English Virtual Community

Vance Stevens is visiting La Plata! He kindly accepted my invitation to give a presentation. He will speak about "PLN ( Personal Learning Network): The paradigm shift  in learner and teacher autonomy"  at the School of Languages. When? at 12.30 p.m.  next Wednesday -August 11th .  Free entrance but you should book your place in advance by phoning 0221 423 6672

I am taking an online workshop leaded by Nik Peachey and this morning, while I was checking mails coming from my workshopmates, I came across this Web 2.0 tool which looks  a really interesting storymaker called StoryBird StoryBird   is really simple and speedy. You must get registered (i t takes a couple of minutes ), and after exploring it in a few seconds, you can start writing. The artwork available is great. Have a look and tell me your opinion in comments :-) Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo . If you are fond of children's literacy and literature, you cannot miss this blog:

In the story " Circus Escape " an elephant escapes from the circus and runs off into town. The elephant meets Billy and saves him from a fire. The story is aimed at learners who already have a basic knowledge of English, and practises narrative tenses in a story context. Circus Escape is an online flash-animated story for young learners on the British Council's site for young learners LearnEnglish Kids. In the classroom there are many ways of exploiting activities to   help children practise their English whilst developing their creativity and imagination by writing poems, stories, reviews, etc. You can find them HERE

Learning a new language can be a fun and exciting experience, especially for younger children. The key is to keep them interested in what they are learning. Fortunately, the Internet provides many free games, flashcards, songs, books, and other resources that can entertain, engage, and educate young English language learners. Here are 15 resources worth exploring: ESL-Kids.com provides worksheets, flashcards, games, and songs that children can use to learn English. The site also features an In Class section that demonstrates how to use these resources.  Starfall  With this fun interactive English game site, beginning students can practice their ABCs and reading. Starfall is primarily for first grade children but works well for pre-K to second graders.  BarryFunEnglish is an elementary student English learning site. Through this site, you will find worksheets, games, vocabulary builders, flashcards, listening and PowerPoint presentations. The PowerPoint presentations...

The III National Conference for Teachers of English was held in Concepción del Uruguay from April 22nd to 25th. Teachers from different provinces (Tucumán, Corrientes, Formosa, among others) attended to different presentations at the new local auditorium. The event was fantastically organized by Ma. Laura Perrotta and Roxana Embon. I met Gustavo Gonzalez - vice president of APIBA (Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Buenos Aires) and vice president of FAAPI (Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés) - who delighted the audience with his energy, videos, music and magic - yes, he performed some magic tricks. I also met Fabiana Parano (photo) who spoke about how to tell a story in L2 and performed "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe. I also spoke with Mady Casco about her material concerned with the first episode of the TV, her series "LOST" and her experience as teacher trainer. I spoke about Worldcall 2008 , presented ARCALL and spoke about mobi...