Collaborating with Kids! My VRT presentation

Last weekend I took part in the 6th Virtual Round Table Web Conference. I had attended the conference before, but this was my first shot at a webinar at such a large event. The audience that chose to see my talk were a small group with some familiar friendly faces, which helped me relax and forget about how nerve-racking a webinar can be!

I had my misgivings after I had sent in my proposal - how on earth was I going to manage to say what I wanted to, look at the slides (and move from one slide to the other), and read messages in the chat box all at once? Then there was the technical aspect - I have seen many technical problems in this kind of event, and experienced one myself recently when the Adobe room decided it wasn't letting anyone's slideshows appear on the screen! Luckily, everything went smoothly and I didn't get time to test the screensharing feature, something I was little worried about.

I enjoyed the session, although I would have liked to have shown everyone my project, and I hope participants got something useful out of it.

Here you can find a write-up of my presentation and the link to the slideshow.

Collaborating with Kids! Slideshow

1. What is a collaborative online project?

The two main features of a colaborative online project are 1) that students work together to complete something and 2) that the content of the project will be hosted online.

As with any collaborative activity, a collaborative project is something that is created by more than one student. These students could be from the same class, contributing to the project individually, from different classes in the same school or from different schools. However, the beauty of an online project is that it allows us to collaborate with other students anywhere in the world. For this reason, personally, I believe that the best use of the internet would be to set up a collaborative online project with the objective of working together with learners from other countries.

The internet allows us to connect with people from the other side of the globe in real time. Of course, time zones are an issue, so you may wish to create an online space where other classes can connect to your learners and share their work.

The actual content of the online project will depend on your learning objectives. One idea is to create an online space where students' work can be added as it is done. This online space can be shared with other classes, or even shared publicly.

You could create a series of activities or tasks that all students have to complete, or give them the option to choose. This gives a lot more freedom for other teachers to fit the project into their curriculum.

As with any project, online or not, the focus could be on some kind of end product - a story, a presentation, a portfolio or other collection of student work, or it could be on the process, the actual collaboration and completion of activities forming the project.

Why set up a collaborative project?

There are many benefits of collaboration with young learners. In the slideshow you can see a word cloud with some of the main benefits. Aside from these, I think that such collaboration is extremely motivating for children. I believe that children need to know that they are learning English in order to be able to talk to people from other parts of the world. If we give them the opportunity to do this, children can gain the great feeling of satisfaction. A collaborative project allow learners to connect to other learners of English and really communicate with the, whether this is by talking to each other, writing to each other or just by seeing each others' work on a similar theme.

2. Where do I start?

I would suggest following the steps you can see here on the slide, although you may wish to do them in a different order.

Think about your reasons for starting a project. This may be related to something you have been studying in class such as a theme or a research topic. If you have been looking at the Egyptians, perhaps it could be nice to start a project about different aspects of Egyptian life. In my case we were looking at the topic of Food and Healthy Eating and I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to find out what children in other parts of the world usually eat.

Once you have your topic or main idea, then you can think of the tasks that you would like participants to do.

Decide whether you want them to speak or write, and start investigating tools that will help you do so.

Another thing you should decide is whether the students will be able to work on the project in class or out of class. This will depend on your facilities. If you have a computer room you can do most of the work in class. However, many of us do not have such luxuries! It will also depend on the age of your learners. One of the easiest ways is to set up the tasks in class, students work on the project in class and you can then later upload everything to your platform.

Finally, you need to decide if you want all students, including those from other classes and schools to take part in the project at the same time or if you want to have it as a long term, ongoing project. Think of the timescale you have - how long do you want the project to run for? Is it something that students can keep going after they leave your class?

When you have thought about all these aspects, you are ready to think about the technical part.

3. Choose a platform

You may have a school Virtual Learning Environment which will allow you to set aside a section for the project.

This has the added benefit of permitting parents to see how the project is progressing and to see their children's work. However, another great alternative is a wiki. A wiki is basically an empty webpage that enables you to post whatever content you like, as well as designing the layout of the page. Two options that I have used are Wikispaces and PBWorks. Wikispaces has educator accounts that allow private pages - something very important when dealing with young learners, depending on what you plan to add to the page.

Pbworks also has the option to make the page private. If a wiki is private, in order to access the page you need a username and password. As administrator you will have to give permission for students, teachers and parents to enter. However, if other teachers decide to join your project, you can give them administrator privileges.

Blogs are a simple alternative to wikis. You won't have as much control over the layout of the page and sometimes it can be more difficult to find what you are looking for, as blog entries are posts usually ordered chronologically. They are easier for students to use however, if you want them to be able to add their own content. And they can add posts without being able to touch the layout of the page!

Kidblog is specifically for primary children. It is very simple to use, and each student has their own page. It is not  ideal for a large project, as the only way students can "collaborate" is by sending each other comments.

Wordpress has a new Classroom site. I haven't tried it out yet but it is an option to think about.

Finally, Edmodo is a kind of VLE, similar to Facebook. For teenager it could make a nice addition to a blog or wiki, where students can connect with each other. This could be to discuss ideas for the project or as a kind of social common room.

Am alternative to having your own online space is to use Skype. Skype has a website called Skype in the Classroom, which allows you to post your lesson or project idea, which we will look at later. Skype in itself is also a useful tool however, as it allow classrooms to connect in real time, through video chat. It can be a great companion to an online space such as a wiki or blog. Students can ask each other questions  through Skype and then write up the results to the wiki. 

4. What content should I add?

This is related to the tasks you chose when planning your project. The good thing about wikis and blogs is that you can embed all types of media including, photos, videos and html. Most online tools, if not directly embeddable, will allow you to copy and paste the HTML code and in that way embed it into your website. If this is impossible, you can always add the link. Here you can see some example of the type of media you can add.

Using different media such as these allows for a richer, more spectacular project. And of course it is much more motivating for young learners than just writing!

One thing I particularly enjoy doing with the little ones is to get them to draw pictures in class, take photos of them and add their voices later, using a tool such as VoiceThread or Fotobabble.

If you want to post a video or your students talking about something, you can record them with a mobile phone/tablet/webcam/camera/videocamera, which you can later edit and convert using free tools (check out Softonic for different video and audio editing tools) so that it can be uploaded to Youtube and then posted on your platform. 

5. Connecting with teachers

In order to collaborate with classes outside your own school, you will need a way of connecting.

Many of you are already users of Twitter and Facebook, and these are great ways to find and connect to teachers from other countries. You could set up a Facebook group, or join an existing teachers' group. Linked In also has groups you can join. These groups are full of teachers like you, and you never know, some may be interested in joining your project.

If you have a blog, write posts about your project - what you hope to achieve and what kind of class you are looking for. Hopefully, readers will share your blogposts on Google+ or Twitter and that way you will reach a wider audience.

Skype In the Classroom is a website that allows teachers to add a lesson or project. You provide an outline of your project, including the age-group it is aimed at, the countries you are interested in working with, the language you are using etc. Skype will list your project along in a category such as "Cultural Exchange" where teachers who are searching for a project to take part in can find your idea. They can then leave a message on your page and you can add them to your Skype contacts list. Skype doesn't seem to send you notifications if someone leaves a comment, so make sure you check the site regularly. One aspect that I am not entirely happy about is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any kind of control or filtering of people, checking that they are teachers. Anybody who likes can show an interest in your project, and so I would ask those interested to provide some information about themselves and their students before giving them access to the project. 

Epals is an alternative to Skype in the Classroom. Epals actually has to approve your profile and projects, so it seems a bit safer. With epals, your students can get their own safe emails. It is similar to Edmodo, in thatyou can create accounts for your students and they can connect to you and each other, in a totally safe virtual environment. Again, you create your lesson or project idea and it goes into a directory where other teachers can find it, by category, age-group, language etc.

So we have seen some ways of connecting to teachers, but not everything is going to run smoothly. We are now going to look at some of the problems that may crop up.

6. Problems

When we were looking at the different options for where to host your project, I mentioned that wikis could be made private. What this means is that in order to access the page, all participants will need a username and password, and need to have been approved by you. This includes all students (if they are going to add their own content), teachers and possibly parents, if you want them to see what their kids have been doing.

What this really entails, from my own experience, is - people not remembering their username or password, or having other access problems. If your students have their own accounts (e.g. for high school), I suggest you keep a record of each student's username and password. You may need to provide written instructions in L1 on how to access the page, including screen shots, or even create a video tutorial. This is especially important if you want the students to contribute at home. Many parents are less than confident at such tasks!

You could opt for a public page, but then anybody can write on it. I would not recommend this option for Young Learners.

Another issue is that of maintenance. As I mentioned before, you may have to help people technically with how to navigate the site. Wikis and blogs don't usually require any technical maintenance, but you will need to make the page easily navigable, creating menus, adding tags so that people can find what they are looking for. If you have a VLE, there should be technical support in your school, but make sure you are aware of how far the technicians are prepared to help you with your section. You don't want to set it all up only for nobody to help you when things go wrong!

In state schools especially, permission to do anything slightly different can be difficult to get. Posting student's work on a website may be one of these things that require extra permission. It usually depends on what you are going to be posting. Obviously, photos and videos of the children should only be posted on a private site, and even then you will need to check your school's policy on this. You may have to send a permission form for parents to sign to say they allow you to post pictures and videos. 

If in doubt, always check!

Finally,  comes one of the most difficult aspects of setting up a collaborative project - getting people to join! I have not been entirely successful at this myself, and I certainly intend to take my own advice for the next project I set up.

7. Being persistent

My main piece of advice is - BE PERSISTENT!

All projects start off enthusiastically by teacher and students. However it is easy to lose faith and let the project trail off especially when there is a lack of participation. Add weekly or monthly tasks for your students. Sometimes all others need is a slight push into participating. Once other teachers see your project and the different activities it includes they will be more motivated to join in. Start by inviting colleagues and teachers you know locally. This way your project will soon start growing. Ask these teachers to share it with their colleagues and so on. Blog about it, tweet about it regularly, post it on Facebook, in your Facebook groups and so on. Directly contact teachers you know that teach a similar age group and are interested in technology - some people find it hard to decide to take part in an activity, but when invited will gladly accept.

You can also post it on the VRT website. You can write blogposts on there and also create a discussion in the forum for collaboration. The VRT website is a place to continue the conversation with other people that are attending this and other sessions. 

8. Food around the World

Finally, I'd like to show you an example of an online project. This is an online space that I've set up in order to keep students' work, share it with parents but the main reason I set it up was to find collaborative partners for my learners to work with and communicate with. As I mentioned before, I have not been as successful in getting others to join as I had hoped. However, this is a long term project that I plan to carry on next year if I have the same students. I have already used the website in order to review language with my learners and they have seen and compared their own ideas with those of another class. In the future I would love to get reactions from students in other countries, and if possible organise live meetings between classes.

Here you can find a link to the wiki. You will need to request access in order to view the site. Please do so, adding a comment with your name and that you are a VRT participant. That way I can give you access immediately.

The page is a wiki, created with PB works. As you can see, I have created a start page, where the project is introduced. I added a note in Spanish which is my learners' native language, so that parents would be able to find their childrens' work. 

The tasks page outlines the different tasks that learners can do. My students are only 6 and 7, and we do the actual tasks in class, which I then record or take photos of and upload to the wiki myself. With older learners you could make them writers and choose which task they wish to complete, allowing them to edit the wiki themselves and upload their own materials. I wanted to give teachers choice - it is easier to set up a simple project with one task, perhaps it would be easier to find participants that way, but I felt that with more choice there would be more opportunities for teachers to incorporate one of the tasks into their syllabus. It also means that the children will be able to keep the project going, finding out different aspects of their co-participants lives, related to the topic, in this case, food.

This page acts a a kind of menu so that participants don't need to search around the wiki to find the sidebar menu. From here you can click on the links that take you to the different tasks. In Breakfast around the World, the idea was to find out if what children have for breakfast was different in different countries. I used fotobabble, taking photos of the drawings, uploading them and then recording the children's voices.

Another activity we did in class was to learn and perfom a rap based on a story we had read. I added the video to I like/I don't like as the children were singing about this from the character's point of view. Another tool I have embedded is VoiceThread where we took it in turns to name things the character in the story doesn't like.

Posters are another thing you can embed, such as this one created on a mobile device. There are a wide range of options - virtually any tool you find can be embedded, allowing for a website rich in multimedia. 

9. Task

Now I'm going to ask you to think about what we have discussed today and the project I have just shown you.

Can you think of any other tasks suitable for this topic and age-group? What about older learners. How could you adapt this project to work with older primary or early secondary students? Type your ideas in the chat box or put up your hand to speak.

What other topics could you choose as a suitable collaborative project?

How can you make the project attractive to other teachers so they will want to participate?

Finally, I would like to encourage you to try setting up your own collaborative online project with your learners. Your learners will find it very motivating and rewarding. If you are interested in taking part in my project, don't hesitate to get in touch.

All links are available in the slideshow.

Using Edmodo as a Virtual Learning Environment

This year I have been using Edmodo with some of my groups to encourage them to do further practice out of class. I have been fairly successful with adult learners but not so with my teenage groups, who shy away from any type of homework whatsoever. This is understandable, as many have busy lives with constant exams at school, and some are not even allowed to use the computer during the week.

In this post I am going to focus on how I have used Edmodo as a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) with my FCE adult class.

Reasons for using a VLE

Most of the students on the FCE course were not at FCE level. This is a very common phenomenon here in Spain. Most of the members of this particular group had passed the PET exam and wanted to continue, with the objective of sitting the FCE exam at the end of the year. Of course, with 3 hours´class time a week it is impossible to go from B1 to B2 in nine months, unless students are going to be putting in a lot of work outside class. In fact, most students are not sitting the exam this summer, but have decided to move the goalposts back towards the December exam (after lots of discussion of how realistic their expectations were). In any case, whether they are intending to sit the exam in July or December, all students really need to be practising English at home - reviewing vocabulary and grammar, improving their listening skills and doing exam practice.

I provide students with homework at least once a week. This typically consists of an exercise we haven't had time to do in class, some extra grammar practice, and FCE writing tasks. However, I think students need to be pointed in the right direction and encouraged to do more. Given a list of resources and choice, English homework can be more motivating and interesting because students can focus on areas they personally have difficulty with, and there are many more options such as videos and games that students enjoy more than traditional homework.

The VLE allows me to share resources, including links to websites, documents, videos etc with my learners which, because it is optional, encourages these adults to take more responsibility for their own learning.

Why Edmodo?

I had previously tried using a blog with adult groups, where I would set homework (usually a written response to a task) but this never really kicked off. Some students would comment and leave a response, but it would typically be the same students every time. Others never even bothered visiting the blog. I had hoped they would take the initiative and write posts of their own, but unfortunately this never happened.

I had also tried using Tuenti with teenage learners and Gmail, hoping students would chat and email each other.

Last year my adults often used email to send me their homework, but they weren't doing anything else online.
Edmodo seemed the ideal solution to this as it allows students to send in assignments but also has a library where the teacher can add links and resources for students to access.

Edmodo allows the teacher to set up different classes, where each student needs a code or invitation in order to join. You can send messages, notifications and alerts. Private messages and alerts mean the student receives an email notifying them of the action. This is especially useful at the beginning, when students are not in the habit of going into Edmodo and checking what is new.

The other nice thing about Edmodo is that it is visually similar to Facebook. Students should be familar with the idea of a "wall" where public posts and links can be shared, making using Edmodo easier.

How we use Edmodo

Firstly, I started adding resources to the library. The library is a directory where you can keep everything in nice neat folders, which you can share with specific groups of learners. You can also link to the library in posts, so if you want to share a specific resource, you can add the link to the library entry in a message or post.

I added links to useful websites for exam training and practice, vocabulary practice, listening sites and so on. I keep adding things as a discover them, and when I do so, I post it on the wall as well as adding it to the relevant folder in the library.

I also added some documents like pdfs I have on my computer such as a copy of resources we have looked at in class, reference materials and listening exercises along with the mp3 files.

When a student wants to practice a skill or language point, they can go to the library and look for something to do.

I often give students FCE writing tasks to do. These are sometimes those that come up in our course book and sometimes past papers. I add the task as an assignment on Edmodo, with the instructions. Students can write their piece in a Word document and upload to Edmodo using the TURN IN button next to the assignment in question. I can then open the document directly in Edmodo, make comments and corrections using the annotation feature, and give the piece a mark. This mark goes on the student's records in Edmodo, so I and the student can see the different marks they have received during the course. I then download the annotated version in pdf format and send back to the student.

Future aspirations

I am thinking of gearing towards a flipped or semi-flipped classroom in the future. This will only work with adult learners, and even then will depend on the circumstances. However, many of my students at the moment are out of work, have plenty of free time, and need to improve their level in a short period of time.
This is especially true for university students, teachers and anyone preparing to sit state exams in Spain, as a B1 or B2 certified level is required. People are in a rush to get a certificate, but once they realise that many hours of study and practice are required, I think a flipped approach could work. Students would be required to do certain tasks at home before the lesson, and then in class we would be able to focus on problematic areas, exam techniques and so on, taking more of a Demand High approach.

Conclusions

Edmodo has worked reasonably well for me this year, although it hasn't been without its problems. I have had students joining the class throughout the year, and every time a new student appeared, I would have to show them how to use Edmodo again. I plan on making video tutorials next year to help avoid this problem, however many people prefer a face-to-face explanation.

I also hope that in the future students will become more active and take advantage of the platform to share things - videos, articles etc, making Edmodo not only a place to study but also somewhere to socialise in English.

Grammar for Kids - Third Person Singular S

Today I'm going to share with you an activity that I did with a group of young learners aged six and seven.
The aim of the activity, which took place over two lessons, was to introduce HE/SHE/NAME + LIKES, as well as to find out about the children's interests. The inspiration for the first part was an activity shared by Andrea Littlewood at TESOL Spain last month. Thank you Andrea!

Part 1

In her talk, Andrea spoke about the importance of finding out about your learners. This can help create a positive atmosphere in the classroom and it helps learners feel that the teacher cares. Just knowing that a child has a baby brother or that they love Real Madrid, means that the teacher can ask that child personalised questions. This makes the children feel that the teacher is really interested in their lives and can help avoid discipline problems.

We had covered I LIKE and I DON'T LIKE last term, when we were looking at the topic Healthy Eating.
For this reason, talking about their likes was not a very challenging task, but I wanted to provide new vocabulary, particularly language that the learners wanted to know. I asked the children to draw the outline of an object they liked on a piece of paper. I insisted that this outline filled the page (kids tend to draw very small things) and did an example on the board. I drew an open book, saying I like reading books.
I wanted the children to start using verbs as well as nouns (reading, playing, swimming etc).

The children drew their outlines and told us their own sentence. I then drew pictures of other things I liked inside my book outline (trainers - for running, chocolate, flowers, playing the computer etc) and elicited from the class the names of those objects/activities. The children then drew all kinds of things they liked inside their pictures. I encouraged them by telling them to think of food, toys, games, places, TV programmes and so on.

Part 2

Another tip by Andrea, was to use Post-It notes to provide individualised vocabulary for each learner. I asked each learner to name the things in their picture and provided them with the written word on a note. This is a very small group so I could do this as a class, but with larger groups you may wish to do it while they are drawing by going round and writing the words as they draw.

I the asked them if they remembered the things that I liked (the board was clean by now) and I wrote sentences:

I like reading books.
I like running.
I like eating chocolate.
I like music etc

I then gave the children their word notes back and told them that they were going to write their sentences on slips of paper I had already prepared. When each child had finished writing, I asked them to read their sentences to me and then find the picture that illustrated each sentence, to make sure they knew the meaning of all the new vocabulary.

Part 3

In the following lesson, I jumbled all the sentences and put them on my desk. I also put a blank poster on one wall and divided into sections - one for each child. I put their drawings on another wall. What they had to do was:
1) Pick up a slip of paper and read the sentence. If it was their own, they should change it for another.
2) Go to look at the drawings and find out who wrote the sentence. E.g For the sentence I like playing the guitar they should find a drawing of a guitar on somebody's picture. They would then know who write the sentence.

Slips of paper on desk

Poster

3) Stick the sentence on the right part of the poster.

Here are some pictures to illustrate:

One child's drawing

This is how the poster looked when all the sentences had been added:

Part 4

I then wanted them to be able to talk about each other's likes and dislikes.

You may be thinking that six and seven year olds are too young to understand different verb forms, especially when teenagers and adults tend to have trouble remembering to add the "third person S". However, in this case, all they need to know is that we add an S. In fact, if I can actually get them to continue doing so, this will help avoid that very problem in the future.

I quickly drew up this poster (excuse the presentation but I did it while the kids were sticking the sentences).

I went through the differences, pointing to a boy and a girl in the class, to elicit the difference between HE and SHE. I think it is important that, as well as knowing the form of the third person singular, that the children know that this is how they can talk about other people.

We then went back to the poster (I actually stuck this mini-poster next to it so that it would be visible at all times) and I asked them to say what a classmates liked. We did this as a chain, so that if somebody said Arturo likes the sea, it would then be Arturo's turn. This made sure they would listen to each other. I also told them that if somebody said a sentence that was wrong (i.e. the sentence had been put in the wrong place) that they could say No, I don't!

In this way, we practised using the third person singular verb form. Now the children are able to talk about others as well as themselves. I think that this is an important skill - the children need to be taught to listen to each other and to talk about each other. The next step could be to teach WE and ask them to find out things they have in common, using the poster to do so.

TESOL SPAIN SEVILLE 2013 - Collaborative Digital Storytelling for Young Learners

Firstly, I would like to thank those who decided to get up and come to my workshop, depsite the early hour.
I enjoyed the session, which was fairly informal due to the small number of attendees, although I regret not being able to show you how to use all the tools. In this post I will direct you to some tutorials on how to use those tools, which I hope will encourage you to try them out.

How to open an account with VoiceThread (and leave comments) Ignore the first 30 seconds!

How to create your own VoiceThread


Thanks to Dave Dodgson for this video tutorial.

Storybird Tutorial using VoiceThread

If you would like to find out more about how I have used these tools, read the following posts:
A Story Project with Six-year-olds
Collaborative Project Wiki
Blogging with Kids

Thanks for coming!

Hip Hop Don't Stop

Yesterday we were rappin' man, rappin' in the 'room in the hip hop styleeee

It's true. Yesterday's lesson was an all-singing, all-dancing hip hop fest. With a class of six-year-olds.
Songs and chants abound in the primary classroom, but raps? Not often will you find a rap in a course book, at least not for six-year-olds. However, a rap is really just a chant. It is a chant with (possibly) some background music or a beatbox. It is a chant with a very clearly defined rhythm. The rap we did yesterday was one based on a story we have been reading: "I will not ever, never eat a tomato", from the Charlie and Lola series of books written by Lauren Child. The idea for the rap itself I have to thank Carol Read for, as part of a wonderful set of activities to use with this and other story books, available here.

I wrote the rap on the board and we drilled it a few times, removing some of the words each time (I can't remember the name of this activity - erase the sentence? Something like that).

I then asked the children if they had heard of rap music or hip hop, and explained that it was music but saying the words to the rhythm of the music rather than singing. I then showed them how to dance to rap music, very badly I must admit! We practised rapping and dancing, at first line by line, slowly building it up, with me clapping the rhythm. I wanted to focus on the rhythm as it actually follows natural sentence intonation and stress patterns, even when rapped. I had previously underlined the stressed syllables on the board. I then found a rap backing track on Youtube and we started dancing to it while saying the lyrics.

As the kids were focused on dancing, the repetition of the rap was not as noticeable as they were multi-tasking - either clapping the rhythm or dancing and rapping at the same time. This is not so easy for six-year-olds! I had noticed in previous lessons that one of the members of the class was quite kinaesthetic and would tend to stand up and dance when he heard music, such as the theme tune to a cartoon. Allowing this type of learner to dance or move while speaking or singing is going to help the language be fixed in their minds, it is, in a way, anchored by the movement in their bodies. Some ideas for helping kinaesthetic learners to learn in any classroom situtation can be found here.

One of the things I noticed, is that the pronunciation of the learners seemed to be greatly improved. Somewhere, between the first activity of "reading" the words on the board (they are being introduced to the written word but are not competent readers) and the final performance, their pronunciation had improved. I think this is mainly due to the intonation of the sentences and therefore, the rhythm of the rap helped enforce this rhythm of the words. This, to us as native speakers, is natural, but for Spanish children is not natural at all, Spanish being a syllabic language. However, I also believe that the fact that the kids were more focused on their dancing and when to move than on the language itself, also allowed them to somehow "forget" about the words and how to say them. This to me, if it is true, seems a fascinating phenomenon. If we can get learners to be less focused on the language itself and more on what they are saying or doing, perhaps the pressure of speaking correctly will be removed and therefore fluency will improve. I am thinking of trying this out as an experiment with adult learners. I won't ask them to dance, but perhaps I could ask them to show us how to do something they know how to do, or even do something mechanical like shuffle a pack of cards. I would be interested to know if there has been any research into this area.

All in all, the rap was a successful activity - it was fun, the learners were engaged and they learnt how to talk about what they don't eat. After this, the learners copied the skeleton of the rap and changed the food words for their own. Tomorrow we will rap their own versions!

Here is the video, which I am sure you will be waiting to see!

Food around the World - Breakfast!

Yesterday we were reviewing breakfast vocabulary and the children drew pictures of what they have for breakfast. I then took photos of their drawings and uploaded them to Fotobabble. I then recorded them saying what they had for breakfast.

Here is the result:



 This is part of the Food around the World project I wrote about here. If you would like to participate in the project, ask for access to the wiki, saying who you are and how old your learners are.

Thanks :)

Food around the World Introduction

I  have a new project for young learners that I hope will take off and continue throughout the year.
At the moment with my two classes of 6 to 7 year olds, we are looking at the topic Healthy Eating and we are learning lots of new vocabulary for food and drink, as well as learning about food groups and health.

Food around the World is an international project I have set up on a wiki, to share information with children in other parts of  the world. The idea is for teachers who are covering a similar topic with their class to add information to the wiki, so we can find out about different cultures and what they eat.

There are many ways in which this could be done, but those I suggest are:

a) Record a video of the children talking about food
b) Take photos of the children's drawings of food and add comments to the wiki

Other alternatives are to use digital storytelling tools to present the information.
I have split the wiki into different sections to incorporate different mini-themes. These are:

1) Breakfast around the world
2) Lunch around the world
3) Dinner around the world
4) My favourite food
5) Food I like/don't like
6) Food in my country
7) Food in my region
8) Healthy Eating

I plan to add photos of drawings my learners have made about what they eat and videos of them talking about it. For example, in the first theme I am going to ask them to draw a picture of their breakfast (or they could take a photo at home and send it by email) and to tell me what they have for breakfast. I will upload the resulting videos to the wiki.

There may be too many different tasks but the idea is that everyone can find something they can add to.

The project is aimed at primary learners, but some of the topics may be suitable for older students too.

The project appears on Skype in the Classroom and the link to the wiki is here.
The wiki is private and so anybody who would like to join in will have to ask for approval. This is for safety reasons.

If it time restrictions allow us to have a live Skype chat between classes, that is also a possibility.

If you are interested in taking part in this long-term project with your young learners, add a comment here, ask to join the wiki or add your name to the Skype project page.

5 Goals for 2013

Reading iTDi's post by Barb Sakamoto on Facebook this morning has encouraged me to come up with a set of my own professional goals for 2013. Last week I wrote about getting students to make their own list of learning goals for the term along with how they planned to achieve them. Now it's my turn...

1) Blog more - I think 2010 was my most prolific blogging year and I have certainly let myself down by barely blogging in 2012. Despite promises to keep up this blog, I have not done so, and what is the point of having a blog if you don't write? I would like to write a post every week, although I will only write if I have something to say. After all, no-one really wants to read my ramblings!

2) Write a couple of articles - Again 2010 was my article year. I wrote two fairly major articles, one for HLT online magazine and the other for MET. Blogging is one thing, but I think sitting down and planning an article, and then writing helps develop useful skills that otherwise are lost. I have not written an academic essay for several years and articles, like essays, require a good deal of planning and organization of ideas. It is also a great way of practising written English - I may be a native speaker, but having fluency in writing is something that I think most of us need to work on!

3) Improve my public speaking skills - I will be giving a workshop at TESOL Spain in March and hope to improve on previous workshops I have given. I gave a workshop on the same topic towards the end of last year, but I would like to greatly improve the presentation of my ideas and the flow of the talk. In previous workshops I have either a) used index cards with the main points and key words that I wanted to use, almost memorising the words from a written text I had prepared or b) got a bit lost with my index cards and done the rest of the talk ad lib. I would like to create a kind of mixture of the two - sounding natural and as if I know what I'm talking about, without having to refer so much to written cues. I am not sure I am going to be able to achieve this objective, as I get very nervous before a workshop, and lack confidence in my subject matter.

4) Complete all modules that are published on ELT Teacher 2 Writer.  I am very interested in materials writing, especially for Young Learners. I have already written and self-published a book for teachers of young learners, however, I would like to receive some training as I feel I need some guidance in this area.

5) Send in proposals for online workshops/webinars. This is something new for me, and quite nerve-racking for someone who gets nervous at face-to-face sessions. A webinar is generally attended by many more people than a conference workshop. It is also a very different experience as there are lots of other factors involved. I had a taste of webinars in last year's EVO Digital Storytelling course, but I tried to avoid speaking where possible! This year hopefully, I will be able to lead the webinar more comfortably, along with Juan Uribe, who I am sure has more experience in this! I am often sent links to online mini-conferences and calls for participation for things like VRT. This year I plan to send in a proposal and overcome my fear of speaking in webinars.

These are my five main objectives for the year 2013. Some of them I feel comfortable about (writing), others not so (public speaking) but I think it is important to challenge oneself and leave the comfort zone now and again.

What are your goals for 2013?

I promise that I will do my best...

Like most people, I like to start in New Year in a positive way, by making one or two lifestyle changes or at least trying to approach things with more enthusiasm and a more positive attitude. After the Christmas break, I need my students to throw themselves back into language learning with all the energy they can muster, especially if they are going to be sitting an external exam in the next few months. So I decided to encourage my adult learners to make New Year's English Resolutions.

These resolutions consist of a set of objectives that they will aim to reach over the following term, and how they plan to achieve these objectives.

We started the lesson talking about New Year's Resolutions generally - have they made any? What are they? Have they made a resolution before? Did they stick to it? Why(not)?

I shared my own ideas about why people often fail to maintain their resolutions, which are
1) lack of planning (I think you need to say what you are going to do and when)
2) lack of intrinsic motivation (people make resolutions in January because it is traditional, and often don't even expect to keep their promises)

and advice on how to keep your resolutions:
1) Make a plan or timetable to keep a record of what you want to do and keep it somewhere visible.
2) Tell as many people as possible, share it on all your social networks (peer pressure can work!)

I then told the students that we were going to come up with English Resolutions. They had to come up with a list of objectives, both general and specific, about what they expected to achieve over the next two months. As an example of the difference between general and specific objectives, I gave the following example:

I want to improve my vocabulary  - general

I want to learn at least 5 new words every day - specific

They also had to suggest how they could achieve those objectives - what would they do in order to learn 5 new words every day?

The students then shared their objectives with the rest of the class and we drew up a list of common goals, on which we would spend valuable class time. The more individual objectives would remain the responsibility of each student to work on in their free time.

At the end of the lesson, we had a list of areas on which most of the class wanted to work on, which I will integrate into our syllabus for the term, and each student had a list of things they plan to do each week at home. Some of them seem slightly over-ambitious ("I am going to watch at least one film in English a week, read a book in English, make my own vocabulary lists, do at least one writing task and study my grammar book") but I plan to regularly ask students how they are getting on and allow them to modify their objectives if they are not realistically possible.

Finally, I pledged to mark written work within a week, correct all homework exercises in class when they are due, and to add new vocabulary to our Memrise list every week.

 

GRETA Annual Course

I would like to thank GRETA teaching association for inviting me to speak at their recent 3-day conference in Granada. The theme of the conference was "Tips of the trade for challenges ahead in ELT and bilingualism" with sections on using technology and a focus on practical classroom ideas. I decided to give a session on Collaborative Digital Stories, as it seemed the perfect opportunity to share some of the ideas from last year's EVO session Digital Storytelling for Young Learners which I co-moderated along with Shelly Terrell, Dave Dodgson, Ozge Karaoglu, Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto, Jennifer Verschoor and Esra Girgin.

In the workshop I introduced participants to several freely available online tools that are especially suitable for using with young learners. We also discussed some of the benefits for children of working together, and other ways in which the tools could be used. Finally, participants received some ideas on how to contact other teachers for wider collaborative projects, including joining the EVO session in 2013.

Apart from a slight technical hitch at the beginning (there is always one!) and starting late, the workshop seemed to go well and I think most people took away something useful to use in their classrooms.

For those that are interested in learning more, I will be giving a similar talk in Seville at the ACEIA conference on 17th November. I would also strongly recommend joing our 2013 EVO session "Digital Storytelling with Young Learners" where you will be able to try out lots of different tools and meet (virtually) hundreds (hopefully!) of other teachers from around the world. Registration will begin in January here.

Thank you to all those that attended GRETA on Saturday. I hope to see you all again next year!

Using Photos as Prompts for Discussion

Yesterday I came across the following slideshow of photos by Samuel Aranda in the New York Times. The photos are black and white shots of scenes occurring around Spain that highlight the desperation some are living due to the financial crisis that began in 2008. Some of the photos may seem shocking, especially to those that have lived in Spain during the long boom period, being more reminiscent of a country in political conflict or of say 50 years ago. This gave me the idea of using these photos in class, with teens and adults but without providing the context behind them. I plan to show some of the photos (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14), asking the following questions:

Who are these people?
Where are they? (In which country/city?)
When was the photo taken?
What is happening?
Why do you think this is happening? What are the reasons behind it?

I will encourage them to give reasons for their answers, describing what they see.

I am fairly sure that none of my students will recognise these photos as being taken recently in Spain.

I will then give students the information provided underneath each photo on slips of paper, which they have to match with the photos. Hopefully this will generate some discussion.

As I will be using this activity with B2-C1 levels, I may ask students to write:

a) A discursive composition on the problems Spain currently faces
b) A report outlining the main problems Spain faces and possible solutions (a hard one, seeing as the government aren't able to provide any!)
c) A story based on one of the photographs
d) A diary entry of one of the people in the photographs
e) An account of the eviction in photo 1 from the point of view of one of the children

I know that this is a complex topic and one that teenagers will find difficult, but we all know people who have lost their jobs or aren't being paid, we all see it daily on the news so I think that everyone will have something to say.

Five Six Seven - Ideas for Young Learners aged 5 to 7 (ish!)

As most of us are just starting back at school for the new academic year, I'd like to take the opportunity to write a little about a book I wrote last year. Those who follow this blog may remember me setting up a website devoted to the project a year ago, where I started to upload some of the material. The website is still available, but now there is just a sample including several complete lessons. This is because I have now self-published Five Six Seven and it is available for a very low price at Lulu.

Since I set up the website, I was contacted by a few teachers looking to try out the materials with their classes. I have not received much feedback so I have emailed those teachers with a short questionnaire.

Here is a modified FAQ of Five Six Seven:

What is Five Six Seven?

Five Six Seven is a content-based language course for young learners of approximately five to seven years of age.

Who is it aimed at?

Five Six Seven is aimed at teachers of English to young learners. It is meant as an alternative to traditional language lessons. It can be used as a course or as a resource book to dip into.

Is Five Six Seven suitable for subject teachers?

No. The course includes content from other areas of the curriculum but does not replace those subjects. It is an English course that uses content from other subjects to motivate and maintain interest whilst encouraging the learners to communicate in a natural way. It may, however, be useful for CLIL teachers who are looking for extra ideas.

What is included in the Five Six Seven course?

Five Six Seven is a teacher's guide. There is no class book. The guide is made up of a series of 6 step by step lesson plans for each of the 9 units, plus 4 insertable units. At the back of the guide you will find photocopiable worksheets and handouts to accompany the lesson plans, and a bank of pictures that you can download from the Microsoft Office website.  


How can I download Five Six Seven to try it out with my class?

Five Six Seven has its own website. On the site you will find a full copy of the syllabus ready to download. You will also be able to view sample material from the course. The book is currently available for just 79p from Lulu.com


Do I have to pay to use Five Six Seven?

Five Six Seven is available for a nominal fee. This is to cover the commission that Lulu takes from each copy to pay for hosting and listing costs. However, you can share the contents with your colleagues and other teachers in your school without charge. I ask that you provide some feedback as to the use, quality and practicality of the materials. If there is anything that you think could be improved, please drop me a line!

Visit http://www.wix.com/michelleworgan/fivesixseven for more information or buy a copy from Lulu.com.

Scotland the Brave - Part 2

This post is the second in a series based on  the Visit Scotland website. In Part 1 I focused on a section of the website that showcases different aspects of the beautiful landscapes of Scotland. Most of the activities I mentioned are suitable for teenagers and adults of various levels. I would recommend this other website for younger learners.

You can find Part 1 here.

Book of Beasts

• Ask students to tell each other what they know about the Loch Ness Monster. What does it look like? Where does it live? How big is it? What does it eat? Alternatively, give a description of the monster to students, either orally or written, and ask them to draw a picture. 

• Project or print out a copy of all eight creatures (you can do this with the PRINT SCREEN button and clipping with Paint). Give students a creature each/per pair/per group and ask them to imagine what it is like. They can give it an appropriate name, home, lifestyle. This could later be the basis for a story and can be used in some of the writing activities I mentioned in Part 1.

• Alternatively, print out or project the descriptions of the creatures and ask students to draw what they think they look like.

•  Write a list of adjectives on the board suitable for monsters/mythological creatures. Ask students to choose the best adjective(s) for each creature. Generate discussion by asking students if they agree or differ. Comparative sentences could be a good language focus as students can compare the creatures.

• After looking at the different creatures, students invent their own. With younger learners, ask them to draw it a provide some basic information. Otherwise, ask them to write a description as well as draw. (I would suggest not making adults draw if they don't want to!).

• For homework/or if you have a computer room, ask students to research one of the creatures. They can look for pictures, stories that mention them, newspaper articles about "sightings", maps showing their home etc. They could use Glogster to make an virtual poster.

Scotland the Brave - Part 1

Watching TV the other day I saw an advert from the Scottish Tourist Board, encouraging people to visit Scotland, home of Merida &co in the Disney Pixar film Brave . I haven't seen the film, but as Visit Scotland were offering free prize trips, I decided to enter the draw and came across this wonderful website.   

As I was browsing, quite a few lesson activities came to me - I was feeling inspired!
I have never visited Scotland and so I tend not to talk about Scottish culture or geography in the classroom, preferring to stick to what I know. However, the film Brave will surely bring about some interest in the country for learners young and old, and I would like to take advantage of this, learning something myself along the way.


When you enter the library you choose from the following aspects:
Landscape, Map, Book of Beasts, and Writers. Over the next few posts I will share my ideas for each section of the website.

Lesson Ideas - Landscape:

•  (Int+) Read the introduction to students, and ask them to draw what they imagine. Your voice is important here. Pre-teach any necessary vocabulary (soaring, rugged etc). One idea is to write things that these adjectives can describe and ask students to match nouns and adjectives.  

• (All levels) Play the video of Lochs and Glens with the screen covered. Students listen to the music and say how it makes them feel, what images they can see in their mind. Then show the video, pausing and asking students to describe the images. This is good practice for the PET speaking exam Part 3.

• (Pre-int+) Use the images in Lochs and Glens to create the setting for a story. Ask students to imagine what kind of things could happen in such a place. Discuss when the story could be set, what characters there could be, what could happen. Ask students to write a detailed description of the scenery as an opening paragraph.

• (Int+) Play the video Majestic Mountains. Tell students to imagine they are film directors and they are going to make a film in the mountains of Scotland. This could be done as a group project. Students have to decide what kind of film they are going to make and the basic plot. They can write specific scenes for each image. This video is reminiscent of scenes from films such as The Lord of the Rings, or series like Game of Thrones. Another option is to get students to take a scene from a film they know and adapt it to this setting.

• (All levels) Play the video Ancient Forests. Ask students to imagine what kind of creatures live there. These can be real, mythological or imaginary.

• (Pre-Int+) Create a guided visualisation using the images in Ancient Forests. After showing an image, students close their eyes while you guide them through the forest, asking questions to provoke the senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste). Students then discuss what they imagined in pairs or groups.

• (Beginner-Int) Play the video Rolling Hills. Tell students to imagine they are going on a day trip to this place. What activities would they do? Some useful vocabulary may be: have a picnic, birdwatching, picking flowers, climbing trees, hiking, paddling, collecting leaves.

• (Elem+) If you have several computers, assign a different video to each group and ask them to give a presentation/write a description of it for the Scottish Tourist Board. They should try to make it as attractive as possible. Another option is to give each group a page to write in a brochure about Scottish landscapes.

The Three Phases of Life Abroad

I imagine that a many readers of this blog live in a country other than that in which they were brought up and I suspect that a fair few have been living there for many years. Of course, everybody has different experiences and different expectations, but I believe that there are at least two or three stages of adaptation that most of us go through after settling in another country and culture.

Reading "The House on Paradise Street" by Sofka Zinovieff, I came across the following passages, which kindled feelings of recognition of my own adaptation of living abroad. I do not live in Greece and obviously this is the character's/writer's experience and interpretation, but the general idea of the stages are similar to those I have passed through over the last 12 years.

I was pleased to shed my own surname and become “Mond Perifanis” as a reflection of my new, Greek life, but perhaps I should have worried a bit more about becoming part of this particular family. For some time I believed that my move to Greece was a way of creating a simple, pared-down persona – a clever trick, as though leaving behind my old existence physically would therefore slice through the roots that tied me to place, family, and above all, memory. At that stage – the phase I later recognised as my “Hellenic Idyll” – I abandoned myself to the worn but nonetheless charming cliché of the cool northerner being bathed in the warm water of Mediterranean delights. Perhaps it is no more of a cliché than falling in love; both are limited in duration and may be followed by pain or disappointment, but while they last are as real as anything that alters a person’s perceptions. 

In later years, after the idyll faded, I began to see the experience as a fantasy. I compared my delusion to those lovers of the ancient Greek world who believe the smooth columns and elegant sculptures were always pure white with uncontaminated simplicity. They forget, or don’t know, that most of those creations were originally painted with gaudy colours, the sculptures dressed in fashionable robes, their eyes flashy and provocative, the columns bright with circus zigzags and seaside stripes. I might have left behind the location of my past, but it was hubris to believe that a new life with Nikitas would be characterised by clean-cut minimalism. Gradually, I began to experience the alienation of being an outsider. “Where are you from?” became the defining question of each new encounter, where I tried to resist being stereotyped with my nation’s characteristics. In the beginning I felt like a character in a novel, recreated each time I revealed my country of birth, but unhampered by my personal history: when nobody knew you as a child, or disliked your parents, or approved of your school, you are potentially something new. But increasingly, I sensed I was being defined by my first answer – put into a box from which I was not then allowed to emerge. Also, although my command of Greek was constantly improving, I became frustrated by my limitations, at not understanding all the jokes and references to personalities, events or films that everyone else had grown up with. I saw the missing parts as my deficiencies. 

The third stage, after Idyll and Disillusion is Pragmatism. Ultimately, my status as an outsider became another form of liberation – to hell with other people’s preconceptions. I thought of England without disdain, even indulging in occasional bouts of nostalgia for rolling green fields, London’s cultural life, tea in a pot and other miscellaneous delights. But I was clear that I was wedded to Greece. And it is in this phase that I have tried to remain.

[...]

What had previously been exotic became annoying, starting with the details of daily life. What sort of country expects people to put their shitty toilet paper in baskets instead of down the drains? Why couldn’t they install normal drain pipes like everywhere else? Why is it considered normal to have power cuts for hours on end during summer heat-waves and winter storms, as though we were living in Gaza and not twenty-first century Europe? Why are seatbelts seen as an infringement of liberty (even for children), when they know that the roads are the most dangerous in Europe? Why is the Greeks’ idea of freedom interpreted as the freedom to park across the pavement, blocking women with pushchairs and pensioners, or the freedom to smoke incessantly, everywhere? Of course, once I started down this slippery slope, the questions came faster and more furiously. Why was it considered normal when we handed the surgeon a “small envelope” containing 3,000 euros cash when Nikitas had a minor operation in a state hospital? There are times, especially after a roasting hot night in summer, when even a cotton sheet seems to burn the skin and the whine of dive-bombing mosquitoes drives you mad, that I long for the soothing North, the subtle shadows of grey London light and cool summer nights where you sleep with a duvet. “Moaning Maud” – that is what I am, or at least what I became. Even worse than “Bored Maud”, as an old boyfriend used to say. At least I wasn’t “Maudlin” or “Mordant”, as Desmond, my grandfather, called me affectionately. He would make up limericks that made use of all the words that rhymed with my name. There was a young lady called Maud, who was always incredibly bored… I remember flawed and ignored, but there was also roared, gnawed, clawed. Above all, the thing I had tired of was the Greeks’ obsession with themselves, with the nature of Greekness, with how they are viewed and how unfairly they are judged. Beware of saying even the slightest critical thing about Greece to a Greek as they will take it as though you have said their mother is a whore and their father her pimp.

I have always found it easy to adapt (maybe too easy?) to the place I am staying in, to the point where I would not want people to know I was a foreigner. Even when I am a tourist, I hate getting a map out in public! This happened very early on, possibly because my Spanish was better than that of most of my friends who were just beginning to learn the language. I have never enjoyed being the centre of attention and therefore didn't want people to stare or see me as different. Luckily, I have an "ear" for languages and my accent isn't very noticeable, enabling me to blend in. In turn, this "becoming Spanish" phase gradually became a "I hate Britain" phase, where I would start to deny my "Britishness" and abandon almost any contact with my country's culture. In those pre-internet days (at least for me) this was very easy, in fact it was very difficult to keep up with news, current affairs, TV, music etc from abroad. So I became "less British/more Spanish" quickly during this period, although I would hate it when people started telling jokes! Even on the few visits I made to the UK to see my family, they would say I had a Spanish accent - due to an unusual intonation that I had picked up, as I only really used English in my classes and socialised with locals. But I would never be Spanish and yet I was no longer really British. I didn't fit into any box, although the Spanish would put me in the box labelled "British" and the British in the box labelled "Spanish".

This period probably lasted around five years, although with the acquisition of a computer and internet connection, it may have been diluted somewhat. As a big fan of indie music, I spent many hours during my late twenties online, reading about British bands and downloading records. This led to a new interest in British TV, especially comedy, and my asking for BBC comedies for Christmas presents. I then rekindled my interest in English football, especially during the season my team were promoted to the Premier League. I was now reading the Guardian as well as NME. I went to Gibraltar to buy British back bacon, Cheshire cheese and gravy granules.

Little by little, I started to get my Britishness back, after having denied it for several years. With this, like Maud in the story, came the questioning and criticism of some local ways of life. I have never been one to complain much about the place where I am living - this is why I think I am good at adapting, I don't feel the need to compare it with somewhere else. And when I hear other Brits moaning about all things Spanish I have to resist the urge to tell them that nobody is forcing them to live here. If they don't like it, they can lump it. Either that or join forces with discontent citizens who are actually trying to change things. However, after having lived almost all of my adult life to date in Spain, I feel that I should have some right to complain about things, being born in a country shouldn't give one an automatic right to whinge more than others!

Sport is one of the few things that divides me from everyone else here, but that is actually a good thing, it gives us something to talk about. I will always support England in football, however bad they are and however much they disappoint me. I absolutely loved the London Olympics! It gave me a sense of pride that the England football team has never done - now I know how everyone felt here when Spain won the World Cup.

I don't really have a concluding paragraph to this post. I only realised that there was a kind of pattern to the period of adaptation when I recognised certain opinions in friends or colleagues. They too have gone through the "British denial" phase and after reading The House on Paradise Street, I discovered that this must be more common than I had thought. I would love to know if any of my readers have gone through similar periods during their years living out of their country of birth (note, I don't want to say "home country", as I am of the opinion that home is where you make it). Please add your thoughts and experiences in the Comments section.

Thanks for reading!

Return of the Mack... I mean blog

 I can hardly believe that the last time I wrote a post was in December. Last year! I knew I hadn't got round to writing anything for a few months but I honestly didn't think I had left it so long. I know flying time is a cliché but that's what seems to have happened in 2012. I suppose I had become slightly disillusioned with the whole ELT world, mainly because of problems in the workplace, and shied away from any contact with it, preferring to spend my free time as far away as possible.

Because that is what I did - I stopped writing on my blog, I stopped reading other people's blogs, allowing my Google reader to get clogged up with hundreds of posts I would never read. I stopped going on Twitter.
You may call it a 6 month holiday from my PLN...

I'm wondering whether it is just all down to my wanting to "get away from it all".

I started blogging in 2009, I joined Twitter at around the same time. Although it took me some time to get into both, eventually I was spending hours every morning reading blogs, writing posts and reading tweets, not to mention the weekly hour of furiously tweeting that is ELTchat (by the way, I am very sorry to hear about the demise of the ELTchat website, although I'm sure you'll have it back up and running soon with another domain). During 2010 and 2011 I probably spent the equivalent hours to that of a part time job on Google Reader, Blogger and Twitter. Just as well I didn't use Facebook for professional development! Other people didn't understand - why are you spending so much time doing something that you are not getting paid for?

And in the end, I got a bit tired of it all. I would take a week "off" and then have 50 blogposts to read when I went back online. So I would ignore them and the following week there would be 86, and then 132 etc etc
It got to the point where I just stopped using Feedly/Igoogle and ignored them forever.

But let me get back to my point in question. I am one of those people who takes up a new hobby, at first spends hours and hours on it only for it to peter out after a few months. I may take it back up again at a later date, but for shorter periods and with less motivation. This is especially true for sport (I did swimming for about a year, then running from which I have to have 2 months off every summer due to the heat!) but has even happened this with knitting - I spent hours and hours knitting this winter, even taking it on the train with me to a professional development session, but who fancies knitting in the summer? All that sweaty wool...

So, is this what has happened to me with blogging and tweeting? Are all the above just excuses?
Now I've had so much time off, I feel it is time to get back into it. To reconnect with all those people I had regular "conversations" with on Twitter. To comment on blogposts written by my PLN. To write on my own blog. However, this time I am not going to spend hours every day as I just don't think it is healthy. I will try to post something once a week, or more if I get inspired. I will spend maximum one hour a day reading blogs and retweeting things I have discovered. I will try and take part in ELTchat in the lunchtime session.

Does that sound like a good plan to you?

Note - Anyone remember Mark Morrison? I hated this song but always ended up singing it!