I started blogging when I was doing some Moocs online some years ago.
I am still blogging about education and the use of technology in my job.
I am a life-long learner and love doing what I do.
For three years now I have been following the Conferences online which Nellie Deutsch has been doing. She is a great educator living in CANADA who shares her experience with other teachers and runs great MOOCs and conferences online.
All the events are free. If you write about them you will be provided with a certificate of participation.
This year I followed most of CO17- it was great but I could not write about the events as I was busy doing two EVO Sessions online in February.
CO stands for Conference online and teachers from all over the world talked about education and how they are working. It lasted three days: here is the link to the whole events https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rGXxzVWzzFqufZSMZADVdxINGIpRzDDSpm9OeGRCUqY/edit?usp=sharing
I will have to work on the sessions in the next months" to borrow" some more tips and ideas- meanwhile I would like to underline the great presentations which I have really appreciated:
On Writing Groups
This was one of the best sessions as it focussed on a different way of working
I liked the idea of learning from the others and what educators are doing in order to work with their students also online:
I enjoyed every moment I spent online but it was hard as from Friday to Sunday there were so many speakers who left us their slides and provided with input !
I wish to say thank you to all of them as they worked in a great way: Nives was working at night in Australia while in Europe it was late in the evening. They all shared their love for teaching - this is what Nellie does every day if you check her TWITTER account you will see that she works hard to make us develop as better teachers!!
Vizia is a very userfriendly tool which you can use for creating video quizzes.
It is important to use videos in class but with Vizia you can create interesting video-based comprehensions, give homework to your students and in ELT it is the perfect tool for comprehension. It is the perfect tool also for assessment in different subjects. You can have quizzes and open questions. Once you have chosen your video you can edit it and then share the link with the task or embed it. It is a free tool and you can use it for flipped classrooms too.You just need an account and then you can start.
Here is the tutorial which I found online:
This is the tutorial in Italian for Italian learners and teachers:
Here is a video which I have used for presenting the issue of Migration to Australia: the video is from the Youtube and it can be embedded: I also used the link for my padlet presentation where the topic was Australia.
You can create open questions and then check them - the tool can be also useful for testing , you just need to rely on a good internet connection and an ICT lab or tablets.
The second video is about a famous interview - the idea is to work on the news while students watch real videos with interviews with famous people . Internet can really change our way of working.
Vizia can also be useful for creating CLIL lessons and any other document based on video when we want to make lessons based on different school subjects and in projects.
Saturday 21st January 2017 Classroom 2.0 Live Webinar about free opportunities for PLN I could see a great webinar presented by Peggy George who talked about her great sources dealing with PLNtogether with another educator : lots of interesting conferences and events which I am going to check later.
I hope you will all share the weblinks she provided in the webinar as we are teachers who need to learn and continue learning thanks to a network of educators working online and sharing their best tips for free.
More ideas about what PLN means to me are my list of educators on Twitter who I am following. Here you can find an interesting LIVEBINDER with lots of links and information which deal with Education and Twitter:
Yesterday it was an important anniversary for my favourite Social Network CLASSROOM 20http://www.classroom20.com/ : they celebrated its 8th Anniversary.
The presenters had some interesting speakers who reminded us that since they first began their online adventure in 2009 many changes in education and the use of technology have occurred.
I have become a regular participant in the weekly webinars which they present live and which are later posted online. The website will present all the main links and websites which were presented or shared.
I have learnt how to use most of the Tools which are used to share documents and make presentations: Prezi, Google Slides and Docs, Tackk, Padlet and how to use some important Social Networks like Pinterest and Twitter.
If you are interested in CPD and you would like to learn more about how technology is changing our learning environment you should watch the videos or partecipate live. The meetings are on Saturday- in Italy it is 6.00 p.m. while the presenters are in the USA and show their activities and share good tips - time in the USA can be 9.00 a.m. Usually we spend one hour online and we can learn about the best experiences. If you are interested you can also ask for a certificate of attendance which will be sent to you after you have filled in a Google Form.
I have collected some information which was shared by Peggy George - one of the founders of the social network and an active coordinator- You can find more in my ackk: https://tackk.com/6zmdst
Yesterday night I was online and I was watching the fabulous webinar presented by Shelly Terrell: I am a regular viewer of her Friday webinars and I would suggest watching them as they are uploaded on Youtube. She made a great presentation and provided a lot of ideas for the coming new year and our teaching activities.
We have reached the end of the old Year and in a few hours, we will be starting a new one.
As educators, we are required to work on our goals and on the goals of our learners. The presentation which she made was a good one: reminding us that the learners need to be supported and helped to develop their learning.
Here is the slide which she shared with us: plenty of tips which will help me in the new year.
Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. (Kofi Annan)
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_education.html
Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. Kofi Annan Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_education.html
When I think about the old year I must admit that I am proud of myself as I have strongly believed in what I was doing and in spite of the many difficulties I have tried to be a supportive teacher. I have faced difficulties due to the social conditions of many teenagers I have taught and who are not willing to learn, which is a pity.
I have now moved to a new school and I am working on my self-development and on the students' language skills. I have begun a new life and in spite of the low levels of some of my students I am trying to be a teacher who cares.
Working in today's schools is an adventure: every year we meet new students and we need to care as each student is different from the others. Sometimes it is hard and when you finish your day at school you need to relax as we teach in old schools- we do need new learning environments which can support us while working on projects and more interesting activities.
The Internet can help us but we need to rely on the students' smartphones sometimes, the connection can be very poor at school.
Thinking about a different Way of Working
Today we can rely on new technologies for enhancing learning and language teaching: therefore I will try to work on new approaches and work on the Flipped Classroom Model.
I will guide my students to work from home and watch some videos or read some documents and we will later discuss the issue in class.
Last year it was an engaging experience for me as I could rely on the support of the best tutors who worked online and for free.
I will enroll in the next days- I will work on the listening skills while teaching English and on new technologies. I am happy I did four courses last year as some are not available this year.
I wish every Italian teacher could do one of the courses in EVO (Electronic Village Online) as some of the best educators are sharing their ideas and providing support and feedback.
The third MOOC bout educators and newly arrived students began in November on 28th November and it is going to end by 18th December.
As usual, it has been an interesting MOOC with lots of ideas and interesting resources which have been shared by the tutors.
This MOOC was a sort of follow-up as we had already done the previous ones but it was also interesting as we were asked to think about what we would do in order to face the newly arrived students in our schools.
It was more about the refugees and how to deal with them at school. Hopefully,. I have not had to face this problem with my students in class but I know that in some areas of Italy schools have children and young students who have just arrived and need to forget their past life and the atrocities they left behind. Most of my students who are not Italian were born abroad but they have been studying in Italy for some years. I think that with refugees schools need to act and do their best but a good team of educators and also financial help is needed. Living in a land where you do not speak the language is a stressful situation, sometimes other people are not ready to help you. In addition, you want to forget and need to start a new life. Families and children need to enter the new society but it is hard.
I have devised a short Action Plan as a final task- I am asked to present it and to share it and some peers will have to provide feedback. I will also have to provide feedback to two more teachers in the Mooc.
The resources which we were given underlined the importance of welcoming the new students and presented the activities which can help them socialize. P.E. activities and language input were important to make the young learners start a new living.
I would like to underline that although we have a lot of economic problems in our region- EMILIA-ROMAGNA we have been working with a lot of immigrants and there was special conference in December.
Here is the link to the materials which have been shared by educators:
Twitter has provided interesting documents and more ideas about the best ways we can face our students and their needs:
It is important to remember that every child , every teenager, every man has a right to education. We do need to support them and think about how we can enhance their living and studying in the new land.
The web is now presenting us plenty of tools and resources which we can use for free. While working on line I came across these useful web links which I am sharing with you. I have also discovered a new tool which helps me be connected online in video conferencing with a maximum number of people and I don't need to be registered. Here is the list I have prepared for this post: you will find information, guides and a lot of free materials which you can use in your lessons and with your students. Free books, courses and materials online:
A free Video Chat & Conference Tool : Appear.in In order to be able to connect with the other people in the room you need to have Chrome or Mozilla browsers. It is very easy to use. Just see the tutorial:
Elt and Technology : useful tips and ideas shared by Nik Peachey thanks to Slideshare:
