Play phrases and practise your pronunciation

PlayPhrase.me offers you the possibility to improve English pronunciation and patterns of intonation with your favourite phrases out of famous scenes of TV shows and movies.

Just key in the phrase or chunk of text you would like to practise and the tool will come back to you with the bits where the phrase was uttered by various actors and actresses at various films or TV shows. You will then be ready to drill the phrase as if it were a karaoke machine, as the phrase rolls down, highlighted below the sliding scenes out of which it has been singled out.

Quite a dynamic enjoyable way to keep your English intonation and pronunciation up. Enjoy it!

Guy Fawkes

From Archena (Murcia), the students at 1st ESO in IES Vicente Medina, have been working about a character from history called Guy Fawkes. Here you can know him.

Thanks to Inmaculada López and their pupils. A great work!

Guy Fawkes

“Remember Remember the 5th of November

The gunpowder treason and plot

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot”

Four hundred years ago, the 5th of November 1605, a man called Guy Fawkes and a group of friends tried to kill the King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. At that time the main religion was the Protestant religion. Guy Fawkes was a catholic and he wanted more rights for catholics, but James I didn’t want to give them any more rights.

Guy Fawkes didn’t succeed so nowadays people celebrate that Guy Fawkes didn’t kill the king with bonfires and fireworks on the 5th of November. They make “Guys” to burn them on the bonfires.

This is what 1º ESO students have prepared to celebrate Guy Fawkes. Thanks a lot to all of them for their great work:

Jesús Rojo, Isabel, Inés, José Luis and Alejandro Rojo

David Valero, María Candel and Mónica

Mireya, Alexia, Gabriela and Laura María

Ana Isabel, Ana María and Maribel

Jesús Torrano, Pablo Prieto

Rodrigo Ayala

Elena Clara, Laura Verdú, Patricia, Aida and Andrea

Graffities and progress

The students 3rd ESO at IES Vicente Medina in Archena (Murcia) share with everyone a new work in English Classroom.Great!. Congratulations!
Inmaculada López, the English teacher tell us:

As the first task for our project “Moving forward with 3º ESO” students were asked to prepare presentations using graffities and explaining why those graffities meant or didn’t mean progress to them. They also presented their work orally to the class. They did a great job as you can see in the following presentations:

Iván, Ricardo, Fran, José Ramón and Antonio

Pablo F, Fran and Maksym

José Juan, Clemente and Pedro Ayala

Alejandro M, José Antonio, Carlos, Pedro Gabarrón and Pedro Serna

Marina, Celia Campuzano, Raquel, Myriam, Melissa and Elvira

Berta, Marta, Rocío and Vero

Cecilia, Yaiza, Laura and Nerea

Jesús, Ricardo, Jaime, Máximo, Alejandro García and José Ismael

Silvia, Ángela Solana, Mª Isabel, Mª José Buendía and Mª José Bermúdez

Miguel

Gabriel and Andrés

Traditional Halloween Games

Find it all about how CEIP San Miguel in Armilla celebrated Halloween. Thanks to Yolanda Egea.


Halloween is a great time to celebrate with different activities the topics about witches, ghosts and fairies at school. Every year the classrooms are open to new ideas to create the best environment to have fun with kids.

Our music teacher Lucía Trujillo and PE teacher Cristina Morales took the best ideas about working Halloween through parades and corners, so the children from 5th and 6th levels had the opportunity to rotate in different stopping places and enjoy.

Have a look at the video to watch how much fun the children can have just in one day at school.



Corners:
PIN THE TAIL
THE WALKING DEAD
APPLE PASS ALONG
MUMMY WRAP RELAY
NUTS & SPOON
APPLE ON STRINGS
BOBBING FOR APPLES

Do you know The ESL Times?

Today we want to share with everyone a great job about this project. 

It's a presentation that has been made by Eva Bombin Orgaz (@BurMagisterio), Jairo García, Cristina Ibañez and Laura Galarreta from Burgos University (first grade of Primary Education)

Thanks a lot!

http://prezi.com/owhehno3rocw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Moodle MOOC 5: starting October 1

 Moodle MOOC 5 starts on October 1, 2014 on WizIQ. The theme of the current MOOC is collaborative learning, reflective practice, connecting online for instruction and learning. 

The MOOC focuses on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching through Moodle, Second Life, Mahara, Google Drive Docs, and Google Apps, Mobile Devices, Virtual Classes, and other online learning environments for face-to-face, blended, and fully online learning. The live presentations include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats. 

Moodle MOOC 5 also includes Moodle for Teachers (M4T) courses for beginners and advanced Moodlers. The courses is asynchronous (Moodle) and synchronous (WizIQ) with recordings of live classes on WizIQ, YouTube, and Vimeo, just in case you cannot attend on the spot. 

There are two learning areas: WizIQ course area and Moodle for Teachers (M4T) Moodle website. The live online sessions and recordings, tutorials (courseware) and ongoing discussions (coursefeed) are available in the WizIQ course area. 

Unlike the traditional MOOCs that stress content and course delivery, Moodle MOOC focuses on active learning, reflection, sharing, and collaboration. The aim of the course is for the participants to learn through meaningful connections and social interactions. Participants who wish to receive a certificate of participation will be required to document their learning experiences by keeping a blog, wiki, website, or any other artifact that will include a description and reflection of the live sessions and/or recordings. 

Moodle for Teachers Learning Experience (M4TLE) is an asynchronous component of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on WizIQ for teachers and anyone interested in teaching online using Moodle, WizIQ, and other web technologies. 

The MOOC takes place from 1 to 31 October 2014. It is in the spirit of open education and completely free. 

Participants become acquainted with Moodle as a course and learning management system. They learn how Moodle can be used in fully online, blended learning, and the flipped class. 

The MOOC only includes asynchronous (not dependent on time) elements on a Moodle site called Moodle for Teachers. The rest takes place at WizIQ.

The MOOC is self-paced with ongoing discussions and facilitator and technical support are available.  It is coordinated by Dr. Nellie Deutsch and Tom Hodgers.

Enroll now and join an engaging MOOC. Do not miss it!

Free IATEFL YLT SIG Webinars 2014-15

Join these free bi-monthly webinars that will offer professional development for teachers of Very Young Learners, Young Learners, Teen Learners, and Special Learners of English as a Foreign Language.

The series of live sessions is brought to you by The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL).

IATEFL Young Learners (Children and Teenagers) Special Interest Group (YLSIG) consists of about 400 English Language Teaching professionals around the world who work with learners aged from 3 to 17.

The Young Learners (Children and Teenagers) SIG aims to support its members by providing information on recent developments in English Language education for children and teenagers and by organising networking opportunities for its members.

The YLSIG is led by a committee of volunteers who arrange discussions, organise conferences, produce publications and maintain the network web site.

1. Coordinator: Dennis Newson and Kalyan Chattopadhyay

2. Joint Network coordinator Teens (T): Helen Davies and ffinlo Kilner

3. Network coordinator Young Learners (YL): Lou McLaughlin

4. Network coordinator Very Young Learners (VYL): Charles Goodger

5. Network coordinator Special Educational Needs (SEN): Susan Hillyard

6. C&TS Newsletter Editor: David Valente

7. Online events and website coordinator: Nellie Deutsch

8. Advertising & Sponsorship: Kalyan Chattopadhyay

9. Online Events support: Graham Stanley

10. Online Events support: Christina Giannikas

11. Events support and SEN network support: Gemma Fanning

Have a look at the scheduled activities for this 2014/2015 school year and find those that might be of interest for your own lessons!

Join Network for IATEFL YLT SIG on WizIQ

On the road again!

Summer is over, so here we are again!!

A new school year begins and most of us will have to get used to new timetables, some will teach new students or even work at a new school , but all of us will face new challenges and look forward to achieving new goals, won’t we?

From the ESL Times we just want to welcome you back and wish you the best of lucks for the present year.

We want to keep managing this space in order to make it easy for you to use it, to share your students’ productions or your teaching ideas or just letting us know any news you think might be of interest. We will do our best to spread the word.

So, please, keep tuned; new sections and new features will appear here soon and, as usual, you –and your students- will be the stars!!

Happy back to school!!

Summer break

We'll come back in September

My daily routines

The students at 4th level in Capileira (Granada) tell us what they do all days (Their daily routines)

The activities followed this order:

1º Find and write the verbs you need to explain (present simple).

2º Write the hours
3º Fill this sheet 

4º Write full sentences. Put in order (from morning to night).

5º Record the audio

6º Add a photo
7º Write questions to make an interview
8º Record the interview

We used a wall of Padlet and Ivoox to make this activity.
We hope you like!

http://es.padlet.com/wall/ku48ijx4pj

Created with Padlet

InteRActive Map

From IES Jaime Gil de Biedma in Nava de la Asunción (Segovia), Inmaculada Cuellar, the English teacher show us an interesting experience in class with students at 2nd ESO. They were working with AR (Augmented Reality).

This is a map of the British Isles which decorates the walls of our classroom. But it is not a simple map, it has got a lot of information: culture, geography, literature, history, tourism.... Use your mobile phone to scan the codes or images and you will find out.

We use the following apps: QR-droid and Aurasma in our mobile phones and Unitag and Aurasma Studio in our laptops.

If you look at this map of the UK and the Republic of Ireland you can see QR codes and images; if you scan the codes and the images you can see more than that:

- the green QR codes hide the name of a city and the population of this city.

- the red QR codes hide the name of the capitals and their population.

- the biggest QR codes hide audios telling the experience of some of my students in UK last summer.

- the images hide videos about the monuments, culture, music etc.

And also we have a book of the most important writers in English language, we used Calaméo to transform a powerpoint into a digital book.

Scan this QR and the image with your mobile phone and you find out what is in each one, you will be surprised:

Scan the code with QR-droid. You can see the biography of important writers like: Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Orwell, J.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. 

Scan the image with Aurasma. This is a video of London Tourist Office to promote the London Eye.

We recorded the experience in a  video that has been published in the Revista Digital de la Junta de Castilla y León.

Revista digital

Have a look at the video:

Thanks, Educalab

Today, we want to say "Thank you" to the  EDUCALAB team who have chosen our blog as their recommended one for the current week in the #Educablog category .

We feel very much pleased and honored with this distinction and would like to say special thanks to our reporters who have contributed to keep this blog alive by sending their ideas, experiences, classroom projects, opinions, etc. 

We are very happy to manage the technical issues as well as try and make the way smoother, but it's you, collaborating teachers, and your students, who have made it possible that we have published some 150 posts and received more than 70,000 visits so far. 

This recognition by EducaLAB gives us energy to go on growing and we hope it will also help you -hesitant reporter-  venture to publish your first entry.

We'll be here, ready to spread YOUR word!!

American life

Students in 2º ESO D have been reading about American life and they have created these glogs about American meals, American sports and famous American places. Nice work!

We talk freedom

We talk freedom at school because we believe education is one of the best ways to fight against different types of slavery. We would like to take the opportunity to show our rejection towards the kidnapping of the girls in Nigeria.

These are the students’ oral presentations of their work on different types of slavery:

THE SALE OF CHILDREN by Elvira, Tania, Marina, Elena and Ángela Solana (2º ESO B):

The sale of children from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

HUMAN TRAFFIC AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION by Marta, Vero, Berta, Rocío, Ángela Martínez and Mª Isabel (2º ESO B):

Human traffic and sexual exploitation from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

FORCED MARRIAGES by Silvia, Celia, Mª José Bermúdez, Mª José Buendía and Raquel (2º ESO B):

Forced marriages from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

CHILDREN AT WAR by Miguel, Gabriel, Pablo Villegas and Pedro Gabarrón (2º ESO B):

Children at war from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

CHILD SOLDIERS by Antonio, José Ramón, Fran, Ricardo and Iván (2º ESO B):

Child soldiers from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

HUMAN TRAFFIC AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION by Clemente, Pedro Ayala, José Juan, Pablo Fernández and Carlos (2º ESO B):

Human traffic and sexual exploitation from Inmaculada López on Vimeo.

Are you a Science Breaker? We've got a mission for you!

The Science Breaking team of future CLIL Primary teachers at URJC have been designing various activities to aim at fostering Science and Audivisual skills among Primary CLIL students.

Today they are bringing a new mission that they have presented in the animation below:

For students to be able to accomplish this mission, Breaking Science has everything ready in this full lesson including various worksheets, together with an assessment rubric they have designed using Blendspace. Every part of this mini-project is scheduled step by step so young learners can observe, investigate, analyse, create, draw conclusions and evaluate their own work.

First Graders at CP San Claudio in Asturias are already looking forward to seeing what happens after the experiment, thanks to their CLIL teacher, Graciela.

If you ever carry it out in your lessons, @ScienceBreaking will love to hear your feedback!

Cross-posted from EU Robotics Week Education Spain. Originally viewed at Breaking Science

Comic your subject

Comics are an engaging way to foster reading and writing skills. Kids are usually quite into reading comics, know and admire super heroes and get inspired by their deeds.

So, why not using comics in class to explain your subject and engage learners? Here are some tips to get started:

1. Decide on the topic you would like to explain.
2. Choose a digital tool to design your comic.
3. Draft the comic.
4. Publish it.
5. Use it in your lessons.
6. Disseminate your outcomes and experience.
7. Share with other peers.

Here you are some comics other peers have already designed to accomplish the goal of helping learners to understand content by visualizing it.

Source: Smore & #storytelling_INTEF