The Listening Week

Week 3: Listening

Task 1 -Treasure hunt -

WOW I didn't know there were so many interesting and user-friendly pages to exploit listening activities.
The first task consisted of exploring different sites to enhance our student's listening skills. But there was a hindrance... we've only got 30 minutes which they may seem to be enough, however, they turn out to be insufficient for the large number of amazing websites out there to explore. As I want to have a look at all pages, I started choosing the numbers in order.

• The first page http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/, consists of movies segments to teach or practice grammatical points. It's a very useful page, full of activities and movies, most of them new. This page seems to be time-saving as it provides the teacher with worksheets to work with the movie. Definitely, it was what I was looking for! 

• The second page is http://www.smories.com/. There are stories for kids told by kids. Ideally, of course, for working with little children to boost their imagination. After watching the kids on the net telling stories, students may be encouraged to do the same. They can invent a story or else they can repeat the same story, practicing pronunciation and intonation. These kids are a good model to follow, we can profit a lot from this page!

• The third page is http://www.youtube.com/show/10questions. It's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!, ideal for adults at an advanced level. In this page we can see and listen many celebrities, sport people, business people answering 10 questions in less than 5 minutes. There are no activities provided but there are a lot of things that can be done here.

I cannot wait to start my classes ( here in Argentina we're on holidays) and start exploiting ALL these pages!
I lack words to thank the moderators, especially Carla, who's always encouraging us to move forward, and  my "classmates" or "webmates", can we call us like that? who are always leaving comments and sharing their findings. So happy to be part of EVO sessions!

Creative Writing

Week 2: Creative writing. 

This week we are supposed to discover some online tools to boost creativity. There are so many pages that I didn't know or I haven't heard of. It's unbelievable the high number of tools and things left to discover. 

In the first task we need to choose one character, one setting and one plot from a number of pictures and then to write the beginning of a story. 

1. Character	2. Setting	e. Plot
1A http://www.flickr.com/photos/napie/5394872945/ The Story Kitchen	2A http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefferysview/6489008763/ Bit Strips	3A http://tinyurl.com/7ojaeuxDreamdoze
1B http://www.flickr.com/photos/juj_winn/3962574677/ Creative Writing Prompts	2B http://tinyurl.com/7ec79xn Pic-Lits	3B http://tinyurl.com/7lwt3lnOhLife
1C http://www.flickr.com/photos/25411380@N00/514860125/ Story Starters	2C http://tinyurl.com/ct5vkjk Storybird	3C http://preview.tinyurl.com/75bxxopFutureMe
1D http://tinyurl.com/73xzurjFive-Card Flickr	2D http://tinyurl.com/7qpxkecZooburst	3D http://tinyurl.com/73xzurj LetterPop
Links in this column contain prompts and story starters for creative writing.	Links in this column encourage writing through digital storytelling.	Links in this column foster writing through personal reflection
Note: All images in this chart are from Worth1000 and Flickr. The original links (or tinyurl) are immediately under each image.

My beginning was this:

I'd always loved living on my own in this deserted island. I used to think that nature was my only and beloved friend and that didn't need more than watching beautiful sunrises and sunsets.One day, while I was searching for food I discovered a door which I have never seen before. Where that door would lead me? Was I ready to open it? I wondered. 

In task 2, we have to click the link below the pictures we have already chosen to explore a website which can be used to deal with creative writing. 

My links were:

http://www.brucevanpatter.com/storykitchen.html

http://dreamdoze.com/

http://www.zooburst.com/

But there were many more links to choose from. 

I concentrated most on Zooburst. In this page students can write a book and add pop-ups. It is a friendly-user page and there are instructions for everything. 

I think that students and teachers can profit from this page since images as well as texts are used. Using images is a good way to help students think about what they are going to write. 

I had my first humble attempt at that page to see how it works. Here is the link to my story:

http://www.zooburst.com/zb_books-viewer.php?book=zb01_4f171a7e64d21

As there are so many things that can be done on this page, it is a bit time consuming at first. However it is worth the time spent, so take a seat and enjoy your journey. 

rounding up to start the following week...

Before I start  my second week in digitools, I want to write something as regard what I did and what I didn't do during my first week.
I must admit that at first (or better, still) I find everything daunting. There were days that I spent no less than 5 hours in front of the computer and I ended up feeling dizzy like I was about to faint. Sometimes I wanted to cry. But, anyway, I'm always crying for everything! haha
I must say, that even though sometimes I get a bit lost, I'm feeling extremely happy with this course. Each day I feel that I'm learning useful and interesting things. I'm meeting people from all over the world who are so enthusiastic and have many bright ideas, that I wish I had. I think that by doing this I will be able to use the tools they can use in similar ways.
During the first week I used animoto to introduce myself. I find it really easy. Here it is:
http://animoto.com/play/Ljj2QfBTCO6Lh1xsKZvBew#embed

I really enjoyed creating that video and it was a great achievement for me.
However, I still want to give it a try to:

Globster: http://mercedese.edu.glogster.com/edit/glog/?action=glogs_create

Prezi: http://prezi.com/profile/signup/

PBwiki and Wikis... so useful!

and http://www.spiderscribe.net/  where I'm sure lots of interesting things can be done!

Ok... and now I'm embarking on the second week and as I've been reading what it is going to be about I have the feeling that it will be challenging and at the same time fun since we are to write stories according to different pictures.
By the way I just realize that in that way our classes should be planned: challenging but at the same time fun... that would be my goal from now on when I have to decide how to deal with certain topics in the classroom.
Thank digitools for so much learning and enrichment!
Here we go...

My first publication

Ok, here we are... I think I lack the vocabulary for this... Should I have said My first blogging? Who knows...? I think  I need a teenager next to me to show me how this page works and how I can profit from it.


Anyway, I should start telling who I am, though I've already have told it but as me we are SO many, I should remind you of my name and personal info.


My name's Mercedes and I'm from Argentina. I live in a tiny town 50 KM form Rosario (one of the most important cities in Argentina) I got my degree just 6 months ago and I'm eager to learn and keep updated with the newest technology.