CorelDRAW for Leaflets and more...

In this post, I was eager to share something about a new tool I'm learning to use. To be honest, I was relunctant to learn how to use Corel at first, since my brother and sister helped me by editing the content and images I provided them with, and it really saved time. That happened until my sister told me she would not help any more. She thought I ought to learn to do it myself. My brother, who still was willing to help, had a term exam at university. And the fun was over. 

Luckily, I am now proud to say that I was able to do it on my own! This is my first production: Cards for a Memory game. Students were supposed to find the two parts of the sentences. We are dealing with occupations and the first conditional. 

My last task is still in the process of being improved. I designed a new leaflet advertising a course on VideoGames and an article about The Sims, which is the only computer game I enjoy. I'm using them tomorrow for my fourth week at school. Here it is: Game Designer and The Sims

For my lesson on Wednesday I had thought about using these materials. I believe I may be using them next week, but it would be nice to get some feedback from you: Music Teacher and "Count on me" Song.

Even though, I'm glad I am using new tools, I still think there is long way to go until I produce something more appealing to the eye. 

Time for Popplet in the fifth course

Last week lessons were very nice. I really enjoyed them and, apparently, the wordle served its purpose! So this week, I'm giving Popplet a try.

As I mentioned in the previous post, occupations is the topic we are working. This Wednesday, students will be watching the video : Being a nurse and analysing it. At the end of the lesson they will be able to complete a leaflet advertising the job. Before watching the video, the popplet will help them predict some issues that are present in it. Here it is: Popplet

Other materials I need to design these days are leaflets, but I still don't feel my production is good enough. My brother helped me out with the leaflet for the acting profession. I'd like to share mine so that you have a great time laughing at it, and, luckily, you may give me some advices in how to improve it. Become an actor!

Wordle at Secondary School

Tomorrow I'm starting my teaching practices at Secondary School. The unit of work we will be dealing with is about occupations. Their final task is to produce a leaflet to order to advertise a particular course or profession. This task is related to the concerns students in the fifth course have, as most of them are undergoing the process of choosing what they want to do next year.

As part of the requierements, the teacher asked me to use the set of notes they already have. So I decided to work with an article: The price of fame

While working and analysing the article, I prepared some Tasks in which they have to brainstorm occupations they know and they reasons why somebody may choose to study or work as a particular profession. In addition, they will do a pre-reading task with the wordle, predicting which paragraphs and photo is connected with the word cloud they have below. Later on, they will read the article and check their predictions.

In my next post, I will be able to say whether this kind of task was appropriate and motivating for these students. Fingers crossed!

When you feel the third conditional

At times you have the feeling something could have been better. It can happen while organising an event, or when you have not said the right words to the right person. It can be when you bought the wrong item, or made copies of notes that you didn't need. It may also happen when you do a practical work on material design. And there the third conditonal comes on the scene. 

However, what's good about any learning process is that you always have the chance to try again, to do your best, you surpass yourself... Here is a new version of the popplet!

New Popplet

The elephant and his friends + Error analysis + Pecha Kucha + Wordle

At the institute where I work, the lessons taught in August were devoted to the topic of animals and their abilites. Since we were preparing for the Open House at the end of that month, the story "The elephant and his friends" was recorded and practise by learners so that during the special lesson they were able to acted it out while listening to their own voices. 

The recording process was quite a challenge for the nine-to-twelve year-old children. Even though they have heard the story a considerable number of times and they knew the vocabulary, many errors were present in  the recording. 

The elephant and his friends (adapted version)

"The elephant and his friends" became more relevant when, as part of our Phonetics IV, we were supposed to present a Pecha Kucha dealing with a topic we liked. While we discussed our possibilities regarding the topic, we tought it would be interesting to analyse the errors young learners have produced while recording the story. Of course, we could make use of the bibliography we had for the subject, which enabled us to identify those errors which should be high priority as well as those which were low priority or even optional attention. 

I had in mind again the story in our subject ECO material design when I wanted to try a tool for generating "word clouds" . We have been working with Web 2.0 tools, Wordle being a case in point. When I first learnt about it, it occured to me that, though it was eye-catching, there was no real purpose for using it. However, I have been reflecting upon the advantages of it and the fact that there is a certain logic behind this cloud generator, probably different from the one I am used to. Now, I believe it may provide a good pre-reading task so that learners start predicting what the text will be about. As well, it gives teachers a clear idea of those words which appear more often, consequently, it may make easier the decision of using a particular material , as we can see clearly whether that vocabulary is the one we want to concentrate on.