Facts about me :)

New 11 facts about me :)

Seems that tagging people to know more about them it's something we like doing these days! I'm not the exception so this is the 2nd time I'll reply about facts about me! 
And this time I have to reply Georgia Psarra's Questions. You can read more about her, here

The questions I have for the bloggers I nominate are:

1. What did you want to become when you were a child?

A Weather Forecast Announcer and  a Flight Attendant! Why didn't I become a WFA... because Ihad to study Numbers and I hate them! Why didn't I become a  FA... because I'm too short! (I don't understand why airlines companies want tall people if planes are not that high inside)

2. Why have you become a teacher?

Because I couldn't become a WFA or a FA!! However, I always loved teaching!

3. Have you ever regretted becoming a teacher?

No, never! And I wouldn't do it! Not in the rest of my entire life

4. You avoid people who...?

... are "heavy"! Not in weight but in character! 

5. Tell us about your biggest dream.

It was already fulfilled. I traveled to the US and to Egypt! Whatever comes now, it's more than welcomed and I would love it as much as my two other dreams.

My place in the world and in "Blue", my favorite color! :)

6. What is your favourite colour and why?

My favorite color is "blue" but I don't know why!

7. Which city would you like to visit?

Cairo, again and again and again!! 

8. What is your favourite piece of clothing?

Pashminas!!! I have a big collection of them! Almost 200 hundred in different sizes, colors and textures!

Wearing one Pashmina and having another one in my hands! :)

9. Have you ever cheated on a test?

Yessssssssssssss!! I was in 2nd year at Secondary School! I cheated on a History Test... about Colombus trips! The teacher "discovered" me, gave me the lowest mark and asked me if that "yellow papers" was a letter for my boyfriend!! Jees... :D

10. Describe your desk.

School desk or home desk? School desk... I have many as I move around the school because I don't have a fixed classroom. Home desk... is full of teddy bears! I use it for that!

11. Who is your favourite character either in a book or movie?

I don't have any in particular.

Thanks for the questions, Georgia! I do hope you enjoy reading the answers!
Maria :)

DISNEY... what does it mean?

Let's make our classes more DISNEY like :)

When it's time to study, sometimes, it's boring time but today... it was creative time, at least for me!

As part of the online course I'm taking at the University of Oregon, "TESOL Methods", I had to discuss Bloom's Taxonomy. Within the discussion thread, one of my colleagues Mrs. Nunene from Nairobi told us about the WALT and WILF acronyms. WALT is "we are learning to" and WILF is "what I'm looking for".

When I read the post, I thought of adding the picture of Walt Disney so as to make it funnier. However, after reflecting on that, I came to the conclusion that having his picture was going to be boring. So... what happened? Another acronym came to my mind... DISNEY!!!

What is DISNEY? It's something we - teachers - should do in class!

Discipline We all want our students to keep quiet and calm. They can move around, play, sing, among others, but, keeping discipline. 

Interest We want our students to be interested in what we all do, so, we must make our class interesting for them and they have to keep the interest by asking questions, participating...

Sociability We are social human beings, we need to be in contact with others so.. talking to each other and collaborating with each other has to be a "must" inside our class

KNowledge As the "k" sound is "silent", I decided to add this word. I guess that "knowledge" is what we expect from our students :)

Entertainment We don't need to be clowns nor our students but... we have to make our classes as much entertaining and motivating as possible, don't you agree? :)

enjoYment Both our students and we have to enjoy our classes; if not, then, it will be disappointing and boring. Each time our students see us, will say "Arrgh... English again"!

I know that DISNEY is not new for tons of experienced teachers; I just liked the idea of playing with words!

Thanks for reading! Smiles, Maria :)

The castle is our classroom, where DISNEY happens

Eleven facts about me!! :)

Hello 2014...

Happy New Year!!! :)

Today, January 1st I'm writing my eleven facts! I've been tagged by many of you however, I'll just reply the questions made by Fabiana Casella, one of the great teachers I met here this year. 

Let's start with the questions I was tagged...

Fabiana's Questions are here 

1- Impatient, Responsible, Punctual

2- I admire a colleague called Liliana. She is a History and Methodology teacher here in my school; she knows a lot, she is very simple and very direct. 

3- My favorite color is blue but I don't know why.

4- Good question... I've already spent it... in Egypt! Planning a 2nd trip! :)

Boarding Gate in Rome... Dec 29th, 2012

5- I'm a good cook when I have time. My "speciality" is a salty cheese cake.

6- No, never.

7- The Beatles.

8- No, I can't. I can dance "cuarteto" (the traditional music from Cordoba, Argentina).

9- Yes, "crab".

10- Yes, I am :)

11- mmm... what a question... Egypt!! I love Tutankhamen

Isn't he "gorgeous"?? :)

Now, my eleven random facts...

1- I lived in Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and the South of Argentina. I love all those countries. If I had to name my favorite... impossible! I have great memories in each of them!

2- I visited Brazil, Mexico, the US, Italy and Egypt. My favorite... yes, you know... EGYPT! :)

3- I love singing and dancing. When I cook, I generally grab a wooden spoon and I imagine it's a microphone... I sing and dance while I cook! I swear the food tastes nicer! ;)

4- I wanted to be a flight attendant! But... I'm very short according to the Airline companies. However, I've always wondered why they need tall people inside a plane!!

5- I hate people who are not punctual. When they say "let's meet at 10 and they arrive at 10.30"!! Why??? I'm always the 1st one to arrive everywhere!!

6- I'm a bookworm! When I'm on holidays, I can read one book in one afternoon! In fact, I've done it tons of times! :)

7- I'm a proud Rotary International member. I truly believe in its objectives, in its service and the friendship among its members. I was the 1st woman to became a Rotarian in my Club!!

The President of my club putting the Rotarian Pin! :)

8- I have never finished my University career. I hate it as much as I hate Mr. Chomsky!!!

9-I love my 1st niece Rafaela! She was born almost the same day as me!!

She is beautiful!!!! :)

10- I love teaching!!

11- I'm happy and I smile - even if and when hard situations knock on my door!

Smiles :)

Resources Every Teacher Needs to Know About

My 2nd post about this Teacher Learning Community

Very Proud of being a Member and an Ambassador

One month ago, after participating at RSCON4 (Reform Symposium Conference), I was selected as one of the 5 Ed Teachers Inspire and I won this wonderful prize: Having a full membership to this Teacher Learning Community. 

I was a member already, but with a limited access and I really didn't pay a lot of attention to it. Once I became full member, I log in very day and I participate in forums, in webinars and in sharing resources a lot! I can say that I've become "addicted" to it.

I've met wonderful teachers and have interacted with lots of presenters not only in the webinars I've been attending but also in Twitter (SimpleK12 in Twitter). All of them have been very kind and helpful.

Now, after this month, I applied to become an Ambassador and to my surprise... I've become one! I've been promoting the community among my colleagues and at school. Now, it's time to promote it everywhere I go, esp. all the conferences and congresses I attend. Unfortunately, we start our summer holidays in Argentina, but I'm sure, I'll be able to start doing it next February when we go back to school.

There are tons of resources, tons of webinars, tons of lessons, tons of forums... tons of everything! And of course, tons of awesome educators! 

Why did I write in the heading this is my 2nd post about SimpleK12? Because I wrote one when I started participating actively in the community. You can read about it here: My 1st post about SimpleK12

So do you want to ...

* Learn about the latest technologies helping other teachers excel?

* Join discussions with other educators about implementing new standards? 
* Stay in tune with what matters most in today's schools?
* Feel up-to-speed on the "latest and greatest" strategies and tools?

If you answered YES to any of the above, join me inside the hottest education resource: SimpleK12’s Teacher Learning Community.

==> Create a FREE Basic Membership Today. http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/courses/view.asp?lid=1003116

SimpleK12, the leading provider of 21st century teacher professional development, brings the fun, energy, and excitement back into learning.

200,000+ educators from around the world have access to SimpleK12's PD resources, information, and training ... and you can too!

Take learning into your own hands and explore the fastest-growing social network and Professional Development community for educators...

==> Create a FREE Basic Membership. http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/courses/view.asp?lid=1003116

Thanks Ayat for having nominated me, thanks RSCON for having selected me and thanks SimpleK12 for teaching me everyday!

I'll be looking forward to seeing you inside the community!

I love the bunnies :)

The world of puppets

Why are puppets useful in the EFL classroom?

Some time ago, I started using puppets in the classroom. Some of them were simple socks and some others were more sophisticated as I bought them. However, after seeing that my students thought puppets were silly, I put them aside.

This year I met (virtually speaking) Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe who showed me how important puppets are in the classroom. He shared some wonderful videos and interesting blog posts so I decided to bring puppets back to my class.

Juan's blog about puppets

Also, when I participated at RSCON4, I listened to Sam Pattersen who also works with puppets. He showed funny puppets in action and some days ago, I listened to him again in another webinar by "Classroom 2.0" talking about... puppets!!

Sam's site about puppets

Why are puppets useful in the EFL Classroom? Because they can be used in stories, songs, chants, roleplay and pairwork. They provide motivation even if the students think they are silly.

Puppets are fantastic for meaning, for fluency, for communication, for cross-curricular activities. They are great to teach vocabulary, to teach language and of course, to evaluate.

My experience with puppets this year has been awesome.

First of all, I have to thank my dietitian because she sends my lunch very well wrapped in paper bags. As I have tons of those paper bags, I decided to recycle them by creating puppets. I browsed tons of websites to see how I could make them. I pinned them and then I let my creativity run!

My Pinterest - My pins about puppets

The original paper bags - My 1st puppet

When I taught "animals" to my 6th graders, I told them they had to make a puppet so as to round up our term. They loved the idea immediately. So I gave them the paper bags and they came with lovely "puppet animals". It was such a success what they did, that I invited the kids' parents to attend a "puppet show" in the classroom. My students had to describe their animal to three different parents. It was an incredible day as both parents and students got surprised with all the English they had learnt in 3 months!!!!

Students talking to parents in our classroom

I also did the same with my secondary students. My 1st year students had to talk about pets so... I told them that they had to create a puppet and I was going to evaluate them with the puppet. The kids did beautiful puppets and the test was oral, of course. Our school principal congratulated them because they could produce tons of vocabulary.

My Secondary School Students' Puppets

So... give puppets a try! You'll surprise with all your students can do and say!

Thanks Juan! Thanks Sam! You have inspired me a lot!! Smiles for you both! :)

Thank you for reading :)

SimpleK12 - Teacher Learning Community

An Addiction?

G

Some time ago, I came across SimpleK12 which is a teacher learning community. I became a member and as I didn't pay, I didn't have full access.

When the #RSCON4 ended, I won a full year membership to the site and to my surprise... I found it really amazing.

I discovered lots of shared resources, interesting forums and wonderful webinars with extremely interesting presenters like Shelly Sanchez Terrell, Kim Munoz, Melissa Edwards, Jerry Swiatek and my dear friend Jennifer Verschoor.

I have also met wonderful educators like Mariel Gomez de la Torre, who is an active participant and with whom I have started a nice discussion relationship in the forums.

Last weekend, I attended a series of "Digital Storytelling" webinars and I'm looking forward to attending the next one which will have free access to "Google Apps".

Free Online Event - November 16th

If you haven't sneaked around, just do it! You will find a fantastic world of ideas and resources! As Jennifer and Shelly mentioned "it's addictive" and I truly agree with them!

It's an addiction which I hope I can keep having! 

I love the bunnies!! :)

RSCON4

Reform Symposium Conference - 2013

It was such a great pleasure having attended the RSCON4 this year! I got there just by chance or better said, because I'm a member of "The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators" group. 

There I talked about one of my activities and projects with my dear Ayat Tawel from Egypt - "ArgentEgypt"- and Shelly Sanchez Terrell read it, liked it and invited us to participate in the conference as presenters.

It was a fantastic event; there were more than 100 presenters, tons of interesting topics and awesome educators from all around the globe.

I attended some sessions due to time difference, working time and sleeping time. They were marvelous as  I learnt a lot from all of the presenters. I cannot say "I like this much more than the other one" cause they were all great. What I can say is that I learnt, learnt and learnt!!!

To my surprise, Ayat nominated me as one of the EdInspired teachers, and much more surprised I was when I was told that I was one of the 5 "winners" so to speak!

I'm happy to have been there, to have listened to outstanding-ovation sessions and to have met excellent educators cause all that has given me more ideas to keep improving, to keep working and to keep saying "I love being an educator".

RSCON4 Presenters & Volunteers 

 

Aprendizajes en Redes 2.0

Trabajo Final

Despues de varias semanas de compartir este curso "Aprendizajes en Redes 2.0" en Educ.ar, estamos poniendo el punto final. Este es mi trabajo, según lo pedido.

Mi blog, es en Inglés puesto que esa es mi área de trabajo. Comparto notas, ideas y comentarios de otros colegas. Hoy voy a mostrar alguno de los links que les he dado a mis alumnos para hacer sus trabajos como evaluaciones.

El que más me gusta es Photopeach. Es una herramienta donde se suben fotos y queda hecha una presentación formal.

Aquí verán el trabajo de mis alumnos de 1ero 2da con sus títeres.

Títeres - 1ero 2da - 2013 on PhotoPeach

Una herramienta similar es Animoto. De igual manera, se suben fotos y se realiza un album.

Caminitos con Historia - Animoto

Otra herramienta que he usado es Fotobabble. Se sube una fotografía, se graba un mensaje y luego se escucha dicho mensaje.

Tambien me gusta Slideshare porque mis alumnos pueden compartir sus trabajos. En este caso, muestro mi presentación en la conferencia "Reform Symposium" que dí el 12 de Octubre. También adjunto el link para escuchar la sesión.

ARGENTEGYPT - An Online Collaboration Project - RSCON4 from Maria Bossa

Presentación Online de ARGENTEGYPT

Otros sitios que me encantan son "Doppel me", "Be funky", "Build yourself wild" y "Fodey" ya que los alumnos pueden crear avatars y luego así pueden describir en forma oral o escrita ese personaje creado.

Build yourself wild

Be funky

Doppel me

Fodey

Me encantan las historias digitales virtuales y mi sitio favorito es "Make Beliefs Comix" porque los alumnos no solo crean los personajes sino que tambien crean sus propias historias.

Make beliefs Comix

Estas son algunas de las herramientas que uso para que mis alumnos trabajen aparte del libro de clases.

What a wonderful week

Great things happened on...

Monday Oct 7th

My 1st niece was born! Her name is Rafaela, she is so cute and all the family is extremely happy with her arrival. What a blessing for all of us! 

No pics due to her parents' request! Sorry :)

My dear Rafaela is here!!! Love you :)

Tuesday Oct 8th

My b-day! I became 42 years old! Yeap... Life goes too fast! I had a fantastic day with my students at school, friends and colleagues at home and of course with my family.

I had one of the best gifts ever... my dear friend Ayat sang the Happy b-day song in Arabic! It's a tongue twister and I wish I could sing it!!! Shokran ya gamela!!! Ana ba7ebak awee! :)

Wednesday Oct 9th

Online interview with Miss Cintia Costa students. They are from the University of Belem, in the Brazilian Amazon's area. I talked about the resources I use in my classes and gave them some ideas about how to use the book with the resources mentioned. The students were so nice and some have started following me in Facebook!

Cintia Costa's blog

Ideas and resources 4 the efl class from Maria Bossa

Slides of my presentation

Thursday Oct 10th

What a day!!! Two wonderful pieces of news...

Number one... I was nominated as one of the five individuals to be recognized at the EdInspire live ceremony held online as part of the Reform Symposium Free Online Conference. Again, my dear Ayat is "to blame" for this!!! She nominated me with such a lovely message!!!

My Nomination 

Number two... though this one is still "off-the-records", I will be the new Rotary Club Rio Tercero Secretary during the 2014-2015 period! Thanks "Pepe", the eligible president, for having trusted me (esp because I'm "brand new" in the club)

Friday Oct 11th

The RSCON4 Conference started. It gave me so much pleasure to listen to Sugata Mitra, who gave an amazing open ceremony. The expression that I loved the most was "Pedagogy needs to include the use of Internet". I totally agree as some educators are still in the "Stone Age" as far as technology is concerned!

Awesome sessions 

Saturday Oct 12th

What a fantastic day at RSCON4!! Ayat and I talked about our most precious project "ArgentEgypt", my dear colleague Marijana Smolcec talked about Facebook, Sam Patterson gave us a funny presentation about puppets and Miguel Mendoza opened our eyes to "Diverse and Disability". Of course, those were the sessions I attended. I wanted to attend more but due to time and some other activities... I'll check the recordings!

ARGENTEGYPT - An Online Collaboration Project - RSCON4 from Maria Bossa

Sunday Oct 13th

EdInspire ceremony at RSCON4 where I officially got my "Honoree certificate", listened to Ayat talking about us and read wonderful comments about my job. I also want to congratulate the other 25 nominees and of course the other 4 winners "Fatem, Chaouwki, Vicky and Maggie". They are such great educators! Bravo!!

Such a great honor for me!!! 

So... this is it! Don't you agree with me... "What a wonderful week"!!!

Smiles to you all :)

Aprendizajes en Redes - Curso de Educ.ar

Modulo 3 - Aplicaciones Web 2.0 y Lenguaje Audiovisual

Después de haber descubierto a Educ.ar - el portal educativo del gobierno Argentino - he hecho varios cursos online, siendo éste el 4to. Me han encantado todos los anteriores y por supuesto, éste también.

Como parte de las actividades del Módulo 3, teníamos que leer el material obligatorio y crear cuentas en algunos sitios que se mencionan en la bibliografía obligatoria.

Desde hace tiempo, yo tengo abierta mis cuentas en al menos 2 de esos sitios puesto que aprendí a usarlos en "Webheads" (Community of Practice).

Aqui dejo mis links.

Slideshare: Mi "Slideshare"

Flickr: Mi "Flickr" Este es un sitio que no uso mucho puesto que no me gusta subir fotografías. Cuando lo hago, comparto mis fotos en "Photopeach"...

Mi viaje a Egipto

Aunque también tengo cuenta en Youtube, no subo videos pero sí sigo diferentes personas e instituciones.