Timetoast for education

 🔛 I've known lately about Timetoast for timelines and I have carried out a task to motivate my students. First, they had to talk about their lives and create an original poster. Here are some examples:

Once they understood how to develop a timeline I told them to choose an athlete or sport they liked, to look for a text about him/her/it and to create a timeline with Timetoast. 

Here are some examples:

Cristiano Ronaldo Timeline

Cristiano Ronaldo's injuries

Messi Timeline

    The learning objectives of the activity were that they order events in chronological order, that they use the past simple to talk about any events in the past and that they improve their digital portflio.

    The advantages of using TimeToast for this activity were many, they were always motivated when using computers, they could translate online vocabulary, they could look for pictures to make it more attractive, they attached this activity in their blog/porfolio.

    The steps I followed to set up the activity were the following:

1. I gave them a set of sentences about someone's life and told them to write them in the past.

2. Then, I asked them to write in a postit any event about them.

3. Next, the whole group stood up and ordered the postits in chronological order.

4. Eventually, they made their life's timelines in a poster.

5. Finally, they had to do the same but with an athlete or sport, looking for a text in the internet and afterwards taking major events and introducing them in their timeline in TIMETOAST. 

6. Co-evalution was done with 2 stars and 1 wish: 2 things they liked about each other's timelines and 1 thing they needed to improve. 

    The students liked TimeToast tool and were happy to complete the task digitally.

    Some things that I would change / improve next time maybe that we all work with the same text, because they spent a lot of time looking for and choosing one.

    TimeToast helped me achieve my learning objectives through ordering events automatically, improving their digital portfolios and continuing to revise and practice with past simple forms. 

📃Reading strategies and foldables

One of my favorite strategies for reading tasks is the Predict-Skim-Scan-Create approach. This method engages students through top-down strategies and extensive reading, fostering comprehension and creativity.

Step 1: Prediction
Before reading, students predict content based on the title, headlines, images, or the first sentence. This activates prior knowledge and sets a purpose for reading. They discuss predictions in pairs and after that with the class.
Step 2: Skimming
Students skim the text to grasp the main idea by reading the introduction, key sentences, and conclusion. They first work individually, then compare findings in pairs.
Step 3: Scanning
They then scan the text for specific information like key names, dates, or arguments, working in pairs or groups to locate details efficiently. I LOVE TO USE FOLDABLES where they write sequences of events or note down information about 5Ws, etc.
Step 4: Creative Follow-Up
Students transform their understanding through creative tasks such as rewriting endings, designing infographics, or acting out scenes. Tasks are collaborative.

This approach enhances comprehension, keeps reading interactive, and fosters creativity. FOLDABLES are also adaptable for various text types, making it an invaluable teaching tool. Nevertheless it takes time to prepare, it also takes a lot of class time. Therefore I sometimes assign some steps as homework.

📚Reading is a collaborative process between families and school!

It does not bring me good memories when I look at the image of a library, I only went there to study when I was at University. 

As a little girl I read a lot privately in my room or read aloud to my mother while she did other chores or crafts. I borrowed lots of books from the classroom library.

Nowadays I prefer reading in silence, in my room, at night. I love the physical touch and smell of pages, but I have a serious problem with space in my library, so lately I read some e-books or buy/sell secondhand books.

It is so important that you can choose your book, something that interests you. It was the way of reading when I started school for the first time. It is also important to have some rights as a reader while reading, that is, right to switch off your mobile phone, right to read aloud, right to underline with a pencil, right to drop a book if it is boring, right to fall asleep,....

But I must also recognize that I have also known fantastic writers thanks to compulsory reading that I was assigned during high school or university: Spanish classics, British or North-American literature. Since then I love very different novelists such as Miguel Delibes, David Lodge or Paul Auster. So I read in Spanish, English and sometimes in French.

Lately, I have been reading manuals about teaching practice, mostly in English. I find more interesting bibliography about this content in this language.

So I think that new readers should start as I did, choosing their own books in order to be motivated, nevertheless some compulsory reading must be assigned in schools, since students do not have the habit of reading a book, they skim for information in social networking sites and this is it. Sometimes, students discover that they can enjoy some stories while reading compulsory assignments.

Families should be involved in this process of creating reading habits in early childhood, as my mother did, telling me to read aloud for her anytime I was bored or visiting libraries with children, attending storytellers, etc.

So, reading is a collaborative process between families and school!

😎 Welcome to my blog!

Hi there! I'm Pilar, an English teacher in Málaga, Spain. This blog is a space to explore and share ideas on methodology, creating engaging projects, organizing clear steps for students, and making learning more accessible and enjoyable. My goal is to build a resource bank, and inspire both students and educators to enhance their learning experiences.

Join me on this journey of creativity and innovation in education!☝

☺Here are some links that inspire me and I hope they can inspire you:

IG: Alba Sabuco Paréntesis Educación

Thinking routines

Cambridge learning Cards

Grammar and vocabulary

Cooperation: