What Do You Say In A Restaurant?
Just a quick reminder about language we use when we need to order in a restaurant.
Άρθρα με ετικέτα society
Is Your Relationship With Technology A Bad Romance?
Ajit Johnson, a Ph.D. student working in cancer genetics and genomics uses art posters to comment on “the invasion of tech addiction without even being aware of it”. He has created a series of “some minimal posters describing our present generation and tech addiction”. Read more about it at boredpanda.com and discuss his posters.
What is the message in every poster? Which do you like best? In which poster do you recognise yourself? How well does Ajit Johnson depict the issue of tech addiction?
Check the following infographic by teensafe.com to see how much teens in the USA use social technology.
8 March, International Women’s Day
6 March, National Day Of Action Against Bullying And Violence
Why I Will Integrate Lessons On Relational Aggression Into My EFL Classroom:Resources To Consider
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.
ACTIVITIES
class activities at bullyingnoway.gov.au
saying no to social bullying at tolerance.org
INFORMATION-RESOURCES-STEPS TO TAKE
antibullying teaching resources at beatbullying.org
article jar.sagepub.com
more than just mean girls at extension.umn.edu
Relational aggression at education.alberta.ca
relational aggression at wdmcs.org
relational bullying resources at wishschools.org
Resources at stopabully.ca
resources to prevent bullying at nea.org
Pennsylvania bullying prevention toolkit at safeschools.info
shunning and exclusion at kidpower.org
ten steps to stop and prevent bullying at nea.org
what to do about relational aggression at niot.org
why are those girls so mean at greatschools.org
LESSON PLANS
aggressors victims and bystanders at middle link of asdk12.org (lots of lesson plans and activities)
boys relational aggression curriculum at opheliaproject.org
Bullying.No way! lesson plans at bullyingnoway.gov.au
counter cyberbullying resources and lesson plans at mediasmarts.ca
Digital citizenship lessons at cybersmart.gov.au
Ethics lesson plan:Determining what is right and solving problems at brainpop.com
primary and middle school lesson plans at brainpop.com
relational bullying lesson plan at girlsguidetoendbullying.org
samples for different grades at bullyfree.com
students take on cyberbullying at niot.org
take a stand on bullying at learningtogive.org
SOME SUGGESTIONS
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.
Have a look at a similar idea here.
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!
photo credit: pixabay.com
May Day in Australia – An Article from the 80’s
Click here to go to a news.google.com/newspapers page. Scroll to the middle of the page to find the article titled «May Day» which was published in The Age, 1 May, 1981. You can decrease or enlarge the page by clicking on the magnifying button.
Read the article and do the following tasks:
A) Match the words with their definition:
- tenuous to allow
- inciting summarizing
- institution to start, to open
- to grant fixture
- to launch urging
- outlining weak,questionable
B) Answer the questions
- Why was the International Workers’ Day first held?
- Where and when did the International Workers’ Day first begin?
- Who organized the march?
- What happened during the march?
- Why were four union leaders arrested and hanged?
- Why do we celebrate the International Workers’ Day?
C) True or False?
- In many countries May Day is an official out of work day for the citizens.
- Australia was a pioneer in allowing 8 hours work a day.
- In Australia the 8 hours work demand started by people working in Melbourne’s Parliament.
- In Australia the 8 hours work demand started with a strike.
D) Answer briefly
- How does the writer explain the “more casual approach” to celebrating May Day in Australia?
- How did “stubbornness” help workers in Australia establish 8 hours work a day?
Answers
A)
- tenuous weak,questionable
- inciting urging
- institution fixture
- to grant to allow
- to launch to start, to open
- outlining summarizing
B)
- It was a demostration aiming to establish 8 hours work a day.
- It began in Chicago on 1 May 1886.
- The march was organized by American and Canadian trade union leaders.
- Six workers were shot dead by the police.
- They were accused of causing violence and political subversion.
- To honor and commemorate the 1886 workers’ struggle and sacrifice to establish an eight-hour work day.
C)
- True
- True
- False
- True
D) (suggested answers)
- The writer thinks that May Day in Australia isn’t celebrated in a solemn way, because labor rights were won easily.
- They collectively stopped working and made it clear that they would not go back to work until their demands were met. This attitude made the emloyers give in.
These exercises are my personal work aiming to provide esl/efl practice for use at home or in the classroom. They are not for commercial use. If you happen to like them, please do not redistribute, but rather suggest a link back to this page.
photo credit: pixabay.com
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, resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk
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)
May Day-The Labor Day Celebration
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
Times Square New Year’s Eve Tradition
This is an interactive image. Click on the marks to reveal more information.
original link: http://www.thinglink.com/scene/351134983399669760
Το μετακινούμενο χαλί, η Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση και άλλες ιστορίες
«Η ζωή ανήκει στους ζωντανούς και όποιος ζει πρέπει να είναι προετοιμασμένος για αλλαγές»
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
«Αντί να βλέπουμε το χαλί να τραβιέται κάτω από τα πόδια μας,μπορούμε να μάθουμε να χορεύουμε πάνω στο μετακινούμενο χαλί»
Thomas Crum
Σας ευχαριστώ, κύριοι. Νομίζω ότι θα χρειαστώ το θετικό σας πνεύμα και την υποστήριξη –και ακόμη περισσότερα για την ακρίβεια- επειδή τα πράγματα είναι όντως ένα μετακινούμενο χαλί εδώ στην Ελλάδα. Όχι, δε θα παραθέσω εδώ τα γιατί και τα πότε και τα ποιος. Η πρόθεσή μου είναι να ανακοινώσω επισήμως την –προσωρινή ;- αλλαγή στην καριέρα μου από τη Δευτεροβάθμια στην Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση για το τρέχον σχολικό έτος, από 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013.
Έχοντας διδάξει Αγγλικά σε μαθητές Λυκείου για δεκαέξι χρόνια, αυτή ήταν μια μεγαλειώδης αλλαγή! Οι πρώτες δύο βδομάδες μου έχουν δώσει πολλά να διηγηθώ, τα οποία εν συντομία συνοψίζονται στα εξής:
- να μιλάς σε βραδύτερο ρυθμό και σε πολύ απαλότερο τόνο (τουλάχιστο στις μικρότερες τάξεις)
- να αναλύεις και να δίνεις οδηγίες για τα πάντα
- να επαναφέρεις στη μνήμη σου τις ανάγκες των παιδιών σου όταν ήταν σε αυτή την ηλικία: «Κυρία, δεν μπορώ να ανοίξω το φερμουάρ στο μπουφάν μου!»
- να προσφέρεις άπλετο χρόνο και χώρο
- να ερευνάς, να διαβάζεις, να μαθαίνεις, να φτιάχνεις (όλα αυτά τ’ αγαπώ!)
- να έχεις πάντα μαζί σου παυσίπονα για πονοκέφαλο από οχλαγωγία υψηλής έντασης
Σίγουρα, όλα αυτά μπορεί να ακούγονται κοινότυπα, αλλά είναι η νέα μου πραγματικότητα. Δεύτερες σκέψεις όμως, με οδηγούν να συλλογιστώ ότι ,όσο άγνωστη ή ασταθής και αν είναι αυτή η νέα πραγματικότητα για μένα, υπάρχουν άλλοι εκπαιδευτικοί οι οποίοι αντιμετωπίζουν ήδη ανασφάλεια που οφείλεται στη βίαιη εκδίωξή τους από την εκπαίδευση, για να μην αναφέρω και κάθε άλλον Έλληνα πολίτη που έχασε τη θέση εργασίας του.
Ναι, θα πρέπει να “μάθουμε να χορεύουμε πάνω στο μετακινούμενο χαλί», αλλά πάλι αυτό είναι εύκολο: οι Έλληνες πάντα ήταν ταξιδευτές και καλοί χορευτές και γι’αυτό ευέλικτοι, και έτσι όλη αυτή η σπουδαία κληρονομιά δεν μπορεί παρά να είναι η κινητήρια δύναμή μας. Όμως, δεν πρέπει να ξεχνάμε κατά πόσο αυτό το “μετακινούμενο χαλί” ήταν αποτέλεσμα των επιλογών μας και γιατί έχουμε φτάσει σε αυτό το σημείο.
Photo credit: Professor Bop / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
My Sifting Carpet, Primary Education and Other Stories
“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Instead of seeing the rug being pulled from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet.”
Thomas Crum
Well, thank you sirs. I think I will need your positive mentality and support – and even more actually- because things are really being a shifting carpet here in Greece. No, I will not set forth the whys and when and who here. My intention is to officially announce my -temporary ?- career shift from Secondary to Primary Education for the current school year, as from 20th September, 2013.
After teaching English to elder teenagers for sixteen years, this has been a monumental shift! My first two weeks have given me lots to narrate which briefly summarize to:
- speak at a slower pace and in a much softer tone (at least in the lower classes)
- analyze and give instructions for everything
- recall the needs of your kids when they were that age: «Madam, I can’t unzip my jacket!»
- provide ample time and space
- search, read, learn, make (which I love!)
- always carry pain killers for high pitch hubbab headaches
Surely, all these may sound common place, but they are my new reality. Second thoughts though, instruct me to consider that no matter how unfamiliar or unstable this new reality is for me, there are other teachers who are already experiencing insecurity due to their violent expulsion from education, not to mention every other Greek citizen who have lost their jobs.
Yes, we need to “learn to dance on a shifting carpet”,but then that’s easy; Greeks have always been voyagers and good dancers, thus versatile, and so all this great heritage can only be our vigor. However, we must not forget how much of this “shifting carpet” was the result of our choices and why we reached this point.
Photo credit: Professor Bop / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Posh and Estuary Accent:It’s all Greek to me!
I came up an interesting article (by Emily Sheridan of dailymail.co.uk) yesterday, which talked about Michelle Dockery’s – the acclaimed Lady Mary Crawley of Downton Abbey actress- weariness over Downton fans who find her real life estuary accent shocking.
What a surprise that was to me! First, because I didn’t expect people would care so much. Second, because I realised no matter how much “English language studying” I do or no matter how many films I watch I cannot become fully familiar with the strong assumptions that the diversities of the English accents convey, although I am able to distinguish among “standard” , “posh” and “unrefined” accents. Fourth, I did not know what estuary accent is. To tell you the truth, I had never been a linguistics fan -literature is my cup of tea. Anyway, I got to search about it a little and I found this hillarious video about posh English accent:
and then all-time-classic “Friends” Phoebe trying to impress with a posh accent:
Then the original question “what is estuary accent” may be answered in this video:
and here.
What’s even more surprising is that British people change their accent to more posh or less posh according to what they wish to achieve. Read about it in another dailymail.co.uk article here.
P.S.
Great photos in the first article, by the way.
The 3 September 1843 revolution, democracy and Noam Chomsky
Yesterday’s 170th historic anniversary of 3 September 1843 revolution, which forced the king Otto to grant Constitution to the Greek people, brings forward thoughts about the development of democracy in Greece and modern societies worldwide.
Noam Chomsky’s Media Control – The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda unavoidably comes to mind and provides interesting citations for our higher level students to contemplate and debate on:
“Let me begin by counter-posing two different conceptions of democracy. One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free….
An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing of their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled. That may sound like an odd conception of democracy, but it’s important to understand that it is the prevailing conception….
…in a properly-functioning democracy there are classes of citizens. There is first of all the class of citizens who have to take some active role in running general affairs. That’s the specialized class. They are the people who analyze, execute, make decisions, and run things in the political, economic, and ideological systems. That’s a small percentage of the population… Those others, who are out of the small group, the big majority of the population, they are what Lippman called “the bewildered herd.”
…The bewildered herd is a problem. We’ve got to prevent their rage and trampling. We’ve got to distract them. They should be watching the Superbowl or sitcoms or violent movies. Every once in a while you call on them to chant meaningless slogans like “Support our troops.” You’ve got to keep them pretty scared, because unless they’re properly scared and frightened of all kinds of devils that are going to destroy them from outside or inside or somewhere, they may start to think, which is very dangerous, because they’re not competent to think. Therefore it’s important to distract them and marginalize them.”