A jewel from my 'For later' bookmark file

Sometimes when I'm working on the computer and using the internet, I come across interesting websites that I want to come back to, so I have a 'system' for not losing them - I bookmark them in a file called 'For later'.

Just now, I decided it was time - and that I had some time - to check my For later file.  I discovered that over the summer, I had stashed away rather a lot of webpages there.

As you can see from this snapshot of my 'For later' bookmarks, there are a LOT of them and I haven't had the time to organise them - not even alphabetically!!!

I chose one easily recognisable site - http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog.

When I got to the site, I was reassured that my first impression - that it was definitely worth revisiting - was correct.

There is so much stuff that you could use with students here.

Being a blog, the start-up page has the most recent posts, but you can also explore the blog using the drop-down headings at the top:  Explore destinations/Explore themes.

There are articles and videos like the one I have just watched about Madrid.  The reporter, Rafael Estefanía, had to ask local people for advice as to where to find the best street art, how to move around the city in an unusual way, where to watch the sun set

Photo:  http://www.theulifestyle.com/2011/06/living-city-part-i.html

and where to sing to the locals.  

(Interestingly for me, as usual my head started to make connections - at the end of August, I was in Madrid, watching people watching the skyline from that terrace.  I was staying at a hotel right opposite the Circulo de Bellas Artes and was talking about that terrace with my daughter Cristina. It brought back happy memories!)

The video is short - just over 5 minutes - so in my opinion, an ideal length to use in class.  I haven't got time right now to prepare activities for this video (another 'For later' task!), but I would suggest that it could be used among other things as a springboard into talking about what things students do when they visit another city.  They could also prepare a leaflet/presentation/blog entry... with advice for unusual things a visitor could do where they live.

All these suggestions off the top of my head - I'm sure you can think of more.

Oh - and while writing this post, I have just added to my list of 'For later' bookmarks!

I'll no doubt be writing about some of them in future posts!

A post about posters!

Like so many of my past posts, today's post was inspired by an email I received from one of the sites I'm subscribed to.

When we were updating the suggested links on the blog I take part in with a group of local teachers,  (See the post I wrote about this blog back in March) one of the other teachers suggested adding a link to the Busy Teacher Website.

I had not visited this site before, so I checked it out.  I was VERY impressed by what I found and immediately signed up to receive their weekly newsletter.

The site is extremely easy to navigate.

As you can see here, there are worksheets, articles, seasonal activities and resources, and More.

Here's what you can find under More:

As you can see, there are lots of things here.
Under Classroom posters, you can find a wide variety of posters, for example:

Other posters are to display in the classroom for students (classroom language, for example) or to illustrate word sets.

There are many other posters - lots of them fun, others thought-provoking like the one I included in an earlier post about being busy and the many roles that a teacher undertakes.

Check out busyteacher for yourself - I'm sure you'll find lots of things there that you can use in your classes.

Edudemic - looks promising

As so often happens when I click on a link in an email, I then start moving around the web, discovering great sites and resources.

Today being Monday, I got my regular linked in update email.

I clieked on the link and on the update page in Linked In, was attracted by the heading of an article:

The Current State Of Mobile Learning In Education

This topic is, of course, often in the news, but today it seemed particularly relevant.  I have just returned from a weekend riding with my husband on our Harley Davidson motorbike along the 'Ruta de Santiago'.  Also on the route were about 25 other people from all over Spain, France, Belgium, Italy and Finland.  

Having studied French at university, I was called on to interpret for the people from France and Belgium several times.  Over lunch on Friday, I was talking to Alain from Belgium and we got to talking about education.  He told me about a school in Belgium where as from this year, all students are required to come to school with an ipad.

I ended up on a great site called edudemic.com.

This is the wordcloud for the areas covered on Edudemic

TRENDING TOPICS

adobe android Apple apps classroom college design edtecheducation facebook featured google guest guideharvard How To infographic iPad iphone jobslearning magazine math microsoft Must-See Posts online online learning schoolsscience sharing Social Media students study teachers teachingtechnology textbooks tips tools Trends tweets twitter video Videosyoutube

Wordcloud, edudemic.com

As you can see by the sizes of the different words and categories, there are a lot of articles about 'How to'.  I often type these words into a search engine to find the answer for a recipe, a craft or a presentation.

I have found so many interesting-looking features on edudemic that I know I will be spending time today looking at some of them and have already bookmarked the site under 'Technology' on my computer.

Have a great week!