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Are These Back-To-School Tips Good Enough For You?

crayons-pxb

 

photo credit: pixabay.com

Happy or not, the new school year is starting soon and all kinds of tips and advice on how to prepare best for it swarm in mind. From back-to-school essentials to organizational skills or strengthening of social life all contribute to a hopeful and exciting school year.

The following USNews article, 3-Back-To-School-Resolutions-for-High-School-Students  by Alexandra Pannoni focuses on just three essential resolutions that can prompt speculation and discussion in the EFL classroom during the first days. Read the article and find out what these resolutions are. Then use the extra links to formulate a wider view on the issues involved so you can state your personal opinion.

The whole activity could also generate various writing tasks like opinion essays or a collaborative table of Best Tips For A Successful School Year.

EXTRA LINKS

Digital Footprint  by

kidsmart.org.uk

teachhub.com

teachthought.com

telstra.com.au

Extracurricular Activities by

education.more4kids.info

kidshealth.org

 

Weekly Progress Report In EFL-Εβδομαδιαία Ενημέρωση Προόδου Για EFL

my-weekly-progress-report

Here’s a weekly-progress-report template I created and used with both students and parents last year. This template was especially designed for students with problematic performance, because I needed to record and monitor the student’s specific tactics and behaviour in every class. I didn’t want to just tick on ready-made progress reports, but rather describe the exact performance.

Read more

(περισσότερα…)

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.

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?

Printable Graphic Organisers

graphic organiser

Graphic organizers are such a brilliant way to help learners gather and sort their ideas before a writing project or exhibit understanding of something they have studied. They can surely be used in the EFL classroom and facilitate learning in a visual way.

Graphic organizers don’t have to be complicated; a few lines can be enough. For example, students draw three vertical lines on their notebooks labeled Before/While/After to note down events of an adventure story they want to produce or of one they have read.

Using graphic organizers in class is really good, but finding them stocked in one place, in great variety and ready to be printed is brilliant! This place is found at Houghton-Mifflin’s Education Place site which provides a variety of printable graphic organizers.

You can also try k6edu.com here.

Find your learning style with an Edutopia quiz

This is an interesting and quick to do quiz from Edutopia that helps you find your learning style, that is in what ways you learn better. Here’s the article: 

What Is Your Learning Style?

This quiz asks 24 questions and will take less than five minutes to complete. Try not to think too hard — just go with your first thought when describing your daily activities and interests. By the end, you may have some new insights into your learning preferences.

Editor’s Note: While the idea that students have fixed, specific learning styles is not supported by scientific research, providing students with multiple ways to learn content has been shown to improve student learning (Hattie, 2011).

If you would like to have your results saved then please login first.

To take the quiz click here

What about Game-Based Learning?

There is an interesting article by Katie Lepi at http://www.edudemic.com/2013/08/game-based-learning-infographic/ which makes me really happy, because I really support playing games in the language classroom, although I don’t actually favour digital games over traditional ones. It’s the team spirit and eye to eye communication that makes the difference. Do you play games with your class? What are they?

game based learning guide