Traveloteacher

After having taken the poll about using technology in the classroom on the Facebook page of the International Teacher Development Institute , I'd like to recommend my favorite web 2.0 tool that my students and I used - and liked - the most over the past year. Wikispaces is definitely Number 1 on my list. I started using wikis three years ago, then moved from there to blogs (I tried all of them: wordpress, edublogs and blogger) and the Google sites as well. But this year I returned to the wiki - I think wikis convey the true essence of Web 2.0 - collaboration! It's amazing how easily we can work with students and teachers from all parts of the world. Even teachers who aren't tech-savvy can easily use it and keep it running smoothly. Here's my Greeting from the world wiki , which has connected more than 500 students and educators from across six continents. In October 2011, I set up a virtual classrooms for my second-year students where we do the tasks that acc...

Yesterday evening this tweet  grabbed my attention and it brought me to an amazing lesson which I did in my class today. The author is Ian James , a teacher with fantastic ideas and great lesson plans. What would you do.... if you came across these videos? is a lesson on 2nd conditional in a completely different and very real kind of way. And it came as if on cue, because I've just finished the conditionals with my students. What's more, I'm their classroom  teacher (something of an advisor or home room teacher) and we've been discussing bullying and violent behaviour among teenagers quite a lot lately and the video that we saw this morning triggered an interesting discussion on teen dating violence - during which they used 2nd conditional without noticing that they were actually practising a grammatical concept. Following Ian's suggestion, my students will watch one of these thought-provoking videos at home and next time they'll role-play different ...

It's this time of the year again: The 2011 Edublog Awards are on! I'm particularly fond of the eddies, they are so dear to my heart - for two reasons: Firstly, because I'm extremely proud of my wiki which has been recognized with the Best educational wiki award twice in a row, and secondly, because I'm given a chance to let the world know about the distinguished educators who have inspired, enthused and motivated me over the past year - or years, as a matter of fact. Here they are: Best individual blog:   Teacher Reboot Camp by Shelly Terrell Best individual tweeter: @evab2001 Best group blog:   Take a photo and ... Best new blog: A journée  in language by Brad Patterson Best ed tech / resource sharing blog: Free Tech For Teachers by Richard Byrne Most influential blog post: Teacher Development 2.0 by Steven Herder on Barbara Sakamoto's Teaching Village Best twitter hashtag : #eltpics Best teacher blog: Vicky Loras's Blog Best School...

At TESOL France my greatest wish was to be omnipresent and to attend different sessions at the same time! Because  with 68 attractive talks and workshops given by amazing educators from 27 countries we were literally spoilt for choice. But in the end, a choice had to be made, regardless of how difficult it was to decide which session to go to. Fortunately, the post-conference buzz is still going on all over the blogosphere and twitterverse with blog posts, tweets, videos and photos of the speakers we didn't get a chance to see, so that they've all come alive in Vicky's posts on Day 1 ,   Day 2  and Day 3 , in Ceri's Echoes of Paris ,  in Brad's #TESOLfr made me think thrice  and Shelly's Sharing Stories . Here are some of the most interesting thoughts, ideas, activities and links that I learned from the speakers whose sessions I attended. I consider myself to be a true lifelong learner but Stephen  Brewer added two new dimensions to lea...

I just arrived from Paris where I attended the 30th TESOL France conference, which was perfectly organized by the wonderful Bethany Cagnol and her amazing team. Those three days were absolutely fabulous. I'm delighted not only because I was there, but also because I met many of my Twitter friends in person. Another thing is that my presentation went well, especially as it was my first international presentation ever. Photo by Chuck I'm deeply grateful to all the teachers who came to my talk, especially to my iTDI family - Chuck Sandy, Anna Musielak, Anna Loseva, Vicky Loras and Vladimira Michalkova, my wonderful Twitter and Facebook friends Valentina Dodge, Elizabeth Anne, Helen Noire and Sue Annan. Special thanks go to Sue Lyon Jones who inspired me to create my own tests and quizzes and Shelly Terrell , my good fairy of the internet, without whom I would never be where I am now. Here's the slideshare of my talk. I hope you find some useful tools for cre...