sábado, 9 de mayo de 2020

Bye-Bye ITCS!


Well, boys, the time has come to say goodbye. I've loved running this blog for the past few months. I hope I have motivated you to use ICTS in the classroom and that you have learned new resources.




I leave you here a video that I have made with Genially making a brief summary of all the resources used.

Thank you very much and see you soon! 


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#BetterTogether :)

miércoles, 6 de mayo de 2020

Let's save the poles! Our video project about Climate change




Helloooo guys!




Today I bring you the second part of a project I made with my partners Aida and Mónica. As I explained to you on my previous entry, first, we wanted to storyboard a video project. Secondly, we wanted to create, edit and post a video which topic is Climate Change.

To create this video we have used a tool called Windows Movie Maker, specifically the version of 2012. Many of you will know this app, commonly comes with the Windows Software.

It was a bit difficult because now we are lockdown and each  of us is in a city in the country so we managed through videocalls.

We had to synchronize our voices to create the dialogues and also the videos we found and the background music. We used those videos in order to recreate the comic storyboard we did prevously, then we added our voices, the music and some transitional effects to make it look better.

As I explained before, the topic is Climate Change, a problem we have nowadays and of which we must all be aware, even the children, since they are the future of this world. 

I attach here the video. I hope you like it!



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                                                  #BetterTogether :)




The World is My Audience - #twima8 -


Hi guys!!

This time I want to show you a video that I have created using Flipgrid. I have being part of a project called "The world is my audience"




Flipgrip is a very easy tool to use. You just have to get on the page through a google account. You can record just the audio or the audio and the image. You have 5 minutes to record yourself and then your  video will be upload to the network. You can delate and repeat your video as many time as you wish! 



From my own experience I was fun to be part of this project, I hope you will laugh a lot with my funny story!







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#BetterTogether :)

lunes, 4 de mayo de 2020

Storyboard a video project 😀

Hello guys!!





Today I bring you a part of a project I made with my partners Aida and Mónica. We wanted to storyboard a video project. The topic is Climate Change, a problem we have today and of which we must all be aware, even the children, since they are the future of this world. We have tried to explain it in a very visual and easy to understand way.

To make this comic we have used the application Storyboard That! which I had already presented to you before, since it is easy to use although with the free version it only allows you to create six bullets.

In the next entry I will present you the video about this story!!


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#BetterTogether :)

lunes, 20 de abril de 2020

FLASK! The science podcast 😍




HELLO GUYS!
Today I bring you a wonderful idea to do with your students and that is to develop a podcast!


My idea was to create a podcast, it would be weekly, and  the students would send by mail doubts about sciences (either social or natural) that normally are not worked in class, for example, Why do we have a navel?  Then my structure would be to welcome the podcast, to solve a couple of these curious questions that have been received from the students and as a final an activity / craft of something that the students could do at home and experience a little science.

Planning of the audio project





To make this podcast I used the application called audacity. Audacity is a free, multi-platform computer application, which can be used for audio recording and editing. It can be used for:

- Real-time audio recording.
- Edit audio files 
- Conversion between audio type formats.
- Import of MIDI, RAW and MP3 files.
- Multi-track editing.
- Adding effects to the sound 

I used it to upload the audio file and change the format as well as add the start and end melody of the podcast. In both melodies I have made the sound to decrease until my voice enters (in the initial melody) or until the podcast ends (in the ending melody).

In my opinion this application is too complex to be used by primary school students since I have already had a hard time understanding how it works. To understand how it works I had to watch several video tutorials and read several blogs where they gave some indications on its use.


Finally, I saved the audio track with the modifications in the Souncloud application. SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform where users can collaborate, promote and distribute their music projects.

The way to distribute the music in SoundCloud is through the use of applications and widgets. It is available for iPhone and Android; and there are more than 100 applications that can work with it. It also has a Dropbox where musicians can receive audio files from their followers.

In this application I have opened a channel and then uploaded the audio track. Then I created in my channel a playlist called "Flask podcast" and included the first episode of this funny podcast.
Songs that I used for the podcast: 

Amos Moses - Jerry Reed


Greta Van Fleet - Highway Tune


Here it is my channel!

 
Here it is my playlist!



Finally, here is the first episode. I hope you like it!





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#BetterTogether :)


jueves, 2 de abril de 2020

Discovering new ways to present information.... INFOGRAPHICS!😊

Hi again, guys!

Today I come to talk about a new program to make infographics, called Piktochart.





An infographic is an informative visual representation or diagram of written texts that in some way summarizes or explains a topic.

Piktochart is an online tool that allows you to create infographics for free. It offers predefined templates in which it is possible to add and format the text, add multimedia content such as images and videos, among other possibilities, so that the creator of the computer graphics can arrange the presentation of its theme.
We, as teachers, can use infographics to:
  1. Create high quality designs for presentations such as murals, personal presentations, etc.
  2. Summarize what was learned in class in a visual way and it also allows to acquire the global perspective of the subject that is being treated.
  3. Learn how to organize visual content in a reduced space. 

On this occasion I have made an infographic about the Earth Day that will be celebrated next April 22nd. It is a good way to bring this celebration to the classroom and raise awareness among students about the importance of caring for our planet.
I attach here the image of my infographic and if you want to know more about it or use it in your class click on it!



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                                                  #BetterTogether :)

martes, 31 de marzo de 2020

How can we present the information in a visual way? MINDMAPS!😀

Hello guys!


Today I bring you an app with which you can quickly and easily create mind maps. It is Mindmeister and it will help us to present the topic to our students in a visual way, and also makes the information look easier!





Mindmeister is a simple web app to build and use concept maps. One of its best features is that it does not need installation, so you can create your maps from any computer with Internet access.

It works on the digital competence of the students while they work on the elaboration of concept maps of different subjects and motivates the student, as it provides an original and fun way to make mind maps.

For me it has been a great discovery since I can not only put images but also add links to videos or activities such as kahoot!

I attach the link here if you want to have a look on my new mindmap. I have created it to present the main characteristics of the animals for first graders!




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 #BetterTogether :)

lunes, 30 de marzo de 2020

Leaning about feelings using... COMICS!

Hello everyone!

Today I want to show you how we can work on emotions in the classroom using comics. The one I created is about bullying and how that makes our students feel and at the same time it shows a quite curious way to increase self-confidence.
I made this comic with an application called Storyboard Creator. This online tool can be used for free, although with some limitations, and it has several more complete payment methods per subscription that eliminate these limits.

The free version of Storyboard Creator allows us to create comic strips with 3 or 6 bullets and a maximum of two comic strips per week.  When exporting the images, add a small watermark. 

This is my comic and it is called: The power of feeling confident

Click on the image. Have a look and enjoy!



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#BetterTogether :)


lunes, 16 de marzo de 2020

Genial.ly: a "genial" platform


I really want to tell you about Genial.ly, the interactive presentation tool that I'm sure that you and your students will love!






Genial.ly is a web tool created by a Spanish company that offers a virtual presentation service. It is a tool similar to Prezi, but with much more advanced features.

In addition, the design of the tool is very simple and intuitive, which allows you to master the tool in a very short time.

Genial.ly web tool allows you to create 5 types of presentations:





I have created an interactive image to teach The Constitution of 1978 in Year 6. I post here if you want to have a look!





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                                                    #BetterTogether :)

lunes, 2 de marzo de 2020

Where I should keep all this fantastic ideas?





How many times did you ask yourself this question? how many times did you find a fantastic idea on the Internet, keep it on Drive or took a screenshot and forget it?













This happened to me many, many times, so today I have decided to create a Pinterest account to keep all these fancy ideas that I have found in pins on my board.  
























In my Pinterest board you can find three different boards according to what I considered important for a Primary teacher. The first one is Active Methodologies that are different ideas of how you can develop your lessons, the second one is Teaching Grammar that are some hacks to teach some difficult areas of the English grammar and last but not list, the third one is Teacher Hacks that are, of course, hacks that can help you to develop your lessons. 





I leave my link right here! Follow me and we will share ideas!




 #BetterTogether :)


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miércoles, 26 de febrero de 2020

Spring is Coming!




Spring is coming! so, first-graders and I are going to discover many different  names of plants! 




I'm going to select some pictures of spring flowers.  Then, I will project them on the whiteboard and I will write the name of each flower below. After that, they will repeat the names of them.

After that, I going to give them petal-shaped papers to draw the spring flowers they have on the whiteboard and also I will give them a yellow circle. Pupils will stick (with Blue-tack) the petals around the yellow circle.






All pictures have been taken  from Nowaja, and you can use this link to see all of them.     https://pixabay.com/users/nowaja-9363663/
                                                                                                

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                                                                                                                             #BetterTogether :)

lunes, 24 de febrero de 2020

Welcome to Learning Better Together


Hello guys! 

                                


Welcome to my fancy blog. My name is Tamara and I'm 24 years old. I'm an EFL Teacher and I'm currently studing a Master's Degree in Bilingual Education in the Rey Juan Carlos University. 

I love sports, that's the reason why I'm maybe a bit obsess with going to the gym! For many years, I used to practice Ballet and maybe one day I will have the opportunity to teach Ballet too!

I also love English and the culture of the different English speking countries. My favourite English speaking country is Canada just because part of my family live there. I would like to visit them again soon, I miss them a lot!

I have created my avatar with the app Bitmoji which allows users to create personalized stickers to use in message apps or as a tool for class. 

I really like Bitmoji because I can use it in class to present some activities to my kids and to give them some feedback. Also, I will use my avatar in this blog as a tool to present the different topics that all together will be learning about! 

I hope you enjoy this blog, learn a lot and have fun with my avatar!!

#Bettertogether :)