Friday 29 February 2008

Games and puzzles

These are some references of games and puzzles in English:
- Twister.
- Uno.
- Guess Who?
- Junior Scrabble.
- Junior Pictionary.
- Snakes and Ladders and Ludo.
- Pirate Snakes and Ladders and Ludo.
- Goosegame.
- Classic card games for kids.
- Happy Families.
- Top Trumps: Wonders of the World, Space, Egypt, Simpsons...

Downloading videos from Youtube

There are different options to save the Youtube videos that we might find interesting for their use in the classroom. These are two examples:
1
Using an online converter program, e.g. http://www.videoconvertx.com/.

Steps:
1. Search for a video of your interest and copy the URL address.
2. Paste the URL address into the corresponding window on Video Convert X.
3. This website requests an email address. Once the video has been converted into an AVI file, for instance, they send you the address from where the file can be retreived to that email address.
4. Click on it with the right button of your mouse and select 'guardar destino'.

2
Using Real Player.

Steps:
1. You can download the program from here and instal it into your computer.
2. Once the program is installed, enter Youtube and search for a video of your choice.
3. You should see a flap on the upper part of the video screen saying 'Download this video'.
4. Follow the instructions and save an .flv file in your computer.
5. Use a file converter online, such as Media-Convert, in case you need a different kind of video, e.g. avi, mpg...

Thursday 21 February 2008

Youtube

Many videos useful for the teaching of English to young learners can be found on Youtube site. These are links to some examples:

STORIES:
- Spot's Windy Day.
-Mr Bean Goes to the Swimming Pool.

GAME:
- Cockroach Race.

SONGS:
- Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
- Whenever I Hear this Music.
- Polly, Put the Kettle On!
- Old McDonald Had a Farm or this other version Old McDonald Had a Farm
- Peter Weatherall videos.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

What is a 'literary text'?

A brief description of different senses of the term literature can be found in this Wikipedia entry (Spanish). A list of literary genres can be also accessed in the English version of Wikipedia.

Games collection

Here you have a link to the description of a series of games collected some years ago in several seminars of primary English teachers: GAMES

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

This website, managed by the Catalan Department of Education, contains several activities and projects aimed at teaching English through contents.

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Teacher training

Magisteritza ikasketak...

Cuadernos de Pedagogía aldizkariaren 2007.ko abenduko aleak irakasle lanbideari buruzko hausnarketa hartzen du gai nagusitzat. Beste zenbait aspekturen artean, irakasleen hasiera prestakuntza aztertzen da. Bartzelonako Unibertsitateko irakaslea den Fernando Hernándezek, ‘¿Qué está pasando?’ monografikoan Finlandia eta Estatu Batuetako ereduak komentatzen ditu.
OHARRA: testu osoa ezin da deskargatu weborri horretatik, galdetu zure ikastetxean erabiltzailearen izenaz eta pasahitzaz edo paperezko alean ikusi.

Beste zenbait gauzaren artean honako hau aipatzen du:
“ Hace años participé en un proyecto europeo sobre la formación del profesorado reflexivo y me sorprendió que los colegas de Utrecht no eludieran la responsabilidad de decidir quién era apto para dedicarse a la docencia. Lo mismo sucede en Finlandia. Se parte de que no todo el mundo tiene las cualidades individuales que se requieren para ser docente”(Finlandia) “A la selección nacional (batxilergoan bederatzi baino gehiagoko nota izatea eta giza jardueretan parte hartua izatea) sigue otra en cada universidad en la que se busca que cada candidato dé cuenta de seis aspectos que se consideran esenciales: la empatía, comunicación y actitud social que muestran en una entrevista; dar cuenta de un resumen de una lectura de un libro; explicar un tema ante una clase; demostrar aptitudes artísticas; responder a una prueba de matemáticas y otra de aptitudes ante las TIC)

Wallace and Gromit


Some printables with wallace and Gromit characters can be downloaded from this site.

Sunday 3 February 2008

Mind maps and graphic organizers

After browsing through the WWW in order to find clear definitions of 'mind map, 'cognitive map', 'graphic organizer'... it seems that there is not a unanimous use: while some people seem to consider these terms as synonyms, others tend to differentiate them.


Anyway, I'd say that the expression 'graphic organizer' acts as an 'umbrella term' for various forms of organizing information through charts and diagrams, whereas 'mind map' stands for a particular format of classifying data.

Some definitions:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind map




A graphic organizer is a visual representation of information in an organized manner that is intended to enhance understanding (eg, Venn diagram, T-graph, word web, KWL chart) www.instech.tusd.k12.az.us/Core/glossary/writeglossary.doc


Other:

Definition in Spanish (Wikipedia): Mapa conceptual


Enchantedlearning presents a set of choices for organizing and displaying information. Click here to see them.


These are just a few websites from the many that offer templates for different kinds of graphic organizers on the Internet:

- edHelper
- Freeology.
- Tools for Reading, Writing, & Thinking