tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70591590736027939182026-01-11T17:50:27.759+02:00Teaching EFL with technologiesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-75432691825234210552016-01-11T22:52:00.001+02:002016-01-11T22:53:07.979+02:00

This blog is no longer updated.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-46756367671393580352015-03-01T21:30:00.001+02:002015-03-02T10:12:44.991+02:00

Hello my readers, It's already March, and my Christmas greeting has been looking at you for a bit too long, so it's time to write a fresh post to acknowledge my existence. This time I am going to tell you about a new service that I came across accidentally, or possibly via some shared information, and it is called Tozzl. Tozzl is a free web service that lets you create and share your

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-59141597274274322472014-12-24T08:48:00.000+02:002014-12-24T08:48:09.982+02:00

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-18032324782122345532014-11-30T21:16:00.002+02:002014-11-30T21:19:19.191+02:00

If you happen to pass by, I'd be extremely grateful if you could vote for a blogging platform which in your opinion is the best for using with students. My main concern is the comment feature, how easy and convenient it is. If you choose Other, please write in comments what it is and why you like it. Thank you!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-69732829420142631562014-08-07T21:45:00.000+03:002014-08-07T21:45:49.556+03:00

It was by lucky chance that I got hold of the book See Me After Class by Roxanna Elden. The book may be described as a teacher's manual or a guide to beginners and it is focused on American schools, yet the tips and tricks given in the book easily apply to most teaching problems in the world. What I liked about the book is that Roxanna Elden looks at everyday troubles in class with humour

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-49138301505144988302014-04-27T09:55:00.001+03:002014-04-27T09:55:57.254+03:00

While visiting in Norway, I attended a lesson where the teacher used Kahoot for testing students' knowledge in a fun way. The questions were displayed on the screen and the students answered them using their laptops, tablets and smart phones. Each question had a time limit, so not only knowledge was important but also the speed of thinking. In the end students could see how they were ranked

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-74416112454907345362014-02-14T20:37:00.001+02:002014-02-14T20:38:52.215+02:00

Image by jarmoluk http://goo.gl/bdYd4r Dear reader, You may have noticed that my previous post was written last year in December and you may be wondering when I am going to post something new. Well, not very soon, as I have realized that my willingness to share with you what I do and what I think has diminished with time and there are many reasons for that which I am not going to discuss

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-23717269718350911592013-12-29T17:08:00.000+02:002014-01-10T22:41:32.090+02:00

Here is a short summary of what educational technology tools were used both by my students and myself in 2013.   Exam Time  - for making flashcards that students used for studying and revising the new vocabulary, and for creating mind maps. Flipgrid - for posting questions and storing student audio responses. Movenote - for creating video tutorials for my students. Students

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-73788234241288555242013-12-23T22:20:00.001+02:002013-12-24T13:03:47.848+02:00

Image #eltpics by @pysproblem81 Before the Christmas bells start jingling, I rush to respond to 11 questions posted by Eva Simkesian (@evab2001) in the current blogging meme Eleven. Eva is a teacher in Turkey who writes a blog where she shares her classroom experiences. I often find there some good ideas for my own work. I know Eva from Twitter and I wish I could go one

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-15814012356949121872013-12-21T23:47:00.001+02:002013-12-23T22:59:11.598+02:00

#eltpics by @foster_timothy This is a follow-up to my previous post about the new blog challenge which was started by I-do-not-know-who and will end I-do-not-know-when. My task is to name bloggers who I would like to tag and whom I would like to ask my 11 questions. I will try to name the people who I have not seen tagged by other bloggers (though I have not read all blogs). You can see that

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-7722122428719828882013-12-21T18:33:00.000+02:002014-02-14T20:40:41.953+02:00

I could not find the first post that started this amazing blog chain of nifty personal revelations where you have to do the following: Acknowledge the nominating blogger. Share 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you. List 11 bloggers. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-56591831980661015452013-12-15T12:43:00.001+02:002013-12-18T17:30:57.954+02:00

On 2-4 December 2013 I attended the conference organized by British Council Spain Learning and Teaching English in the Digital Age. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to British Council Latvia, Sandra Prince in person, for making it possible for me to attend the conference. Barcelona is a magnificent city. During the short hours that we could spend outside the conference premises, I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-66986504572431164332013-11-28T21:10:00.000+02:002013-11-28T21:10:20.402+02:00

When I first saw Moovly I knew it was a tool that could be used in education for creating animated videos and interactive presentations on condition that you are really interested in technologies because the tool is not the easiest of those I have tried. What slowed me down was the process of adding animation to my slides. For a non-professional user, it is rather challenging. Had I persisted,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-40914563012928089682013-11-11T21:04:00.000+02:002013-11-11T22:40:09.784+02:00

Flipgrid is a relatively new tool which has been created for educational purposes and its essence can be described in one sentence - the teacher asks a question and students post their video/audio answers online. The idea of the tool is very simple, however, it represents a great up-to-date method of student involvement. Not only does it require the students to use technologies (webcam,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-5667189376613318932013-10-12T19:44:00.001+03:002013-10-12T19:46:57.770+03:00

Here are two quick ways how to help your students get the meaning of an unknown word provided they have a personal PC. I have mentioned Lingro before and it is worth mentioning it again. You have 2 options for using Lingro. Either you just go to the Lingro website and paste the address of the webpage in the address box, then Lingro will open this page where each word will be clickable and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-78403822413094476562013-09-14T18:42:00.002+03:002013-09-21T23:06:00.014+03:00

This school year I am determined to think more carefully about the ways how I teach vocabulary to my students, as this is one of their weakest skills. The results of the state exams regularly show that the lack of sufficient knowledge of vocabulary leads to making lots of mistakes and getting lower scores. One of the most efficient ways to reinforce students' vocabulary skills is to use videos.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-58659834853138603772013-08-16T22:50:00.001+03:002013-08-16T22:50:48.135+03:00

You know, teachers celebrate a New Year twice every year, in January and September, the 2nd this year in Latvia. And it pertains to think a little about how you are going to spend it. My simple and straightforward aim is to use more technology in the classroom because I am sure my students will be waiting for something new and exciting, as most of them are used to working online. There are

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-70248714690782564172013-07-27T21:01:00.001+03:002013-08-02T18:40:44.470+03:00

This is my contribution to the 33rd ELT Blog Carnival titled Songs in ELT Classroom. I made this worksheet quite a while ago and had forgotten about it until I read the theme of the current blog carnival. I thought it would be a good opportunity for my worksheet to have a second life. This is one of my favourite Michael Bublé's songs Hollywood. The great Canadian singer himself has

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-66750799292027294532013-07-09T16:38:00.003+03:002013-07-12T15:48:45.617+03:00

Recently I came into possession of a bunch of great pictures which were taken during my trip to Italy (arranged by my daughter who lives there), and I decided to kill two birds with one stone - share the images with you and try the emaze tool for making my presentation. emaze is a great free online tool for creating presentations as well as digital stories. It lets you upload pictures, videos

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-42955664638883364292013-05-19T21:32:00.000+03:002013-05-20T07:37:07.037+03:00

The school year has reached its final stage, with the English exam already done. Students are dreaming of summer holidays (as are teachers). More interesting things are happening outside school, and who could blame them for wishing to be part of real life? To say good-bye to school 2012/2013, I am posting here a video made by one of my students. Their task was to make a short speech on a topic

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-41180910088854235262013-04-06T22:59:00.000+03:002013-04-06T22:59:58.617+03:00

Pictures speak louder than words, yes, but words help to convey the message more effectively. There are numerous tools for manipulating images to achieve a desired effect but in this post I am going to write only about one way of working with images, i.e. adding text to an image. All the web tools mentioned in this post have two things in common (and for this reason they are great to use

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-81349039125251127552013-03-22T20:04:00.000+02:002013-03-23T08:23:45.307+02:00

Traditional Easter activities are usually intended for younger kids because they include colouring of pictures, drawing rabbits and eggs, doing egg hunt. However, baking egg nests, weaving egg baskets or carving wooden eggs will be more suitable for older students, so there is something to do for everyone. Below I have listed various resources that I found on the web which may come in handy

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-80593485745684626412013-03-09T22:38:00.000+02:002013-03-09T22:47:04.974+02:00

Today I attended ELT conference Motivating and Inspiring Teenage Classroom organised by the Oxford University Press and Dace Miska as its representative in Latvia, and the British Council Latvia. The speakers were brilliant Ben Wetz (OUP author), Martyn Clarke (OUP teacher trainer) and Joanna Gore (BC Barcelona). Below I have listed a few ideas I jotted down while listening to the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-46334622052304011062013-02-23T21:30:00.000+02:002013-02-23T21:30:26.219+02:00

Examtime is a website which is primarily meant for students to increase their learning experience and help them revise for the exams. But as I have made sure, it can successfully be used by the teachers. Examtime has four features which you can choose from - creating mind maps, flashcards, quizzes or study goals. The site also provides a range of study tips for students. I have already posted

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7059159073602793918.post-52272465577269605562013-01-25T23:04:00.000+02:002013-01-28T23:43:08.213+02:00

Big Heart of Art - By Qthomasbower Now that the collages have been viewed and liked, it's time to reveal the tools that created them. I won't rank them according to the number of votes because the results are obviously partial and to judge the tools by 'likes' will be unfair. It should be mentioned that I have not included those collage makers that work only on mobile devices. Collage nr.1

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2