Hi Cristina , It ’ s an honour for me to have you on TEACHERS TALK . Your blog has been awarded “ Featured Blog of the Month ” by the British Council three times . Congratulations ! Your amazing work inspires so many other teachers to be creative in class . But what drives you to create new and innovative lesson plans ?
That ’ s a good question and I have two answers for that . The first thing that comes to my mind is “ because I want to have fun ” but I understand that this answer is probably not politically correct so , quite frankly , although most textbooks are good they tend to be quite repetitive and often they don ’ t connect 100 % with my students ’ needs . So , I design activities based on their textbook content , but making them more interactive , interesting and visually more appealing .
You are famous for bringing textbooks “ to life ” by using technologies . Which three ( or 2 ) websites / platforms would you recommend to our readers as being userfriendly and easy to utilise even by teachers who know very little about technologies ?
Right now , I ’ d suggest Spark Adobe , Playbuzz and for collaborative projects I would most definitely recommend Google Drive .
Image Credit :| Cristina Cabal
You often take part in workshops where you help many ESL teachers to modernise their lessons . What are the biggest challenges they usually face and share with you ?
For me it ’ s a pleasure to run these workshops because they go from showing a poorly disguised panic to using new technologies to displaying an enthusiasm only comparable to a child given the latest gadget . So , they really want to start integrating technology into their classes , they really want to use new tools to create their own content , they just don ’ t know how to go about it . And that ’ s my role , to teach them how to do it and help them be creative ; so when the workshop finishes , they have some activities to use in their next class , activities that they have created , and that ’ s the “ aha ” feeling that will boost their motivation to continue designing their own activities .
Games and competitions play an important role in your lessons . Which game would you recommend that requires the least preparation and materials ?
A game that works really well , requires no preparation and is highly adaptable is the Tic-Tac- Toe ( also called Noughts and Crosses ). You can revise grammar , vocabulary , phonetics ; you can use it to practise speaking , for writing activities ... etc . The only limit is your imagination !
Apart from playing games what other methods do you use to encourage your students to be creative ?
I believe that giving your students the opportunity to experience success in their learning process is a boost to their motivation . Right now , I am doing lots of collaborative projects where students are responsible for their own learning . They need to present in front of the class and the results are amazing . Sometimes I want to stand up , give them a big hug and thank them for their effort .
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