Unlocking stage fright using technology?

Issues: I was recently approached by a friend who shared some concerns with me about her child. The child had issues speaking up and participating in class, to the point that he needs to communicate with his classmates via a whiteboard. This parent also witnessed this “shyness” herself during the school’s tri-conference when her child

Emails with Great Unintended Benefits 電子郵件意外得到的好處

For the past two weeks, students have been using the Autosum function in Microsoft Excel to add numbers. We first did this in class to calculate the total number of bronze, silver, gold medals some of the countries won at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Then, the students went “shopping” and created a chart that showed the

Going beyond flashcards – personalized learning （Quizlet單字清單－個人化學習）

在學習詞彙時， 人們會對經常遇到的生詞有較深刻的印象，從而更容易地領略到它們的意思。不過，對在語言學院學習或自修外語的學生來說，因為沒有合適的語言環境，必須融合以學習詞彙為中心的學習方法來提高詞彙學習水平。 語言學習者（學生）會利用Quizlet熟念生詞。他們通常會把要背的單詞放在一列，詞義放在另一列， 加以練習。不過對高階學習者來說，學習語言的挑戰不僅僅是提高詞彙量，還必須能夠把詞彙應用在生活中。 當我使用日語溝通時， 我發現難以流暢地交流的主要原因是因為不熟悉詞彙的用法。根據研究指出，一種可以幫助學習詞彙的好方法是列出可應用在不同情境中的例句。所以背單詞時應把例句放在旁邊。 以下是我幫三年級老師設立的詞彙清單 (還可發聲的！)： 這一個是我個人用來學習的 ： 英語中所謂的“句子挖掘” 是指通過收集，保存和回顧句子的方式來學習語言。 相對於純碎地背單詞，這是一個更有代表性的學習方法。學生可以從電視劇或雜誌中收集句子並儲存在 Quizlet裏。 此外，Google其實是一個很好的工具，可以用來查找單字地常見搭配“搭配詞” （collocation). 在學習第二語言時，常見搭配的重要性是不可忽略地。它可以讓學生說話更加流利自然，使他們想表達的內容更容易理解。 下面這篇博客文介紹了如何使用谷歌搜索詞彙的常見搭配： 語言學習者應該利用Google這個“世界上最大的語言資料庫”來搜索並記錄常用語，常用搭配和常用例句 。我相信用Quizlet來收集地道的用法會讓你的學習過程變得更有意義。 When learning vocabulary, the more one encounters with words in the language input, the more likely the meaning of the word would be acquired.  However, this is difficult to achieve if you are studying at

Promoting Reading & Writing with QR Code

LEARNING via QR Code QR code or Quick Response code is a great way for younger learners to watch a video, look at a website and listen to an audio without the hassle of typing the URL, opening up browsers, etc.  Teachers can simply link a QR code to any of those media and post

Edmodo vs Schoology vs Moodle vs Weebly vs Google site Part 1

There are so many different platforms out there where teachers can set up a learning community and students can access course materials, share their work, collaborate and engage in discussions, but the question is, how does a teacher decide on which platform to use, and should school specify what teachers should use as a school-wide

Using Zooburst to create Chinese New Year pop-up card

Every year, I introduce Zooburst as a way to motivate students to share and publish their stories.  They love making their stories come alive by adding pictures on a page in an open-book.  Zooburst is simple to use, and after a brief introduce as shown in in the video below, students are on their own!

How to encourage students to plan & analyse stories using digital storyboarding tools

Literacy pedagogy is no longer limited to “teaching and learning to read and write in page-bound, official, standard forms for the national language.”  Today, many terms such as “multimedia” and “digital storytelling” are commonly used to describe practices that transcend language.  Many educators are looking for visual learning tools to augment traditional literacy practices to

Using Popplet in Reading and Writing

  Students often struggle with writing because instructional time devoted to teaching the process of writing is limited.  What I mean by the process of writing, or the ‘writing process’,  is steps generally defined as brainstorming, planning, drafting, and revising.  These are procedures that should be explicitly taught, and students should be given ample opportunities