Meet European Teenagers

I couple of years ago I was constantly thinking about how to teach English in a meaningful context, to make pupils understand that English is not just a subject in school but also an international language used world wide. Of course my pupils know that English is useful when they travel to other countries, but English teaching did not make sense to them. Furthermore, I have these computer boys who learn and use English when they play World of Warcraft, Leagues of Legends and so on and these pupils who listen to lots of music and learn English. But it was hard to make especially the computer boys to see the meaning of English in school. When our school started this one-to-one-project we saw the opportunity of reaching the world outside the school building. Finally we discovered eTwinning!

eTwinning

 eTwinning is a platform that gives opportunities for teachers and students in Europe to meet and cooperate in various projects by using ICT and services that eTwinning offers. There is more information about eTwinning in our course book and on www.etwinning.se  but in short this is how it works:

• You register on eTwinning homepage as a teacher, but your headmaster will have to be included and informed.
• You write a presentation about who you are and what kind of project you are interested in.
• There are various possibilities to search for specific projects, schools or persons (eTwinners) or you will be found by someone who finds your project idea interesting.
• When you find a partner you plan and register you project. The administrators will then send you an approval/confirmation that you can start your project. There is among other things an email-function for you to use.
• You will be informed how Twin Space works and then it is only for you to get started.
• When you have accomplished your project you can apply for a Quality Label.

Our projects

This year my classes are involved in three different project: European Teenagers, Getting to know each other and Newsbox. A fourth is soon starting, Young Europeans Speak – YES!
     These projects have the same aim in common: The purpose is to let the students to get to know each other and each other's culture, meet teens from another European country and see similarities and differences. We also want students to be able to use English in meaningful contexts in order to develop their linguistic ability. Furthermore, the aim is to use ICT as natural means. There is also an English syllabus and the curriculum to have in mind, but that comes naturally: speak, listen, write, read, find strategies of learning, cultural exchange, the international perspective… .
     In these projects we cooperate with students and teachers from Poland, The Netherlands, Spain and Germany. We meet in group projects, Skype-sessions, exchange information on Twin Space (texts, Power Point-presentations, pictures, videos), we use blogs (news magazine), recordings (Voki), co-writing (google.docs) to mention some. When we read and listen to other European teenagers’ work the teaching and learning of English comes naturally and it is for real. All these persons exist and all the texts, pictures and voices that we read and listen to are for real.

Thanks to ICT and our one-to-one-project this is possible.

 

/Emma

Before blogging became so popular...

Seven years ago I worked with a class in fifth grade (later 6th). They were absolutely amazing...I could do anything with them, suggest anything to them and they gladly did it. We had so much fun! Together we made this page with their short stories, poems...Check out Hanna's saga...The man mentioned in the story (Rony) was a VFU-student that all girls were crazy about. ;) and Hanna (18) is now sharing her time between studies and politics.

Diktboken
Barn i krig (An animated film my class made when they were sixth graders)
They also made an animated film about the Swedish election 2006, but I haven't uploaded it yet on Youtube. Hanna says it's my fault that she's into politics because of the theme about politics and the film we made. I gladly accept it's my fault ;)

A class blog

My class have a blog. Every week there are two new students who write about what the class have been doing at school during the week. I like this idea better than the idea of writing weekly or so letters to the parents about the plans for the coming week. I used to do that but found it was quite stressful to actually DO all the things I'd written down and planned to do,because as you all know, working as a teacher especially with younger kids, things happenes all the time. I am not all in charge of my time and planning.

The bloggers sit together and plan what they want to say about the week. I do want them to write in a way that will interest the readers, not with bulletin points or one word sentences. This is a great way to work extra on the writing. The bloggers also upload pictures and films, they might even edit them first too. They are in charge of the whole presentation and know the password for the administration user as we all are administrators for our blog. This gives them all a sense of responsibility, managing and protecting a password. They are also very polite in the way they express themselves no bullying, making fun of each other or so. Sometimes they comment each other and it is usually quite cheerful.

Next I have another dynamic page on the blog where I post homework. It is usually a text for them to read and questions to answer. My idea is to have Swedish and English texts, and texts with science or social studies input as well. This is to give them experience to do work on the computer and not only visit game sites och social sites. Next year they will all use Fronter in their now school and will be given one to one computers and they  will need to use a digital calendar and follow the plans the different teachers have laid out in their "home room". Doing home work on the computer is also quite fun as it is a new thing for them. 

Regards

Jasmin

Pinterest

Here comes my blog post about the popular community Pinterest. You can access Pinterest on the web site: http://pinterest.com/ and by Android app or iPhone/iPad app. It´s free and easy to use but you need to create an account before you start pinning.

What is Pinterest? You create virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest by sharing content from the Internet to people across the world. You can create boards about any topic like English grammar, English rhymes, English listening activities etc by saving them on your Pinterest profile. You can later on access your content on any computer with Internet connection. The whole idea with Pinterest is that you pin web sites and interesting links. Then, you share the links that you pin with other Pinterest users. The users can also repin your pins if they like them and you can follow other users by subscribing to their boards.

You don´t need to share pins with the whole world. You can instead create collaborative boards and invite only pupils from your class. Then you can share documents and work together on different projects. The invited members can comment the content in a collaborative board and inspire each other.

Why use Pinterest as teachers? It´s a good way to collect and organize ideas that you get from the Internet. Here you can find inspiration and get ideas for classroom activities. You´ll find stencils and printables and you can also get inspired by other teachers from other countries and develop your own teaching skills.

What should you think about when you use Pinterest? It´s important to read the Pinterest terms before you use the site as a teacher. The must safe thing is to only pin content you´ve created and it´s important that you ask yourself the question who owes the content that you are publishing. Don´t forget to also check for the PIN IT symbol on private blogs and websites. Many publishers have added these buttons to their sites to make the readers know that it´s okay to pin their pages to Pinterest. Read more about copy right law with Pinterest here: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/13/dont-get-stuck-by-pinterest-lawyers-warn/

I personally use Pinterest every day as a way to prepare for my lessons. I personally think it´s a good way to save files instead of having to print them out ore bookmarking them. The fact that Pinterest is a visual community also makes it easy for the user to directly find a specific link.

Here are some interesting web sites about Pinterest that can be interesting for you:

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=oJzD4vF5dFA

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jwmu45Z0DA&feature=related

·         http://www.classroomjr.com/3-creative-ways-teachers-can-use-pinterest/#jqoQp3WXX744elwB.99 

·         http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/02/05/37-ways-teachers-should-use-pinterest/

Happy pinning!

/Lisa Edvinsson

...or in Forrest Gump's way...

Listen to how Forrest Gump explain how to elect a president.

Electing a president in plain English

Soon there will be an election in USA for a new president (or will Obama hopefully win again?). Anyway, I used this (updated) link four years ago...

Here is the link.

How to Post on the Course Blog

This is how to make a post on the course blog:

1. You need to make sure that you've logged on to Blogger as the person who has the permission to make posts (i.e. using the ID you used when you accepted the invitation to become an author).

2. Then when you access the blog, you'll see a link (in small, light-blue letters) at the top of the page called 'New Post'. Click on that link and you'll see a text box that looks like this:

I'm in the 'Compose' function right now, but if you wanted to do fancy things with html, you'd click on the 'Edit HTML' tab instead. 'Compose' works fine for most of the things you might want to do.

3. You can either write directly into the text box, or copy and paste your text from, say, a Word document.

The tools in the bar at the top of the text box are fairly standard - you use them to change the formatting of your text after it's in the text box.

4. You'll notice too that I've included a picture in the middle of the text (that's the screenshot of what a post looks like). One of the tools at the top of the Compose page looks like a picture in a frame. Click on that and you'll go through the process of uploading and publishing your graphic to the blog.

5. Blogger saves your draft text automatically at fairly short intervals (the Save Now button goes dark when everything's been saved). When you're ready, though, you could click on the Preview button for a last check on what it looks like … and then you click Publish Post when you're ready.

6. If you notice something you want to change even after you've posted your Blog Post, as an author you can access all the posts on a blog when you log on. If you click on the 'Posts' option, you'll see them all, and then you'll see a sub-menu under each post name, if you hold your cursor over the title of the post. One of the options there is 'Edit'. There is an easier way to do it, though. If you click on the little pen at the bottom of your post in the blog, you come straight back to this Edit page. When you've finished editing, just click on the orange 'Update' button at the top of the page.

Don't forget to add your name to your Blog Post!