Time for a FEEDBACK session!

 

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Are you the type of teacher who is always willing to get feedback from your students and colleagues? If so, this post is for you! According to the Oxford learners' dictionary, feedback can be defined as advice, criticism or information about how good or useful something or somebody's work is. Also, feedback can take many forms such as oral, written, informal, formal, descriptive, evaluative, peer and self-assessed feedback (New South Wales University). What if I tell you that there is a website you can use to provide or receive feedback in a more interesting way? Stick around and I'll tell you more.

VideoMail.io

VideoMail.io is a web-based platform that allows users to send and receive video emails. It is free and very simple to use. All you need to do is access the website from your computer or cell phone and start to record your video emails. In order to start recording your video message, you should write your email address and the email of the person or the people you want to send the video to.

You can access VideoMail.io here

How do I use it?

Although this platform was not designed for giving or receiving feedback. I decided to give it a try and see how it went with my students since some of them are quite shy and generally get really embarassed when they receive a feedback in front of their classmates. I used it in three ways. Firstly, to provide feedback for my students on their oral presentations and their written compositions. Secondly, to ask my students for feedback on my lessons. Thirdly, to provide their classmates with feedback - I generally ask them to choose a classmate and send them a feedback on their work. The use of VideoMail as a way to provide and receive feedback really worked in my context. My students are really engaged with this tool and it has become part of my lessons. 

Positive aspects😃

• It is a user-friendly platform.

• It is free.

• It helps the teacher to build a good rapport with shy students since the feedback is given individually and do not expose them to the whole class.

One thing to bear in mind 🚨

• The only negative aspect about videomail.io is that you can only record up to 3 minutes of video.

Let's get down to business! 

Watch a simulation of a teacher providing a simple feedback for his students by using VideoMail.io.

That's all for today, guys. See you on the next post! 😄

Designing interesting English teaching materials online

There is always a time when we seem to get used to our teaching materials and find they are not as efficient as they used to be when we first started to use them. This feeling might be related to the content, images, activities or even to they way our students engage with these materials. When this time comes it is very wise to be prepared for allowing yourself to use extra materials that will suit your local needs and tastes. In this post, I will write about an online platform in which you can create very interesting teaching materials to use with your students inside or outside the classroom. Stick around and I'll tell you more.

The Canva platform

Canva is an online graphic design platform where you can design several types of contents from flyers to storybooks. Plus, there are many features and designs that look very professional and are very easy to work with.

How does it work?

Canva offers a lot of free templates so that you can customize according to your teaching context. All you need to do to start to use Canva is to create a free account and start to plan your design. All the information in the platform is very easy to follow. You do not need to have any expertise in design in order to start creating your materials with it. Also, you will find a huge variety of graphic elements such as images, different types of fonts as well as icons so that you can make your materials more attractive to your students.

You can access Canva here

What can you create with Canva?

• Posters
• Flashcards
• PPT presentations
• Educational videos
• Lesson plans
• Worksheets
• Infographics
• Mind maps
• Storybooks

How do I use it?

Although I was given free access to use Canva for Education a long time ago, I was not familiar with it before coming to England. It was only when I had to create some teaching materials for two modules of my MA TESOL course that I became a fan of this fantastic design platform. I used it this term to create two different types of materials. One textbook for 3rd grade students and one storybook for children. I got really amazed at the amount of resources that are available on the Canva platform. I was able to create characters, landscapes, add audios to the materials and much more. Check some of the "masterpieces" that I created through this platform:

Storybook

Textbook

Other types of materials

Flyers

Slides

Posters

Mind maps

Positive aspects

• It is a user-friendly tool.

• Teachers and students can sign up for canva for education (all resources are free).

Overall, Canva is a very useful online platform where creative teachers can develop their ideas and create wonderful and meaningful teaching materials. Although material production requires a little bit of patience and time, I am quite sure that if you start using Canva to create your own teaching materials, your lessons will never be the same. Your students will certainly beneifit a lot from it and will love you FOREVER.

That's all for today! See you on the next post! 😄