There is a conference coming for K-12 IT professionals this April!If you're an IT professional who works for a school, school district, or educational organization, you may be interested in a conference this April in Pennsylvania.IU 13 in Lancaster, PA, is hosting Tech Talk Live on April 26-27, 2011. While there are other conferences for professionals interested in using technology in the classroom, this is the only conference that serves IT professionals who work in educational environments. The content is directed toward directors of technology services, systems and network administrators, application developers, and IT support staff.Walt Mossberg, who writes a weekly column on personal technology for The Wall Street Journal, is scheduled to speak. Breakout sessions delve into the nitty-gritty of deploying and maintaining information technology systems in K-12 institutions. Greg Schwem, a standup comedian who pokes fun at corporate and institutional cultures, is giving the keynote, to bring levity to the intense two-day event.Early Registration is $250 through the end of February, and includes entry to win a free Apple iPad.For more information on this conference or to register, visit the Tech Talk Live website, http://techtalklive.iu13.org.POST-CONFERENCE REVIEWS 2010

This is the easieast tool I've seen to create comic strips. I've been planning to create a comic strip with my students in class and then ask them to create mini dialogues with language learned that day for their own comic strips. http://writecomics.com/You don't even need an account. First you click on the characters, then the backgroun, choose a speech bubble, type in the text (click SUBMIT WORD) and when you've finished click FINISHED and you've provided with a link. It's that easy. :( It's a pity they don't offer us an embed but you can always grab a screenshot and publish it.These are some comic strips created by a colleague of mine, Angela Gonçalves, to present modals of deduction.http://writecomics.com/gen/3583.html  To learn how to use it, watch this TUTORIAL:

Simple application which you can use to write notes to yourself or to others. Each sticky note can be shared with others via link or sent via e-mail. http://noterr.com

I've recently discovered I could create screencasts to offer grammar explanation recordings to my students. After sharing the idea  in a workshop, a colleague of mine (Angela Gonçalves), has made some really good recordings I wish to share with other teachers. The first three were created by Angela and the last one is mine.Making Deductions (must , can't , might)Obligations (have to , must, don't have to)First and Second ConditionalNarrative Tenses (S. Past , Past Cont., Past Perfect)

Sharing an idea for using the webcam images from GeoCam.tv Describing pictures in one of skills required for the Cambridge exams, therefore, if you're helping your students to do that, you could show students the various webcams around the world and ask them to choose a place. Click on the camera icon and have students describe what they can see to each other (pairwork). You can then debrief by asking for descriptions from some volunteers.These are live webcams from Natal, Brazil and Liverpool, UK. You can also have students predict what they might see before clicking on the image icons. In France, students might say they will see the Eiffel Tower, in Egypt the pyrammids, and so on.Discovered GEOCAM.tv via @NikPeachey 's tweet.

I've always been excited about what is to come in terms of technology and its implications in our lives.If you want to learn more about the terms WEB 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 , I suggest the wonderful post by NIcky Hockly.Teachers & Web 3.0 - A Beginner´s Guide to Webs 1,2,3, x - e-moderation station via kwoutBelow is a presentation, shared by Nicky and devised by Steve Wheeler from the University of Plymouth.Web 3.0: The way forward?View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

I've recently fallen in love with comic creators and its various possibilities of use in the classroom. This WONDERFUL presentation shared below, not only brings several links to comic creator sites but also provides suggestions for teachers.Tap into the World of Comics Primary School versionView more presentations from S. Hendy.These are some of the COMIC CREATOR sites suggested by S.Hendyhttp://www.toondoo.com/ http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/http://www.professorgarfield.org/comics_lab_extreme/http://www.garfield.com/fungames/comiccreator.htmlhttp://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/http://myths.e2bn.org/story_creator/http://www.bam.gov/sub_yourLife/yourlife_comiccreator.htmlhttp://www.pixton.com/uk/http://www.creaza.com/http://www.chogger.com/http://comiqs.com/editor/http://www.comeeko.com/http://www.pikikids.com/http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic http://cpbherofactory.com/http://www.scholastic.com/charlottesweb/comic/index.htmhttp://www.scholastic.com/goosebumpsgraphix/makeyourown/index.htmhttp://www.scholastic.com/dogslife/createtale.htm

Want to animate a short text for a blog, wiki or to send your students a cool message?Use WONDERSAY to help you create the animation and then embed it or share it via twitter or facebook .Found the site while exploring David Kapuler's great blog.made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

I have a very bad memory for lyrics but love singing. If you are like me, tubeoke is just great. You can watch the music clip and read the lyrics all in the  same screen.HOW TO USE THIS SITE WITH STUDENTS?For warmer - have students choose a song they like and have them sing together while reading the lyrics.Use a song lyrics to highlight a grammar structure or to call attention to specific vocabulary.Or just have fun and sing, sing , sing.If you want to find a song for a specific structure, try LYREACH, a site you can use to find songs by typing a sequence of words you expect to find in a song. Another great site for practising with lyrics is http://www.lyricstraining.com/

This is a fantastic site I haven't explored to its full potential yet but found it so interesting that had to share it.With Magic Studio, you can create quizzes, drag n' drop activities and other interactive presentations. http://www.magicstudio.com/SOME EXAMPLES:- Once you've dragged the right word over the image, you can hear the sound of the animal.- click on the objects to hear the pronunciation.  - an interactive timeline where you can include images, audio files, links to videos and other files.

I love sites which can make my teaching life easier.SPELLINGCITY helps your students learn / memorize words by focussing on spelling, pronunciation and contextualisation.http://www.spellingcity.com/First, you add the words you wish to memorize. Then, the site generates sentences with those words so that you can learn it. You can then, click the TEST button to hear the words and test your spelling or choose one of the GAMES available.An example:1. I created a list of words related to MONEY 2.Once you click spelling test, you can hear the isolated word and then the word in a sentence for to type the correct spelling. LISTENING AND WRITING practice.3. Games you can use to practise VOCABULARY, WRITING and SPELLINGHOW TO USE THE SITE IN CLASSWith an IWB In the last 15-20 minutes of class, elicit the new words learned that day from students while you insert the word in Spellincity. Sts can dictate the spelling as teacher types in the words. Then, all we have to do is click spelling test and start using the practice exercises the site generates. You can also, assign a specific student to keep a record of the new words throughout the class and then use the list close to the end of the class to generate exercises.Another alternative is to use the practice exercises at the beginning of the following class for revision.

Have some extra time at the beginning of the year and wish to learn from professionals worldwide?The ELETRONIC VILLAGE ONLINE  , every year in Jan - Feb, offers free sessions for teachers where they can participate in discussions and virtual workshops.These are the sessions for EVO2011Becoming a WebheadRe-playing Process DramaDigital StorytellingPLEs and PLNs for Lifelong Learning CompetenciesCreating Vocabulary ActivitiesMultiliteracies for Social Networking and Collaborative Learning EnvironmentsVillage- Language Learning and Community Building in Second LifeMentoring TESOLPodcasts for EFL /ESL classroomReflectiion and Practice: Virtual EducationSessions start on January 10th, however you can register as of January 3rd. To register (for free) all you have to do is click on one of the links above and follow the instructions.I'll be co-moderating the Digital Storytelling session along with other great teachers. HOPE to "see" many of you at EVO.

I intend to use this site in class to practise or revise vocabulary learned in class . Great to be used in IWBs.http://www.spellingcity.com/ I'm going to synchronise my audioboo account with a posterous blog and use it to record my students in class, reading dialogues and stories they have created. I can use my iphone or a laptop for the recording and it's published in posterous automatically.http://audioboo.fm/ I'll be using screencasts to record feedback for my students (correcting their work) and to record grammar explanations for revision purposes. EXAMPLEhttp://screenr.com   I'd like to have my students create their own comic strips with the content learned that day.http://writecomics.com/With English Attack I intend to have my students learn new vocabulary and expressions from movie snippets.I'll use the IWB or take students to the lab.http://www.english-attack.com/beta-preview At the beginning or end of class, I'll have students listen and try to fill the gaps of songs on the IWB.http://www.lyricstraining.com/ I'll have the students add written texts and images for projects on this interactive wall.http://www.stixy.com/I'll create glogster posters to create study guides to help my students  study before tests. EXAMPLEhttp://glogster.com  I'll be using Memorize Now to help my students memorize dialogues or expressions.http://memorizenow.com/ At the lab, students will be asked to create joint stories or dialogues using target structure or vocabulary and then send me the link.http://typewith.me/

Everyday while surfing the net (twitter, facebook, edmodo, blogs) I bookmark sites I find interesting (with diigo) and then when I have time to explore them I share them in LIFE FEAST.These are the sites I've selected for this week's post:KIDS' FABLES- A site with fables written by children. The site is perfect for developing a project where students are invited to create their own fables. There's a page with guidelines which can help students create their own story. The site suggests a fable contest where the best fables are submitted to Kidsfables.com to be considered for publication. As an extension, you can record your students reading the fables (using AUDIOBOO) and publish them in a class blog.TIME 10 QUESTIONS - another great inspiration for projects. This is a collection of videos where celebrities are asked 10 questions. You can ask students to predict the questions which will be asked and then watch the video for checking. You can also ask students to pretend they are going to interview someone famous, create the 10 questions and then roleplay the interview with a classmate pretending to be the celebrity. The interviews can be recorded with a digital camera and then published in youtube and/or a class blog. Students can even vote for the best interview.DIGITAL DIALECTS - The Digital Dialects website features free to use interactive game for learning languages (English, French, Italian, Russian, Japanese and many others.) SMORIES -these are stories read by kids. The site can be used for listening and reading comprehension (as many of the stories are subtitled) or you can use this as an inspiration for a writing project where students create a story, record themselves reading it and submit the video to Smories.com.EBOOK EXCHANGE- if you have a kindle or nook, this is a place where you can lend and borrow e-books. The fee you pay for borrowing or lending is sent to charity. MESSAGEHOP- great tool for storytelling.MY EXAMPLE FOLDING STORY - Start a story, fold the paper and pass. Sounds familiar? Well, you can do the same online. A group storytelling game.

I had a breast tumor detected in 2009 and as a cancer survivor I was delighted to hear about a tool that can help all women detect breast tumors more efficiently and less painfully than normal mamographies.                                              Completely bald opening a giftAt the same time, it's shocking to see how little do politicians and other powerful men regard the health of women. You see,  the approval of a more efficient screener and less expensive machine can disturb the "pockets" of many powerful manufacterers. This presentation by Dr. Deborah Rhodesis is both informative and important to ALL WOMEN. Let's hope it doesn't take ong (5 or more years) for us to have the possiblity of having this powerful tool to help us take care of our health.

Great tool to be used to help students debate a topic. You can create an argument, state your reasons and then invite people to share their views. The site provides you with the embed code for publishing.Check out an argument I've started:To participale, just click REPLY.HOW TO USE THE SITE WITH STUDENTS?Post an argument in a class blog and have students participate either from home or at the school computer lab.Start an argument, invite people around the world to share their views and then in class (with the IWB) show the discussion and invite students to share their opinions about the statement.Found the tool thanks to Ozge and her wonderful blog .

Let's imagine you want to share a list of videos with your students in an interesting way.Well, I guess, YOUCUBE could be your choice. You can easily enter 6 Youtube URLs, and then click share your cube to grab the link to it.This is a YOUCUBE I've created with 6 videos I like very much. Hope you like my selection.

LYRICS TRAINING is a wonderful site to practise listening and spelling. It has a wide variety of songs you can choose to complete the gaps from the lyrics. There are 3 levels; the higher the level the more gaps you have to complete.The good news is that you can create your own song activity with a video clip you select from youtube, paste the lyrics and synchronize it with the video. It's quite simple really. This is an activity I've created for the song BECAUSE by "the Beatles" from the film "Across the Universe".If you want to learn how to make your own SONG ACTIVITY to use with your students, watch the TUTORIAL below.

I had an idea for a project to develop this semester with my Intermediate students.I intend to use 5 songs by "The Beatles" from the film Across the Universe as a warmer activity every other week. The activities have been devised at http://lyricstraining.com and I'll use the IWB to ask different students to come to the keyboard to try to complete the gaps from the lyrics with everyone's help. This way students will have listening and spelling practise. After we're done, I'll play the whole song again for us to sing (pronunciation practice).I'll save the song videos from YOutube  as favourites so that I can easily use the songs at the beginning of classes, as background for writing activities, to inspire brainstorming, and so on. Playing the same songs at different times, I believe they will memorize them.During the semester, I expect some student will mention the songs come from the film "Across the Universe" and I believe they will naturally ask to watch the whole film in class. If my predictions don't come true, I'll tell them about the film and suggest we watch it. The film is not appropriate for younger students, therefore it's important to watch it to see if you find it acceptable for your group.The Song Activities I plan to use:BecauseAll you need is love I want to hold your hand Strawberry Fields foreverLet it be These are the controls which you need to use  in LYRICSTRAINING to repeat the lines, skip words, rewind and so on.This is a TUTORIAL to show you how to make your own song activity.

This week, I trained new teachers how to make lessons for the  Promethean IWBs we have at school.There are several features you can use and one of them is hiding/showing. A friend of mine , Rita, sent me a message yesterday asking for help because she wants to prepare an activity where she hides images behind numbers.This is a tutorial I've made to show her how to do it. http://screencast.com/t/7z7IwU0vPoOThe same software can be used in other IWBs, all you have to do is download the free version of ACTIVINSPIRE from http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/support/

Learn how to integrate new technologies in your lessons with all the support you need.CULTURA EDTECH - a course for tech beginners.MOVING BEYOND - a course for more experienced techies.New Groups start on FEBRUARY 07.See poster in FULL SIZE

Free Online Conference on WiZiQ: CO11 - Feb 4-6, 2011 via kwoutFantastic free online sessions taking place this weekend.Presenters will discuss the following topics:Free Online Conference on WiZiQ: CO11 - Feb 4-6, 2011 via kwoutTo participate, click on the link below, check the session that interests you, and a few minutes before the session starts, click on the link of the session, click JOIN THIS CLASS, and then LAUNCH THIS CLASS.I'm planning to watch two sessions today:1. Blended Instruction w/ Blogs and Wikis for Young Learners (Shelly Terrell and Greta Sandler)2. Language in Motion: Teaching with the Flow (Janet Bianchini)

With the beginning of our semester, we've already started developing little projects with our students. I've got 4 groups of Upper Intermediate students ("I'm the queen of Upper As!) and this semester I plan to propose 10 challenging tasks for them to develop at home apart from doing their traditional workbook exercises.The tasks aim to help students practise LISTENING, WRITING and SPEAKING. Students will also get the chance to learn how to use different webtools to create content, a skill I believe all our students need nowadays.As a plus, students will get  to watch tutorials , in English, to learn how to use the tools. This is what I have in mind: All tasks involve uisng language learned during that week.The platform used for sharing is EDMODO and a school blog.These are the webtools we're going to use: VOKIWriteComicsAudiobooFotobabbleStixyTypewithmeLiveTypingFodeyBitStrips

According to a previous post , this is the result of the first task I proposed to my students.It's pretty simple, students had to listen to a dictation I created on Voki about the topic we were discussing in class that week, had to transcribe it and then send the text to me via e-mail.This is the VOKI message they listened to:The texts I received via e-mail showed me students did a great job understanding the words. I noticed some minor spelling mistakes (Ex: reserch, then instead of them) but most students failed to use the right punctuation marks (full stops, commas, and inverted commas). As a post-activity, I'll be elicitng the right punctuation from my students in class.When asked if they thought the task was easy, medium or difficult, most of them told me they found it easy, however they had to listen to it several times to get the words right. Isn't that what all teachers wish? Lots of listening practice and spelling awareness. Mission accomplished!