TESOL CALL-IS's Public Library

A blog for student poets read, comment, create!

blogs poetry literature adult_learners VSL

"We currently teach multiple courses for a total of 12 or 13 different lab classes. Each class has 50-60 students and can have up to two or three graded assignments in a given day. Paper grading takes too long and transferring thousands of grades to our computerized grade forms has huge potential for human error. Grading with a spreadsheet, even on a tablet, becomes too slow with so many rows and columns. So we made Green Gradebook to solve our problems.
"Our plan was to create a gradebook app that allowed for large or small student and class numbers while minimizing the time it takes to enter a grade for one assignment. Ideally this would speed things up for us as we walked around the room grading!"
Mobile access for grading has some real advantages.

mobile_tech assessment teachers VSL

Some excellent tips for getting started with Twitter and using it effectively.

mobile_tech Web2.0 adult_learners young_learners teachers pedagogy teacher-training VSL

Open source training materials for African development --- accessible anywhere.

mobile_tech CALL_Environments digital_divide online_lessons teacher-training VSL

An interesting article on why boys don't become readers, as girls usually do. Some suggestions on finding literature for boys and creating good reading habits.

reading young_learners teachers pedagogy VSL

You can use photos, video (Flash or Javascript), and text to create interactive, really beautiful timelines that work in any browser. Great for student projects.

project-based content-based multimedia adult_learners tools VSL

Type in a few words to find a song and the lyrics, often with a link to a YouTube video of the singer. Might be very good for a student project: have them find a song they like, learn the lyrics, perform for the class (use the YouTube video for the backup band). Beware: students might find some raunchy rap tunes, hence more appropriate for mature students

music content-based project-based listening speaking VSL

This list of Webinar's appears to be free, but you must sign in with your email, telephone, organization, etc. Most Webinar's run about an hour. Numerous topics - designing mobile learning, using powerpoint, media editing tools, etc.

multimedia mobile_tech online_lessons teachers teacher-training pedagogy VSL

Although this is just a lead-in to the Edudemic Magazine iPad app (free to subscribers), this blog article has the short list in its graphic. Take a look for some ideas on how to use the iPad to "consume, collaborate, and produce."

mobile_tech blog teachers teacher-training VSL

Send a video message from your smartphone or computer. You can store up to 5 pre-packed videos and include your website and other links.
Russell Stannard has a training video on this useful tool at http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/eyejot/index.html

web2.0 listening speaking multimedia young_learners adult_learners VSL

Blog that tells how to use the PowerPoint template to make a visual puzzle. Might be fun to try with a class of learners--they make the puzzles for each other.

young_learners thinking teachers teacher-training VSL project-based games

"Listening Lessons
Activities include multimedia, free MP3 files, vocab tasks, language notes, print page and more."
English Listening Lesson Library Online with over 1,000 lessons, designated by level, and ordered by difficulty. Topics include news and scenarios, interviews, games, etc. K-12 Online Curriculum link.

young_learners games very_young_learners listening online_lessons VSL

"Engrade unifies all of the people, tools, data, and curriculum in your schools on one user-friendly platform. "
And it's free. Includes gradebook, attendance/seating chart, admin reports, access by smartphone, messaging to parents, and security.

young_learners adult_learners teachers tools web2.0 VSL

"Despite our best efforts as teachers, there simply is not enough class time for working adults to learn English as a second language in the classroom at the speed that many of them need to meet their personal language learning goals. "
Article by Alexandra Lowe on learning outside the classroom.

blogs pedagogy teachers adult_learnings teacher-training VSL

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. "
Really simple, easy to use. Create from a URL or type/paste in text. Can be a useful way for students to think about important new vocabulary they are learning, the meaning of a book or essay they have read, etc.

art multimedia tool project-based content-based adult_learners young_learners VSL

"The following are some of the best free tools available online that can help teachers create quizzes."
This blog links to some 16 online quiz makers with very short descriptions of each. For college/adults and K-12 also. Some sites have pre-made tests in such subject areas as history, geography, and grammar. Most allow different types of quizzes and some have games as well.

quizzes tools online_lessons content-based adult_learners young_learners teachers VSL

"Welcome to DS106, the open online course on digital storytelling that began at the University of Mary Washington and continues as a community of learners across the globe. "
Interesting blogs and examples of student collaborative projects.

Web2.0 project-based reading writing online_lessons multimedia adult_learners thinking teaching teachers VSL

This article has a thorough discussion of the reading-writing connections for ESL primary school, and includes a nice reading response worksheet in the appendix. Article by Annmarie Jackson, GSU.

reading writing teachers pedagogy VSL

This brief article by Tom Robb outlines a great new Moodle application that is free if your school already uses Moodle, or accessible online where you can have your own page for quiz access. The add-on offers a short quiz of 10 randomized questions for almost 2,000 commonly read books used for extensive reading programs with the major graded reader series. See the http://MoodleReader.org site.

reading online_lessons adult_learners teachers quizzes VSL thinking content-based

A good series of short articles describing apps for Apple: iBooks Author to allow teachers and students to create their own electronic books, epublishing for students, critical thinking at discoveryeducation.com, and apps for ELLs and Special Ed students, etc. (Thanks to Lindsay Meeker, of the CALL IS list.)

mobile_tech tools pedagogy teachers teacher-training VSL