e-project evaluation

Hello everyone! I want to share with you an e-project evaluation I did for class. The main goal of this task was to evaluate an e-project in order to learn meaningfully how to make my own e-book or e-project. 

When I was thinking about what to evaluate, I was surfing the net and I found a fantastic project from a last year student in the same Masters: Little Geniuses of Renaissance by Silvia Peña. I have chosen this e-project because I love Arts and I think that they play a crucial role in children development while they are learning.

Here you have my online presentation using prezi. 

Regarding quality content, I have to say that the e-book has coherent contents related with the topic. Besides, there is a section called “The skeleton” in which all the structure of the project is clearly presented in an organized way.

The main content is about Leonardo Da Vinci and his life, which is a good topic for children in order to understand this artist’s works.

Taking into account multimedia features, this e-book includes some which make it attractive and engaging. These multimedia elements provide added value. However, they promote only receptive skills as reading and listening while I think it would be better to make the students produce something using multimedia tools.

In terms of accessibility, I found that the e-book is partially accessible for people with special needs. For instance, the “First mission video” is goes so quickly that I didn’t have time to read and I have to stop it, so this is not appropriate for children and become worst if the students have some sight problem o difficulties. In a different task the author uses some podcasts to ask questions and this would be a problem for children with special hearing needs, whereas it is a good approach for children with visual needs.

Besides, some of the fonts used are not appropriate for student with visual needs, because it can be difficult for them to read them.

Regarding innovation and originality, I think that this e-book includes original content created by the author and the approach to the topic is original, imaginative and engaging. All the tasks and the contents in the e-book are created by the author. It has also some activities which can be innovative for children, because it is a different way to work an art topic.

When it comes to children and their role in this project, it is important to take into account that the project seems to be focus on children development of solving challenges, problems and questions; so that they will be working critical thinking skills. The project is based on a meaningful problem which is to investigate about Leonardo Da Vinci in order to answer the following question: “Who was Leonardo Da Vinci”. The project involves an active, in-depth process over time, in which students generate questions, find and use resources, ask further questions, and develop their own answers.

This e-book allows children to make their own choices about the products they create, how they work, and how they use their time, guided by the teacher. As they have to create a mural with all the information they have found during the whole process, they will have the opportunity to reflect on what and how they have learnt, and on the project’s design and implementation.

Regarding children, in general I liked the project and how they have to work to find information about Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact, there are some aspects that I would like to point out.

I am not really sure about if it represents a real-world learning context for students and if this makes a real impact in them. Of course, it can be good for them to know about this artist, but maybe it is not the best way to confront the topic.

Moreover, I found that there is no opportunity for children to assess themselves and neither to receive feedback of their work.  

The last thing is that this e-project does not require students to demonstrate what they learn by creating a product that is presented or offered to people beyond the classroom. They have to create a mural with all the information and also create a sculpture using a piece of soap. Actually, I considered that it would be better if they would be able to share their work with other people around the world, for instance using a classroom blog or a classroom account in twitter with the teacher help. 

Here you have the Rubric and the Checklist that I have used to evaluate the e-design, just in case you are doing a similar evaluation. 

Hope you liked it and find it useful.

I'm a content curator!

Hello!

I just want to tell you that I just become a content curator. Maybe you know what does it means but maybe not. To be a content curator means organizing information in order to have everything you need ready to use it whenever you want without loosing time searching on the net. There are plenty of web tools to do that, although the most famous ones are: Pinterest, and Symbaloo. The best part is that they are free.

I use Pinterest to arrange lots of materials related with CLIL teaching and also to find materials, resources and DIY projects, which I love! You can use it for many thing at the same time, because you can create as many boards as you want and pin all you find there.

I recently discovered Symbaloo, which allows you to create an online desktop where you can gather webpages and other resources in different tiles. Here you have mine:

In this webmix I have my favorite webpages and links to find resources related with CLIL. I also have my social networks and some free online web tools to create my own materials. As you can see, they are organized in different categories using colours.

In red colour you can see my main and everyday social networks (twitter, blogger, pinterest and my University moodel). Then, in orange I have my favourites pages to improve my academic english. Also, highlighted in green, I have different web pages full of reosurces for Primary classrooms.
At the top on the right, in yellow, I have some useful tools to create my own materials easily and free, of course! Finally, in blue, I have my favourite youtube channels for kids.


Hope you like it.

A bank of common knowledge

Hello again everybody!

Today I want to tell you something about banks of common knowledge. Since we are teachers, it is useful to have a online space in which we can have lots of resources, materials, web pages, etc. ready to use them, just with one click. 

As far as I see it, I think that it is really amazing being able to have a bank of resources shared with other teachers in order to learn from others adn to see different point of views. I think that collaboration between everybody who teachs gives us a top quality knowledge and information and a great variety of materials. 

With this idea, we have created in our class a bank of common knowledge about CLIL in which everyone has posted web pages, web tools, resources, blogs, videos and music among other things. We are using Pinterest, so if you want to take a look, click here. 

Here you have my contribution to this common banks of reosurces:

1. Timeglider.com  is a free web tool to create timelines. --> PIN on Pinterest.

Timeglider: web-based timeline software. Free online web tool to make timelines, which can be useful in CLIL classroom as a visual organizer for some contents, for instance in social science.

2. Pixton  is a web tool in which you can create comics for free. --> PIN on Pinterest.

PIXTON is an amazing free web tool which allows you to create wonderful comics easily. It is a greeat tool to work literacy in CLIL with students and, depending on their grade, they will be able to create their own comic and printed. In that way, they will be learning the language by using it

3. Piktochart is a free online tool that can be used to create infographics --> PIN on Pinterest. 

Piktochart is an amazing free online tool in which you can create infographics to make the information beautiful. This can be used with educational purposes to create really visual and eye catching posters, presentations or visual organizers for children. You can download the image and print it easily

4. Model making of Landscapes to learn science vocabulary while working creativity made by my children in class. They are 2nd graders --> PIN on Pinterest.

Model making to work landscapes. This was made by 2nd graders in my internship class and they learnt all the vocabulary about landscapes by using it. Model making is always a good idea in CLIL and they can also do a show and tell to practice oral skills. Here you have an idea to develop creativity in children while they learn without knowing.

5. Chef of volume: an e-publication by Marta Plaza, last year student on the same master --> PIN on Pinterest. 

CHEF OF VOLUME is an e-publication by Marta Plaza, a last year student of our Master. She created this lesson plan to work out volume with creative activities. I think that this is a good example of how to relate different contents while children learn in a fun way. You can finde this in her web page: sites.google.com/...

6. Manuel Cacicedo blog --> PIN on Pinterest.

Manuel Cacicedo English blog: mcacicedoenglish.... Here you can find lots of materials and reosurces to use in a CLIL classroom. I've followed him for 3 years now and I always find interesting things about english teaching! Hope you like it and you find it useful.

Hope you find it useful! If you know any amazing resource, please leave a comment below o contact me on my social networks! Thank you.

Reasons why I use Creative Commons License.

Hello everyone!

I just decided to put my blog under a Creative Commons license, particulary this one: Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International. You can see now the icon of my license at the end of my blog page. 

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization which helps you to share your knowledge and creative materials with the world taking into account that they have a value so the people who wants to share your creations has to give you some credit. 

First, you have to realize that, for education, sharing information with others is an important fact. Therefore, Creative Commons is aimed to develop the growth of a new education era in which everyone can share content without worries. 

My Creative Commons license allows other people to share the information as long as they do it in the same way. People can share my content by coping and distributing it in any medium or format. Moreover, they can adapt the information by transforming and building upon the material. The aforementioned terms will be permited under the following conditions:

• Give appropriate credit to the author, provide a link to my license and also mention whether they have made changes or not. 

• They are not allowed to use my material with commercial purposes.

• If they made some changes to the material, they have to distribute it under the same license. 

I have decided to have a license in my blog because here I post a lot of images and materials that I made my self and I don't want anyone to use them in a bad way. Actually, I'm not against someone who wants to use my materials, because that is the reason why I post them in this blog, but I want my  materials to be used with a great purpose contributing to education. 

Regarding my students, I will encourage them to share and use online materials as long as they realize that the materials belong to someone else, who has spent time creating them. In this way, reflecting on that, they will learn to value their own and others work. They will have to be aware that their own materials have a value and that they have to protect them in some way under the terms they decided. For that purpose, they can use Creative Commons in order to create a great community in which they will be able to share content respectfully.  

Besides, they will have to be aware that all the online content may be not free to use and that they can have a license that everyone wanting to share has to respect. 

All about me!

I'm Primary English Teacher. Right now, I am studying a Master's in Bilingual Education at Primary Schools at URJC in Madrid. 

When I was 6 years old I started to study musical lesson, particulary Piano lessons untill I was 15 years old. I consider that this kind of Education develop critial and creative thinking in my brain. 

Besides, when I was 15 and also 16, I travelled to USA to spend a month with a host family in order to improve my English. The first year, I went to Columbus, Ohio and the second year I went to Salt Lake City, Utah. This experience made me being what I am now and of course not only my English improved, but also I became more open-minded. 

Then, I decided to study a Degree on Primary Education with an English mention. While I was studying that, I had the opportunitty to spend a month in a english schoool abroad to do my internship, concretely in Coventry, UK. There, I was able to see different techniques and methods and grow my knowledge on the teaching field. 

I also did a part of the internship in a CRA school ( a group of associated rural schools with fewer children per class) and it was really interesting to learn how they work with different learning needs and levels and a lack of resources.

I'm interested in CLIL, ICT, new ideas and teaching methodologies, arts, music and diy projects. I love English learning and teaching. I love colaborative learning, I think that if you share ideas and opinions with others, you are enriching and widen your knowledge. 

If you want to know more about me, I recomend you to take a look at this.

If you want to contact me:

My personal e-mail: g.g.laura@hotmail.com
On skype:  laura gonzalez garcia / caracola_laura

On Twitter: @LauraGonGar5

On Pinterest: @LauraGonGar5

Learning by twittering

Hello again everyone!

This time I want to tell you about Twitter! Surely, you already know a lot of twitter and probably you have a twitter account. Actually here you have mine: @LauraGonGar5 just in case you want to follow me!

If you don't have a Twitter account, I would strongly recomend you to join the Twitter community and start following interesting thing to widen your learning. You should take into account that you will need an eye-catching user name, a good profile picture and some information about you in your bio.

With this post, I want to share all the things you can do with twitter in order to improve your knowledge about everything you want. You just have to follow people or things you are interested in.
For instance, since I am an English and biligüal English primary teacher I want to keep my knowledge updated and maintain a nonstop learning, so I use twitter to follow educational information and some teachers around the world among others.

I not only follow people but also I publish things which I consider interesting for the community. In other words, twitter is a social network which allows you as a teacher to exchange ideas and widen your teaching-learning knowledge.

Currently, I am studying a Master's Degree in Bilingual Education and still learning a lot about CLIL and here you have my own definition of this amazing teaching approach combining content and language learning:

If you are reading this and you are looking forward to learn more about CLIL, you can share publications like mine using the haghstag: #ictclil_urjc . Here the students of the Master's Degree in Bilingual Education (at URJCin Madrid) publish amazing facts about CLIL.

As far as I see it, twitter allows you to learn just wherever you are and whenever you want. Therefore, you are always connected and updated. 

Learn something about me: 3,2,1 Introduction

Hello again!

A 3, 2, 1 Introduction is a way of presenting interesting information about you in 3 steps: tell 3 things that people should know about you, then share 2 of your passions or things you like, and last but not least tell everyone your dream occupation you would have if you weren't what you are right now. 

To produce my 3,2,1 introduction I've used Pixton, which is an interesting web tool to create personalised comics. When I was thinking which tool I was going to use to make my personal introduction, I surfed the web page and I see PIXTON, inmediately caught my attention as it has a very colourful icon. Also, I thougth that it would be a great and original way of producing my own digital identity.

 It is a very useful, original and full of details. You can add your own characters, backgrounds, objects and also edit them in a great variety of size, proportion, colour. It offers you a great amount of pre-designed elements to create your perfect comic. It is also very realistic since you can change everything about your character as facial expression, clothes, hair cut, accesories, gestures and also move parts of the body and all the surrounding elements. Moreover,  Since we are teachers, we can extrapolate this to our field of study putting it into practice in class, in order to develop children's creativity and critical thinking.

It has a lot of advantages as I have described before, but it also have some disadvantages. One thing that it can be changed is that it would be useful to have the possibility to transform the comic in an animated video once you have finished. Also, if you could transform it into a video you would be able to add some music to it to make it more visual and interactive. 

 While I was using this tool, I felt inlove with this amazing tool because it has a lot of detailed things and I love to create things like these. So I would recomend it because it is a easy-to-use web tool, it is free and you can also publish, share and save your comic in many different ways. Moreover it would provide you with an original way to make a personal introduction or tell a story.