A letter from the college

Something to make you smile while you are getting ready to recommence your work in September.

                       

A student's view on the school budget (click to zoom)

Teaching topic - Banksy

When the curriculum says "next topic - contemporary British art", you certainly cannot bypass Banksy, a notorious figure in British and world art.
Here is a video that will help you to present this artist to your students.



There is a nice online exercise based on this video at
http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/britart/banksy-videoquiz.html

I have prepared a worksheet about Banksy with 3 reading tasks which you can see in the preview.
You can download it here.

A new tool Iconscrabble

Despite of looking plain and even boring, this new web tool Iconscrabble makes wonders. You have to enter a word or a short phrase and the tool presents your word in a special way - it composes your word of icons/ logos which in turn are linked to their respective websites. Amazing!

You get a picture like this but its links are active only on the Iconscrabble website. A pity you cannot embed it anywhere.

You can use this tool at the lesson - ask your students to type their names and discover what websites each letter in their name represents.
Ask them to find out a website for each letter of the alphabet. There are many icons for one letter so students will have different websites for one and the same letter. A whole lesson of fun!

Typography

What once was a simple selection of letter forms to be organized into words and sentences and then printed, now is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs.
Typography has evolved as both a science and art for one main purpose: to make words easier to understand and more meaningful to read.

Typography is also what you get when you use word cloud generators mentioned in my post Web tools for making word clouds.

Example of typography (click to enlarge):

An awesome example of creative typography

Further reading on typography:
http://free-web-design.co.cc/the-art-of-modern-typography-design.html
http://sixrevisions.com/design-showcase-inspiration/30-creative-typography-art/

Infographics

Browsing the net lately, I have come across the term infographic on many occasions. What is it?
Infographics is the mixture of text and images to tell stories, explain concepts, describe processes, or provide instructions.

This is how Dave Gray defines it:
1. It's a visual explanation that helps you more easily understand, find or do something.
2. It's visual, and when necessary, integrates words and pictures in a fluid, dynamic way.
3. It stands alone and is completely self-explanatory.
4. It reveals information that was formerly hidden or submerged.
5. It makes possible faster, more consistent understanding.
6. It's universally understandable.

Look at some examples (click and zoom to enlarge):
                                                                    

Further reading about infographics:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/07/tips-for-a-startup-infographic.php
http://spyrestudios.com/an-inspirational-showcase-thatll-change-how-you-display-data/
http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/40-useful-and-creative-infographics/

Web tools for making word clouds

Word clouds or clusters of words are a fun way to sum up the lexis used in a particular text. There are quite a lot of tools for creating them, here I have exploited four of them. I have already mentioned TAGUL and WORDLE before.
I have used the same poem The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein for making all clouds. You may try to predict the content of the poem while looking at these word clouds, and then read the full poem at the end of the post.

Further reading about the ways how you can use word clouds in the lessons:

http://kjtechresources.blogspot.com/2010/03/ways-to-use-word-clouds-in-classroom.html
http://www.web2teachingtools.com/wordle.html
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-word-clouds-in-efl-esl.html
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Stockdale-TextCloud/
http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2010/06/16/what-is-a-word-cloud/

WORDLE is probably the most popular tool. I have not researched its history but I believe it may also be the oldest of all tools of the kind. I developed my love for the word clouds thanks to Wordle.

WORD IT OUT is a tool I discovered recently and liked it at once for its simplicity.

















Word clouds made with ABCya are amazingly similar to Wordle products and as lovely!

Finally, TAGXEDO which is popular because of its versatility. You can even create a cloud in the shape of a star or an animal. But then Tagul also makes shapes if you wish.








Here is the poem I used to make the word clouds.

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.

Quoting...

... a Canadian teacher Todd Wandio /http://cfllearner.blogspot.com/:

"I consider my vacation time a form of detox.
.............
Whether or not you pick up and go anywhere this summer (winter for you down unders), a small piece of advice - and the cool thing about advice is that it is free to give, free to take, or free to ignore - make time every day to find balance, peace of mind, and calm. You may not get more than two minutes to find it, but that two minutes can save you a half year of therapy."

Spiderweb (click to enlarge)

Rice fields in China (click to enlarge)

To see more fabulous and incredibly beautiful pics, go to http://www.pixdaus.com/
- one of my favourite sites for nature photography.

E-book that helps to prepare a lesson

 The useful e-book gives suggestions about using web 2.0 tools to make your lessons more attractive and interactive. It is worth reading it!

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

10 things I am going to do this summer

It is fashionable now to make lists on different topics, for example, 10 things you should know about..., 5 books you can't miss..., 7 new tools a teacher can't do without..., 9 best tips on... etc.

I have fallen for this strategy too, and out of idleness I have decided to create my own list. What could it be? Probably something I can realize during the summer. (A list can be manageable only if you have free time to do it, right? No use writing a list knowing that you will be occupied with other "more serious" things.)

Writing a list also somehow makes you stick to it, at least that is true for me.
I confess, I have been influenced by Mike Gayle's The To-Do-List which I read recently. I could never ever do as many as 1277 things he had written on his to-do list but then he had given himself a whole year to complete the task.


So, here I am writing the 10 things I am going to do this summer which otherwise might have not been done (I allow myself to extend the list if need be):

1. Read at least 4 new and valuable books (Cheating  because I was going to read them anyway!)
2. Sort out the wardrobe!!!
3. Wash the windows!!!
4. Go to the Forum Cinemas and watch at least one new film (have to decide which one).
5. Call on an old friend (or two depending on their availability) in another town.
6. Prepare a workshop I am going to deliver at the teachers conference (I was going to do it anyway, so it's cheating again).
7. Set up a new social site for my next year students and think out how to use it :))
8. Make a few jars of jam e.g. strawberry, blackberry, cloudberry, orange etc. (I have already made rhubarb-banana jam which is good!)
9. Take a picture of myself so that I have one ready to publish where necessary.
10. Go for a boat ride with my family in the Daugava. (Have done it before, and loved it!)

I'd write as item no.11 - learn the names of proper coffees but I guess that's not serious. My Italians confirmed the names except they did not know about Cafe Breve.

(click to enlarge)    

Three days in Aluksne

Beautiful Aluksne - who would have expected to find such a place on the border of nowhere!
Old, neat and homey, with tales and legends (told to us by Una), with a picturesque lake and cobbled paths, with enormous oaks (live for hundreds of years) and their own Bible translator, with stories about the czar and his courtiers - what a wonderful place in Latvia which is surely obscure to those living in the central parts or the capital!

Very successful Teacher Trainer Development course hosted by the British Council and Aluksne Infantry Training centre. (Surprise again!)

Eric with his flute in the morning and a hood on his head in the evening...
Galina with her bouyancy...
Rita with her red hair and her savvy of the subject...
Robert with the gift of the gab...
Ligija with her composure...
SilvijaA with her relaxed wit...

Poisonous mosquitoes...
Roman columns...
Bride's Veil island...
Beer with the game btw France: Mexico in the background...

What else?