Something completely different

I love web 2.0 tools! No, that's rather an understatement! I adore tools! I enjoy exploring this vast sea of new technologies and  experimenting with them to see what would work best in my classroom.  Some of the tools are really awesome, but yesterday I stumbled upon one that is beyond awesome!!!! Videoscribe by Sparkol  is "a unique way to create engaging animated videos quickly and easily". It's something completely different! I've seen and admired such animated "doodle-style" videos so many times before and I always thought that you need to be an artist to produce such stunning pieces of art!

Until I saw a jaw-dropping video created by Adrijana Leko, an innovative and creative teacher from Croatia. And I immediately gave it a try and was euphoric all day yesterday and still am about this fabulous, fantastic, awesome, wondrous tool! Now I can draw too! I can be an artist as well!

So here's my first Videoscribe - eTwinning 3.0. It's a "promotional" video about a new learning event that Bart and I will be running in the eTwinning Learning Lab in September. Earlier this year we ran our first learning event during which we took our participants on a Learning Odyssey to explore the sea of web tools. This time we're inviting eTwinners to fly with us and to discover new horizons of learning and connecting in eTwinning 3.0. It's going to be something completely different too!

We're now cleared for take-off. Doors to automatic and cross-check!

English Spelling: Does It Make Sense?

Many of you have problems spelling English words. This often prevents you from reading or writing as well as you would like to.

Don't get discouraged!  Even though  English spelling often doesn't make seem to make sense, if you dig a little deeper, there  are often very good reasons that explain  the way many English words are spelled. 

Watch this great  video called Making Sense of English Spelling   from TED EDto learn more about  English spelling. It might help you understand it a little better. It might even make you want to learn more about  prefixes , suffixes, roots and even the history of English word.




LISTENING QUIZ: 
 
Go to Making Sense of English Spelling  and click on "THINK "to check your listening comprehension and how well you understood this video. Click on 'DIG DEEPER"  for some links to other resources on the web about English spelling.

For even more resources and practice with English spelling, go to my Editing and Error Correction  Page  and scroll down to the the SPELLING section. 

Summer in the shade with 2 eTwinning publications

With temperatures between 36-38 degrees Celsius here in Croatia, there's no better thing to do but to grab a book and find a shade somewhere near the beach. Instead of a book, I'd suggest grabbing these 2 inspiring eTwinning publications.


Daniela Bunea, English teacher from Romania, is the leader of the Visibility of eTwinning projects Group on the eTwinning portal and the editor-in-chief of the eponymous newsletter,  published once a year. Each newsletter brings a huge number of articles written by teachers from across Europe about their innovative projects and creative ideas that they have put into practice.

I'm especially proud to be one of the contributors to this year's newsletter. I've written an article about the learning event that I co-ran in the Learning Lab of the eTwinning portal earlier this year.


Another reason why I'm tremendously proud and deeply honoured are three more articles in the newsletter that mention my projects and „endeavours“as being inspirational, creative and dynamic:

·         Tatiana Popa in her "My eTwinning Odyssey" says she enjoyed taking part in the above mentioned learning event,

·         Seraphine Francoise Altamura in her"eTwinning Annual Conference 2013: Citizenship and School Collaboration"  talks about the workshop that I co-led in Lisbon,

·         Rositsa Minvea in her"Glogster EDU in eTwinning projects" speaks highly of my Greetings from the world project.

I really, really appreciate it very much, Tatiana, Francoise and Rose.

Another publication that I had a huge pleasure of taking part in its creation is Teachers' Rooms handbook. In December last year I took part in "eTwinning goes social: creating and managing a successful Teachers' Room, a learning event run by expert teacher Laura Maffei. It was an excellent CPD event with lots of fruitful discussions and sharing of knowledge, ideas and experiences. The result of our dedicated work is a Teachers' Rooms Handbook where you can find lots of useful tips, suggestions and advice on how to create a virtual teachers' room and how to keep it alive and useful to its members.

Zen and the Art of Teachers' Rooms Manteinance

Publish at Calameo or read more publications.

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 3 - July 2013

Publish at Calameo or read more publications.

So, don't hesitate, grab these two publications and get yourself inspired.
Visibility of eTwinning projects
Zen and the Art of Teachers' Rooms Maintenance