Group items tagged

Here's my blurb: This website, hosted by the University of Houston, explores the educational uses of digital storytelling. The site contains practical information regarding different digital storytelling programs, and provides "how to" activities for writing scripts, designing storyboards, and recording audio. There is also lesson planning information, copyright information, and a discussion of rubrics for assessment and evaluation. Here's there blurb: About this Site The Goals of this Website The primary goal of the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website is to serve as a useful resource for educators and students who are interested in how digital storytelling can be integrated into a variety of educational activities.

If you do a digital storytelling project with your students, the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling site linked to a contest for K-12 students to submit their stories and win cool awards such as iPods and has contests for the best stories, and your students could potentially win awards, such as iPod Minis and iPod Nanos, and scholarships up to $8000. Pretty cool motivator, don't you think? Here's the link: http://www.distco.org/

For ESL, go to "Other Subjects" and see the ESL column. Some of the apps are free, others are not. Many are designed for younger learners.

Other websites for apps in general education (focus on mobile apps): http://www.iear.org/ (Reviews of education apps) http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/

Here is another website featuring apps in general education: http://ipadapps4school.com/

My blurb: Teacher training videos, for your ongoing professional development. These videos seems to be geared towards K-12 education and are on a variety of subjects. However, there are 391 videos about teaching English, some of those are TESL specific (I noted at least 3 on teaching Listening and Speaking skills). They also have 108 videos on teaching Modern Languages (mostly French and Spanish). Also, they have ideas for using technology in the classroom, under the "ICT" subject. For instance, they have a "Using web-based software to enhance speaking skills" video, and a "Flip Video Cameras" video. Their blurb: Education video resources, lesson plans, inspiration and ideas to use in classroom. Professional development, CPD and training for everyone working in schools.

From the site: Latest update 20th Jan 2013 - These are some of the best free internet resources for education. This page is constantly updated; every time I come across a new piece of software or an exciting website, I list it here. This list is not exhaustive in any way.

My blurb: I checked out this site based on Heidi Wright's recommendation. You do have to pay for a subscription, unfortunately, but the newspaper is very readable, the layout is nice, and it comes with teacher resources and activities. Heidi's blurb: I have just finished a research project on a ESOL suitable newspaper called Newsademic. I send my PPT to the company and they sent me a free subscription. They also sent me a link to pass on to friends so they can get a free two month subscription. For those of you beginning to teach or those going overseas, it is cool. The newspaper, which is written for 9-16 year old native English speakers, works with intermediate level and above (we have used articles in level 4 at PIE ) and covers lots of current international topics. No pop culture and intentionally balanced opinions. British or American edition available for spelling. The newspaper comes with two sets of exercises and is delivered every two weeks. The Flesch-Kincaid level runs from 6-11 with an average of 8.3 and the Lexile level runs from 860 to 1150 with an average of about 950-1020. You can make as many copies for your school as you want. To buy a year subscription is $32. Their blurb: Newsademic - a Children's newspaper used for educational resources, home schooling and English study

Here is another adult education newspaper. It includes grade-leveled articles (ranging from 3-12) written by adult students on topics relevant to adults. I have not personally used this resource, but I know it can be challenging to find relevant and engaging reading materials for adults who are learning to read. Like News for You, this newspaper provides audio files, which I have found to be a nice feature for literacy classes. The site suggests having students listen to short sections and then read them aloud to improve fluency. The newspaper is produced by the New England Literacy Resource Center.

This article discusses the different ways that you might use QR codes in the classroom. There is also a tutorial video explaining how to create qr code stickers that students scan to recall what homework they are assigned.

Free Rice is an online educational game. It can be used for many different subjects, including vocabulary and grammar. It's a fun way for students to practice their skills. To add a motivational twist, Free Rice donates a certain amount of rice for each correct answer. Because the vocabulary words and grammar structures are selected at random by the program, it wouldn't be a very effective learning tool. However, If the students worked in groups, they could learn new vocabulary together as they played, but I don't think this format would be possible with grammar. I think it would serve most useful as a fun way for more advanced students to review material.

Since Power Point has lost some it's wonder, especially among younger students, teachers can use Prezi, which is a similar tool used for giving presentations. Prezi is similar to Power Point, but it provides a new and interesting tool for students to explore. Presentations created using Prezi can also be published to the Prezi community for other users to see. This could take some of the hassle of the teacher having to load everyone's presentations before class because they are all available through a website instead. Personally, I find Prezi more confusing than Power Point. However, I haven't dedicated much time to learning how to use it properly. I'm sure if I educated myself on using it correctly it would be worthwhile.

A resource for free online English lessons and exercises. A place for learning English in class or at home! Grade school (K-12), General Educational Development (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL), and all interested in advancing their knowledge of the English language should be able to benefit from this website. We offer a large variety of accurate and concise skill building resources geared towards a range of ability levels. We hope you find our resources visually appealing, straightforward, easy to locate, and able to capture the essence of the English language. No registration is required to access these resources.

This site has many world languages and teaching/learning materials for these languages. English is one of them and there are many documents available. All the documents are peer reviewed and given stars so that you know how well these activities worked in the past.

This site provides a wealth of information about technology for classroom use, as well as current discussions about technology and resources for teachers. I think K-12 teachers should subscribe to the newsletter to stay informed about what's going on in the field. I've been skimming the site, and so far, I've come across interesting research about the use of games in the classroom, as well as serving diverse populations, like special Ed through technology. The strength of this site is it's breadth of topics, but the weakness appears to be the amount of time sorting through everything to find what you want.

A site that lets you create nice eportfolios using templates. Free for educators, but costs $10 per year for students. Still, the sample portfolios are very professional looking. Might be worth it, depending on the age and goals of your students.

This website provides articles and it is updated everyday. You can read articles about current topics that might concern some teachers. They also provide free resources and you can sigh-up for a free e-newsletter.

The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) is an organization that helps people create short, first-person narratives that educate and/or inspire positive change. The organization hosts a number of workshops on digital storytelling, and distributes stories in a number of traditional and media formats. The website provides information about the organization's mission, features selected digital stories, and connects to a textbook, blog, and newsletter. If you plan to include digital storytelling you your classroom, whether ESL or any other type of class, the CDC looks like a great resource. I was able to review portions of the textbook, and it looks great!

ProLiteracy has lots of student and teacher resources, but I'm posting a link to the page on using technology. I clicked on a few links and found some ideas for projects that incorporate technology. If you're looking for project ideas in an ABE or ESL program, you may find these links useful. There are also some basic "how-to's" with step-by-step instructions and screen shots that both teachers and students could use to build their technology skills. I have found creating "how-to's" for my students pretty time-consuming, so it's nice to have these available. Finally, there are audio downloads on topics such as using authentic materials and using everyday technology. For a teacher who feels a little uncomfortable using technology, I think these resources would offer some helpful suggestions.

This site has ideas, printable materials, discussion forums, and employment opportunities. It shows how to teach Film and Video, teach with the Internet, and using songs and music. You can sign up for free and download a limited amount of worksheets per month from www.education.com/worksheets. You can select by Grade or Subject. These are mostly useful for homeschoolers or in regular children's classrooms. It offers content-based ideas with integrated skills including conversation, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and Vocabulary. The Grammar is practiced in communicative settings. ESL PartyLand is a nice home base for Internet tools including up-to-date addresses for Dave's ESL Café, EF Englishtown, Kent's ESL Wonderland, On-line TOEFL Materials, and Randall's CyberListening Lab. It funnels all these sites into one page for easy reference. Other sites it observes as interesting include The All Music Guide, The Discovery Channel on-line, Earth Alert, and Lonely Planet On-line.

This is an excerpt from an International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) publication that shares some case studies and a lesson plan for employing cellphones in the classroom. Students use texting, blogging, QR codes, and call into a Talk Radio style voice blog (podcast/webcast kind of thing).

This is a great site for borrowing ideas that could help develop and supplement lessons. From the site: "These lessons are designed for adult ESL students at the intermediate and advanced levels. Students learn new vocabulary, and practice using it by looking at and describing portraits, landscapes, and narrative works of art."

I found this website is used by College of Education and many other institutes. It is like Bblearn, but different in the structure.