"Animals around the World": our point of view.

This is our point of view on "Animals around the World".

-When we watched the telling-story for the first time we said "It's just great !" We really like the story. They are no many things to change. Let's begin by the positive points:

   *First, through the story children can learn many vocabularies about animals, colors and continents.

   *Then, we think that the combination between pictures, the writing of animals names and the pronunciation is really  good; it permits to the children to memorize more easily.

   *An other positive point is that the pronunciation is really clear and understandable for children. We want to add  that  the voice is really catchy.

-There are not many things to say about the negatives aspects. For us the only negative point is the length of story: 

   *The story is too long: 25 slides!

   * We think also that the beginning of story is unnecessary. Indeed there are 8 slides to present the story, but just two or three slides can be enough. (For example: Saying that it's the story of a little girl (first slide), she is at her grandparents' home and she is bored (second slide), and she finds a book (third slide). You see ?

-To conclude we think that the story and the narration are just perfect! You have done a  great work ! :) The only thing which can be changed is to shrink the beginning of story. 

The last problem we had!

There is one thing we didn't talk about: our last problem the day when we had to give our final story!
I'm just going to write a little article to explain what happened.

Yes, actually, we had a problem! In our story, we had recorded "black" bear whereas our drawings represented brown bear. We thought to say "ours brun" we had to say "black bear", but it was stupid to not check, actually we had a lot of work and we didn't pay attention. A big mistake and a big problem for us and our story! 
So, we had three solutions: 
1. To change the color in our drawings with an application but it was not pretty.
2. To change the color in our drawings with pencil, to scan them again but if we did that, we had to record again all our voice to tell the story and it was not possible in a very short moment.
3. Just record again 2 slides, saying "brown" instead "black". We choose that because our general  topic in the story is the difference, so instead to have 2 differences (black and white) he have three (black, white and brown).

Honestly, i was scared to give our story with that problem because it would be very confused for the children, and it really was a stupid mistake! But i think we found a good solution, no?

My mood:

(because today it's my birthday hahaha)

If I must to sum up this experience in just one word , I will say: FUNNY !


-What I have liked?
  *My partners ♥
  *Working in team
  *Recording our voices (it was really funny!!)

-What I have liked less?
 *Speaking  in English !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   My level is just poor so there is only one thing to do:

                                      ━━━━━┓ ＼＼
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃　ヽ○ノ
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃　 /　
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃ ノ)　
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                                   ┓┓┓┓┓┃
                                            ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

                                  (hum hum)

Positive points:
-My team is just excellent, funny and nice... all the components was present  for a very good harmony between us !
-The atmosphere in the class was nice too!
-More important, it's confirm my wish of being teacher !

Negative points:
-No...really....I don't see any negative points....

-What I have learnt ?
I have learnt lots of things...
  *how to create a video and use Voicethread
  *how to draw a panda and a bear ^^
  *how to use Wordle
  *vocabulary (I had to search words when I wrote artciles on the blog)
  *teaching methods
  *learning methods

Last things... To answer to your question Marie I would like to say something:  the propability that Théo writes an article on the blog is as high as France wons the FIFA World Cup 2014:  very very low but I keep hope! Aha :D

This project has permitted me to make new friends (let's write a new story: Marie and her new friends ahaha:). It revealed me that Maylis and Theo are very nice and very funny (things that I already knew about Selin)
If I was one of the child who will see our story, I would really enjoy it, really.
But it's my own point of view ;)

I really like working in groups and this story has confirmed that: with the ideas of everyone we can make something really good :)

We are all creatives and imaginatives (making brown and white bears live together... strange idea isn't it?)

but I think our world needs this imagination, no?


Here is my little bilan... I don't need a long article to tell you that I like you and our work.


I've got a question. Is Theo gonna write his FIRST article this week?

                                  a) Yes

                                  b) No

                                  c) Keep hope

                                  d) Joker

The end!

Hello everyone!

This week is the last one! Sunday we have to give our finished story. But since last time when i wrote a summary on the blog, a lot thing happened!

We have decided to draw our story, because the story will show to students, so we wanted to do like if it was children who drew them. And we have also tried to make cute drawings.

We have shown our story in class. And there was a big problem: the recording of our voices is very bad! We couldn't hear! So, since monday, i tried on my computer to record my voice to see if there was a difference with the computer of Selin. And actually, there is a big difference, my voice is totally clear, so tomorrow i'll see Mary and Selin (Theo can't) to record our voices and we will see Theo friday to record his voice because he makes the voice of Teddy and Romeo (because Teddy and Romeo are boys). 

But there was also another problem: We have shared the work. So we have all done some drawings. Selin, Mary and I have done drawings who look like same, i mean we used the same colors and the same models to draw bears and the panda and also the landscape. But the drawing of Theo don't look like ours. So, today i drew again four drawings to replace those of Theo.

Selin have written the pedagogic sheet. 
So, for our fun activity, we decided to do the one i mentioned in an article of the blog before. And we have found the others activities (educative) about our story. We have made a cross word of five words who are in our story. Then, there are two memory games. One, for example, where it has three pictures and one question, the students will have to circle the good answer. And the second one, (like in our story there is a little dialogue) there is some sentences of the dialogue and students will have to find who said that.

What i think of this experience: I think it was a good experience because of the team work, the sharing of our ideas, the organization and the imagination to create our story.
I hope that students will enjoy it and will understand our story and also learn some new vocabulary. ;)

Hey guys, what do you think about this experience?

See you tomorrow. :)

Arghhhhhhh !!!!!!

Hi !
For hours and hours I tried to draw our cute pandas and bears for the story... But I must confess to you something...

Confession Number 1:  I am (very very very very very) bad at drawings !

 When my little sister heard my swearwords (!!!), she came in my room, looked at my drawings and said: "Oh my God Selin! Stop this massacre" I hate her! But in a moment of affection and genorosity she gave me help! I love her!

Confession Number 2: My 11 years old sister draws better than me !

Confession Number 3: I hate drawing....

Technology and its problems

We need computers this semester to create our story, but what happens when computer decide to not work? GGGGGRRHHH!

Last Monday, Selin's computer decided to not open the different files. It was horrible because we really needed the word document where we wrote our story: the base of our work.
Moreover, Theo was unfortunately absent this day so we didn't have any solution except waiting ... and praying that it wiil works.

We were so happy when we saw that the computer was working again :D

A big thanks to our teacher who told Selin that Google Chrome was very good ;)

So, to conclude, technologies are good but only when they work.

How we "do" / "create" our story

Last Monday, we have decided to draw our story. So we have shared the work. Each person of our group will draw four slides. 

I will do the drawing of the four first slides.
Marie will draw the 4 next slides (the part of the dialogue).
Selin will do the what happens next.
And Theo will draw the end of our story.

We have also decided to write the text on the slides and to read the story in recording our voice. 
Theo will have the part of Teddy, Marie will do the voice of Lucy, Selin will do that of Romeo and I, i will do the narrative part.

This week and the week after we will training to pronounce correctly and slowly the sentences and to recording our voice, we will go in a room done for group work at the library. 

* Is someone have others remarks or something to add? 
If yes, tell it by commentary and i will modify my article to add what you will have said.

Synthesis of our activities

Fun activity:

For the fun activity we have tried to find something original and not complicated. But it's not something so easy! We have all looked for an idea but anyone have really find a nice activity. There is one week Theo proposed to make draw the children, per group, each part of the story, and then if their teacher want to, they could fix the drawing on the length on the wall in order to see the continuity of the story. Mary, Selin and I agreed. So, it will be this activity that we will propose to the children and their teacher.

Educative activity:

We still don't know how to do as educative activity. At the beginning we thought about doing something with numbers or colors but we don't have enough elements in our story concerning it. So, this week, until monday we all think about this problem and we will chose the activity at this moment.

* Meanwhile monday, is someone have found an idea since last monday?

WORDLE

I finally managed to create our first Wordle !
Actually It's very simple when you are Google Chrome ! It's magic ! :)


Let's speak about Wordle...What is Wordle ?

Wordle is a an excellent tool which permit to create “Word cloud”. This provides interactive ways to browse and explore language. 
How ? Let's see ! :)


How Wordle can be useful for teaching ?


1) It can be very useful for teaching pronunciation to students. For example the hardest words can be the largest word in the word cloud and each morning teachers can make a test with the words which are most frequently spelled incorrectly.


2.)It's a good way to memorise new vocabulary. For example teachers can create a word cloud with all the new words encountered in a text.


3.) For High School, it can be also very useful. For example before an exam, teachers can make a word cloud with the most important words or expressions that students must know for the exam.



How Wordle can be useful for learning ?


1.) We can use lots of colours and writting-style. So I think it's very funny and captivant for students... (I read somewhere that young students are more concentrated when there are lots of colours...) :)


2.) One of the advantages of word cloud is that It don't take lots of place.... It's not cumbersome for students. They can stick it... They can't lose it :)


3.) For students in High School I think it's a good way for them to sum up a lesson. Let's take the example of history. For example they can create a word cloud with the main elements such as: important dates, historical characters, ect.


Conclusion: Many advantages of using Wordle !

So what do you waiting for ? Use Wordle ! :)

Technologies and teachers

I have at home a magazine "Le nouvel observateur: être enseignant aujourd'hui" (it's a special issue)
I read an article about teaching with technologies and it was very interessant.
If you want me to bring the article, telle me and I'll do :)

11-02-2013: My impressions ! (Selin)

Hello everybody !

This week was very nice ! Let's me speak about my experience this week !

1/ Well... What I have learnt this week ?

Firstly, the more important thing that I have learnt is  about the story ! Storyline is different to the story ! The storyline is the skeleton whereas the story is the finished aspect of our story ! In other words , the storyline is the form, the story is the content !

 

I have learnt that a good team it is very important ! My partners were very cool : there wasn't any problem with them ! Each of us contributed to the telling-story! Each spoke when it was his turn ! They are really funny and I get on very well with them! I think it is very important because when there are tensions, the ambiance is bad and It may influence in a bad way our work ! Here is the positve aspect !

Summary :

*Storyline is different of story.

*A good team is important !

2/ What were the difficult aspects ?

No doubt : I am very bad when I must to speak english ! It was very hard for me because I forgot all my words ! My oral is poor, usually when I communicate with people I don't konw what and how to say ! It seems to be in my mind, there is no word !

The second point is about the teaching ! Before this course I thought that it was an easy work but in fact it is very difficult, because we must to adapt the story to 11 years old students : each time there was the same question : Is it adapted to them ? Is it hard to understand for them ?

Summary :

*Difficulty to speak in English !

*Difficult to invent a story for 11 years old students when you have 18 ! ^^

 

3/ How to overcome my difficulties ?

I did some searches on Google !

There are many websites which propose to improve my english ! One of them is howjsay.com !(http://www.howjsay.com/) I have only to write the words and I get the pronunciation ! You say magic ?

 

The second solution is that I have to be confident when I communicate with anyone. Note to myself : Don't be anxious when I communicate !

Summary  of my searches :

*Using howjsay.com 

*Being confident

*Watching movies or series in VOST

*Reading articles (New Yok Times, BBC)

*Watching the postcasts on CNN

WEEK 2: Technology : Best friend or best enemy ?

  During the second week we spoke about Technology, and more specially about Technology in Education. This first case shows very well that Technology brings lots of new methods of teaching : texts in caves become texts in books, texts in papers-form, texts in photocopies,ect. Undoubtelly, technology easies the life of teachers ...and also whose of students ! But I have asked a question to myself : what about daily-life ? Is it a good thing ? So, Technology : Best friend or best Enemy ?

   Technology is everywhere ! In houses, in schools, in medecine, in science, in litterature...Technology helps in everyday tasks (cars, dishwasher, mobile phone, computer), it helps a lot in medical research too. It also helps the spreading of information thanks to Internet for example. But technology have also negative points : it can brings diseases : let's take the example of mobilephone which are very dangeroous for health (a test made by scientifics show that because of its radioactions you can can become deaf or you can catch a cancer). An another negative point: we are more and more assisting in daily life … Do we use all of our capacities today ? Undoubtelly human species became more and more lazy...and stupid !
 So what about you ? What do you think about the topic ? Give your opinion !

Summary of our story, difficulty that i've had 11/02/13

Hello everybody, 

Today we begun our story, the communication and the collaboration between us was good. We have succeed to find a good idea in few time.

What do you think about our communication and our collaboration?

Summary of our story:

Narrative: third person
Topic = friendship
Moral = fight against racism

Main characters:
- 1 little brown bear (boy) called Teddy
- 1 little white bear (girl) called Lucy
- 1 little panda (boy) called Romeo

Story: White and brown bears live together in mountains, the top is icy and it's also a place where there is grass on the ground. One day, a panda, Romeo, arrived and nobody know where he comes from. He's not like others, and because of his difference, he's rejected. But Lucy and Teddy decide to be nice and stay with him.
At the end, everybody are together and happy.

PS: Not use the word racism in the story.

One difficulty for me: Difficulty to connect at this blog but with help of my group, it has been resolved.

I think i didn't write everything, so you can create another article or comment to complete what i've already said.

What is your impression about our idea, our story?

I think, for next time, we have to think a bit more of details of our story, to be able to exchange on that in course without waste time.

See you in course!

What is a good story?

We saw in class, last Monday, the characteristics of a good story.

-Illustrations
-Humorous (not something which is too serious)
-Simple story line (don't forget that children can't be concentrated  too long)
-Suspens
-Short and simple sentences
-Happy ending (of course, don't tell them a story where everybody die at the end!)
-Few characters
-A moral
-A specific vocabulary (the story has to be instructive)
-characters they can identifie themselves to.

Hello !

Welcome on the blog of Selin, Maylis, Théo and Marie !

This blog will permit you to follow us across our process of creating a story for children, our project for this semester.