Digital Samba with Carla


 

http://bit.ly/carlasportfolio

http://re.vu/carlaarena
http://bit.ly/brazilbridgescarla  

 

A Bit About Me

 

I'm Carla Arena, a Brazilian EFL teacher, explorer of the potential of technology integration into language learning. I started to dig into the possibilities of tech-applications some years ago and have been going on new cyber-journeys with my students and my fellow co-workers ever since. I am a teacher, teacher trainer, Educational Technology Supervisor and eLearning facilitator at a Binational Center in Brasilia, Casa Thomas Jefferson. I am a blogging fan (or addict!) and enthusiastic Webhead. Twitter keeps me updated and connected.

 

New and emergent technologies keep me going further and perceiving the world in different ways, with different colors, shapes, voices. They give me support to take my students along. They teach me that there's no limit for connectivity. English, then, is the means to decode the messages and that's what I try to show to my learners.

 

I also feel lucky to have the chance to work with so many wonderful educators willing to take a step forward, so part of my job is to help them become fluent in their digital competencies to help their learners become full-fledged 21st century world citizens.

 

Blogging

Some of my past class projects you may want to visit are the Webtools for Educators,  International Exchange Blog with Dennis Oliver, Brazil and Brazilians, SambaEFL, and http://ctjonline.blogspot.com 

 

My personal learning and teaching reflections can be found at Collablogatorium.

 

My personal views of a Brazilian in Key West for two years, I reported at http://brazilnaskeywest.wordpress.com

 

When I'm not in the professional spectrum, I'm with my family, having fun with my two little boys and my husband. I love to travel, read, take photos, meet people, have fun with friends, listen to music, sing for fun, and invent different kinds of activities against boredom.

 

Yahoo, LinkedIN and Skype ID: carlaarena

 

 

Projects

 

Part of TESOL's Nominating Committee 2012

 

Part of TESOL's Proposal Readers' Team 2012

 

Part of BrazTESOL Brasilia Chapter Board, organizing local events and managing the Chapter social media and online spaces
http://braztesolregional.pbworks.com 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/braztesolregional/  

 

Contributor at PocketCultures

It is exciting to be part of a multicultural group of bloggers spread out around the world, raising awareness about their own cultures or about the cultures they are part of as expats.

http://pocketcultures.com/author/carla/ 

 

Electronic Village Online

http://evosessions.pbwiki.com

Part of the EVO Coordinating Team 

 

2012

TESOL EVO Lead Coordinator

EVO Moderator of the Digital Tools with a Purpose in the Classroom

http://classdigitools.pbworks.com/w/page/44702717/Welcome 

 

2011

EVO Lead Coordinator

EVO Moderator of the Digital storytelling online Session

http://digistorytelling.pbworks.com

http://digitalstorytelling.grouply.com

 

2010

One more round of the 6-week online session "Images4Education" with around 200 educators around the globe eager to share and learn a bit more about meaningful uses of visuals in the classroom, plus some exploration of visual literacy.

 

2009

 

We're back again for another challenge. The group has had some changes in terms of co-moderators, but the collaborative spirit and exhilarating enthusiasm is there with this group of educators willing to give their precious and scarce time to co-moderate the "Images4Education" session. It's a new challenge, a totally new session which started from scratch, but we're ready for this enriching journey.

 

2008

 

For the past months, I've been working with an amazing multicultural team of educators to devise and facilitate the Electronic Village Online Session, Blogging4Educators. We moderated a free six-week online session in January/February 2008 for Educators willing to integrate blogging into their teaching. We had a successful venture in January 2007 with the BloggingforBeginners group, and this year, with a bigger group of moderators, we were able to improve what we did and keep spreading the word on the potential of blogging in the classroom.

 

 

 

Professional Development

 

 

 

 

Personal Learning Online Spaces

 

 

 

Online Authoring

 

Personal Blogs

 

 

Class Projects Blog

 

 

Wikis

 

 

Publications

 

 

 

Presentations

 

 

 

Online Voicethread Collaborative Projects with Students

 

 

http://brazilbridges.pbworks.com/w/page/54401500/Voicethread%20Projects 

 

 

Online Presence

 

Featured in http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/brilliant-brazilians-in-elt-in-their-own-words/ 

 

App of the Month for the Consultants-e: http://www.theconsultants-e.com/resources/ToolsResources/app2.aspx 

 

Expert advice on Webinars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hebbpe6MVLw&feature=player_embedded 

 

In Anne Fox's Absolutely Intercultural podcast talking about a mystery guest blogging project with her students in Denmark.

 

In another Absolutely Intercultural podcast I talked to Anne about an international blog exchange I carried out with Dennis Oliver and friends.

 

Contribution to Konrad Glogowski's Voicethread "The Dialogic Practitioner: Becoming Teacher 2.0" at http://voicethread.com/share/46254/

 

Participant of Larry Ferlazzo's 4th Blogging Carnival with my posts about blogging and fear 2.0.

 

Article on TESL-EJ, Volume 11, Number 4, March 2008. Blogging in the Language Classroom: It Doesn't "Simply Happen"

and contribution in the article Writingmatrix: Connectin Students with Blogs, Tags and Social Networking.

 

Contribution to the Webcasting "Teachers Teaching Teachers" to talk about the online session Blogging4Educators and tagging.

 

Guest at Seedlings Show 46 with Bob Sprankle, Cheryl Oakes and Alice Barr to talk about the Images4Education online session.

 

 

Online Courses Projects

 

Certification in Online Teaching

 

As I was on a two-year leave from Casa Thomas Jefferson, I decided to use my free time in a productive way, doing things that I generally don't have time to do when I'm in a full load, full speed at work. So, pursued a Certificate at University of Florida on "Online Teaching and Learning". Still incomplete! Missing one subject.

 

Listening Plus

 

I had this new challenge of devising and teaching the first online course at Casa Thomas Jefferson, Listening Plus, for students who wanted to enhance their listening skills and understand the different Englishes spoken throughout the world. It was a great challenge, but with the full support of the school administration and co-workers we've had a successful piloting experience and we kept heading for more e-learning ventures. The interaction in the first course was so rich and intense that I created an online social network to keep learning and sharing with the group and with colleagues, friends and former students who are interested in language learning. We've had Listening Plus online groups since then.. 

 

 

WebTools4Educators

 

Another great and rewarding challenge was devising an online course aimed at Brazilian educators and piloting it. It was an innovative course with community building and the understanding of participants from different corners of Brazil that learning as a social act can take a different dimension in the digital world. From there, participants learned how they could profit from web tools to tune their classroom to the latest pedagogical practices that incorporate web2.0 into teaching and learning.

Some of the outcomes of this exciting session, you can check at http://webtools4educators.pbwiki.com/

 

Communication Plus

 

I was up to the challenge again devising a new course that will be a complement to the Listening Plus online session. It's all about using the digital spheres to enhance learners' ability to communicate in English. The first piloting group was in March 2009. Then, we decided to make it Module B in the Listening Plus project.

 

Online Training for e-Tutors (Groups 2009 and 2010)

Because of a big online project with the Sao Paulo State government, Erika and I devised the online course for e-tutors and trained them. Plus, we've been part of the Academic Supervision of the online classes in this project and the administrative aspects of the partnership.

http://thomaspaulasouza.pbworks.com 

http://etutorsctj.pbworks.com

 

English4Travel

Taught and organized extra resources for the online modular course, English4Travel, launched in February 2010.

 

New Online & Blended Program with Touchstone Online

Piloted and taught new online program using Cambridge's series Touchstone Online, launched in February 2012. Two models piloted: totally online and blended course.

 

Business English

Organized new Business English online course using the online platform English360, launched in February 2012.

 

 

Mobile Learning Projects

 

Wrote and won grant for tablets pilot for Casa Thomas Jefferson's Access Program in Partnership with the American Embassy.

 

Implemented mlearning project at Casa Thomas Jefferson, training teachers, researching best practices and apps, using iPads (February 2012 on)

 

Worked on the setting and synchronization of the school's 43 iPads. 

 

Took online course with the Consultants-e on mLearning (Nov/Dec 2012)

 

 

Collaborative Projects with the Webheads Community of Practice

 

Besides the wonderful collaboration I've been having with Dennis Oliver that started in 2005 with our International Exchange blog, I have a professional development digifolio together with Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Júnior,  BrazilBridges.

 

For the past years, I've been moderating a free 5-week session for educators all over the world through the Electronic Village Online with dear Webheads.

 

A small group of Webheads, avid readers, has just started an online book club to bring literature to life through the use of Digital media.

http://livinglit.edublogs.org

 

My adult students have communicated with Teri, an American Webhead living in Lybia.

http://top21.blogspot.com/

 

I've had wonderful mystery guest activities, one on our class blog with Dennis Newson a Webhead in Germany, and another one as a guest at Anne Fox's blog.

 

Vance Stevens has collaborated with my online group in a mini-project about Abu Dhabi

http://webcastacademy.net/node/2034 

http://voicethread.com/share/122511/ 

 

Cristina Costa, a Portuguese Webhead, and I have had some webcasts.

http://webheadsinaction.org/australia (People and Places in Adelaide with Michael Coghlan)

 

 

Webcasting

 

With the great encouragement of the intrepid Webcasters gang in the http://webcastacademy.net">Webcastacademy, I've learned a bit about a skill I'd never imagine I'd have. Besides adding more excitement to my never-boring life, webcasting brought new possibilities for my teaching/learning path. It made me connect, reflect, exchange ideas, and meet wonderful educators all over the globe. I worked on streaming and show management in Webcastacademy.

 

Part of my stimulus to go on with the webcasting project was because of the need to have the skills to archive the talks of a group of educators interested in Technology-Enhanced Language Learning, the Teachers4TELL, all Webheads, who felt the need to discuss informally topics related to their everyday lives as educators in different educational settings.

 

 

Awards

 

WORLDCALL Conference Scholarship Recipient - Glasgow, July 2013

 

mLearning Grant for Casa Thomas Jefferson - American Embassy, 2012

Grant for the acquisition of iPads to work with at-risk students in the worldwide ACCESS program

 

International House Training and Development Scholarship - IATEFL 2011

April 2011

 

31-day Comment Challenge - Category For high quality comments

June 2008

 

 

Updated CV available at http://bit.ly/carlaCV 

Last updated June 2012