CALL Lessons 2005-2007

A blog for the CALL lessons with my three 5th and 6th grade classes (2005-2007)

eLearning Awards 2007: Brussels, Belgium

Dear kids and teacher-friends,

I came to Brussels yesterday morning to be at the EUN eLearning Awards 2007 ceremony. I was one of the 13 finalists. It was a very simple, but very dignified hour-long event.

Our blog - CALL Lessons 2005-2007 - won the international eLearning Awards 2007 Gold Prize in the category of "The school of the future". I am very proud of our work and our achievement at the international level.

At the ceremony I dedicated the prize to you, students and colleagues. It wouldn't have been possible wthout your collaboration. This award belongs to us all! At the Gala Dinner I recorded a few words to you and all our teachers-friends-collaborators.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! 

Your "crazy and radical" teacher,

Teresa Almeida d'Eça

12Dec07

Take a look at the following links:

CRIE - Notícias

eLearning Awards 2007: Winners

Blogue português vence prémio de eLearning

 

Earlier today I went to visit students involved in the project who are now in a different school. I was in 5 different classes and was able to give them all the great news and a very special Christmas present. It was a very exciting and moving event with students with their arms open to hug me and big smiles on their faces.

 

22Dec07

I created a wiki with the messages I received from friends and family in different parts of the world and with photos (though not mine yet!). Take a look!

 

23Dec07

Barbara/Bee Dieu created this very nice post about our work and the award in Dekita.org

 

17Jan08

I gave an hour and half interview about the award and my work with ICTs to Jorge Afonso, "Histórias e Músicas", Antena 1 (national radio). It also features some of my favorite music. VIP: Between minutes 48 and 59 it's the 1:00 am news. You can advance the timer.

18Jan08

Here's the certificate of the award. I received it today. (Click the image below for a bigger image.)

posted by: teresadeca at 10:00 | link | comments (27) |

    Wrapping up (= resumindo) two years online

In these two years of CALL lessons (5th and 6th grades) I introduced several ideas that you can use on your own (alone) and/or with friends to continue practicing and studying English. I divided them in three groups: (1) sites to create "your own" pages, (2) sites to study English "autonomously" (alone, on your own), and (3) sites to look at the past, specifically, at the work you did.

The image above with Snoopy and Charlie Brown represents, for me, a look at the past and a look into the future.

 

GROUP 1

-- Bubbleshare (to keep your drawings and photos)

-- Frappr map (to keep friends of a Web site you create)

-- Clustr Map (to have the location of the friends that visit your Web page and the number of people who have visited your page)

-- Google maps (to locate where your friends are in the world)

-- Zimmertwins (to create animated movies)

-- MyChingo (to create a "voice email" board in your site)

 

GROUP 2

-- the World Atlas (to explore Geography and the world)

-- the Exercises page (all the exercises and activities that I have created for my students)

-- the Audio Dictionary (pronunciation of many words in English)

-- the Pronunciation pages (that I created for 5th and 6th graders in 2003-2005)

 

GROUP 3

-- Art Gallery 2005-2006 (5th grade)

-- Art Gallery 2006-2007 (6th grade)

-- Have Fun with English! 2 (5th and 6th grades)

-- CALL Lessons 2005-2007 (5th and 6th grades)

-- Rodrigo's FAP blog.

 

Enjoy exploring these sites and pages! And write to say how you are using them.

BTW (= a propósito), I'll always be here to help you, if you need me. We're just an email away!!! 

posted by: teresadeca at 14:07 | link | comments (8) |

      CALL Lesson 11 (June 18, 19 & 21)

There are things that we didn't have time to do: (1) explore a link about DST (Daily Saving Time, or "Summer time") sent by our dear friend Dennis Oliver; answer a couple of questions from our teacher-friends in the Google maps you created with messages for them; and, watch a video about bears in Slovenia made by a student of teacher Sasha Sirk. I feel sad, but the end of a school year is always complicated. There are too many things going on...

Today we have another "first time" project. It's a voice chat with someone you don't know and is far away. You prepared the 12 questions for the interview last Thursday, so you're ready for action!!!

Before we start, I'd like to have 4 volunteers - 2 girls and 2 boys - to ask the "mystery guest" three questions each. The interview will be recorded. After it's over, we will listen to it and write a short text about our guest. If there is still time, we will insert that text in a Google map that I created.

 

Objectives

Students will:

-- "experience" their first voice chat in English

-- practice language learned in a real situation and with a purpose

-- have contact with communication tools, such as Yahoo Messenger and Audacity.

 

Activities

1. Find 4 students who will ask the "mystery guest" two questions each

2. Open Yahoo Messenger, then a Conference window, and invite guest to join us

3. Open Audacity and click "Record" when the chat starts

4. Start the voice chat

5. Locate where our guest lives in the World Atlas, after s/he says so 

6. Thank the guest and stop the recording

7. Listen to the recording and write a short text about him/her

8. Write the text in the Google map created for this lesson.

Enjoy! 

 

Work done in class by 6.C

An interview with teacher Michael Coghlan in Australia (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Michael

 

Work done in class by 6.E (19 and 21 Jun)

An interview with teacher Hala Fawzi in Sudan (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Hala

An interview with teacher Cristina Costa in England (Be patient with the download! It's worth it!!!)

Google map with a text about teacher Cristina

 

Message I sent to teacher Michael Coghlan and his reply

Dear Michael,

 

Thank you so much for a lovely time during 6.C's interview this morning. The kids were totally fascinated and absorbed. Their eyes and ears were "glued" to the screen and speakers the whole time. I'm sure that most of them just couldn't believe their eyes, especially, their ears.

 

First, I was amazed at their interest in the surprise about to come when I announced what we were going to do for the rest of the lesson. My amazement continued with the degree of interest and absorption in the dialogue that was taking place. Finally, I was totally surprised by their interest in the recording. I wanted to listen to it for a while to see if everything was ok. It is!!! And when I was going to stop, because I knew they had understood enough to be able to write the text, they asked to listen to all of it. Wow!!! I decided to make some pauses and comment on the content (such as the time difference and the temperature) or explain something (the southern hemisphere and the different season, as well as the difference in size between a twon and a city). It was fantastic!

 

Then they wrote the text about you in the Google map (with a little guidance from me), always following the sequence of the questions. They did a great job with the interview questions and the text.

http://tinyurl.com/2gechl

 

It was a fabulous and very special feeling for me to see those excited and happy expressions. It was a real and totally unexpected treat! When I asked if this had a been a "grand finale", they all said "Yeeeeeesssss!!!" at once.

 

I'll be uploading the recording tomorrow after the second class interviews Hala at the same time as today. You're welcome to take part. BTW, I asked 6.C to keep this a secret from the other class, because they had enjoyed the "surprise" this morning. I sure hope they can keep a secret.

 

I'll send the rest of the links tomorrow: "CALL lessons" blog and recording.

 

Thank you for being there for me and 6.C. It'll be an experience they will never forget!   :-))

 

Warm hugs,     Teresa

 

Fantastic Teresa! And what a great paragraph they created on the map. Thank you for inviting me to do this, and for this great feedback.

- Michael

 

Message I sent to teacher Hala Fawzi and her reply

Dear Hala,

 

It was another fantastic lesson! "Thank you" so much for making it possible for my students. They behaved very  well and were also "glued" to the screen and speakers.

 

Right from the moment the students came in I felt that they were expecting something. Maybe someone from yesterday's class wasn't able to keep the secret!!! They seemed very anxious to know what their "surprise" would be, but didn't ask. I could feel their curiosity growing as 9:00 approached and I started to go over the interview with them.

 

I was very happy that two of the weaker students, Barbara and Pedro, volunteered to ask you questions. The other two, Catarina and Francisco, are good students.

 

They loved listening to the recording, writing the text about you and seeing your photo. I explained that you are from a different culture and that you dress differently in your country. Some also noticed a couple of differences from me in terms of pronunciation, which is very curious. Good ear for languages!!!

 

Everything is now in the blog, the recording of the interview and the text in the Google map. I love both, especially the interview.

http://call05-06.motime.com/

 

Once again, I feel that this is an experience they'll never forget!   :-))

 

Warm hugs,    Teresa

 

Good evening there! I was trying to reply to your last email, but my yahoo mail seems to have gone crazy:). I just wanted to thank you for a very new experience that I have not gone through before. Talking to kids synchro in their class and helping them to learn! That was amazing to me too, not only to your kids.I loved the map and the interview.

Beijinhos,   Hala

 

Message teacher Cristina sent after the interview and my reply to her

Teresa!
What a great class! What a great blog.
I got really emotional at the end. I had tears in my eyes.
Thank you so much for getting me involved.
It's projects like this that make me believe that it is worth all the hard work.
Way to go.
thank you once again for the shining example.

beijinhos,   Cris

 

Dear Cristina,

 

"Thank you" for being there for me and 6.E this morning. I was happy to be able to have you "live" with us and to have four students in the class who were not present on Tuesday experience this synchronous event. Three of them interviewed you: Martim, Duarte and Daniela from Moldova. I'm sure they loved it as much as you did.

 

I'm listening to the recording as I'm writing: it's very cute. We can hear all the interaction going on. We are all so lively!  And I've just noticed that you were "emotional" at the end. You're such a dear friend.  :-)

 

The text may have a couple of minor incorrections, because we didn't have time to listen to the recording. It was from memory and things I'd jotted down on the whiteboard.

 

They loved to interview you and it was a great second "grand finale" for this class.

 

Beijinhos,     Teresa

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Report on CALL Lesson 11

6.C (18Jun07): Ten minutes before the interview started, we went over the questions they had written in class last Thursday. I told the students that they were going to interview a mystery guest, a friend of mine who lived far away. Each of the volunteers - Rodrigo, InêsT, Lourenço and Margarida - would ask 3 questions. The interview was going to be recorded and then we would listen to the recording to write a text about the interviewee.

I asked them to behave and not make much noise with the chairs when they changed partners at the computer!!!   ;-)

We used my laptop, a cable connection, a video projector and speakers. The lesson went on exactly as planned above: (1) interview with timely comments (= comentários pontuais) from me, (2) a look at the World Atlas to locate Australia and see the distance between both countries, (3) listening to the recording and (4) writing a text in a Google map I had created for this purpose.

This was a memorable lesson for the students, for me and, I dare say, for Michael Coghlan.

 

6.E (19Jun07): Ten minutes before the interview started, we went over the questions they had written in class last Thursday, included a comment about the weather - it was pouring at the time!!! - and repeated the questions. I told the students that they were going to interview a mystery guest, a friend of mine who lived far away. Each of the volunteers - Catarina, Pedro, Bárbara and Francisco - would ask 3 questions. The interview was going to be recorded and then we would listen to the recording to write a text about the interviewee.

I asked them to behave very well and not to make much noise with chairs when changing partners at the computer!!!  ;-)

We used my laptop, a cable connection, a video projector and speakers. The lesson went on exactly as planned above: (1) interview with timely comments (= comentários pontuais) from me, (2) a look at the World Atlas to locate Sudan (they located Khartoum while we listened to the recording) and see the distance between both countries, (3) listening to the recording and (4) writing a text in the Google map I created for yesterday's class.

This was a memorable lesson for the students, for me and, I dare say, for Hala Fawzi.

Two days later I was able to have the Computer Room with 6.E again and have Cristina Costa be interviewed by them. While they wrote down their self-evaluatuion text, I reordered some questions and suggested 2-3 that they translated correctly. This time the volunteers were boy-girl-boy-girl: Martim, Patrícia, Duarte and Daniela.

It was fabulous! I even got to talk about Cristiano Ronaldo, the famous Portuguese football player in Manchester United.

posted by: teresadeca at 07:04 | link | comments (27) |

      CALL Lesson 10 (May 28-29)

Since you have your final English test next week, this lesson will be dedicated to revision work. You will complete interactive exercises that I created for you last week. They have been in the "Have Fun with English! 2" blog since May 24 for you to practice on your own (= sozinhos). And you can continue doing them this week for extra practice.

You can choose the exercises that you feel you really need. I hope this is useful. Enjoy! 

Objectives

Students will do revisions for the upcoming test by completing different types of exercises in three specific areas: vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. Different exercises demand different skills, from matching to spelling, reading and writing.

Activities

Choose one or two exercises from each area and complete it with the help of your colleagues, if necessary. Students will help one another and clarify things when there are doubts.

In multiple-choice exercises, students will write the answers in their notebooks while a colleague is at the computer doing the exercise. The correction will be done together.

Follow-up

Send comments saying the exercises you did at home, your scores and if they were useful.

Vocabulary
Health	Jigword (drag the piece)
Health	Speedword (spell the word)
Verbs (Port-Eng)	Jigword (drag the piece)
Verbs (Port-Eng)	Speedword (spell the word)
Grammar
S. Past (irreg verbs)	Jigword (drag the piece)
S. Past (irreg verbs)	Speedword (spell the word)
S. Past (reg & irreg verbs)	Cloze (fill in blanks)
Questions and Answers in the Past (1)	Choose the correct Q and A
Questions and Answers in the Past (2)	Choose the correct Q and A
Ask questions	Practice writing correct questions
Reading comprehension
Holidays	Read a text and write answers
Lisa	Read a text and write answers

posted by: teresadeca at 07:02 | link | comments (10) |

      CALL Lesson 9 (May 7-8)

Today we are going to continue working with maps. We will look at a table that I created with information on where our teacher-friends are and complete it. Then we will create a map, locate the teachers in their countries and leave a message in the map for each one. This way you will really see how different the times are in different parts of the world where our friends live and work.

This task includes the group of teachers that left comments in the Easter post and in the post about my presentation about our two blogs at the Microsoft Conference. Both these posts are in the "Have Fun with English! 2" blog.

You will work with a table in one window and a Google map in another window. That's where you will locate each city and country, and write a simple message.

Once again, it will be a multidisciplinary lesson: Geography, (simple) Math, the Internet and... English!

 

Objectives

Students will:

-- state the current time in other countries

-- calculate the difference in number of hours between Portugal and other countries

-- create a Google map

-- locate each city and country on the map

-- write a message in the placemarker.

 

Activities

1. complete information in the table: columns for "time there" and "hours differ. re: Portugal" (remember that we are in GMT +1)

2. create a Google map

3. locate on the map the country and city where each teacher lives

4. placemark it

5. write a message.

At the end of this lesson students should have a good overview of the distance between different locations in the world and the differences in time they represent in relationship to Portugal.

Enjoy the lesson!  

 

Resources (= Recursos)

-- Table created by the teacher

-- Google Maps

 

Help

How to create a Google map

-- go to Google maps

-- click the "My Maps" tab

-- click "Create new map"

-- give it a name and click "Unlisted" (= private)

How to locate a city and leave a placemarker

-- write the name of the city and state/country in the "Search Maps" slot and press Enter

-- click on the blue placemarker (second icon, top left of the map), drag it (= arrasta-o) to the location and click (for it to stay in place)

-- write the message and click Ok

-- click on the blue placemarker to see the message

 

Tables

Table for 6.C

Name	City	Country/State	Time zone	Time there	Hours differ. re: Portugal
Aiden Yeh	Kaohsiung	Taiwan	GMT +8	16:30	+7
Hala Fawzi	Khartoum	Sudan	GMT +3	11:40	+2
Cristina Costa	Manchester	England	GMT +1	9:48	none
Carla Arena	Key West	Florida (USA)	GMT -4	4:55	-5
Dennis Oliver	Phoenix	Arizona (USA)	GMT -7	1:58	-8

 

Here is 6.C's map created in class.

 

Table for 6.E

Name	City	Country/State	Time zone	Time there	Hours differ. re: Portugal
Sasha Sirk	Nova Gorica	Slovenia	GMT +3	11:18	+2
Nina Lyulkun	Kiev	Ukraine	GMT +2	10:33	+1
Ramona Dietrich	Carcavelos	Portugal	GMT +1	9.37	none
Conceição Brito	Setúbal	Portugal	GMT +1	9:37	none
Mônica Veado	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	GMT -3	5:45	-4
Nelba Quintana	La Plata	Argentina	GMT -3	5:45	-4
Berta Leiva	Toronto	Canada	GMT -4	4:50	-5
Jane Petring	Quebec	Canada	GMT -4	4:50	-5
Angeles Berman	Cd del Carmen	Yucatan, Mexico	GMT -5	3:55	-6
Cora Chen	San Francisco	California (USA)	GMT -7	1:58	-8

VIP: The kids worked very well and quite fast, but I had to help them finish four entries: Conceição, Nelba, Jane and Angeles. It was a demanding plan even for 50 minutes.

 

Here's 6.E's map created in class.

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Follow-up

1. Nina Lyulkun, one of our teacher-friends, left a message with a link to a very interesting map that she created. It's a possible route by land for us to visit her in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Take a look at her map!

2. Sasha Sirk, our teacher-friend in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, left a message with a very interesting video about bears (= ursos) in her country made by Matej, one of her students. Watch the video! And... enjoy it!   

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Report on CALL Lesson 9

The lesson with 6.C went as planned. They read the whole plan carefully out loud (one student at a time for each paragraph or part) and some translated what others didn't understand. There was curiousity about what the plan would really turn out to be, that is, what they would really be doing. They were eager to participate and volunteered enthusiastically to go to the computer and carry out the plan. Margarida, InêsT., Luis, InêsF and Rodrigo were the volunteers this time.

We started out by completing the table with the necessary info (last two columns). To save class time for the map, I wrote down the information they gathered and inserted it online at home. First we revised the concept of GMT. Then I asked in which time zone we were (GMT +1), how many hours separated us from each person and what time it was in their country. Several students quickly grasped that they have to subtract "1" when people are in a "+ / plus" GMT to find out the number of hours difference between us, and that they have to add "1" when people are in a "- / minus" GMT. They created the map easily and immediately grasped how to search for the city and country, get the placemarker in place and write the message. Once again to save class time, they copy-pasted the first message and then just replaced the necessary information.

The bell was ringing when we finished the five entries, but they had time to see the distances between the first person in the table and the last person, as well as notice the number of hours that separate them.

We used my laptop, a school video projector and a cable connection. The lesson was 45 mins. long, but an extra ten minutes would have come in handy.

As to 6.E, I had to add the 10 mins. since I added 5 entries to their table, because I decided not to have 6.D do this lesson. Everything went according to plan, although they weren't able to finish all the entries. It was just too demanding. I completed them at home.

They were also curious and eager to participate, but maybe a bit less enthusiastic than 6.C, and also grasped all the necessary concepts to complete the two columns in their table and carry on with the map.

The volunteers at the computer were Fábia, Rafael, Patrícia, Martim, Catarina and Francisco.

posted by: teresadeca at 06:57 | link | comments (27) |

Template by motime.com  |  header image credit: Markus Gann © www.begann.de