tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129004092024-03-07T16:26:41.264-08:00Tech4ESLbarrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-24049908674875808202011-12-21T09:56:00.000-08:002011-12-21T10:18:23.620-08:00Coffee, no cream - Scrambled Slide Show ProjectHere's a simple but very rewarding project that gives students a chance to practice pronunciation and transition words like "first," "second," "next," and "finally." Create a simple photo essay using Power Point or other slide show program demonstrating the steps of a process. Make each photo clear and distinct and put one photo on a slide. Don't add any text or timing. Scramble the order of barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-3358190588092015802011-03-23T08:54:00.001-07:002011-03-23T12:21:12.395-07:00A PowerPoint Project Idea From a StudentThis idea was generated completely by a student. I quickly made it a project for everyone! Students work with a list of new vocabulary words every week. My student Karla called me over to look at what she was doing. Turns out she had made a PowerPoint slide show featuring one word contextualized in a sentence and illustrated by an image. It turned out great. It's a simple idea with a lot of barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-20660007092258716122010-02-13T14:26:00.000-08:002010-02-13T14:33:23.591-08:00Using PowerPoint to Deliver Content Instruction or PracticeA very engaging way to introduce or practice vocabulary or grammar content is to use a series of images in a PowerPoint presentation. View the PowerPoint presentation below to see the way several ESL topics could be introduced or practiced. The presentation is just a sampler, with one or two slides demonstrating each type of activity. In practice, each topic would have anywhere from 10 to 20 barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-84494902476403944852010-02-06T14:56:00.000-08:002010-02-07T12:30:28.238-08:00Using Video Clips as Prompts for Conversation and Making PredictionsI was recently reminded of the importance of reading stories as a classroom exercise in terms of giving students the opportunity to make predictions about what will happen in the next part of the story to be read. The same can be done with video clips. The following three clips come from a car commercial. I play them in order for the whole class. The students work in groups. Each group has tobarrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-53071710121538357932009-12-27T12:21:00.000-08:002009-12-27T12:37:33.176-08:00Authentic Easy-to-Read Stories Online at the Toronto StarI was recently introduced to the "Acts of Kindness" series published weekly by the Toronto Star by a multilevel instructor who teaches in Canada. She noted that these true stories, submitted by readers of the newspaper, are very suitable for multilevel classes since they are short and often written in "easy" English. She has the students work in cross-ability groups with the stories in a barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-14634850806330820392009-11-26T21:33:00.001-08:002009-11-26T21:35:05.281-08:00How to download a YouTube (or other similar video) using Zamzar.comThere are probably several ways to download YouTube and other videos and save them to a DVD or flash drive. Basically, you'll just download them to your computer using converter software and then copy them to your flash drive or burn them using the DVD burning software on your computer.A free web-based converter can be found at www.zamzar.com (there are also more versions of the same software barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-369536015907738572009-09-04T08:58:00.000-07:002009-09-04T09:16:16.470-07:00www.webresizer.com for reducing image file size for online images.It's great to find a website that provides a service of use and works well-and for free! Web Resizer is one of those! Do you want to make sure that people who view your website aren't waiting long periods for your photos to load? This is especially true for teachers who post images of students or student projects or who have websites where students upload a lot of photos. Webresizer reduces barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-78101352820156013882009-04-11T18:42:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:46:57.753-07:00More from CLEAR-Use Viewpoint to easily create short videosA second free application from the Rich Internet Applications suite of programs from the Center for Language Education And Research of Michigan State University is called Viewpoint. Viewpoint allows you to create simple videos (using your own webcam and microphone) completely from within your web browser. The completed video is saved in your CLEAR account and accessible via a URL or is barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-70011563269383603332009-03-29T19:53:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:44:26.962-07:00TESOL report! Highlight - FREE AUDIO DROP BOXESThe great new website that I learned about at TESOL 2009 in Denver that I've already started to use (I created a practice speaking exercise for my students to use starting Monday.) is the "Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning" website created and developed by the Center for Language Education And Research at Michigan State University. Dennie Hoopingarner presented the free tools that barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-70264730028217113322009-03-25T08:50:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:17:52.405-07:00Free Rice UpdatesIf you haven't checked out the Free Rice web site for awhile, go back and look at the many new features. You can now earn free rice by answering questions on other subjects as well, including grammar and basic math! Click on the "subjects" tab at the top of the page to see a list of other topics.barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-32080344289605737152009-03-12T11:51:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:18:30.395-07:00When you want education fast!This was in today's Daily News. Don't blame the driver! He was just an overeager student following the directions on the sign...barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-54840606102005583552009-03-11T08:02:00.001-07:002009-03-29T21:20:15.060-07:00CUE 2009I just returned from the CUE (Computer Using Educators) conference this past weekend, and as usual, picked up several good ideas that I can start using right away in the classroom. My hands-on workshop didn't go as well as I would have liked because of the difference between the version of Microsoft Office that I use in the classroom (2003) and the version of Microsoft Office that was loaded on barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-18426887393940332012008-08-08T09:19:00.000-07:002009-03-29T21:20:41.235-07:00DFILM movies!Just a reminder that DFILM is a great way to have students practice writing! Here's a particularly nice example:barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-73742168579078202002008-07-31T10:45:00.001-07:002009-03-29T21:21:05.392-07:00Whoopee! Big Success With Student Downloads!It finally happened! A student with a Nokia phone with mp3 capability asked how he could save the mp3 files of me reading one of the stories to his phone so he could listen to them outside of the classroom! Here he is downloading the mp3 files from the class wiki to his phone!barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-38195481745406720752008-07-26T13:40:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:53:50.734-08:00Visualize Student Writing (or any writing) Artistically Using Wordle!Wordle is a clever new website (free)that lets you create artistic "word clouds" of any selected text or website. I'm not sure exactly how I'll use it in the ESL classroom but it's a lot of fun and beautiful too! Basically, you paste text or a URL into the site and it creates the word clouds automatically based on the frequency of the words appearing in the selected text. Here's one I made barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-13087271121034913882008-06-27T10:40:00.000-07:002008-06-27T10:43:12.299-07:00Easily transfering and/or making large files accessible to yourself or othersOn occasion, I've been blocked from sending Powerpoint presentations via email because they've been too large (file size) for either my email system or the recipient's email system to accommodate. I've had to chop them up into smaller pieces. I've just experimented with a free website that allows anyone to easily upload a file as large as 100MB for a specified period of time and receive a URL barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-90842178812029688162008-06-08T12:12:00.000-07:002008-06-09T17:16:00.071-07:00You can always learn something new!This past Friday, Paul Yung, a colleague in the Division of Adult and Career Education of LAUSD, co-presented with me in one of the monthly Technology Colloquium workshops that I organize and present. He presented techniques for using do-it-yourself multimedia for the first hour and I completed the session with simple ways to get your students to start using the Internet as part of the ESL barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-52659454724534683702008-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:002008-05-19T16:29:50.685-07:00Finding out about edZoneThe Spring issue of DataBus, a periodical of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association had an article by Alan Phillips of the Imperial County Office of Education about the California K12 High Speed Network that indicated that this California project would try to "encourage educators to utilize the latest web technology and tools, while simultaneously addressing concerns barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-52488353212487612112008-04-24T12:08:00.001-07:002009-03-03T16:26:20.709-08:00Trying out MyStudiyo.comI read a tip by Darcie Priester (a Classroom 2.0 member) about this website which allows you to create a quiz and embed it in your own blog or website. It's called Mystudyio and here is my first attempt at creating a simple quiz relating to a reading selection my students are assigned. Beijing and Shenandoah barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-7946867647499536022008-04-21T09:37:00.001-07:002008-04-23T15:58:59.254-07:00Inspired by CATESOL 2008I always try to implement at least one idea that I've seen at a conference within the first week after my return to the classroom. Sometimes it's more! The idea that I'm trying out came to me after attending the session on using PowerPoint presented by Beth Bogage and Jim Brice of San Diego Community College. Their workshop focused on having students prepare PowerPoint presentations enhanced barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-80817067339645480902008-04-12T13:47:00.000-07:002008-04-16T15:29:46.872-07:00CATESOL 2008I'm sitting here at the Pearson Longman booth with Naomi Sato and Carol Swanson teaching them how to make a blog post. I'm going to show them about wikis too! Visit my wiki for students at http://coasttocoast.pbwiki.combarrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-8178396648910631022008-04-02T11:26:00.000-07:002008-04-02T11:35:50.215-07:00Developments over at PageflakesMany of you know that I use Pageflakes for my class homepage on all of my classroom computers. Whenever any of my students open a browser on any of the classroom computers, the homepage is a Pageflakes "Pagecast" where they get daily assignments and links to the websites I want them to use regularly. Pageflakes co-founder Ole Brandenburg informs me that they're working on an adult content barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-55535910219309073852008-04-02T11:17:00.001-07:002008-04-02T11:24:26.681-07:00Hello from TESOL 2008 in NYCI'm pleased to report that my Pre-Conference Institute was well attended and well-received and that I've already been introduced to a new website that might be of interest to ESL teachers who like using Internet resources with their students. This website allows one to link to a YouTube or Google video and create a multiple choice quiz based on that video. It has promise, but of course, the barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-55169866435143623772008-03-11T13:15:00.001-07:002008-03-11T13:31:12.043-07:00What's Up Tigerlilly for ESL students-Bombay TVHere's a great idea by way of Larry Ferlazzo's "Best Ways" series! Bombay TV is a site where your students(and you too!) can have great fun with English. Basically, you caption real movie clips from Indian movies with your own comic lines. It's great fun for native and non-native speakers alike! Click on the link to see a sample:http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&barrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12900409.post-62794122207286621172008-01-31T13:54:00.001-08:002008-01-31T14:01:22.871-08:00A blog of noteDavid Warlick spoke in his blog about a blog and teacher he finds inspirational, so I thought I'd take a look at the blog. Konrad Glogowski is a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and writes about his experiences and the development of his ideas about blogging with his students. I was especially struck by how his ideas about his own rolebarrybhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00902514319218609559noreply@blogger.com0