Picking up a book, writing a pen-friend or doing a language exchange in English are all tried and tested ways to keep improving and practicing your English over the summer months. In fact I would suggest them all to my students and many of the activities below are based on them in one way or another. But with the devices and tech tools available to our learners I thought I would put a bit of a spin on the typical summer learning ideas.
Masked carnival-goers in Venice (Frank Kovalchek – Creative Commons)
Do on your costumes, revellers and partygoers, if you haven’t donned already, and don’t do them off until it’s over – carnival season is upon us! Traditionally, these boisterous festivities were the time for Catholics to indulge before Lent, the time to eat up all the rich food in the house before the long pre-Easter weeks of fasting, piety and prayer. The roots of the revelry go back even further, however, to pre-Christian pagan festivals. These days, of course, it’s more the costumes, masks and music that come merrily to mind. Here’s a little quiz for you and your students about the various carnival celebrations in full swing around the world. Answers on a sequin or in drumbeat, please!
Carnival is here and we have a present for you and your students.
Your students can dress up their favourite characters (we published them here), and play with them.
Here you have the cut-outs for the costumes.
Carnival gives us the perfect context to discover new vocabulary about clothing. Here you have some resources.
Are you still looking for the perfect costume? What about dressing-up as a tablet or as your favourite artist self-portrait?
Over the past year I have had the pleasure to travel all around Spain giving a talk to students of English on the topic of Freedom. 2013 was a year full of significant anniversaries in the struggle for civil rights in my country of origin, the United States, and it proved a wonderful opportunity to share some of my history and culture. 150 years ago saw the beginning of the end of slavery. The great hero of the fight against segregation Rosa Parks was born 100 years ago. And 50 years ago Martin Luther King gave his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech.
Though he was born on January 15, today, the third Monday of January, is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. It is impossible to fully convey the importance of his place in the history of the United States, but I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that it goes far beyond his social and political contributions as the deepest impressions he left in the world were without a doubt spiritual, reminding us always of our duties to our fellow man and to the principles of justice and equality.
I would like to share with you a wonderful video put together by the expert in presentations and communications, Nancy Duarte. In it she analyzes the “I Have a Dream” speech for its structure, pauses, and use of repetition, metaphor and reference to spiritual, literary or political texts. The amazing thing about it is how visual it is. And for a teacher of languages it represents a wonderful use of technology to convey some central concepts of discourse analysis to your students in a way which is easy to understand and intuitive.
It will provide you with a fantastic pre or post-listening or reading task for the speech, depending on how you want to use it. And I am certain that having understood the rhetorical conventions that King uses it could also be a wonderful springboard for more productive work. Perhaps your students could even write their own speech with their dreams for a better world.
It would be great to hear how you decided to use it in your class!
We have reached the end of the first term! It´s time to take break and to take a breath.
But before we go. These days, families use to ask teachers for nice sites or activities to do with their children during the holidays, so…here you have our proposal.
Design and create some digital toys online with your children, print them, cut and paste and…that´s it! you are ready to play offline with your creations for a truly significant learning activity.
Here is how you can do it.
Enjoy it and have a Happy Holidays!
I love Christmas. I love the lights. I love the idea behind the commercials.
Christmas is the festival of light, the winter solstice announcing the end of darkness and the beginning of sunnier days. So whether we are religious or not, Christmas brings some light to all our lives.
And of all the Christmas stories, my favourite is “Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer”. Rudolph, reminds us that everyone has something special that makes us necessary. And this is a timeless concept.
I have always loved using this story in class. It allows you to talk about bullying, about helping, about behaving with your peers, about reaching your true potential …Rudolph has no age barriers.
Rudolph was a misfit and someone believed in him and gave him an opportunity. We all are, or have been, Rudolphs…the question is, can we act like Santa? Are we able to see beyond our prejudices? Do we give opportunities to all our pupils so they can shine?
So, this is our Christmas present for you. Here you have several resources that you can use if you decide to work with the story of Rudolf in your class. We have prepared several scripts and activities adapted to different stages, from pre-primary to 6th grade. We have also prepared the characters of the story so you can use them as puppets to practice the story
TIPS AND TRICKS
Halloween is around the corner and we have a scary present for you and your students.
Your students can create a scary story with their favourite characters and dress them up.
If your dreamed costume is not there, your students can imagine and draw there their favourite costume here.
Do you use a blog for your classes? feel free to embed it and share it with your community.
TIPS: If you want to save it as a .jpg image just place the cursor on your favourite costume, clic right button and save the image on your computer.
Some scary ideas…
Have you use it in your class? Please! Share your story with by sending us your experience or your ideas, we will post it!
Are those analogic ideas not for you because you want to introduce technology in your activities? Then the ActivitICT for Halloween is your post.
Happy Halloween!!
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