EVO sessions – online workshops for Language teacher development

If you happen to have a bit of flexible time on your hands the for the next two months, then there is another excellent chance to expand your skills and knowledge as a teacher. The EVO sessions, which have been going on for quite some time, are offering 6-week workshops on-line, and all you have to do is sign up here.

The EVO sessions are run by highly motivated and experienced teachers expressly for language teachers from all over the world and are a great opportunity for those interested in using technologies but without experience, and for those looking for new ways to apply their knowledge and experience.  For beginners a great session is Becoming a Webhead.

Other sessions deal with online games, images for teaching and learning, videos, and internet for kids, etc.

But not everything revolves around technologies, although all the sessions use yahoogroups and other internet tools. You can also join the very active Drama session or find out how to travel the world with your students from the computer.

It begins 11th January and registration is from 4th Jan-10th Jan, so do sign up immediately if you are interested.

AGM 2010 – Biel Coming this January!!

Welcome to 2010, and I hope this year will be a fabulous one!!!

Well, it’s starting out with a bang.

Closest to home is the AGM in Biel on 30-31st January.

It is full of interesting workshops on everything from vocabulary and grammar to drawing and drama, and of course technologies and specific interests.  Two less common exam formats in Switzerland are being looked at in more depth – the IELTS and the PTE  (previously London Test of English), and exercises are being made interesting while learners learn to learn.

It’s too late to register on-line. but you can certainly come and register on-site.

You can find more information about it here.

Follow-up SIG day Matopo Project

The SIG day was a success, I think everyone will agree.

Two  special highlights of the day were related to the Matopo Primary School project run by Cindy Hauert.

From Teacher training in Zimbabwe 2008

The first highlight was to hear the wondeful news that the Roger Federer Foundation has decided to support this project. This is extremely important news as it means that the support can take new dimensions. It’s the children who are the future of any country, and at the current state the future of Simbabwe looks dismal.

Then at the end  the amount of money contributed through the raffle and donations for Matopo School was announced. It was a high figure worthy of the charitable and helpful nature of ETAS and its members.

Several presenters have generously donated their payment to the school. I don’t know many names, but I do know that Peter Travis and Fiona Joseph from flo-joe and splendid speaking websites (see below) were two such people. I would gladly recognize others if I have their names.

Another such presenter was Ian McMaster, from Business Spotlight, who also blogged about the SIG day and the Matopo project. I do invite you to read what he had to say in his post “A penny for their thoughts.”

You can keep informed by reading the Matopo blog, and please do leave a comment. Comments can be very motivating, especially when the prospects seem particularly bleak and the hurdles high (such as getting materials across the border!) and why not become an official follower? This is very easy to do if you already have a google account. Just click on the follower button in the column on the right and help make the group fo supporters grow!

If you know of other such noble acts, please leave a comment so they can be recognized and thanked!

Do good things and talk about it!

Follow-up of ETAS SIG day Reading into writing workshop

FIrst of all, a big thanks to Fiona Joseph, who gave us an excellent workshop.

It was the second of two to be given through Skype and with a pre-recorded presentation.

You can find the pre-recorded part below, but you will need Flash installed to ensure it works properly. There are also all the links mentioned during the workshop.

Flo-joe for ETAS

One of the links that we looked at is LibraryThing but there is another social network for books at Shelfari.

We discused how to include literature in the classroom and agreed to share any experiences, problems and ideas as comments to this post. I am looking forward to your input!

Follow-up of ETAS SIG day Skype workshop

ETAS’ very first on-line presenter gave an excellent workshop on skype. Technology went well with everything except the couple of computers that were down. Thank you, Peter Travis!

As ETAS is concerned about the environment and wants to save trees, there were no handouts. However, the presentation (not including live talks) and all the links which were mentioned are included in the website below.

Splendid speaking for ETAS

You will need Flash for the presentation to work, but all the other links should by fine.

We would love to hear from you about your experiences with teaching and learning with Skype, so please do leave a comment here if you have had any- good or bad.

Surveys from the Peanuts for Monkeys Workshop

Here are the surveys that were made during the workshop:

interest in swine flu vaccine

Taking additional English courses at TS

CLIL in Primary

Shopping strategies

and one more:

Working across cultures

Surveymonkey workshop

This is a post for those taking the peanuts for monkeys survey workshop.

We are working with surveymonkey (hence the title of the workshop) and you can easily find surveymonky here.

It’s an extremely easy way of making surveys, and JoAnn and I have set one up for you to take:

Click Here to take survey

You can also feel free to leave comments at the end of this post to let us know how useful you found the workshop and how you intend to use the surveys.

Twitter for SIG day 2009 in Basel

Just right on time for the SIG day on the 12. September ETAS has gone a twitter!

You can follow the Twitter from the ETAStweet in the right hand bar, and if you haven’t signed up for the SIG day yet, then there’s still time, but not a lot.

Why should ETAS be on twitter? You can get up-to-the-minute information  on what is going on, changes, etc, and they can even be sent to your mobile. IF you want to send a tweet (a twitter message) to ETAStweet, simply add  @  before the name, i.e.   @ETAStweet  .

This is the last post about Twitter, but I hope it has given you some incentive to try it out, and you are always welcome to leave a comment.

I hope to see you all in Basel soon!

Twitter again

If you’ve been reading here, you’ll see that my tweets seem pretty disconnected,but if you begin following others, you will see conversations, information, news, music, and of course, a lot of noise mixed in.

And now, some of the experiences I’ve had with twitter:

While on a trip to the States, I was tweeting for my students. When I mentioned my visit to South Carolina, I got a tweet about the local culture of Gullah, which I naturally shared with my class.

A friend wished me a good time during my trip.

Others welcomed me back home (on twitter??)

I found a great link to a lesson plan about Susan Boyle just as I was contemplating what to do in the next lesson.

And I’ve found many a relevant link about other topics.

Graham Stanley and I negotiated his workshop at the last SIG day.

There was a discussion about the appropriacy of twitter for primary school, and a better tool for this purpose was mentioned (edmodo.com)

I have completed a survey for someone writing a paper, linked and thanked for through twitter.

Last night I went onto Twitter and learned that Farrah Fawcett had died only a couple hours before. Of course, she was an icon in my youth, not just because of Charlie’s Angles. Shortly after, it was on the news, but I’d heard it before!

and I JUST read that Micheal Jackson has also died. That makes 2 icons in 2 days. I don’t know exactly when he did, but I just saw the news on twitter.

So here are just a few ways. You have to get used to the noise, but you do get a feel for what’s going on in the world if you are prepared to listen.

New task if you are on twitter: On the right there is a box that says ‘Direct messages’. Click on it and send me a private message (illyac). Only I’ll be able to see it, so you can see there is room for privacy as well.

Oh, and here’s a song from one of my fellow twitterers – fresh off the press!

Twitter in the press

Without wanting to politicise, it seems my addressing Twitter was rather timely! Twitter is playing a large role in the political happenings of Iran at the moment. Information is being passed on and rallies organized. It’s no wonder that this internet tool is blocked in some countries as its power of mobilization is even stronger than that of facebook. The reason being that in Twitter you are accessible to everyone, not just your friends.

If you have joined Twitter, I have a task for you.
On the right hand bar of your home site you will find a search box, and under that there is a list of the trend topics. Just click in any key words related to the news, teaching, or any other topic that interests you and see what happens.