You're browsing posts on Images for class
The Image Conference: Film, Video, Images and Gaming
The Image Conference is taking place at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB Casa Convelescencia, Barcelona on Saturday 8th June. The conference has been organised by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and UAB Idiomes, and it is the first conference exclusively on the use of film, video, image and gaming in language teaching.
Speakers include renowned experts in the field such as Jamie Keddie, Ben Goldstein, Paul Braddock, Ceri Jones, John Hughes, Kyle Mawer and Lindsay Clandfield. There will be 2 plenary sessions, 5 keynote sessions and 10 workshops all designed around the theme of film, video, images and gaming in [...]
Great ad for class starring David Beckham
Here's one that might make a great starting point for a creative writing exercise…
The two words "David Beckham" will normally generate a lot of discussion (what do they know about him…?) to give you a starting point (no, you don't need to start looking for photos of him for your "materials"!)
Getting the learners to watch, and stopping to predict what happens next at several points; as well as providing a running commentary to classmates not viewing the video are activities that always work well.
Afterwards, discussion of whether or not they like [...]
Things I take to class #7: A digital camera
In my APABAL session, I suggested this very simple activity, which I got from Nicky Hockly and the CertICT course.
It involves the learners thinking of something they like/hate doing; writing it down on a piece of A4 with a nice thick board pen; holding it up and getting a classmate to photograph it, as in the example, above.
It's most successful if you can persuade them to pull an appropriate face (demonstrate it to them) and, if you're taking the photos in class, maximise the English you get out of kids [...]
Things I take to class #9: Photos for speaking activities
From my session at the APABAL Convention in Palma, September 10th…
I like to take good photos to class: ones that will produce a lot of response and thus a lot of language. They invariably do not come from Google Images and never include boring things like watches (which could be drawn on the board), or mobile phones (which could be pulled out of a pocket) or people like David Beckham (who everyone knows anyway).
For the following activity, you need 6-8 photos; in my APABAL session I used photos of baby animals which I obtained from National Geographic's Photo of [...]
More infographics on the IWB
Here's an infographic from coolinfographics.com showing the world's Best and Worst Places To Be A Woman. In the image above, I've imported the chart into an interactive whiteboard (IWB) page and then blanked out in yellow the names of the countries and the criteria used for ranking.
As a starting point for class discussion with a group of adults, can they suggest what the criteria were/should be; what countries will come where (and why?) in the ranking; and, specifically, where will Spain come?
So that we can [...]
Learn to do simple board drawings
Here's a skill that all teachers should learn: simple board drawings, from the very excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk. It would save you so much time and save so many trees that get wasted when you print the pictures you stole from Google, who stole them (without permission!) from other websites…
And it's so much more fun, and so much more creative, and if you want your classroom to be a creative space, lead the way!
From the same source, How to draw cats, dogs and birds.
See also 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy
Related posts: [...]
A fun, creative activity: Drawing photos
Spanish in Barcelona (note the Sagrada Familia!)
Here's a wonderful idea from a colleague, Susana Ortiz, who works in the Spanish Department at IH Barcelona.
Susana wanted to do an activity which involved the students sharing photographs of themselves. They reckoned that they couldn't as most of their photos were back home in their countries of origin. "That doesn't matter," Susana said, "because your best ever photo is probably there inside your head. See if you can describe it to a partner, and get them to draw it for [...]
The most beautiful buildings in the world
This one, Are these the world's most beautiful buildings?, came from my RSS feed for the Telegraph.
That's precisely the sort of thing I'm looking for when I take 10 minutes every morning to skim through the feeds on Google Reader: material (text or images, or both, but not too much), sometimes displayed on an interactive whiteboard, that will interest my learners and, above all, get them to talk, often through a brainstorming session.
With this one, everyone can come up with buildings that might be included, but the potential for disagreement (great!) on what should be included is huge. To [...]
The end of the free Picnik
Unless you happen to be OK with throwing all your eggs into the Google basket, this is bad news: Picnik, the fabulous online image-editing software is shortly (April 19) to become only accessible via Google+.
That's bad news because it was a great tool for getting students to edit the digital images that they'd taken, which was great for project work.
Now, they'll either have to head over to Google+ or else just steal someone else's images from Google-is-Evil… which doesn't make for good project work.
In such cases, [...]
How many slaves work for you?
This is one I got from the wonderful Larry Ferlazzo, and which worked great in class with a small group of (7) intermediate adults.
Essentially what we did was, together ("whole class"), work through the questions on how many slaves work for you on the site Larry recommended, negotiating our collective answer in each case, rather than doing it individually or in pairs. Doing so, and having to agree on an answer for the group as a whole, gave rise [...]
Infographics on the IWB
I loved this idea on OUP's ELT Global Blog: using infographics in class, with coolinfographics.com being suggested as an excellent source.
Because they're so quick and easy to import using the "camera" tool, infographics work great on an interactive whiteboard (IWB).
What I'd then want my learners to do would be to produce their own infographics. Creating forms for questionnaires using Google Docs is one easy way they can collect their information. The results automatically come in charts… which can then be imported to displayed on the IWB as part an oral presentation.
• Just in case | Er, sorry: [...]
Texts learners actually want to read
Here's a story I spotted this morning when I opened Google Reader, as I do first thing every morning. I do that because almost every morning it brings me something I could use in class.
The headline that caught my eye was Miami Invaded By Giant, House-Eating Snails, and I immediately bookmarked it on Delicious, in fact even before I'd actually read the whole article. I'm not sure when I'll use it or with which class but it's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for…
What I'm thinking as I scan the headlines is that any story with a [...]
keep looking »
All posts by Tom Walton, teacher trainer at IH Barcelona
Blogs I learn from
Online course for teachers
April 22nd—June 2nd 2013
Barcelona, Sat.8th June 2013