teacher talk: internet

Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts

20091010

014 : make your documents go google!

Don't you just find it annoying when you are suddenly lumped with a task which requires you to design a document you're not familiar with, or even worse, that you don't even know how to make?

Worry no more. Templates of practically every form of written-type document (eg. spreadsheets, presentations, forms) can be found on the internet, and it doesn't take long to find nice-looking ones for free use!

Something I just tried playing around with are forms on Google Docs:

[ link : docs.google.com ]

Google Documents provides an array of categories you can find templates of, and you can store these in your online hard drive. It's free and extremely convenient because you can access it anywhere with an internet connection to edit, view, or print your documents. What I also love is that you can 'share' the documents with others, and you can set how much access they get (view and/or edit)/

There should be other places that offer the same service, and if I find more I'll update the blog. But right now I'm happy with this.

Have fun! :)

20090514

009 : funny education-related poetry

If you want to have a 'light' lesson, you may want a 'text' for an activity that can keep the students awake AND interested. A site worth checking is Poetry Teachers. They have a nice assortment of poetry that are quirky, fun and exploitable (in the sense that you can try to create lessons around them, eg. grammar), like this.

It's a cute site worth looking at, even if you don't have teaching intentions in mind :)

[ link : poetryteachers.com ]

20090513

008 : parts of speech, simplified

Need to refresh your mind on what nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, etc are? Or just wanting to find worksheets useful to focus on lessons on these topics? This Enchantedlearning sub-site offers some nice material catering this, and they're also handy because they are explained in a simple way so that if your students are having problems with parts of speech, they can do it in their own time.

[ link : @enchantedlearning.com ]

007 : more resources for teaching!

Edhelper has puzzlemakers, worksheets, and other convenient stuff for your teaching needs. For the topical worksheets, they are graded according to the level of learners, so it makes it easier for you to suit/adapt the lessons to the needs and abilities of your students.

The site is catered for younger learners and offers stuff for English, Maths and a few other subjects. Their language resources in particular can also be good for ESL learners, regardless of their age.

Note : not all of their resources are free (like most teaching resources), but the ones that are available are worth checking out.

[ link : edhelper.com ]

20090512

006 : adjectives - think you know?

Until a few years ago, I never knew that multiple adjectives (English, at least) had a certain order when combined. This realisation came to me when I was tested for a job interview. I'm not sure how well I did on that test, but I did get the job, and I did learn that there was a proper order for adjectives, so all was good I guess. Haha.

Anyway, for the language teaching course I'm currently studying, we have to do a microteaching session as one of our course requirements. I think adjectives would be a good thing to focus on for this because it's easily underestimated but very much exploitable.

Here's a few links I found particularly useful to know about adjectives and their word orders:

[ link : @enchantedlearning.com ]
[ link : @learn4good.com ]
[ link : @grammar-quizzes.com ]

If you want to try more questions to check your understanding, go here:

[ link : @web2.uvcs.uvic.ca ]
[ link : @johnsesl.com ]
[ link : @edhelper.com ]

004 : fun with tongue twisters

I love tongue twisters! Although the words in them are usually easy to understand, they totally mess up your head! It's simple fun to get out of a bored state of mind or to freshen up sleepiness. Plus, it's good for fluency practice as well! If it doesn't, at least the students and you will be amused :)

Here's a site I found that's pretty cool for this, check it out:

[ link : @fun-with-words.com ]

003 : what is the longest word?

For English, AskOxford says, nobody can really decide.

"Most of the words which are given as 'the longest word' are merely inventions, and when they occur it is almost always as examples of long words, rather than as genuine examples of use..."

Quite an interesting (short) article :)

[ link : @AskOxford.com (sub of Oxford University Press) ]

For any language in general, however, there are many words which are loooong.

[ link : @fun-with-words.com ]

002 : learning the interactive way

Here's a blog about teaching languages using, mostly, interactive games. His ideas are mainly technology-based (eg. using the computers, internet, etc), and/but they're very entertaining. They can be used for days when you feel like stepping away from being at the front of the class, and letting the kids have fun (while secretly learning ;) ).