Songbook (1)

U2 LYRICS

"One"

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now 
You got someone to blame
You say...

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you 
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's...

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to 
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we 
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to 
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One

I've taught this song to K9-12.

It can be used for listening speaking (singing :) and reading activities. Learners can create word clouds.

The teacher can cut out the lyrics and have students rearrange those in groups.

3-D Learning

I cannot believe week 10 is drawing to a close!

Donna, you've given us an unforgettable experience and I thank you for it!

I think the course made us explore our creativity, allowed us to play as learners should, yet gave us set basics for this purpose.

The tech tools were diverse and intriguing and the ABCD Model contributed immensely to my teaching procedures.

I will definitely continue using Wordle, Tagxedo, Textivate and Quizlet - for word clouds, chunk teaching, etc. Tools I've acquired and plan to use are: Zunal, Webquest, Questgarden and Padlet.

I already know blogger and will definitely incorporate it into writing sessions. Another tool I will continue using is PPT. Eventhough it's not as innovative  as the others, I think it still proves to be very efficient for all purposes, such as: PBL and quizzes.

Voki is a great way to enhance all 4 skills as learners interact.

Larry Ferlazzo's edublog is wonderful for discovering new sites and Susan Gaer's site and articles are informative and practical.
I have been using onestopenglish and bogglesworld in k-12 and these have helped me in my lesson planning.

ANVILL was a great learning experience for me, and I will try it soon.

Other tools I will use are: those mentioned in Noodletool and Edmodo.

I am fascinated by Pinterest. Eversince I came across this wonderful visual cloud I found new ways for creating and demonstrating new things, and most of all, for getting my learners involved.

Just like the song: "It's a small world after all" I found new friends in our wiki group and hope to foster our friendship.

L.

Mind Frames

Hi Everyone!

Gardner invented such a wonderful garden of Multiple Intelligences.
His theories allow us to bond with our students.
Defining learning styles is not an easy task. Usually, learners possess combined forms. Yet, as much as learners are diverse, they all have more in common than we care to think. As teachers, our job is to create for them the optimal learning facilities which will motivate them and basically connect them to their own creativity and likes.
Reality not always enables us to do so, therefore, as teachers, we have to rely on our own creativity to tackle this challenge.
If we want to create a productive learning process, we have to explore our learning styles and learn about ourselves.
Richard Felder's article is also thought-provoking.
I took the Edutopia quiz, which was fun and informative. I think learners might enjoy taking it, since it is a very active, individual tool, but they can also discuss it in class and later, create their own quizzes and surveys.
Thanks to Jeff, we've learned about ANVILL. This allows us to use Audio and Video in a very effective and simple way. As teachers it is so great that someone thought how to make our lives easier!
The only thing I know is that I have to allot a separate time slot for learning about this fascinating subject. I will definitely use it for lesson planning and interacting with my class, but I feel I need first some practice on it.
I've also found some great stuff at Edutopia for PBL - the links are great and I'm planning to use them.

L.

Teacher Resources Online

As a teacher, this is the part I like.

Bringing a curriculum to life through online exercises is fun!

I enjoyed creating the Padlet exercise about Bill Gates. I think I could add a comparison with Steve Jobs for critical thinking.

The online tools were great, though some of them need signing in. 

I enjoyed reading  colleague work. It seems we're working hard and getting results.

My class is having fun at the computer lab and I intend to extend it. Padlet is proving to be a great way of connecting with the kids and they seem to like the creative side of it.

The project report and checklist were a bit time consuming but I've learned  quite a lot working on them.

Thank you Donna and Ency for making the second half of the week a treat!

L.

(Pad) Let them!

Hi Everyone!

Week 7 is almost over.  I've learned quite a lot these past few weeks and these last days I really enjoyed the course.
Nicenet has proved to be an important way for communicating.
I think it's great that the topics in this course are immediately implemented and we grow as learners.
Padlet is a fast-forward tool, helping us turn even the one-computer classroom into a fun-zone.
The process is as important as the end and so we learn to learn. Learners find meaning while exploring and their contribution is vital.
When we, as teachers, also become Autonomous Learners, we discover that by using our curiosity and responsibility, ideas are connected to form, through an effective process. In reference to the first linguistic metaphors, knowledge is not only necessarily poured from a jug, but created and redefined in a collective process.
Our class PBL is going great, and with some guidance, my students are showing progress whilst having fun.
I have been writing in the log and look forward to working with them next week on some other tools.

Awaiting Week 8,

L.

Trig 101

Hi readers and fellow classmates,

I don't  know what about you, but I found this week difficult.
Somehow, the PPT task took over. I learned a lot from the readings and clips, yet the work was tedious.

The articles and what you wrote on Nicenet reinforced my beliefs that triggering and engaging students are crucial in the learning process, especially in larger classes.


My student's PBL will be based on http://www.tagxedo.com/
and then they will work on their own stories on a storyboard creator.

Based on what we did so far this week, my class will "play" with their text, using different fonts and colors. This will be done on a text that was read in class and for a post activitiy they will be doing some peer assessment and a "Show and Tell".

This week was definitely insightful and I hope to continue this voyage,

L.

Focus on Learning

My tech days are  comprised of experiments. As new types of learning require new types of assessment, I find myself being inspired by the websites I'm familiar with already and those which are new to me.

My students enjoy diversified lessons and once they're taken to the computer room they emerge as responsible creative learners helping their peers and enjoying the process. 
When I design Performance-Based Tasks for the computer room, I always precede them with an enabling activity, for instance, before teaching them a lesson on the "Hall of Fame" song, they were to guess or talk about the concept: "Hall of Fame".
I first conducted a brainstorming activity and then gave them the lyrics and we went over the vocabulary.

Then, at the computer lab, they were asked to watch the song clip and answer questions on a file handout. Then – in groups, they decided how they will present the song in class. Since they really like singing and performing, this was a welcomed challenge.
In such a Learner- centered classroom, students are free to work at their own pace.
The authentic song, with which some of them were familiar, enabled me some flexible mentoring and guiding for evaluating their work and correcting them.
I usually approach each and every one of them to check their progress and assist them.

PBL works great with my student population for oral and written skills.
I can set rubrics and they can know ahead what they're expected to do.
Again they know they'll be evaluated inclusively, therefore the pressure is off, their motivation increases and their performance will improve.

Some of my recommended websites for PBLTasks:

http://www.colorincolorado.org/ - great for reading skills

www.ldonline – for working with the learner-disabled

www.readwritethink – similar to the first site, with numerous activities

www.brainpop.com – many ideas on many subjects

http://www.isabelperez.com/ - CALL methodology, links, songs and grammar

www.aesopsfables.com – great listening and reading activities, including lesson plans

http://www.schrockguide.net/ - great assessing and rubric tools, great lesson plan ideas

www.scholastic.com

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/ -– great clipart, check out their "Puzzlemaker"
http://www.timeforkids.com/  - need I say more?

One more way to have a pre- activity for PBL is to take them on a field trip. Some years ago I had worked in High School with LD learners.
We used to take them to an outdoor mall near school where their task was to read the signs in English. Then we discussed in class the possibilities for using some of the vocabulary we saw (authentic material) to produce a written/oral presentation (i.e.: a
T-shirt, a slogan, a sales pitch).
Students who write well can do a comic life strip about their own world using templates and rubrics. They can help their less -skilled friends in pair and group work.

I also think that biographies are an interesting topic. You can easily find materials on biography. com,   History Channel or learning media. My students have written about Walt Disney and Neil Armstrong. Ilan Ramon was the Israeli astronaut who perished in space and I have asked them to write about both astronauts – thus, HOTS and critical thinking were used, by comparing and contrasting.

WebQuests are truly great for students to quench their thirst for curiosity.
This encourages them to read but they are not even aware of the reading process and they can find a great many links and ideas.
 Zunal. WebQuest and Questgarden are wonderful. There are nice rubrics for "webquesting".

If we are to allow more learning – we have to give our students more autonomy.
Assessment can be based on holistic, formative, summative and analytic tools, but we have to bear in mind each and every student's needs.



I hope to learn much more next week,

L.

Getting Your Class Connected

Hi

The Internet is a plethora of learning materials. As teachers we need only dive in and instruct our students to join us. We can use it for writing E-mails, creating Web Pages and class websites, and much more.
The sea of resources for reading and writing practice is never ending.

Getting connected means also learning from both teachers and classrooms from all over the world. There are many live interconnected lessons happening just as I write.

I have been using ads from New York magazines for years in K-12 and beyond. I believe this is where Learners apply their critical thinking to compare and contrast a few ads. It is also a visual tool. On the Internet we as teachers can access this tool to provide authentic materials for our students.
I have been using The Learning Network from the New York Times website on many occasions.
When students are asked to describe in writing, or review a book,  a film, a festival or a ceremony, they use combined learning skills. They can "visit" a theater/movie website, read a review, watch a short clip on Youtube or even take virtual trips around the globe and describe destinations. They can then "land back" in their country or hometown and write about it.
E-Books are a wonderful way for Audio-Visual Learning. They can be adapted for younger EFL Learners and later used in class weblogs. Story map is a great way of using graphic maps in the-based  LD EFL classroom. Mei Ya Ling ("3 Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-Books") provides good links for this.
I think with Remedial Teaching it is best to dedicate at lease two sessions for each writing task, but bare in mind the attention span factor and try to diversify activities.
Internet-based Literature can be used by learners as a post-activity. They can show and teach the stories to younger relatives, reenact these stories in class, using vocabulary they have learned and even create simple stories in writing (with or without illustrations) and speaking. Thus they practice English outside the classroom. There is a back and forth process going on, involving not only teachers and students, but also the entire community through the kids' oral skills (teaching others what they've learned through web reading and thus getting a sense of higher motivation and confidence) and writing and publishing on the web.
This is not to say we'll forget about real books and putting pen to paper. We have an English Book Club at School and an extensive library.
Technology should be used soundly and with pedagogic scaffolding in mind.
I believe students should use the keyboard as one of their main learning tools and become active learners.

If we as teachers learn to combine old and new,  and do it well we'll soon be  stepping into a "New World" where students will actually have fun learning English.

So let's  enjoy the ride,
Liat

Delicious Third Week

Hi!

This week was a lot of fun.

Although we've read some serious stuff,  both articles and websites inspired me to explore further on the Internet and gave me numerous new ideas on how to engage students and get their creativity going.

I have been using authentic materials for many years. I was blessed with English Speaking volunteers who add various accents, thus my class was able to enjoy both their authentic stories and listen to different pronunciations.

Since I enjoy writing and creativity I try to use it in my lessons and this week provided me with a gamut of tools.

A new micro- world through the computers enables both me  - as a teacher, and my students, to participate in an entertaining process of Second Language Learning.

Awaiting Week 4,

Yours,
L.

The Sound of Tech

Hi Everyone!
The Course tasks this week meant busy reading and writing for all of us.
The articles on Learning Objectives were very informative.
Web Search tools gave me a chance to explore new grounds and come across a few which were already familiar.
I think this is a great opportunity to use a few in my classroom, since I sometimes teach through songs, and so far have been using mainly Youtube for this purpose.

Have a great weekend.

Hi everyone! 

Very excited to start my new blog.

I love teaching and travelling - so here's the place where you'll read about both.

I've been teaching  students at all levels, for the past ten years. 

 I go by the saying: "Students are my best teachers". I've learned quite a lot from each and every one of them and have always tried to incorporate this information in my lessons. 

I think as teachers we should try to be the best caterers, tailors, "imaginarians"/magicians, mentors and good listeners.

Happy travelling!