Interactive White Board Basics
Main new functions and Useful lesson techniques
This is a smart notebook file I created to train teachers on some of the main new functions of Smart Notebook 11 and introduce them to the new Face 2 Face digital book when these were introduced Spring 2014. It includes an Activity Builder and Embedded Browser, as well as Using Objects Basics such as adding lines, shapes, text, images, grouping and locking. It also has an Object Linked to File, a Useful Lesson Technique.
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Create your own activity and Lesson activity toolkit
This is a smart notebook file I created to show agents if they visit the school. It combines a few different lessons I've used with students. It includes three Lesson Activity Toolkit types, which can get the students/agents working together and interacting with the board as well as get them talking about British culture.
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Web 2.0 tools
Self Study Website
This is a website I created for students to have extra study practice. I created it 5 years ago, but I still find it a useful resource to direct students to for extra practice, especially if there is something they want to study that isn't covered in their general English class, such as specific exam websites. |
Study Smart
I used to use Embassy's VLE Study Smart, using Moodle, with my classes. I uploaded websites, links and class projects and modified the template for my classes. It was a useful way to share work created on other sites like Storybird and Bookr. In Greenwich, we set Study Smart up as an extra self-study tool before eventually phasing it out, because it was difficult for students to log in and access. Related to this, I piloted semi-digital classes, e-books, and trialed MySpeakOut Lab as an alternative to Study Smart. |
Scoop It
I created several Scoop It pages for various reasons. Although some people prefer the graphic style of Scoop It pages, I ended up always going back to the other websites I have created (Self Study, Teachers'--see above). At first Scoop It was really easy to use, but then it caused my browser to crash or I lost the link to 'scoop' new pages. |
Dvolver
I use this website a lot with students. I mainly use dfilm as a way to use vocabulary and expressions in a conversation. Students have to work together to write their dialogue, but they also get a lot of speaking practice negotiating how to create the film itself. Here is one example from the ones my intermediate students created revising phrasal verbs (Jan 2015). When we watched it as a class, the other students had to notice the language we had seen in the previous lesson and correct any errors. Students always love this activity. Thinglink
This is a project I did with my Communication Skills elective and then posted on our blog. This is a beginner-elementary level class and we have been studying places around town. Our project was to find places near the school where we could get certain things we need. They had to take of photo of the place, label it, then add a video of a conversation talking about that place. Taking a photo and labeling it worked really well, but we had some difficulty uploading the videos. I would use it again for images to activate low level vocabulary, but I'm not sure I'm that keen to use it as a way to share video. |
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Recording
I often get my students to record their speaking. This is an example of a soundcloud my student made and posted to our class Padlet page. However, I find getting students to use their own devices and whatever app they have on their phones already works fine. Usually the recording is just for them rather than to share with others. The most common activity I do is getting them to record themselves and then listen to reflect on their ability. Then we do some activities to improve their speaking and at the end they record themselves again to notice how much they have improved. |
Padlet
I have used padlet with a few of my classes as a fast way to share their work. It's easy to use because they can just post their writing, recordings, images, etc. I've used it with classes when we didn't have a class blog. Some of them had trouble uploading files because they were too large, but most of them were able to share their work successfully. |
Fotobabble
This is a Fotababble I did as a demo for my class. I've used this a few times with students to get them to describe important people in their lives or a place they have traveled to. It is nice because when they share their fotobabbles with their classmates, they have an image to connect with the sound. |
Socrative
This was a really easy website to use. I created a cultural quiz for my students. They downloaded the student app and, working in pairs, choose the correct answer for each of my questions. They then had to create quizzes for each other on their own countries using the teachers' app and deliver it to the class. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated for them to create and deliver their own quizzes, but the actual app was easy and fast to use. It's nice because you can add photos to quizzes, and my students enjoyed the competition. |
Powtoon
I created this model for my students to follow. Their homework was to interview someone about their job. Then they had to tell a classmate what they had found out. Together they chose the most interesting job and wrote a profile of this person using powtoon. Powtoon was really easy and fast to use, if you don't start from scratch but customize a ready made powtoon because it has the animation and timings already set up. |
Canva
This is a poster I made for other teachers to let them know about Canva and help them use it with their students.
This is a poster I made for other teachers to let them know about Canva and help them use it with their students.