TESOL CALL-IS's List: Teacher Training

"Figuring out which students participate in a class discussion—and how often—can be a huge challenge. Equity Maps is an iPad app for keeping track of that.
"You start by creating a seating chart that shows where students are sitting for a discussion. When the discussion starts, you just tap each student’s icon as that student contributes to the conversation. Equity Maps keeps track of how long each student talks so that when you’re done, you can get a summary of how often each class member participated, how many were active participants, and whether there was equal gender distribution among those who actively engaged."
Sounds like a good teacher tool. T/h to Jennifer Gonzalez

Intriguing interactive image with links to specific articles and ways to create/use materials to meet Common Core Standards for ELA/Literacy.

This set of illustrations is actually better than Byrne's instructional video on how to use the new features of Google Slides.

"Google added two fantastic new features to Google Slides. First, Google Slides now has a Q&A feature that lets your audience submit questions to you.
"Second, Google Slides now has a built-in laser pointer that you can use to call attention to parts of your slides. I've already received some questions about how to use these new features so I made the following short video."
t/h R. Byrne
The Q&A tool makes Google slides very versatile for online presentations. Check out the how-to video. You can turn off the feature anytime, and students can vote questions/comments up and down. If students sign in (highly recommended), you will see their Google ID name. You can hide the questions or show them to the audience. The laser pointer feature is one-click easy to use and is also mentioned in the video tutorial. Looks pretty snazzy.

Designing 3-dimensional, hands-on experiences for the classroom. Explains "flipping" in the original sense: students explore first, then hear what it's all about through discussion with other students. Works well with science, but how to translate it into the language classroom?

Encourages the use of synthesis and deeper reading than just "beginning, middle, and end" by having them put together several readings, e.g., about an autistic child and a psychological case study to analyze a character in fiction. Uses case studies from non-fiction articles to create prototypes of, for example, a robot that pushes emotional or intellectual thinking to the extreme. Scenarios from fiction show what their prototypes have and what they need. As they read they are now thinking about how the reading speaks to humans.
The video also has a running text commentary that helps visualize how a teacher can make students think about their reading, see patterns, examine their own thought processes and progress. Questions to consider in the margin, as well as connections to the Common Core Standards.

A great collection of instructional videos on how to use Pinterest for education, as well as a set of links to other educational sites.

Very useful tips and comments on how to use YouTube successfully.

"These videos give you an up to date outline of using the program Blogger. They start off with how to create your first blog all the way through to adding more pages and authors to your blogs"
R.Stannard takes you through the updated Blogger program. I have used Blogger for years, but now tend to just use Diggo and Scoop.It, the latter for the more reflective, pedagogically oriented discussions. Blogs are very helpful as a place for student portfolios, and are easy to tag and search.

More QR code mobile phone activity from N. Hockly. This treasure hunt could be used by students for Orientation to the campus/school. Directions indicate how to adapt for beginner students or intermediate students.

A smartphone based lesson y N. Hockly. Students take photos of a topic offered by their coursebook, then work on generating the vocabulary to talk about the topic before looking at the lessons in the textbook.

N. Hockly's blog gives a nice description of a mobile lesson plan using a QR reader. This lesson boosted student energy and enthusiasm and built on language the students generated themselves. Some "newness" effect was no doubt present, but it's a nice start for beginning learners.

Another superb teacher-training video from R. Stannard on using Google Forms to create questionnaires, surveys, and quizzes.
However, you made find some changes have been made to Google.

R. Byrne offers an overview of OTUS, a mobile learning environment to distribute assignments, quizzes, polls, readings, etc., to iPads. It can now also be used with browers on laptops and Chromebooks. The Otus YouTube channel has detailed directions for how to use the various elements of the service.

A nice set of ideas from K. Venosdale and the Haiku Deck Team. I like applications that offer not just how-to, but the why-to as well.

A really great article by Larry Ferlazzo on how to use positive classroom management with your students. Tips include avoiding collective punishment, getting students to take responsibility for their own behavior while envisioning long-term effects, and so on.

This set of videos from TeachingChannel has observation exercises that would be useful for teacher-training, or self-training. There is a note-taking worksheet downloadable in the Supporting Materials, and Questions to Consider as you watch the video. This is a nice exercise, and also includes a Think Aloud activity.

"Peer review has long been regarded as beneficial practice in the teaching of writing. In North American educational settings, learners are often asked to provide feedback on each other’s papers. However, when international students come to study either in intensive English programs or in institutions of higher education, they may encounter difficulties during peer review activities because many of them never had experiences with this kind of practice. As a result, students tend to give each other broad, irrelevant, essentially unhelpful comments."
This blog post offers help in training students for giving good feedback.

"Cheating Death by PowerPoint teaches you to make great PowerPoint presentations by avoiding some common mistakes." This is a good show on how to really use PowerPoint creatively. But try Prezi, too. PowerPoint, as the presentation makes clear, seems to want you to fail. This slideshow shows how to overcome the inherent faults of the typical ppt theme and make your shows more interesting to students -- less text, more pictures, analyze and synthesize to focus your presentation and give it more impact.
T/H to J. Bakker

This 2:14 min. video shows how and why Aaron Sams flipped his classroom. Uses direct instruction in video he creates at home, and then can discuss content in the classroom. Great example by a young, energetic instructor in high school.