Myths and legends, E2BN by Jessica Dickson Gänger
http://myths.e2bn.org/

 This is an interactive story sight with myths and legends.

On this site you can listen to over 65 myths and legends from all over the world. The myths and legends are for older pupils. But there is a section with ”Story Creator Stories” which is stories sent in by children in primary school, and some of them are quite easy to read.
You can listen or read the stories and watch the animated pictures. If you want you can print out a copy of the text. There is always a glossary to the story and if you want you can read how the story come about in ”Origins”.

I have used this sight to engage my third graders to write short English stories or just to write sentences to pictures.
You have a story board with 9 frames per chapter and each scene has an area for imagies and text. There is a lof of categories and characters like buildings, inside, landscape, children, creatures, men, mythical to choose from. You can rezice and move the objects around in the scene. There is a section with call outs lik biff, pow, boom. You can also upload images from your computer and add soud effects. When your image is finished,  type your text and move on to the next chapter and so on until your story is finished. You can also record your own voice to the images.
If you want to you can submit your story so that others can read and comment your story.

There is a ”How to” section where proffessionals like authors, actors, sound engineers and more, offers advice on topics such as: reading aloud, using sounds and storyboarding and writing.

You can try out this site with a ”trial version” but if you want to save or upload your work you have to register.

My experience is that children love the background images and the characters so much that the text almost comes by itself. The children can read a friend´s story and comment on, peer-assessment. And finally when they present their story/sentences on the smartboard infront of the class, they are so proud.

About E2BN, the Organisation:
”The East of England Broadband Network (E2BN) is one of 10 Regional Broadband Consortia (RBCs) set up by the Government to help raise standards in teaching and learning by the use of broadband technology” says EB2N http://www.e2bn.org/aboutus.

English teaching with digital stories

Learning a new language can be amazing and difficult at the same time. It´s important to make the language learners to be satisfied with their language learning. If they´re able to present something they´re fond of or interested in, you are on the way to success.

By using digital stories your pupils are able to paint pictures, or take photographs of something they´re familiar with. They are not forced to write, but they have to try to speak about their interests. This can be a much easier way for children that are shy, and not comfortable to speak in front of the class. They can hide a little behind the computer, but they are really involved with the presentation, and it looks very professional in the parents eyes.

By using digital stories you can mix many parts of school subjects. Your pupils can describe a certain subject in English. They can be able to use their art lessons or other subjects.

You can use digital stories to pupils in any age. It´s easy to make it possible for small children at preschool and you can make advanced digital stories with older students to make more advanced presentations.

Digital stories can be useful to teach how be safe in a presentation situation, as well as it can be useful for the other classmates to listen to their friends!

iMovie

I work with pupils in the 5th grade. Right now we use ”iMovie” when we have English lessons. In my School we have an iPad in each class and I have installed the iMovie app on it. Hopefully the pupils will have their own iPads when they are starting the 6th grade this autumn. Then it will be much more easier to use iMovie, because now we can’t use it at the same time. However, sometimes we can borrow iPads from other classes, which solves our problems.

It works to install iMovie both on a Mac computer and on an iPad. The advantage of having iMovie on an iPad, you can create movies and picture stories directly into the iPad. You do not need a camera, cables or other equipment. There are two choices when you are creating a movie, either a "new project", or a "new trailer".

In ”trailer mode” you can choose from twelve trailer templates for example Horror, Romantic, Pirates, and Adventure. The screen is divided into three fields when you are working in a trailer. In one field you will find videos, images and a camera. Above this field there is a preview window where you can watch your videos and test new effects. In the left field there is a storyboard, where you can write headlines.

In ”project mode” you will create a movie on your own, with your own imagination and ideas. Across the screen there is a toolbar where you can select various functions, for example videos, images, sounds and sound effects. You can also choose to film directly into the iPad. When you have filmed, all clips lies along a timeline and you can move them around until you are satisfied.

The app has pre-recorded music in various themes. These can be played in loops and works well to create the right mood in the movie. There are also a number of sound effects that can reinforce the plot of the movie You have the opportunity to record a narration in the film and you can also create your own music. But then you must have the app ”GarageBand” installed.

When the movie is finished, you can save it either on the camera roll or share it on different social websites like; YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo or CNNiReport.

The pupils in my class have used both trailer-mode and project-mode. They have added photos and written their own texts and they have filmed different performances. IMovie is an easy programme and the pupils will learn very fast how to work with it.






　

　

　



　

　

　

E-pals

Being able to communicate in English outside the classroom is a wish I believe every English teacher has. Most often however, I guess dialogues and other communication is something that has been taken care of by the teacher and students in class.

Having collaboration with another school somewhere else in the world is nothing new, but with today´s digital technique something much easier to handle and manage.

For students having an e-pal, motivation for studying the language might increase. In the long run a project like this could help the student developing not only linguistically but also socially and may help providing an increased self-confidence as well.

The benefits from being able to communicate with children from other parts of the world are many. Students will have the opportunity to get an insight into another person´s life and culture. They will also have to look at their own daily life and describe their own culture, activities and so on in English. Pictures and short videos can be sent which gives more to the conversation. E-mailing gives the flexibility to have pals all over the world and there are no concerns about time differences.

It could be helpful to establish a contact with the other class´ teacher. It is important to agree upon the forms for the project. To get good quality students should not get confused about what is expected from them. It is all about being well prepared before starting up something like this. In the beginning it might be necessary to help students with subjects to write and ask about. Later, when they feel more confident, they will be able to work more and more independently.

There are different ways of finding schools and e-pals to cooperate with. At my school we found www.etwinning.net very useful.

 

 

Photostory

I have chosen Photostory because it is a resource available for me and for the pupils in my class. Photostory is a program where you can make stories with pictures and add text and sound. You can put a different amount of pictures in series. To each picture you can write text and record sound so you can tell a story. In Photostory it is easy to put in new pictures, change order and to remove pictures and sounds. It is also easy to use your own voice and record sound to each picture. You can record sound to one picture at a time and you can record as many times you need. To make it work you need the program on your computer, if you want to record sound it helps to have a headset and if you want to take and use own photos you need a digital camera or an Ipad. With Photostory the pupils can develop different skills because it can be used for listening, reading, writing and speaking. Teachers can use Photostory for making stories in English the pupils can see and listen to. The pupils get opportunity to listen to English and at the same time see pictures as a help to understand the story. The teacher can make stories with topics and words suitable for the pupils in the class. Of course it takes some time to make your own story but you get a story wich is adjusted to the pupil in the class. A Photostory is one way to document the pupils work and also a help when assessing the pupils.   The pupils can use Photostory to make their own stories or presentations. They can use photos they have taken themselves in the surroundings and make a story out of them. They can paint own pictures, scan or take photos of them and use them in the Photostory. Photostory can be used to make stories, descriptions and presentations and it can include all the skills; listening, reading, writing and speaking but it is not necessary. If a pupil has difficulties reading English when recording it is easy to record a small part at a time and the others can help reading it first and then the pupil can repeat it. They can practice and prepare things they will say and they can record it several times until they get the result they are satisfied with. The pupils can see and listen to all stories the groups in the class have done. If the class has a blog the stories can be published there or if the school has a newspaper on the webb. The pupils can feel that the work they do will be read by someone else and perhaps it can get them to make a little extra work. When using Photostory in a class it may be necessary to teach them how to use Photostory before they get a task to make a story in English. Otherwise I think the teacher has to spend a lot of time only to explain how the program works and the English learning is not in focus.

My four portfolio tasks

Portfolio task 1

Digital pen and whiteboard

We have a digital whiteboard called ebeam in every classroom in our school. It is a regular whiteboard (that you can use old school) and it gets interactive when you connect your computer to it and you can use a digital pen to write on the board. One benefit of using a digital pen is that you can save everything that you as a teacher or your pupils write and use them again later.  Benefit of using the digital whiteboard is that you can have your computer cloned to the whiteboard. This makes it easier for your pupils to take part of things you do, for example showing the news, a picture of something the pupils wonder about, showing the pupils how to use your blog etc.

Portfolio task 2

Easiteach

Easiteach is a programme developed for digital whiteboards. You must buy a school license to use it. It has pre-planned lessons that you can search for. It also has tools to help you make your own lessons. It includes different widgets such as a thermometer, a clock, a timer, random number generator using different counting in math etc. You can also share your lessons with others using easiteach. When you have finished your lesson you use the digital pen to show it to your pupils. They can interact if you have made assignments in your lessons when they are supposed to use the pen.

Portfolio task 3

Iphone

This tool, witch I bring with me everywhere, helps me to document everything that my pupils do and learn. I can photograph them while they work and learn, I can have them photograph what they have learned. I can make videos and have the pupils make videos. If anyone has a question that we can’t answer we just Google it together, even if we are outside in the woods! We can upload the photographs and use other ICT-tools to make digital stories etc.

Portfolio task 4

Skype

Skype is a sort of phone programme that you can download to your smartphone, computer or Ipad. In my class we have one pupil witch lives abroad for a year, and one pupil that is very sick and infection sensitive and can’t come to school. Then we use Skype. With Skype you can make video calls to any one that has an account, a computer/Ipad/smartphone, and an Internet connection.  Using this the pupils that are away for a long period still feels connected to the class and a part of the thing the group does and learns. For me as a teacher I can maintain the relation and see what the pupils learn when she/he is away.

Using a blog.

My college and me just started a blog using www.skolbloggen.se and the blog-tool word-press. Our first thought was that parents could use it to get information such as weekly letters, letters from our principal and letters from the pupils.

Then we came across a competition (I read about it on twitter) from http://www.webbstjarnan.se. Webbstjärnan offers school-people to get a .se address for a year and then the school is going to maintain it due to different criteria. The criteria that are for everyone is:

- There is a teacher connected to the website

- The main page has webbstjärnas logo on it

- The page has a “about” page that presents the entries

We got the address http://spindlarna.se and told our group of year 1 pupils about it. They got very interested. Our thought with the old page is the same but for the new page we have a new idea. It is all about showing what the pupils learn in school. The blog posts are written mostly by pupils but now and then my college and I write as well.

We have divided our group in writing-teams of 2 or 3 pupils. We use these teams a lot in different group activities. Every week one of the teams writes a blog post about what they have learned during the week. They also chose a picture from our weekly photo-bank. This way the pupils get to reflect and think back to what they have learned. They also get a chance to discuss it with their teammate and argue for their case.

Another benefit with using a blog is that the pupils can spread the page-address to their family, relatives and friends. I work in a multi-cultured area and most of my pupils have relatives and friends that live abroad. They don’t get a chance to see or speak to each other but thanks to our blog they can still be a part of the pupils life. They can also leave a comment about our work. Due to the debate and the problem with Internet bullying we have locked the commentary field so that a teacher must approve the comment before it gets published.

I can really recommend you to use a blog. It is fun! It makes the pupils more involved with their learning. If you think that you aren’t good at using computers don’t worry. There are instruction videos and information texts available in each blog-tool. And you can always ask your colleges or your pupils for help.