interested in exploring more resources you might want to check out my PINTEREST BOARDS.

It's wonderful to see how much you can learn  (I was going to say "from your own couch") anywhere you are w/ a smartphone. In case you didn't have a chance to go to IATEFL 2013 personally, I've heard lots of people followed the conference via LIVERPOOL ONLINE . They recorded many of the sessions, unfortunately, not all.  Like I said in a previous post, most of the sessions I attended were related to the Learning Technologies SIG.These are some sessions I attended and truly recommend watching:NICKY HOCKLY - Moving with the times: mobile literacy & ELT  LUKE MEDDINGS and BURCY AKYOL - Unplugged and Connected: where ideas meet (DOGME + TECH)  NIK PEACHEY - Evaluating web-based tools for language instruction  RUSSELL STANNARD - Using technology to provide content-rich feedback  GRAHAM STANLEY - Creative pedagogy, language learning and technology  It's a pity I couldn't find the recordings of other SUPERB sessions I would love to share as well, such as : Carla Arena's, Joe Dale's , Gavin Dudeney's , Paul Driver's and some I didn't get to watch such as Shelly Terrell's, Heike Philip's and the list goes on. Hope you enjoy my selection.

In a few minutes, one more Virtual Round Table event is about to start.If you've never attended one, it's a FREE Web Conference for ELT teachers.About 79 presenters from different parts of the world will be presenting talks on educational topics during 48 hours. You don't need to attend all the sessions, just have a look at the program, choose the talks which interest you and click on the ROOM NAME (Ex: ROOM MERLIN in the program) to join the web room. Participants can participate via chat sending questions and comments.THE PROGRAMThese are the links to the rooms:http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/arthurhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/merlinhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/tristanhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/avalonhttp://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/camelotThe conference will also be broadcast live on FACEBOOK.https://www.facebook.com/vrtwebcon/app_190322544333196orhttp://tinyurl.com/vrtlivestreamonfacebook  I've already attended previous VRT web conferences but this time I'll be presenting as well. The presentation abstract:My presentation: Digital tools to help creative language use.Friday, 8:00 p.m. (in Brazil) - 11 GMTSee you there !