Tour Builder by Google - Storytelling with maps

 

Tour Builder is a free fantastic tool! You have the whole world to put your stories on! It allows you to create or explore stories directly in the various countries of the world where they are set.

You will need to install the Google Earth Plugin (it only takes a couple of minutes), if you haven't already.

You can take a 3D trip inside stories!

It could be very useful to study history, geography, literature and even storytelling.

If you want to create your story-trip  you have to 

• choose your destination on the Google map
• add your photos, videos, links
• describe the places, pictures, photos or videos you put in (you can give a general description in the "tell the story" box and you can also describe picture by picture)
• insert some links if you want people to get more information

Tour Builder takes track of all your movements on the map and this is the final result. Watch my brief example about my Cambridge experience! Choose "enter Street View" on the map to watch 3D the places I saw!

Some students' tasks:

1

Describe your last school (or family) trip. 

• Mark all the places you visited on the map
• Add some pictures or videos
• Describe the places you visited

2

Is there an esotic place in the world you would like to visit?

• Choose a destination
• Find some photos about that place on the Net and add them
• Invent a travel route 
• Add some links to give information about the places you would like to visit
• Write the reasons why you would like to go there

Let's go travelling!

Teacher appreciation!

Teacher appreciation week: May, 5-9

Teacher appreciation day: May, 6

To celebrate this Teacher Appreciation week I chose a digital tool. 

Padlet is a digital notice-board. Double-clicking anywhere on the board you can leave a message, a link, a picture, a poem... (If you drag-and-drop your text-box you can move it wherever you want).

I'm going to ask my students to write something (positive or negative) for/about me. They can use their real name or remain anonymous.

This will be very useful to

• get a quick feedback
• become aware (or have further confirmation) of my strenghts
• become aware of any problems
• make the students feel important by telling them I really need and consider their opinion

I've just created my students' board, click on the image below...

If you clik on this other image, instead, you will open a blank Teachers' Board I've just created for all the teachers who want to tell their opinion about teaching! Leave your comments (you don't need to log in)!!

For teachers - creative writing for Mother's Day

May, 11th is Mother's Day. Another occasion to improve our students' writing skills and stimulate their creativity. 

This time we tried Storyjumper. 

It is a great simple tool to create e-books. The following is a brief example of a Storyjumper book, just to give the idea of what you can do. I asked my youngest students to make a little book for their mothers.

They had to:

• Surf the Net to find images
• Upload their own images or photos
• Choose their scenes as background
• Write a sentence for each image
• Write a brief text 
• Draw some characters using the "Props" 

Click on the image below

It is a very funny activity because students can draw their own characters (choosing their dresses, faces, hair, etc), they can choose different props (animals, food, objects, etc.), they can use their own pictures to write a story.  

Have fun and be creative!

World Laughter Day - May, 4th

WORLD LAUGHTER DAY

World Laughter Day was born in India on January 11 1998. It was organised by the founder of the Worldwide Laughter Yoga Movement.

He said that laughters stimulate positive emotions and can help us feel better. Not only they can improve our mood, but they are also good for our body. In fact laughing brings more oxygen to our body and brain.

When we are in our classroom we sometimes get bored...Let's try to have some fun... and learn at the same time! 

Jokes can help

• motivate to speak, listen, read and write
• promote a relaxed atmosphere
• study the language in a real-life context
• understand informal and colloquial expressions
• compare different cultures

Let's see some jokes!

Surf the following sites to read jokes, riddles and puns

Jokes between students and teachers:
http://freejoke4u.blogspot.it/2010/09/short-jokes-between-teacher-and.html

Jokes:
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/jokes.php#.U2IlB4F_tMQ

Jokes:
http://academictips.org/blogs/jokes/

Funny short stories:
http://academictips.org/blogs/funny-short-stories/

Jokes, riddles, puns, misuse of english: 
http://iteslj.org/c/jokes.html

Some jokes listed by difficulty and grammar goals:
http://www.esljokes.net/contents.html

Some students' tasks 

1

Read the jokes above, choose one and learn it. Then you will tell it to your classmates. If there are many characters, choose some friends and act the joke toghether.

2

Surf the above links, choose one joke or funny short story and then write something similar using it as a model.

3

Now invent your own joke!

4

Choose a joke, a pun or a short story and translate it. Do you think you could translate  all the jokes literally? If not, why? 

Think about something very funny about your country and about Britain and tell or invent a joke about that. 

5

Read some jokes about the misuse of English. Choose one and tell what makes the joke. Did similar funny situations ever  happen in you classroom? 

HAVE FUN!

Cineforum - some movies based on British or American novels for children

If we want to talk about foreign literature in our EFL class, watching some movies could be very useful. I choose six films based on some British and American novels for children. Three of them (Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol and Peter Pan) allow us to talk about the 19th century literature. The others (The Polar Express, The Golden Compass and Harry Potter) can be used to talk about modern or contemporary literature.

In the following Blendspace lesson that I prepared students can learn some information about some authors of books for kids. You can see the trailers of the six movies. Then you can read a list of some movies taken from children novels if you want to go on watching other films and reading other books. Finally there is a presentation of mine with some information about the novels' authors and the major themes of their books. You can also do some quiz.

Click on the link below and have fun!

An English Cineforum: some movies based on novels for children.

Below teachers can find some interesting links about using movies, videos and  novels in their classroom.

Movies and novels in EFL classes: some links for teachers.

I made the above poster with Piktochart

Click on the following image if you want to view my presentation outside the context of the Blendspace lesson. 

Enjoy your