USING A MAGIC COMBO TO CREATE AN ENGAGING TABOO GAME

Hi there!

As you all know, games are a great way to keep students engaged in the English class and I am sure you have all used Taboo in your lessons before. It is a classic!! A word game where one player tries to get their teammates to guess a word without using any of the forbidden words listed on the card. It’s a fun way to practice vocabulary, communication, and quick-thinking skills.

In this post, I would like to show you how I used ChatGPT and Canva to create some cards for a taboo game in English. It goes without saying that combining an artificial intelligence model and a graphic design platform will empower you as a teacher to create beautiful and professional-looking designs for various purposes. Do not hesitate to give this idea a try!

Step 1: Generate your taboo cards with ChatGPT.

I used ChatGPT to generate some taboo cards for the game. As you all know, ChatGPT can produce texts on any topic, so you can customize the cards according to your students’ level, interests and curriculum. How about that? You can also specify how many words you want on each card, and how many forbidden words you want to include. You may have a look at the whole conversation I had with ChatGPT to generate my customized cards and get a general idea of how to write an effective prompt. Just click here. (Yeah! You can also share your content via a link on ChatGPT!! Mind-blowing, isn´t it?)

Step 2: Design your taboo cards with Canva.

I used Canva to design the taboo cards with the texts generated by ChatGPT in the conversation above. Canva can make your cards look attractive and appealing! This time I searched for “taboo cards” in the template library and then copy-pasted the texts from ChatGPT to the cards, adjusting the size, position, and style of the texts and adding some background colours, borders and icons to make my cards more fun and lively. Have a look!

education_taboo by Paula Gómez Cernadas

As easy as pie, isn't it? Using ChatGPT together with other apps saves time and effort and has benefits for both: teachers and students. In this designing process, for example, you will not have to come up with the words and forbidden words themselves or write them down on paper or cards. You can simply use ChatGPT to generate the texts, and Canva to design the cards. Also, your students' motivation is driven by the colourful and attractive content that is relevant and interesting to them, as in this case, I connected the words with a listening comprehension activity we had previously done in class. 

I hope you find this idea of integrating AI in your class useful and inspiring, and that you try it out with your own students. Who knows? Next time I might even ask mine to create their own taboo cards! If you try this out, please let me know how it goes, and share your feedback and suggestions. Can you come up with any other ways of integrating ChatGPT and Canva? 

Happy teaching and learning! 😊

AI IN THE CLASSROOM: GIVE CHATGPT A TRY AND YOU´LL NEVER REGRET IT!

No wonder why #ChatGPT is all the rage among ESL teachers right now! It is becoming increasingly popular due to its ability to generate human-like text and assist various teaching tasks such as creating content, generating dialogues in English, providing language exercises and quizzes and even helping with pronunciation and grammar. You name it!

I have been trying it lately to enhance my teaching practice and provide my students with rich language-learning experiences. In fact, I have noticed that I am slowly adopting it as a great new tool to obtain quick accurate responses to a great number of queries, among other interesting ideas that I am also exploring!

My last attempt was aimed at my C1 students, as we were about to wrap up a unit on consumerism and fast fashion. I asked Chat GPT to come up with a list of five short advantages and disadvantages of built-in obsolescence. For me, this should be a practice that we might tend to avoid when it comes to production. That was why I found it really hard to make up some real advantages!  As Chat GPT did the trick for me, I eventually gathered ten wonderful statements that I have used to create a #Genially presentation where students will be asked to drag and drop the prompts into the right column (for or against), trying to reach an agreement first. Just as easy as pie!

Hopefully, it will spark discussion in class as I will definitely ask the group to take a clear position on the issue using the vocabulary presented and also some other expressions we have already learned, once they have completed the columns. 

I hope you find this board useful! Enjoy!

OFF TO A FRESH START!

It is that time of the year again... September is about to finish soon and school children are already used to getting up early every weekday and grabbing their school bag in a rush so as not to miss the bus that will take them to their well-settled routine. Our summer blues has definitely vanished, hasn't it?

However, even though both primary and secondary school teachers have already plunged into the school curriculum, we - of course, EOI teachers - are still struggling with the preparatory work for school year 21-22: enrolment periods, virtual classroom management, getting to know each other lesson plans, ice breakers... we are set to start in just a few days! As usual, it often depends on the Autonomous Community we live in or even our local Education Authorities. But for better or worse, it is that time of the year again for EOIs...

I have already been designing the new beginning. This year I will be teaching C1.2 again but the school course comes with an extra bonus: a Blended C1.1 English course I just can't wait to teach!

No wonder I am preparing a plethora of resources I will be sharing with my school community. Here is one I am particularly proud of: my @wakelet compilation of online dictionaries, translators and corpus dictionaries. I hope my blended course students find it useful. I will definitely devote some time to providing the right instructions on how to make the most of them. I love collocation dictionaries and expanding my students' knowledge on how to sound more natural. It is most likely this will help. Wish me luck and all the best for the new EOI school year!!

E TI DE QUEN VES SENDO?

Dear all, 👋 

I am proud to present you with the project that our school has been carrying out this year regarding idioms. In the presentation below, you will be able to see a lot of different idiomatic expressions in the different languages that you can study at school. I am particularly proud of the English section, as a lot of familiar faces appear. Please, take a look 👀 and judge for yourselves!

Do not hesitate to share this wonderful work. Show your family and friends what we are up to at school.

I would like to thank my C1 students for their contributions and enthusiasm!

2021: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Isn´t it absolutely true that some of us might prefer to forget about 2020? There has been plenty going on. So, it might not be too hard for students to look ahead to 2021 as an all-round change. 

My first class in January will be devoted to going back in time and reflect on how we will remember the year that has just come to an end, trying to come up with some positive thoughts and hopes for 2021. If the @wooclap game above does not do the trick and is not motivating enough, I´ll try to spice up the class a bit with this video from my first-class-in-the-year post in January 2020. 

Hopefully, both activities will get my students in a cheerful mood to play an idioms game, as there is an English idiom for every aspect of a new year! If this does not work, I do not know what will!

LAUGHTER AS A COPING MECHANISM

Many people find themselves confined at home at the moment, which can be a significant source of stress, particularly for those who experience some level of anxiety. However, when we become able to laugh about troublesome situations, we take the pain out of the memory and replace it with a good measure of humour. This can help you de-stress the case because sharing a good laugh can definitely be transformative. Learning the ability of being able to laugh at disturbing conditions will definitely improve our current state. So, here I am now! Struggling to expand your ability to laugh and look on the bright side of life. Shift your focus to something else that might help you cope. It´s always a good time to laugh!

SCHOOL LOCKDOWN: C1 VOCABULARY CHALLENGE

Hurray! My students have already started working online! I am so proud of them. The school has already been closed down for a whole week now and it is high time to stick to healthy routines and everyday habits that will definitely help us cope with the confinement period. 

I am regularly sending them a few tasks to complete whenever they have time and are willing to keep up the hard work. I know that uncertainty and uneasiness are here to stay for a while so, I am just giving my little contribution to their support and well-being. Do not get over-stressed, guys!

Most of them have already completed last week's tasks and I am now posting the nice word-cloud they have come up with after their first video-listening activity.

Now here is my vocabulary challenge for you! Can you try and figure out what the words mean before clicking each of them to find out the answer? The video might help! Have fun!

iTIP OF JANUARY: OZDIC

Here is the first iTip for the new year: Ozdic. It is basically an online collocation dictionary that might come in handy when planning your writings or speeches for class, work or even exams! More often than not, we usually stick ourselves to the same word combinations. Finding words to combine with the ones we are used to might seem a daunting task. However, looking up in a collocation dictionary may help you find the right verb to go with a new noun that you are willing to add to your language chore or also match a new adjective to a very common noun. Give it a go and tell me how successful you were at making a good impression on your teacher! 

ITip of February: JOHNNY GRAMMAR'S WORD CHALLENGE

This quiz app allows English learners to test themselves against resident expert Johnny Grammar! This is a 60-minute quiz app that will challenge you to beat the clock and to answer as many spelling, grammar and vocabulary questions as you can in just one minute. 

Once you meet the challenge and complete all levels you will have the opportunity to get Supreme Badges... and who knows? You may even win the ultimate Johnny's Gold Badge!

Get the app on Google Play or the Apple Store and learn English having fun!

MAKE YOUR CLASS ENJOYABLE WHEN LEARNING THE PARTS OF THE BODY

As a student I heard that the main purpose of a class is to learn, but that doesn't necessarily mean it must be boring. Learning and enjoying at the same time can be possible when students have the right attitude and motivation. As a teacher, I always try to make my classes enjoyable. That is why there is an activity that I keep doing every year with my Intermediate 2 students when it is time to learn the body parts. Year after year, they get so involved in it that totally forget the sense of time and, best of all, they learn the parts of the body without even noticing it!!

Here is a very good example of how fun English learning can be!! Enjoy!!

 

THE FITTEST PERSON I KNOW DOMINOES

Here is the result to the domino game my intermediate 1 students played in class last week... just in case you did not have the opportunity to take you own notes about it!

Any problems with vocabulary? If so, please ask!!

AN ONLINE COLLOCATION DICTIONARY, AT LAST!!

It's been a long time since my last post about learning resources, but sometimes it is difficult to find anything worth posting. This time I have to thank my colleague Estrella for today's post!! She has introduced the English teachers at school to a new online resource I found really amazing: ozdic.com. It's an online collocation dictionary which can help you with your writing assignments or even when planning your class presentations. 

As English learners, you often stick yourselves to the same combination of words, mainly because you can't find other words to use with the ones you need. That happens to my students all the time!! Using this online dictionary, you will find a wide range of options to choose from, improving your vocabulary and making an excellent impression on your teacher and classmates!! 

Ozdic will show you the words that go together and will also help you sound much more natural. Look up a word to find new ones that can be used with it and improve your accuracy. 

YOUR FAVOURITE WORD_A POEM

The school library has organized a very interesting activity for our students. Just have a look if you want to participate... It will only take you 1 minute to think about your favourite word in English and write it down on the notebook next to the "secretaría" office!! Please, do it any time you come to school!! 

Technology Vocabulary

Last week my basic level students had a look at some new technology vocabulary. Here is the document we worked with. Hope it helps you learn new words!!

Top 10 most dangerous sports

...a few more things on sports!! Have you ever tried a dangerous one?? What about bungee jumping or skydiving? Have a look at the presentation below and... who knows? You may find something that suits you!!

Technology

Here is a very interesting video with some words and expressions related to technology. Especially designed for my intermediate students!!! Hope you all enjoy it!!

High Numbers

Here is a very interesting link to study high numbers in English. So, I recommend my second year students to click on the image and practise a lot!!!

Containers

An interesting document to learn containers in  English. When you open it, you´ll find two different pages. First, memorize all the containers on the first page and then try your picture memory. When you get to the second page, have a look at the picture for a few seconds, close your eyes and try to remember everything in it using a container!! Good luck.

Education Vocabulary

A lot of English students seem to have problems with some words related to education in English. Here is a very interesting document to check some of them. Would you like to try and explain the difference between some of the most common education words in English? What is a graduate? and a post-graduate? Is it the same as an under-graduate? Just give us your answers on the comments below!