My article in New Routes

My friend Paula and I have just published our article To blog or not to blog? in this January issue of New Routes magazine, from Disal. If you have received the magazine, take a look at it. If you don't have it, send me and email and I'll scan the pages for you!

Inglês com Filmes

Amanhã darei o curso Inglês com Filme e Vídeos na UnG - Universidade de Guarulhos, no campus Shopping Light, das 9h às 18h. Serão trabalhados cerca de 12 a 15 cenas de filmes ou vídeos do Youtube com atividades em Inglês.
Quem tiver interesse nesse curso particular, entre em contato.

International jobs for teachers

The website www.eslherald.com has an international job search resource for English teachers. So, if you're looking for a job overseas, take a look at it. Besides, the site also has lots of suggested activities, regarding reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, games etc, in the Teacher Toolkit section.

Crônica - Quem mexeu no meu texto?

Enviado por Ciça Lopes

Quem mexeu no meu texto?

Por Gabriel Perissé

No dia 28 de março comemoramos o Dia do Revisor.
Tal como o goleiro no futebol, o revisor, na editora, é aquele que evita o pior (o gol adversário, o erro de digitação, a escorregada gramatical, a incoerência que ninguém percebeu etc.).
No entanto, é também o revisor quem mais sofre com as derrotas de um texto. Ele é o último homem (ou a última mulher) a ler o livro antes da fase de impressão gráfica, quando não há retorno...
Monteiro Lobato dizia que a tarefa do revisor era das mais ingratas. Que o erro ou a falha se escondiam durante o processo de confecção do livro para, depois de tudo pronto, aparecer na primeira página aberta, como um saci danado, pulando, debochando do revisor.
O revisor é um caçador de distrações. Uma de suas maiores alegrias (em que há uma pitada de vaidade) é encontrar deslizes do autor, perceber as gralhas que ninguém viu antes, corrigir detalhes que iam passar despercebidos.
O revisor revisa com amor.
O revisor sai de manhã, caneta em punho, em busca de verbos mal conjugados e vírgulas fugitivas.
O revisor revisa com dor.
O revisor chega em casa, à noite, com o coração cheio de parágrafos amputados e tópicos frasais remendados.
O revisor revisa com ardor.
O revisor enfrenta moinhos de vento que de fato moem o vento de palavras que o vento não leva.
Madrugadas insones, manhãs e tardes quentes, noites chuvosas, o revisor vai pulando as linhas e entrelinhas do texto em busca das ciladas armadas sabe Deus por quem.
O revisor entrega o seu trabalho bem suado e abençoado. Recebe as moedas de prata que são, na verdade, moedas de ouro. Recolhe seus instrumentos de caça, enxuga o rosto, sorri. Sabendo que o autor poderá reclamar de suas intervenções, que poderá referir-se ao revisor, gritando: quem mexeu no meu texto?!
O mérito da frase perfeita é do autor.
O crime do erro cometido será do revisor.
O revisor, porém, não se considera um injustiçado. O revisor vitimista abandonou a profissão no primeiro dia. O verdadeiro revisor, como o goleiro no futebol, sabe que nasceu para ficar ali, na pior posição de todas, para agarrar centenas de bolas difíceis e, talvez, deixar passar a mais fácil de todas.
Oços do ofíssio.

Oportunidade para professores de inglês

O Colégio Pentágon, em Alphaville, está com vagas para professores de inglês:

Organization or Institution: Colégio Pentágono
Job Title: English teachers
Job Specification: Fluent English and experience with teaching teenagers (Fundamental II & Ensino Médio).
Job Description: Colégio Pentágono - Alphaville is hiring English teachers for 12 classes with availability three times a week
Requirements: Bachelor or Master Degree in the area of Education or Academic qualification in English Teaching.
Contact: Please, send your resume to: clarahaddad@colegiopentagono.com

Interview - Vivian Magalhães - Teachers and Technology

Vivian Magalhães is an English teacher from Rio Grande do Sul, co-autor of the series of books Cem Aulas Sem Tédio, author of Quem Nasce de Semente é Planta, Não Gente and Teacher Tools: Tips and Activities for Effective ELT Teaching. She also keeps her site http://www.linguaestrangeira.com.br/, and her Master's Dissertation was about: "Professores pontocom: o que buscam e o que encontram na Web". Get to know more about her career and her hints for teachers.

Tell us about your education and experience.
Vivian - I started teaching English very early, when I was 18. I had come back from the United States, where I had spent one year as an exchange student is an American High School, and one of my sisters was working as a coordinator at Yázigi at the time. I started studying Journalism here, but halfway along the course I decided to go back to the United States and I ended up going to college there, too, and getting an Associate degree from Dixie College, in Utah.

After graduation I went on a trip to Hawaii, where I met a guy who I started dating. Because of him I lived for another two years in Kentucky (his home state), where I intended to get my Bachelor’s degree in journalism. I did go to college there, but we broke up before I graduated, so I came back to Brazil and graduated from PUC-RS in 1987. By the time I graduated in journalism, I had learned to really enjoy teaching, so for a year or two I tried to juggle two jobs, working as a teacher in the morning and as a bilingual journalist in the afternoon. It actually meant working three shifts, because in the evening I had to prepare classes and do a lot of paper work.

At some point I knew that I had to make a choice, and I chose to keep on teaching. So I went back to college and I got a degree in English teaching from UFRGS. By then I was already teaching at Colégio Farroupilha, a private school in Porto Alegre where I taught for ten years. It was there that I met Vanessa Amorim, with whom I later wrote Cem Aulas Sem Tédio. I started my Master’s in Education in 2001, and in 2007 I started a doctorate program in Informática na Educação, but it was way too technical and not very close to my English teaching reality and needs. So I dropped out and enrolled in a specialization course instead, but I still think about eventually going back to my Doctorate program.

How did you have the idea to write about the use of technology in your master's?
Vivian - We launched Cem Aulas Sem Tédio in 1998, and I decided to create a website in order to make the book known outside of Rio Grande do Sul. At the time, the internet was not nearly as popular as it is today, and having a website was pretty much like having a snake as a pet: because not many people had one, it generated a lot of curiosity. People wanted to know, for example, how I made money with my website, as if making money could be the only possible reward for all the time spent in developing and updating the site. I could give people answers from my own personal perspective and experience, but I wanted to research this new way of connecting and communicating with colleagues as a worldwide phenomenon. So I interviewed webmasters from different countries and asked them about their reasons for running an educational website.

What were your main findings in your studies?
Vivian - Although some people do make money from their websites (which is the case for the pioneer Dave Sperling from ESLCafe.com), most teachers enjoy the contact with their colleagues as well as sharing information and experience with the less experienced. A website can also be a powerful window through which teachers can show their work, and a tool for keeping and organizing their own materials. Most importantly, though, is the feeling that Michel Maffesoli called “neotribalism”: the need to belong to a particular group. In other words, creating and keeping a website for teachers is a way of gathering around us others of our kind, people who share the same or similar problems, work atmosphere and needs. It is so true that we seek the ones like us, that the social networks and virtual communities are very popular nowadays.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using technology in the classes?
Vivian - My study was mostly aimed at teachers, not students. I mean, I did not study technology as a means of teaching English, but rather as a tool for connecting English teachers worldwide. I am, however, a fan of technology and I do use it a lot with my students, also. Very often, they are the ones who teach me new computer or cell phone tools and suggest ways of using internet sites in class. This is, in my opinion, the main advantage of technology: teachers have to admit that they have to keep constantly learning, because technology is constantly evolving. There is no such thing as knowing everything about technology, just like there is no such thing as knowing everything about English. Before you finish reading this interview, another popular gadget may have been invented, a new tool may be in its way to becoming the new trend, and a new software may have been created to make our lives easier (or hell, depending on how well you master it). Learning English and learning about technology is a life-long project, which is great for our brain.

What were the best blogs/sites you found about ELT?
Vivian - I conducted my research in 2002-2003, and at the time I chose ten teacher-directed websites which I considered to be the best available in terms of content. People didn’t keep blogs at the time. Nine years later, my choice of websites for the same kind of study would probably be quite different, although at least two would still be in my list: one is English Made in Brazil (http://www.sk.com.br/), kept by Ricardo Schütz, and the other is ESLCafe (http://www.eslcafe.com/), kept by Dave Sperling. I still find a lot of valuable information for teachers in both of them, although from different perspectives. But so many new websites have been launched in the last few years, that it would probably be much harder nowadays to come up with some kind of “top ten” list. In order to keep track of the interesting websites I find (and share them with other teachers) I keep a very extensive links page at http://www.linguaestrangeira.com.br/.

Why should teachers get used to technology?
Vivian - Most common objects that we use nowadays, such as the ball-point pen, for example, were once “new technology”. Although computers still scare some technophobic people, it is a matter of time until they are just as trivial in our classrooms and lives as a ball-point pen. Teachers should use technology because they can’t stop time and change.

What additional comments would you like to make?
Vivian - It is important to point out that English teachers are some of the most sharing professionals in the web. Whenever someone has a problem or a doubt related to the English language or any aspect of teaching, there will always be someone out there in cyberspace who will come out of their way to help. It is just a matter of knowing where to look. My experience with veterinarians was not nearly as good. Last December I found two little birds who had fallen from their nest and I desperately needed some guidance on how to care for them, so I contacted several vets and ornithologists in websites I had found through Google. Only one replied. At the same time, I was writing an article about EFL teaching and sent out an online survey. One hundred and six teachers replied (98 of them before the deadline). This made me really proud to be a teacher.

2 anos do blog!

O ano já começou tão corrido que o 2º aniversário do blog passou despercebido! "Completamos" 2 anos no dia 14/1, mas só hoje lembrei, ao ler sobre o aniversário de 4 anos do blog do Denilso de Lima.

Bem, antes tarde do que nunca... Aceitamos comentários de parabéns atrasados ;-)

Em dois anos, foram 515 postagens, 38 entrevistas, e já temos 120 seguidores.

Mande sugestões, comentários e críticas para que possa melhorar ainda mais!

Inglês com Jogos e Músicas

That's the group of students I taught the 6-hour course English with Games and Songs as a volunteer teacher at Núcleo Assistencial Anita Briza, in Lapa. They all came from public schools and they are part of the project Caça-Talento, which offers scholarships at ETAPA and other free courses at the Núcleo. All the students are very intelligent and dedicated and I'm sure they'll learn a lot more this year!

Curso gratuito - Inglês com Jogos e Músicas

Na próxima segunda e terça, apresentarei como voluntária o curso Inglês com Jogos e Músicas, com duração de 6 horas, no Projeto Ampliar. Mantido pelo Núcleo Assistencial Anita Briza, da Sociedade de Estudos Espíritas 3 de Outubro, o projeto oferece palestras e cursos profissionalizantes gratuitos a alunos de escolas públicas. Para saber mais sobre o projeto, entre em contato com o Núcleo.
Rua Aurélia, 665 - Lapa - São Paulo - SP
Tel/fax: 11 3862-2132
O mesmo curso será apresentado na UnG, com inscrições ainda abertas, por apenas 20 reais. Inscreva-se!

Cursos de férias UnG - últimos dias para inscrições

Você tem até dia 14/1 para inscrever-se em um dos 400 cursos de férias da UnG, por apenas 20 reais.
Entre as opções, estão os dois cursos que ministrarei: Inglês com Jogos e Músicas e Inglês com Filmes, no campus do Shopping Light, e o curso ministrado por meu pai: Seguros - Todos Precisamos Deles, no campus Guarulhos-Centro.
Inscreva-se!

Cursos da Universidade do Livro

A Universidade do Livro, da Fundação Editora da Unesp, oferece os seguintes cursos de férias, no centro de SP:

31 de janeiro a 4/Fevereiro
Produção gráfica editorial

8 e 9/Fevereiro
Canais de distribuição: ações e inovações para melhorar os resultados de uma editora

14, 16, 21 e 23/Fevereiro
Preparação e revisão: o trabalho com o texto

15, 17, 22 e 24/Fevereiro
O passo a passo da produção editorial: acompanhamento dos trabalhos de edição do livro

Confira valores e outras informações no site.

11º Encontro de férias SBS

Nos dias 27, 28 e 29 de janeiro, a livraria SBS promove seu 11º Encontro de Férias, com inscrições gratuitas (apenas doe um livro).
As palestras acontecem no Centro Cultural São Paulo, na Rua Vergueiro, 1000 - SP/SP.
Entre os temas abordados, estão Língua de Sinais, Uso de corpora no ensino de línguas estrangeiras, Redes Sociais, Ferramentas online para ensino, entre outros. Confira a programação.

Happy new year!

Sorry for taking so long to write again, but I was traveling for a week, in Chapada dos Veadeiros-GO. It's a very beautiful place, although it rained a lot. In a few hours, I'll post some pictures at vanessaprata.blogspot.com.