"LEARN ENGLISH KIDS"

 

Right now I am not teaching English at school and when I have done it, I have been teaching in the third grade and the pupils have been beginners. That is why I wanted to choose something that beginners at English could use and also have a lot of fun with.

At the school where I am working, we have few computers and do not have smartboards. We have some projectors in the ceiling we can use and in that way we can show the whole class sites from the internet.

I have chosen the website www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org. This site has a lot of opportunities. I can choose to work with the site with the whole class with help from a projector in the ceiling or the pupils can study the site themselves.

WHAT THE RESOURCE IS AND HOW IT WORKS

The resource is specially elaborated for children who are learning English as a foreign language. It is the British Council that stands behind the site. The site is developed and created by teachers and the site is easy to understand. I think that the children can have a lot of fun when they are using the resource to learn English.

If you want to, you can be a member and then you get access to further tools on the website. The account is free, and I really can recommend it.

The website has different subtitles as “Kids games”, “Listen and watch”, “Read and write”, “Make”, “Speak and spell”, “Grammar” and “Little kids”. Beyond each subtitle there are different activities.

HOW THE RESOURCE CAN BE USED BY THE TEACHER AND BY THE PUPILS

You can also choose to join as a teacher or as a parent and then you get other information and hints about what to do. For example, you can find worksheets which you can download. Beyond  “Listen and watch” there are also worksheets that can be downloaded. The animated stories and songs in “Listen and watch” are very useful. Either the pupils listen and watch the stories themselves or the whole class can listen and watch them with help from a projector in the ceiling.

 One of the animated stories.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING THE RESOURCE

It seems like the website has an enormous potential. When you click on one subtitle, you get other games, activities and so on. For example, if you click on “Topics”, you find a lot of new topics with a lot of subtitles beyond.

WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE WEBSITE

I have never been using the website www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org with children, but I really want to try it out because I think it could be really useful! According to LGR11, we should start with the skills concerning with communication. For example, the pupils themselves can listen to a story on the website and then work with the worksheets. It is great when the pupils get the opportunity to listen to native English as it is in the stories. In that way they also practice the right pronunciation.

Smart board

The Smart board is an interactive whiteboard that gives you a great deal of resources to use in the classroom. It works just like a whiteboard which you can write on with a pen. It also works like an giant Ipad that you can write on through the computer or by hand. The Smart board have all the benefits of a whiteboard and on top of that access to Internet and a lot of lesson plans made especially for the Smart board and all of it´s functions.

When you are getting a Smart board you need to buy the concept from a retailer. It´s rather expensive to invest in Smart boards depending on size but it is well spent money. When you buy a smart board you get the specially adapt whiteboard, a interactive projector and a computer program, Notebook, that you can download on every computer. When you buy the Smart board you can also buy especially made programs suited for the classroom. One more thing, if you buy the Smart board from the retailer it is often included further training and free updates on the software.

                                                    
The smart board can be used by the teacher to make lesson plans, to save material and to share whit other teachers on different sites on the Internet. There is also lots of pre-made lessons that is offered in every school subject. A lot of educational publishers makes adapted material to use on the Smart board. It is a great way for the teacher to save material and to re-use and to repeat for the pupils whats been said on earlier lessons.

For the pupils its it´s an easy and very useful resource to use. It completes a lot of the aims in Lgr11. The pupils can learn how to handle the digital tool in many ways for example to type, make photo- and picture adjustments, make presentations and make movies. A big benefit with the Smart board is that if one pupil is absent for the day the teacher can save the lesson notes from the board and send them home directly from the smart board so that the pupil can catch up with what they have missed during the day.

 I think that the Smart board is a ICT tool that both teachers and pupil will benefit of and the pupils will get a lot of ”free knowledge” in using this ICT resource that they can use in their further studies and working life.