IX Jornades de Llengües Estrangeres, Salou
Thank you so much for sharing the IX Jornades de Llengües Estrangeres with us last 24th, 25th and 26th November at the IES Jaume I in Salou, organized by the Serveis Territorials d’Ensenyament in Tarragona. The collaboration of the students was very efficient and original.
We really had a great time with Nina Lauder at her talk about Creating Curiosity in the Classroom. We hope you enjoyed her ideas and good energy. Don’t forget to try brain breaks with your students! To download Nina’s handout and see other helpful links, you can visit her blog.
And thank you for stopping by our stand, it’s always very nice to meet you all. We hope to see you at future events!
Oxford Seminar for Teachers in EOIs and Private Language Schools in Catalonia
Thank you to all who came out for the Oxford Seminar last Friday. The morning was filled with helpful and interesting workshops with some well-known trainers in the field. We hope you took away some ideas that you’ll use in your classes!
First, we listened as Kieran Donaghy told us about creative ways to use images in the classroom. We tried our hand at describing some of the images he brought for us, and found it to be a wonderful way to practice descriptions and modal verbs, among many other language and communication points. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Working with images with Kieran Donaghy
Later, we moved onto improving our students’ listening skills. Annie McDonald gave us dozens of ideas for using authentic listening texts in the classroom to help our students develop communicative skills that will help them outside the classroom. She stressed that we can prepare students by giving them a context and directing their attention, therefore reducing anxiety.
Using Authentic Listenings in the Classroom with Annie McDonald
Finally, Mark Hancock gave us the inside story on motivation, and suggested how we might spark the interest of our students. He gave several examples of activities with intrinsic appeal, such as newspaper articles, personal quizzes and enticing emails. He suggests that these types of activities will motivate our students to get more involved in class and in their language learning.
Mark Hancock discusses Motivation: The inside story
We enjoyed a lovely morning in Barcelona, and hope you have to! If you were left with any doubts or would like to share any thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below. You can download the handouts and find more information on the programme and our experts at these links.
Make the Most of your Digital Book!
New technologies are changing the face of education, and Oxford is at the forefront of this exciting revolution. We’re working hard to bring you the latest and teach you how to use it. In this session teachers were able to discover our new digital books and their unlimited possibilities!
Abel Galvez showed participants how to survive the digital jungle today as they tried it out individually on the computers available. They saw many different ways to exploit a digital textbook; its possibilities and collaborative qualities. They got creative with Web 2.0 tools that give students the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned, interact with each other and use authentic materials. Abel expressed the importance of learning from colleagues and even students to improve knowledge of new technologies. Lastly, teachers were able to access the new digital OUP textbook and try their hand at the interactive features and adding something of their own.
Abel Galvez: Make the Most of your Digital Book
We hope you’ve enjoyed this workshop as much as we have! Remember that this has been the first in a series of workshops on how to make the most of your digital book. Look out for Module 2, coming in September!
You can see Abel’s presentation again on the page called MTM Digital Book and visit related links. Also take some time to browse previous Seminars that we’ve held and ask any questions you might have!
Teacher Training: Web 2.0 tools
What is the Web 2.0? We’ve all heard the term but it can be difficult to define. Perhaps it is easier to talk about the tools that make up Web 2.0: blogs, wikis, Webquests, podcasts, etc. There is an infinite world of collaborative communication and much of it can be used in education. These tools can engage and motivate students in a way that traditional education techniques might fall short.
Today at the Col·legi Sant Josep in Reus, Visi Alaminos is training secondary teachers on Web 2.0 tools. She’ll explain the concept of Web 2.0, its possibilities for education, as well as specific ways to use technology to engage secondary students. Visi will help teachers understand the Virtus platform that supports OUP digital books, how to use the interactive features and how to further enhance these books with teachers’ own materials.
We hope you’ve enjoyed Visi’s presentation and are able to try out some of these ideas in your classes in Autumn. Thank you for joining us!
To download the handouts and other resources used and for related links, visit our page called Web 2.0 Training. Feel free to ask questions and make comments on this page.
Oxford Seminar on New Technologies
Thank you for joining us at the first module of the Oxford Seminar on New Technologies for Primary and Secondary Education in Catalonia. We enjoyed the session and hope that you have too! Remember to join us at the following two modules on 16th and 23rd February.
Welcome to Blogxford! This is a space for sharing information, asking questions and getting answers. We invite you to take a few moments to browse the site and ask questions of our trainers. In the true spirit of a blog, our Seminar trainers are continually collaborating in its development, and hope that you find their contributions to be both helpful and interesting. Please feel free to ask questions that can be answered in the next two modules and share information that could be helpful to other participants.
