All four corners of the classroom

Even though most of my students are not reluctant speakers and eagerly contribute to discussions in classroom, I know that changing format of the speaking assignment can be beneficial so as to unleash their hidden potential. This is especially true when they have to deal with the task format they are not familiar with. Recently, I've had a chance to once again confirm these assuptions of mine. As long as we started the unit on modern lifestyle and trends in society I decided to offer them a "Four Corners game" to let them express their views on various current trends and fads.

The activity is very easy to set as it only requires attaching four A4 sheets of paper in four corners of the classroom. The statements I've chosen for this activity are based on the ideas we brainstormed in the class the day before.

Here they are:

The class turned out to be even more exciting than I expected. What's more, I was quite surprised by many students' choices and opinions. Very often it looked like they discovered each other in a new interesting way! What makes this activity even more successful is the fact that students can move and not just sit and answer the questions. 

All in all, if you haven't tried this wonderful activity yet, it's high time you did!

Padlet Odyssey

I found out about Padlet (Wall Wisher) quite a while ago. However, I never used it in the classroom with my students. Recently, I've noticed numerous publications on using this tool in teaching circulate the net, which spurred on my interest again. I'm inclined to thoroughly dig into this issue and handpick some ideas for my classroom.

Ready, Set, Go!

A short tutorial:
http://www.slideshare.net/VishalSharma187/padlet-app-tutorial?next_slideshow=1

A video tutorial:

Loads of wonderful hands-on ideas:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FeH7ATm5bByH5KIfQVf8CaUGazR3lv8KJ68Xx79VFRk/present?slide=id.i0

Tips on using Padlet in EFL classroom:
http://spanish4teachers.org/techblog/wallwisher-in-the-foreign-language-classroom/

Padlet for teaching vocabulary:
http://blog.tesol.org/digital-wanderings-padlet/

Creating poetry with Padlet:
http://creativelanguageteaching.org/2013/12/18/found-poetry-with-padlet/