Bookr---Make your own online book！

         I made a simple story using Bookr above. It is really an interesting and user-friendly online software. Users can make a book by adding pictures and descriptions on Bookr, then it will automatically produce an online book for you.
        This software is very easy to use, therefore we can introduce it to our students for practicing both speaking and writing. For example, they can make their stories on it, so they can learn how to produce an narrative text in writing. It can also be used to produce a descriptive text, such as introducing families. Within pictures, these traditional practices become more vivid and more creative.
        It can also be used in practicing speaking. For example, a student can make a book on Bookr and present it to the whole class. He may not write description for each picture but just show it to class, and let his classmates guess the story，after that he tells the whole story. So both the presenter and the other students have opportunities to practice speaking.
       In sum, Bookr is really an amazing technology tool which can be applied in teaching to make the class and the learning process more interesting and creative.

Cookies are not only cookies.

 
Photo by Klara Kim, from Flickr.

Creative cookies.

Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird], Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / Max Dupain

Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird], Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / Max Dupain, a photo by State Library of New South Wales collection on Flickr.

beautiful！

3rd World Farmer and Teaching Numbers & simple future tense

    

     This game named “3rd world farmer” is really engaging, I played it for almost ten times and got my highest score of 1000+.

     To use it in my teaching, I will divide my students into pairs and each group uses one computer to play the game. Since in this game, the amount of money and how to use the money to keep characters alive are the most important things, therefore I plan to use it on teaching students how to say numbers in English and how to use simple future tense by asking them “what to do next” and making them answer me using “I will…”. For example, at the beginning of the game, I ask students how much money they have, they should have 50$ each group, so I teach them 50 is “fifty”, then I will also show them how to say 20, 30, 40, 50 etc. After that, I will ask them what they will use this money for. They may say, “I will buy some wheats” or “I will buy some chickens”, so they can practice simple future tense.

     I can assess whether they acquire the knowledge or not by asking them to share their products after each turn. They need firstly report how much money they left and what they want to do with the money. I can provide instructions immediately if I find them get stuck. So I can assess if my teaching objectives has been met during the process of interaction.

      I think it is not only a good game to use in teaching language, but also a game to make students experience the tough life which somebody in other parts of the world are really experiencing. Since teaching students humanism is also an important part of education, this kind of serious video game is really good material to use in classroom teaching. 

Teach Household Articles Using "Golden Coins Room escape"

        As it said in the article “7 thinks you should know about gamification” that “Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior”. In academy, “gamification typically employs elements such as points, badges, or progress bars to engage or motivate students in the learning process.” Using games in teaching does enjoy many benefits since gaming can engage students in the mental situation of “flow ”, which refers to “a mental state experienced during challenging activities in a comfortable zone between 'anxiety' and 'boredom', where the activity at hand is neither too difficult to be frustrating, nor too easy to be menial”. Therefore, students will not feel boring in the game-included learning process.
      I find that a room escape game named “Golden Coins Room escape” is really a good game to use in an ESL class. This game is not too difficult to success but it is still challenging, therefore it will not take too much time on figuring out the solution and students will not feel boring or lose their confidence as well. I decide to use it in teaching vocabulary of household articles. I may divide my students into pairs. In the process of playing the game, they should write down what household articles they find and how they use them. I will also conduct a competition among students: the group who find out all the articles and escape first will be winner. In this process, I will be the guide, if students cannot find new clues I will provide some hints to them.

     After the game, I will use a match test with the pictures of the household articles and their names to test if students really acquire the new knowledge. I think room escape game is very suitable to use in a vocabulary class since it provides pictures to students directly. Moreover, students need to use them to solve problems therefore they can remember them deeply.