Month: September 2015

by

How has ‘girlie’ blogging informed my edu blogging?

Hi guys, this post is going to be short (yeah right!) and sweet!. I have been beauty (?) and let’s say girlie blogging for about ten days now and I have learnt a few things I did not know, so I am going to share them with you.

Sharing your stuff

Beauty/ lifestyle bloggers share their posts a lot. If you follow me on Twitter (@joannacre) you know that I , too, tweet a zillion timeswhen I write a blog post! They suggested I use a website called Buffer, and now I do and it has changed my  social media life (hm, let’s not go there….). Anyhow, buffer allows you to schedule your tweets (that’s what I am interested in), and then you don’t have to go on to Twitter to share your stuff manually. I am now scheduling my zillions of Tweets and saving time.

Photos

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that my pictures are boring, not that grand. Because my vision is not that fantastic either, I have difficulty taking nice pics. Again, the beauty bloggers suggested I use Picmonkey, and I am, and I really like it. It is so easy to use (if I can use it, anyone can use it).

But, I was having difficulty with the colours and I tweeted them saying I don’t know what colours I am using (cause I am colourblind), they tweeted me back and sent me a video tutorial (very quickly). They also suggested I look into hex codes. Hex codes?

Hex codes are codes that have been made for colours, so you type in the code, and then you get the colour. Even WordPress uses hex codes when you are designing the header. In order to be able to understand hex codes though, I needed a website that named the colours, and offered the hex codes. I found this great blog which will be linked below and now I know my colours!!

Facebook groups

Their Facebook groups are different to the ELT ones I am a member of. They have promo days during which you are encouraged to read and leave comments on other people’s blog posts. There is a lot of engagement.

Social media

I have pinterest now and bloglovin and I am getting traffic from those websites as well.

Affiliate links

I became a member of Amazon associates, so if I talk about a product and someone wants to buy it from amazon, I get a bit of money (cents). If they don’t, then that’s fine. I clearly mark a product if there is an affiliate link!

piece of art

So, these are a few things I have learnt during the ‘launching’ of my 2nd blog. Why a second blog? I talk about planning, beauty, and stuff I am interested in and cannot share here. If you want to check it out, it will be linked below.

So, have a great weekend everyone!! If you have any cool software tips, please let me know.

LINKS

Name my colour (hex codes)

Buffer

Picmonkey

My new blog: my pink rambles

Till next time…….

by

Girlie side of ELT post 9: Teacher stickers for your lesson plans/planners :)

As I have said before, I like planning. One of the fads I am really enjoying at the moment is decorative planning   ❤ . I do not go to extremes, but I do use stickers on my planner from time to time cause it is fun, crafty and relaxing (huh? Yeap!). So, today I am going to share with you Anna’s story. Anna is from Sweden. She has an Etsy store called FruVesasPrintables. Etsy stores are where lots of people go to buy planner printables or stickers. We had an online chat about her jounery and how she got involved in planner stickers and printables. So let’s see what she says!

My chat with Anna

Hi Anna! Thanks for agreeing to this interview and let me start by saying I love you stickers and I am really excited to share some with my readers.

So, Anna tell me how did you get involved in making stickers?

I got started in this community about 1,5 years ago when I started my economic university program online. I realised I needed to plan hard to make sure I was accountable and got the work done. I searched high and low here in Sweden for a cute planner since everyone knows a cute one helps :). That’s when I found Kikki K and Erin Condren and the whole decorated planner community. I fell in love, but I quickly realised that international shipping would kill my student wallet, so I started buying printables on Etsy.

After a while, I started to realise that some of the things I wanted, I couldn’t find, so I started to make my own printables.  I shared some of them in the Facebook groups I was involved in and got some great feedback. I then realised that it was tons of fun to make sticker printables, so I looked into starting my own Etsy shop to expand my income, because study loans aren’t much to live on when you have children.

When did you open your own shop?

I took the plunge late June this year and I love it! I have since taken a break from my studies to get a job and study on the side. Since the shops going rather good, I am in the making of starting my own company to be able to keep the shop running long-time. The tax laws here in Sweden demands it and it’s a nervous but a happy time.

Anything for teachers at your store?

At the moment, I don’t have anything teacher specific, but I have an idea list I am constantly making longer… 🙂 (a surprise is coming your way at the end of this post lovely readers  🙂 )

How do you plan your weeks/life?

Right now I use a printable week on 2 pages printable from an Etsy seller in my Kikki K for my overall planning. I also have a horizontal Erin Condren I was going to use, but I now use it as a journal which I decorate with patterns and fun stuff. In my regular planner, I mostly use functional stickers because I am more of a functional girl than I am a decorative one 🙂

Anna's planner

Anna’s planner

Where can we find you?

I have an Instagram associated with the shop @fruvesasprintables and the Etsy shop’s address is fruvesasprintables.etsy.com (click the link to check out her store).

anna

Anna

Freebie 🙂

Anna kindly suggested to make a freebie printable for you. All you need to  do is get adhesive paper (A4 sticker paper), adjust your printer to photo or good quality printing, print your stickers, and join me on this decorative planning journey!!  The stickers have butterflies, books, pencils and paper clips and are very student/teacher friendly. You can stick them in your planners/ on your lesson plans or give them to students and ask them to write their to do lists (I will). They are really, really pretty. Thanks Anna so much    <3.

Teacher stickers

Press the link below to get the planner stickers :). So pretty :).

Download the printable here (press the link below)

icm_fullxfull.68720890_oovjdmdphlww0o4cwoko

Let me know if you like this post. It originally appeared on my second blog www.mypinkrambles.com. If you like the stickers, share them!

Talk soon and happy decorative planning!

by

Book Review: Presentation Lesson Hacks and some hacks for the EAP classroom

Phil Wade was kind enough to send me a copy of his book Presentation Hacks Book. I also read Helen Waldron’s post about the book and it is excellent ,so I started panicking. What can I add? Phil suggested writing a review/post about which hack I would use in the EAP class and voila. Here it is.

Using the book Presentation Lesson Hacks in my EAP classroom

Phil talks about various hacks that can be used to improve the learners’ presentation skills. Before we see which hacks can be used, let’s see what Phil means by hacks. They are:

activities at the micro-skill level designed to engage the students to raise awareness of their current abilities and to help become more productive in a low stress, engaging, student-centred and encouraging environment. The hacks are like short-cuts or back doors to gaining better presentation skills and becoming a real presenter rather than just someone who repeats memorised phrases or reads off a tablet or sheet. Presentation hacks incorporate teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student, pair and group activities as well as single student work, reflection and mental preparation. All of these are aimed at hacking the problems and weaknesses students have.

                                                                                                     (Wade, 2015)

Among the hacks Phil mentions, the ones that stand out to me and have relevance to my context, have to do with Voice (these are in the Body chapter or Phil’s book). In EAP, most of the students are international students who have a different L1, they often have difficulty with pronunciation, intonation and stress patterns (I call all these micro skills voice). My students are usually Asian and when Asian students present, their intonation seems to be, for the majority, quite flat, and they often sound quite ‘robotic ‘. Intonation is what I will focus on.

Intonation hack

Phil has a great idea for a hack that can address intonation. First of all, it is necessary to elicit students understanding of different intonation patterns.So, it is a good idea to practice a word like ‘really” with rising and falling intonation.  Then, the teacher can draw a line on the board and ask students to draw another line which goes up, down, or up and down depending on the intonation the teacher used when saying something. This will allow students to actually visualise the intonation pattern. After drawing different intonation patterns, the teacher and the students can discuss which one is the best in each circumstance! I am definitely going to use this hack next time I am teaching intonation to my pre-sessional students.

For more information about Phil’s book and how to order go to  smashwords!

cover

Happy teaching everyone!!

Till next time……

by

T+T0=P: Time Management Problems when Teaching Online

Time management when teaching online can be a bit tricky, so I thought I’d write a post about it (after Demmy suggested it of course!). I have a few suggestions to make time management more ‘manageable’. Let’s start by discussing what I mean by ‘time management problems’. As I see it, there are two types of time management problems.

Problem  number one

You cannot manage your time effectively online during the lesson, and you end up not doing what you had planned to teach.

Problem number two

You thought online teaching would ensure a better quality of life, meaning that you would have time to spend at home, and you would be a freer teacher. Instead, you are still working all day. Online or offline, you are struggling to find time, and 24 hours are not enough!

Now, let’s move on. Time to have a look at what kind of issues may affect your time management as an online tutor, and make suggestions on how to alleviate these problems.

Too many Notes and Things to share with the learners

  • Try to make folders of the material you use and try to use your material as often as you can. If, for instance, you teach grammar mostly, make docs for all the grammar points and then keep using over and over (theory docs). I, for example, have conversational lessons that are based on articles. I have a folder with the articles and word docs with tasks which are based on them. It takes time to make this folder and if you are new at online teaching this will take forever, but you can use it over and over after time. In a nutshell, just make folders and save all your stuff. You need to be very organised!!
  • If you have PPT slides, turn them into word documents and type comments under the slides. There is also a note-taking option when you choose to print a PPT. If you want, you can tell your learner to print the slides before the lesson and tell them to make handwritten notes of things you ask them to write down (in this case PPT slides need to be sent prior to the lesson).
  • Have you thought of having a generic lesson note template which you use over and over again? Do you have a doc of general feedback you can copy paste onto different documents to different learners? This generic feedback doc will save you loads of time!Again, you go to your grammar theory doc for example (the one I mentioned earlier) and you copy paste the theory or your notes and then you add more comments.  Be careful though, do not make notes of every single mistake your learner makes.This is very important!  You could say, when you first get a learner, that you will be sending them feedback notes with X number of grammar/vocabulary points and Y number of phonology/pronunciation errors. This learner/ teacher feedback notes agreement will save you time, will keep your feedback shorter, and will make your learner more conscious!! They need to take notes as well!!

Have to send too many documents/upload stuff

  • Get a learner’s management system  or a Wiki where your learner goes and sees everything uploaded. Remember the grammar theory document I mentioned earlier? If you have a website with this info already uploaded, you can direct your learner there.

Tech problems that cause you to be online/offline

  • Have a good internet connection. Nothing else.

Lesson planning problems that are affected by tech problems etc.

  • The solution here is quite easy. Chuck your lesson plan if you were beaten by the ‘tech’ beast, or be more generous with your task timing. The more flexible you are, the easier it will be to cope with your lesson plan going down the drain.

Distractions at home

  • Have a designated area in a room (like a study) where you teach. Door should be closed and don’t have phones next to you unless it is extremely necessary ( I often take the phone off the hook when I am teaching online).

Online distractions

  • This is a no brainer, when you teach online, have everything else, all other websites, closed. Yeap, Facebook is great, but it may distract you when you are teaching and you will forget what you were talking about.

Final tip: Remember to multi-task. If your learner is reading an article or writing a short text online, you can be making lesson notes.

I hope these suggestions help you to save a bit time. Just keep in mind, teachers are all wired in a way that makes them work or think about work 24/7. Happy teaching!!!

Feel free to leave a comment on how you save time when teaching online. Follow this blog via mail, WordPress or Bloglovin if you found it helpful and want to keep reading my posts. There is also a Facebook page on the side bar you could ‘like’. Enough with the self-promo. Thanks for stopping by.

clock

Till next time……

//

by

Random teaching idea: Loo roll

Let me start by saying that i  ❤ this title (haha).Vicky, a colleague,  shared this idea and I am going to try it with my learners. Before I try it though, I thought I’d share it with you guys cause maybe you will think of a twist or two, share it in the comments section, and then this idea may turn out to be the teaching idea of the century… and it all starts with loo roll.

Context

Level: elementary and over

Skills: listening and speaking

Individual then group work.

Material needed

Toilet paper

Process

You give the loo roll to your learners and ask them to cut as much as they want. They do. You then tell them that each piece of toilet paper corresponds to X minutes of speaking about Y subject. I for example, am going to say that each piece of toilet paper is 2 minutes of speaking about summer holidays. Once all the students have their pieces of toilet paper, give them time to plan what they will talk about!!

BUT…. (things to consider)

  • What happens if a learner takes too much paper? You should set a limit. Say, ” You can take up to 4 pieces”. Also do a bit of math. Your ‘loo roll’ timing will depend on the number of students you have.
  • What will the other learners be doing while each student is talking about his/her holidays? Good point! Put your students in groups of four after they have taken their pieces of toilet paper. Tell them that they need to take notes of what their classmates did, and then see if,as a group, any members did the same things (something like a mini-survey), then tell each group that they will use this information to give a little presentation to the rest of the class.

Once you have done this with your class, you probably won’t be able to do it again cause your students will know what the loo roll really means!!

Happy teaching!! Oh!! Do share any ideas that may be a bit on the ‘wacky’ side, but have worked 🙂 If you can think of anything else that could be part of the ‘loo roll’ task, let me know in the section below. Feel free to comment in the section below and share if you like this post  🙂

loo roll

Till next time….

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

by

#Augustfavourites 2015

Time for #Augustfavourites, but unfortunately August was sooooooo busy that I didn’t read that many blog posts nor did I have time to write that much. I am going to share with you a few bits and bobs though.

Blog posts

Anthony Teacher.com: Adapting academic reading circles for the listening and speaking classroom.

Hotel 3001: Where to look for inspiration online when trying to find ‘cool’ material to use in class/to get ideas (catchy video of paint drying btw :P).

Freelance Teacher Swelf Development: Ideas on where to look for (academic) articles/resources when not at university.

Website

3 minute thesis: This is great to watch with your EAP students. Students from all over the world present their thesis and they talk for only 3 minutes. Some of your learners might even want to take part in the competition!

TED talks I watched with my learners

During this year’s pre-sessional EAP course I was a listening tutor which meant I did a lot of listening practice that focused on note-taking skills (especially during lectures). I watched 3 TED talks in class. I have put them in order of preference as well (my learners ranked the Cuddy talk as their favourite).

Amy Cuddy TED talk: Your body language shapes who you are (I made a lesson plan and you can find it here).

Jason Fried TED talk : Why work doesn’t happen at work (I made a lesson plan and it can be found here).

I also used this TED talk in class Noreena Hertz: How to use experts — and when not to .

Online Conference

Of course #TOBELTA 2015! This year the TOBELTA conference was about assessment. I gave a presentation as well (toot-toot) and you can watch the recording of my talk here. You can find all the recordings on YouTube.

Best buys eva (teacher goes stationery shopping)

Let me just say ….. I ❤ shopping and according to me friends…. I am good at it :P. Now, the best kind of shopping is of course stationery shopping, and this is what I got from the best book shop eva: Waterstones.

  1. A pencil-case appropriate for all bloggers.

20150909_111728    2. 3D butterfly post-it notes

   3. Labels and stickers for my planner as I enjoy decorative planning (if you are wondering what on earth that is, check out this blog post).

20150909_111636

So, that’s it for the month of August. Short and sweet!! As I probably missed out loads of August stuff, feel free to toot your own horn if you wrote a blog post and wanna share it with me, or share anything you loved in the month of August! The comments section is all yours.

Talk soon xxx

 

by

Gimme a rock to hide unda

I just read Michael Griffin’s post about ‘scaring’ students on the first day. His post has nothing to do with scenes from horror films, don’t worry. It inspired me and got me thinking about something though. It is something I have been thinking about for a while. Scary teachers, but not the ones who scare students. Nope. The ones who scare off other teachers.

My ‘scary’ teachers

  • Loud/Know-it all Alpha type teachers

These are the ones I am scared of the most. They walk into the staff room and take the floor… with their  voice. Then comes the ‘i’ ‘I’ ‘I’.

‘I am the center of the ELT world, I know everything and you better listen, cause if you don’t, well, you will be deaf!”

Now, from time to time, you may learn something interesting, but most of the time, the constant attention seeking just makes me run away or try to find a rock to try to hide under.

  • The banterers/ The borderline rude/no filter colleagues

Don’t get me wrong. I ❤ banter. I am sarcastic (funny-ish) from time to time, but there are some teachers I have come across that just take banter to a whole new level that makes it rude. And this comes from someone (me) who is quite rude anyway. The ”funny” teachers make ‘fun’ of anything;age/nationality/weight etc. etc. And yes, this happens, and yes, I have witnessed it. This is when I roll my eyes or just give one word answers. The expression on my face of course is… ”don’t mess with me dude”. But, neva,eva confrontational.

  • The super/duper control freak teachers

So, you have ‘planners’ and then you have ‘overplanners’. The ones who know what they will be doing for Christmas 2050, they  just freak me out. They make me feel insecure about what I am doing in class and are counterproductive for me. I just stress out when I am around them, and again, I run away.

Seriously, you must wonder, when am I actually in the office? I am, I promise. I am just scared of the ‘scary’ teachers!

Happy school year to everyone and beware of the scary teachers    🙂

f2f17-pink2bcider

Till next time…..

by

A weekend in #Cambridge

#ThegirliesideofELT post 9

For bank holiday weekend Deirdre and I decided to meet up in Cambridge, and we did. We had never been to Cambridge before so we thought it would be a good meeting point, and it was. If you are in the UK and have never been to Cambridge, you really need to visit. It is beautiful, very picturesque and… academic. Yeap, yeap my inner dork felt at home. I loved it there!

20150830_193536

I took the train from Sheffield to Cambridge. It was a three hour journey but, you know me, I made friends on the train and spent half the time marking and the other half chatting  🙂

I met Deirdre at the train station and we got a taxi till the Double tree by Hilton in Cambridge. It is a luxurious hotel. Very nice rooms and the gardens look really pretty. The majority of staff was friendly.We had to leave our stuff at the lobby cause our room wasn’t ready so we decided to walk around Cambridge. Walking down the street with all the colleges is so impressive. I loved it! You gotta be there to get what I mean! We walked a bit an then had lunch at a pub called The Mitre. I had a very filling burger and a jug of Pims. It was the bottomless jug though, the never ending one!!

                                                    cam buildingclock

We walked a bit more and then headed back for a tiny rest at the hotel. We actually ended up having dinner at our hotel and it was yummy (kinda pricey, but then again it’s the Double tree). We also went for a drink at a pub by the river.

The next day we decided to do a bit of shopping, and yes, damage was done! Walked some more, and had a pizza at this Italian chain called Zizi I got a pizza that had goats cheese on it. It was tasty and….skinny. Then back to the hotel, and some cocktails at the bar.

me river

Al in all, I really had a fun, relaxed, girlie weekend. Two hard working teachers having a break 🙂

I will definitely visit Cambridge again! For more #girlie posts press here. Feel free to tell m what you did last weekend in the comments section below.

Talk soon xxx