Friday, November 20, 2015

Creative Video by Mohamed Taha- 9th grade


         


   Part of our Etwinning project is to make videos, in which my students introduce themselves. During our Etwinning club, I introduced many video tools to my learners such as: Sway, Moovly, Movie maker. What I liked in Mohamed Taha video is that he used another online tool to make this video. We liked his creativity and I am proud to post his video so as to encourage him and all his classmates to use online tools creatively. 



Friday, November 13, 2015

A new school year... New Hopes

  A new school year , hopefully, always brings new projects and new fresh air to breathe. This year is special because of my involvement in Etwinning projects. The first E-twinning project is entitled Tell Me Your story. It involves many teachers from many parts of Europe and we are entitled , we as teachers and our students, to follow a plan each month so as to implement projects together.
Some of my students , who are aged 14-15 are now , in the process of discovering some video making tools, such as moovly, sway, etc...Morever, we are very delighted as teachers of English in our school, to have a specialized English classroom.
Below are some of the work we have just implemented.

Another video ,by Sway, illustrates, my 9th grade students participation in the decoration of the classroom.
Sway Video


It's true this adds much strain and stress, yet I am full of hope this year would end well and would help the students grow emotionally, socially and inter-culturally. I hope my hopes and my students' hopes wouldn't be dashed by any of the impediments we might face. Nonetheless, we will do our best to achieve our goals.
By and large, There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures. (Shakespeare,
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224)

Happy Reading

Saturday, October 10, 2015

WiseMapping

 


     In my relentless pursuit of more effective mind mapping tools, I think I have come across a good mind mapping tool, which is not only user-friendly, but also free . This tech tool is perfect because it makes brainstorming easier and more accessible to my learners since I can download my "mind maps" as pdf or image documents.
   With these posts, I meant to share my mind maps with my students after a whole class brainstorming activity. Mind maps or wise maps, in this case could be used as visual documents that could remind the students of the key elements of a chosen topic. Making learning more "visual" through these mind maps could be of a great benefit for learners, if they have a high predilection for retaining information visually.

This is the link to this online free app, and below are some images of the wise maps I have shared with my students.
WiseMapping

BTW, I am not paid to post this link in my blog. I am just sharing one app that I liked and I think it will be a useful tool for teachers who are keen on using mind mapping tools, while planning their lessons.
Wishing you Happy Surfing and Happy Discovering of this Mind Mapping tool.




Thursday, October 1, 2015

World Teachers' Day

       

           Dear Teachers,


   Happy Anniversary! This is an open letter to every teacher in the world.



           You are important !
           You matter!
           You are making a huge difference in the life of your students!
         Never get disappointed and carry on your noble career with a lot of diligence and hope ! You are the light in the darkness. You are not only enlightening minds but also building generations. The more hopeful, tolerant and ethical you are, the more hopeful, tolerant and ethical are your students!
We are here to join hands, stand by each other and spread peace and love. We are the messengers of love and fraternity. We defend the oppressed and stand by them. We enlighten the obscure paths and plant seeds of Hope, Love and Peace. We are eternal because in every corner, in every street, in every city, in every country, there's a teacher who toils to make tomorrow a better place.
       It is true we do not always get what we deserve but we are not waiting for an instant recognition, we are patient enough to know that our value is far more important and it yields a lot in the future than the present moment.
      Undeniably,We are humans. We have weaknesses. We get angry . We get bored. We feel desperate! But once the students' smiles and flashy eyes transmit emotions of gratitude, we are back on track and we feel we can move mountains.
     Let us be grateful today to our teachers because without them we would not have achieved anything. Thank you my teachers for being so patient, so considerate and so supportive!
Just one last thing to add is that on this special occasion, I would like to give a special thought to a dedicated and exceptional teacher who has passed away and left a big void in the ELT Tunisian community. He was an outstanding teacher and did not spare efforts to encourage Tunisian ELTs. He had a road accident and left us all totally at a loss. RIP Tarak.. You will never become a memory because your outstanding work is eternal and your devotion to your work is a light that illuminates our career paths.
I would like to quote Tarak ( this is a very deep quotation that I found among his conversations in classroom20.com) "Yesterday, I was having a coffee with a colleague, a teacher of French at the same school. We were chatting about many things. But, there was something he said that I thought was really interesting. Making a difference, he said, in this world starts not from a lavish President's or Governor's desk but it starts from the humble desk of a teacher. What this means is that teaching is much deeper than just teaching equations and grammar rules. It is about inspiring, caring, sharing and extending…"

      Tarak inspired me a lot in my teaching. He was very resourceful and supportive. He created the First onlineTunisian ELT Magazine and he had special skills in graphic design.He was the first Tunisian to interview ELT Luminaries such as Larry Ferlazzo , David Kapuler, etc.. He also managed many blogs: Please have a look and share his work. The legacy of our colleague will outlive thanks to your efforts.
Here is a list of his blogs: http://poemsbytarak.blogspot.com/
http://tunisian-etforum.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html
http://tarakbr.blogspot.com/2008/08/about-me.html
   Rest in Peace Tarak...


  Thank you Grammarly for the suggestion to write and share insights about the World Teachers' Day! Here is an interesting inforgraphic shared by Grammarly.

World Teacher Day

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Retro-Teaching Techniques- A webinar by Jamie Keddie

I have been away for long and I do miss this corner, which helps me find my stability in hard times . Fortunately, I am back with some interesting notes I took at the inspiring webinar by Jamie Keddie, a teacher, writer and a presenter. His areas of interest include the use of visual materials and storytelling in the classroom.

   Jamie Keddie, whom, I ,personally, met for the first time , at Tesol Arabia 2014, is a lively and a creative teacher and presenter.Here is the link to his presentation at Tesol Arabia 2014:


Do not miss watching it because Jamie presents an activity ; which is an extract of his new book : Videotelling. 
    From that time, I can not deny that I was influenced by his own teaching practices. If you want to know more about his teaching-related practices and views , just subscribe to his site : Videotelling.org, and to his youtube channel and why not have a wonderful tour at his lessonstream.org  http://lessonstream.org/ and get inspired by the multitude of lesson plans he designed using videos.
   Attending webinars helps me re-connect with ELT professionals and teachers from all over the world and exchange views. The latest webinar given by Jamie Keddie, is about the Retro-teaching Techniques  I have just copied some of the slides Jamie shared and I hope you benefit from them as well In case, you miss some of the important points, remarks Jamie made, I invite you to watch the recording















   Thanks to webinars, professional development is accessible to any teacher, wherever he may be.