STEP 1: Load the following link. Read and/or watch the basic measures that WHO (World Health Organization) proposes to protect yourself and others against the new coronavirus. Use an online dictionary to help you with vocabulary.
QUESTIONS: Which basic protective measure from the ones you read in STEP 1 do you find the most difficult to follow? Why? What can you do/have you already done to refine your habits? Is there any tip you can share to help others follow this protective measure? How can this measure help you and the community? How do you spend your day now that we are all staying at home?
Browsing around for new school year first day ideas, I came upon some activities that would be interesting to try out. I also found some classroom posters that are really cool. So here they are:
1] TeamExercises is a youtube channel full of team games that can be used throughout the school year. You can absolutely find a game to start the day!
2] A first day lesson proposal that uses poetry and can match all levels.
3] Just a reminder for Categories, the classic vocabulary game that most students love playing and can be adapted to match a first day by asking for classroom objects or school subjects or school routine verbs!
image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7N-Rsv408
This is an idea for an Easter-themed lesson that combines language and computer skills, but mostly fun. The tasks that the students are asked to complete are both practical and intellectual in the form of a competition.
Do you ever find yourself drawing aimlessly, just playing with curves, lines and shapes, creating patterns or figures for just no reason? You probably do and this is called doodling read more(περισσότερα…)
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs
Like the tramp of hoofs!
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars
The rain, the welcome rain!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night –
And I love the rain.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Read the poems. List all the verbs that the poets use for the rain. Describe the images of the rain in each poem. Are there any similes in the poems? Compare the two poems: how are they similar/different? What feelings do you get from them?
You can copy these poems on a template or write your own and create some art. Get inspired!
Would you do it? Would you deny regular home space and fit your needs into the size of, say, a roomy shed? In fact, this is already happening around the globe. The tiny house movement has been swelling in the past few years while lifestyles, needs and consequently house sizes are shrinking. This trend has even found ground at schools as a project idea.
Are you looking for a fun way to introduce some seasonal vocabulary, customs and activities to spend this year’s last school day? Well, how about watching a Mr Bean episode with your class? That’s what I did last year with my Grade 6 pupils and it was great success because it seems they are never bored with Mr Bean. Moreover, they were really motivated to do the worksheet activities since they all enjoyed the story.
You probably have been hearing a lot of alarming stories about Ebola lately. There is an outbreak of this virus disease in west Africa and it seems to be spreading, infecting thousands of people. A number of them unfortunately have died. There have also been confirmed transmission cases in the USA and Europe.
Although these facts create a lot of fear and anxiety, the truth is that people all over the world are taking measures to stop it and treat those who are sick. According to the World Health Organisation there are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but two potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.We can also protect ourselves by taking simple steps like washing our hands regularly. The best thing to do is get informed, because “false knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance”.
Read some relevant articles at
dogonews.com(there are comprehension and challenge questions at the end of this article)
If 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.
After teaching English to Senior High School students for fifteen years, I had a one-year shift to Primary School, which proved really educational for me. Among other things, it gave me great insight into how roles and relations shape up from an early age. This experience together with some sad incidents in my neighbourhood’s playgrounds set me about searching and reading about relational aggression, a type of bullying.
Open and direct forms of bullying like insults, pushing around or hitting may be easy to detect and acknowledge but there are sneakier ones that cause as much pain and even greater, because they are discrete, subtle and often go unnoticed by adults and even other peers. These forms of bullying target the social sphere of the victim and are all described within the term of “Relational Aggression”.
According to the article It’s “Mean,” But What Does It Mean to Adolescents? RelationalAggression Described by Victims, Aggressors, and Their Peers (published by Journal of Adolescent Research http://jar.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/2/175) relational aggression includes “negative social behaviors that are intended to harm relationships, social roles, and/or social standing (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995).” These behaviours may come up as “exclusion from activities or a desired friendship group, the silent treatment, and spreading false rumors.”
The targeted child often goes through gossip, purposeful avoidance and telling peers not to associate with them, backstabbing, using code names to talk about others, whispering, etc. What makes such behaviors even more agitating is the fact that they often come from assumed friends.
Relationally aggressive behavior worries and disquiets me the most, for a number of reasons. First, it goes beyond overt aggressiveness; it is carefully organized and disguised so as not to be easily detected. Second, research supports what I sensed through my own observations: relational aggression has been shown to deplete mental health and other aspects of child and adolescent socioemotional functioning, exactly like any other type of bullying. Third, it seems to be increasingly exercised by boys, too (it has been traditionally thought to be exercised by girls mostly). Finally, it becomes even more pervasive with the spreading use of social media so that it forms a whole separate type of bullying, that of cyberbullying.
Instead of letting this delicate subject for the anti-bullying school day, I think I can take advantage of its dynamic and inject it into my EFL classroom, as it can provide lots of material to discuss and work on.
Having these in mind, I collected some resources and lesson plans to get ideas and use. Some lesson plans refer to bullying prevention in general, but we can focus on the relationally aggressive behaviors according to the students’ age. It is important for the children to understand what relational bullying is and is not, because some practices, like gossiping for example, are thought to be Ok. I like the following chart which explains the differences between teasing, conflict, a mean moment and bullying, found at a relevant page of mssepp.blogspot.gr. There are more ideas and activities, too.
However, it shouldn’t slip our minds that these resources will only be beneficial if we practise empathy and teach respect on every day basis. This cannot be done in a one-day lesson. It takes time and effort on our part, because we must model, discuss, expect and acknowledge respect and every other positive behavior daily.
Visuals can easily be transformed into great prompters or even full lesson plans. For example, the following poster from stopabully.ca is ideal for younger EFL learners and it can generate Present Tenses practice:
1) Speaking: Where are the children?What is the teacher doing? What are the two boys at the back doing? Have you ever seen or done something similar? Has this ever happened to you? How do you feel when…?
2) Writing: The students may write the poster story, add speech bubbles or write a diary entry from the point of view of the different students involved.
Of course, videos are always engaging and they can be used as warm-ups. For instance, the following video can generate discussion on all aspects of relational aggression.
Let’s keep a positive mind and an active stand with the help of these resources. Remember to check copyright before using them!
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