Hello everybody,

Today I want to tell you about a very interesting source of audiovisual material: Buzzfeed videos. Buzzfeed entretainment is a Youtube channel that has a wide variety of content that can be very useful to hook student's atention on a topic and raise their interest. What makes Buzzfeed interesting and also very appropiate for students is that they choose very updated topics that lead to reflection, and most of the time manage to do it in a funny or friendly way, no matter what the subject is.
Some of the main topics in Buzzfead include React Series (similar to those of the Fine Bros) that are really good prompts for class discussion. The deconstruction of stereotypes regarding cultures and gender is another key issue in Buzzfeed, they have debates or have their team to try experiences from different a point of view, etc. They also include topics like selfimage and selfesteem and how that is affected by mass media, etc.  The variety of these channel and its originality make it very inspiring for both students and teachers, you can check their channel. I do suggest caution cause some videos might not be absolutely appropiate for your class (younger teenagers), although any unnapropiate language or images are always censored. 

Hope you like that, 

xx

Hi everybody,

This week we've been introduced to a very interesting online task: Webquests. "Webquests", as the word suggests, are online quests where you are given a number of tasks that you have to do in order to complete the quest. Webquests are varied and can include a lot of different activities like reading a text, completing crosswords, riddles, research information about a topic, write a report, make a poster, summarize the contents of audiovisual material...etc. There is plenty of possibilities to design a webquest, and the best part is that we can adapt it to whatever it is that we are working on at the moment. Webquests are a very versatile tool that will allow us to work in different topics 

As a first experiment, I thought it would be fun to start with a webquest about St, George, like so we can practice some history and culture of England and also some reading and writing, also I decided to add a different activity at the the end. 

To start with your webquests, you are going to work in pairs, you'll find the webquest (with all the instructions on each task) on this LINK. You will see that there are several activities that you need to finish, you will find also the resources that you need to answer the questions and elaborate your own responses. If you have any problems let me know!

Today I want to share with you another of the platforms we will be using this course, it's called Wikispace. I'm sure you've heard about wikis before, just like Wikipedia. Wikispace is very similar, now we all have a common space where we can share and edit content.

You will find the class' Wikispace on this LINK. Every week we will use our wiki for different tasks, but what makes it very interesting is that in Wikispace we can all edit and modify the content, so we can all participate. For example, if we prepare a debate, we can post some of our aguments in there, and see if others refute our ideas.  We can also use it for creative works like songs, poems or short stories in which we can all participate. I can post a story prompt so we can start a collective short story. Another possible project is a report, if we work in groups, we can all edit the content and keep adding information. You will find another post there with some ideas.

Also, I have added a new task in Wikispace you will be able to see it in the "Pages" section, or in this link.

Remember! You must log in first  to be able to see our wiki, if you have any problems or doubts, let me know.


Don't forget to check it out!

Xx