The Epson wonder-thing

Our school got an invitation to visit a certain informatica shop in Viterbo, to attend a presentation of the new Epson EB-450Wi interactive projector with a view to perhaps adopting it in our classrooms (in some imagined far-future...). I went with a colleague today at 11 a.m. We were the first to arrive. Did someone say interactive whiteboard thingy? I'M THERE!!!! In fact, I had already cased the joint at 8.45, so that I knew where to go.
I didn't have to be convinced by the IWB. I already am. I've been desiring one since I bought the 4th edition of Jeremy Harmer's The Practice of English Language Teaching, which shows teachers using the things. Then, as previously posted, I got to try one out at the recent IH ELT conference in Rome.
This new Epson wonder-projector negates the need for an IWB though! You can project onto any surface, including a blackboard. How retro would that be? That surface then becomes interactive, by using a special infrared pen (or else there is an infrared light from the projector which recognises movement...or something! I don't need to know how it works to know that it is wonderful.)
The people giving the demo were suitably convincing, and my colleague and I chatted about the application all the way back to school.
Then I got to thinking. I've been considering getting my own set-up to take when I go out to other schools. A decent lap-top and a portable projector - but is this the way to go, or will it create other issues which I am unaware of? How much can you actually do with the thing once you've got it? Am I going to have to learn a whole new skills-set to maximise the benefits? And will the technology make me a better teacher, or will it interfere the rapport I build with my students?
Consider that I don't really know how to use Powerpoint...

I did consider this, and as I had a bit of time up my sleeve (due to the fact that we really didn't take much convincing about the Epson Wonder-thing, and that they couldn't really keep us once we'd seen what it could do), I played with Powerpoint before my individual lesson.

What I came up with was a short presentation with images of Tod's shoes and bags, a photo of Diego Della Valle, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Why? Well, this particular student is preparing for a public exam to enter into a certain public entity which has something to do with markets and stock exchanges. For the English part of her exam, she will be presented with a fairly technical article about finance or markets or something. She will have to read it, then precis it, and then answer some comprehension questions about it.

I'm running out of financial articles that I can grab from the 'net! We've done them all. Especially ones about Italy. However, today I found a little piece about said Diego become the main shareholder of Saks. It was an uh-huh moment. I found as much information as I could about his company, Saks Inc., Carlos Slim (who was the main shareholder until Diego shouldered him aside), and the deal.

The PPP worked as a nice lead-in to the articles...but then?

Sadly, there is nothing that technology can really help with when the exam she has to do is sooooo dry! She did enjoy the article about the slap-down shouting match between Silvio and Diego, though.

A Word Monster

I also had my Starters group today. I wanted to jazz up their vocabulary learning a little, and remembered an activity I'd used with the pre-school class. The Word Monster. Which was perfect for  today's lesson, as we were doing body parts (having done colours, numbers and "how many..." over the last few lessons.)

I had a sheet of brown paper already stuck to the board when they came in, so they were very curious about what we'd be doing. I went over the body parts with them, eliciting face, head, eye, ear, nose, mouth, body, arm, hand, leg and foot.

Then I got a big pen, and said...This is our Word Monster. He has a BIIIIIIIGGGGGGG head (which I drew). Then I asked how many eyes does he have? etc etc etc....

Once we'd drawn and coloured our monster, and talked about him, they gave him a name (apologies to Alex Case - it was the students' idea, really!), and we put him back on the board. 

Now, this is a Word Monster (idea taken from "Very Young Learners" by Vanessa Reilly and Sheila M. Ward), so he 'eats' flashcards. I forgot the blu-tak today (will forget head tomorrow). Usually I would blu-tak the flashcards they know to the monster's mouth, and then check again at end of lesson - if they remember, then the monster eats the words which end up in his BIIIIIIIGGGGGGG STRIIIIPPPPPPPYYYYY BOOOOODDDDDDDYYYYY. :-) Today he got to munch on those words immediately, and the flashcards sat on the ledge of the board. Ah well. It was fun and creative.

Instant warmer for PET

I started with a new PET prep class today, at one of the local high schools. Lovely school - run by nuns, and the English teacher is switched on and speaks very well. I have sixteen students, probably all about 15 and 16 years of age. A good mix of boys and girls, and all at about the same level (with the obvious gradings of ability).

I only have them for an hour at a time, once a week, for 24 hours in total. That isn't much time, when you consider that I am preparing them for all three parts of the exam (Reading/Writing, Listening and Speaking). Usually our job is just to prepare them for Listening and Speaking. We decided to use Skills Booster 4, by Alexandra Green (published by New Editions, HEINLE CENGAGE Learning), because it is a short course, and covers the four skills very nicely, and is also aimed at the appropriate age group.

As I was preparing the first lesson yesterday, I had one of those completely blank moments - I just KNEW there was something I usually do at the beginning of a PET Prep class, but I couldn't force it from the dark recesses of my currently-overtaxed brain...

Until I got into the classroom, of course! Ta-dah! I immediately discarded the completely lame idea I had planned as a warmer, and put them into groups. Then I wrote up some questions about the exam on the board : How many papers are there? How many parts in Reading? How many in Writing? How many words do you write in Part 2 Writing? In Part 3? How much time do you have for Reading/Writing? How much time for Listening? Where do you write your answers for Listening? How many people at a time do the Speaking Exam? How many examiners are there?

I negotiated a time limit (5 minutes) and set the timer, then let them at their handbooks....

They really got into it, and although no group answered all the questions, it familiarised them with the handbook, and with the exam.

And then we got on with the Skills Booster book, lesson one.

And I am well pleased with the book! It is just the right level. Gave them a confidence boost right from the get-go, and I think it is going to be a great group to work with.

NaNoWriMo in Iceland

I'm wearing a different hat in November. I'm a teacher. It is what I do. I love it. But I'm also a writer. It's what I do. I love it. I get paid for doing the first. I'd love to get paid for doing the second (actually, I have been paid, once. Which means that I know I can do it again.)
Why November? If you follow the link to NaNoWriMo, you'll find out. NaNo gives me the kick in the pants I need to make me fit writing in and around all the other aspects of my life (you know, wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, friend...), and shows me every year that I CAN write, and I LOVE writing.

The first year was when I wrote the novel I'd been thinking about for ages. I finished that book, and its been rejected by several very reputable agents. :-) As you know, rejection means that I'm a "real author"!

Last year I wrote a book which I loved - only it had a very saggy middle which kept me bogged down. So much so that it is still a work in progress. I thought about resurrecting it this year, and making the 50,000 words the second half of that book - but then I had another idea.

And also a change of genre.

I've moved from Chick Lit - erm, I mean, Contemporary Women's Fiction - into ROMANCE. Yes, romance, with the necessary Alpha male, strong yet vulnerable female, and some slurpy bits. And to add a bang to the whole story, I've set it in Iceland (because I needed a literal bang, as in a volcano!).

Previously, I've written about New Zealand, Italy, London...you know, places I've actually been to, and know something about. This year, I'm completely in the dark. Well, not completely, of course, because we have the Internet, with blogs, flikr, ads, mapmyrun for calculating distances, and all those good things.

However, if you are visiting this blog, and you live in Iceland, or have been to Iceland, I'd love to hear from you. Really! Especially if you live anywhere near Skaftafell, and/or are a geologist, an Earth Sciences student, or a photo journalist :-)

Thanks for checking in!

Another way to do a song...

What can you do with a song in an ESL class?

Error correction

Gap fill

Re-order the lines

Re-order the words (!)

Running dictation (with the text...correct while listening)

And one I learned from Margaret Horrigan of IH Manzoni

Take the first verse of the song you want to do with your students. For this example, let's use "These Boots Are Made For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra (because this is what MH used at the conference, to lead into her lesson about shoes). 

Count how many words there are in the first verse, and maintaining the punctuation, replace each word with a letter (in order---1,2,3,4,5,....). You can do this on the board, leaving space to replace the numbers with the words. Or you can use the technology available, and do it as a document, which you then project onto the board (or else, surely, you can do it somehow on an interactive white board, but as I have no experience with one, I'll leave that to the really techy people!) 

If you do it as a doc and project it, you have the words under the numbers, but in white on a white background, so they are invisible at first. As the students guess them, you can then change the colour of each correct word to the colour of the team which guessed the word....

Proceedure : Divide the class into two or three teams, and assign each team a colour (according to your whiteboard pens, of course!). If you are still working on a blackboard, you may have coloured chalk. If you have no coloured chalk, assign each team a shape - the Circle Team, the Oval Team and the Rectangle Team, for example. 

Explain that they must listen to the song, and then they can hazard a guess - one word, or two or three or four (etc) words TOGETHER (this is to show them the lexical chunks). If the words are correct, write them up on the team's colour (or put the team's shape around the word). They can listen again and again, while they build the verse up on the board. 

Once that is done (and you can help them with questions such as "What can come before a noun?"), you then go straight into the lesson. 

This technique can also be used with short reading passages (which you, the teacher, read to the class), which also lead into the theme of the lesson. 

I hope I've explained this clearly enough. If not (or even if), please leave a comment, and I will attempt to clarify!

feedback session

I gave a brief and rushed presentation on the conference today at our staff meeting. I was happy with how it went, but obviously needed a lot more time to fit in two days' worth of inspiration. So I've said I will report a little more on here...just not right now!

Diamante poetry

Diamante poetry was one of the techniques suggested by Jeremy Harmer in his presentation "The Marriage of True Minds:  poetry and music in language teaching", given at the Accademia Britannica International House 50th Anniversary Educational Conference, in Rome, Oct 22/23, 2010.
Here's my first attempt (written on train on way to second day of conference).

FIRST DAY

Student

eager, open

repeating, speaking, inventing,

textbook, dictionary, computer, whiteboard,

miming, eliciting, smiling,

prepared, delighted,

Teacher.

I know - it's never going to win a competition, but the creative spark was struck, and I felt great pride in my little poem. Now imagine your students producing something similar. They have to tap into their lexis to find words they can use. You can give them the theme (Men/women, cats/dogs, summer/winter, day/night....), put on some background music (if they want it - remember to ASK. And remember, don't turn of the music before it is finished, just because you think the students SHOULD be finished!). 

He talked about many other activities you can do with poems in class. If you want to know more, comment, and I'll report, but for now I will just mention Jeremy's favourite - "YOU".

The students think of someone they love, and write that person's name at the top of the page.

Then the teacher says "Write about that person as if they were 

... a month."                 "You are April, flowers blooming, sudden showers."

...a kind of weather."    "You are a sunny day, warmth spreading."

...a kind of food."         "You are a bowl of porridge, strength to get through the day"

and so on and so on! He says that the students engage with this kind of writing, and that poetry can also be used to vastly improve students' pronunciation. I'm excited to try some of his techniques.