Reflecting after your essay on art

After doing the activity, I would like you to answer to this questions. You may do it using a Voki, it will look great!

1- What have I learn with this activity? Which new things can I do now?
2- Am I satisfied with my work?
3- Was the activity difficult? Was it entertaining? Was it useful?

Reflecting after completing a task is really helpful. Looking at the final product and the process which lead you to it, you can identify what you learn and how, in order to apply the same methods in the future, and to feel proud about your new knowledge and capacities!

And here we have some reflections:

Jessica's:
1-I learned new vocabulary about the interpretation of art, textures and this kind of things. Now I can express what I see or the texture of an object more easily.
2- I'm satisfied so I hope I'll pass the exam!!
3-It has been very difficult but quite useful.

Laura's:
1- With this activity I learned a little about one painting. Now I can describe a painting. 
2-Yes, because I like art and now I can do a new thing with the art.
3-Only finding a little information was difficult. I didn't have a lot of fun but I think that it is very useful.

And Otman's:
1- With this new way of working you learn to work with your computer in a cleaner way, without contaminating. I really enjoyed it.
2- Yes,very satisfied because whit this new way I can see the work I do and more people can see it, too.
3- No, the activity was very easy and useful.- maybe it's not easy at the beginning, but it is once you start writing. It is also entertaining, and I like this way of working.

So we may conclude that this new way of working is useful and a good idea. We learn how to work in a different way, how to find information, interpret it and then share our conclussions with the rest, using new technologies. I'm really happy you enjoyed this activity, at least a bit, and that you took some profit of it!! THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORK!!

First essays on art

We are already getting the first essays, they are great!

You can visit Jessica's portfolio here. This is her description of an sculpture:

"Maman"
This is a sculpture by the artist Louise Bourgeois. The sculpture is made of metal. It isn't abstract art, we can see perfectly that it is a spider. It hasn't a defined colour, but the family of dark colours is used. The sculpture is very curved and probably with a smooth surface. In conclusion it is a three-dimensional sculpture with a very scary form. I've searched in Google and Maman is more than 9 meters high, it has been exposed in many museums of the world.


Here we have Laura's blog and essay:

The Lower Falls Of The Labrofoss was painted by Johan Christian Dahl in 1827. In it yo can see a very beautiful landscape with a waterfall. This painting is realistic.
In the painting you can see the waterfall and a little part of the forest. This painting is very simple, the shapes are common and are very realistic. The colours are a little bit dull, but it looks like a day of storm or a sad landscape. You can see easily that the focus of the painting is the waterfall, because it is more colourful. 
In this painting, I think the painter maybe was sad, so he painted with dull colours. Maybe it was a stormy day. In my opinion, this painting shows a relaxing and a beautiful landscape.

This is Otman's blog and essay:

A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel was painted by Judith Leyster in 1635. It shows a girl and a boy with a cat on his hands. The painting is very beautiful because it represents two happy children. Tthis painting is a realistic piece.
The boy is wearing a black hat and a black dress, and the girl is wearing a white hat with a black skirt. The cat is grey and black. The foreground is brown. The boy and the girl are very beautiful  because they have little eyes and white skin.
In my opinion this artist was trying to express the very happy life of the children when they have a pet. I think the piece is realistic and truthful because children are happy and innocent.  

Here we have Belal's e-portfolio and description of a painting:

The House of Art was painted by an artist in the National Gallery of art in 1831. It shows a room with an extraordinary number of pieces of art. This pieces represent all the family ancestors that have lived in this house. There are eight people and one sculpture.
It looks as if the artist is happy because he painted their bodies and faces. The thin a big pieces of art seem to show that his family is bleeding. The colour of the house is yellow, and the pieces of art have got the different colours of the world. There is a big yellow door and a wide variety of windows. The sculpture is big and withe, and it represents the body of a boy.
In The House of Art the painter portrayed the life of the different people who had lived in this house.

Anabel's description of a beautiful and sad painting:

"Ophelia"
The picture was painted by John Everett Millais (1829-1896).
This is a very realistic image because you can see perfectly what is it. It shows a dead woman on the water with some flowers in her hand.
It's not very colourful but it has different shades of green and brown and some colours for the flowers.
The women's face is very shiny and luminous.

This is Marga's essay on a painting:

Inland in Australia was painted by Sidney Noland in Australia, in 1948.
These paint is realistic, you can see a landscape and a dry climate. And it's three-dimensional, because you can see little mountains.
It's a traditional town in Australia, and the paint has cheerful colours painted with watercolours. It has mainly straight shapes to design the blue and cheerful sky and sad colours for he mountains and the sand on the floor.
I think Noland wants to express that in Australia there are many land empty and poor. He wants to transmit that we have to change that. The sky is important too, because it reflects that behind the sad things there are always are good things.
In my opinion, these paint is a beautiful way of making people think about the bad and good things.

Really interesting! Well done, my dear students!

Why an e-portfolio?

An e-portfolio is a great way to show the world the abilities you have. Sometimes it seems that the English you learn stays in class, but this is not true. If you open a blog for the English class, you can share your opinion about your favourite film or book, upload a video with a play performed in class or a poster created with Glogster about any topic you've been working on... and show off!!! We can create wikis about interesting topics and share your knowledge with the world... There are so many possibilities!!!

Working with new technologies opens a wide range of resources to you, which I'm sure will make you enjoy the process of learning a lot more. Then... why not? Let's expecience!!!

A work of art

In order to show the world how well you can describe art, I would like you to upload to your blog a description of an sculpture or a painting. You may visit the webpages of some of the best museums in London, choose the one you like the best and share your essay with the world.

In Tate Modern, for example, you can find a map of the museum and visit the different galleries virtually. You can also find podcasts with wonderful descriptions- great for practising your listening skills while discovering more about art! - and indeep information about some artists and their work, which will be really heplful for your essay. This website is definitely great!

If you prefer more traditional art, you can also visit The National Gallery. This website is also huge, and offers virtual tours and a "learn about art" section.

So... it's time to start your adventure! Don't forget to include a picture of the piece of art chosen!

Modern Life.

I've created some "Potatoes", that is, interactive activities, to practise describing people, routines, and aspects of every-day life in general.

Our Wiki and a Webquest about war

I created a wiki where we can interact more directly than here, as there, you can edit the content. Here it is

I have also created a Webquest, that is, a project where we will go trough some activities which will make us reflect about a controversial and interesting topic: war. You will listen to some songs about it, you will investigate a bit and then, you will create an opinion about the topic.

I hope both resources will be useful and interesting. Why don't you have a look and tell me your opinion?

Reflexió sobre "L'àrea de llengües i les TIC"

Acabat el curs "L'àrea del llengües i les TIC" he de dir que he quedat encantada amb els coneixements adquirits. Sens dubte, compleix les meves expectatives inicials, ja que considero que la meva pràctica docent i l'aprenentatge dels meus alumnes milloraran amb totes les eines que he pogut conèixer a través d'ell. Crec que els meus alumnes podran gaudir-ne més de l'aprenentatge de l'anglès, la qual cosa farà que aquest sigui més fàcil. Les noves eines apreses faciliten la tasca de proposar activitats més variades, més properes als seus interessos, i amb finalitats reals més evidents per a ells.

La finalitat d'una llengua és la comunicació, i per tant, és indubtable que una eina de comunicació com les noves tecnologies ha d'anar lligada a l'aprenentatge de les llengües. En un món com el que vivim hem d'aprendre a desenvolupar-nos i a fer un bon ús de les TIC, que tanta informació i utilitats posen al nostre abast. Per tant, crec que l'aprenentatge de llengües i l'ús de les TIC es complementen meravellosament.

A més, sobretot a l'hora d'aprendre una llengua estrangera, Internet ens obre una nova finestra al món i per tant fa que els contexts d'ús de la llengua durant l'aprenentatge siguin més reals, la qual cosa no sempre és fàcil en el nostre cas. En veure aquests contexts reals, els alumnes poden veure millor la finalitat de les activitats, i per tant, l'aprenentatge resulta més productiu.

Amb aquest curs he aprés bones maneres de dur a terme tot això. És cert que no sempre ha sigut fàcil poder aplicar totes les activitats degut a la manca de temps, però per al proper curs, ara que ja conec les eines, prepararé la meva programació tenint-les en compte, i així aquest problema quedarà resolt.

Per a concloure, només puc tornar a repetir que he quedat molt satisfeta, i que esper que això es reflecteixi en els meus alumnes.

My poster about Poe.

I decided to create a poster with Glogster about Poe, one of my favourite writers.




By creating these poster I developed my capacity of using information and new technologies, and I improved my language skills. Also, I had a great time! Therefore, I encourage you to create one.
I suggested these activity as an optional one because we don't have time to do it in class before the term finishes, but if all of you did it, we could present your posters during the third term. I really think it would be a great and valuable experience.

I hope you do it!

Poster by Eloy.

Eloy decided to delight us with a poster about paintball. Great work!



Just a couple of corrections: it is not "actue" but "act", and "it has", not "it have".

Activity with Glogster

My dear students, I would like you to create a new poster, but this time, an "interactive" one, and about any topic you like- in English, of course. You can do it by using the tool "Glogster".

This is a tutorial about how to use Glogster, and here, one more.

And here you have a wondeful example:

Wiki about Romanticism

Together with some teachers of Spanish and some teachers of Catalan, I have created a Wiki about Romanticism. If you want to have a look, which would be great, click here.

By doing this, we tried to:
-create a site where students can relate the literary manifestations during these period in the three languages they know.
-serve as a model for further work for students, in which they will develope their reading and writing skills, as much as their capacity of collaborative work, and their digital and communicative competences.

I found the experience really rewarding: the topic was appealing, so the task became easy, and the process was fun because we collaborated and communicated a lot to each other.

So, my dear students, I think creating a Wiki about any topic you like is a great way to develope a lot of capacities while you are having fun. Why don't you try?

Reflexions sobre les activiats amb video i àudio.

Activitat 3, parlar.

Per a aquesta activitat vaig decidir utilitzar un exercici oral del llibre de text, que consistia en descriure un dels cinc animals imaginaris proposats per tal de que els companys endevinessin quin animal s'estava descrivint. No varem poder exposar les imatges a un format digital per que aquest exercici no estava disponible al cd de classe; encara així, vaig decidir-me per aplicar el vídeo amb aquesta activitat degut a que pareixia motivadora, divertida i adient als continguts que estàvem tractant- de fet, als alumnes els hi havia cridat l'atenció ja avants de que jo la presentés, la varen trobar al llibre i varen riure molt amb les imatges.També per això vaig preferir aplicar aquesta que no caviar-la per altra.

A l'hora de posar-la en pràctica, els alumnes varen preparar la seva descripció durant cinc minuts, i tot seguit, un per un, varen explicar-la als companys per a que endevinessin l'animal. Ells disposaven de les imatges al seu llibre de text.

En quant al fet de gravar als alumnes, va resultar en part decepcionant, ja que esperava que la idea els motivés, en canvi, molts no varen voler ser gravats, i molt menys, penjats al bloc. Encara així, amb els que varen estar disposats, varen fer una activitat de visionat dels vídeos per tal d'aplicar l'autoavaluació, que va resultar molt satisfactòria. Els alumnes varen veure les seues errades i es varen corregir a ells mateixos fàcilment, cosa que varen trobar útil i els va agradar.

Conversar.

Per a aquesta activitat vaig proposar que els alumnes mantinguessin una conversa, per parelles o grups de tres, sobre el que havien fet el cap de setmana, ja que estàvem tractant el Past Simple i el Past Continuous. Es varen preparar durant cinc minuts i després varem escoltar totes les converses.

Tal i com a l'activitat anterior, molts alumnes no valen voler que els gravés, a pesar de tractar de motivar-los explicant que veure les seves pròpies errades els ajudaria molt. Realment no esperava aquesta resposta negativa, però no vaig voler pressionar-los. Vaig fer la part d'autoavaluació amb els alumnes que si havia pogut gravar, i, novament, va resultar satisfactòria. Aquests alumnes, a més de l'aprenentatge que els otorga la realització de les activitats, rebran 0,5 més a la nota final.

My students in 2nd ESO describing an imaginary animal:

And talking about their weekend:

I'm really happy with all the work you are doing!!!! It seems some people decided creating a conceptual map in the end, which was not so popular as a Wordle about vebs- by the way, why did you all chose verbs and not adjectives or nouns? Anyway, I'm grateful about any effort you decided to do. I hope all these activities were useful and interesting, at least a bit. Let's keep working like this!!! :)

Conceptual map by Miranda:

Poster with new vocabulary by Carles:

And by Víctor:

Thanks guys!

The first personal conceptual map!

Isma has been the first one to dare sending a conceptual map on his own. I'm really happy, it is wonderful!

And Hamza has done a new poster with some vocabulary:

Wonderful work!

And still more Wordle!

I'm very happy with your work, my dear students! Below you can find some more posters. Now, why don't you try with the activity about charity? I think you will find it interesting and useful.

This one by Thierry:

 

By Isma Hihou:

And by Andy:

Wonderful work guys! :)

Conceptual map about UNICEF.

Here you have the first result! Doesn't it look great? :)

To enlarge the image, click on it.

 

If you want to add more, please, send it trough a comment or an e-mail. I can't wait to see it!

Charity

After talking about charity in class, I think you can investigate a little bit about the topic. Let's read some information about some charitable organizations, and then we will create some posters with the main information found, using this simple tool to create conceptual maps.

These are the articles, choose one:

Unicef.
Amnesty International.
Oxfam.
Or, if you dare, a longer and more detailed one, about The Red Cross.

I hope you find this activity useful and interesting.

And here one more, by Leandro. Fantastic!

And I'm still willing to see some more, please!

Some more results.