EduBlog Language Learning Experiences with technology

This academic year my students have made good use of google tools.  One of the best tool for preparing test has been google docs, but also useful has been mindmaps, wordle and also padlet. I have noticed that some schools have decided to increase testing time during the Autumn and Spring term, leaving students with not enough proper learning time. As a result my tutoring work has been challenging and demanding at times as it felt like teaching a complete scheme of work in just 60 min a week. Sometimes these in-house tests included material and topics that learners hadn't properly covered in school. Luckily I have had very able and resilient students this year, and hopefully they will not be discouraged by so much school testing and will carry on next year with modern languages.

I have been a part of TES community for some time now. This a space for teachers to network and share useful resources. There are plenty of high quality resources shared for free on the site, crafted by experienced and hands-on teachers. I remember I downloaded loads of good resources while teaching in the classroom.  On TES resources website I share two resources ( downloadable for free when creating an account): Chocolate (KS4 IB)  and Futbol en español (for KS2/KS3) Clipartbest.com In the Summer 2014 I was contacted by TES resources with a proposal to create high quality resources for sale: Premium Resources. This seemed like a very good learning opportunity.  During half-term I devised the resources agreed. If everything goes well my resources will be published in Jan 2015. I though I would post an entry about my learning journey so far: Copyright issues I learnt about: you can't directly copy across exam questions, many public domain ...

During 2013/14 academic year I have been supporting students with their Spanish GCSE, A-Levels and IB ab initio exams. In addition, I am now accredited as an examiner for DELE levels B1/B2 by Instituto Cervantes to prepare and assess students for their DELE exams. There are so many differences on the way these exams are set and assessed and the resources available for tutors for preparing that it is imperative for all teachers to get know in great detail what is at stake. DELE It seems clear that DELE exams are the hardest for a tutor to help preparing mainly because there are no past papers available. This material is being destroyed after every entry.  Also, time restrictions, for the speaking test the students have only a few minutes before the exam to prepare the answers for the questions. No material is allowed in the room and students have no access to the questions until the exam starts. IB ab initio This is very similar to DELE on terms of mate...

Last week I was asked what logistical questions students taking tests for Spanish always ask? These are my answers for the faq asked by students taking Higher tier papers. 1. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA. Understand assessment criteria for reaching best results. For instance, the information a student generates must be relevant to the topic or task they are performing in Spanish. Students tend to provide information that is not relevant. The reason for this is that students feel they need to keep talking/writing: more words more marks. The criteria for assessment makes it clear: more irrelevant information lower marks. 2. TIME RESTRICTIONS: Understanding that you do have time to perform the task. Because students feel under pressure there is no detailed planning when writing a piece of work. Therefore, the language usually is very poor in the first paragraphs. This doesnt give a good impression to the examiner. I encourage to use mind maps to explore accurate vocabulary before approach...

My next post is about my experience on using the website courseSites for teacher training. This website is user friendly and free. Here is a tutorial . It works very well with adult learners and for language upskill courses. Here is a screenshot of one of the tasks posted at this free website. The task involved texting with a mobile phone. This task created enough content to build a unit of work. It was very motivating. My aim was to find a task that would provide authentic learning This is the story  the student and I created. Each colour refers to a single message.

Love wordle