About me What do you need to know about me? Well, if you're interested in this blog, odds are you work in EFL or education so let's start there. :) I've been working as an EFL teacher in Turkey for since 2000. I initially did my teacher training in Barcelona, Spain and Turkey was the first stop on an international adventure of language teaching and travelling. 11 years on, I'm still here as over the years, the desire to teach language has overtaken the desire to travel. I currently work with children in a private primary school but I have worked with adult learners as well, teaching both general English and prep classes for exams like IELTS, TOEFL and FCE. Beyond that, I have a growing interest in drama in class and I have a growing ambition to work in teacher training (check out the Presentations & Workshops page to see what I've done so far).
Twitter for Professional Development Today I’m doing another introduction to the world of Twitter and blogs, this time for students following the DELTA at IH Newcastle. For those of you who follow my blog, you’ll know that I’ve done a few of these now, and I’m trying to refine the presentation to make it as useful as possible. This time I decided to create a post, then talk teachers through everything referring back to the post so that they can see where to find the information again (while attempting to avoid Death by Blogpost). All feedback appreciated! P.S. How do I find out about what I’m interested in? The amount of information available on Twitter can be a bit overwhelming. Go to Tweetchat and type in a hashtag you’re interested in to find out what kind of information is being shared at the moment. What are all of these strange symbols? Looks interesting. Watch Russell Stannard‘s excellent step-by-step introduction to Twitter and follow his instructions. There are so many people on Twitter. There’s so much stuff here.
Box of Chocolates elteachertrainer About me | macappella I guess I should own up to who’s writing this blog… so here’s a brief Me thing (for an explanation of ‘macappella’, see the About section): "Macappella" Hi, my name’s Fiona Mauchline, which is /ˈmɒxlɪn/ for those who’re interested in that sort of thing. Jobwise, I’m a teacher, teacher trainer and writer, and I live in Cáceres in Spain, an utterly beautiful place to live. I’ve also lived in Italy, France, Granada, Catalunya, the Canaries, and Seville, all in stark contrast to my red sandstone birthplace, Glasgow and my childhood Argyll. From here.... I’m a single mum with two sons and one cat, and pay the bills by writing materials, mostly for secondary school students. What little free time I have is spent reading, writing, painting, taking photos, in my garden, walking, with friends and intending to watch the hundreds of films on my shelves. ....to here. Welcome to macappella. Like this: Like Loading...
allatc What shape is your classroom? Photo by me, also shared at used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, Today, mine was plane-shaped. A simple thing like moving the chairs into a different formation, and me standing at the front giving a very brief safety briefing (In case of emergency, the fire exits are in that corner…), was enough to get students imagining they were on a plane and meeting strangers for the first time. It only took a couple of minutes to move the chairs, and it created the right atmosphere immediately. It helped me to easily set up a role play – something which I’m trying to introduce to my lessons as part of my Delta reflection, by getting students in the right mindset. Like this: Like Loading... Related Clarifying Language As part of my Delta Reflection and Action stage 2 action plan I said that I would try to:move away from a teacher-centred, board-focussed model of language clarificationIn two weeks time,… In "Delta"
Tips & Tricks 8 Tips to Spice Up a Flipped Classroom You must be able to multi-task all day long as a teacher. In a flipped classroom, this ability becomes even more important! QR Codes and BYOD – A Perfect Match Share/Bookmark Before I discovered QR Codes, one of the most common phrases I heard when I asked my sixth grade students to visit certain websites in our Bring Your Own Device classroom was, “Mr. Web 2.0 in the Classroom – Part 4 Discover the best web 2.0 sites for education. Social Media in the Classroom – Part 1 Welcome to this multi-part series focusing on Social Media in the classroom. Web 2.0 in the Classroom – Part 3 Why would you want to integrate web 2.0 in lessons? 8 Fantastic Social Media Tools for Teachers Teachers use social media to engage students in creative ways that encourage collaboration and inspire discussions, especially among soft-spoken students. Audioboo and iTunes – Write for a Wide Audience Web 2.0 in the Classroom – Part 1 SnackTools – Free Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers