LITTLE MOON

TITLE: "YOU'VE GOT M@IL" image: fanpop.com If you remember this film was about e-mailing. People from all around the World is using the e-mail for working and for other aims: romantic meetings, to keep familiar contact, etc. That's why our students should know how to use it and in our case, how to do that using English Language. I hope the meaningfull objective of getting to know other children of their same age is enough to motivate them to produce natural language. TOPIC: MAILING IN ENGLISH Areas: ENGLISH (ESL), GEOGRAPHY, SPANISH AND VALENCIAN, ARTS&CRAFTS, PHOTOGRAPHY, ICT. LANGUAGES: English. Collaborative Tools: Twinspace, Videos, padlet, genially, Prezi, e-mail, postcards, letters. Google maps. Skype. AIMS:   The aim of this project is that students get to know other students from Europe, specially we are looking forward to Portugal were we have the TWIN CITY of Moixent, it is called Arruda dos Vinhos.  We want them to learn how...

How many times I wanted to share something about PLE...Today I read in one educational web page by @blahisay this and I couldn't resist to share it. His page is more than recommendable called  http://e-aprendizaje.es/ It is a nice pic about how to start a PLE. I love it! http://e-aprendizaje.es/ And it is a good beginning for anyone, even for me. Thanks for sharing it!

In this famous video we can reflect on our classes if creativity takes part in our schools or not. It is a very important question specially because we are working with children. So, in my opinion every teacher should have thought it over fully. I show you, my dear reader, that I try every year to improve my classes, my pedagogy and my skills as a teacher. But, Do you know how to start? Well I can help you with the beggining: - Tell other teachers about your intentions and aims, if you show your mind to them may be they collaborate. - Start looking for events or courses where you can keep in touch with people who have the same interests as you. I recommend some on my twitter @PILARtheMOON - Don't give up! Try to mantain yourself positive and share your experiences. Even if you are not right you are improving more than someone who is doing nothing. Let me know about your results. ;-)))

I'm studying this month an on-line course coordinated by Teresa Pozo (CEFIRE) and I would share this interesting video about teaching emotions. John Meyer ‘We can teach emotional knowledge’ (2009) The main ideas are the following: Theory about emotions by John Meyer:    Perceiving emotions   Managing emotions  How emotions can enhance thought   Understanding emotions People can have a high IQ but use it to be nasty. That’s why we.. Separate values and virtues from intelligence. Increasing Intelligence= changing the capacity of carry on abstract reason. (psychologist focus) But can we teach emotional knowledge? He said yes, It will improve our skills? We don’t know yet, but some studies said we are interested in improving our social relations and that’s a wonderful thing. Full video: 

How important is to reflect on our teaching practice? What do I want to change about it? Do I care about my students' interests? Can I use ICT resources at school? This week I took some time to reflect on all this questions which I never did. Sharing my opinion about my job and the teaching practice is important for me. And the idea of following other people with the same interests makes me think that I'm not alone. Well, my list of wishes are: - To introduce more project collaboration methodology in my classes - To coordinate to other departments at school in order to involve them with my own practice - To use much more ICT reources and always explore new ones - To ask my students about their interests and the changes they would make in the english classes In the same line, to analize other E-twinning projects and to see that another world exists is very provocative and proACTIVE. When you are working in a school with no collaboration, no ICT resources and little tim...

Last years I listened about MOOCs but I had never tried one. That's why this month I have decided to start the MOOC about etwinning which consists in an European formation about projects for the educational sector. I hope to have time enough to comunicate my experience through this blog and to share the resources that I will be founding. Secondly, you can check my first notes about this week: - Educalab is a kind of platform in which after you register you could accede to different MOOCs, all related to education.  http://mooc.educalab.es/  It belongs to an open concept of on-line courses which implies collaboration with other profesionals of your sector. - Then, we made an introduction to ourselves, my name is PILARtheMOON and locate our cities in a google maps . After that we started to work with simple messages through social networks such as twitter and facebook . My twitter: @PILARtheMOON   please follow me! My facebook: Pilar de Luna - To create a PORTFOLIO,...

Every year I try to include new items of history about English spoken countries in my teaching programme. That's why I leave you this interesting post of the UK history about the origin of the most common Nursery Rhymes we use at a Primary school. My intention is to recreate a native environment in my classes. How? Reproducing some anecdotes of English history. It is a funny and real way of preparing children for listening to culture and put in context nursery rhymes. First I ask them about a picture of an egg. What is it? Then I say, What's the relation between an egg and English history? Next we discuss a little about it, even if they say in Spanish some silly things I don't mind because they are understanding and communicating. Finally I show them some slides with pictures of the link and we review the relation with English culture. Finally I told them to record their voices saying a nursery rhyme as fastest as possible. In the end we review pronunciation and the stude...

This last days of classes we are working with PIRATES, we extend our vocabulary, create different faces and bodies of the models. Even more we are reading books of adventures, which matches with the Reading Project of the School this year. Enjoy! HA HA HA All the material is available in the corridor, together with our WALL OF FAME.

This week I have attended to a course about creating materials for digital board. I share here some tips for teachers who want to initiate in this from zero. It is easy and fast, in a few hours you will be able to create activities ready to use. TIPS 1. Follow the material about HOW TO USE A PDI?  Ateneu project  My tip is to select some sections, if you already know how to use a PDI you will leave aside some basic notions. Part 3 (Mòdul 3 called in Catalan) is the one we are interested in for the creation of materials. Source:  http://www.touchboards.com/polyvision/ts600.asp 2. Differentiate the kind of Interactive whiteboard you have got at your classroom. Depending on the system we could have: touch based (using fingers and pens), electromagnetic (only with special pen), infrared, interactive projector (with static board). You should have installed the software and a good Internet connection. The first step is to 'orient' it with the software, means to lim...

A tongue twister is a way of practicing pronunciation for fun. Children like repeating them and they are very useful for enhancing motivation. Christmas Holidays is a good period for asking students to learn some puns. My piece of advice is to ask children to draw a picture which describes the main idea of the tongue twister. For example: - Red lorry, yellow lorry. - If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?  - She sells sea shells in the sea shore. - If you want to buy, buy, If you don't want to buy, bye bye! - I can think of six thin things, and I can think of six thick things too. - Kitty caught the kitten in the kitchen.  More info: British Council http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/tongue-twisters   Download in MP3  http://www.download-esl.com/tonguetwisters/easy/easytongue.html