NOTICE

MY PC HAS BROKEN DOWN =( I'LL BE BACK ASAP, OK? =) I'M SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE!!!

XXOO

MISS A. S.

Sweet pic

The other side of my memories board. It makes me feel good!

P.S.: Last hours to take part in the raffle!

Happy Teacher's Day ( aka Happy B-Day to me! =D ) !

Happy teacher's day, dearests!!!

But for me it also is...

 

Happy teacher's day, everyone... And a very merry (un) birthday to me!!! =D

P.S.: Don't forget taking part in our raffle! ;)

Penguin Kids Readers

"Even if learners haven’t seen the Disney film or know the characters, the vibrant illustrations in the readers, all Disney materials by the way, bring the story to life. And teachers can show their learners parts of or even all of the Disney film after they’ve finished the reader. It’s even better if the learners recognise the story or characters in the book from the Disney film and it doesn’t matter if the learners have already seen the film or know the story – in fact that’s a bonus! Children love to hear and read their favourite stories over and over again! These are just some of the things which make the Disney titles particularly motivating for young learners." - Melanie Williams, series editor

"Some reading series focus on teaching the mechanics of reading. If they have language controls, these are often linked to the language development of native speakers learners rather than the more systematic controls used for speakers of other languages. Often these series are designed to reflect the learners’ every day experience therefore not taking readers on a journey or giving them new experiences. The combined package of each Penguin Kids book provide for engagement in exciting stories through audio recordings, pictures, controlled language text and exercises." - Nick Dawson, academic consultant

The books are very nice, you can download activities, teacher's notes and the audio on the collection's website, but the teachers decided not adopting them in our school because students may get bored for already knowing the stories. What's you opinion?

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/penguinkids/index.html

P.S.: Last days to take part in the raffle!

Oxford English Testing

Place your students in the right class testing their level of English online (CEFR level, score out of 120, time taken, etc), saving time with automatic marking. Then, help your students improve their exam results managing exam practice with the online Learning Management System, assigning online practice tests with help including instant feedback on answers, exam tips and an integrated dictionary, OR without help as a mock exam, saving time with automatic marking and easily identify areas of weakness to focus on in class. Finally, be prepared or prepare your students for English exams with automatic marking, exam tips, online dictionary and instant feedback on answers. 

Disadvantage? Everything is paid. But I'm willing to try it!

http://www.oxfordenglishtesting.com/DefaultMR.aspx?id=3034&menuId=1

P.S.: Aaaand you still have time to take part in the raffle!

Project Third Edition - Home Study

This website has been very useful in my extra help classes for FII.

Project Third Edition  - Home Study is the Student's Site of the book Project Third Edition  It has five levels, each one with listening, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar exercises, games, tests, picture dictionary, phrase builder and audio from the book. One type of the tests is harder and longer than expected, the audio will only be useful for you if you have the book, but you can do a lot with all the other parts of the site.

I don't know the book, I've never seen it before, but the website is very nice!

http://elt.oup.com/student/project3rdedition/?mode=student&cc=global&selLanguage=en

P.S.: Oh! Don't forget the raffle!

New English File Online

This website has been very useful in my extra help classes for FII.

New English File Online is the Student's Site of the book New English File. It has seven levels, each one with listening, writing, pronunciation and grammar exercises, useful links and download of extra materials. Most of the exercises are supposed to be done with the book support, but you still can do a lot here without using this book.

I have already used this book fore some days, when helping a coleague, and I liked the book better than the site. The song activities are awesome!

http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

P.S.: Don't forget: Raffle!

RAFFLE - Macmillan Education Kits

I have already said I loooove stationary, and I know you do too ( because you are teachers, lol )! So, specially for you, to celebrate teacher's day ( and my b-day =p ), a very special raffle: Not only one, but two Macmillan Education Kits!!! These kits were only available for the ones who attended Macmillan School for Teachers and now you have the chance of getting one for you!

-Macmillan pen
-Macmillan folder-Macmillan notebook
-Macmillan Registration file
-Macmillan English Language Teaching Catalogue
-Macmillan Interactive Whiteboard Demo Softwares

To take part in the raffle, you should like the Facebook Fan Page. I'll put all the names in alphabetical order, giving each one a number and the raffle will be done through the site http://www.random.org/ on October 30th at 11:59 PM. As soon as the raffle is done, the winner's name will be published here, on Twitter and on Facebook. The winner HAS TO answer the post until October 31st (11:59 PM) with his/her shipping information. If the winner doesn't answer the post, a new raffle will be done.

 

GOOD LUCK!!! =D

Win World Teachers' Day prizes

World Teachers’ Day, held annually on 5 October since 1994 – when it was created by UNESCO – celebrates teachers worldwide.

To mark the occasion, Cambridge English Teacher is giving away five copies of 'Classroom Management Techniques'  by Jim Scrivener.

To enter simply email Cambridge English Teacher. 

IMPORTANT: Read World Teachers' Day prize draw terms and conditions

Good luck and hope you have a great World Teachers' Day!

Sweet Pic

In my classroom, next to my desk, I have a board where I put my memories, experiences, gifts from students... My teaching life is here. And I'm lovin' it!!!

Project - In The Dark

The main idea of this project was linking English with a current topic in everyone's life: Disabled people.

Step 1 - In The Dark: Students read the book by themselves at home and then in class, with the whole group. The teacher raffled names and each student read at least one page of the book aloud, while the class followed in the book. New vocabulary was taught and discussed.

Step 2 - The Miracle Worker: Students watched the movie about Helen Keller's disabilities, childhood and communication with the world.

Step 3 - Research: Students researched in groups about any famous disabled person and presented their findings to the class. The presentation included a poster with text and / or pictures and all the information given had to be spoken by heart.

Step 4 - A day with a visual impaired: One of the students was blindfolded and had to take part in the English class and its activities (including the reaseach presentation) this way. This student had a helper, who guided him throughout the class and the school. 

Step 5 - Composition: Students wrote a composition linking the book, the movie, the research and the day with a "visual impaired" person, sharing their ideas and thoughts.

Step 6 - Test: Students took a reading test about the book In The Dark.

8º ano EF simula situações vivenciadas por pessoas portadoras de deficiência visual

22/08/12 14:00 -

Apresentação sobre personalidades com deficiências

Um conteúdo especial do Ensino Bilíngue propiciou aos alunos do 8º ano do Ensino Fundamental compartilharem uma experiência que é vivenciada diariamente por centenas de milhares de pessoas no mundo todo: a deficiência visual. A ideia da proposta, intitulada In the dark, é que os liceístas sentissem como é o dia a dia de quem não enxerga, as dificuldades de acesso aos locais, a ajuda dos colegas para vencer essas barreiras. Todo o procedimento foi acompanhado de perto pelas professoras das turmas e pelas coordenadoras Alessandra Vieira Marques e Maria Vitória Komar.

A simulação abordou não apenas o aluno que teve os olhos vendados para percorrer os espaços da escola como também do guia, que o orientava para descer as escadas e escolher a direção correta, por exemplo. Para auxiliar na compreensão do tema, os estudantes também assistiram ao filme "The miracle worker" (1962), baseado na história real de Helen Keller.

A jovem, cega e surda desde a infância devido a um caso grave de febre escarlate, sente-se frustrada por sua incapacidade de se comunicar, o que acaba gerando um comportamento violento e incontrolável. Sua vida começa a mudar com a chegada da professora Annie Sullivan, que consegue manter contato com Helen por meio do toque - única ferramenta que elas têm em comum.

Personalidades

Outras personalidades que também conviveram com deficiências - como o cantor Ray Charles (cego) e o compositor Beethoven (surdo) - foram lembrados pelos estudantes, que apresentaram uma biografia dos artistas escolhidos para os colegas. Tanto a pesquisa como a explanação foram realizadas na língua inglesa, bem como a roda de conversa que se seguiu aos apontamentos.

Fonte: Clique aqui

Galeria de Fotos: Clique aqui

Total Quality - Macmillan School for Teachers 2012

 

Maybe I'll go... See you all there? =D

http://www.macmillan.com.br/agenda-de-eventos/detalhe.php?ID=ODc=

Richmond Symposium São Paulo 2012 - Review

By @tati_szabo

José Olavo - Components for a more effective vocabulary development

-Grammar x Vocabulary = recipe x ingredients

• ingredients without recipe: you’ll eat something anyway (communication)
• recipe without ingredients: you’ll starve

-Components to think about when teaching a word:

1. Parts of speech
2. Content clues
3. Cognates and false cognates
4. Homophones
5. Homographs
6. Abbreviations and acronyms
7. Idioms
8. Collocations/ Word combinations
9. Phrasal verbs/ Phrasal noun
10. Proverbs
11. Knowing the roots of words
12. Affixes
13. Words with multiple meaning
14. Verbs, adjectives, nouns preceded or followed by fixed prepositions
15. Irregular verb forms
    
    
    
    
    Monica Camargo - Reading mediation - not only an option
    
    
    -Books should have the same importance of a TV set at home
    only 14% really read (literature)
    Reading helps discover other places, times, ways of acting and being, rules, ethics, optics
    
    
    -Reading is getting to know History, Politics, Philosophy, Law, Sociology etc
    Mediating: helping students to see the possibilities, making them interested in going beyond, that is, coming up with the WH magic: Where, What, When, Who, How, Why.

During the coffee break, which was DELICIOUS, there was a Flamenco presentation.

By the end of the symposium, we had the raffle and I
got a book and a t-shirt about Global Warming.

CoSketch

This online tool allows one or more users to create an online sketch in real-time; no registration is needed and the image can be embedded in a blog or Web site with the included code. I believe it's an alternative to Power Point and / or Papershow.

http://cosketch.com/

Letters

Madness. Not really a game, and yet I had a lot of fun playing with Letters, a Flash Communications Server application. The multiuser Flash application is reminiscent of those old Fisher Price Letters. Basically, there is a white board with lots of English alphabet letters on it that you drag around to form words, sort into colors, or what ever you like. Problem is, there are many others all doing the same thing. Letters flying every which way, letters being taken from your words to form other words nearby. Hilarious fun.

Why not taking your students to the Lab of your school to play this together...?

NOTE: This is an anonymous, multi-user online environment, and therefore your experience, good or bad, heavily depends upon the nature of the other individuals playing at the same time. I offer no guarantee that your experience will be like mine was when I first played this. Proceed at your own risk.

http://lunchtimers.com/game/?game=letters&roomid=room1

GoAnimate

Sometimes we want to use videos in our classes that talk about a certain grammar point, but it's very hard to find a movie that fits in perfectly on it, isn't it? If you like technology, it won't be hard anymore!

On GoAnimate you can make your own animated characters, direct your own cartoons and watch others' creations. It's easy, fun and free! GoAnimate makes it easy to make animations exactly the way you want.

http://goanimate.com/?utm_source=embed

Oxford Living Grammar Online

Since last August I've been teaching extra help classes for FII and this website has been very useful.

Oxford Living Grammar Online is the Student's Site of the book Oxford Living Grammar. It has four levels, each one with listening and grammar exercises, useful links, download of extra materials and a test. Most of the links are paid, the test is harder and longer than expected, but you can do a lot with the listening and grammar exercises.

I don't know the book, I've never seen it before, but the website is very nice!

http://elt.oup.com/student/livinggrammar/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

Teaching young learners and teens? Want better outcomes anyone?

Who wants to go with me...? Say you do, pleeeeeease... =p

If I'm not able to go, I'll need reviewers. Volunteers? =D

Project - Father's Day Song

It was decided the school would have a mass to celebrate Father's Day and its Aniversary. Then, the school asked the English teachers if we could cooperate on the mass teaching the kids a song that would honor Father's Day. From this moment on, the project had 7 steps:

1-Choosing a beautiful but easy song that had to do with Father's Day. The chosen song was Count On Me by Bruno Mars.

2-Cutting one part of the song out, to make it easier for very young students.

3-Deciding the choreography that would go with the song. As the song has numbers and students can identify them easily on a song, we decided to make tags with the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the younger students; the older students had the tags "I'll be there" and "You'll be there". Students had to put the tags up according to the song.

4-Making the tags: Students had to cut and paste the tags in colorful paper, besides decorating them.

5-Rehearsing the song without the tags, per year.

6-Rehearsing the song with the tags, per year.

7-Rehearsing the song with all the students together, without and with the tags.

You can watch the presentation here.

Missa em ação de graças comemora 110 anos de fundação do Liceu Santista e Dia dos Pais

11/08/12 13:00 - 

 

Muitas famílias participaram da celebração

 

No sábado, 11 de agosto, o Liceu Santista festejou seu 110º aniversário de fundação, ocorrido oficialmente no dia 5 de agosto. A data foi comemorada com missa em ação de graças, celebrada pelo bispo diocesanao Dom Jacyr Francisco Braido, no ginásio poliesportivo da escola. Equipe diretiva, professores, funcionários, alunos e familiares participaram deste momento de alegria e satisfação para todos aqueles que contribuíram e continuam a contribuir para o crescimento do Liceu Santista, colocando-o em lugar de destaque entre as instituições educacionais da região.

Na mesma data, os pais também foram homenageados pelos alunos do 1º ao 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental, que cantaram, em inglês, a canção Count on me, de Bruno Mars. As crianças, que ensaiaram a música com as professoras do Ensino Bilíngue, emocionaram as famílias presentes. Conheça a tradução clicando no arquivo disponibilizado no final do texto. 

As alunas Ully Reis Canha Nogueira e Victoria Cunha Andria, ambas do 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental leram um texto em homenagem ao Liceu Santista, bem como a ex-aluna, Nair Lopes Rodrigues, formada pelo Liceu Feminino Santista em 1952 e que compartilhou com o público uma poesia escrita por ocasião dos seus 60 anos de formada.

Formação humana

Mantendo o compromisso firmado por Eunice Caldas, educadora que deu início à história liceísta em 1902, a escola mantém um ensino de qualidade que garante a formação humana e social do aluno, alicerçada nos valores cristãos e em ações pedagógicas que abraçam a razão, a religião e o carinho.

Educação de qualidade é resultado de competência, do trabalho interdisciplinar, de educadores atualizados e motivados, de livros didáticos inovadores, de instalações e equipamentos modernos e estimulantes e, principalmente, de uma formação sólida família / escola, vivenciando amor e compreensão.

Parceiro da Rede Salesiana de Escolas, o Liceu Santista tem esse compromisso: despertar, nas crianças e adolescentes, valores cristãos que os tornem cidadãos conscientes, solidários e envolvidos na busca por uma sociedade mais fraterna.

Fonte: Clique aqui

Galeria de fotos: Clique aqui

Letra da música: Clique aqui

Sweet Pic

With Paul Selingson at his "The Art of Teaching Starts With You" - Richmond Symposium SP 2010. He's adorable!

Richmond Symposium São Paulo 2012

 

Unfortunatelly I won't be able to go, but if you go, please, send you review and I'll publish here!

http://www3.richmond.com.br/12/symposium/sp/symposium_sp_30ago12.htm

PaperShow

PaperShow is a plug and play device that can change the way presentations are given and viewed. The package consists of a USB key that contains the PaperShow software, a PaperShow Bluetooth digital pen, and special interactive paper that transmits your notes onto the computer screen.

PaperShow was originally released as a Windows-only product. The Mac version made its debut in March, 2010. Set up is quick and easy—put the USB key into a USB port on your computer, and a window pops open. Inside this window is a install.zip file. Double click this file and follow the directions. Installation is very quick, and all files are on your key; nothing is left behind on your computer. Once the program is installed, pair the Bluetooth pen with the key. Again, quick and easy. The pen is paired with one specific key, so if another person has a PaperShow kit, their pen will not work with your USB key.

So how does PaperShow work? In a nutshell, the interactive paper is made up of microscopic dots that are "seen" by the camera in the Bluetooth pen. The user taps the pen onto the paper's toolbar to choose a color, line thickness or shape, then starts writing on the paper. What is created on the paper shows up on the computer screen (or projector, if the computer is hooked up to one) in real time.

All in all, there are a lot of positive features of PaperShow. Once you've finished with a whiteboard or Power Point it can be emailed or exported right from the key as an image file or PDF file. Rather than taking notes at a meeting, participants can focus on the discussion and read the notes later in their email. Workers unable to attend a meeting can be kept up-to-date quickly and easily. PaperShow can also be used for web conferencing. Teachers can save presentations from year to year and make them more interactive and interesting for the students. Since files are saved to the key and not the computer, PaperShow can be used with any computer. And, its small form factor makes it very convenient to carry in a backpack or briefcase.

The biggest drawback with PaperShow is the severe lack of Mac support. The web site has not been updated to reflect the new Mac based product—it still lists PaperShow for Mac as pending. Until that changes I'm afraid many businesses won't want to risk using this product. The cost may also be a factor. The starter kit, which retails for $199 US, contains a Bluetooth pen, USB key, 48 sheet notepad for whiteboard, 30 sheets of PaperShow printer paper, a pencil case to store the pen, key, battery and ink refills (both included), colored rings to customize the pen and key, and a ring binder to hold the printed sheets. All consumables can be purchased separately; as of April, 2010 prices were $12.99 for 48 sheets of whiteboard paper, and $19.99 for 200 sheets of printer paper. The USB key, Bluetooth pen, and ink cartridges are also available at varying prices. Amazon is currently selling these items at deep discounts. While $199 may seem costly, it really depends on how PaperShow is used. If you present a lot of the same Power Point presentations over and over again, PaperShow could be quite cost effective.

 

http://www.papershow.com/en/index.asp

Boogie Board

The next time you reach for a piece of paper and a pen – Don’t! Grab a Boogie Board instead, the tree-friendly alternative to memo pads, sketchbooks, sticky notes, dry erase boards and other writing/drawing mediums that can be re-used over 50,000 times. -----The site of the product asks "How Can You Use Your Boogie Board Tablet?" The answer is there too: Student - Practice cursive and print handwriting, solve multi-step math problems; Teacher - Memo pad, visual aid. They also have a school pilot program, to try out the Boogie Board tablet as a learning aid in USA schools.

I really liked it, but it doesn't seem that useful, just cute. What do you think?

http://www.myboogieboard.com

The Oatmeal

Your reading classes won't be the same again with this site! The Oatmeal has very funny quizzes and comics - some about serious subjects, as "How to use a semicolon", "How to use an apostrophe" and "Ten words you need to stop misspelling" - and I believe can be used as light easy reading, to make students enjoy and have fun at the same time. Reading is so hard and boring for most of them, some classes with this site will make them see reading can be cool.

http://theoatmeal.com/

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music. Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between two and ten minutes. The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.

Teachers can use digital storytelling as a teaching tool in the classroom. This page addresses how to best utilize software such as Photo Story 3 in ESL or foreign language classrooms. Using digital storytelling will assist both the visual and auditory learners. It is important that the student has a model outside of the classroom. This will allow students to practice and engage in active learning even when the instructor is not present.

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/esl.html

Text-To-Speech

When you open this site you see a person. When you use your mouse the eyes and the head of the character move. She or he will say everything you type. Try it: Type a word or a phrase (use punctuation) and click on 'Say It'; the character will say everything on the language you have chosen, using the accent you have chosen. Your students can use it to practice pronunciation.

http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php

Sweet Pic

My students threw me a birthday party last year. I even got gifts! It was very fun. =)

Can you name all the games?

Think of it as a Where’s Waldo and Guess Who mix - Arcade Aid is a huge graphic with gaming references to classic and modern games, and the goal is to name them all. Initially it had 56 games, now it has 167! If you do then you can brag to everyone in the school yard that you are indeed a gaming wizard. But, to name them all you don't need to be addicted to games, you just need to think in English... Applying it in your class as an warm-up activity or as an end of class activity on an interactive board would make your teen students love you, specially the boys, wouldn't it? You can also send it as an extra activity for them do it at home or spend some minutes on the school lab doing it. As I'm not that mean, you can have the answers here: http://shogungamer.com/news/arcade-aid-answers-list-and-solutions-poster .

http://www.arcadeaid.com/challengingstage/

Spaghetti Kids

In this edition - updated and expanded - Spaghetti Kids collection continues to maintain the qualities that put it among the most widely adopted collections and it is still providing more resources for both teachers and  students. The level is beginner to elementary (from 06 to 10 years old), it's made for 40 to 50 hours of classes per year and the variant of English is American. New graphic design, more activities, supplementary materials and suggestions for diverse projects that explore the topics covered in the units and integrate the teaching of English and other disciplines are some news of the collection. Along with the Student's Book we have the book Let's Celebrate, with activities related to holidays accompanied by cultural notes. A CD-ROM for each volume of the Student's Book is available, containing interactive games and songs that are part of the Student's Book. 

The Teacher's Pack includes Teacher's Book with answer key, as well as simple tips and guidelines on how to best use the book; Teacher's Guide containing information, tips, tests and photocopiable games; 12 thematic posters (40 X 54 cm); CD-ROMs with interactive games, songs and the listening activities proposed in each Student's Book. Teachers can also download extra activities here.

 

Some comments:

- I worked with this material two times per week, on a total of 80 hours/year approximately, so I really had to add a lot of extra activities to use the spare 40 hours I had;
- Volume 1 is made for kids that already know how to read, but when they are 5/6 years old they still can't;
- They don't have neither flashcards nor flipcharts for all the levels;
- The Teacher's Book / Guide is in Portuguese.