Using Paint in the ESL Classroom

Paint is a very simple, free application that can be found in every computer.

I believe that Paint has a lot of advantages and many activities can be done using it. 

One example is when you teach about body parts and clothes!!! You can give many creative assignments.

I usually give my students to draw themselves and color the clothes and the body parts (eyes, hair, skin etc) and then they write a short paragraph introducing themselves. 

Here is an example:

Children are so creative they will come up with many drawings and things to write about. It is important to include 'art' in the lessons for many reasons especially with the young pupils. 

There are many activities from coloring (if teaching colors/numbers/clothes/animals....) to writing and it all can be done using a simple program like Paint.

I miss you -- Olympic games

For 2 weeks I was glued to the T.V - trying not to miss any game :)
Cheering for my country although we haven't won  a medal....
I really love watching the athletes and of course I'm a bit jealous at them and their perfect bodies....
Well, not all of the athletes... (like the weight lifting ones..)
Anyway I changed the Olympics games sign to this.... What do you think?

My Characters....

Finally I got to sit and draw .... No, I am not good at it! 
I can really say I suck at drawing! I am the worst artist ever! I can't even draw a house, for real!!
Good for me, I have got Illustrator on my computer which is a great help :)
I am thinking of buying a digital ink pad or something... But the Illustrator at least corrects my crooked lines...
anyway  enough talking about that....
I sat and drew... I wanted something for my site and I wanted it to be about going back to school.... So I have the teacher (isn't she cute???)

and then I changed her....

Then I created this mom and daughter ...

This one is for my friend Orly's site

and the last one is empty for you to write whatever you want inside :) 

This is a brand new one... I still don't know if I like it or not :)

Losing Weight

4 months ago, I've decided it's time to do something about my weight.
                  
I have gained more than 20 kilos over the last 4 years. While being pregnant I've gained 25 kilos but after giving birth, I managed to lose only 10. I was left with 15 extra kilos.
Now, it wasn't the first time I thought I should lose the weight, but I felt I was too weak to do so.
I had so many excuses!!! "I don't mind the weight" I kept telling my friends and myself, but honestly - deep inside I was desperate to returned to what I used to be... 57 kilos!
Something happened and I don't know exactly what it was. But one day I woke up determined to start exercising and dieting.
I looked for a private trainer and I found one thanks to one of my friends (thanks Hila)!!! 
Anyhow... I started taking sports lessons! First time in my life - and it wasn't easy! It still isn't!!
Twice a week I went to the studio where I had to walk/run/jog on the stepper for 30 minutes and do all kinds of exercises (no jumping at all!! which was brilliant!)
Well - that was so hard!!! I can't forget the first time I stepped on it! I wanted to get off after only 5 minutes!
Really it was hard stepping...  The second time was hard and also the third time! 
I remember telling my younger brother about the stepper and he told me I shouldn't give up and that he experienced it and it takes time to get used to it... I didn't believe it but I didn't give up.
My trainer, Galit set up a menu for me (as she says it is not DIET it is  HEALTHY life-style). No more cakes, cookies, ice-cream, pastries, dough, etc... I have started to eat whole wheat bread and a lot of vegetables (which I always liked so it wasn't hard for me to start with). I must say the new menu wasn't so bad! Leaving all the goodies wasn't even hard as I thought!
During the last 4 months I had eaten only ONE piece of chocolate cake at my daughter's End of the Year party.
Today I have my own stepper and I can easily stay on it for an hour or more!!! Yes! No problems at all!!!

That's the one I use. Air Climber Stepper. So cheap also!  

 I call it "My New Boyfriend".

Don't get me wrong, it has been ONLY 4 months! I didn't stop and I am not thinking of it. I go on with the menu, although I let myself eat more than at the beginning. 

I go to aerobic lessons once or twice a week plus I do the stepper 3 times a week for an hour to burn fat.

With Galit, the personal trainer I work on the stomach and hands for waist and arm reduction. 

You probably want to see how I looked and how I look now right??? 

So, here it comes.....

                             

I started the process with 72 kilos! Now I weigh 59.5 kilos!!! 

Look, the all purpose of this post is to let you know:

If I did it - everyone can!!! 

It is only a matter of setting limits, determination and will!

ClassDojo

Many times I deal with behavior problems in class. Kids (not all) are rude, spoiled and that makes teaching hard. It's true that teacher all over the world are not appreciated enough.

And then I found ClassDojo.

http://www.classdojo.com/

ClassDojo is a behavior tracking tool. 

The teacher needs to create folders for each class she (he) teaches and add the students' names (you can add special avatars to each student - which is quite cool, as the student can pick his favorite avatar). At the beginning of each lesson (or at any time) you can check the students list (see who's missing/ not ready/ sitting/ talking/ standing etc...) and share the information with the parents and the students at any time. You can also print out good behavior certificates and use it on you Smartphone/ tablet and more....

It is well known that students especially the young ones LOVE getting certificates, stickers, 'surprises' and there's no doubt they will love ClassDojo. You should try it... Create an "imaginary" class and try how it works. I have decided to use it this year and see how it goes... I will update you guys :) 

Oh....and I totally forgot the most important things about ClassDojo --- It is absolutely FREE!!

O.K, so how does it work?
First as I said create your classes and add the students' names.
At the beginning of each lesson check attendance.

It is so easy!! You should only check the ones who are late or are missed. 
Then you should begin you lesson as usual. Whenever you want to give positive or negative feedbacks to one of the students, click on the student's name and choose positive or negative and the feedback you want (You set up the feedback's title when you set up you classes)....

   

At the end of each lesson or period you can look at the overall report.  When you see the green number, that means the students has a positive feedback or more depends on the number shown. If you see a red number that means he has a negative feedback/s.

And you can also see a progress report like this one:

Let me know what you think about ClassDojo... :)

I just LOVE it! 

Fakebook

Fakebook is a great tool for teaching second language.


Let's say we want the kids to explore, learn more information about a specific topic, read about a special person etc' - we can use Fakebook for that.
The kids create a Fakebook page (just like in Facebook) for the person, animal, thing, tense (it can be a page for the present tense, grammar rules....) place, book and more...
In their Fakebook should enter certain data (each teacher can decide what she wants the kids to explore) such as: birth-date, place of living, characters (if it's a book) and more...
Then they can add YouTube videos and Status/comments. If they save their Fakebook page and give their friends the password, the teacher can ask the kids to go and comment on their friends' Fakebook.


Here's an example for a Fakebook page.
You can see we learned about Van Gogh. Pay attention to the posts published by other kids in class. One had to create  a page for Elvis Presely and so you can see he added a post on Van Gogh's page.
This is a great interaction, enjoyable task to give children!
What do you think?

A Shy Girl

During the last few weeks we have experienced strange things with He-Lee.

She seems to afraid of crowded places (well, even 5 people is crowded for her) or places she doesn't know. This leads to crying and a request to go back home. For example 2 weeks ago, we went to a birthday party. We know the family and He-Lee knows the 2 children. They are her friends. She ran all the way to the house, as she knows the way but once we opened the door and she saw more people, babies and children she went back outside asking to go home. When that didn't help she went into to restrooms and sat on the toilet (saying she has to pee) for 20 minutes!!! When I finally got her out, she started crying and we had to take her back home. 

Yesterday at her day-care End of the Year Party, she didn't want to enter the room (even thought she knew everyone!!!) because it wasn't her usual classroom. She stayed outside in the hall (dancing, singing and doing everything the other kids did inside). It took her 30 minutes to enter the class and participate... Only when the kids went out to play, she ran to play... 

Now I realize it is perfectly natural, but it is really annoying. How long will it take for this phase to over? We can't take her anywhere... 

She won't stay in shows (we spent too much money trying!!), she won't go to parties, and she won't talk to 'new' people......