A new videoblogging tool

Vacations are a great thing, aren't they. Well, after working really hard correcting tests and and filling out forms, it is good to find some free time to explore the web. Check out this new video blogging tool I have come across. It is called Wink Ball. It looks promising. What do you think?

I know I could look and sound better. Everything for the sake of testing and playing.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

Posting compositions to blogs

 

After sometime using the internet to help my students learn English, there are some things I have noticed that make me move to the blended learning path. One of the things that I saw was that as students use computers to write classroom assignments, they enhance their skills in computer usage. Before blogging in English, they do not know much about how to write a paragraph or even what to indent a paragraph is. Besides that, I have also realized that many of them continue using small letters for some words that should be capitalized. Many would say that the latter mistake is not related to computer use but to the way feedback on written work has been given, however, I think using a word processor makes the mistakes more visible. Finally, I have also realized that having students posting compositions on blogs make them more aware of readership and, as a consequence, they make an extra effort to improve their writing.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

A Simple Song

I have just found this video on You Tube. This is really a nice simple song.

Blogging in the classroom : A window of opportunity

As all my readers know, I have been blogging for sometime. However, I would like to point out that I really do not know everything about blogging. As my dear friend Carla Arena said "There is no recipe on how to blog."

My first impressions when I discovered blogging were as if a window, better a large door, had oppened in front of my eyes. I saw and still see blogging as a great opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with my students. Better still, I see it as an opportunity for them to have conversations among themselves and with people outside the classroom walls.
Bloging in class has allowed me to see how gifted my students are in many areas. It opened my eyes to see and discover things about them that I would not have discovered otherwise. And I am sure it gave them opportunities to make discoveries and to get skills that are useful for them in the present and that will certainly be very helpful in their future.

The picture I chose also shows, in my opinion, that blogging is also challenging. There are lots of possibilities, but sometimes they are not so easy to visualize. We have to open the door and walk the blogging path with our students. It is a big challenge to keep the conversation going. We teachers have to teach our students how to comment, we have to talk about the importance of replying to comments, and so on.

Posted via email from joseantoniook's posterous

The energy of a good class

I was just thinking about the feelings or the sensation you have when you are giving a good class. I think the idea of flow explains this feeling. According to Csíkszentmihály “Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity” Being in class with your students is like dancing to a contagious rhythm . So connecting flow, music, the sensation I have during and after a good class, I decided to share this song that for me, at least, translates the sensation of flow.

Posted via email from joseantoniook's posterous