English for You and Me : March 2016

30 Mar 2016

Web 2.0 tools for teaching

When I was a child, I had a book, a dictionary and a notebook for studying English. Nothing else. Things have changed a lot from then. Yes, we live in a digital age and our students have been born in that one. So, how can we cope with this reality? Using digital tools and making them alive in our English lessons. For Primary beginner’s teachers, I should recommend to have contact with some basic tools:

Audacity. It is free and it is useful for recording and editing sounds.
Tellagami. A useful app for teachers and CS students. They all can have in their mobile phone and use it whenever they consider. Easy to download and easy to use.
PictureTrail. It is a social network that allows members and visitors to share photos online in a different way. Visit it and see how many things and albums
Pinterest will help you with lots of ideas and images. Snap and add them to your personal account. There is a huge amount of teachers following interesting ones. Try it and see how your imagination shines searching for new ideas for your lessons.
Picasa.This google tool allows you to share your pictures and create slide shows for your blogs or web pages.
Drive. It is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online.
Blogs. Do you use a blog at your school for English lessons? If your answer is negative, try to give you a chance and find out more about that tool. Start by choosing an easy one for you to work in so that it will allow you to make things easier for children and families. A learning dissemination is alive because English arrives at home and allows children check and share some activities. Families will see how their kids are improving the language. I am a blogger and I am at a different place professionally and personally if I compare myself 20 years ago. I’m not at all special, but I’ve managed to promote my school and myself because of my passion to share and help you, as an English teacher. If you decide to have a personal blog, you can share information and best practices. Do not doubt, it is a useful tool.
Internet Archive. You can record children and upload to the web. You can embed them in your blog or web page for your pupils to listen to.
Voki. Voki is a free service that allows you to createpersonalised speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.
Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking tool that makes it simple to organize your best on line resources in the cloud. You have all your favorite websites categorized as you decide.
Pinterest, which is blocked at many schools, save an image and the website address to the proper folder or to your personal blog so when you are lesson planning for a particular topic, it will literally be there.

As you can see, there are lots of interesting websites and blog ideas. Our age is a digital one, so try to use the ones that are useful and practical for you. I should say..."keep calm and try your best". Hope that this information has been useful for you. Good luck with them!

29 Mar 2016

Ice-breakers and warmers

These activities prepare students for working together. Before starting, is a good idea to set up an agreement, on how students are going to look after themselves and each other during the activity. This previous step is very important for warm up activities. I usually spend five minutes of the English lesson to clarify the way of doing the activity because otherwise children's behaviour can develop the activity in a wrong way.

Here you haven a link with some useful ideas.

Warm activities that work:

Keep fit with Froggy

This book requires some easy phisical exercise in the classroom. Follow the exercises done by Froggy and have fun.

Please Mr. Crocodile

Ask the class to stand against a wall (you can draw a river on the floor in chalk). Choose a volunteer to lead the activity. That student will say how the rest can cross the river.

Depending on their level, ask the class questions relating to crocodiles (where are they from?, Are they herbivores?, What colour are they?, What do they eat? etc). Then stand in the river and pre-teach the next:

Please, Mr. Crocodile, can we cross the river?

- Yes, if you wear something red.

Human Knot. Put the class into groups of at least six and no more than ten. Ask the students to form a circle. They have to put their right hands into the centre and fins a hand to hold (not the person they are standing next to). Then they do the same with their left hand. Now they have to untangle the knot without letting go.

Remembering names. In a circle, pass/throw a ball, try to ensure that everybody receives the ball. One way of doing this is for everybody to hold one hand up until they have to caught the ball, or each person fold their arms then they have to thrown it.

Shout! Tell the class to close their eyes and tell them that they are going to count up to 10. The thing is that only one person at a time can shout out the number, so if two (or more) students shout out at the same time, then they have to go back to the beginning.

More interesting ideas

24 Mar 2016

Easter time!

Hi everyone!

Here you have a cute story for these days.

Enjoy it and encourage your friends and families to share Easter activities, as the example below.

See you all after the Easter break!

You can buy and boil some eggs. After that, dye them as the picture below.
You will enjoy a lot if you share the task with your friends or your family as well.
After that, you can hide the eggs and play with your friends.
You can also give them as a present for Easter Monday!

22 Mar 2016

A little bit of grammar

Hi everyone! How is all going?

Here you have an easy and clear ppt for introducing comparative and superlative adjectives.

Summarizing, here you have the main points of the comparative and superlative

21 Mar 2016

What is an adverb?

An adverb tells us when, where, how, in what manner, or how often an action is performed. It is typically used to modify a verb but an adverb can also modify an adjective or another adverb. Here you have some of them. Pay attention to the examples:

20 Mar 2016

Spring time!

Although the weather is a little bit silly, spring has just arrived. If you click on the picture below, you will find lots of colouring resources for these days. Whether if it is cold or if it's raining, those pages can be useful for you and your children.

Why Finland has the best schools?

It still astounds me that we as Education professionals are not following the lead. Valuing teachers, encouraging play, and emphasizing true mental development and skill acquirement rather than one-and-done testing can develop the ways of a better education.

19 Mar 2016

What does the world eat for breakfast?

This is a useful resource to talk about different breakfast all around the world.

18 Mar 2016

To be creative

I appreciate to find this video about creativity as a cultural item.
As teachers, we have to let creativity participates in our lessons.

17 Mar 2016

Happy St. Patrick's day

Even if you aren’t Irish, you can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your family in different ways , dressing in green or doing a green food lunch or dinner! Why not? It can be fun!

See how many different green foods you can eat today! vegetables will be amazing if you help in the kitchen. Your parents will be happy! Then, you can play "I Spy Green…." Guess what I am thinking about! You can search inside and outside!!

But who was St. Patrick?
Also, this day is well known for a number of its traditions.
But, how do we celebrate his day? Here you have some recipes and craft ideas to celebrate it.

St. Patrick's day from Inès Rosado