Podcasting

Podcasting is a new way to record and follow the information you want and you need( radio, episode...etc.) anywhere, anytime.

I found a Podcasting which called "Kid Friday". Kid Friday has kid's name Zoe and other kids on the radio. They talks about many topics on this radio, like Apple products, Apps, tech for kids, websites...etc. I can connect this Podcasting in my classroom by asking students to listen to it everyday. They talks about variety of topics. After students listened to it, we can discuss the topic in the classroom. Talking about the topic they like could raise their interests. Also, have students try to listen to Kid Friday could help them to get used to listen to English and improve their listening skills.

What is the best? If students cannot listen on time, they could download it and listen to it after they have time. Moreover, it is a very good habit for students to keep their listening habit. For those students who are more audio, it would really help them to improve and learn fast.

It would be cool to involve Podcasting into classroom.

ePals

When I was in school, my classmates and I are always arguing about emails. In the Business Writing class, our teacher ask us to use e-mail to contact with each others. However, because everyone uses different email account, like gmail, yahoo, hotmail...ect. Therefore, missing emails often happen.

Now, there's new thing for us to try!!! ePals, which could help students on their communication.
By using ePals, students and peers could send mail and messages to each others. They don't have to worry about missing emails again. Moreover, they could send messages immediately, practicing using emails to work with others and engaged parents into the class. This would be very helpful for the kids in high school.

In my future class, I would ask my students to set up an account in classroom. Then, they will have to hand in their assignments by ePals, communicate with their classmates by ePals and learn workplace skills. It would be especially useful if I am teaching a class like Business Writing. Students could use ePals to be familiar with the environment of offices. Also, I could talk to the parents about how their kids are doing in the class. Moreover, parents could engaged with their children by doing assignments and school works together.

Now, let's ePals!!!

Story time!!

Tell story with only pictures??
It's already old fashioned!!


Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Nowadays, people tell stories in a cool and fashion way.
Animoto, which is a place to make short digital video. This is a very easy place for novice to learn even if they don't have any experiences on making digital story book. It is actually very good for teacher to teach students on using digital to make story book and tell story or to introduce something.

This kind of digital story telling is actually good for the classroom. What teacher could do is assign a topic like festival, unforgettable experience, introduce your family or friends. Then, students could make their own digital story and share with their classmates. Moreover, they could keep the video for a very long time. By doing so, students could learn how to make video, tell the story, and cooperate (if teacher assign students work in a group). The best thing is, this kind of story telling could use in a very wide range of students. They would all make it if they are over 3 grade in elementary school. What they have to have is only know how to use computer.

For myself, I would definitely use this tool to teach my students. Digital thing could always attract students' attention. Also, they could learn a new topic by making a video. Moreover, they would have a very good chance to practice their oral skills. 

Ready?
Let, tell a story!!!

Let's tell story by digital.

Digital story telling could be fun!!!
This is the digital story book of mine!!

In the classroom, teacher could set up a topic like "Travel" and show students about what she has done. Like the example above. Digital storytelling would be a lot of fun if teacher use it in ESL classroom. With students from all of the world, they definitely would have different culture and adventure to share.

Bookr, where I and my students could create our own story book in a very convenient and easy way. Students could have a lot of fun during making their own story book. Also, they would be very eager to show others their own country or cultures. Students could learn not only culture but also how to express. They will have to introduce their story to others, therefore, they will have a chance to learn how to do a presentation and how to make it fun!!

All in all, combining digital story book in the classroom especially like ESL classroom. Assign for a topic. Then we could see students amazing creativity!!!

New way to tell stories- Digital storytelling.

We could tell the story by ourselves, why use digital one??

Photo by Profusions

Digital telling is actually a new way to use video or picture to tell the story. Why do we need it?


The definition of "Digital storytelling" is the practice of using computer-based tool to tell stories. Most digital storytelling focus more on specific topic and contained a particular point of view.

Actually, in this new technology century, people are eager to use technology to combine with many things.One of the thing people do is combine story telling with digital. By using pictures or images to tell story, it would actually attract people's attention. Moreover, recognize how sharing and bearing witness to stories can lead to learning, action, and positive change. (Center from Digital Story Telling).

For my class in the future, I would definitely use digital story telling to teach and to interact with students. By using digital story telling, teacher could express their ideas more clear. Also, for those students who are visual learners, it would help them learn more efficiently. On the other hand, students could learn and have fun while they are searching videos or youtube on the web (The Educational Uses of Story Telling.) Moreover, teacher and students could create their own time machine. While teacher and students work together, the could learn from not only the topic but from each others.

                  

Teach by Micrioblog- Twitter

This is a century that almost everyone use internet to cope with all the things. They find information from the internet, social with others on blogs and share their feelings and actions on social groups like facebook and Twitter.

To make the class even more interesting than before, what teachers could do is connect the class with what students are using in their daily life, Twitter, for example. For me, personally, I like to use microblogs to communicate with others. How to make it connected to my own teaching? Let me tell you what I am going to do.

1. Sending information.
Twitter is a place for posting instant information. What I will do is post any info. which is related to my teaching on the Twitter. Students could immediately see what I am posting. For example, I could post a message like: Watch this video which is about phonics. Then students could watch it right away. Also, I could use Twitter to send homework to them.  More importantly, I could review what I taught on the Twitter. I could create a questions which are related to my teaching and ask students to reply the answer. I think they would rather answer it online instead of writing it out and hand in to me. (

Teach with Twitter? Read This!)

2. Stay connected with students.
With the Twitter. I could clearly know how students are doing on their school work. Moreover, I could know more about my own students. By reading their posts, I could understand my students more. What is more, if the student have problems or facing some difficulties, I could immediately provide helps. Sometime, some students are afraid to tell teachers what is going on with them if they have some difficulties. At this time, Twitter really will help!!

3. Play games.
Class will be funnier if it is connected with games. I could set up a  game on Twitter and all of my students could get involved. For example, I could set up a games call create a cool sentence. The one who create the coolest sentence will win the game. By posting their answers on the Twitter, not only me but students could see other's answer. They could learn from their peers. With the competition, students would get more aggressive on their learning.

(28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter)

All in all, Microblogs really could help teachers on teaching a lot. Using it well could not only improve the quality of teacher's teaching but also could improve the relationship between teachers and students. For me, I would really want to give it a try on teaching my students.

Social Network Group

Social Network group is very famous these years. Facebook, for example has been used all over the world. The benefits from social network groups is that information could be spread easily. This means that if there are new information or news, people could get immediately. 

Using social networking group is good for teacher because we could get new info. fast. If there are new teaching methods, teachers could learn and use it as soon as they know it. I, personally have been using Facebook for a very long time. From, using it, I realize two things. First of all, if there are news or information, I could know in a very short time, even it is a news from the opposite side of the world. Secondly, if I have questions, I could get the answer very fast. People could provide different views of it. 

Therefore, when I look through the social networking groups like, Ning, Classroom 2.0, EVOline2002...etc. I found out that EFL Classroom 2.0 is most useful for me. EFL Classroom 2.0 is a social networking group that has many people who are interested in EFL/ TEFL in it. They provides their ideas about teaching and post some new content. 

The reason that I choose EFL Classroom 2.0 is because that they have all kinds of tools and information that I could get from it. For example, in the section called EFL 2.0, I could find the classroom featured which is Teaching Young Learners. In this section, there are articles like "10 ideas for teaching YLs" and all kinds of blogs. Also, there are sections like "Teach", "Learn", "Play", "Read" to help teachers with teaching.

It is a very useful social networking group for me. As a fresh teacher who do not have enough experiences, I believe by using EFL 2.0, I could learn a lot from it. Also, if I have questions, I could get the answer from other experienced teachers. Teaching, after all, is about learning experiences. Others' experiences really could help new teachers to improve fast.

EFL 2.0:http://community.eflclassroom.com/group/teachingyounglearners