Άρθρα κατηγορίας Heard of that?

Plant Your Coffee Cup!

Imagine every cup of coffee that consumers discard turning into a beautiful tree. Imagine the immense problems of deforestation and overgrazing being tackled by just sinking your empty cup of coffee into the ground. How cool would that be?

Well, a company in California called Reduce. Reuse. Grow has already imagined and designed  a biodegradable coffee cup that has seeds embedded in its walls so that it can be planted and grown! There are instructions on the bottom of the cup about how you do it.

The whole project was placed on fund raising some months ago and is now 100% funded waiting for the next step to be taken: commercial testing and potential partnering.

Read the following relevant article “A Biodegradable Coffee Cup With Embedded Seeds That Grow Into a Tree When Planted” posted at laughingsquid.com for more details. There are images explaining the planting procedure further down in this article.

 CHALLENGE!!!

Can you give instructions on how to plant a coffee cup successfully so it can grow into a tree? Remember to use sequencing words. After your attempt check how you have done by reading The World’s First Plantable Coffee Cup 

An Underground Park

Why would anyone think of building an underground park? Where is it going to be built? Who has designed this park? Well, read all about it in this article here or watch the relevant videos and find out. You are challenged to answer the following questions:

  1. What is New York City’s High Line and how is it connected to the Lowline?
  2. How is the Lowline connected to a revitalization project?

Train Your Students To Be Responsible And Safe On Line With These Google Lesson Plans

 

eye-digital-pxbIf you are preoccupied with digital citizenship and safety and how to train your students to be smart and responsible on line, then the Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum lesson plans will be of  great help. These lesson plans have been created in collaboration with child safety experts at iKeepSafe, and educators, too. They provide advice and tips so that students will be able to think critically and evaluate online sources, understand how to protect themselves from online threats, and be good digital citizens.

Poster Prompt for Teenagers About Digital Responsibility

This poster is so capturing! It’s not just the message, but its clever illustration as well, which generate ideas for the teenager ESL/EFL  classroom.

So here are a few suggestions on how to use it. Students can

  • EXPLAIN what the poster is about
  • DESCRIBE any personal experiences, their thoughts and practice when it comes to social networks
  • CREATE/COMPLETE  a list of action verbs related to social networks
  • WRITE questions to survey their classmates’ habits in connection to social networks
  • TRANSFORM  the prompts into full sentences of advice using relevant structures (should/shouldn’t/had better/etc)
  • MAKE  a new poster with ideas on how to react to online malice (could be used in a bullying themed lesson)

The creator of this poster, Shannon of technologyrocksseriously.com, has also made it into a page of bookmarks so they can be easily shared with the students! Isn’t it a nice idea? You can find them here.

Aid Spatial Intelligence In Your Class: Make A Digital Collage

butterflies collage pxb

I came across this resourceful article about creating digital collages in the classroom at technokids.com and I thought how beautifully this idea can promote spatial intelligence, one of the neglected intelligences as we move up towards higher school grades. If we wish to implement Gardner’s theory in our classroom and enhance the opportunities for our students’ competences,  creative ways of teaching and learning should be tried.

So, next time there is a project, consider suggesting a digital collage, too.

From Ancient Greek Theatre and Drama to ESL/EFL Classroom: Kick Off with These Resources

people-37489_640 pixabay

Fully into summer holidays and ancient Greek drama festivals are being held around the country. Watching at least one ancient Greek drama performance has always been in my summer holidays agenda as a natural part of it, since my hometown is close to an ancient Greek theatre with a long festival history.

Walking on the sleekly eroded stones, along with the flow of  spectators, I cannot help but think of a similar procession some two and a half thousand years ago, only not for an evening’s entertainment but for an all day experience. Ancient Greeks came to watch three entire tragedies, followed by a comedy play as this was the scheme for the drama contest taking place.

There is no contest in our days, but it is definetely considered great honor  for directors  and actors as well to have the chance to present their work in one of these theaters. As for the audience, I am sure they share a similar attitude towards the didactic nature of ancient drama with their ancestors. The theatre in ancient Greece was regarded as a place of instruction, an educational institution.

These thoughts triggered my desire to scan the web in connection to esl/efl and here we go:

ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE AND DRAMA

bbc.co.uk           photos, facts, activities, games for children

greece.mrdonn.org        information, clip art for children

youtube.com      tragedy and comedy

theatrefolk.com         who,what, where, when of ancient greek theatre and drama

artsedge city dionysia

artsedge.kennedy-center.org           historical development of theater in Ancient Greece for high school students along with a “Stage your own Tragedy” online application

Δείτε το στο slideshare.net

odysseus.culture.gr            theatres and odeums in Greece

whitman.edu      a virtual reality tour of ancient theatre in Greece

youtube.com     the ancient Greek theatre – the theatre of Epidaurus

greekfestival.gr           Epidaurus festival 2014

 

MAKE ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA MASKS AND COSTUMES

activityvillage.co.uk    mask craft

education.scholastic.co.uk   mask craft

hunkinsexperiments.com    dress up in a Greek chiton

 

LESSON PLANS ON ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA

childdrama.com   a Greek play project

brighthubeducation.com       Greek Theatre history in a fun way

incredibleart.org   art lesson plan: Greek Theatre  Masks

ket.org          characteristics of Greek Theatre                                           logo_atk_2

Role-playing is essential for children. Drama is a wonderful way to introduce language learning , letting kids improvise, assume roles and use the language in an entertaining way. Explore some of the thoughts and research bibliography about the use of drama in the EFL/ESL classroom in Chris Boudreault’s article at iteslj.org and also check Using Different Forms of Drama in the EFL Classroom at hltmag.co.uk 

For a quick brainstorm about the different aspects concerning drama in the classroom go through this presentation:

Δείτε το στο slideshare.net

 

PLAYSCRIPTS, IDEAS AND INFORMATION ON DRAMA AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

freeeslmaterials.com      an extensive list of links

shellyterrell.com              ideas, improvisation games, resources

esldrama weebly

esldrama.weebly.com      play resources

freedrama.net                   free playscripts

childdrama.com                lesson plans 

kidsinco.com                      playscripts

one-act-plays.com           browse this site for one-act playscripts

 

 

“All come true, all burst to light!” Oedipus

So, what can come true on your classroom stage?

Microbeads and Plastic in our Products: A Mega Threat to the Environment

Super-clean, super-smooth, super-white seem to have become a common routine, if not an obsession, for most of us. We meticulously apply our toothpaste and scrub with no second thoughts. However, apart from the damage we may cause to the top layer of our skin, we also cause serious damage to the environment. Why is that? It is because of  microbeads, the tiny polyethylene particles contained in exfoliating products. Furthermore, our synthetic fabric clothes seem to add to the problem because of the microfibers they contain. 

Watch the following videos to see how this is happening. Complete the missing information as you watch.

A)  

  1. Microbeads are found in … and …
  2. Their size is less than … milimetre.
  3. Water treatment plants are not … to filter them out.
  4. Microbeads … organic pollutants in the water and they form toxins.
  5. These toxins are … to the fish.

B) 

 

  1. How serious does this problem seem to you? Why?
  2. What actions can be taken do you think?

Look at these articles for more information:

Microplastics Threaten Marine Life In The Great Lakes

Plastic particle water pollution

Microfibers, Macro problems

ANSWERS

A)

  1. toothpaste/face scrubs
  2. one
  3. equipped
  4. absorb
  5. transferred

 Dedicated to 5th June, World Environment Day and 8th June, World Oceans Day.

May Day,A Double Celebration-Reads,Interactives,Quizes

May Day is an old festival going back in ancient times, when the time of fertility and the start of summer were celebrated. The name of this month is believed to have come from Maia, the Roman goddess of spring and growth, who was in turn named after the Greek word “μαία”, which means nurse or mother.

Feasts to honor spring gods and flowers and welcome summer were held by the Greeks, the Romans,the Celts, the Medieval England and evolved and spread around the world.  They all somehow referred to the victory of  life over death which the new flowers and greenery symbolised.

This symbolic day was selected to honor the Labor Movement and commemorate the events that took place during the Haymarket Riot in Chicago on May 4, 1886, when laborers campaigned for an eight-hour-long workday.

For further reading about this day follow the links below.

May Day-The Flowers Celebration

May Day, learnenglish.de

May Day, resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk

May Day, wikipedia

May Day history and fun facts for kids and parents,examiner.com

May Day History:The Pittsburgh Press,May 1,1944

Traditions  of May Day :The Spokesman Review, Apr 29,1961

Quizes about flowers (click on the pictures)

Quiz 1

Quiz 2

Quiz 3

Quiz 4

 

May Day-The Labor Day Celebration

Haymarket affair, Wikipedia

May 4th, 1886, examiner.com

The Brief Origins of May Day, iww.org

The Haymarket Affair Digital Collection, chicagohistory.org

This is an interactive image. Click on the marks to reveal more information.


Quiz 1 

Quiz 2 

Quiz 3