Actividad final. Reflexión sobre el curso "Y después de PLE, ¿qué?"

Como colofón a este curso que organiza ScolarTic, la última actividad consistía en crear un artefacto digital en el que reflexionásemos cada uno sobre el proceso de aprendizaje.

He elegido hacerlo con Genially y aunque no he sido capaz de hacerlo a partir de un lienzo en blanco, creo que a partir de una plantilla no me ha quedado del todo mal. Todo es cuestión de invertir tiempo en trastear y aprender cómo funciona.

Aquí tenéis mis conclusiones.

Recycling, changing and creating.

After more than a year after my last post, I get inside my Blogger account and I try to do the dusting, cleaning the spiderwebs away and thinking... What should I do? Should I open a new blog, or can I recycle this one? I think recycling is always a good idea. So I will readapt the template and so I will use this corner to express myself. This time not only for my students but also for my partners, teachers from all around the world who may visit and read me. Who knows.

Now I am trying to improve my teaching methodologies, trying to innovate and to create. I am not a creative person, I usually say that I have to left hands because I am so clumsy, but I have learned that creativity is not only devoted to design, literature or music but creativity is everywhere. I must train harder to improve it, but I can. This is my duty for next school year, and I am working hard on it.

What am I doing? During my school holidays I am thinking seriously about how to renovate a lot my methods, my materials, my procedures. I want to help my students to be cooperative, assertive and protagonists of their own learning process. Not an easy task, though.

But nothing worth having comes easy. Remember that.

Interesting websites

Sometimes I find interesting websites that I consider worth sharing with other people. In this case, I would like to show you this website called Boredpanda which is frequently updated. The posts can be about anything... but they usually have one thing in common... the photos are incredible.

As Halloween is celebrated this week, now the main part of the posts are around this topic, as you can even see in the website design.

In this website you can find very weird posts about amazing things, funny facts about something, incredible photos, supertender pictures with puppies, kitties... have a look and tell me if you don't find some thing that catch your attention! It is impossible!!!

I encourage to choose one and show it in your blog and talk a bit about this. Which one would you chooose? I am very curious.

For example, scrolling down the webpage I have seen one that has attired my attention: a post about the most strange crisps flavours around the world. Have a look!

Thoughts about photography

Do you like photography? I think it is very interesting and it is an art. As a very clumsy and non-type art person, I am so fond of people who are able to capture some aspects of life that are astonishing. For example, I usually have a look at science magazines like "Muy Interesante" or "Quo" and I always find incredible photos, like these ones.

As you can see, they are very different from each other, but each one is very powerful, in my opinion. They make me think a lot about what I am watching in each photo... for some minutes.

I love also very old photos that show unknown people. Some of them speak volumes (this means they tell a story about something, a very powerful story indeed!). For example,

I can spend a very long time imagining the personal stories behind all these people. Where did they live? Did they have a good life? Were they happy?

Yes, I am very curious and I love guessing stories...

Things in common...

We are all different, that is so obvious that I won't focus on differences. I want only to highlight the things we all have in common, even with people we don't agree with or people we don't like at all.

We all have need of basic things like food, water, a place to live and some friends to love. All have a family and we care about our dearest ones. All bleed reed blood if we get hurt. All suffer when we are in pain. Everybody has got some problems sometimes.

Like every other person, we all get worried when things don't happen as we expected they would. Each of us get angry when others talk at our back. Everybody hates lies and dishonest people.

All of us hate injustice, but we all know that sometimes we have to accept things we wouldn't want to, but life is like this.

So... let's think about what other things we have in common, because we have more similar characteristics than we thought before.

Because we are all human... we are all HUMANS.

We all have got two eyes...

... but we don't all see the same things.

Or, at least, we don't understand the same.

I have just seen this video and as I am very fond of my cat (the other one unfortunately died) I am sure that my interpretation would be very different from yours.

I have an idea. Maybe this idea could be for next year's blog, but maybe you could save this video, or even write about it now and save it as a draft...

My idea would be something like this. You write about what you see and feel about this video... not only two sentences, but a text. Try to imagine how the two protagonists feel, what they think, what they do and whey they do it... and your own feelings about it.

I suppose not a lot of people would feel like doing this... but... who knows?

Here you are the video.



Omelette from Madeline Sharafian on Vimeo.

Burst into tears

Do you know the meaning of this idiom? It means "to start to cry suddenly".

Have you ever burst into tears? Can you think of a situation where a person suddenly starts to cry, feeling a deep sorrow? I can. Unfortunately, I would say... I know very well how it does feel when a pain makes you burst into tears... and it is not a comfortable nice situation, but on the contrary, it feels very desperate... because when you do so, it is because you are in a great distress.

I hope nobody in this world felt this way... but I fear this is not in my hands. So many people are suffering a lot these days, and I am sure that near you someone would appreciate it a lot if you cared...

Enjoy the silence

A word has come to me... SILENCE.

What is silence? How would you define this word, and how would you explain its meaning? Difficult... I mean, it is easy to define... but not in silence.

After this word has come to me... a song has. This song. It is called "Enjoy the silence" by Depeche Mode. It was a hit in the 80s, and I remember listening to it on the radio with my sister... now it is one of the songs that go with me during my car trips.




And then... I have googled the word "silence" and I have found these three pictures related to it. I think they are so meaningful, each of them...

Silence, sometimes, speaks loud...

Contradictions...

Sometimes you live a series of contradictions... you may want something but at the same time you don't want it because... who knows...

Sometimes you like something but then you discover that doesn't suit you anymore and you finish by hating that...

Sometimes you feel like doing something... but then a person suggests or orders to do so... and you don't feel like doing it at all...

Why humans are so contradictory?

More vocabulary clouds (Tagxedo)

I told you about vocabulary coulds in previous posts (here and also here), but recently I found out another online tool called Tagxedo to create word clouds with some predetermined shapes. You can create those clouds with the text you type into the box or, as I have done myself, with the text of a particular website. In my case, I have typed my blog address... and Tagxedo gets the more frequent words and transform them into a shaped figure.

These are only four examples:

I hope you like this tool, and I recommend it to you in order to revise for an exam in an original way! You can also use this with your school projects.

What is happiness?

I have just found a friendly Facebook webpage about tiny details in life that make you feel happy... They welcome any new ideas, so if you want to suggest your own happiness moments, send them your ideas!

This is the page (click on the photo)

Here I show some of my favourite happiness moments... 

It has been difficult to choose... up to now, there are 2163 happy pictures!!!

Goosebumps (1)

From now on, I have decided to share the videos that make me have goosebumps (tener la carne de gallina). Did you know this idiom?

Today, I am sharing this video about how we can make the difference... and start the change. Every little thing helps.


What do you feel when you see this video? Could you tell me, please? You can also use this video for a post, I think it can be very interesting if some other people give their view about it.

In my opinion, this is so simple, but so difficult at the same time. We seem to be living in a society who is indifferent to the problems of other people. And watching this video... makes me feel that we can change that. Because you, and me, we are good people. And there are a lot of people who are good around us.

So focus on them.

And help others... because others will help you.

Good actions bring more good actions. Don't you think?

Be contagious!!!!

Teacher, I don't know what to write...

This is one of the most repeated sentences in class when we talk about your blog. I usually tell you to write about the things you like... that's so obvious that sometimes I have to be more specific if you don't get inspired.

On the right side of the blog I have put a new section with "Ideas for your posts" and I am going to copy them here, at the end of this post.

You can also get inspired by having a look at my blog and what I have published. There are plenty of photos, videos... that you can see and be the ideas for your new posts. Have a look at your classmates' blogs too. There are eternal topics you can use once and again...

As I said before, here you are some ideas (topics) for your posts. I have used some of this before...

Ideas for your posts

• A catchy song
• A horrible day!
• A nightmare
• A school project I am proud of
• A trip to remember
• Animals
• Awesome pictures
• Books and reading
• Chatting online or face to face?
• Films I recommend
• I am very good at...
• I can't live without...
• Music
• My best friend
• My favourite subject
• My first day at school
• My grandparents
• My hobbies
• My ideal job
• One of my dreams
• Plans for this weekend
• Poems
• Some things you don't know about me
• Sports I hate
• The best plan for me
• The Internet
• The most annoying thing in the world
• Things I hate doing
• TV programmes
• TV series
• What I hate most
• When I was five years old...
• Youtube videos I recommend

Videos with lyrics

I am sure you like a lot of songs whose lyrics are in English. Do you understand what they are talking about? Sometimes they are a bit of nonsense, but sometimes they have deep meanings...

As you know, you can look for the lyrics on the internet but also using Youtube. Some people make incredible videos (I will show you some another time). These videos with the music and the lyrics help you to learn English. Why? Because you understand better the vocabulary, you learn new words and expressions, and above all, you learn the pronunciation. In addition, if you sing the song trying to pronounce as well as you can you will improve a lot your English.

Do you want to have a try? Let me show you the new Coldplay song. It is part of the "Hunger games: Catching fire" soundtrack. The song is called "Atlas" and, in my opinion, is amazing.

Here it is! Enjoy!

Vocabulary clouds, a good idea!

Last year I showed you an online tool to create word clouds he in this post. I think it would be a great idea not only to revise English or French vocabulary... but also for other subjects' concepts. For example, I have just prepared this cloud for my students of History, for a piece of unit 1 regarding to the "Antic Règim". This could be like this...

What do you think? Try your own cloud!

Write a story with... (1)

Let's start a new type of activity. As you have asked for some new ideas for your posts... here you are a photo, and try to write a short story with it. 

Here I am leaving you some questions to inspire you...

Where is this door leading to?

What can you see?

Where is it?

Who could be the protagonist?

You can copy the image url and paste it in your new post. Good luck!