International Day of Family - May, 15th

"Families Matter for the Achievement Goals" 

is the 2014 International Day of Families' motto.

To learn more:

http://www.family2014.org/home.php

United Nations site:

http://undesadspd.org/Family/InternationalObservances/TwentiethAnniversaryofIYF2014.aspx

International Day of Families was founded by the United Nations Programme on the Family. Family is the core of a society so it is essential to have good and healthy relationships with our relatives. But every family is different, there are many different cultures and many ways to conceive a family.

Let's see some definitions:

“The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State” (United Nations, 1948).

“Society’s definition of ‘family’ is rapidly expanding and has come to include single parents, biracial couples, blended families, unrelated individuals living cooperatively, and homosexual couples, among others. Unfortunately, family policy has been slow to catch up to changing trends in modern lifestyles” (J.M Crawford).

“A family consists of two or more people, one of whom is the householder, related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing in the same housing unit. A household consists of all people who occupy a housing unit regardless of relationship. A household may consist of a person living alone or multiple unrelated individuals or families living together” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005).

“We define family as any group of people related either biologically, emotionally, or legally. That is, the group of people that [a person] defines as significant for his or her well-being” (S.H. McDaniel)

SOME STUDENTS' TASKS 

                  1 (for younger learners)

What is your famiy like?

Is it a traditional or a 

modern family? 

Describe 

your family' s 

members and

 make a family tree.

2

Listen to the songs below. 

Which one do you like the most? Why?

Tell what the author wants to say 
in your opinion.
What does "family" mean to you?

"We are family" by Sister Sledge
 invites the whole family to unite and get up and sing.

"My father's eyes" by Eric Clapton

"In it I tried to describe the parallel between looking in the eyes of my son and the eyes of the father I never met, through the chain of our blood", said the author.

When we are teens we often have problems with our parents. Later we realize how precious they are. This is the theme of the next two songs.

"Mama" by Spice Girls

"You're gonna miss this" by Trace Adkins

"In my daughter eyes" by Martina McBride

Yes, parents are there to support their children but sometimes, when audults feel down they find the strenght to go on in their children' s eyes.

Some other songs about family

List of songs about family:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/songs-about-family.html

Songs about family with music and lyrics:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/familysongs.htm

3

Below you can see a very famous family!

What do you know about the Royal Family?

Did you witness some recent events that particularly struck you?
Choose one member of the Royal Family and tell his/her story.

To learn more about the Royal Family:
https://www.royal.gov.uk/thecurrentroyalfamily/overview.aspx

Tour Builder by Google - Storytelling with maps

 

Tour Builder is a free fantastic tool! You have the whole world to put your stories on! It allows you to create or explore stories directly in the various countries of the world where they are set.

You will need to install the Google Earth Plugin (it only takes a couple of minutes), if you haven't already.

You can take a 3D trip inside stories!

It could be very useful to study history, geography, literature and even storytelling.

If you want to create your story-trip  you have to 

• choose your destination on the Google map
• add your photos, videos, links
• describe the places, pictures, photos or videos you put in (you can give a general description in the "tell the story" box and you can also describe picture by picture)
• insert some links if you want people to get more information

Tour Builder takes track of all your movements on the map and this is the final result. Watch my brief example about my Cambridge experience! Choose "enter Street View" on the map to watch 3D the places I saw!

Some students' tasks:

1

Describe your last school (or family) trip. 

• Mark all the places you visited on the map
• Add some pictures or videos
• Describe the places you visited

2

Is there an esotic place in the world you would like to visit?

• Choose a destination
• Find some photos about that place on the Net and add them
• Invent a travel route 
• Add some links to give information about the places you would like to visit
• Write the reasons why you would like to go there

Let's go travelling!

Teacher appreciation!

Teacher appreciation week: May, 5-9

Teacher appreciation day: May, 6

To celebrate this Teacher Appreciation week I chose a digital tool. 

Padlet is a digital notice-board. Double-clicking anywhere on the board you can leave a message, a link, a picture, a poem... (If you drag-and-drop your text-box you can move it wherever you want).

I'm going to ask my students to write something (positive or negative) for/about me. They can use their real name or remain anonymous.

This will be very useful to

• get a quick feedback
• become aware (or have further confirmation) of my strenghts
• become aware of any problems
• make the students feel important by telling them I really need and consider their opinion

I've just created my students' board, click on the image below...

If you clik on this other image, instead, you will open a blank Teachers' Board I've just created for all the teachers who want to tell their opinion about teaching! Leave your comments (you don't need to log in)!!

For teachers - creative writing for Mother's Day

May, 11th is Mother's Day. Another occasion to improve our students' writing skills and stimulate their creativity. 

This time we tried Storyjumper. 

It is a great simple tool to create e-books. The following is a brief example of a Storyjumper book, just to give the idea of what you can do. I asked my youngest students to make a little book for their mothers.

They had to:

• Surf the Net to find images
• Upload their own images or photos
• Choose their scenes as background
• Write a sentence for each image
• Write a brief text 
• Draw some characters using the "Props" 

Click on the image below

It is a very funny activity because students can draw their own characters (choosing their dresses, faces, hair, etc), they can choose different props (animals, food, objects, etc.), they can use their own pictures to write a story.  

Have fun and be creative!

World Laughter Day - May, 4th

WORLD LAUGHTER DAY

World Laughter Day was born in India on January 11 1998. It was organised by the founder of the Worldwide Laughter Yoga Movement.

He said that laughters stimulate positive emotions and can help us feel better. Not only they can improve our mood, but they are also good for our body. In fact laughing brings more oxygen to our body and brain.

When we are in our classroom we sometimes get bored...Let's try to have some fun... and learn at the same time! 

Jokes can help

• motivate to speak, listen, read and write
• promote a relaxed atmosphere
• study the language in a real-life context
• understand informal and colloquial expressions
• compare different cultures

Let's see some jokes!

Surf the following sites to read jokes, riddles and puns

Jokes between students and teachers:
http://freejoke4u.blogspot.it/2010/09/short-jokes-between-teacher-and.html

Jokes:
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/jokes.php#.U2IlB4F_tMQ

Jokes:
http://academictips.org/blogs/jokes/

Funny short stories:
http://academictips.org/blogs/funny-short-stories/

Jokes, riddles, puns, misuse of english: 
http://iteslj.org/c/jokes.html

Some jokes listed by difficulty and grammar goals:
http://www.esljokes.net/contents.html

Some students' tasks 

1

Read the jokes above, choose one and learn it. Then you will tell it to your classmates. If there are many characters, choose some friends and act the joke toghether.

2

Surf the above links, choose one joke or funny short story and then write something similar using it as a model.

3

Now invent your own joke!

4

Choose a joke, a pun or a short story and translate it. Do you think you could translate  all the jokes literally? If not, why? 

Think about something very funny about your country and about Britain and tell or invent a joke about that. 

5

Read some jokes about the misuse of English. Choose one and tell what makes the joke. Did similar funny situations ever  happen in you classroom? 

HAVE FUN!