Some more hours and the new year is coming : what we did is now part of us .
Maybe we did something wrong. But we learn by making mistakes and it is important to be positive to start working again in the new year.
Let's be positive and let's try to build new opportunities for the ones who are suffering, children and people living in the poorest areas of the world.
📹 WATCH @UNICEF's beautiful story that let's YOU self-explore on how much of a child YOU are. Happy 2018 🎉🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/cljvJ340Zd
This interesting video explains how the decoration of Christmas trees started in the Victorian Age
I have often decorated my Christmas tree: I used to do it as a little child.
Today we are using some old trees and love decorating them with balls made of paper, we recycle materials which we would not use anymore. Usually small Christmas trees are given as presents at Christmas. They are in different sizes , shapes and colours.... a nice tradition which makes our homes welcoming and we love them.
We are continuing a tradition that started many years ago......
Some years ago I was in London. I was doing a Teacher Refresher Course and I visited some houses which had been inhabited by important English Writers and Poets. This was part of my CPD as a teacher doing the course.
It was a great experience for me since I could visit the places where some of them had written their works.
I visited Charles Dickens Museum and my adventure into visiting this kind of museums would never stop.
Christmas is associated to Dickens.
Dickens was associated to London and the Victorian Age. His works are well-known and most children have read his famous books and stories about Christmas:
This December some people might go to the cinema and see the last film about Christmas and Dickens but I think that this document provided by the British Library can help us understand the man and his time:
I think the film may be interesting and worth seeing but reading the book which he wrote to celebrate Christmas is much more involving.
You can find some nice editions online and read something which can make you see the beauty of the old Christmas when Dickens wrote his stories.
For younger children you can find a nice cartoon in English:
It happened on the eve of Christmas 1914 and it was a special event, a special event.......when people stopped fighting...... looking forward to peace.....
A nice and interesting activity can be found online to remember what happened in 1914. I am thinking of using it in my fifth year class to focus on the theme of peace and war.
If you are searching interesting materials that are related to real problems and in particular pollution, you just need to check online and you will find lost of interesting posts shared on social networks like Twitter and FB.
I have been working on a Mooc about the Earth recently and what we can do to save it. I will write later about this online experience, but I would like to share some simple and easy to understand texts posted on Twitter.
I was online in September and found a post dealing with cleaning coasts and beaches, I bookmarked the information shared online and later I found this interesting one dealing with pollution and how we should cut plastic pollution:
Internet and Social Networks can help us when dealing with these issues while working on the English Language with our students: we could work on the Language used and try to involve our students in creating presentations and taking part in activities that can save the Planet Earth:
The next lesson for us is to create activities in which we try to be more careful when dealing with the issues related to our environment. The sources can be found online.
This year I am working with two new classes of the First Year at Liceo G.Chierici in Reggio Emilia.
I am working with another teacher, Daniela, and we are trying to implement our teaching activities not only by working longer hours with our students but also by providing more materials for our English language learners. We do some extra tuition and students will have extra-hours with an English mother tongue teacher from January.
Last summer we prepared activities to reinforce the students' language performance . We asked the families and students to work by doing some activities which were presented online.
I chose Google Slides as they are easy to make and provide lots of links; they can be embedded in websites and also in wikis.
The slides can also be used to create ebooks online.
Since we are going to finish the first term by 23 December, I have created this slide for one of the classes. They are working on reading activities in Italian too and therefore I have created a slide with links to a short text in English with a text and a video about a famous book- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The students have also been guided to work online by doing more language revision online.
Here is the document which I have also shared in the blog which I have created :
Our aim is help the struggling learners to empower and learn better. We would like the students to learn on their own and develop some skills that are often neglected when teaching English.
More and more I have had students with difficulties in learning English. I teach students whose language level is not the right one for the classes they are attending. Some follow a different course as they need special education. The others are often struggling learners. Some are really good and they would like to work better and to master the language.
Support and differentation are important for me as I need to cope with different language levels. What should I do?
I have tried to come to terms with individual learning differences and the only thing I can do is to provide more language opportunities and exercises for the less able ones. I can also provide some links for the students who can work on their own and wish to better. It is only a pity that I cannot do much for them as I teach 3 hours per week in their classes and we do not have good technology in class.
Most classes have 28-30 students, this is the worst learning environment as we do not provide them with a lot of engaging activities. It is difficult to work in class as pair work can be very noisy.
I do need to rely on their own devices and on their hopes and interests as they should care about what need to do to become better learners.
How to approach the needs: how I began to work online to provide support to my students
The first thing I had to do was to focus on their difficulties. My planning was full of topics and ideas but I was making mistakes. I tried to focus on what to do and I realized that they should become aware of their difficulties and I should be ready to offer them some help.
I talked to my students and began working online by providing activities or video tasks that had been also shared by other teachers. I had to work on what language competences needed improving and then I created online activities by using web 2.0 tools and my websites. I had to provide links with solutions or feedback . I must confess that I was not ready to do this when I began.
Hopefully I found some interesting platforms and online communities that provided me with ideas.
What followed and what is following now is a different approach to teaching and learning.
Not everybody is working on line, some are not interested but I have seen that others are working on self-development and are trying to better because they care.
It is sometimes difficult to work with the younger students as they are not used to planning in advance what to do. I need to set goals and time. It is my task as I am responsible for what is happening in class and also in the follow-up activities.
Does it work? Is it working for most of my students?
Image Attribution By Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
It is not easy: some students do not have technology at home or they do not rely on good internet connections. Tablets are now becoming more popular and they seem to enjoy what they are doing. Most of my students use their smartphones to do some tasks. It is important to trust them and thanks to modern technology they can do some exercises also by using them. New apps have been developed and this means that I will be able to support them. I am trying to learn more and I am doing some self-development online to learn more. I am starting to use a new platform that I am going to use for some courses I am doing at school and I hope they will use it. It's called Weschool http://www.weschool.com/. It is a user-friendly platform and I can work online by creating groups and tasks.
Creating ebooks and activities for my language learners 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌
I have started to create some ebooks where I provide links, videos and materials which can be found online. Some of them can be done during the summer time. Currently I am thinking of writing an ebook about writing skills as my learners are not used to writing on their own and they need some more exercises and tips to follow. I rely on Google apps for creating them.
You can find here an example of the language support I am providing by using ebook creators online: most of them are not free but you can find some that can be used and you can publish online materials for your learners.
I was checking some posts online tonight and found this interesting document about the importance of remembering people and how the holocaust shaped the life of some people.
I was at school all day last Thursday so I couldn't follow some important events which were online. I am going to check them online as there are recordings available for free.
Thanks to social network I remembered this special event: school relies on us and on our efforts.
In my country I could not see many people involved in this event. School and education have been under attack in the last years and although some families are supporting teachers, others are not.
When I think about my life as a student I must say that I have had good teachers and I will never forget them.
I have also learnt from the ones who did not love teaching. They are responsible for what they did not achieve. But I do not want to write any more about this.
In a modern country education is important and thus it is important to remind everybody that their work is carried out by silent teachers who continue working in difficult school situations. Those who love teaching will do their best to empower their students.
It is the future of the nation that depends on what we can achieve and everybody should say thank you to the teachers they had.
It is Autumn, one season I like at the beginning, then when days get shorter and cloudy I feel sad because of the falling of leaves. I like the colours and the sunny days which we have now ,but days can be also gloomy and our days are colder, not like in the summer time when I can lie in the sun and enjoy the sun and its rays.
It is also the season of colours and I can associate it to the great poet Keats who wrote his ode To Autumn.
If I had to choose a picture to describe this season , it would be a tree with plenty of yellow leaves. It would be a pumpkin on a table, reminding me that nature will have to continue its life cycle also when leaves have fallen and the earth seems to be sleeping under the snow.
These days when we feel that the world might risk more wars and we need to remember that only peace can make our world a better place where we can live together.
On September 11 2001 I was at home in the sittingroom, it was 3 p.m. in Italy. I was working at home and teaching German , we were working on some grammar revision with a student. We turned on the TV as the girl I was teaching had told me about the event and we saw images from New York and the Twin Towers which were burning. I was speechless and wondered what was going on. I finished my lesson and couldn' t but continue watching what was happening there. I was not aware of the great violence which would destroy the hopes of thousands of people.
Today after 16 years such images are still in my eyes: I am not American but I cannot forget what happened there. It was the beginning of a new war which would change our lives forever.
Since then we have experienced violence in squares and streets in different countries and in the name of a religion which is used to spread the ideas of attacks and violence against women and men that believe in freedom.
I have read articles about what happened and also in Europe we have come to terms with the great conflicts between some values which belong to the civilized world and the ideas which are carried out by some people who follow the voice of hatre and violence.
Today many young men are continuing their attacks against those who consider enemies. We cannot forget and as a teacher I will never forget what was documented online and in the news: innocent people died because others believed in the power of destruction and wanted to kill other people because of their religion and beliefs.
As an educator involved in teaching the values of democracy and respect of the others I will use some documents online to teach my students about the beginning of the 21st century: September 11 2001
Since 2016 the British Prime Minister has continued her work that is aimed at leaving the UE.
However, some people who supported Brexit have changed their minds , some educators and businessmen living in the City are afraid of the next steps because things might change and create more problems . People living in Scotland would also like to choose to part of the UE.
The European Union has never been loved by the Britsh people. Those who chose to leave thought that European Laws and money spent to support the poorest areas in Europe were not good for the British.
The issue of immigrants was also one of the main reasons for choosing to leave.
There are a lot of problems in the UK but it is true that a lot of jobs are not done by the British people: immigrants and other European citizens work in fields where no British man or woman would work.
Personally I feel that Britain has always felt an island and British citizens do not always share a European attitude. They also live in the past, when Britain had a great Empire. First of all, they are British citizens.
In education Britain has been chosen for the quality of many university courses and for studying English. Educators and many students have visited the UK many times and most of the tourist industry relies on people coming to Britain to study and to visit its famous landmarks.
If they leave Europe , there will be fewer students and people who choose to go to Britain to study and work.
The world of finance is also worried. What will London be like once most institutions have left it?
A city like London relies on the presence of a cosmopolitan society where people come and choose to live.
This is an interesting document which I found online and which I might use with my students to discuss the issue of Brexit. We love Britain and most of our students visit it and study there. The future might be different. The projects supported by the European Union will not be able to finance mobility of teachers and students. We will choose Ireland and other European partners but it will not be the same. My hope is that things might change and Britain doesn't leave Europe.
I was online tonight and I could follow some hashtags for this important event which was remembered online by Unesco and many educators .
Why is Literacy important?
Literacy is fundamental to peace and sustainable development. Everyone in the world should be able to learn to read and write. #LiteracyDaypic.twitter.com/JILaYzfINe
What we do need to do is to underline the importance of literacy when talking about the right to education for everybody. I cannot but support this important day !
Today, we reaffirm the importance of literacy in Canada and throughout the world. All should be able to learn to read and write #LiteracyDaypic.twitter.com/aybupU5QNP
Planning and sharing lessons online is now possible and teachers can rely on many tools which are free and which can help them develop their lessons: in most cases teachers need to have an account and start browsing lessons or create their own lessons. Lessons can be used in a flipped learning mode and they can contain the main documents, videos, images, audios which teachers have chosen for their students. They guide the students as they can also find activities to do with quizzes.
Most of the tools enable the teachers to create their content by using OER and documents which are online.
Students can have access to the lessons thanks to a link and can be embedded in many LMS or blogs and websites.
This new way of working is based on cloud-based tools and lessons can become more engaging while students can work from home and also have access to documents and lots of visuals and language input.
Here you can find interesting tools:
For Italian Teachers : RAISCUOLA
Teachers can rely on a database of documents and choose the content which will be later shared with the students and other teachers :
Online there are interesting lessons: the links I am providing is from a lesson about the Elizabethan Theatre. Most of the lessons are in Italian and created for Italian learners.
You need to have an account and then you can create and share the lesson. I have often used these lessons for presenting further materials with listening comprehensions in English. Usually videos are short and students are guided online by using wh-questions and detailed reading questions.
A new and interesting tool is Symbaloo Learning Path: it shares similarities with TES. You have access to lessons online.
All these tools share a lot of good features : they are created online and can be seen from any device.
You only need to rely on the many documents online which are also on Youtube and sometimes channels can be closed. It is therefore important to rely on good channels for the videos.
You travel through London and this tower is a famous landmark for any tourist. It's famous because of it has Big Ben, this is a stricking clock inside the tower.
I have just watched the news and it seems that racism and negative attitudes are prevailing in many parts of the world. People hate the ones who are different from them.
Right now in the USA there are white people who showed that they have not learnt the lesson from the past. They believe in a society which discriminates the black people....... meanwhile we are living in the XXI century.
It is the old past that is not forgotten and that makes America a modern country full of contradictions.
Racism is still in the mind of many citizens because they are afraid of the others . This is also true for many European people who are against foreign people who are arriving from lands where they lived the experience of wars and also hate.
I really liked to find President Obama twitting and reminding us that we are not born hating another person:
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm
The poem by Langston Hughes should remind many people living in the USA that we are not living in the XIX century now, people have the same rights and there should not be any discrimination for people who are living in the globalized world. The color of the skin and religion do not matter, what really matters is to be friends.
I must have always been in love with Reading. I was born in the XX century and I consider myself a bit old compared to the young students I am teaching now. They work and read books but they have acquired different skills from me. They use e-readers and depend on the internet. Some love reading while others prefer the new media and tools.
My world has become a new one. I can read books, ebooks and I also read online. At school I can work in the traditional way but I can also use interactive books.
Why do I love reading books in my free time ? Because reading can open my mind and I can learn and develop ideas about some topics. But first of all I am a lover of the book, in the way I can see it and touch it. I may fall in love with a book when I read it for the first time. I may decide I do not like it and give up. I have read a lot and I have met a lot of characters and visited a lot of places.
I can say that I could not live without my books. Some have been piled in the bookcases and the bookshelves. Others lie on the floor, they have become part of me and they show my interests in different fields: Literature, History and Art. Sometimes a book can make you dream or it can help you learn about yourself. A good book will never disappoint the readers' expectations.
Today is a special day for the ones who love books.
I hope more people will continue reading. A good book can really make us feel better and we will never get bored.
Learning English, Discovering Art and Using Modern Web 2.0 Tools and enhancing Learning among Learners and Educators
Patricia Macgowan shared these interesting links in her mail to the educators of Edweb. I found some which are worth sharing as they are related to the world of Art and also because in most schools English Language Teachers work together with Art Teachers.
The documents online provide a high level of English in some cases and thus videos could be assigned as homework to the students doing Art in English after teachers have worked on the content and language input . Edpuzzle or any type of editors for videos could be used to enhance the students' listening and viewing comprehension.
As a follow -up activitiy students could write and present a text with the information provided in the videos.
Learning by doing while listening, watching, reflecting and........visiting some museums abroad. This could be an example of activities which Teachers of English and Teachers of Art might do together.
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