Thanks for the brilliant work you did writing about the websites. Useful for us all. And don't forget to check out the DFilm movies and the Voicethreads people made.
You can see the information, films etc from the other groups here:
Group A (Jo's): http://nilemgea.blogspot.com/
Group B (Carole's): http://nilemgeb.blogspot.com/
Group C (Jamie's): http://mgecnile.blogspot.com/
Some greedy people asked for more websites to use for learning and teaching! Here is a page of links from my website, The English Language Garden:
http://www.elgweb.net/t_links.html
I'm hoping to update this at the end of August - but I'll be adding to it rather than deleting any (unless they've become bad links). One of the sites I'll definitely add then is the award-winning TEFLclips written by a man called Jamie Keddie who you may have heard of. http://www.teflclips.com/ (Group A - remember Mairzy Doats?)
Links to loads of material for Interactive Whiteboards at http://www.elgweb.net .
And if your English spelling is a bit iffy, take a look at my blog The Spelling Blog at http://thespellingblog.blogspot.com/
And what about you? Have you got a blog or website that we can look at? Or do you know other useful sites? Please post them here.
Friday, 14 August 2009
My short mini-project
My brief and short mini-project framed within the Fernanda and Javier one "as a freelance" focuses in the traditional measurement units that are used here in UK. I have made a brief presentation to support my talk which last about 5 minutes or even less.
Here you have it in case you feel like to have a look: Imperial measurement units.
Here you have it in case you feel like to have a look: Imperial measurement units.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Technologic Song Videos
Here are the videos of the songs you wrote based on Technologic by Daft Punk.
The original video:
And here are yours, which are of course much better!
First up, Jose, Imna, Rocio and Rosa singing about language and literature teaching.
And finally a P,E, song from our very own Nuria, Miguel and Nacho
Now you're all stars! Something to show your grandchildren!
Well done
Jo
The original video:
And here are yours, which are of course much better!
First up, Jose, Imna, Rocio and Rosa singing about language and literature teaching.
And here are Mari Paz and Jose, putting philosophy to music!
Fernanda, Javier and Raul jammin' about maths and economics.
And finally a P,E, song from our very own Nuria, Miguel and Nacho
Now you're all stars! Something to show your grandchildren!
Well done
Jo
TED talks
The TED website offers a lot of videos you can listen to about different topics. While you're watching the video, you have the possibility to listen to the speaker, and to read the subtitles, if necessary. Moreover, there is an interactive transcript you can read with the whole document.If you click on any sentence, you can watch and hear again that part of the video.
Ken Robinson says in his talk that schools kill creativity, because, at school many subjects as Music, Drawing or Dance are less important than Maths or Humanities. The main purpose of traditional schools is to produce workers instead of creative people, so, he thinks that we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children.
In other video, Dave Eggers explain how Valencia 826 works, a place wher children can study or do their homeworks after school time with volunteers helping them.
Jose Maria Iglesias
Rosa Cano
Ken Robinson says in his talk that schools kill creativity, because, at school many subjects as Music, Drawing or Dance are less important than Maths or Humanities. The main purpose of traditional schools is to produce workers instead of creative people, so, he thinks that we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children.
In other video, Dave Eggers explain how Valencia 826 works, a place wher children can study or do their homeworks after school time with volunteers helping them.
Jose Maria Iglesias
Rosa Cano
Historical places
My subject talks about historical places to go. I'm going to start with the protestant cathedral what is the landmark of Norwich, it is a medieval cathedral built by the Normans. It's construction started in XI century and it finished 70 years after. Nowadays it is a protestant cathedral led by the Dominicans.
The second historical place to visit is the castle which was built in 1067 by the Normans as a royal palace. After being a palace, in the XIII century it was a jail and it opened as a museum in 1894, nowadays it is an art, archeology and natural history museum. In the last 20 years the meadows surrounded the castle have been improved to be more attractive. Another historical place that you have to visit is the Country and Eastern which is a building built in the XIX century as a skating rink, now is an oriental furniture store. See you later!
The second historical place to visit is the castle which was built in 1067 by the Normans as a royal palace. After being a palace, in the XIII century it was a jail and it opened as a museum in 1894, nowadays it is an art, archeology and natural history museum. In the last 20 years the meadows surrounded the castle have been improved to be more attractive. Another historical place that you have to visit is the Country and Eastern which is a building built in the XIX century as a skating rink, now is an oriental furniture store. See you later!
Two sites useful for teaching
We have compared two very interesting websites about the latest news in the world. The sites are:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
and
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
As well as making you perfectly informed, also they are useful in your work as a teacher.
There are many differences between them, e.g.:
The first one, we think, offers you a lot of contents and several tools that help you to prepare your own classes in your own way.This site can give you more
freedom in your daily work.Besides it has a very attractive design.
The second one also helps you to be informed but it's designed to be a complete lesson, with a lot of didactic tools for using before and after reading the
news.
BY NURIA FERRO AND ROCIO ONRUBIA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
and
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
As well as making you perfectly informed, also they are useful in your work as a teacher.
There are many differences between them, e.g.:
The first one, we think, offers you a lot of contents and several tools that help you to prepare your own classes in your own way.This site can give you more
freedom in your daily work.Besides it has a very attractive design.
The second one also helps you to be informed but it's designed to be a complete lesson, with a lot of didactic tools for using before and after reading the
news.
BY NURIA FERRO AND ROCIO ONRUBIA
Voicethread, Inma and Miguel
Voicethread is an online tool. You can use one picture and record a voice for that picture. You can paint on the picture. You can also invite your friends to talk about the same picture. We think it's great for art lessons.
Here you are some examples of what can you do with voicethread
Voicethread for Education
http://voicethread.com/#q.b3352.i28616
Interesting pants
http://voicethread.com/#q.b4455.i35153
Two more links, our first attemps.
This is Miguel’s first attempt with voicethread
http://voicethread.com/share/580144/
This is Inma’s first attempt using voicethread
http://voicethread.com/share/580143/
We think this tool is really interesting especially if we use it to communicate and create a project at the same time in several places. It would be great for communication with an “online English teacher”, you can work online using other websites such as Skype and from time to time it would be really nice to use it.
We think it could be fantastic for High School exchanges because students from both countries could work together before the meeting. Voicethread offers much more than an email exchange, a skype conversation or a blog.
Also, we are thinking about teacher's collaborative experiences. This way of working is really usefull for everybody. It's a really motivating challenge both for digital inmigrants and for digital natives. Working together we change the world.
Here you are some examples of what can you do with voicethread
Voicethread for Education
http://voicethread.com/#q.b3352.i28616
Interesting pants
http://voicethread.com/#q.b4455.i35153
Two more links, our first attemps.
This is Miguel’s first attempt with voicethread
http://voicethread.com/share/580144/
This is Inma’s first attempt using voicethread
http://voicethread.com/share/580143/
We think this tool is really interesting especially if we use it to communicate and create a project at the same time in several places. It would be great for communication with an “online English teacher”, you can work online using other websites such as Skype and from time to time it would be really nice to use it.
We think it could be fantastic for High School exchanges because students from both countries could work together before the meeting. Voicethread offers much more than an email exchange, a skype conversation or a blog.
Also, we are thinking about teacher's collaborative experiences. This way of working is really usefull for everybody. It's a really motivating challenge both for digital inmigrants and for digital natives. Working together we change the world.
ACCENTS AND DIALECTS
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html
THIS SITE IS ABOUT THE DIFFERENT ACCENTS AND DIALECTS ALL AROUND UK. YOU CAN FIND THERE MODERN ENGLISH TALKING, OLDER ENGLISH, RECEIVED PRONUCIATION AND MINORITY ETHNIC ENGLISH.
IT S VERY USEFUL BECAUSE YOU CAN LISTEN TO DIFFERENT CONVERSATIONS AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU CAN READ THE TRANCRIPTIONS.
YOU CAN ALSO FIND THE EXPLANATIONS ABOUT VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR AND PHONOLOGICAL VARIATIONS, AND THE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF ALL THESE DIFFERENCES.
BESIDES THAT, YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO IMPROVE THE SITE BY RECORDING YOUR OWN VOICE.
FERNANDA AND JAVIER
THIS SITE IS ABOUT THE DIFFERENT ACCENTS AND DIALECTS ALL AROUND UK. YOU CAN FIND THERE MODERN ENGLISH TALKING, OLDER ENGLISH, RECEIVED PRONUCIATION AND MINORITY ETHNIC ENGLISH.
IT S VERY USEFUL BECAUSE YOU CAN LISTEN TO DIFFERENT CONVERSATIONS AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU CAN READ THE TRANCRIPTIONS.
YOU CAN ALSO FIND THE EXPLANATIONS ABOUT VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR AND PHONOLOGICAL VARIATIONS, AND THE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF ALL THESE DIFFERENCES.
BESIDES THAT, YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO IMPROVE THE SITE BY RECORDING YOUR OWN VOICE.
FERNANDA AND JAVIER
Some useful Englsih sites (a commentary by group 4)
THE SIMPLE WIKIPEDIA is a useful site to consult articles on every possible topic written in easy English. It can be used for non advanced students who can become more confident using it, as a first step in the task of searching for information in English.
http://http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
GOOGLEFIGHT is a site for creating fights between words in order to know which of them is more frequent in Google. It can be used for finding out the correct form of a word or of a expression.
http://http://www.googlefight.com/
HOWJSAY is a talking dictionary of English pronunciation as a tool for finding out how to pronunce English words. At the moment it contains around 125.000 entries
http://http://www.howjsay.com/
M. Paz y Jose. A
http://http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
GOOGLEFIGHT is a site for creating fights between words in order to know which of them is more frequent in Google. It can be used for finding out the correct form of a word or of a expression.
http://http://www.googlefight.com/
HOWJSAY is a talking dictionary of English pronunciation as a tool for finding out how to pronunce English words. At the moment it contains around 125.000 entries
http://http://www.howjsay.com/
M. Paz y Jose. A
Making online animated movies
We are going to talk about a website called Dfilm. It's a very curious place that let you easily make a short animated movie using the background, characters, music and kind of plot between the ones that are provided by the website. So, you don't need to have a knowledge about making movies. All you need if your imagination and to have something to tell.
Maybe you like watching a simple movie from our minds (if you liked it, please click here Donate one millon pounds instantly.)
Do you want us to explain you how it works? Yeah?
First of all you have to clik here http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html and choose a background and a sky for the background that will be during all the first scene. Then you choose the plot of the scene, we mean the kind of scene like a soliloquo or a dialogue. After that you choose the characters and write the conversation. Try on your own because it's really easy.
In our opinion this is very, very useful for learning english because the students can enjoy using their imagination, it's a creative procedure (do you remember the last lecture?...) and we think that it's really easy for students as well.
Maybe you like watching a simple movie from our minds (if you liked it, please click here Donate one millon pounds instantly.)
Do you want us to explain you how it works? Yeah?
First of all you have to clik here http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html and choose a background and a sky for the background that will be during all the first scene. Then you choose the plot of the scene, we mean the kind of scene like a soliloquo or a dialogue. After that you choose the characters and write the conversation. Try on your own because it's really easy.
In our opinion this is very, very useful for learning english because the students can enjoy using their imagination, it's a creative procedure (do you remember the last lecture?...) and we think that it's really easy for students as well.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Websites and web tools to help your English
Thursday morning's lesson:
Group 1. Explore these: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
and
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
Write about theses two sites on our blog. Describe and compare them. Which do you think is more useful to help your colleagues improve their English? Why?
http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html
You can make a movie here. To save it you need to register.
Write about the site on our blog. And if possible embed your movie. Say how difficult it was to make. How do you think this could be useful to help your colleagues improve their English?
Group 3. Look at this site and choose one talk to watch that interests you :
Write a short summary of the talk you watched. What other types of talks were available that might interest your colleagues? Write about it on our blog.
Group 4. Look at these three sites:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
How is this different from the normal English Wikipedia site? How useful is it?
http://www.googlefight.com/Group 5. Spend a bit of time exploring this site:
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html
Then write about it on our blog. Describe the site and say what it does. Did you find any interesting information on it?
Group 6. Look at this site:
Spend a bit of time exploring and, if you want to, you can leave some comments or even register and make your own Voicethread (you will need some photos – ask Jo if you haven’t got any).
Then write about Voicethread on our blog. Describe it and say how people use it. How do you think it could be useful for practising your English? Put in links to interesting examples.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Food and drink in Norwich
I am going to speak a little about my topic, which is 'Food and drink' in Norwich. Yesterday, I saw during my visit several good places for having lunch or simply a beer. One of them was in the Riverside and look great. It is called "The Red Lion" and the terrace just beside the river looks really chilling out. Another curious place for me, as a spaniard, was a spanish restaurant situated closed to The Cathedral (there are several cathedrals in Norwich but I mean 'The Cathedral', the one they are really proud of). Close to that restaurant you can see several restaurants of different nationalities like italian, japanese, etc. But if you only feel like to have a beer maybe your best choice is to go to the classical Adam and Eve pub which is the oldest one and town and maybe the smallest one too. It is a small and old-fashioned pub with a flowered and calmed outside terrace. Anyway I do not recommend you to go there for a coffee, because
the only have a small coffee machine which produces a terrible airplane-flavour coffee. For a coffee, I definitely recommend you a place called 'Cocoa Coffee' at the Guild-hall which looks simply great. Other places which were recommend me by my mates are the 'Rose tavern' just in the middle of the way between UEA and the village and a place in Elmhill street called 'Brittons Arms' where you can taste the local crab cake in its comfortable terrace at the top.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
THINGS THAT YOU CAN TAKE BACK HOME FROM NORWICH
We have been talking about different topics. One of them was about the things that you can take back home from Norwich. We would suggest buying some mustard, because here you can find the best one in England. You can get some in the Archery, where there is a very special mustard shop. We have founded as well that Norwich is a good place for purchasing old furniture and other antiques. There are many different shops all around the city, but we would recommend the market located in the beautyful cloisters of Saint Andrews Halls. This market opens every Wednesday. On the other hand, Norwich is a very nice place for getting old second hand books. There are many small bookshops where you could find everything you may need, and they are really cheap. Finally, we have found two very nice places for buying drawing and art materials, Jarrolds and Works. So, here you have our suggestions.
The topic about I’m going to write about is “Some historical facts about Norwich”.
The most important building is The Castle, that was built between 1042 and 1096, by Ralph the Guarder.
In 1984 the Castle was opened as Museum of art gallery, for exhibition of fine art, archeology site, natural history.
An important cultural building is Bridewell Museum, that shows the history of Norwich about trades and industry, for instance, shoe factories, mustard, chocolates, shawls, weaving, clocks, pharmacy, steam fire engine, etc.
A very important aspect around the Castle is the Meadow area. In the last decade gardens were improved a lot in size and variety in order to make the gardens attractive.Nowadays the main centre of the city is the area around the Forum, by Gentleman's Walk and Chapelfield.
The best places to visit in Norfolk are , apart from the Castle, North Norfolk Coast, Wroxham Barns, Alby craft and an adventure place for going with children named Bewilderwood.
By Rocio Onrubia
The most important building is The Castle, that was built between 1042 and 1096, by Ralph the Guarder.
In 1984 the Castle was opened as Museum of art gallery, for exhibition of fine art, archeology site, natural history.
An important cultural building is Bridewell Museum, that shows the history of Norwich about trades and industry, for instance, shoe factories, mustard, chocolates, shawls, weaving, clocks, pharmacy, steam fire engine, etc.
A very important aspect around the Castle is the Meadow area. In the last decade gardens were improved a lot in size and variety in order to make the gardens attractive.Nowadays the main centre of the city is the area around the Forum, by Gentleman's Walk and Chapelfield.
The best places to visit in Norfolk are , apart from the Castle, North Norfolk Coast, Wroxham Barns, Alby craft and an adventure place for going with children named Bewilderwood.
By Rocio Onrubia
General information about Norwich
Norwich is located in the region of East Anglia which is in Eastern England. It is the county city of Norfolk. During the Middle Ages Norwich was the second largest city in England after London. Dutch people in the 19th century became rich through their weaving skills. Nowadays, in Norwich there isn’t a heavy industry. Tourism (the Norfolk’s coast, the Broads, even the town of Norwich are the most visited in the county), mustard, shoes and leather clothes are the most important industries. I find Norwich is a lovely place to learn english, specially at the UEA.
Norwich is located in the region of East Anglia which is in Eastern England. It is the county city of Norfolk. During the Middle Ages Norwich was the second largest city in England after London. Dutch people in the 19th century became rich through their weaving skills. Nowadays, in Norwich there isn’t a heavy industry. Tourism (the Norfolk’s coast, the Broads, even the town of Norwich are the most visited in the county), mustard, shoes and leather clothes are the most important industries. I find Norwich is a lovely place to learn english, specially at the UEA.
Norwich: for resting, learning and living
Norwich is a modern city with a millennial history, a quite and peaceful place which offers you a broad spectrum of possibilities for your free time. Visitors can find an active commercial centre together with the historical one, in the middle of big green areas, crowed with trees and plants, carpeted with grass, populated with rabbits, surrounded by the waters of a river. Here you have a place for resting while drinking a beer or travelling into history, for meeting friendly people from all over the world, or for studying in its world-famous university, for attending a crazy karaoke session or a formal wise lecture, followed by a master piece performance of music or theatre. All and all: a little universe for resting, learning and living.
Entertainment. What’s on while we’re on.
Surprisingly we have found many places and many activities I mean cultural activities here in Norwich. In our tour we had to visit some interesting places of enterteiment. The first one was Norwich Arts Center. There apart from a marvellous cafeteria with a nice garden you can find a permanent exhibition and cultural activities like computer courses, photography and digital media courses. Moreover at night there are perfomances, live music and theatre plays. We got a brochure with all the activities during summertime.
The other place we visited was the Norwich PLAYHOUSE. This place is a theatre with lovely garden and a cafeteria. At this moment you can fin three activities , a theatre play called “ A little bird told me” another one that is a comedy called “The Gruffalo” that looks very very funny, and the last one it’s a lecture from a man called Jimmy Hook.
Apart from that two places that we had to visit. In our guided tour days before we saw some Cinemas. One more thing. It's something that sounded rare or strange for us but they use a lot of churches like entertaiment places, in fact we visited one Saint Andrews Church where we could visited an hands on exhibit.
By Ignacio Calvo
Surprisingly we have found many places and many activities I mean cultural activities here in Norwich. In our tour we had to visit some interesting places of enterteiment. The first one was Norwich Arts Center. There apart from a marvellous cafeteria with a nice garden you can find a permanent exhibition and cultural activities like computer courses, photography and digital media courses. Moreover at night there are perfomances, live music and theatre plays. We got a brochure with all the activities during summertime.
The other place we visited was the Norwich PLAYHOUSE. This place is a theatre with lovely garden and a cafeteria. At this moment you can fin three activities , a theatre play called “ A little bird told me” another one that is a comedy called “The Gruffalo” that looks very very funny, and the last one it’s a lecture from a man called Jimmy Hook.
Apart from that two places that we had to visit. In our guided tour days before we saw some Cinemas. One more thing. It's something that sounded rare or strange for us but they use a lot of churches like entertaiment places, in fact we visited one Saint Andrews Church where we could visited an hands on exhibit.
By Ignacio Calvo
THINGS TO TAKE BACK HOME FROM NORWICH
I have chosen this topic because I’m a consumer and wasteful society victim. I expected to get a full list of shops where I can buy tracksuits, watches, sports clothes or similar things. I got very surprised when my partners told me that I should visit the bookshops, the Oriental antiques shops, the second hand shops, the musical instruments shops and so on.
Just for a minute I realized that my shopping priorities are the same when I’m in Madrid, Rome or Norwich. But now I know that in Norwich I can purchase lots of things that will make my trolley different than a High School student. Maybe I’ll come back to Spain with a lot of cultural items in my trolley, or maybe I’ll need to buy even a new trolley because I’ll be still trapped in this consumer and wasteful society.
Miguel Lopez
Just for a minute I realized that my shopping priorities are the same when I’m in Madrid, Rome or Norwich. But now I know that in Norwich I can purchase lots of things that will make my trolley different than a High School student. Maybe I’ll come back to Spain with a lot of cultural items in my trolley, or maybe I’ll need to buy even a new trolley because I’ll be still trapped in this consumer and wasteful society.
Miguel Lopez
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)