domingo, 30 de diciembre de 2012

LIPDUB I.E.S. SAN PABLO, 2012


                                 One of the best moments from 2012, indeed

domingo, 23 de diciembre de 2012

miércoles, 19 de diciembre de 2012

ENGLISH SPELLING




      We all know the problems our students have with English spelling, but native speaker children also struggle. In a recent interview a literacy researcher advocated simplifying English spelling, claiming that the complexity of the English spelling system is to blame for soaring levels of illiteracy among teenagers. Here’s a summary:



      Children are struggling to read and write at a young age because of the sheer complexity of the spelling system, says Masha Bell, author and literacy researcher. She believes that a high number of “inconsistencies” in the way basic words are spelt makes it much harder for children to read and write at a young age and thinks that sweeping reforms are needed to the spelling system to improve children’s linguistic skills.

      To read more, here

jueves, 13 de diciembre de 2012

LESSON MANAGEMENT


      You may be using a Teachers’ book that provides you with detailed lesson plans including procedures and timings for each stage. This can be a great help, but classes are unpredictable, a particular lesson that works well with one class may be a bit of a disaster with another, and you may wish to select, adapt and add components to a lesson.

      To read more, here

viernes, 30 de noviembre de 2012

COUNCIL OF EUROPE



      The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg (France), now covers virtually the entire European continent, with its 47 member countries. Founded on 5 May 1949 by 10 countries, the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

      Visit the web

domingo, 4 de noviembre de 2012

THE MOST IRRITATING PHRASES

Oxford University’s top ten most irritating phrases:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

Daily Telegraph top ten list:

1. Literally
2. A safe pair of hands
3. I’m gutted
4. Basically
5. Going forward
6. Upcoming
7. Shouldn’t of
8. Up until
9. Neither here not there
10. On a daily basis

jueves, 18 de octubre de 2012

EDUCATION

 
      Alan Milburn – the coalition's child poverty adviser –has criticised the alternative to the EMA, saying the bursary scheme is flawed. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian.
 
      The coalition made "a very bad mistake" when it abolished the education maintenance allowance (EMA) in England aimed at helping poorer 16- to 17-year-olds stay on at school, Alan Milburn, the government's adviser on child poverty and social mobility, tells the Guardian today.

      Before publication of his controversial report into improving access to higher education, Milburn also warns that there is no evidence that money being spent on tuition fee waivers designed to help low-income students at university is "in any way" effective.

      Universities run various waiver schemes but students might have their first year of university paid for by the state if they had been eligible for free school meals. Milburn instead calls for much of the fee waivers money – the budget is due to rise from £94m this year to £261m in 2015/16 – to be transferred to restoring a revised form of the EMA, scrapped in 2010.

      The suggestion is part of a wider assessment of how the government and universities spend nearly £600m to help children from poorer backgrounds attend higher education. Universities are estimated to spend as much as £81m on outreach.

      To read more, link here

martes, 9 de octubre de 2012

REDINED

                       
    WHAT IS REDINED?   
  

      Network of Educational Information Databases: Spanish researches, innovations, resources and journals on education, with links to the full text when available.

      Official members of REDINED are the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and the Autonomous Communities that have signed the affiliation to the project via their respective Boards.

      The main aim of REDINED is to be a vehicle of communication and exchange of data among the different Autonomous Communities and between them and other bodies, at the national and international scale

       Access to the web, here

lunes, 1 de octubre de 2012

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP



      "Digital citizenship" is an umbrella term that covers a whole host of important issues. Broadly, it's the guidelines for responsible, appropriate behavior when one is using technology. But specifically, it can cover anything from "netiquette" to cyberbullying; technology access and the digital divide; online safety and privacy; copyright, plagiarism, and digital law, and more. In fact, some programs that teach digital citizenship have outlined no less than nine elements that intersect to inform a well-equipped digital citizen. It's an overwhelming array of skills to be taught and topics to explore.

      Visite the web

domingo, 30 de septiembre de 2012

TEACHING CHILDREN THE ALPHABET

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS


      The 'Self-Evaluate your language skills' tool helps you to assess your level of proficiency in the languages you know according to six reference levels defined within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

      Click here to start

     

martes, 25 de septiembre de 2012

EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES (September 26th)


      Throughout Europe, 800 million Europeans represented in the Council of Europe's 47 member states are encouraged to learn more languages, at any age, in and out of school. Being convinced that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent, the Council of Europe promotes plurilingualism in the whole of Europe.

      More information, here

domingo, 23 de septiembre de 2012

EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS



First get permission to use kitchen equipment and eggs.

YOU WILL NEED

  • One raw egg
  • Vinegar
  • Large bowl
                                                   Read the instructions, here

viernes, 21 de septiembre de 2012

THE MOON, OUR MOON



      Although we see the Moon all the time, many of us do not take time to consider our planet’s only satellite. The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in our Solar System. Considering Jupiter alone has 63 moons, this is pretty impressive. The Moon is the closest celestial object to Earth and apart from the Sun is the brightest object in the sky.

      The Moon has been known to exist since prehistoric times and holds an important place in most cultures. A number of cultures saw it as a deity while others believed that its movements could help predict omens. 

      To read more, here

lunes, 17 de septiembre de 2012

THE INDEPENDENT



      Schools in the UK are amongst the most socially segregated in the world, an international study revealed today.

      The vast majority of children from immigrant backgrounds are crammed into disadvantaged schools with high proportions of fellow migrants.

      Figures in the annual review of international education standards published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show 80 per cent of migrants’ children are clustered in disadvantaged schools with fellow migrant pupils. Only three of the 34 countries in the OECD have a worse record - Mexico, Estonia and Finland.

      The UK’s ranking is even worse when it comes to the education of migrant children whose mothers are highly educated - 42.5 per cent of all children in this category are taught in disadvantaged, the highest figure for any OECD country. With the children of poorly educated mothers, the figure rises to 80 per cent - again the worst record..

      Read more, here

viernes, 14 de septiembre de 2012

TEACHING ENGLISH



Teaching Tips

One of the wonderful aspects about teaching is that you are also always learning. These tips offer opportunities for you to learn a bit more in order to better teach your students. Click here

miércoles, 5 de septiembre de 2012

WEEKDAYS


The Latin days of the week in imperial Rome were named after the planets, which in turn were named after gods. These names were adopted in translated form by the English and other Germanic peoples. In most cases the Germanic names have substituted the Roman god’s name with that of a comparable one from the Germanic pantheon.

Tell me why … I don’t like Mondays


Monday was traditionally regarded as the second day of the week, but is now frequently considered the first, following the weekend. The word for this day comes from old English Mōnandæg or ‘day of the moon’, and is a translation of late Latin lunae dies. You can see the Latin origin more clearly in the Romance languages: lunedi (Italian), lundi (French), and lunes (Spanish).
According to the OED, ‘Monday’ is also slang for a large, heavy sledgehammer – perhaps so called because the hard work involved in the use of the hammer provides a shock similar to coming back to work on a Monday. In a similar vein, a ‘Monday head’ is rare slang for a hangover following the excesses of the weekend.

Tuesday: a perfect day to pick fights with everyone
The word Tuesday can be traced back to the Old English form Tīwesdæg. This day is named after the Germanic god Tīw, the god of war in ancient Germany. The Romans identified him with their Mars, so the original Latin for this day of the week is dies Marti, or ‘day of Mars’, which can again be seen in Italian (martedi), French (mardi), and Spanish (martes).

Wensday? Whensday? Wendsday? Oh, Wednesday!
The tricky-to-spell name for this day comes from the Old English Wōdnesdæg, named after the god Odin (also Woden or Wotan). Odin is the principal god in Norse mythology: he is considered to be the god of wisdom, culture, war and death. He lived with the Valkyries in Valhalla, where he received the souls of dead warriors.
According to the OED, a variant of the god’s name can also be seen in English place names such as Wensley, Wednesbury, and Wednesfield.

Mighty Maundy?
As with the other days of the week, the name for Thursday comes via late Latin: originally, it is Jovis dies, the day of Jupiter. He is the god associated with thunder in Roman mythology, so the Old English translation is Thu(n)resdæg, literally ‘day of thunder’ – compare this with Dutch donderdag and German Donnerstag, which share the same origin.
A day of thunder may not be welcomed by everybody, but there is one Thursday that has a positive connotation: in the UK, a public ceremony is held on the Thursday before Easter (known as Maundy Thursday), at which the monarch distributes specially minted coins or Maundy money.

Put your Friday face away
Friday comes from the Old English Frīgedæg, named after the Germanic goddess Frigga – the wife of Odin and goddess of married love and of the hearth, often identified with Freya, goddess of love and of night. This in turn is a translation of late Latin Veneris dies: ‘day of the planet Venus’.
Counter-intuitively, to be ‘Friday-faced’ is to wear a serious or gloomy expression. According to the OED this use dates back to the sixteenth century and is now chiefly archaic. It probably refers to Friday as a day of fasting, with the nagging food deprivation presumably causing the gloom and doom.
But for many, Fridays are a good thing – the start of the weekend, celebrated in the abbreviation TGIF– with perhaps only the threat of a sledgehammer-like ‘Monday head’ to keep the festivities from getting out of hand.

domingo, 2 de septiembre de 2012

´SAUDADE´ Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.”

10 AWESOMELY UNTRANSLATABLE WORDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD



    1. Schadenfreude
German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.

    2. Torschlusspanik
German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.”

    3. Wabi-Sabi
Japanese – Much has been written on this concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”

    4. Dépaysement
French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.

    5. Tingo
Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”

    6. Hyggelig
Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cosy demeanour, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.

    7. L’appel du vide
French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.

    8. Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

    9. Duende
Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word.

    10. Saudade
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.


                      

jueves, 12 de julio de 2012

IN THE EYES OF OTHERS



      Over the past 40 years, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has developed a reputation as an emergency medical humanitarian organization willing to go almost anywhere to deliver care to people in need.

      Yet when questioned about MSF, people in countries where it works had different perceptions. One thought MSF was from Saudi Arabia and financed by Muslim charities. Another thought it was a China-based corporation. And yet another believed MSF requires everyone who enters their medical facilities to be armed (quite the opposite, in fact).

      Click here to read more

viernes, 25 de mayo de 2012

MOBILES IN CLASS


      Mobile phones have many features and can provide great opportunities for activities. Here are a few ideas to get the most out mobiles in lessons, starting with exploiting text messaging.

      More ideas, here

miércoles, 23 de mayo de 2012

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEVEL TEST


      This is a series of quick tests that will give you a rough idea of your level of English on a scale of 0 to 5.

      Click here


viernes, 11 de mayo de 2012

WORLD DAY FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY FOR DIALOGUE AND DEVELOPMENT


      "Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights, which are universal, indivisible and interdependent. The flourishing of creative diversity requires the full implementation of cultural rights as defined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Articles 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. All persons have therefore the right to express themselves and to create and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and particularly in their mother tongue; all persons are entitled to quality education and training that fully respect their cultural identity; and all persons have the right to participate in the cultural life of their choice and conduct their own cultural practices, subject to respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."  

Article 5 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001)


      Some activities:

                                              Card Game here

                                                   Mandala

miércoles, 21 de marzo de 2012

WEBQUEST: Energy Sources



      Energy is all around us. We use it constantly in our daily lives. Energy gives us the power to turn on lights, cook our food, run computers and heat our houses. Energy is stored in two very different ways. The two groups are called renewable energy and non-renewable energy.

      Link here

sábado, 17 de marzo de 2012

MARCH, 17, SAINT PATRICK' S DAY

 
      Saint Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland. Although he was not born Irish, he has become an important part of the Irish heritage, mostly through his service across Ireland in the 5th century.
 
      It is believed that Patrick was born in the late 4th century A.D., but there are differing views about the exact year and place of his birth.
 
      According to some historians, he was born about 390 A.D., but other historians say it was about 373 AD. Some historians believe that he was born in Scotland, and others believe it was Roman England. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false. The stories are products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.


      To read more, here

lunes, 12 de marzo de 2012

LITTE-GREAT INVENTIONS


      This activity provides a variety of tasks, taking into account the learning purpose and learner styles and preferences. As recommended from a CLIL perspective, receptive skill activities are of the ‘read/listen and do’ genre.

      More information, here

lunes, 27 de febrero de 2012

eTWINNING PRIZES 2012


      Below is a list of all shortlisted projects for the eTwinning Prizes 2012 competition. From over 330 projects submitted, the shortlist is a collection of the most valuable projects that made it to the final evaluation round. Congratulations to all!

      Here you are, the shortlist

miércoles, 15 de febrero de 2012

HOW TO DOWNLOAD BLOGGER AND EDUBLOGS POSTS

      If you and or your students have more than a handful of posts on a blog, you should be in the habit of periodically downloading copies of those posts to have in a portable offline file. Watch the short video below to find out why and to find out how to do this on Edublogs and Blogger.

miércoles, 1 de febrero de 2012

My brain shark-Working with Powerpoint


      The site allows you to upload PowerPoint, Images, Video and even documents and then add your own voice narration. You can then share everything on line. So great, if you want to get your students to practice PP presentations in English (or any other language) or you want to put your own PP presentations on line and share them with the world. Or maybe you want to get your students to upload some of their pictures from their holidays and talk about them in English (or any other language). This really is a superb tool.

      There are so many ways in which it can be used. It could of course be used in a business context too. The entry level product is free. You can click on the link below. First though, I have made 2 sets of videos about the tool.

      Click here for more information

domingo, 22 de enero de 2012

CULTURAL BANNERS



Lesson in brief: Students will work individually to create a “cultural banner” expressing values, traditions, activities, and places important in their families.



Vocabulary: Culture

Materials: Crayons, markers, and construction paper

      More information, here

Create a Culture Web

miércoles, 4 de enero de 2012

EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS

 Hi kids! I feel good today! 
Why?
 Because you are doing a good job!

Smyface is an interactive web page that lets you send your feelings, your emotions to someone. 
Just choose an emotion and write the reason why you feel like this, then you can send it  to your friends, family or teachers by email or post it on your blogs.
More about your feelings, Topic for kids