Recap on ELT Maker Night 5

Irish skies gave us great weather for the first in a long time. So numbers were low. We took advantage and left BlockT for an open space across the square with our special guest Marianne Jordan ...who wasn't going to let any sunny evening spoil things for us.

She's very well known locally as a materials writer through Celtic Publications. Every staff room in Dublin over 5 years old has a copy of Learning English in Ireland and most have seen a copy of Phonetics for Learners of English Pronunciation. She talked us through her work starting in New Zealand teaching tech and business classes and writing mountains of materials for their equivalents to our Institutes of Technology. (She's still getting royalties for that work.) She started doing the materials to foundation year courses as we call them and that meant a return to language teaching. A long road led her back to Ireland about 10 years ago where I first met her at a CES CPD event. I still have my certificate of phonetic knowledge achievement. And did my MSc work on pronunciation materials building for ELT. So it was a big deal for me to see her again. Did she 'find her bliss' writing materials? Probably not but she found her niche- a lot more practical. And Makers are slightly more into that. Excellent stories and sound advice for materials writers from how to manage a project and select partners to which kind of binding and why to self-publish. I'm very happy I made it.

Notes and photos will follow later this summer.

Special note: Colette, Liam and Rob will be running the email list and blog too now. If any other Makers want access, write in and say so.

ELT MAKER NIGHT 5

ELT MAKER NIGHT 5 (or V) is on in at 6:30 in Block T.

It's been a good spring for us and we are all basking in the sunshine this afternoon.

We'll be on hold until Autumn unless Rob or Liam or possibly possibly Colette keeps the team on target. I'm off to even sunnier climes.

But for tonight we will be welcoming Marianne Jordan, a book Maker, not the PaddyPower kind. Hopefully she let us know about the gritty, tech/design side of putting a book together. We'll leave the writing process to one of Peter Lahiff's Writing Forums.

See you soon...

Recap on ELT Maker Night 4

Block T hosted ELT Maker Night 4 a third time 12 May.

Rob ran the agenda and we kept it to a (very) short 45 minutes. The venue needed us out by 7:00. We had new people, new Makers and plenty to keep us talking. The session ended up continuing for more than a few minutes afterwards on the market square in Smithfield. Lesson learned: no matter how many people sign up for the Maker Night always anticipate more.

The Recap:

At 6:15 I met Colette, Bridget and Terry just outside as I was walking in. Rob was already inside writing the agenda up on the board in the now familiar meeting room off BlockT's hot desk space.

I hadn't anticipated any newcomers but there were two. Rob got us started straight away on an agenda pared down to 45 minutes... No ELTea, no feature, no Mini Maker Project. Just Show 'n' Tells, some biscuits (thank you Colette) and an exit. But it was packed.

Terry: Show 'n' Tell

Terry showed his two sites and his experiences as a teacher with full Portuguese proficiency teaching in one of the schools which closed recently.  He had some excellent ideas for classroom activities with batteries and plugs not needed. One involves Nerf guns and grammar. (TEFL... Teaching English with Firearms is Lovely?) 

It was impressive invention and rare to see a relatively new teacher confidently contributing to the teaching community in his blog (but he doesn't like calling it a blog because that suggests first person narrative and he's just not into that all the time. I am. Most of his articles are more like ELT Instructables. Something we should probably be doing more of here... hmm.)  He also makes himself available to a targeted set of learners on his site for lusophones. His support system online is Wordpress. Good choice.

Being WordPress fan, he recommended ELT Makers try Viral ELT. The idea behind it is not new- it's much the same as the idea as the 1989 idea of bringing a photo to class and asking students to discuss it. Viral ELT replaces the photo with a viral video which has been making the rounds on social media and points the teacher to a ways of turning lexis-lite Likes into conversations and debates, projects and presentations. The site is clean and designed around visuals and puts the power in the teacher's hands to get students active. Thanks to Terry I hope he finds a safe school that nurtures creative teachers. I think he will. He certainly deserves one.

Colette: Show 'n' Tell

Colette talked us through her recent podcasting project which reflected Liam's scifi podcast project show and tell from Night 3. (See post below) Her experience was positive and suggested that having single lesson management system for each pair or small group wasn't the best thing. Her students made radio news podcasts. Motivating students -or enticing them- to participate is only easy with a majority of your  students she suggested. One student wanted nothing to do with it but was also a very poor attender so the project could be constructed and continued on days when this student was absent without affecting her experience. Conveniently she was absent most days before and after the idea was floated. 

Colette's idea, like Liam's, was to have students listen to a sample, develop an idea in conversation and finally write a script to perform and record. No suspense: it was a big success. But she also had a pair who didn't want to write and weren't fond of the whole idea, though not as extremely as the non-attender. There is a happy ending though. After seeing how other groups were progressing, this hesitant group decided to discuss their news unscripted and Colette found their podcast as, if not more, enjoyable to listen to. 

All the podcasts were recorded on Colette's own tablet and during class time as the other students were engaged in speaking activities from the syllabus and textbooks. So, though the idea was introduced and ideas were discussed and scripts were written as a whole-class lesson-time activity in small groups or pairs, the recording work was done as a substitute for the class's work. The selected group who needed to record their scripts were given the tablet and a spare classroom and that precious 15 minutes of freedom to create. 

ELT Makers: Contrasting Podcasting

Colette's podcast project contrasts with Liam's in a couple of ways and this may go back to their positions on Making. Colette believes that tech in the classroom should be IN CLASS TIME. She is not fond of using personal time for class projects. Neither is Liam but this principle is a good limit to force you to be more creative. Can you still make a good project or learning experience without touching the tech outside of 'contact hours'? Colette's project shows it is possible. 

Liam's project had more bells and whistles so to speak. His SciFi podcasts meant that the students had to find and add sound effects and use an audio editor (both use Audacity). Colette's students' projects went from script to recording to upload. Liam's inserted an extra step or two but this was a requirement of the genre. 

The relative ease Colette's experience and the genre of choice of a news report led her naturally to think about how the entire school could benefit. One school on the northside of the city runs a real monthly newspaper (on actual newspaper! not photocopies!). Why couldn't Colette's school run an audio news programme? Why not indeed? Some excellent podcasts about issues in ELT came out over the last 12 months including ELT Podcasts, and some that have video like the TEFL Equity interviews. Interviews and simple audio seems very make-able. Let's hope more of it happens.

Up next

We had to skedaddle at 7:11 and continued talking as we all headed through the hipster haven at the front of the house and kept talking until we finally watched desk jockey Dave pull down the shutter and head for the pub. 

ELT Maker Night 5 will be on June 9. Probably Block T again. Marianne Jordan one of those rare Makers who does pronunciation stuff and incredible self-publishing. She will coming out as next month's feature. Get her little green book off your school's shelf and bring it down for an autograph. 

~jbw

Recap on ELT Maker Night 3

Where: 

Block T's meeting room which is not unlike a typical no-tech ELT classroom in Dublin. There was even a 3x4 whiteboard. Thanks James.

When: 

Tuesday 14 April 2015.
We got started at 6:15 due to traffic issues.
Aside from that Liam kept things moving along quickly.

Who:

Everyone on the mailing list who said they would come did come. Everyone else wrote saying why they couldn't- one was actually at another group's meeting. (IATEFL? Some English group, I think.) Everyone made contact. That in itself is a sign of community.

By the way the next one is on Tuesday, 12th of May. Expect a massive missive soon.

Write to ELTMakers at Gmail dot com if you are interested in an invitation. We decided to abandon the LinkedIn group and just focus on projects and real meetings.

What:

Below is a story of the evening's events with some bits of flavour.

Show 'n' Tell

Once we were all in show and tell started. John B. Whipple (writing) started but this went a bit long. See this post for details.

Liam, also managing the agenda, went next and told us about his Sci-Fi Radio project. He traces his influences from his private love of scifi and horror as genres and Community Language Learning. CLL was a big ELT deal in its day theoretically. He may have come across this on his DELTA.

Teachers who had responsibility for their students learning through course creation, choice of materials and suggested work had the ability to set work which was essentially creative- this accords with a lot of view of ELT professionalism as being closer to artistic professionalism. Be that as is it may he gave us great sources and samples of student work. Some of the students posted proudly shared their radio work on their social media accounts.

Liam's suggestions were as follows:

Find an old sci-fi or horror radio show
War of Worlds by Orson Welles' crew is the most famous but the world of scripted online audio may be bigger than scripted online video. It has an extra few years of history. He suggests searching OpenCulture.com. Many of the OpenCulture pieces also provide transcripts which you can use in a million ways.

Once you have it, play it for the class and do your usual activities. Most likely you will see examples of vocab and grammar you've studied with them in the last few weeks.

Once that is done, drop the news... They are going to write their own spooky sci-fi radio play.

Set the parameters

• specific intended audience, 
• writing, preparation, recording, final product time limits, 
• number of words in the script, 
• teams

Set the resources

• Recordings can be made on phones/ personal devices.
• Editing done with Audacity (we will cover this in a future tutorial for ELT people perhaps Russell Stannard has already, Audacity certainly has plenty of tutorials but crucially it's free and basic use is not complex)
• Audacity needs to run on a computer (so book the computer lab or request students to start downloading to their devices and messing with Audacity on Day 1 or 2)
• You will want sound effects find them here. Nasa has a great authentic recordings section on SoundCloud if there will be spaceships involved. 
• Time...

Recognize time needs and limits before you begin
All this work takes time especially if it's going to be enjoyable. The easiest way to ruin a party is to put a time limit on it. So explain that this is a short term project. It could be a half hour to an hour a day. You could make it into a competition of sorts if you need to speed the plow. Expect to be at it for at least 2 days in total if you commit the entire class time. But it will probably be just under 2 weeks if you are doing it part-time and take a few days off.

Total time for all [good concept, script, tech-up, recording, sound effects work, conversion, editing and burn--- with first timers]: 6 hours, maybe less if you have some people with experience like musicians or media people. Trust your learners to find the tech answers. Just keep them on target with the language, monitor and take notes.

ELTea

Peppermint tea seems to be a favourite as it's naturally decaffeinated but unnaturally delightful. (Complete exaggeration.) One Maker preferred regular man tea with milk as the lord intended it. Hobnobs and FigRolls were present. John showed a couple of videos from his CES Uppers blog. Let's continue.

Feature

See the little naughts and crosses box? Blogger's in there somewhere.

ELT Maker Nights haven't really had featured guests. Rob Lane, who has a spectacular Google+ page, is the first one. Apart from me no one but he has written an article for the ELT MakeSpace blog. But he's a veteran web writer. Blogger however basic was new to him.

He walked us through writing a first post to the MakeSpace. The requirement is a Google account and then Blogger needs to be set up. If you are on a computer based web browser and are in your Gmail you know how this looks... Next to the 'apps box', which is next to your name, you will have a Blogger option.

An ELT MakeSpace blog admin needs to send you an invitation to write. All last night's attending ELT Makers were sent an invitation this morning. You can all start putting together your own posts at that point. As an example of a first post I made my show and tell accessible as an individual post (and this shortened this already enormous recap). Rob then talked us through the content of his post: the idea, the nerves as well as the process, benefits and motivation behind his work. If you haven't read it go back to it now clicking here. Or scroll down a couple of posts. And check out his G+ here. It's a great idea that benefits him as a teacher as much as his school.

Maker Project

We did it and I think it's pretty great. Well done to Liam- concept to completion... And transferred it over ....On the same night.


What is an ELT Maker? from John Whipple on Vimeo.

Well done, folks.

PS This week Daniel Zuchowski, newsletter writer for ELT Ireland, asked how many ELT Maker Nights there will be. It goes up to 11.

Maker Night 4 is on Tuesday 12 May. Even if you can't come you can always make an excuse.

Why: 

Great night.

3 blogs from an old ELT Maker

My show and tell went a little long. I showed about three old blogs I wrote. Why not just one? This was to make up for the fact that I couldn't really participate in the show 'n' tells for the last two ELT Maker Nights because I was too busy coordinating. Thanks to James and Liam for organizing ELT MAKER NIGHT 3. It's been my favourite. A link to a recap of the whole evening will be here.

Clear Communication and it was my first English language blog. This one is probably the only one it's worth fighting through (or trying to read). It dates back to my blogging birth in 2008 and was written for English language teachers in Ireland as a resource for learning more about pronunciation teaching- theory, history, resources and technology. There was little sense of ELT Community at the time. No interaction in comments really. I felt like the Emily Dickinson of the ELT blogosphere. Good times... I still go back to it when I happen on an article or resource. There is less urgency as so many more pronunciation resources have popped up and sites have been written. But still there has been the occasional personal message to a resource maker in Sardinia or blogger in Birmingham. It's showed me that despite the apparent distance between our physical classrooms, the struggles we face as teachers are give us common neighbours to talk about and that's a good starting place for community.


My first blog ever was Aiutini -'little help-lettes' in Italian.

This was for a large group of students in I taught in Ancona back in 2007 or '8. They wanted to make enormous progress but had only 3 weeks tuition paid by their employer- that really boiled down to 12 hours face-to-face. As most were over 40 I thought it would be worthwhile to compile a list of self-assessment resources, learner resources etc and collect them somewhere they could get to. I asked them for their favourite websites and they gave some great ones (but a few had no access to the internet). This blog gave me an opportunity to use my L2 and was where I first started learning about making things online: HTML was much closer to the surface of the web then. Special note Aiutini was a neologism and for about 4 years our blog was in the top 10 google results. Che bello.

The final one was CES Uppers. This blog again was for a specific readership: my Upper-Intermediate class at CES Dublin back in its pre-'corporate' days. The posts were occasionally planned before the lesson to facilitate flipping the classroom before the term was repeated to death. Mostly the posts are diary entries of unplanned moments in the lesson or summaries of what occurred. There are lots of whiteboard shots, reminders of answers to impromptu questions, videos to Anglosphere cultural references, examples, samples of work and resources. It shows a lot of the raw messiness and enjoyment of teaching languages face-to-face: something I think we all appreciate but keep to ourselves for fear of seeming out of control or uncontrollable.

These three are all flawed as 'products' because they are too casually written to be of use to people outside the intended readership. There are too many 'you had to be there' moments. But that's ok. They were simply to be used for asynchronous communication between the intended readership and myself ie my Ancona group, my fellow pronunciation teachers and my 'Uppers' and me. Not every piece of writing wants to be published as a page in a course book or an academic article.

Clear Communication is the only one that might still be practical to people in 2015.

The process of writing each was creative -and so, empowering and enlightening. There were a couple of negatives but on balance my ELT time was better with it.

Negatives

• I stopped watching football for a couple of seasons. When I came back to it, I just didn't care that much any more. 
• Like prepping for lessons, all hours spent on every blog went unpaid.
• It encouraged me to see private ELT as a career.

Benefits

• I wouldn't have gone on to eventually do an MSc. The thesis was just published in ELT Journal this month. 
• I wouldn't have been promoted in or between schools without them. 
• They showed the work I was doing internally- before, during and after lessons. There may be no other accessible evidence of this aside from positive lesson observation forms from my DoS.
• The basic maintenance of the sites helped me cut my teeth with technology and... 
• The process of writing with the internet showed me how much assistance is accessible and freely available online. 
• The diary-like structure of a blog encourages regular writing and that helped forming a habit which led to a bit more critical thinking, reflection and research. 
• It contributes to my current view that ELT is an artistic profession. 
• It encouraged me to see private ELT as a career.

-John B. Whipple

Quick note on ELT Maker Night 3

We have confirmation on ELT Maker Night 3.

BlockT, our favourite Smithfield workspace is the location. (Thanks James)

6:00-7:30 on Tuesday the 14th of April is the time, day and date. (Mm. Tomorrow...)

We'll be doing our regular ELTea and Show 'n' Tell of projects we are working on but Rob Lane will be giving a little presentation on stuff he's made and how it works in his school. He'll also be telling members how to write articles on the ELT Make Space blog (what you are reading now). See his article below.

Newcomers are welcome since we've only met twice. Bring a big strong friend with you if you are afraid. (Don't be.)

Bring a project you are working on or a computer to show it to us on if it's online. Bring some money to put in the hat to cover the room rental (because we do). 

Post a note here with questions or email ELTMakers at gmail. ( com)

You're welcome. (Thanks to DZ at the ELT Ireland newsletter for the mention this morning.- JW)

ELT Blogging

by Rob Lane

When I started teaching in 2006, the teacher's tools were a CD player, overhead projectors and acetates, pockets full of markers, and a fistful of photocopies. The role of teacher was also somewhat more restricted to the classroom. But, language teachers are an innovative bunch. As technology has become more practical and relevant, it has invigorated and opened up new opportunities for the guerrilla English teacher. Cloud stored audio on smartphones, shared whiteboard apps, high-quality video calling and wireless printing, among others, have allowed us to have whole libraries at our fingertips. But, it is not just the teacher's tools that have been upgraded.

A teacher is rarely merely a teacher. School management are finally starting to realize teachers' potential beyond the classroom and are inviting them take on wider roles within schools. The following is one area where many teachers have already been active for some time – blogging.

I am lazy. But, laziness breeds innovation. How can I do it more efficiently? It seemed a logical step to create a bank of board notes that I could call on anytime and at any location. The boss will be happy to see the whiteboards being used, the students think you're pretty hip, and you can just keep on laughing because you don't have write so much. Within a few months I had a range of notes written - glorified acetates.

I had asked my DOS if there was anything else I could be doing to expand my skill set. At the time, most of the major schools were starting to take social media presence seriously and SEO was the buzz acronym. The school was looking for writers to flesh out the website and add content that would attract potential students. Plus, the more relevant content on the site and the more hits, the higher the search ranking. As I was using approximately the same notes in multiple locations, the question of content ownership arose. My director was happy for the content to remain mine and free to use as I pleased.

I produced an article every fortnight and posted each on two separate platforms: the school's WordPress based website and on my own Google+ page. Within just over a year, the articles have attracted a combined total of around 60,000 views.

I think that before getting started, it is essential to decide why and for whom you are writing and really customize the content. A key factor to keep in mind here is the length of each article: 250-500 words is the recommended length. For me, the most appropriate subject to write about was grammar. The strategy was to post the articles on the school's website and share them through social media pages. Effectively, no site ever runs solo. Your social media campaign should always be funneling visitors to the main website. Another important consideration is the metadata that you are invited to input on the dashboard side of the blogsite. Essentially, these are the key words and phrases that will be picked up by search engines. Experimentation with this is an ongoing process as search engines are continuously changing their parameters. A final point worth keeping in mind is that articles with images attract more traffic than those that don't. Images should be relevant and not detract from the content. The project ran for about a year and I have continued writing for myself as well as making gains in social media marketing.

Writing a blog, whether academic or cultural, will never be time wasted for a teacher. I have found it useful for honing my explanations, a source for homework, an in-class reference and a boost to the school's marketing efforts. It has allowed me to get in contact with like-minded people and participate in the global ELT discussions that are ever ongoing. It has been a learning curve. If you are interested in writing a blog, I recommend that you have a straight-up chat with your DOS to see if there is an appetite for it: there most likely is. I strongly suggest that you ensure that content ownership stays with you. Keep in mind also that content writing and marketing are two of the hottest areas for teachers making a move away from the classroom. Regardless of your motivations, there may be more to be gained from writing a blog than you expected so why not give it a lash.

An eLTclipse for Ireland

It's 2015. In a little less than a week Ireland will experience a near total solar eclipse. So what are you going to do about it?

Well something cool. Don't be the one who hides in the corner quivering about your eyes exploding (Audrey).

But, don't be a dope either. Looking straight at the sun is will cause damage, possibly hurt and you know better. So how can you enjoy this illicit astronomical event?

Why not set this as small practical problem for your class and ask them to plan a way to be able to really enjoy it. Here are some Makery observation ideas if they don't think of any or the problem overshadows their Maker capabilities:

1. Make a pinhole projector.
2. Use a magnifying glass and a piece of paper or 
3. Get some very Back To The Future 2 solar eclipse watching glasses from Astronomy Ireland who have a well-deserved following despite our abundant cloud cover.

It's a pretty cool event. Some of your Koreans or Saudis may have seen one one or two in their short and privileged lifetimes. But being abroad to see it will be an event they can tell their kids about. But will they be able to do so in English? That's up to us.

The moon will start casting its shadow as early as 8:30. So the weirdness will start then.

The eclipse maxes out at about 9:25 so don't plan on doing a test on Friday.

Ireland 2015. 

Let your students know it will be happening early in the week and maybe start things early on the day or late on the day. After all there won't be another one near as good until 2036, by which time you'll be sitting on the beach soaking up your ELT pension. Kidding! The one in in 2036 is nowhere near as good as this one. Enjoy it now.
-----

Of course if you are late for school on Friday morning you have a ready-made text for your DOS:
'Nothing I can say: partial eclipse on the DART'.

ELT Maker Night 2

Block T hosted ELT Maker Night 2 on Tuesday.

Block T rents a studio space for artists and is located in the suitably low-rent Smithfield area, just off the LUAS line with a DublinBikes station just outside. There are a nice couple of little restaurants on either side of the tracks. Plus there is a little playground outside if you like swings and roundabouts.

Inside it's an eclectic jumble haven of furniture and a groovy coffee bar people. You can hotdesk in a cold room for the membership fee and a hourly rate. This gives you rights to rent a meeting room which is what we did. And hey, it worked.

Numbers were low (it's okay to be negative) but it was understandable... It was a perfect storm: two members gigging and Spandau Ballet were playing in The Point. A third member reportedly needed to 'eat' while another wanted to spend more time with his 'daughter'. (I wonder if his 'partner' knows about this.)

The Recap: 
Communications
We talked communications a bit and decided we can fairly safely leave the LinkedIn group behind. We will leave it as marker but it no one really seems to be interacting there. (Interestingly, the opposite of what C finds, two lines below.)

So lo-cal social media: the blog for starters, emails for mains and free-flowing refills on Twitter.

Show and Tell
G talked about his QR coded school. He promises to write about this soon. He'd better.
C was a long-awaited arrival to the group. Her nascent blog should have been shown at the Digital ELT Ireland Conference this November. Over a year after starting it the author has abandoned it. It was intended to be a point of interaction for her class. It never became that. Undaunted, she started posting the content to a Facebook page - and kablooey. Now there is interaction, comments, questions, a community of sharers. The blog wasn't the best platform because, I suppose, it wasn't 'local' most people are not the app/web explorers they used to be. We talked about how the whole digital native thing went out the window. Prensky had the dignity to let it go.
J talked about Thinglinks and that segues into our Maker Project which was fairly simple: discuss the pros, cons, means and ends of setting up a ELT Makers Thinglink account for local ELT schools and teachers. Like ELTpics but for local people.

Maker Project: Thinglink

We could photograph our own content for teaching the 'Elementalers' and 'Preints' in our lives and in our city. Labelled scenes like the ones we see in our course books could be swapped for interactive images from the actual spaces learners encounter in their new (albeit temporary) daily lives in our dirty old town.

So how would this work in our different practices? We divined three ways:

As attractive content or instructive feature for city, school and class social media
The teacher or students take the picture and then the teacher or students fill hang labels and hotspots on the image.
As set homework and quiz content for classes
The teacher preps the Thinglink; gives the link out in class or via social media/email; students have the evening to study; quiz first thing the next morning with the image projected on the whiteboard or on the teacher's laptop/tablet.
As a prompt for learners making their own artifacts
The teacher preps a sample and the learners have to mimic the work in their own setting preferably in pairs to maximise probability for discussion. So the teacher takes a photo of their favourite or local cafe, they hang labels from hotspots in the image. The students take pictures of their favourite or local cafe and they hang the same labels in their images. The links can then be shared in digital portfolios or simply on their social media.

Perhaps that last one has the biggest 'reach'. If students share their Thinglinks to their social media circles, they'll be showing an authentic side of life in their city and showing their work and new vocab. That might be a side benefit someone would be interested in- your social media person, marketing director, regional marketing co-ordinator... or your learner maybe.

It has to be remembered that this is really an A1/A2 activity. Labeling the eyelets and aglets on your Chuck Taylors is about as useful as knowing the spelling of eyelets and aglets even for advanced students its more of a party trick. Keep it useful.

As a starter, take a picture your in your local super market and take the look at the package nouns instead of the food nouns: boxes, cases, tubes, bottles, sachets etc...

or

take a picture of your local purgatory like I did below and get started where you are.

Hang your labels quickly and we're off.



I'll post some samples in the comments to this page.
...

All in all still a good night: 2 out of 5. See you at the next.

ELT Maker Trip: In The Making

If you live or teach in Dublin you probably know exactly where this is. 

Note the Castle-y building in the background.

Irish Design 2015 seems to be using this building as its Design Hub to host exhibits over this year. Coach House- the official name of the hopeful wannabe castle- is, at this very moment, holding a design exhibit called In The Making by a couple of cool designer types. Needless to say if you are reading this blog and teaching English in Dublin should take your students. 

Not only is it free, but they give stuff out. And that stuff... It's free. And there is English on it. 

ELT Maker Trip:

There are physical artifacts in the room on the left. In the room on the right there are photo compositions of what you have just been seeing. Photos are welcome but both are 'look but don't touch'. That said in the room on the right, your students can pick up a souvenir. In the photo above you can see racks of white blocks on the wall. These are all booklets that unfold into cool posters. Don't overdo it but take one or two.

How can I use this with them back in the classroom?

I can see process writing, passives, presentations coming out of a visit here. 

Talk to your DoS or give a heads-up to your school's Events Coordinator and put it on the school calendar before the end of March. They also do tours and talks.

So what is it?

You will see the stuff modern factories make (MacBooks and Football shoes) and stuff people make (wine corks and curraghs).

The objects are all interestingly incomplete... 'paused' mid-make...

Coracle, mid-make

Tennis balls 

ELT joke- Q:What level is this exhibit appropriate for? A:Uppers

Old school

Marble us.

If you are bringing a group of more than three write to designhub@IrishDesign dot /ai/ /i:/ 

ELT MAKER NIGHT RECAP (or how to make an ELT Maker Night)

Where:
I called about 5 places looking for a venue. Visited 4. Bridge21 is excellent for this stuff and I was thrilled they said yes. I didn't want to meet in a school because schools are competitors, so teachers risk black-listing or grey-listing for associating with other teachers from other schools. There will always be inter-ELTO snobbery. There are old grudges and snoops. And we spend enough time in schools anyway. Pubs were out because we also have spent enough time in them already. Perhaps we still do.

+The Bridge21 space and project is excellent and has so much to offer ELT that it's a wonder they aren't doing ELT already. I volunteered there for a number of months.
-Google maps isn't exact on the doorway, so almost half the participants had to call me to find the door as the doorway was dark. Next time I hope one of the Makers will make us a map. Tea facilities had to be learned.


When:
After the afternoon classes and with enough time to get a snack. I wanted people to be able to get home before bedtime. The best of us have jobs to get up for in the morning and Netflix isn't going to watch itself. 6:00-7:30 was proclaimed. 6:35-7:45 was reality. Tuesdays seem pretty good for this sort of thing.

+More people showed than initially expected. Plenty of laid-back getting-to-know-you time.
-One Maker couldn't arrive until 6:45. Maybe we could start a few minutes later?


Who:
(I won't do names or pictures. It's about making ideas into stuff and stuff into ideas. When I need to talk about someone I'll use initials.)
8 ELT Makers and one newbie. There were 9. About half BYOD'd. There were spare laptops and tables everywhere in the room. See Space Demo Below.


+Everyone had something to talk about.
-We were 'in 9' as the Italians say. Odd numbers made pair work awkard. But English Language Teachers seem to always have a few solutions for that.

How:
After everyone was done WiFying in, ELTea and brownies finished up at about 20 past 6. We did official hellos and roughly sketched the agenda. (This is more what I wished it went like but it WILL be like this next time.)

• Stop chit-chatting and prepare something (and maybe something else) to show. Now.
• Show 'n' Tell One Next we'll ask you to show your work to a partner.
• Show 'n' Tell Two Then we'll ask you to change partners and show your work to another partner.
• Show 'n' Tell Three (repeat)
• Please take a couple of notes and think about these topics
  -why they made it and
  -who it's for
  -where it's going and
  -why they love it (or why they abandoned it)
• Maker News
• Makers' Mini Project

JN arrived late and had missed the first show and tell. So we played the name game to reset and include the newcomer... It was something we should have done at the start.
Person A says their name. Person B says A's name and their own. Person C says A's, B's and then their own. Person D etc... 

+There was an air of serendiptity about the place. The brownies and tea helped.
-There weren't very clear lines between one activity and the next. Next time we'll mind the timings for the show 'n' tells but I will stop short of giving out questionnaires. Fixable.

What:
In the end seven people were on the presenter's end of show 'n' tell. I was monitoring and answering the door, prepping the Mini-Project. So we were one presenter short. I saw over a lot over shoulders.

Projects included:

• P's newscasts and an absolutely terrifying horror film set in a classroom
• L's old student-written collaborative class blog
• G's QR code-enhanced school and a tumblr on a conference recently attended
• J's super slick vocab app which is the envy of all Makers in Dublin; a bonafide pro
• S's class FB page and his role assignment theories for media project work (He assigns a 'skeptic'; Seems Machiavellian; Works a treat for keeping the learners on task); has a great blog too.
• P's intro to Articulate Storyline for... well that may be classified
• R's G+ page series on grammar & vocab for students which help his learners and set him up for writing a learner's book while giving a boost to his schools SEO

As things really got cooking a half hour late we had to stop after 2 show and tells. I put up this whiteboard of reflection questions and suggested doing a bit of writing.

The Maker News was basically that I thought this was a success and that we got consensus on doing it again next month- and that further communication would be through the LinkedIn Group, ELT Makers.

Finally everyone grabbed one of the little letters I'd made up to mock the logo pulled from my November Presentation at the Digital ELT Ireland Conference and L shot a movie on his phone (and edited overnight).



Everyone made a dent in the room rent, packed up, swapped contacts and drifted out the door or to the 5-minute Bridge21 tour.

+I went home. Fairly happy. Lots of happy texts.
-'...too few to mention'

A good night.

ELT Maker Night Brownies

After the 1st ELT Maker Night on Tuesday a few people were saying they liked these and I said I'd post the recipe (only 6 ingredients).

ELT MAKER NIGHT BROWNIES 

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 squares chocolate, melted (6 tablespoons cocoa & 1 tablespoon butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add beaten eggs and vanilla.  Add sifted flour and chocolate.   If you like nuts or other stuff, put them in. Bake in greased 8" x 8" pan @ 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. 

Based on Best Brownies in America
Mom Whipple


Advice:

1. Convert all non-metrics to metrics using... mathematics.
2. Butter firmness is an issue, I hope someone has a way to measure this in the future Randall Munroe I may need to call on you.
3. Get a glass baking pan. The size does matter because the stuff should stack up about 2 cms or 3/4 inch at least.
4. They don't pop out well. So bring them in the glass pan. I wrapped mine in a clean tea towel and then stuck it in a puzzle box. You might bring a knife or spatula.
5. If you like them chewy, keep them covered as they cool- and let them cool. That's going to be like... an hour... at least.

Recipes for ELTea welcome. 

(If I go to IATEFL and see someone selling ELTeacups... )

ELT Maker Night

When- Tuesday 3rd of February 2015 6:00 pm
Where- Bridge21 (See the map. It's on Westland Row behind TCD.)
Who- ELT Makers of any level 
Why- For the good of humanity, wait...
What- on Earth is a Maker Night? See below


It's an hour where you get together with other ELT Makers (Creative non-technophobe English Language Teachers). You meet each other and do a show-and-tell in small groups. There will be no important speeches, it's about making stuff. You show them what you've made and ask them about what they've made.  Sound good? See you there.

Yes, this just got real.

Cutesy Waffle and Details
If you want biscuits and tea you will have to make them yourself. Bring a laptop or whatever you like to use. This is not a coding session, don't be afraid.  It's 2 euros in to cover the cost of renting the place any extra money can go to paying for tea or something nice like that. If you make food or bring tea you get in free.

If you have nothing to share yet that's ok. In fact that's half the reason for it- to see what we can make. The other half is 'show and tell'. Remember: there will be no 'presentations to the class'. It will just be small tables and group work.

So let's review: In small groups you will meet the other ELT people and show your projects. They will be showing their class blogs, resource sites, videos, Edmodos, Facebook groups, podcast projects, G+ feeds, Thinglinks, (books?!) and whatever you've gone through the effort to make. They'll tell you

1. why they made it and 
2. who it's for, 
3. where it's going and 
4. why they love it (or why they abandoned it). 

What you are showing doesn't need to be online if you've made a really excellent crossword puzzle, bring it.

Never fear. Maker Night is near.

Write to john.b.whipple at the old gmail dot commie to clarify, confirm details or book. But you are welcome to just show up.