Neat way to organize shared material

This posts aims to explore Pbworks page for organizing the content you find online or, in my case, the content teachers in our institution find and share.

We share a lot of material through Edmodo but as much as I love Edinho (loving nickname) it is not easy to find things we shared a long time ago. Even using the tags, the search takes too long.

So, I decided to take the best material teachers were sharing and store them in place that would be easy to find.

That idea comes from the principle that: in order to make any new department work, you have to lower the cost of the transaction as much as possible while you emphasize the benefits teachers will get from it.

The place I choose to organize our material is a wiki page called Pbworks.

When we talk about Wikis there are a lot of misunderstandings as people tend to think of .....

That is right: wikipedia and assume that is the only wiki page there is.

In fact, there are many others: pbworks, wetpaint, etc.

The other question a get a lot is: " But what does it do?"

It is similar to a blog but even more collaborative.

What I mean is that while in a blog only the owner can write posts, in a wiki all participants can post, edit and change  information.

Remember that the principles of a wiki are basically:

*Collaboration

*Knowlegde constructed by a group of people

I chose PBworks just because I had already exploited it and new a few things about the settings. It is NOT as intuitive as a blog but once you get the hang of it, things work smoothly. I promisse.

Tips: if you want a free site create more than one page and divide the material into them.

Why?

Because you only get 2Gb with each wiki and by using more than one you expand that limit considerably.

So, I created a wiki page for each group and then created another one - a Main Page- and stored the links to all the others pages. That way, teachers would have ONE place that would lead them to all the others coursebook wikis.

This is our main wiki: CCBEU GOIANIA

For every wiki there is a Host or Hostess(created using Voki) that will tell the user where he should click to find what he/she is looking for.

The links are right in the Front Page.

So, when they click on Class Wikis they will be directed to.....

There they can find all the content divided in to the courses we teach.

Let's suppose they want to access the material of Junior, whose coursebook is American Adventures.

While the CCBEU Goiania wiki is available to anyone, the coursebook wikis are password protected.

This way we make sure only the staff has acess to the material stored there.

In the Front Page of the class wiki, teachers will find Links, Videos, Quizlets and Online Exercises,  that can be used as a lead-in, assigned as homework or even to practice the content in class.

The other section of the wiki is the Files. I've selected the best material we shared to store in each unit.

As these wikis are not open to everyone, I recorded a tutorial showing teachers how to log in and how to find what hey are looking for,

Another tutorial showing how to explore it:

Integrating Technology in CCBEU: Before and After

  Our technology department is recent but some the changes are huge.
  For example:  In the past we had 2 groups of teachers- who were completely opposites.

Now these opposites are starting to attract.

                               

 What I mean is: the group who used technology were seen as a group who didn't understand a a lot about methodology and the group who didn't use were seen as not updated.

 Now we have teachers who weren't used to e-boards, getting excited about their possibilities. We also have e- teachers starting to have questions about the usage of technology while delivering  student-centered classes.

 That is exciting to any Tech Department and for that matter, technology has already been a positive change: to light up a fire for discussing what is the most important thing in all the process : authentic learning experiences.

Another thing that has changed is our communication.

Before we used e-mail and now :

  Edmodo has changed the way we share, make announcements, talk. It is where we find people who have the same worries, struggles, feelings that we do.
  I'll tell you: effective communication is the key to so many things.
 
  So, it is not perfect and we still have a lot of work ahead but things are looking up and I'm confident about what we have accomplished so far.

Have you ever for experiences using Episode of Friends

I was watching Friends the other day and this scene has a lot of Present Perfect to be exploited.
Check it out:



First I thought about asking them questions about the video.
I prepared an activity which will allow the students to formulate the questions in a more controlled practice.

Have you ever for experiences using friends

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Then, we can have students underlining the sentences where they see HAVE or HAS + Participle for experiences.

Underline all Present Perfect examples as you listen.


Ross: So they said our table will be ready in just a few minutes.

Kristen: Oh great!

Ross: Yeah.

Kristen: Is your back feeling better?

Ross: Oh yeah it’s fine. I guess the more muscles you have the more they can spasim out of control.

Joey: (entering) Kristen?

Kristen: Joey!

Joey: Hi!

Kristen: Hi! What are you doing here?

Joey: Oh I like this place. And technically, technically I’m not breaking any rules so I…

Kristen: Well uh, Ross? This is Joey. Joey? Ross.

Joey: Hi!

Ross: Hi. (They shake hands.) It’s nice to meet you. I used to have a friend named Joey. I don’t anymore.

Kristen: Our table will be ready in a couple minutes.

Ross: Yeah. So…

Joey: Sure! I would love to wait with you guys! Thanks! (Sits down.)

Ross: So Joey umm, you look familiar. Are uh, are you on TV or something?

Kristen: Well Joey doesn’t like to talk about it but, he’s one of the stars of Days Of Our Lives.

Ross: That’s right! That’s right, don’t you play a woman?

Joey: A woman in a man’s body.

Ross: Much better.

Joey: So y’know Ross it’s funny ‘cause, you look familiar to me too. Have you ever been married?

Ross: Well yes, yes I have. In fact umm, just the other day Kristen and I were talking about how I’ve been married and how I have a son.

Kristen: Yeah, little Eric.

Ross: That’s right! Wait no, Ben.

Joey: So you’ve just married the one time then?

Ross: Well umm…

Kristen: You’ve been married twice?

Ross: Yes. And another time after that. Boy I’m getting hungry! Hey Joey, have you ever been so hungry on a date that when a girl goes to the bathroom you eat some of her food?

Kristen: You said the waiter ate my crab cake.

Joey: (laughs that one off) Yeah. So uh Ross, well now—why did that first marriage breakup? Was it because the woman was straight or she was a lesbian?

Kristen: Do you two know each other?

Joey and Ross: No. No.

Joey: No. It just seems like Ross is the kind of a guy that would marry a woman on the verge of being a lesbian and then push her over the edge.

(Kristen is not enjoying this.)

Ross: Wait a minute! Were you on a poster for gonorrhea?

Joey: Have you ever slept in the same bed as a monkey?!

Ross: Hey you leave Marcel out of this!

Joey: Fine! Have you ever got stuck in a pair of your own leather pants?!

Ross: Hey-hey have you ever locked yourself in a TV cabinet VD boy?!

Joey: Monkey lover!

(They both notice that Kristen has left.)

Joey: When do you think we lost her?

Ross: Probably around gonorrhea.

Finally, we can ask students to role play a similar situation: they work in pairs to come up with embarassing questions to their friends using Present Perfect:  Have you ever...?

Surprise

  Today I got a great surprise from Camila: two awards for Words and Ideas.

It was lovely to receive it but mostly I was happy to get to know Camila's blog which is beautiful and has an incredible name: 2 teach is 2 touch lives 4 ever.

  Isn't it true?

So....The rules are:

1.Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog.

2. Pass on the award to 5-10 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great!

3. Contact the other bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for this award.
4. Say 7 things about yourself.

 7 things people might not know about me

1. I adore animals and go crazy when I see or hear stories about abuse and mistreat.

2. I'm a rock and roll kind of girl.

3.My friends are very important to me.

4. I have a total irrational fear of flying.

5. My poisons are: coffee and the web.

6. I enjoy routine but I am strangely  always changing everything around and in me.

7. I try to be tough but I'm a sucker for  displays of affection and romantic gestures.


Camila, Thank you so much.

Creativity in class and in life

-You  have to be creative!!!!!
Yeah....right. As if creativity is something we could just turn on and off whenever we want.

 It doesn't happen that way.
 Before I used to get "blocked" quite often,  just staring at my lesson plan page for a long time before having an inspiration to  write something down.

 That inspiration thing is also something to think about.
 I've heard authors who I admire profoundly saying that is mostly about hard work rather than inspiration.
 "More transpiration, less inpiration".

 Creativity is important not only in class as we currently live in a fast paced, changing world. In a world where traditional methods don't seem to work any more and we are constantly facing problems that are completely new.
 There is another factor which is technology.
 Being an edtech teacher forces you to explore the unknown and broaden your options. It also connects you with incredibly talented teachers who stimulates your brain on regular basis.

 We know it is important to be creative but is it possible to stimulate it?

As my skills as a teacher began to develop, as I got  more secure about choices I had to make ,as I become more aware of human's personality, I started to feel my classes were more innovative.

I am no expert but speaking from my own experience, I think that in order to stimulate your mind to think "outside the box" we have  to first:

* Stop undermining our NEW ideas.
Maybe it is because we are insecure, maybe it has something to do with the unknown and unexplored but whenever something new pops up, our mind tends to immediatley over think it, over criticize it and most of us end up disregarding that new thought that was about to be born.

* Connect to people:
I feel suddenly energized when I am near engaged, motivated teachers. I also feel the exact opposite when I'm around teachers with negative thinking.
Sharing ideas, experiences, worries stimulates our brain and allows us to step away from patterned thinking.
It is refreshing to hear a teacher sharing something you have never even thought about.
Taking up the previous tip: don't be afraid to explore it.

* Look at the big picture
I am always saying this to teachers "Run as fast as you can from your comfort zone". I say that because I believe teaching is a dynamic process and we are constantly challenged to explore new horizons.

* Take risks
 Answer me fast: Who are the best learners in class? Who are the students who develop more in our groups?
I'm sure we all agree that are the students who take more chances, who expose themselves more often, who takes risks, who aren't afraid of making a mistake.
As professionals we can't randomly do whatever we want. We have to be cautious, prudent but we can not avoid taking risks.
 Calculate them, give our best try and if they don't work......At least you learned something new.
 Language classes always require a good sense of humor. Enjoy that!

You know what thay say:
"Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from."

When we reach for the top of the box, when we are willing to look there and see what might there be outisde,  we take a huge risk:
                                            to

     fall out to the other side and never ever feel like entering it again.