Some Topics Covered

• Etwinning
• Using Concept Maps with Learners
• Edmodo projects
• Classroom Games
• Extensive Reading
• Epublishing with students
• Mentoring Teachers
• Using Wordle with Kindergarten Students
• Colours without Borders Project
• Using photo slide shows
• Students and entrepreneurship

Important Resources

• The various slide presentations
• TeachMeet Twitterlist
• The TeachMeet International Website and the Wiki where you will find the recordings

Challenge:

Use one of these ideas in your classes!

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The IATEFL Conference officially begins today. I am happy to be one of many official bloggers for the event. Additionally, I will be conducting a workshop about the successful integration of Bring Your Own Devices:

Time: Wed., April 10th, 11:40:00 AM – 12:25:00 PM, Hall 11c
Description: Transforming Trends: Effective Integration of Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT/ BYOD) 

How do we motivate students to learn beyond our classrooms? How do we equip classrooms with technology? A recent trend is for schools to implement Bring Your Own Technology policies. In this session, we will learn about the benefits, plan for the pitfalls, and participate in BYOT activities designed for language learners. Discover the hype and bring your device along!

10+ Resources & Tips

Whether you are traveling to Liverpool to catch it live or experiencing it virtually for free, you might find the following resources below helpful:

• Experience the conference for free virtually via the livestream and catch educational technology speakers on Monday livestreaming free for the LTSIG
• Download the PDF of the program for offline use on your mobile device or computer. I open it in iTunes and bookmark from there. It’s the easiest way and you don’t need Internet access to view it.
• If you’re attending the event live, don’t forget to download the free Beatles Story app that works offline for IOS devices and Android devices.
• Download the free It’s Liverpool IOS App that works offline and gives audio guides as well as has a very cool Augmented Reality feature
• Download the free Liverpool City Guide app with restaurants, museum information and more for Android devices
• Follow the #IATEFL hashtag on Twitter to catch snippets of various presentations
• Check out the other registered bloggers to get resources from various presentations

Free apps that I like to use for conferences:

 Hope to see you in Liverpool!

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Part of the Mobile Learning Series!

“The principle goal of education in schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” ~ Jean Piaget

I have been traveling throughout Slovenia and Croatia for the past month training teachers in integrating Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) effectively with their classes. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach various classes of teens throughout the two countries to show teachers how BYOT works. For the days I was teaching the students, these schools lifted their policies and allowed the students to use their devices as a way of getting technology in the schools. The teachers wanted to see BYOT in action, especially with students who were never allowed to use their mobile devices or other technologies before for learning. BYOT was a great option because many of these students would not usually be able to learn with various technologies in schools if they didn’t bring them in. I’ve posted a video created by Marijana Smolcec who filmed me working with the students at her school in Ogulin, Croatia.

10 Offline Activities with Mobile Devices 

One problem with integrating most technology is that schools and teachers rely too much on Internet access. We forget that even without the Internet, laptops and mobile devices are very powerful learning tools. Simple cell phones come with the ability to create videos, take photos, record audio, and take notes. Students carry these powerful learning tools in their pockets and don’t realize the learning potential, because we do not open their eyes to it. We can get our students to do so much with these tools while they are riding the bus, walking home, visiting their favorite places, etc. Here are a few ideas of the many, I do with students that do not require “a class” Internet connection:

• Commercial Ads- students often create short video commercials in groups. We have created commercials with invented apps and objects. We also did a project where we observed the stereotypes in commercials and recreated them without the stereotypes.
• Previews- students create a movie preview of a book they enjoyed and want to see adapted to film.
• Memes- students create videos of various memes such as a flash mob, the Harlem Shake, or lip dubs.
• Digital Stories- students work in groups to create a digital story. There are various video editing apps on any device that once downloaded work offline. For example, students can create videos with Sockpuppets, Puppet Pal, VidEditorFree, etc.
• Show N Tell with a Cell- students show pictures they took on their devices to their peers and have a discussion of where they took the picture, what it is about, etc. You can give students topics. For example, if you teach math, you can tell them to bring in an image that represents various geometric shapes. If you teach science, the image can represent a concept such as centrifugal force.
• Show N Tell Image Story- a follow-up activity is to have the students take the images from their group and create a story with these images.
• Visual Vocabulary- each week the students take photos or record a video representing the concepts, vocabulary, and topics we are covering. They upload these collected artifacts to a class laptop via flash stick. If Internet access is available, they can upload the videos or images to a class Flickr account via email. Check out an example here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/shellyterrell/tags/restaurant1a/
• Howto Videos- each learner can take a concept we are learning and teach us about it or create a how to video on something they are great at. Have them create a video cooking a recipe or instructing how to play their favorite video games. Cooking often involves vocabulary, math, and science lessons.
• Field Observations- students observe an object, environment, or animal for a series of weeks. They take images, video, and journal about this observance daily. At the beginning, they make predictions about this observance. We did this with spiders and their webs.
• Reporting the News- students work in pairs or groups. Assign them a section from the text or item they are covering and have them create a short news segment about the topic.

More Resources

• Check out my mobile learning posts, presentations, free ebooks and more, http://teacherrebootcamp.com/free-ebooks/mobile-learning-50-resources-tips
• Slide Presentation: 10 Offline Ideas with a Mobile Device
• Slide Presentation: We Like to Move It! Active Learning with Mobile Devices
• Slide Presentation: 15 Offline Activities to do With an iPad

Challenge:

Implement one of these ideas then write about what occurred. Feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below.

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This post was adapted from one I wrote for Smartblogs of Education.

Part of Upcoming Events

For the next month, I will be participating in many free online events that are really worth checking out. Anyone can view these events live and participate via an online chat, webcam, mic, and more. You will watch live presentations from teachers worldwide on various educational technology projects and in many cases you can receive a certificate of attendance to show to your learning institutions. Below is the description of these events, the links to the webrooms, and the times. Mark them on your calendar and invite a few friends.

Simple K12 Webinars

Thanks to the Simple K12 I present various webinars each month for free.

• Thurs., April 4th, 2pmNYC/7pmUK, Use Engaging Games to Make Learning Fun for Young English Language Learners (ELL). Register here https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/528224434
• Thurs., April 4th,  3pmNYC/8pmUK, Enhance Writing using Graphic Organizers, Register here https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/704142522

American TESOL Free Friday Webinars

Thanks to the American TESOL Institute, I conduct free 30 minute online webinars on the Adobe Connect platform every Friday at 4pm EDT (New York Time), 3pm Texas, 1pm LA, 5pm Brasilia, 9pm London, 10pm Paris, 11pm Athens/Istanbul, Sat 8am Sydney time, and Sat. 6am Tokyo time.

Click this link to join as a guest! http://americantesol.adobeconnect.com/terrell

Upcoming topics include:

• Fri., April 5 Teaching Poetry: 10+ Resources, Tools, Ideas
• Fri., April 12 We Like to Bring It! BYOT in ELT
• Fri., April 19 Great Infographic Tools & Lesson Ideas
• Fri., April 26 Outdoor Activities with Mobile Devices 

Additional details:

• Catch past video archives here, http://americantesol.com/blogger/?cat=10
• Find all the resources here including certificates here, http://bit.ly/ELTLINKs
• Access the Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/ShellTerrell/presentations

The Virtual Round Table Free EConference

I am currently co-organizing a free econference with Heike Philp, Berni Wall, & Steven Herder. Proposals are now being accepted to present at the 6th VRT WebCon on language learning technologies, 17-19 May 2013. You are more than welcome to just attend in your pjs! Submit your proposal to present at this free online conference here, http://www.virtual-round-table.com/page/6th-vrt-webcon-call-for-proposals

More Resources

• Adam Simpson has listed webinars throughout April and May for English Language Teachers here.
• Find many more free online events in Shamblesguru’s regularly updated Ezine http://www.scoop.it/t/teacher-cpd-online

Challenge:

Attend one of these conferences, invite a colleague new to free online professional development, and write a reflection about the experience on your blog or on your social networks.

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Part of the Mobile Learning Series!

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iacocca quotes

Brainstorming is an important process for any subject and helps improve writing, organizer group ideas, inspires discussion, and provides a roadmap for projects. When brainstorming is combined with sketching, drawing, and graphic organizers it helps learners to organize their thoughts for better flow and organization. Moreover, learners can make connections to previous knowledge and expand on what they already know. This means the brain will process the new information into long-term memory. Our learners can utilize free mobile apps to brainstorm on the go whenever they feel inspired.  The following are brainstorming apps for IOS/Android devices. 

Free Brainstorming Apps

• Idea Sketch IOS/Android Mindmapping App- Draw a diagram, mind map, concept map, or flow chart and convert it to a text outline and vice versa. Print with a PDF or download to Dropbox.
• Linoit web/IOS/Android App- Online sticky note board. Include links, images, video, and audio as well as change the size and color of your fonts. Has various background options and other attractive options. It’s embeddable as well. More stable than Padlet.
• Padlet web/IOS/Android- Online sticky note board with beautiful templates and backgrounds.  Include links, images, video, text (160 characters) and audio as well as change the size and color of your fonts. Has various background options and other attractive options. It’s embeddable as well. Drag and drop files. Print as pdf and offline.
• Mindmeister Web/IOS/Android- Mindmapping with nodes, text, images. Also can work offline then it syncs to all your mindmaps and updates them.
• Popplet web/IOS App- The browser base app provides collaborative mindmapping. Students can support text with images from Flickr or Youtube videos. They can upload their own. Embeddable.
• IBrainstorm IOS app- Create sticky notes as well as free form drawing. Email the brainstorming session.
• Lucid Chart iPad app- Collaborate with others and create flow charts, concept maps, and more. Drag and drop options. Add text. Send as a pdf or image.
• Inkflow IOS app- Sketch & write ideas then move them around and organize them.
• PenUltimate- Draw & write on notebook paper on your iPad. The writing becomes searchable, stored, and categorized with Evernote that is compatible with all devices.
• ShowMe iPad app- Interactive whiteboard and screen recording app. Ability to include images and narrate with audio. Creates a video that can be embedded. Students can record their brainstorming while creating their mindmaps.
• EduCreations iPad app- Interactive whiteboard and screen recording app. Ability to include images taken and from the web and narrate with audio. Creates a video that can be embedded. Students can record their brainstorming while creating their mindmaps.
• Screen Chomp iPad app- Interactive whiteboard and screen recording app. Ability to include images and narrate with audio. Creates a video to download. Students can record their brainstorming while creating their mindmaps.
• Mindomo for Android- Rated as one of the best. Add icons, colors, styles, images to mindmap. Choose map themes. Easily sync on the cloud, real-time collaboration options, store in folders, unlimited amount of mindmaps, and undo/redo features.
• Mindjet for Android-Rated as one of the best mindmapping apps for Android. Create nodes and notes, add images of your own or icons provided, and add attachments and hyperlinks. Sync to your Dropbox.
• SimpleMind Free Android App- Basic text and node app. Simple to use.
• Other similar free mindmapping tools for Android that were not rated as well include iMindmap (unreadable when exported), Mindmeister (no undo feature), Mindboard (not user-friendly), Mindmap Memo (crashes & missing content), Mindmemo, Mindmapping Free 

More Resources

Blog posts related to concept mapping and integrating graphic organizers:

• Webinar Recording: Teaching Writing with Graphic Organizers
• Webinar Recording: Integrating Graphic Organizers into Teaching. Click here for the recording. An Elluminate window will pop up for you to approve.
• Graphic Organizer Links and Resources
• Digital Storytelling & storyboarding: Sharing Stories Plenary
• 20+ Digital Storytelling Apps
• Engaging Learners with Storytelling: Storyboarding
• 10 Ways to Use Lucidchart Online Graphic Organizers in the Classroom
• Bring Your Textbook to Life: 15+ Ideas
• Incorporate their Interests: The 30 Goals Challenge

Check out my bookmarks on PearlTrees.

Challenge:

Try any of these tools with your students and share what occurred.

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What are your favorite ways to use graphic organizers?

*Image is Birth of an Idea, Flickr, CC 

“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
~ Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

We learn through the process of storytelling. Stories give learners a context for knowledge gained and a way to visualize concepts and ideas. Educators can use storytelling to teach any subject and engage students. In addition, teaching our learners to be great storytellers helps give them confidence because they are allowed to be creative and share a part of themselves. In their stories, they can always be the hero. Below are a few online tools and mobile apps to help your learners create digital books. There are 100s of digital storytelling tools and apps I have written about here, but in this post I am focusing on tools in which you create digital books. Storybook apps and tools make it possible for learners to share a complete narrative. Storybook creation tools tend to be very easy to use and are a safe way to publish work online, since students usually contribute only text and images. Check out my recent webinar recording filled with lesson ideas.  Below, I have included the slide presentation. In future posts, I will share tools for creating stories with video tools and multimedia apps.

Storybook Creation Webtools

• Zooburst- My favorite storybook creation tool. The web tool is absolutely amazing and fantastic for students to create online 3D pop-up books they can embed, add their own photos to, and create written dialogues for.  They can interact with their story using the Augmented Reality option. The free iPad app allows students to read the stories made and students scan Zooburst Story Codes to read the digital story made online.
• Little Bird Tales- Students can draw their own art or upload images to create a book where they add their voice and text to narrate their story. Then they can embed, create PDFs and MP4s of their stories. Available for i-devices for $2.99 but the web tool allows for the creation of free stories.
• Storybird-Perhaps the easiest storybook creation tool! Students create beautiful stories by choosing beautiful art and adding the words. Embed in a blog or wiki.
• MixBook- Students can upload their pictures, choose from a variety of themes, backgrounds, text, and stickers. It’s a digital scrapbook that’s embeddable
• Kerpoof- Create a story with a template. Students choose what kind of plot line then choose from a variety of characters. Also has options for creating a movie, drawing a picture, or making an ecard.
• Bookr- Students choose from Flickr pics. They can upload their Flickr pics. They create the text, embeddable
• UTellStory- Create a digital story with photos, video, voice, music and words,  embeddable
• Storyjumper- Similar to Storybird. Students choose from art collections by artists, create the text, not embeddable like Storybird
• Panraven- Students upload their pictures , create the text, embeddable
• BoomWriter- Easiest way to get your students to create a collaborative book for the whole class, with another class, or in small groups. Students collaboratively create a book then vote on which chapters should be included in the finished product
• Picture Book Maker- Create a beautiful children’s book by choosing characters and props and creating the text. The end product looks like a real book that children can order.
• Simple Booklet- Create flip books with beautiful images and text. This is more ideal for teens to adults. No registration required.
• The Art of Storytelling- Create books by choosing works of art. Record yourself telling the story
• Dr. Seuss Story Creator- Choose music, text, backgrounds and feature some of your favorite Dr. Seuss characters.
• Where Did the River Go- Students read interactive story adventure then can change the story
• Pinky Dinky Doo- For kids. Children pick what kind of story to create then they fill in gaps in a story that has characters and a plot line.
• Storymaker by British Council- This is more of a story generator. Students get to choose the type of story then choose various elements of a story that has already been created.

Storybook Creation Apps

• Storypanda-  Features books with tap, swipe, and drag. Choose backgrounds and characters, etc. Kids can place themselves into the story or create their own stories.
• StoryKit- Create an electronic storybook by drawing on the screen, uploading images, recording sound effects and voice, laying out the elements of the story (text boxes, images, paint, and sound clips) freely by dragging them or pinching to resize, reordering pages, and uploading to the StoryKit web server. Email a link to the story. The application includes four public domain children’s books to rewrite and rearrange into a new story. Available on the iPad and iPod.
• StoryBots- create books on the iPad starring the student! The app is free for the iPad. Includes animations and art. Various options to purchase the book.
• Flying Books App-(free, i-devices)Multimedia books offered in English, French, Spanish and German. Kids listen to an expert narrator or read on their own. Record a story or create personalized books with artwork and photos.
• Picture Book- Create a picture book with your photos and text or choose from a variety of stickers, templates, and pictures. For idevices
• Bunsella Bedtimes Story- students narrate a children’s story, can upload personal photos that become part of the story, then email the video of the narrated story. Others can respond to these read stories. Available on i-devices.
• Mooklet for iPhone- create photo stories with text.

More Resources

Check out over 50 of my bookmarks on PearlTrees.

Challenge:

Try any of these tools with your students and share what occurred.

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What are your favorite storytelling activities?

Valentine’s day is when we show our friends, family, and the people important in our lives how much we care about them. This holiday is a great time for teachers to help inspire their learners to show those they care about how much they mean to them. We should always take the time in classrooms to teach what it takes to be a good human being among the other skills we teach. Below are a few mobile apps that will get your learners excited about spreading kindness as well as supporting their creativity. Check out my recent webinar recording filled with more activities, webtools, and resources for celebrating Valentine’s day or this guest post, 14+ Activities and Resources for Celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Apps

• Kid’s Fingerpainting Valentine’s Day App (I-friendly)- Kids can choose to color 15 pages or create their own Valentine painting. They can choose frames, up to 15 effects, and personalize their masterpieces with messages. Activity ideas- Use this app to send greetings to family members who love when kids draw and paint.
• Cooper’s Big Bear Hug- Interactive story with audio and interactive. When read aloud by the student, Cooper the bear will react to the voice. Activity ideas- Students can create their own digital stories featuring their favorite stuffed animals with digital storytelling tools like Storybird, Little Bird Tales, or ZooBurst
• Mark and Mandi’s Love Story (I-friendly)- Help Cupid in 4 games walk through the relationship of Mark and Mandi. Activity ideas- have students create a digital story filling in the details of Mark and Mandi’s romance after they play the various games
• Animoto  (Android/I-friendly)- Upload up to 10 images, choose a soundtrack from the library (many nice romantic tunes to choose from, and click a button to make a 30-second video. Sync your videos with your Animoto.com account, download videos for offline viewing, and make longer ones with an All-Access Pass. Sign up for an educator account to create longer videos for free. Activity ideas- Use this app to get students to create a video capturing a favorite family event; students can create videos of pets; they can get into groups and send the greeting to different classes in their school, grade level, or younger classes; older students can create a video showcasing a great place to take a date or highlighting a favorite restaurant
• Fotobabble- Quickly create and easily share talking photos in 3 steps (Snap or select or a photo, speak into the microphone to record audio, share with friends via email, Facebook or Twitter). You do get various holiday themed backgrounds. Activity ideas- Students can create short poems and add a picture to go with it, they can recite their favorite love poem or quote and include a picture that represents it, or they can talk about the best Valentine’s day greeting they received and post an image of this
• M.A.S.H Valentine (I-friendly, Android version)- Preteens to adults will love this app that has them fill in their crushes, select 4 places to go on a date, etc. This app is great for getting students to write and puts it in a classic game they will enjoy playing. Activity ideas- Extend writing by getting students to create a story to go along with what the app predicts
• Tom Loves Angela App All Devices (I-friendly, Android free version)- Students speak in this app to send messages to Tom the cat’s girlfriend Angela. The app also let’s them chat and Angela responds back. Tom also gives Angela gifts and she can respond in various ways. Activity ideas- Students can create a digital story of Tom sharing love idioms, quotes, pick-up lines, poetry or songs. They can create their own short love poems or “Roses or red…” poems and have Tom recite them to Angela.
• Tom’s Love Letters (I-friendly, Android free version)- Send free postcards featuring Tom & Angela with various animations. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• Angela’s Valentine (I-friendly, Android version)- Send free postcards featuring Tom & Angela with various animations. Check out 2 music videos and games. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• Restaurant Story: Valentine’s Day (I-friendly)- Students design a restaurant including the menu. Activity ideas- Extend writing by getting students to create a story about the perfect date, teach restaurant vocabulary, pair students to create a dream restaurant, have students create a howto video of them preparing one of the recipes, or have students use the Animoto app to create a commercial for their restaurant
• First Words Valentine (I-friendly)- great for toddlers and young children to learn phonics and vocabulary related to the holiday
• Scrap Pad Valentine-s Day (I-friendly)- upload your photos to create a digital scrapbook with templates, background, stickers, and more. Activity ideas- students can create a memory book of adventures with friends, relatives, or a pet
• Valentine Videogram (I-friendly)- Choose from 3 fun characters and backgrounds and create an animated video message. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• Mix Me Valentine’s (I-friendly)- upload your face and it will be placed in various greeting templates. You can record sounds as well. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• Cupid Booth Valentine-s Day (I-friendly)- upload your photos and decorate with speech bubbles, stickers, personalized messages, and more. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• RedStamp (I-friendly)- send free e-greeting cards with various free Valentine’s day templates and upload your photos. Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• Holiday Cards by Sincerely (Android/I-friendly)- send free e-greeting cards with various free Valentine’s day templates and the ability to personalize Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives
• A Card for That (Android)-send free e-greeting cards with various free Valentine’s day templates and the ability to personalize Activity ideas- Students send a greeting to another classmate with a kind message about what they like about them (make sure all students receive a greeting) or simply send to relatives

More Valentine’s Day Resources

Check out over 50 of my bookmarks on PearlTrees.

Check out all the apps in my PearlTree.

Challenge:

Try these apps with your students and blog about any exciting ways you use them!

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are your favorite ways to use graphic organizers?

It’s a project that is ‘Owned’ by the students who work autonomously and collaboratively; teachers are facilitators and guides to the project process.

It uses the students own love of music as the motivator and we know teenagers love their music. Their music is personal and an important part of their lives. Teenagers are overwhelmingly engaged with music, 92% of 14-17 year olds own an Smartphone or MP3 player and they listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day. We also know that there is a huge need to motivate secondary school students, in particular, to learn languages, focus digital competencies and be creative.

What do the teachers involved do?

Well actually the teachers do very little. They introduce the project to the students, stand back and let them run, and run they do. They can ask teachers for help, if they want, and you can help them with facilities to record and edit.

What do students do?

The project asks students to write their own lyrics to songs of their choice. They then translate their songs in to the target language they are learning; this will require adaptation to the music of the chosen song. The students then record their song (audio or video) and share it with other students all over Europe. The receiving students then have to comprehend the songs and translate into their native language and record their version for sharing.

The first groups of students in Czech, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK have completed their videos with incredible results, see the 2 examples: The kids have thrown teachers out of the project and are learning autonomously.

PopuLLar-Piloting in Brno, Czech Republic

PopuLLar – Buongiorno Principessa – Piloting in Spain English

Each participating school will have a page on the project wiki to share their videos and to choose other videos to work on http://popullar.wikispaces.com/

All the resources to use the project are freely available in 6 languages on the project website http://www.popullar.eu/resources.html It is best to start by showing the students the step by step guide http://share.snacktools.com/AEAED958B7A/fzp5bfsm

PopuLLar, http://www.popullar.eu/, is a European Union, funded, education project designed to harness music, the primary social interest of secondary school students, in to their language learning.

Reference

Statistical evidence (Source University of Hertfordshire’s Music and Entertainment Industries Research Group Summer 2009)

The most important entertainment type for 14 – 17 – 90% music
The size of the average digital collection is 8,000 tracks = 17 days
Average of 1,800 tracks on a pocket MP3 player or phone.
92% of 14-17 year olds own an MP3 player

Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day.
(Source: The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine)

Note: Thanks to Joel Josephson for letting me know about this project!

Challenge:
Involve your learners in this project and have them record their first music video.

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On February 9th & 10th, I will be conducting the closing keynote through a Webinar, Sharing Stories: Powerful Lessons in Language Learning, for you to attend live for free. This will be for the Online Story Sharing Conference which features 20+ speakers worldwide. Check out some of them in the video below.

• Catch the livestream here on both days free here, https://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncilTurkey?sk=app_357519830997544&app_data=class=1
• Register here for free for the online conference http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/4839702681/est
• Download a free schedule of events (PDF) http://www.britishcouncil.org/turkey-english-teaching-stories-for-schools-story-sharing-conference-programme.pdf
• Watch the video recording of the recent pre-conference webinar I gave on Jan. 22nd, Storytelling with the Digital Generation
• The conference begins at 10amGMT. Below you will see 2 countdown clocks. 1 to the start of the conference and the other to the start of my closing keynote. When you register the event will be marked on your Google, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. calendar in your time zone.

Video for the Upcoming Conference

Story Sharing Web – Conference ‘Saturday 9th – Sunday10th February 2013′ from British Council Turkey on Vimeo.

Find digital storytelling resources listed in my PearlTree

Challenge:

Come to the event and use one of the tips or resources with your learners this year.

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Lucidchart is the best free learning tool you’ve never heard of.  It’s an online diagramming tool that’s easy to use and supported by a for-profit company, so you don’t have to worry about us disappearing once you’ve built your lesson plans around us.

Not sure how to use a diagramming program in your classroom?  Here are 10 ideas from teachers and professors who are already using Lucidchart.

1) Lead a discussion

It can be difficult to corral a class full of excited learners, but it’s much worse when your students are apathetic about classroom participation.  Lucidchart tackles both of these problems with our real-time collaboration. The new technology captures students’ attention and encourages them to focus on the task at hand.  At the same time, each contribution has equal weight, and every child’s voice is represented when they work in the editor.   You’ll end up with an energetic-yet-structured class discussion that kids will love.

2) Think, Pair, Share

Think, Pair, Share is a common classroom technique that can bring shy students out of their shells and engage the entire class.  With Lucidchart, each response shared by students can be easily organized into one Lucidchart document.  Real-time collaboration means that edits are synced instantly and immediately visible to everyone on the doc, so no time is wasted while passing out papers or compiling feedback by hand. Everything is saved to our secure data centers, so you can refer to past exercises at any time.  And if you’re incorporating Think, Pair, Share activities into future lesson plans, you can create custom templates for reuse.

3) Real time feedback on assigned tasks

When a student works hard on a project, they want feedback, and they want it fast! Lucidchart gives teachers the ability to view their students’ progress as it happens, and to offer feedback with minimal turnaround time. Utilize our in-editor comment and chat functions to clarify, critique, and communicate with your students. If they’re not online, they’ll see your comments upon login.

4) Green graphic organizers

Graphic organizers are a great tool to visually explore concepts. You don’t have to settle for outdated or irrelevant graphic organizers. We just introduced over 50 new graphic organizer templates, based on user feedback and designed specifically for education. These templates can be used as is or tailored to your classroom’s unique needs. The best part? You can print them, just like traditional graphic organizers, or you can go completely paperless by publishing your graphic organizers to a blog, wiki, image file, or a unique webpage hosted on our site.

5) In-class individual work

Even if you strip away Lucidchart’s collaboration features, it’s still a sophisticated tool for independent learning. Students will enjoy playing around with Lucidchart’s design options, which allow customization of colors, borders, text, and even the size of the canvas.  Our tool empowers kids by giving them full control over their learning environment. They’ll love the slick interface and intuitive nature of our software and their confidence will grow along with their proficiency.

6) Group assignments

Group projects are perfect for strengthening social skills. When students use Lucidchart for group projects, they can collaborate from any location, with any browser, on any device. Rather than try to arrange meeting times and dates, students can streamline group projects with the live chat and in-editor comments. You may even find yourself expanding the breadth and depth of group projects, since Lucidchart can accommodate an unlimited number of collaborators.

7) Brainstorm with mind maps

Before your students reach for a pen and paper, have them fire up their laptops (or tablets, or phones, or desktop computers) and log their thoughts with Lucidchart. Mind mapping software is easier with Lucidchart because we offer a mind map tool that responds fluidly to keyboard shortcuts. You can easily add new shapes, text, and sub-topics. We’ve also incorporated auto-layouts and easy collapsing of mind map branches to make your diagrams simple and structured.

8) Teach logic with Venn diagrams

Lucidchart comes equipped with ready-made Venn diagram templates, including 2-, 3-, and 4-circle Venn diagrams. Teach simple set theory and syllogisms, or get even more complex with multi-circle Venn diagrams. Our software helps your text and shapes snap into place, so things will never get crowded or confusing. Your diagrams will come alive when you customize them with bright colors and images. And no matter how complex your diagram gets, you can always expand the canvas for more space.

9) Go mobile with a tablet learning environment

With so many schools trying out 1:1 technology initiatives, we knew that a great mobile experience was important to educators. That’s why we developed a seamless iPad experience for Lucidchart, so you can view and edit diagrams from anywhere. You can incorporate visual learning whether your students are sitting in a classroom, learning about biology in an outside lab, or touring a historical building during a field trip. It’s easy to tie assignments together and explore cross-curricular studies when you have a flexible, inspiring tool like Lucidchart in your back pocket.

10) Move beyond the classroom

Do your students maintain a class blog or wiki? Add Lucidchart diagrams with the click of a button. Do you want to create a Pinterest board for your school district? Convert your diagram into a PDF, PNG, or JPEG and pin it. We’ve seen students sharing documents on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and personal websites, and you can always host your doc on a permanent Lucidchart web page. You can help your students understand that learning isn’t meant to stay in the classroom.

We hope that you’ll leverage this powerful free tool to foster confident, adventurous digital learners.

How to sign up for an educational account:

Sign up here for a professional trial account, preferably using an educational email address. Once you do that, click here to apply for your free educational account.  Then we’ll approve you and you can start diagramming upon login.

Please remember that you will only have access to our educational templates once you’ve signed up for a trial account and your educational upgrade has been approved.

Challenge:

Try any of these ideas with your students and let us know how they worked!

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What are your favorite ways to use graphic organizers?