TEACHERS ARE HEROES

Teachers are Heroes [INFOGRAPHIC]

DIGITAL STORY PROJECT

I've been working on digital stories with my students over the course of one term. I set up a project with three other schools; two from the States and one from Canada. The first step of the project, other than finding the other schools, was to work on 'Script-writing'. Students worked in pairs or in small groups to decide what it was they wanted to actually say to others. I'd say that this is one of the most important steps and yet unfortunately it's the one step that many of my students left out. Many of them couldn't decide what they wanted to say until they had their videos and photos to draw upon. In any case, script-writing and deciding where the storyline was going was my main objective for them at the beginning.
Once their topics and spripts were written, I set up a website using Weebly. We tried to document the students from the beginning to the end of the project. The teachers involved all had editing rights to the site so each teacher added information about their towns and school and kept their own pages going as the project developed. We opened up a separate wiki for students to begin communicating and introducing themselves.http://digitalstoryproject.wetpaint.com/page/LET%27S+CHAT%2FHABLAMOS%21
Once the scripts or topics were decided, students had to go and collect the relevant photos or videos that would support their story. Some students were a bit lazy and used internet photos instead of making their own.
When this step was more or less ready (Every week some groups would come to class with NOTHING...) we talked about some of the different tools they could use to make up their stories. Many of them started with Moviemaker and then finally heeded my advice and used an online digital storymaking tool called Stupeflix. Others had the excuse week after week that they couldn't work in class because their work was saved on THEIR computer at home and couldn't be saved onto a pendrive for who knows what reason. I heard so many excuses! They were finally able to download their photos and videos, from home or from the class. We did most of the voice recordings in class using audacity. Stupeflix doesn't allow you to record your voice directly but it does allow you to upload sound files. Some students went out into a quiet hallway and recorded their voices using their mobile phone voice recording tool. And of course, some students never got to the recording stage and ended up just putting writing onto their stories with no voice.
Considering how reluctant teenagers can be and how limited we were with time, internet connection, tool choices, etc... I am happy to have finally completed the project. Some stories are better than others but they all got them done in the end. The other schools also put up their stories on the web and we dedicated two classes to looking and listening to the other stories and having them go to their student wiki to write comments and feedback about the other schools' stories.
All in all, it's been a steep learning curve for both the students and teachers. It's not always easy to organize a collaborative project and to keep everyone on track in the way in which you imagine but I do think that projects like this are worth it. Along with the language-learning factor, they have definately had the opportunity to try out some web tools and new technologies.
I'd love to hear your comments about the website and stories in general. Please enter the site and comment!

www.digitalstoryproject.weebly.com

STORYBIRD

I have to say that I am genuinely surprised at how successful STORYBIRD has been with my 15-year old students! They are coming to the end of the year. They are lazy, unmotivated, whiny and reluctant to do almost anything I propose. I was at my last straw and I thought, ‘Let’s see if Storybird grabs their attention and keeps them quiet and me sane for at least 30 full minutes!” To my surprise, after the initial 10 minute explanation of how this tool works, they excitedly worked on their stories. They totally got into their work. After the one-hour class was finished, most of them had produced some great stories. In fact, I don’t even care if all of their stories weren’t so great. They were ENGAGED in the task, they had fun, they were writing, they were asking for vocabulary and most importantly, they were QUIET!!! It was great to see the results and have them genuinely want to save their story and make sure that it didn’t get lost. In order to facilitate the task with the time limit we had, I saved all of their stories in my account and then they invited themselves as collaborators. I’ve seen that as a teacher you can set up classes and add the students beforehand but as I mentioned, this was a last minute attempt to find something that would interest them so I didn’t have time for that. Next year, I will definitely set up different classes within my account and try to organize different themes for different groups.

Here are a couple of examples:

The saviors of the planet. on Storybird

THE CIRCUS OF HORRORS on Storybird

HAIKU SPRING POEMS

This week we've been working on writing HAIKU poems. A Haiku poem is Japanese and is typically written using 3 lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables and 5 syllables. More verses can be added keeping this format.

  Steps to the activity:

  1. First we brainstormed SPRING vocabulary. Students worked in pairs and wrote out the vocabulary in their notebook.

  2. Once we had the vocabulary, we went over the rule for making a HAIKU poem. We looked at some examples and counted out the syllables.

  3. In pairs, they played around with the vocabulary and made the first three lines. They had to count the syllables and eliminate extra words or syllables. They had to be flexible with the GRAMMAR!

  4. The teacher corrects the first three lines to make sure students are following the rule.

  5. They wrote out 9 lines, following the 5/7/5 syllable rule.

   6. On a white paper, they wrote out their poems and illustrated them with small drawings.

7. They were put up on the wall to decorate the classroom.

  8. Photos were taken of the process and the final product. A photopeach was made to display the activity. Animoto, stupeflix or any other video tool could be used.

  Here is the final product!

  HAIKU POEMS FOR SPRING on PhotoPeach

SANT JORDI - HAIKU POEMS

Have your students write Haiku poems and record them reading them out. As it was Sant Jordi today, I first brainstormed vocabulary related to the legend of Sant Jordi. They had all of the words on the board in front of them. Then we went over the rules of a Haiku poem. A Haiku poem is a traditional Japanese poem and generally has three lines, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7 syllables and the last line, once again with 5 syllables. They wrote out their poems fairly quickly. They had to be reminded that it had to be 5 syllables, not 5 words. Once they had finished, I recorded them reading out their poems. I used Vocaroo. It's fast and simple and the code is sent to you directly. Once that was finished, I put their poems together on a Stupeflix video and added illustrations and music. This is the final product.

DIGITAL STORIES WITH STUPEFLIX

My students and I have been working on digital stories this past month. Some have used a new tool called Stupeflix, whilst others have used Moviemaker. I'm really happy with the results and I'd like to share a couple of their examples. They've all worked really hard and I think they've learned quite a lot. Obviously they've had to practise a lot of English (Script writing, dubbing photos and images, subtitling), however, they've also learnt some other great skills; use of technologies, problem-solving, pair-work, negotiation. All in all, they seem to have enjoyed themselves and I am very proud of the final results! Feel free to comment. Would love to hear from you!

IATEFL ROUND UP

Rob, Andy and Nik round up the Iatefl conference with a last interview of some stats and impressions.

Surprisingly, There have been viewers from 157 different countries! According to the numbers, well over 100000 teachers have been watching videos of the sessions and interviews so organisers are very pleased and proud of this year's participation. With easy online access to the live sessions and interviews, teachers from all over the world have been able to access and follow just as if they had actually been there. In fact, Nik mentions that some teachers who were actually physically present at the conference were walking around with their ipads and tablets, listening in on some of the live sessions at the same time. Isn't technology fantastic?!

Some points worth mentioning:

- There was a lot of talk about bridging the gap between research and classroom practice. Good to hear!

- Teachers need to be clearer with their feedback and they need to challenge students more. We are too easy on our students!

- Nik was also thrilled to have shared chats with Scott Thornbury about technologies and their positive role in education.

- Iatefl is enabling more and more teachers from all over the world to get together, physically or virtually, to share ideas and get together socially to talk about TEACHING.

All in all the conference has been a great success and they want to let us all know that online coverage of the conference will be available for the next year. Check out this link to watch videos of the many interviews and sessions that took place. http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/