How to use dinamic views in this blog

A few days ago, we've added a very simple element to this Blog that it allows us enjoy new possibilities of viewing the content. 

Thanks to Blogger, you can choose between some different and interesting views. Just have to try.

1º Clic on the word "Views" under the header.

2º Look at the menu on the left. Clic on the short arrow and select.

3º You've got seven possibilities to test, seven different styles.

Classic

Flipcard

Magazine

Mosaic

Sidebar

Snapshot

Timeslide

I hope you like it.
Please, tell us with a comment which is your favourite view.

Do Now

Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.

Do Now orientation

Below are some materials for you to look at at your leisure. The orientation is asynchronous, which means that you can view them at any time between now and Sept. 13.
To show that you have completed looking at the materials, I require that you fill out an action plan. This plan will help you think through Do Now implementation with your students. It's a Google form that you will fill out and the link is at the end of this email.

So here are the materials for the orientation. They consist of videos for viewing and then the action plan that you must fill out. The entire orientation should not take more than 2 hours to complete. For each part, click on the title of the section to access the video.


Part 1: Set the stage: How Do Now looks in the classroom. This video profiles how a class at Burton High School in San Francisco implemented KQED Do Now. We hear from the Social Studies teacher and her students about the project and its impact.


Part 2: The Value of Do Now: KQED Do Now overview. This video is a basic overview of KQED Do Now, outlining what Do Now is and explains how it adds value to learning.


Part 3: Twitter Basics

This section contains 4 short videos (well, the Twitter 101 is a little longer) that provide a basic understanding of Twitter, its interface, functionality, how to download it and use it, and how to use if for Do Now. These videos may be useful to share with your students as well. The links to the videos and the guide are here:
1. Twitter 101 – An Overview of Twitter's Interface and Functionality

2. How to Set up a Twitter Account on your Computer

3. How to Download the Twitter App and Set Up an Account on a Mobile Device

4. How to Access Do Now on Twitter and Tweet to Join the Conversation

Part 4: Preparing to Implement Do Now with your Class

This video explores all of the variables and challenges of implementing Do Now in the classroom, and will help you plan for success. We also published a Guide to Using Twitter for Your Teaching Practice that can be useful for thinking about how to introduce it to your class in an educational context. You can access the Twitter Guide here<http://education.kqed.org/edspace/how-to-use-twitter-in-your-teaching-practice/&gt;.

Part 5: Try This Week's Do Now for Practice
Go ahead and try doing this week's Do Now, which looks at the pay for fast-food workers. We are asking students whether they would pay more for fast food if the money would go to increasing workers' pay. Here's the link to this week's Do Now:

http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2013/09/06/making-fast-food-for-little-pay/

Or you can go ahead and create/open your Twitter account, follow @KQEDedspace and then find our latest Do Now tweet.
You can retweet something meaningful that you find on Twitter, tweet an interesting article that you feel addresses the issue, tweet an opinion, or reply to someone who already tweeted for this Do Now. Remember to use @KQEDedspace and #DoNowFastfood in your tweet.
The last part of the orientation asks you to fill out the action plan which is a link to a Google form where we ask a series of questions that will help you come up with a strategy to implement Do Now. You should copy and paste your responses so that you have a record of them. Again, the action plan is due on Sept. 13 so that you are ready to begin Do Now with your students the week of Sept. 16.

Back to school icebreakers

Ready to get back to lessons? Looking forward to meeting your new students and start breaking the ice?

Here you are four icebreakers for those first lessons when you are all willing to get to know one another better.

Hope you enjoy them!

New School Year Greetings

We all know that after summer breaks, the first thing back in class is to introduce ourselves and tell everybody about our vacation, but, why not doing it through a voice mail? That will give everybody time to settle down a little bit.

Speakpipe allows you to record, receive, download, answer, and listen to your students' new school year greetings. Just embed it on your blog and let those shy new students leave their voice messages. Besides, you will be able to start assessing their speaking skills.

New School Year Resolutions

Build a Padlet wall and get your students to put their wishes and expectations for the new school year on it. It is a quick, easy and collaborative tool that you can always keep on filling along the year and then use it at the end of terms to check out if their resolutions are on the right track.

What would your students like to know about you?

As a teacher, prepare a timeline of your life in advance. Then, get students to ask you questions so they try to guess your birth date, what months are special for you and why, which years you may regard as turning points, and so on. Then, let them see your timeline to check if they were right. Finally, you can ask them to create and share their own timelines. Timerine makes this task quite easy and entertaining.

Self-portraits

Ask your students to plan a paragraph about themselves, their self-portrait, and share their writings through an online drive. Revise and assess the drafts together. When they have a final piece to hand in, get them to read them aloud as a rehearsal, and then record their self-portraits. 

You may choose either to create an audio or a video gallery with all the outputs and disseminate them all over your favourite video channel or sound community.

If they are brave enough, you could even challenge them to video or audio stream their self-portraits.

Photo from ELTpics

Summer Break

Our project in Novadors 13

Last Friday 5th July we were in Castellón (Valencia) at Novadors 2013 meeting. There, some members of the group (Diego, Anna and Manuel) were introducing The ESL Times project. 

We wanted everyone to participate, so we proposed as the final activity, they had to write "in English" their opinion or a message. Here you can see the video we recorded.

A good experience. 

Thanks everyone! Thanks Novadors!

I hope you like it!

A trip to USA: A collaborative story

This is the story that had written the students in 5th and 6th Primary from CPR Barranco de Poqueira.

We decided make it in collaboration. First, from Bubion school, pupils began the story. Two weeks later, it was completed and finished in Capileira school.

They all worked in groups, writing and drawing the pictures.

I hope you like it!

ThingLink in the classroom

ThingLink is a simple piece of code that users can install on their website or blog. This code allows teachers or students to designate parts of sites or pages (pictures, etc.) that will produce a pop-up with a description and or a link to something else on the web. 

This is a great way to make static images interactive as well and using ThingLink will also allow users to track analytics of the images and links that they have shared.