Tag Archives: tools

teachers

Create your own work sheets

Foreign language teachers confront every day with the need of creating their own, customized, exercises for their students. You can choose, whether you are going to do that in Word or Power Point and spend tons of hours or you will just use appropriate tools online. Here are some web pages and other useful tools that you could use on a daily basis.

1) QUIZLET – vocabulary book with pronunciation and learning games.

Quizlet is a free application which replaces the old fashion vocabulary book. Its best advantage is that students can download it and use it on their smart phones which means that they could learn and repeat words and phrases anywhere – while waiting at the doctor’s, at the post office etc. I find it very useful that students can create their own study sets and play with the flash cards they have created themselves and hear the word pronunciation at the same time.

2) LEARNING SNACKS – create interactive learning flows online

The Learning snacks app enables you to write a short text and then ask questions about it (multiple choice questions, pictures etc.). It is optimised for smartphones. It doesn’t contain many complicated features, however it is really handy. Take a look at this video in order to find out how to create a “learning snack” (the video is in German). You can use other people’s “snacks”.

3) TUTORY – (very serious) work sheets generator

Would you like to create modern looking work sheets with headers, footers, inserted pictures and several sections and impress your students? Then tutory.de is the right solution for you. The website is in German and it will most probably remain that way.

4) TESTMOZ – online tests generator

If you wish to create online multiple choice tests, you can go for Testmoz. It’s free and does not require you (or your students) to register. You can create the following question types: true/false, multiple choice, multiple response, and fill in the blank questions. At the end of each game detailed reports are available: you can see the scores, averages and actual responses to questions for each student who took the test. You can even export the data to CSV. However, only you can see the scores and not the students. This test is ideal for final exams.

5) KAHOOT – multiplayer online quiz games  with a timer generator

Kahoot application is a free application which enables you to create quiz games for multiple players. The scores (and the ranking) can be seen after the players answer each question. This is ideal for competitions in classes. You can add images, videos and diagrams to your questions. Players answer from their own devices (smart phone, tablet and any other device with an internet connection), while games are displayed on a shared screen. It is played in real time. Player accounts are not required, however the teacher needs to register. Once you have created a quiz, your students get a Game PIN and enter it on the Kahoot! playing page.

6) QUIZIZZ – multiplayer online quiz games with avatars, music, memes and a timer generator

Application Quizizz enables you to create multiplayer quiz games which can be played both “live” (in the classroom) and at home (home work). Students can play together but each (team) on their own device. It works on computers, tablets, smart phones. Students do not need to create an account in order to play. They can join directly with a game code. It’sinteresting because you may use music, avatars, memes, timer and mix questions/answers so that they do not appear same on every student’s screen. Using of this application is free.

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7) POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS dice

Possessive Pronoun dice has been provided by Hueber and all you need to do is to save it on your computer and have it printed out. Your students can then repeat possessive pronoun with different nouns that you will give them. They throw the dice and try to pair the correct form with the noun gender. There are detailed instructions on the PDF file.

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8) PREPOSITIONS dice

Prepositions dice has been also provided by Hueber and you just need to print it out. Your students will have to generate sentences with the given prepositions. There are detailed instructions on the PDF file.

9) MAZE generator

By using maze generator you will be able to create wonderful mazes and insert words into them. After you create your maze with the maze generator, check the solution by clicking on the Show Solution button, then download the maze (for example as a PDF file) and save it on your computer. Open the file on your computer, then make a screen shot of it and save it as a picture. In order to insert text into the maze, open the image in Power Point and use Insert > Text box and you will be able to insert text into the maze. This will be fun, fun, fun for your students especially if they are younger.

10) DOBBLE CARDS generator

If you wish for your students to play (good old traditional) cards and learn or – better said – repeat the words that they learnt with you, I highly recommend Dobble cards. You can create your own, customized cards by using a special Dobble generator.  Just read the instructions on the site, the process is quite intuitive, you should not worry. The only thing that can be tricky is that you will need to find appropriate images to use for your cards. In order for you to do that, you can use some free sources like Clipsart free.  If needed, search for appropriate images on Google. Instructions on how to play this fabulous card game can be found here.

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11) CLOZE TESTS, DIVIDE TEXT IN PARTS, VERB TABLES generator

If you wish to  create your own cloze tests (Lückentexte) or ask your students to match text parts with titles or that they put text parts in popper order, then you can navigate to the following site: Uebungsblatter. I myself prefer this generator for cloze tests because you can choose what word exactly is going to be “erased” by the generator. This is a service provided by Goethe Institut and it is great. Something similar to the Goethe’s service is provided by Deutsche Welle (DW) too. If you go to their Didaktisierungstool you will be able to create cloze tests (C-Test) or divide a text into several parts which then the students need to put back together (Schütteltext). You can even create tables (by using Verbtrainer) where your students should insert verb forms (tenses). Your students can also use this service if they wish to see tables with tenses for a particular verb (Konjugator).

12) ONLINE EXERCISES generator

More variety is available at the learningapps site.  You can create a bunch of different applications and have your students use them online: cloze tests, pair games, word grids, multiple-choice quizes,  freetext inputs, matching pairs with Images, crosswords etc.  learningapps.org is definitely worth exploring.

13) CROSSWORDS generator

You can easily create crosswords which then can be saved as PDF files and copied, you are free to use either kreuzwordraetsel generator provided by Schulbilder.org or Crossword Labs . This is great!

14) BINGO CARDS generator

Anyone who has ever dealt with little kids knows how they love Bingo. It is a great excercize for vocabulary repeating. Well, you do not have to create it in Word any more. There is Bingo Baker where you can create your own Bingo cards easily yourself and then print them out. For those who do not know how to play Bingo instructions can be found here.

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15) DELETE TEXT FROM IMAGES

 If you wish to delete some words or text parts from an image and then print that out and use as an exercise for your students, you can use a free online application called LUNAPIC that does not even need to be downloaded and installed on your device. There is an Eraser tool inside it which is pretty intuitive to use. Try it out, it is very useful if you wish that your students write again the missing words on the printed-out picture.

16) COLOURING PICTURES generator

 There is a web page where you upload your picture and as result you get contours. Colouring pictures are youngsters’ favourite. Click here.

17) FLESH CARDS generator

I was totally amazed when I discovered a web page where (among many other things) you can create your own flash cards.  It goes very fast and is pretty intuitive. Click here and give it a try!

18) PIXTON – create comics

Wow! There is a generator that enables you to create comics with blanks for your classes. Can it be better? I don’t think so. 🙂

19) Create online exercises

There’s a free generator for online exercises at Learn German for free. Give it a try! It’s very easy to use.

dictionaries

Free online dictionaries (with pronunciation)

Author: Jadranka Bokan

For you or a friend – everything that you’d need
for a good start!

If you are uncertain about which good online dictionary you could use for free, here are some good solutions for you:

1. HUEBER

This is a  good solution for beginners because this dictionary enables native speakers to find translations from their languages into German. Here are the combinations that are available for you:

English-German, Polish-German and Spanish-German (and vice versa)

2. DUDEN

This is a German-German solution which is great for advanced learners. A great bonus: there is a table at the bottom of every page with possible word combinations. For example, if you are searching for a verb “hinterlassen”, in that table at the bottom of the page you’ll be able to find all the combinations of the verb “hinterlassen” with most frequent adjectives or nouns. Great tool, isn’t it? 🙂  

Important note for beginners: every word in the above dictionaries has its own audio version which you can listen and hear how you should pronounce the word in question.

3. PONS

This online dictionary will help you to translate any word in many different languages. It also offers an online vocabulary trainer which is completely free for use and it stores all the words that you looked up in the PONS dictionary. You can play and learn in 5 phases.

4. dict.cc

This dictionary stands out with the huge number of language combinations that it offers. Among other usual combinations (like German – Englisch, German – Spanish etc.), you can find the following “exotic” combinations: German – Latin, German – Esperanto,  German – Serbian etc. That’s just great!

5. Redensarten-Index

This dictionary is intended for advanced learners. it contains only idioms with lots of examples.

6. Official word lists provided by the Goethe Institute (A1, A2, B1)

There are complete word lists for the basic levels (A1, A2. B1) provided by the Goethe Institute. These lists don’t offer the pronunciation of words, but you can use them INSTEAD of regular dictionaries. They are very useful because:

  • You can be sure that you have a list of all words at a particular level
  • You can find all the forms of the words in them (Singular/Plural forms of nouns, all basic tenses of the verbs etc.)
  • You can find example sentences.

Here they are:

Wordlist A1

Wordlist A2

Wordlist B1

And one extra tip for the usage of the word lists of the Goethe Institute: you can read them as newspapers when the time comes (before the exam or whenever you decide to repeat the vocabulary at any given level).

teachers

Useful tools for teachers

Planet Schule – find useful videos to various topics that you can download and use for your classes.

Bitly – shorten long links.

Wix – create your website for free. If you need an example click here.

Alexa – if you want to check the ranking of your blog / web site.

Fotobabble – create talking photos and slideshows. This site is easy to use. All you need to do is to upload a photo, record your voice and share with your audience.

Twitter – see what’s happening right now enables you to find as many example-sentences as you like for any word. All you need to do is to navigate to the above link and enter the word in the box and press the Search button. Test it right now, you’ll be delighted!

Pocket – put anything in “pocket” and view it later. Put articles, videos or pretty much anything into Pocket. Save directly from your browser or from apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite. If it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet or computer. You don’t even need an Internet connection.

Das Bild des Anderen – international e-mail project of Goethe Institute. You can find pen friends for your students here. This is NOT for native speakers from Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

e-twinning – find for your students native learners as pen friends. e-twinning is actually a community for schools in Europe. It offers a platform for staff (teachers, head teachers, librarians, etc.), working in a school in one of the European countries involved, to communicate, collaborate, develop projects, share and, in short, feel and be part of the most exciting learning community in Europe.

Unterrichtsmaterial – False money for playing purposes. If you navigate to this page you will be able to download euro banknotes for playing purposes – for example if you wish to give them to your students so that they can pretend that they are buying things in a supermarket.

Drucke selbst – create and print out certificates for playing purposes. Chose the model that you like most, personalise it and save as a PDF file which you can then print out afterwards and use in classes as a gift for learners who were the best in some exercises or games.

Pinterest – pin your posts. This web page enables you to create boards with the things that you find interesting. It could be very useful in classes if you wish to save some pictures that the students have taken.

Audacity – create your own podcasts. This is a free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. Audacity is available for Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.

Wordle – create beautiful “word clouds”. You can create a beautiful word could with words that you and your students collect and insert into this online application. You don’t need to register. Just make sure that Java is set properly on your device. Wordle can be used during brain storming or at any other point during the class. Word clouds can be printed out or you can save it as a picture on your device.

Mahara – your e-portfolio. This is a fully featured web application to build your electronic portfolio. You can create journals, blogs, upload files, embed third-party (social media) resources from the web and collaborate with other users in groups.

Etherpad – your multi-player editor allows you to edit documents collaboratively in real-time, much like a live multi-player editor that runs in your browser. Write articles, press releases, to-do lists, etc. together with your friends, fellow students or colleagues, all working on the same document at the same time.

Evernote – store anything in one place. Make and manage notes, files and photos. Create flashcards for storing of words, phrases, photos, videos and audio recordings. For example, if your students participated in a photo-rally, their photos can be stored and presented in Evernote.

Answer Garden – ask your students anything and get feedback in no time.

Pixabay – free images and videos. Many free high resolution pictures van be found here. Buy them a coffee in order to support their work.

Padlet – your virtual pin board. Collect and present the work of your students in one place. Furthermore they can post their work by themselves on a shared pin board. Click here to register.

Kidblog – learners write blogs. This is a place for  your students  where they can write their blogs. Find out how you could integrate blog writing in to your classes.

Blogger – teachers write blogs. This platform enables you to write your own blog. For more information on how to use this page click here. You can even earn money by writing a blog.

Speak with a native speaker – this applies to German or any other foreign language. There are at least 3 platforms for this: Tandem, WeSpeke and ConversationExchange.

Online flashcards – Days of Deutsch provides you generously with numerous photo-flashcards.

Colouring pictures – free for download. This is where you can find numerous  already made and ready to be used colouring pictures that can be downloaded. However, if you wish to create your own colouring pictures, click here.

Cliparts – free for download. This is a page with numerous clip arts which you could use for example  for creating Dobble cards (playing cards). For more information on creating Dobble cards and other exercises for your students click here.