Day 1

24th October

I can't believe, I have created my very first website. I am using Spark Page. It's a free app that works on laptops, desk PCs and iPads. It was sooooo easy.😊 There are 13 teachers taking part in the course: 3 from Spain, 3 from Poland, 1 from Italy, 1 from Argentina, 1 from Austria, 2 from the UK, plus me. Everybody is so enthusiastic and motivated. In my group I have Iza, Raquel, Sonia, Cassandra, Paloma and Gisela. The teacher's name is Paul Driver. He is very helpful. and supportive.

Day 2

25th October

We started the day with some fantastic warm-up exercises. One of them was a kind of draw and describe a picture. Although I am hopeless at drawing, I really enjoyed this game. In the pictures. You can see one of the photos we were given and the drawing made by one of my group mates.

TPACK stands for Technolological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. It is the combination of Technological Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Content Knowledge. To be a well-trained teacher of any subject, you need all three knowledges.

There is a very good app called voki ed where you can create your own character. You can add voice by either recording or typing sentences. You can use this app for a variety of activities, e.g. you can be a famous writer, a politician, a news reporter, etc. so you can cover a wide range of topics (e.g. global warming, a job interview, new medical trends)

In the last session of the day we were shown some useful websites which you can use to make your lessons more interesting, yet keeping the educational content. I tried all of them, and they were all fantastic.

In the afternoon we had a cultural programme with Dave, who is a great guide. He knows a lot about the history of Oxford, and also well-informed about all the gossips. We visited New, College, which was amazing. We were lucky to be able to enter the dining hall where lecturers and students have their dinner in an old-fashioned way. I took a photo of today's menu. Yummy!!! Some of us spent an extra 20 minutes wandering around the old walls, in the cloisters, uncovering the hidden charm of the college. Today was another great day.

Day 3

26th October

We started the day discussing authentic audio. Where can you find authentic audio.? Can you use it with lower levels? etc. We discussed these questions in pairs and we came to the conclusion that authentic audio is very useful for a lot of different topics, and also with lower levels. We were also given some great ideas on what to use authentic audio for and where to find some. We also compared and contrasted the pros and cons of using authentic audio.

We did a listening task, the teachers were divided into two groups but we had to do the listening on our own, then compared the notes with our group mates, then shared the information with the other group. On the internet you can search for podcast apps, choose a free one and subscribe to it. Enjoy and use free authentic recordings in your lessons. Most podcasts are audio, there are some video podcasts as well. You can find one for every topic. Some come with transcripts as well. Listening to authentic recordings provide the listener with a listening experience that approximates to real life. The aim of any language teacher (most of all a CLIL teacher) is to make the student use the language as a tool. So we should introduce our students to authentic audio as early as possible.

After lunchtime I had 1:1 lesson with Dave Briggs, the head teacher of the school. He demonstrated a CLIL lesson to me through church furnishings and architecture (I was the student). At the beginning of the lesson I felt as if I was a complete beginner in English because of the topic (I should have known words like misericord, reredos, or lectern), but finally I did my job well. We did experts group reading, that is two different texts (A and B) of a similar length were prepared about different aspects of the same topic, and a set of questions were made which covered the information in all four texts equally. First, I worked on my own text, then I shared the information with the teacher who had another text. After the demonstration we discussed and analysed the different strategies, methods and activities. We came to the conclusion that the main aim of the lesson for me (as a student) was to learn both content and language. For next Monday I will have to write a lesson plan for Dave, and then demonstrate a CLIL lesson for him. It will be a challenge!!!

Day 4

27th October

We started our class with an interesting warm-up vocabulary exercise. It is always important to do a warm-up exercise at the beginning of each language lesson (just like in a P.E. lesson) because it gently prepares the student for the lesson, it helps the student turn off the outside world and focus on the tasks.

After coffee break we were asked to make a Podcast in pairs. My fellow colleague had visited a hobbit-styled house for meditation earlier in the morning so we decided to make an advertisement for that house.

When we were all ready, we shared the Podcasts we had made in pairs. Unbelievable!!! I had never thought I would ever be able to make a Podcast. To be honest, we got some help from Paul, yet it was our own product. So I feel quite proud of myself and of course my fellow teachers (Iza and Cassandra).

It was a busy day at school, I deserve a delicious lunch. After lunch break some of the teachers visited Worcester College and Ashmoleon Museum with Dave. Dave, as usual, shared a lot of useful, and also some amusing information with us. Today was a pleasant day, again.

Day 5

28th October

As usual, we started the day with a vocabulary game called Proke. We were working in 2 groups. You can use this game for all levels and all ages. You can do this game on your computer, but if you don't have one in your room, a blackboard and a piece of chalk will be just fine. You can do this warm-up exercise on a Friday morning just to get the energy going.

Our challenge today is make a 10 second movie. The theme: A stranger at the door. The language production is in the process. What is good with this activity is that the students aren't just sitting doing. But you as a teacher have to make sure that the students are using English when making up the story, giving directions to each other, etc.

Well, I must admit it wasn't easy to make my first video. It took a while to complete the task. My fellow colleague and I skipped the coffee break to be able to finish with the film. 

I had lunch with a teacher from Austria in a lovely cafe. We had a ovely lunch there. After lunch we hurried back to school. I had a 1:1 lesson with Dave. We worked on adapting and exploiting texts in the context of CLIL. We worked on two different texts (one was on the scientific explanation of the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the other one was on paintings in the 16th century). We analysed both texts from a CLIL perspective and did some useful exercises, like collecting verbs that one can use to describe a natural phenomenon, or collecting adjectives to describe a painting. We focused on lexis rather than grammar. After the lessons I did some shopping, then went back to my place, where I had a typical English dinner: fish and chips with vinegar.

Day 6

29th October

I decided to go to Woodstock and visit Blenheim Palace as it owns a special place in Britain's history and I am really interested in history, so I thought it was a must-see. Buses run regularly from Oxford and it takes only about 25 minutes to get to Woodstock.

When I arrived at Blenheim Palace, first I went for a stroll in Woodstock. It was one of he most beautiful towns I have ever been to, with lovely antique cafes, stylish inns. Then I spent about 4 hours in the Palace and the Park. The view of the Palace from the Parkland was breathtaking. I found the Churchill exhibition very educative, it provided a wonderful insight into the life of Sir Winston Churchill. After seeing the exhibition, I joined a guided tour of the State Rooms. The guide was brilliant. When I got back to my place, I felt exhausted., yet I went to mass with my landlady at 6 p.m. I really enjoyed the mass after which I had a nice chat with a couple of people from the parish.

Day 7

30th October

Today I got an extra hour as the summer time ended at 2 a.m. on 30th October, so the time was reversed to 1 a.m. In the morning I did some shopping at the local supermarket, then I went to the city centre to go on an educational tour. I visited three museums (it's unbelievable that admission to all public museums in th UK is free): the Museum of the History of Science, Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum. After the museums, I went for a stroll in Christ Church Meadow. I felt as if I was walking in the countryside, there were even some cows grazing in the field. I really enjoyed this Sunday in Oxford.

Day 8

31st October

Before the lesson started the teachers shared with Paul what we had done at the weekend. At the beginning of the lesson Paul told us about a very useful app, which is called explain everything, and you can use this app instead of a whiteboard. It isn't free, but it doesn' cost a fortune. The good thing about this app is that it automatically saves everything you do, then you can send it straight to YouTube, Dropbox, or google drive. Whiteboards are the past, this app is the future, and you can save a lot of money. Change is as good as a rest.

After the break we played a game (created by Paul himself using explain everything app). You can use it as a back-up exercise for checking general knowledge, or vocabulary. It's up to you and it's so much fun.

With explain everything you can download articles, texts etc. from the website, which you can then edit, use for classroom activities. E.g. I downloaded an article from The Guardian about Van Gogh and highlighted some useful expressions that can be used in an art lesson to describe a painting.

After lunch I had done a lesson plan for Dave, which we discussed in our lesson. The lesson plan was built around Hungarian inventions. I tried to use different CLIL activities in my lesson plan. After exploiting the plan, I had to use the words rise, raise, go up, double, boom, etc. and their opposite in sentences. Then I did a listening comprehension. Beforehand I had had to make predictions about the texts: What do I want to get answers to? I had to write down some questions before I listened to the text. As it is Guy Fawkes Night soon (5th November), I played a game called Gunpowder Plot Game, which you can find on on www.bbc.co.uk.

In the evening I experinced what a trick and treating was like in Britain. Some children in customes came to my homestay house asking for treats. My landlady and I handed out some sweets and chocolate to them. Unfortunately, there weren't many kids coming to our house for sweets, yet it was interesting to see this custom

Day 9

1st November

Today's topic is game-based learning: how to design and/or apply a digital game that is not just something added to your lesson to entertain students on a boring Friday morning but also to create engagement. Games are very good at providing an immediate feedback. In digital games you face choices, which have consequences, they create a meaning. All games are decision-making. First you always have to try the game before applying it in the classroom.. There is a very good game for CLIL teachers called Portal 2, it's especially good for physics teachers. It's a game of exploration.

Digital games have their own popularity communities. James Paul Gee identified 36 principles : e.g intrinsic motivation, clear goals, immediate just-in-time feedback, positive failure.

Mihaly Szentmihalyi came up with the idea of Flow Theory. He identified the state of mind as the state of flow. He also identified 9 elements of Flow.

Paul demonstrated 4 different digital games, each for practicing one skill: Elegy for a Dead World for writing, Lifeline for reading, Her story for listening and Keep talking for speaking. We played this latter one in two groups, it was great fun. As all of these are commercial games games, not designed for teaching, so you have to pay, but they are great for teaching purposes. However, you can find great games as well, which are free of charge, e.g Adam Cadre "9:05". The lesson plan was made by Joe Perreira. It is a kind of interactive fiction (IF) with the aim of promoting authentic and spontaneous language production.

After lunch I took part in another cultural trip with Dave. First ever visited St.John's College, then we went to Pitt Rivers Museum, which gives home to a wide range of archeological objects from all over the world. We were lucky to take part in a guided tour. At night I watched a very funny video with my landlady and a neighbour of hers. Great cultural experience!!😉

Day 10

2nd November

We started today's session discussing how you can squeeze games into ELT. Using games can be a reward. Nearly every game you find on the internet is a walk through - you can read or listen to the instructions, that is use the game as a text. You can talk about activities - using an image, not the game itself. Finally, you can watch the trailer / video review of the game. As so can see, games can be used for a variety of purposes (CLIL as well).

I have created my very first blog page and I also have written my first blog post. On Wordpress it is quite easy to create your own and you can add texts, videos, photos. Creating an own blog page can be very useful for educational purposes as well. I have also done my first poll using polldaddy.com. If you have a Wordpress account, you can log in polldaddy.com with the same account.It's so easy.😉 No special skills are required to succeed. After having created our own websites looked at two blog sites and compared them from an educational point of view.

If you want build you own lesson, sign up for ed.ted.com. You can also see what other people have done. You will find loads on different themes (e.g. Science and technology, mathematics).

Our final task before lunch was to dub either a short advertisement, or a very short scene from a silent film. Our group preferred the latter one. Tomorrow we will get an extra 15 minutes to finish the task. We are almost ready, and we really enjoyed working together, we had a lot of fun.

After lunch I met Dave again to continue exploiting CLIL activities First I had to put some word cards into two groups: transitive or intransitive verbs. Then I had to match the opposites. It's a good idea to keep a wordbox in the classroom, and somebody finishes first, you can give them a card (or cards) e.g. to create a sentence with the word, and also with its opposite. Then we played a game called palmanism, which you can play in pairs. The word cards are faced down, a student turns over two cards, if they match (e.g. opposites), he/she has another go, if not he/she has to put the cards on the desk faced down, and it's the other student's turn.

The next task was to compare two works of art, one by Constable, the other one by Turner. I had to use expressions for comparison and contrast (beforehand I had been given a list of expressions with example sentences). Finally we analysed a poem written by Stephen Spender, highlighting expressions like convey, express powerfully, give sg more impact, etc., which one can use for writing an essay on any theme.

I felt very tired by the end of the school day so after a short walk I went back to my place where for dinner I had one of my favourite English dishes: chicken pie. It was yummy.

Day 11

3rd November

In the morning we were given an extra 15 minutes to finish our dubbing task. Then we watched each other's dubbed movie extract. It was fun, each team had come up with a different idea. 

Today we are going to look at some special green screen effects. Green Screens go from about £5 to several pounds. You have to avoid shadows and wrinkles (of course on the screen, and not on the person unless you have green wrinkles on your face), and you mustn't wear anything green. There's a fantastic app designed for children, but it's great to listen to the instructions about how to use green screen. The name of the app: Do Ink. For making a video using green screen, use Green Screen app. In groups of three we recorded our first video using green screen

After lunch I visited Christ Church College with Dave and some of the other teachers. It is the largest of the Oxford University Colleges. Tom Tower was designed by Christopher Wren (he is the one who designed St. Paul's Cathedral in London). The founder of the college was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. After having seen the College, I went to a nice cafe in Broad Street where we had a chat and lovely tea and cappucccino. Tonight's dinner was made by my landlady's son. They had steak with green peas and chips. As I don't normally eat red meat, I was given smoked mackerel with green peas and chips. It was very thoughtful of him.

Day 13

4th November

This our last school day in Oxford. Our task for today is to choose a technology/idea we have explored, then think about how I might you it in mx context, design an activity or lesson idea and present the idea to my group. We also have to think about what point the technology will be used, how I might deal with potential issues, what language/skill I am practising.

After the break each of us had to present their lesson plan to the others. In my lesson plan I used Proke, which I find a very good and useful word game to be used as a warm-up exercise in the classroom. I also downloaded an authentic article about health from the internet. I deleted some words from the text, rearranged the order of the paragraphs, that is I accustomed the text to my lesson aims. I used explain everything app which can be used to replace interactive whiteboard.

Our last task in the course was to give feedback on the course. We were given a feedback sheet to fill in.

In the afternoon my landlady and I visited an elderly lady (she's in her 80s) where we had afternoon tea and a lovely conversation. She lives in a gorgeous Victorian house in Abington, not far from Oxford. After dinner I said goodbye to landlady as I am leaving very early in the morning . My coach leaves for London Stansted Airport at 4:30 a.m.