Teaching English in Portugal

Teaching writing: strategies

2011-03-03T12:06:00.002Z

The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implmentation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.

Choosing the target area depends on many factors; What level are the students?, What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.

Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this type of learning. As in correction, the teacher must choose the most appropriate manner for the specified writing area. If formal business letter English is required, it is of little use to employ a free expression type of exercise. Likewise, when working on descriptive language writing skills, a formal letter is equally out of place.

With both the target area and means of production, clear in the teachers mind, the teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by considering what type of activities are interesting to the students; Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?, Will they need any of the skills pragmatically? What has been effective in the past? A good way to approach this is by class feedback, or brainstorming sessions. By choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within which effective learning on the target area can be understaken.

Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test, perhaps teacher guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task is more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups thereby learning from each other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.

in http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.htm

25th Annual APPI Conference

2011-03-03T12:05:00.000Z

On the 6th, 7th and 8th of May, APPI will be holding its annual conference. This year it will be in Lisbon, in Hotel Sana Lisboa.

Hope to see you there! More info in www.appi.pt

The Price of Beauty - Jessica Simpson meets Isabelle Caro

2010-12-30T13:47:00.000Z

The Recycling Rap

2010-11-14T12:56:00.001Z

It's the second time I post this poem... I simply love it! The first time I posted it, John Foster himself came to my blog and wrote a few words. It was a pleasure! So, here it is again :)

Help me bring this blog to life again!

The Recycling Rap

Listen to me children. Hear what I say.
We've got to start recycling. It's the only way
To save this planet for future generations -
The name of the game is reclamation.
You've got to start recycling. You know it makes sense.
You've got to start recycling. Stop sitting on the fence.
No more pussyfooting. No more claptrap.
Get yourself doing the recycling rap.

Come on and start recycling. Start today
By saving old newspapers, not throwing them away,
Don't just take them and dump them on the tip,
Tie them in a bundle and put them in the skip.

Get collecting, protecting the future's up to you.
Save all your old glass bottles and your jamjars too.
Take them to the bottle bank, then at the factory
The glass can be recycled, saving energy.

Don't chunk away that empty drink can.
Remember what I said. Start recycling, man.
Wash it, squash it, squeeze it, flat and thin.
Take it to the Save-A-Can and post it in.

Listen to me children. Hear what I say.
We've got to start recycling. It's the only way
To save this planet for future generations -
The name of the game is reclamation.
You've got to start recycling. You know it makes sense.
You've got to start recycling. Stop sitting on the fence.
No more pussyfooting. No more claptrap.
Get yourself doing the recycling rap.

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

2010-11-13T12:34:00.001Z

Back again...

2010-09-01T20:49:00.001+01:00

I've been away for a long time :) but now I'm back... or so I hope to be!

Wish you all a wonderful school year and I'll start posting again a.s.a.p.!

***

"Highlighting key skills in language learning"

2009-09-11T01:23:00.001+01:00

24º Congresso APPI

"Highlighting key skills in language learning"

30 de Abril, 1 e 2 de Maio de 2010
Centro Cultural Vila Flor - Guimarães

- Key-note speaker confirmado: Prof. David Crystal

- Mais informações em Setembro!

Professor de Inglês - Estágio em Mafra

2009-06-03T12:54:00.000+01:00

O centro de formação Wisdom Gate, em Mafra, procura professor estagiário para leccionar a disciplina de Inglês na modalidade de estágio comparticipado pelo IEFP.

Requisitos:
- Com 6 ou menos meses de contribuições para a segurança social (jovem à procura de primeiro emprego);
- Flexibilidade de horário;
- Licenciatura nas seguintes áreas: Espanhol/Inglês; Francês/Inglês; Alemão/Inglês; Italiano/Inglês.
- Jovem dinâmico, com espirito de grupo e forte vontade de aprender;
- Forte sentido de responsabilidade e autonomia.

Oferece-se:
- Remuneração mensal: 838,44€
- Duração do estágio: 12 meses;
- Início: 1 de Setembro de 2009;
- 40 horas/semana;
- Certificado de conclusão de estágio (IEFP);
- Apoio total por parte dos orientadores;
- Métodos de alta qualidade e reconhecidos internacionalmente.

Envie-nos a sua candidatura para: rh.wisdomgate@gmail.com
ou contacte-nos através dos seguintes números de telefone: 927 894 898/927 893 782/261 812 658

Read more: http://www.net-empregos.com/detalhe_anuncio_livre.asp?REF=743841#ixzz0HMpcEZZC&B

TEFL - 2nd International Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign Language - 20 & 21 November 2009

2009-05-27T18:31:00.001+01:00

source: http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/docentes/cceia/conferencias/tefl-2nd-international-conference-on-teaching-english-as-a-foreign-language

Another Blog

2009-05-24T22:17:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone,

this is another blog I've created a few months ago. I haven't had much time to post new things in either of them, but I do hope to do that in the near future.

Take a look:

Teaching English in Portugal II

Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language

2009-05-24T22:11:00.001+01:00

Freedom Writers

2009-01-30T19:22:00.001Z

There is more to teaching than grammar, vocabulary, skills... Teaching must be a passion and it must lead our students to a greater understanding of the world!

From "The Teacher Man"

The classroom is a place of high drama. You'll never know what you've done to, or for, the hundreds coming and going. You see them leaving the classroom: dreamy, flat, sneering, admiring, smiling, puzzled. After a few years you developed antennae. You can tell when you've reached them or alienated them. It's chemistry. It's psychology. It's animal instinct. You are with the kids and, as long as you want to be a teacher, there's no escape.Don't expect help from the people who have escaped the classroom, the higher-ups. They're busy going to lunch and thinking higher thoughts. It's you and the kids. So, there's the bell. See you later. Find what you love and do it.

The Vegetables Strike Back

2009-01-10T20:56:00.002Z

Use this cartoon and the poem "The Vegetables Strike Back" by Steve Turner in The Day I fell down the Toilet and Other Poems, Lion Children’s Books, 1997.

Carta de um Professor aos Directores da TSF e DN a propósito da entrevista de JOSÉ SÓCRATES

2008-11-19T10:40:00.001Z

Ex.mo Sr. João Marcelino/Paulo Baldaia

Ontem entrei no carro e ouvi os últimos 15 minutos da entrevista ao nosso primeiro ministro, exactamente no momento em que estavam a falar de educação que era o que me interessava no momento. A custo, consegui ouvir até ao fim.

Envio-lhe o meu mais veemente lamento pela forma como a entrevista, ou o que lhe queiram chamar, foi conduzida porquanto foi permitido ao Sr. 1º ministro dizer o maior chorrilho de mentiras sem que alguma vez tivesse sido corrigido. Deixaram-no passar mais uma mensagem propagandística que peca pela verdade tal como ele nos tem habituado a ouvir a começar pelo seu processo de habilitações literárias.

Os Srs. jornalistas TINHAM a OBRIGAÇÃO de se documentarem melhor para fazer uma entrevista dessas. Mais pareceu uma entrevista de "faz favor de dizer" com questões previamente combinadas porque os entrevistadores eram pessoas experientes e deviam saber bem o que lá estavam a fazer. Só pode ter sido.
Sócrates teve a oportunidade de explicar a sua educação à sua maneira e o resto foi servido em bandeja de ouro.

O meu nome é Francisco Teixeira Homem, sou professor na Escola Secundária Dr. Jaime Magalhães Lima em Aveiro, tenho 34 anos de serviço.

Tenho ainda uma licenciatura de 5 anos que é verdadeira e rigorosa. Sou do tempo em que o estágio pedagógico era de 2 anos. Fiz 1 mestrado e a parte curricular de um 2º mestrado no tempo em que os mestrados eram 2 anos. Tirei o doutoramento no tempo em que eram de 5 anos. Os investimentos na minha carreira e profissão foram pagos por mim e pelo sacrifício da minha família. Progredi na carreira com o cumprimento rigoroso de todos os créditos e subi ao 8º escalão com provas públicas efectuadas em Coimbra nas instalações da
Direcção Regional de Educação do Centro. Não progredi com benesses até chegar ao 10º escalão onde tenho a minha carreira congelada e a ganhar tanto como um licenciado.

Por acaso vou ser avaliado por uma professora que é do mesmo grupo que eu mas há casos de professores de História a avaliar os de Inglês, de Educação Física a avaliar os de Educação Visual ou Educação Especial, de Biologia a avaliar os de Matemática... enfim!!!!

Quando um professor destes vai assistir a uma aula dos outros (e tem de o fazer 2 vezes) está a ser justo por mais que o queira? Haverá honestidade neste processo?

Não me licenciei a um domingo com 26 das 31 cadeiras em falta dadas como equivalentes, nem com professores amigos ou reitores presos por falsificação de documentos, nem com a utilização de cartões do governo. A minha Universidade é pública, do Porto, e podem ser consultados todos os meus documentos. Não foi encerrada, como a UNI, só Deus sabe, VERDADEIRAMENTE porquê.

O Sr. JS mente quando diz que agora há o mérito de distinguir os professores excelentes dos outros. Uma pessoa cujo percurso académico cheio de falta de rigor, mérito e excelência não lhe oferece a mais pequena moralidade para pensar sequer nisso, quanto mais falar. Desculpe voltar a falar disto mas é uma VERDADE que anda a ser camuflada e continuamente escondida.

A criação INJUSTA do professor titular no ECD é a MAIOR FRAUDE que passou impune em Portugal. Os professores foram classificados APENAS pelos últimos 7 anos de profissão, não pelos conhecimentos mas pelos cargos exercidos. Imagina certamente o que eu com 34 anos de serviço deva ter prestado ao ensino como professor. Pois bem, 27 desses meus anos contaram ZERO. RIGOROSAMENTE... ZERO.

Aqueles anos em que quando mais jovem tinha capacidade para fazer e vontade para tudo, contaram NADA. Não sei quantos anos de serviço tem o Sr. João Marcelino/Paulo Baldaia mas diga-me como se sentiria se a sua classificação fosse feita apenas com base nos últimos 7 anos, não pelos seus conhecimentos e capacidade mas APENAS pelas funções que prestou. Há professores belíssimos que foram prejudicados por terem querido ensinar. Há escolas onde ficaram titulares professores com 86 pontos enquanto outras escolas professores com
130 pontos não o conseguiram ser.

UMA VERGONHA que a imprensa nunca soube (ou nunca quis) denunciar. A escola hoje deixou de ENSINAR. O próprio ministério deixou de ser o Ministério da Educação e passou a ser o Ministério da Certificação. Faça esta experiência.

Vá a uma escola e diga que se quer matricular para APRENDER. Para APRENDER!!!!

Não há como nem onde. Até com o sistema de créditos já acabaram. Mandam-no para os EFAs ou para as Novas Oportunidades. Veja o que isso é. O que lá se aprende.

Em quantos MESES se pode fazer ao mesmo tempo o 7º, 8º e 9º ano e depois o 10º, 11º e 12º ano. Acabaram com o "Ad Hoc", agora há o "mais 23". Compare-os.

Agora, com a apresentação do currículo e a entrevista, um candidato ao ensino universitário fica logo com 60%. Os "trocos" ficam depois para um exame muito mais SIMPLIFICADO.O Sr. JS falou nos cursos profissionais.

Vá a uma escola e veja o que é isso de cursos profissionais. A verdade. E já agora os CEFs. A pressão permanente para que os alunos passem sem saber apenas e só para uma avaliação estatística. As permanentes lamúrias da Sr.ª ministra nos custos de uma reprovação e no facilitismo em reprovar.

Agora na avaliação dos professores é contabilizado o n.º de alunos reprovados numa vergonhosa e clara afronta à perda de independência. Que culpa tenho eu que no início do ano me tenha calhado uma turma mal-educada e pouco estudiosa? Que culpa tenho eu que um aluno abandone a escola porque quer ir trabalhar ou não gosta de estudar ainda que tudo tenha feito com os pais para que tal não aconteça? PORQUÊ isso se reflecte na avaliação?

Já alguma vez pediu a uma escola as fichas de avaliação? Não acredito, desculpe mas não acredito que alguma vez as tenha visto. É IMPOSSÍVEL que aquilo possa ser seguido, IMPOSSÍVEL. Se não as conhece procure ver algumas.

Os professores o melhor é deixarem de dar aulas. A Cada escola tem as suas grelhas de avaliação. São 3 grelhas, qual delas a melhor, sempre elaboradas da forma mais incrível, injusta, desadequada, complexa, pouco credível e acima de tudo inexequível.

Isto não é uma brincadeira?

Os professores não têm família e direito ao tempo livre e lazer? JS falou igualmente no Inglês e na Educação Física das escolas primárias que já havia antes dele.

Pergunte quanto ganham esses professores e compare com o que ganha uma empregada doméstica, sem qualquer desprestígio para as empregadas domésticas.

Sr. João Marcelino/Paulo Baldaia, peço-lhe desculpa se me excedi. Penso que não. Acredito que com algumas destas "dicas", futuras entrevistas suas ao sr. JS serão diferentes. A verdade é que andamos de tal forma a ser
maltratados e enxovalhados com tanta MENTIRA que após o programa da TSF que é uma rádio que oiço sempre, senti necessidade de "desentupir".

É estranho, muito estranho mesmo que a certas pessoas seja permitido fazer passar incolumemente certas mensagens. E o Sr. primeiro-ministro é uma delas. Usa e abusa. Este foi o direito à minha INDIGNAÇÃO.

Queira aceitar os meus mais respeitosos cumprimentos

O professor Francisco Teixeira Homem

Mais uma pérola de sabedoria...

2008-11-19T10:37:00.001Z

Colegas,

Suponho que todos se sintam sensibilizados por sentirem que, no passado Sábado, fizeram parte de “algo maior”, que fizeram parte da história…
Pois na história, por maior e mais significativa que tenha sido a manifestação, é onde todos e cada um dos 120 000 irá ficar se, chegados às escolas, nada fizerem para mudar as coisas.
Sei que muitos se sentiram desiludidos com as consequências práticas da primeira manifestação e que muitos temem a repetição do mesmo com esta segunda manifestação. Alguns sentem-se desiludidos, ou mesmo ultrajados, com as declarações da Sr.ª ministra da Educação na televisão…Seremos assim tão ingénuos que estávamos à espera que ela viesse às televisões pedir desculpa, dizer que se tinha enganado e que se iria empenhar, connosco, no combate aos verdadeiros males do nosso ensino?! Não me façam rir!
Porque não há-de a ministra se sentir segura, se ela sabe que 90% dos professores que aos Sábados vêm gritar para as ruas chegam às escolas, na segunda-feira seguinte, e continuam a colaborar na política das aparências…
Ela conta com o nosso medo, conta com a nossa inércia, conta com o nosso “seguidismo”…Não lhe interessa resolver nada do que está mal, interessa-lhe apenas a nossa colaboração. E ela sabe que a está a ter em centenas de escolas, as mesmas de onde vieram muitos dos 120 000. A esse medo chama-se CONIVÊNCIA!
Sejamos honestos! Em causa não está a avaliação, mas TUDO o resto. Toda a política da aparência que está a conduzir o sistema de ensino público português para o mesmo caminho que o nosso famigerado sistema nacional de saúde.
Quem, de entre nós, tendo um pouco de dinheiro, não prefere recorrer a uma clínica privada do que perder horas num centro de saúde ou num hospital público?! Pois o mesmo irá acontecer ao sistema de ensino público português, caso não nos revoltemos contra esta política que, perante as dificuldades, cede.
No futuro, e o futuro é daqui a dois ou três anos, no sistema de ensino público ficarão apenas os que forem incapazes de fugir para o privado: professores e alunos.
Os meninos estão a ter maus resultados a Matemática? Não faz mal, baixa-se o nível de exigência dos exames. Os meninos ficam retidos no final do ano? Não faz mal, inventam-se dezenas de “planos” e de “justificações” e o pessoal, só para não ter que preencher a papelada, continua a “engolir sapos” e a passar os meninos todos no final de cada ano.
É necessário passar a imagem, para a opinião pública, que o governo está muito preocupado com os problemas do ensino? Inventa-se uma “avaliação burocrática de docentes” e a malta colabora, com medo, e vamos para casa todos contentes com o “Bom”…
O sistema público de ensino está a ruir a cada ano e em vez de enfrentarmos os problemas de frente e assumir o que está mal, incluindo o que está errado dentro da classe docente, continuamos a colaborar com o “sistema”…Ou seja, o “Titanic” afunda-se, mas nós continuamos a dançar ao som da orquestra…
Pois bem, se houver alguém que acredite que este sistema de avaliação vai melhorar o nosso sistema de ensino, que entregue os objectivos pessoais.
Se houver alguém que acredita que os professores que se esforçam, que sempre se esforçaram, vão ser “premiados”, que entregue os objectivos pessoais.
Se alguém acredita que os nossos colegas que sempre fizeram do ensino a sua “segunda profissão” e se gabam de usar indiscriminadamente os 102 irão ser penalizados, que entregue os objectivos pessoais.
Se alguém acredita que este processo nos irá ajudar a melhorar os nossos métodos de ensino e a ser melhores professores, que entregue os objectivos pessoais.
Se alguém acredita que este processo irá permitir detectar os nossos erros e corrigi-los, beneficiando indirectamente os nossos alunos, que entregue os objectivos pessoais.
Mas NÃO ENTREGUEM OS OBJECTIVOS POR MEDO! Não cedam à chantagem do medo e às ameaças da ministra. Todos temos muito a perder, mas há coisas que não têm preço…Uma delas é a nossa dignidade profissional.
Nós somos professores e, na nossa profissão, todos os dias somos confrontados com ameaças directas à nossa autoridade. Quando não temos mais argumentos para convencer os nossos alunos pela razão, o que é que fazemos?! Ameaçamos! É a última arma que resta, quando faltam mais argumentos…Sabemos bem como é!
Pois bem, temos uma ministra que, há muito, desistiu de nos convencer pela razão, pois nós bem sabemos da hipocrisia desta pseudo-avaliação. Que lhe resta? A ameaça…Como não pode mandar os professores para a “rua” com uma falta disciplinar, ameaça-nos com a não progressão na carreira. E nós? Nós, pelos vistos, cedemos com um sorriso nos lábios…
Seremos assim tão ingénuos que pensamos que, se alinharmos no “esquema” e entregarmos os objectivos, nada nos irá acontecer?!
Seremos tão ingénuos ao ponto de pensar que, se alinharmos com o “sistema”, o nosso emprego estará assegurado para sempre?
Será que as pessoas não compreenderam que os tempos mudaram e que já não há certezas no que toca a um emprego para toda a vida, nem mesmo para quem trabalha para o Estado?
ACORDEM e olhem à vossa volta…Estamos a entrar numa das piores crises financeiras que o mundo ocidental já conheceu… Alguém acredita que o seu emprego estará seguro indefinidamente só por não contrariar o “chefe”?! Os tempos mudaram e não voltam atrás, nem mesmo para quem é funcionário público.

A escola de Silves está cheia de pessoas normais, não de super-heróis. As pessoas que estão a boicotar a avaliação na minha escola são pessoas honestas e cumpridoras da lei. Pagam impostos e não têm cadastro criminal. Não são loucas, nem irresponsáveis e, por isso, também têm medo.
Estão habituadas a ensinar aos seus alunos e filhos a cumprir as leis. Mas sabem que antes de qualquer lei, está a lealdade e a rectidão perante as nossas mais profundas convicções.
Os professores de Silves também têm medo das repercussões que este acto de resistência pode ter nas suas carreiras, sobretudo os corajosos avaliadores que arriscam, talvez, um processo disciplinar. De onde lhes vem a coragem? De saber que pior que ter medo de não cumprir esta avaliação, é o medo de olharmos para o espelho e termos vergonha de não termos defendido a nossa dignidade profissional e os nossos alunos.
É disso que se trata, de defender a dignidade do nosso sistema de ensino. É daí que nos vem a força, das nossas convicções…Como poderíamos olhar de frente, olhos nos olhos, os nossos alunos se cedêssemos na luta pelos nossos ideais?
A ministra ameaça-nos como “meninos mal comportados” e nós claudicamos? Em Silves, não!
Não sigam o exemplo dos professores do Agrupamento Vertical de Escolas Dr. Garcia Domingues de Silves, sigam a vossa consciência. E se, perante ela, se sentirem bem em entregar os objectivos pessoais, entreguem-nos!
Nós, perante o medo, continuamos a RESISTIR! E desde que o começámos a fazer que dormimos melhor e que temos um outro sorriso…Estamos bem com a nossa consciência e isso não tem preço.
Desde que resisto, que sou MAIS FELIZ! Os meus alunos agradecem…

Pedro Nuno Teixeira Santos, BI 10081573, professor QZP do grupo 230 no Agrupamento Vertical de Escolas Dr. Garcia Domingues (Silves)

(NOTA: se alguém me quiser instaurar um processo disciplinar na sequência deste texto, agradeço o envio de um e-mail e eu envio na resposta, e com agrado, o resto dos meus dados pessoais)

5 Pumpkins :D

2008-10-27T15:48:00.001Z

Happy Halloween!!!!! :D

2008-10-27T15:24:00.000Z

Candidatura Financeira APPI 2008

2008-10-08T18:56:00.001+01:00

Até quando continuará o Ministério da Educação e este Governo a cortar na Educação e a cometer erros crassos? Eis mais um...

Caros Colegas:

O Centro de Formação da APPI – APPIforma - comunica que, no dia 17 de Setembro/2008, recebeu, do Programa Operacional Potencial Humano – POPH, os ofícios com as referências POPH Malhoa, 07197 e 07198, datados de 12/09/2008, notificando a APPI do indeferimento da candidatura financeira, por si apresentada no prazo legal.

Como fundamentação para o indeferimento, “A Autoridade de Gestão do POPH” refere, citamos:“O Projecto de Formação não inclui cursos dos Programas Nacionais e das áreas prioritárias, em conformidade com os Despachos de 20/03 e 08/04 de 2008 do SEE”.

A Direcção da APPI não pode deixar de sublinhar que o prazo limite de apresentação das candidaturas financeiras foi o dia 14 de Março de 2008 e os despachos referidos, invocados na fundamentação, foram publicados após esta data, em 20 de Março e 8 de Abril.

A Direcção lamenta que as regras tenham sido alteradas a meio do processo; que a candidatura financeira de Planos de Formação seja indeferida com base em áreas prioritárias definidas a posteriori e, sobretudo, que o Inglês, em particular, e as Línguas Estrangeiras, em geral, não sejam consideradas áreas prioritárias de formação.

O Plano de Formação previsto para 2008 continuará a ser realizado, embora com a comparticipação exclusiva dos Colegas formandos, de modo a dar resposta às necessidades reais dos professores, no âmbito da área específica de docência, conforme é exigido no Estatuto da Carreira Docente.

A Direcção lamenta, verdadeiramente, e pede a compreensão dos Colegas.

A Direcção de APPIforma

22 de Setembro de 2008

in: http://www.appi.pt/appiforma/candfinanceira.htm

SOS Professores Colocados

2008-09-11T00:02:00.002+01:00

Your Thoughts are Hungry for Words - Vocabulary Feeds

2008-07-27T17:47:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone,

as I was googling for "vocabulary" I found this interesting post in http://fceblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/vocabulary-feeds.html.

Hope you all find it useful :)

Vocabulary is food for thought. If your mind is well fed, then you will be able to frame your ideas in speaking and writing better. There is probably nothing as frustrating as to have a gap in your vocabulary. Those moments when you want to explain something in a foreign language and the words simply do not come. To enjoy becoming a speaker of a second language, we need to eat words well.

It is important to vary the ways in which you try to incorporate new words. There is no best method to learn. Yet, if learning can be action, the practice becomes more effective and meaningful. Learning words is not about memorising. Not even remembering. Do you remember how you learnt every word you know? When you learn, you simply transform yourself.

Learning is a cycle. Learning vocabulary will require consulting dictionaries, exploring new contexts for a word in your readings on the Internet and finding examples. A bit of decontextualised -some mechanical or repetitive- practice may also help. One day you may surprise yourself using richer words in your writing. That's when a learning cycle ends giving way for another one to begin.

Did you know your learning can also transform others?

Learn Free vocabulary & Give Free Rice

Learning is a powerful thing. The people involved in this initiative launched on the 7th October 2007 understand it well. Their mission is to help provide food for people in need while you learn.

For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

http://www.freerice.com/

Click there and you will find an ongoing multiple choice test. It is challenging for both: advanced students and native speakers. What is so interesting about this site is that it shows an example of learning both ways. You learn by choosing and the machine learns with your clicks too:

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

Click here for details on how playing the vocabulary game helps you and others.

So let's play and feed ourselves!

Uma lição de vida...

2008-07-25T22:34:00.005+01:00

Dear friend,

here is an article I found on plagiarism. It addresses your questions and yes, sometimes it is very difficult to establish a limit where 'a' begins and 'b' finishes. I always try to be as thorough as possible...Some rules aren't meant to be broken.

Citação ou Plágio?

2006-11-05

Por Maria Elvira Callapez

“When you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research”. (Quando se rouba de um autor é plágio; quando se rouba de muitos é investigação)

Será mesmo assim? Ora, de acordo com as leis vigentes, toda a gente sabe que roubar é considerado um crime. E quando ouvimos falar de roubo, normalmente e de imediato, associamos esse gesto, a dinheiro, a bens materiais, a coisas palpáveis. Talvez não ocorra à grande maioria das pessoas que alguns também roubam pensamentos, ideias, opiniões, palavras, frases, factos, dados, resultados, números, tabelas e trabalho dos outros, sem dar o devido crédito aos autores. Quando isto acontece, estamos a cometer um roubo chamado plágio. Então, se plagiar é roubar, logo é um crime. E que tipo de crime, para além do roubo, é o plágio?

Antes de mais, é visto como uma fraude, uma atitude moral e eticamente condenável por parte de quem o pratica. Pela frequência com que vem ocorrendo, tem sido objecto de vários debates e publicações. Entre outros, títulos como,“Plagiarism: An ethical problem in the writing world”; “Plagiarism is worse than mere theft”; “Plagiarism: A Spreading Infection”; “The scourge of plagiarism”, ilustram, claramente, o sentimento que este assunto tem suscitado nos dias que correm.

Todavia, este não é um assunto de preocupação actual. As origens da palavra plágio remontam ao início do primeiro século, AD, e são atribuídas a Marcus Valerius Martialis, (Martial), conhecido pela sua poesia com carácter satírico, vulgo epigrama. Lê-se na fonte que o plágio, como um epíteto para o roubo da linguagem e das ideias de outro escritor, foi inventado pelo poeta romano Martial. Ao censurar Fidentinus por este recitar as suas palavras como se fossem dele próprio, Martial comparou-o à pior coisa que ele podia considerar – um ladrão de escravos, um plagiario”.

Portanto, a partir desta cena, nasce aquela que viria a ser uma das figuras mais censuradas por infringir os mais elementares códigos éticos e morais - o plagiador. Na sua forma mais simples, o que sabemos hoje é que um plagiador é um kidnapper, um raptor, que comete roubo intelectual, que escreve algo que de facto é pertença de outra pessoa, que, em suma viola a ética profissional.

Mas, segundo Randall, já a encicloplédia de Diderot, do século XVIII, oferece uma definição de plagiador semelhante às que maioritariamente vigoram nos dias de hoje. “Um plagiador é um homem que a todo o custo quer ser um autor e não tendo nem génio nem talento, copia não só frases, mas também páginas e passagens inteiras de outros autores e tem a má fé de não os citar; ou aquele que com pequenas mudanças e adição de pequenas frases apresenta a produção dos outros como algo que fosse imaginado ou inventado por ele próprio; ou ainda aquele que reclama para ele a honra da descoberta feita por outro”.

Por conseguinte, destas definições inferimos que estamos explicitamente perante um plágio intencional. Porém, temos consciência de que os nossos pensamentos, ideias, opiniões, linguagem, escrita, comportamentos, são influenciados por outros e por isso não raras vezes, escrevemos, de forma não intencional, ideias e pensamentos que já outros transmitiram e tornaram público, mas que nos parecem originais. Nesta situação não é fácil perceber e ter consciência se estamos a plagiar, na medida em que expomos, subconscientemente, a informação lida, experenciada, absorvida e enraízada nas nossas mentes. Logo, não será simples julgar tal actuação como ilegítima ou tomá-la como uma transgressão.

O pior dos comportamentos

Pese embora a noção de que muito do trabalho intelectual que se desenvolve resulta e assenta nos conhecimentos de outros, como reage a academia quando confrontada com os seus pares que plagiam? Pois, entre os académicos, o plágio, é tido como o pior dos comportamentos, um delito, uma decepção. É uma decepção para todos os que leêm os textos roubados visto que o autor que plagia ganha crédito através das ideias que não são as suas, enganando assim os leitores, pelo menos de duas formas: por um lado, impede que eles contactem o original e por outro há a possibilidade de apresentar as ideias e as palavras originais tiradas do contexto, defraudando o sentido e o rigor da investigação original, isto é, daquela que foi usurpada.

Por isso, na academia, o plágio e a fabricação de resultados são nitidamente reconhecidos como formas de comportamento desviante da conduta científica. Richard Smith, antigo editor do British Medical Journal é muito violento para com o plagiador e manifesta por ele a sua desconfiança desta forma: “Where plagiarism is found, the author's previous publications must be examined. The evidence shows that an act of misconduct is usually part of a pattern of behaviour rather than an isolated incident”.

Ao longo dos tempos têm sido tornados públicos vários exemplos de escritores famosos e de alguns cientistas que cometem plágio e auto plágio, sendo este outra vertente de plágio que acontece quando alguém usa um trabalho seu que já foi publicado mas não lhe faz qualquer referência. E porque o plágio cresce, John Maddox, ex editor da Nature, pergunta “how can established academics, almost by definition not neuronally deficient, be so artless in their intellectual burglary?.”

Sabendo-se que o plágio constitui um problema, que simboliza um comportamento impróprio, não ético, porque razão ocorre o plágio? Entre outros, factores e condicionalismos como pressão para publicar, falta de tempo, intenção de submeter o trabalho, simultaneamente, a várias publicações, ânsia de ganhar bolsas, prémios e reconhecimento, poderão estar associados “ao aumento da corrupção do empreendimento académico”. Para ganhar fama e nome rapidamente, ou promoção na carreira, alguns preferem escolher a via mais fácil de “cut-n-paste policy” que por sua vez leva inevitavelmente à conduta “plagiarize-n-publish”, do que impedir a humilhação a que ficam sujeitos e às vezes à expulsão dos seus postos.

Enfrentar o fenómeno

E porque o fenómeno plágio existe, só nos resta, então, enfrentá-lo e tentar evitá-lo. Como fazer? De acordo com Balaram, “educar a nova geração pode ser que seja a única vacina disponível para conter a propagação, disseminação do vírus do plágio”. Assim, para não se contagiar os estudantes, é importante que as escolas, as universidades, os professores, os ensinem a combater o plágio. É do conhecimento geral que alguns estudantes, muitas vezes, por exemplo, sob a pressão do cumprimento de prazos para a concretização das suas tarefas, entregam trabalhos totalmente copiados pois tiram partido da proliferação dos recursos electrónicos e da facilidade e rapidez com que acedem à internet, condições favoráveis à prática do plágio.

O que lhes fazer? Simplesmente ensinar-lhes as estratégias e regras dos métodos de investigação bem como as técnicas de pesquisa e citação: porquê, quando e como citar e usar as fontes e referências. E devem ser ensinados da mesma forma e com a mesma dose de paciência com que são instruidos os professores iliteratos em matéria de computadores: muitas horas de instrução numa área em que apresentam deficiências.

Porque o plágio de trabalhos se tem espalhado, muitas universidades americanas têm feito circular, entre os estudantes e instituições, informações detalhadas sobre o que é o plágio e como evitá-lo. Papel fundamental tem sido atribuído às bibliotecas. Quem não se lembra de há bem poucos anos atrás, quando íamos à biblioteca recolher informação, do processo moroso de passar à mão as nossas consultas para o caderno? Agora, como nas bibliotecas aumenta o número de websites, recursos online e bases de dados, com apenas um clique pode aceder-se facilmente e de imediato à informação.

Mas constata-se que é necessário educar os utilizadores sobre o uso ético da informação e os bibliotecários são seguramente agentes propícios para “o ensino de métodos de citação bibliográfica e estratégias de como melhor evitar o plágio, especialmente de fontes da internet”. É o que se faz por exemplo na biblioteca principal (Doe Library) da Universidade da Califórnia, Berkeley.

No seu website, é possível encontrar respostas às questões “Citing Your Sources - Why cite sources? How do you cite sources? How do you choose a style? Where do I find the most authoritative information about these styles? What is plagiarism? ” Imitemos então, deliberadamente, a politica das bibliotecas da UC Berkeley, mas sem plagiar! À escassez de ideias, mais vale imitar do que plagiar. Enquanto que a imitação é aceitável e por vezes elogiada, o plágio pode ser tido como moralmente odioso, como um pecado.

Source: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/index.php?oid=9593&op=all

Teaching

2008-07-20T16:03:00.003+01:00

When I was nine years old I decided I wanted to teach English. I hadn’t started learning English at school yet, but a friend of mine had and so I asked her a lot of words. I remember going down the stairs from our school and asking her how we said “carro” in English. I was still a child but every bone in me knew exactly what the future held. This is the school, Colégio da Rainha Santa Isabel in Coimbra.

Thirteen years later the dream came true and there I was. I was doing my teacher training and had my own classes. It felt like heaven! They were not the brightest students and their view of the world was limited to where they lived. As Eric Hawkins mentioned in one of books I read at university, they had a parochial view of the world (which I so wanted to break down). I remember asking one of them what he wanted to be when he grew up and his delicious but naïve answer was “homem rico”, and I had this 16 year-old boy in the 7th grade who wanted to stop studying and start working (which he did but then gave up and returned to school).

There was a lot to be taught, not only grammar, but something much more important. These students needed to understand more about the world that surrounded them and they needed me to build that bridge. Up to that moment I hadn’t experienced all that I had learnt in English Didactics and Methodology, but then it all started to make sense. Learning a foreign language is their opportunity to see the world from a different perspective, through different eyes and I was there to help them. In spite of the current state of affairs in education, I do believe in the power we, teachers, have in our hands, hearts and minds.

As I said previously, it wasn’t easy at first. They talked more than they should and some of them didn’t even know how to make up a sentence in English. Now I think of this, I remember something I read in Teacher Man,

“You think you’ll walk into the classroom, stand a moment, wait for silence, watch while they open notebooks and click pens, tell them your name, write it on the board, proceed to teach. On your desk you have the English course of study provided by the school. You’ll teach spelling, vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, composition, literature. You can’t wait to get to the literature. You’ll have lively discussions about poems, plays, essays, novels, short stories. The hands of one hundred and seventy students will quiver in the air and they’ll call out, Mr. McCourt, me, me, I wanna say something. You hope they’ll want to say something. You don’t want them to sit gawking while you struggle to keep a lesson alive.”

Sometimes I struggled, but I tried my best to make learning meaningful for them. There were so many moments in which I wanted them to say something but they just stared at me. They had something to say, they just didn’t know how to say it.

As time went by we created a bond, something which my colleagues couldn’t because they were too busy yelling at their own students. They were too busy collecting the so-called expected answers, giving them no time to think of their own questions and beliefs. This wasn’t the sort of teacher I wanted to be. I realised that for me teaching had to be passionate and personal, or it wouldn’t make sense. My students were all that mattered and they still are.

Thank you sharing this precious moment with me :)

If...

2008-07-11T12:02:00.001+01:00

IWBs in the Secondary - Where is the Interaction?

2008-06-29T17:30:00.003+01:00

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MTV Switch

2008-06-15T20:58:00.005+01:00

MTV Switch is MTV Networks International's Global Climate Change Campaign. We'll be looking for the best ideas and innovations that can help us reinvent how we live in ways that are cool for us and the planet. (We'll also be getting ideas from you guys, no matter how wacky…)

This isn't about what we can't do, it's about what we can. It's time to Switch.

in http://www.mtvswitch.org/

How to teach English in EFL/ESL classrooms

2008-06-12T13:22:00.005+01:00

In this video, an English teacher in Madrid discusses how beginning English teachers should approach teaching a language as well as classroom management. He states that teachers need practical training before entering the classroom (i.e. TEFL certificate or company training). In addition, he talks about how teachers should be meticulous and focused on one hand and understanding of their students capabilities and limits on the other. Teachers should definitely heed his advice as a code of conduct or guideline in the classroom.

In this video, the Madrid teacher discusses ways to indirectly correct students mistakes without offending them. These techniques are beneficial to teachers, especially teachers with big classes, who want to maintain their students’ confidence to continue learning the language.

taken from: http://www.dailyefl.com/

TEFL: THEORY, PRACTICE AND METHODOLOGY

2008-06-03T20:15:00.002+01:00

1st Conference on Teaching English as a Foreign Language
——————————————————–

§ Date of the event: 14 and 15 November 2008
§ The conference will take place in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences
§ The official language for the conference, including presentations and submissions, is English.

Each presentation should be 20 minutes plus for 10 minutes for discussion.

§ Organizing committee:
Professor Doutor Filipe Furtado

Prof. Doutor Carlos Ceia

Profª Doutora Ana Matos

Drª Vanessa Boutefeu

Dr. Dave Rowlands

§ The Conference seeks to be a forum for all teachers of English (with a particular focus on Primary to Secondary level), policy makers, researchers, teacher trainers, academic coordinators and practitioners in order to have a critical and constructive assessment of current research and practice on the teaching of English.

§ The Conference organizers propose the following topics for discussion (please, consider these topics as suggestions for selection):

Teachers’ beliefs
Globalization and language teaching
The Common European Framework
Project work
Language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
Critical thinking across age levels
Problem and inquiry-based learning
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)
The use of stories in the classroom
Inter-cultural elements in TEFL
Changes in EFL grammar
Communication in the classroom
The place of literature in TEFL
Teacher training, teacher development and teacher assessment
Curriculum and syllabus design and planning
The teaching of grammar
The teaching of pronunciation
Cultural studies and ELT
The teaching of vocabulary
Teaching and learning technologies
Translation and English language teaching
Corpus linguistics and English language teaching
Teaching English to young learners

§ The deadline for speakers’ proposals is 30 June 2008, and should be sent to ricardo.marques@fcsh.unl.pt
§ The abstracts for papers should not exceed 400 words (min. 250).
§ Free proposals (those not requested on invitation) will be considered by two referees who will decide on the acceptance or refusal of the contribution. Contributors will receive e-mail confirmation of acceptance/refusal of their proposals.
§ Registration is open to anyone who wishes to attend the conference.

Registration fees:
General fee: € 50
Student fee: € 25 (Student affiliation proof required)

One credit will be attributed to teachers of English on request.
[Esta acção é relevante para efeitos de progressão na carreira dos professores dos ensinos Básico e Secundário, segundo o artigo 5º do Regime Jurídico da Formação Contínua de Professores; será, pois, requerida a respectiva creditação; a obtenção do crédito de formação (=25 horas de formação, distribuídas pelos 2 dias das conferências presenciais e pela preparação do relatório crítico) obriga a avaliação de acordo com as regras do Conselho Científico-Pedagógico da Formação Contínua.]

Important Deadlines:
Abstract Deadline: 30th June

Opening of registration: 1st Sep.Last day to register: 10th Nov.

more in http://unlenglishteaching.wordpress.com/conferencias/

21 Accents

2008-05-27T19:40:00.001+01:00

This is the video of a woman who imitates 21 different English accents, including British, Irish, Scottish, Australian and American accents, as well as several European ESL accents.

Notice how she changes her facial expression for each accent. Like any good actor, she knows that the sound that comes out of your mouth depends on the role, the character, that you play.

Fingertips invite you to their Summer concert ;)

2008-05-16T14:16:00.000+01:00

more info: www.thefingertips.com

APPI Conference 2008

2008-05-06T15:08:00.008+01:00

First of all, I'd like to congratulate APPI for their wonderful conference in Aveiro. Once again, I found myself among colleagues, friends, people I see as being family in a way. It was a pleasure to share these three days with you and again learn from you.

I would also like to thank Celeste for being such a great friend and someone I love working with. According to people who were at our session, it was very good and so thank you ALL for being there and for the feedback in the end. If there is anything else you need, just let us know :)

See you soon,

Helena Oliveira

Thank YOU!

http://www.yonkis.com/mediaflash/unmillon.htm

Dream GLOBAL @ 22nd APPI Conference in Aveiro - 1,2 & 3 May 2008

2008-04-30T21:28:00.000+01:00

“Global has apparently become a real issue that permeates both our personal and professional lives. What may the content of global be in ELT classes? The so-called global issues probably come to your mind at first: those related to human rights, peace, development, citizenship, environmental education… Yet such issues as communication skills, critical thinking and creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills, cross cultural awareness-raising, empathy, and other concerns of the kind that have consistently proved to be crucial all through one’s life, are covered by a global approach to ELT as well.”

in APPI Conference Handbook

Our session

There is more to the syllabus than grammar and vocab. How can we, as teachers, develop our students’ sense of identity and cultural awareness? Through a selection of songs, films, poems and images we’ll try to help you motivate your students and give your lessons a “GLOBAL” touch.

Thank YOU :)

Celeste Simões & Helena Oliveira

O ensino das línguas estrangeiras em Portugal

2008-04-27T16:21:00.003+01:00

Com o intuito de facultar elementos para o debate do ensino das línguas estrangeiras em Portugal, na sequência do que tenho vindo aqui a apresentar, gostaria que tomassem conhecimento do texto conjunto da Associação Portuguesa de Estudos Germanísticos (da Universidade do Porto) e da Associação Portuguesa de Professores de Alemão.
Este texto, publicado no Público, em 14 de Abril de 2005, vem colocar em evidência a ditadura do ensino da língua inglesa nas escolas portuguesas e invocar a ausência do acto democrático da escolha livre. Neste contexto, relembre-se as palavras de Jorge Sampaio na visita oficial a França, pedindo maior apoio para o ensino da língua portuguesa nesse país, tendo-lhe, amavelmente, sido o mesmo pedido remetido à procedência ao exigir-se que se faça o mesmo pela língua francesa em Portugal. Também neste âmbito, a Universidade de Coimbra, através do Centro Interuniversitário de Estudos Germanísticos, tem vindo a desenvolver esforços através de colóquios, palestras e contactos com as escolas do terceiro ciclo e secundário da região centro no sentido de sensibilizar professores e alunos para a necessidade da aprendizagem de outras línguas, nomeadamente, o alemão.
É neste espírito de uma europa multicultural, e não com a intenção simplista da monoculturalidade, que pretendo aqui apresentar este texto:

A situação do ensino do Alemão em Portugal

A situação do ensino das línguas estrangeiras (LE) em Portugal é, no momento actual extremamente preocupante, para não dizer catastrófica.
Uma das questões que têm causado especial preocupação junto da maioria dos profissionais da educação reporta-se à revisão curricular que, a nosso ver, vai contra os princípios estabelecidos pelo Conselho da Europa, que visam o desenvolvimento de uma competência plurilingue.
Numa Europa agora a 25, com novos Estados-membros que contam com elevados índices de escolaridade, nomeadamente no âmbito das LE, e especialmente do Alemão, Portugal não deve perder uma oportunidade de poder competir no mercado de trabalho europeu (e não só), desperdiçando faculdades que inegavelmente os falantes de português têm para a aprendizagem de outras línguas. Como cidadãos europeus, conscientes de uma Europa cada vez mais multilingue e multicultural, parece-nos que todo e qualquer cidadão deveria ser capaz de comunicar em pelo menos duas LE para além da sua língua materna.
Temos consciência de que durante a escolaridade obrigatória os alunos têm oportunidade de aprender duas LE, o que vai ao encontro das directrizes dos órgãos europeus competentes. Todavia, no ensino secundário, no contexto da revisão curricular agora em curso, esta orientação é descurada -apenas um curso (Línguas e Literaturas) contempla a obrigatoriedade de aprendizagem de duas LE.
Para transformar Portugal num país mais competitivo, há uma necessidade premente de investir mais e de forma mais eficiente no ensino das LE, o que implica algumas premissas: a possibilidade de os alunos do 7º ano optarem verdadeiramente entre as várias LE possíveis – Alemão, Espanhol e Francês; a abertura de turmas de LE com um número de alunos inferior a 15 elementos; a reestruturação da reforma curricular para o ensino secundário que actualmente impede a escolha de uma 3ª LE; a continuidade de duas LE obrigatórias no ensino secundário perante a iminência de escolaridade obrigatória; o prosseguimento da aprendizagem de LE na componente de Formação Geral até ao 12° ano; a criação de programas adequados (para o Alemão em parceria com o Goethe Institut e as universidades) para as LE enquanto 1ª, 2ª e 3ª línguas para todos os níveis em conformidade com o Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência, o qual terá de estar em vigor nas escolas até 2007 (prerrogativa do Conselho da Europa); a inclusão de LE como disciplina obrigatória na componente de Formação Específica nos cursos de Ciências Sócio-Económicas e Ciências Sociais e Humanas; a inclusão de LE na componente de Formação Tecnológica nos cursos Tecnológicos de Administração e Marketing; a criação de cursos tecnológicos de Turismo e Documentação com duas LE; o estabelecimento de protocolos com universidades alemãs e empresas de países de expressão alemã, em Portugal; a salvaguarda da defesa do plurilinguismo face ao avanço do Inglês; numa altura em que o Governo se prepara para instituir a obrigatoriedade do Ing1ês no 1° ciclo do ensino básico, parece-nos premente alertar para a existência de outras línguas tão ou mais faladas que o Inglês na Europa.
Na sequência do exposto, e no âmbito do 1° Encontro Nacional Associação Portuguesa de Estudos Germanísticos - Associação Portuguesa de Professores de Alemão, subordinado ao tema Deutsch lernen – Deutsch studieren: Berusfspersperspektiven im Europa der 25, no qual teve lugar um debate empenhado e interventivo sobre o ensino da língua alemã no contexto nacional actual, as direcções das referidas associações já redigiram um apelo às entidades superiores, com vista a reformular os aspectos anteriormente mencionados.

A DIRECÇÃO DA ASSOCIAÇÃO PORTUGUESA DE ESTUDOS GERMANÍSTICOS
A DIRECÇÃO DA ASSOCIAÇÃO DE PROFESSORES DE ALEMÃO
Porto

fonte: http://profidencias.blogspot.com/2005/04/o-ensino-das-lnguas-estrangeiras-em.html

Teaching...

2008-04-17T21:18:00.000+01:00

“To be a passionate teacher is to be someone in love with a field of knowledge, deeply stirred by issues and ideas that challenge our world, drawn to the dilemmas and potentials of the young people who come into class each day – or captivated by all of these. A passionate teacher is a teacher who breaks out of the isolation of a classroom, who refuses to submit to apathy or cynicism. ….. only when teachers bring their passions about learning and about life into their daily work can they dispel the fog of passive compliance or active disinterest that surrounds so many students. I believe that we all have it within ourselves to be passionate teachers, and that nothing else will quite do the trick.”

in Fried, R.L. (1995). The Passionate Teacher

Environmental Activist Basics with Ed Begley, Jr.

2008-04-12T00:38:00.001+01:00

VideoJug: Environmental Activist Basics

Environmental Activist Basics

What is an "environmental activist"?
I think the people who call themselves environmental activists draw a line in very different places. Some environmental activists say, "Well, I'm only going to eat meat one day a week now" - they do what they can. There's other environmental activists - people like Darryl Hannah or, I suppose, myself too - who draw the line in a very different place. Having been involved in environmental activism since 1970, I keep finding new ways to refine it and things to do better. The interesting thing for me, having been doing it 37 years now, is that nearly all of it is quite second nature. It's very easy to do. Most importantly, being an environmental activist is good for me. It's a good financial thing to do.

How long have you been an environmental activist?
I've been an environmental activist since 1970. We burned trash in our back yard in 1970, not in some scofflaw fashion, everybody did it. You'll see in some very old homes, that having demolished them, there'll be trash incinerators. This in a valley with a thermal inversion layer on the top three hundred some odd days a year, it was very, very bad here in LA in 1907. A lot of the people who took part in Earth Day, like myself, were motivated to do something.

Why is the world opening up to environmental activism?
You know, there's so many reasons, we have kind of a perfect storm; Perfect storm being a very apt metaphor because of Hurricane Katrina and, you know, other weather related situations that have occured. It's gotten people's attention, that there might be something to global climate change. You know people are starting to listen to the people who have PhD and who are quite knowledgeable in this arena. People who know about climate science and nearly all of them agree that a global climate change is occuring and most importantly that man has a big impact on it. So, if we have a big impact to the negative, we can certainly impact it to the positive and you know, as I've said there's one powerful lady that's motivated us to do all that. Her name is Katrina and that I think got everybody's attention. And then, Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" I think also came at just the right time, within a relatively short period of time from Hurricane Katrina and other situations like that. More and more science coming out all the time in science magazines, nature magazines, prestigious peer reviewed studies in journals. People are starting to wake up to is and see that maybe there is something to this.

What do you think is the biggest environmental threat right now?
I think the biggest environmental threat is global climate change, but when you say that, in the minds of some there is some uncertainty about global climate change; is it happening and more importantly what are the effects going to be? Are they going to be minor? Is it going to be like Y2K, where it's this big drama over something that didn't really pan out to be much of a problem at all? People fear it's going to be like that, but what I say to them is that if you take measures to combat global climate change, you're going to do a few other things. You're going to clean up the air in a city like LA or Houston or Bakersfield; some non-attainment city that isn't maintaining even the federal clean air standard. You're also going to put money into your pocket, because this stuff is good for your financial profile over the long run, and you're going to lessen our dependence on middle-Eastern oil, and I think that's a very good thing to do at this point for our national security.

http://www.videojug.com/interview/environmental-activist-basics#what-do-you-think-is-the-biggest-environmental-threat-right-now

Do You Speak English?

2008-04-10T23:36:00.000+01:00

If...

2008-04-10T23:34:00.001+01:00

BBC - Video Nation

2008-04-10T23:31:00.000+01:00

Another link you may find useful :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/

Jamie Keddie and www.teflclips.com

2008-04-10T23:20:00.007+01:00

Jamie Keddie runs a website called http://www.teflclips.com/ which is dedicated to the possibilities for YouTube and similar sites in teaching. One of his aims is to link to the 250 or so clips he has collected over the past couple of years and which he feels may be used in the classroom in some way or another. Here are a two examples:

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk(Good for teaching language of daily routines)
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=i9X6JNJ93e4(For this one he transcribed the text, gave it to his learners, let them hear the clip without seeing the screen, got them to guess what the man looks like and what his specific accessibility problem is.)

Check his website for more :)

IATEFL - 11th April

2008-04-09T00:48:00.000+01:00

Friday 11 April

Final plenary session by Radmila Popovic

Abstract
Forging peace through ELT: utopia or reality?

The closing decade of the past century saw an upsurge of interest in exploring the world of Englishes as a possible arena for addressing the issues of peace, justice and conflict. In the field of linguistics a new sub-discipline emerged – peace linguistics, "in which linguistic principles, methods and findings were seen as a means of promoting peace and human rights at a global level" (Crystal 1999). At the same time, concerned about the lack of peace education in schools, a number of language educators recognized the need to include sensitive or controversial issues (e.g., promoting social justice, dealing with conflict resolution, human rights, etc.) in the language curriculum, and sought ways of translating theoretical insights into classroom practice. The aim of the talk is to examine ways of integrating language and peace education theoretically and applicationally, both as content and process, and also identify the complexity and contradictions inherent in those efforts.

In the first part of the presentation, I will offer a critical review of perspectives taken on ways of dealing with issues of peace and conflict in ELT. Next, I will juxtapose the findings with the analysis of personal narratives of the teachers (including my own) who have attempted to teach language and peace in diverse contexts, and frequently under adverse circumstances. In the final section, I will try to pinpoint potential challenges in pursuing peace enterprise in the ELT classroom, and outline the usable scope of peace education as a critical praxis and an ongoing language teaching practice.

Bio

Radmila Popovic is an Assistant Professor in ELT Methodology and Applied Linguistics at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and a Visiting Professor at the School for International Training, USA. Having studied and worked both in her native country and the USA, she is primarily interested in effective ways of drawing on the knowledge and experience of ‘foreign’ and ‘local’ experts to effect educational change. So far, she has worked on several innovative projects (teacher and trainer development at primary & secondary levels, mentoring, curriculum reform in tertiary education) both in Serbia and abroad. She also has extensive experience in acting as a mediator between different stakeholders (Ministry of Education, University, teachers’ associations) in foreign aid projects. She has presented at a number of national and international conferences. Her current interests include teacher education, critical pedagogy and second language acquisition.

IATEFL - 10th April

2008-04-09T00:44:00.003+01:00

Thursday 10th April

British Council panel discussion

Debating Frameworks for Diversity and Equal Opportunity in ELT

We are all committed to equality of opportunity and valuing, managing and promoting diversity in the staffroom and in the classroom. This session brings together teachers, managers and leaders from the UK and around the world to hear about and debate how we take responsibility as practitioners for defining our professionalism through preserving and demonstrating many important equality and diversity values in our work. We ask how do these and other wider social agendas impact upon how we define good and best practice, and discussion will touch on how we:

integrate intercultural perspectives into the learning curriculum
influence attitudes and behaviours through formal/informal learning and role modelling
value a change process that supports creating and sustaining an environment that is aware of, open to, and respectful of differences.

The lead speaker is Fiona Bartels-Ellis, Head of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at the British Council. The chair is Mike Solly, Senior Advisor Teaching and Learning, British Council. Invited panellists will come from different overseas and UK ELT contexts, representing a range of views, opinions and beliefs. Discussion will also focus on the recruiting strategies of ELT institutes and colleges which aim to attract, hire, and retain diverse employees. The native–non-native teacher issue is also sure to attract comment and debate. This innovative event is interactive and open. We will hear a wide range of ‘voices’ involving individuals contributing ‘live’ from overseas, an invited specialist speaker and, of course, the audience and panellists in the Great Hall.

Fiona Bartels-Ellis - Head of EO&D at the British Council
Dr. Catherine Walter - Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Also the Course Leader on the institutes MA in TESOL and the School Equal Opportunities Coordinator
Harry Kucheh - Ministry of Basic Education, Cameroon and ex-Hornby scholar.
Rod Bolitho - Academic Director at NILE (Norwich Institute of Language Education)
David Valente - Head of Primary Learners - British Council, Bangkok

IATEFL - 8th April (2)

2008-04-08T09:03:00.000+01:00

The Pecha Kucha session

A snapshot of ELT - the IATEFL Pecha Kucha Night

In a Pecha Kucha event, presenters are allowed 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds each. This gives a total presentation time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds before the next person is up.

We’ve gathered some well-known and experienced speakers and challenged them to “do” a Pecha Kucha, each speaking about a different aspect of ELT today. Will they rise to the challenge? Come and find out!

The event will be hosted by Lindsay Clandfield, and speakers include: Susan Barduhn, Margit Szesztay, Gavin Dudeney, Jenny Johnson, Scott Thornbury, Rose Senior, Adrian Tennant and Jeremy Harmer.

Lindsay Clandfield is a teacher, trainer and writer from Canada. His work includes Dealing with Difficulties (DELTA, with Luke Prodromou), The Language Teacher's Survival Guide (It's publications, with Duncan Foord) and the Straightforward Adult Course series (Macmillan). He is a regular speaker at conferences and a main contributor to the website Onestopenglish. He's interested in new and creative ways of doing things - like Pecha Kucha for example. He will be hosting the first IATEFL Pecha Kucha.

Gavin Dudeney is the author of The Internet & the Language Classroom (CUP) and How to Teach with Technology (Longman. He co-runs an online training and development agency The Consultants-E. In his spare time he is Honorary Secretary of IATEFL. He is more virtual than real, having no spare time at all for normal human existence. Gavin will be talking about Web 2.0.

Jenny Johnson has been in ELT for over 25 years. She is Head of TEFL for Cactus Worldwide here in the UK and worked for many years as head of teacher training at International House Barcelona. She has been an IATEFL volunteer in various roles. She will be talking things many of us wish we’d known about TEFL.

Adrian Tennant has been involved in ELT for the past twenty years. He’s run training courses and workshops in almost 40 countries. He now spends most of his time at Heathrow or in front of his computer where he writes ELT materials. Adrian’s talk is about what’s the problem with ELT.

Margit Szesztay started out as an English teacher working at various language schools in Budapest. She also taught at a secondary school and at a Foreign Trade College for a few years. For the past 16 years she has been a teacher trainer working mostly with beginner teachers. She loves working with groups and will talk about group processes.

Dr. Susan Barduhn, a Professor at the SIT Graduate Institute in the U.S. She has worked for extended periods in Kenya, the U.K., Switzerland, Colombia, Spain, and Portugal. Susan Barduhn is a Past President of IATEFL and will be talking about learner as teacher, teacher as learner.

Jeremy Harmer is a writer, trainer and consultant - and a faculty member on the MATESOL at the New School New York. Among his books are The Practice of English Language Teaching, How to Teach Writing and How to Teach English. He is the series editor of the Longman How to Series. Jeremy Harmer’s talk is called 10 things I know about TEFL.

Rose Senior is a senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia. She is the author of the Experience of Language teaching (CUP) and has a regular column in English Teaching Professional magazine. Rose Senior is a pioneer of the class-centered teaching concept, and will be talking about key pieces in the classroom jigsaw puzzle.

Scott Thornbury is a writer, trainer and also faculty member on the MATESOL at the New School New York. His works include About Language (CUP), How to Teach Grammar, How to teach Vocabulary, How to Teach Speaking (all Longman) and Natural Grammar (OUP). He is known for founding the dogme ELT movement. He will be finishing our Pecha Kucha evening with the cryptically titled Eating for Specific Purposes.

IATEFL - 8th April

2008-04-08T08:01:00.000+01:00

Opening plenary session - Alastair Pennycook

Abstract
Changing global ELT practices

Locating English language teaching (ELT) firmly within processes of globalization, this paper explores several key concerns of global ELT: the changing linguascape of English and the continuing debates about what constitutes English; changing ways of thinking about language in terms of ecologies and practices; an understanding of English as a language always in translation, with particular implications for changes to how we think about native speakers, culture, and translingual language use; and ever-changing digital mediascapes, which present us with particular challenges for an engagement with the popular cultural worlds inhabited by our students. Drawing on examples of language, popular culture and pedagogy from different global contexts, this paper suggests a range of new concerns and possibilities that now confront English language teachers.

Bio
Alastair Pennycook is concerned with how we understand language in relation to globalization, colonial history, identity, popular culture and pedagogy. He has been involved in English language teaching for many years and worked as an English teacher in England, Germany, Japan, China, Canada and Hong Kong. Publications include The cultural politics of English as an international language (Longman, 1994), English and the discourses of colonialism (Routledge, 1998), Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001) and Global Englishes and transcultural flows (Routledge, 2007). Alastair is Professor of Language in Education at the University of Technology Sydney.

Watch a recording of the session here - http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/IATEFL/2008/8-Tuesday/opening-plenary/opening-plenary.htm

42nd International Annual IATEFL Conference

2008-04-06T22:22:00.001+01:00

The Exeter Online website gives you an opportunity to share ideas with teachers all around the world and get a taste of one of the world's biggest ELT conferences through a variety of resources including:

- video and audio recordings of selected sessions
- live streamed plenaries and events
- moderated discussion forums
- chat sessions, interviews, reports, photo albums and a lot more!

Join us and fellow ELT professionals from around the world to discuss, reflect on and develop ideas.

How do I participate in Exeter Online?
You can log on as a guest user, although this will not allow you to access all site content (e.g. discussion forums and recorded presentations). For unrestricted, free access to the whole site, please follow these simple steps:

1. Create an account at http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org/login/signup.php
2. Activate your account - you will receive an email at the email address you used in the above step. You may need to check in your spam or "bulk items" folder.
3. Enter Exeter Online (link below) and follow the "Enrol me in this course" link (top right).

That's it! We hope you enjoy Exeter Online.

http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org/course/view.php?id=2

Helping teens to listen

2008-03-18T14:59:00.002Z

There are obviously many cultural differences between the teenagers we teach all over the world. However, I think that many parents and teachers would agree that the teenage years are, to use a cliché, 'a difficult age' for many young people. It seems clear to me that this has serious implications for teachers teaching English to groups of teenagers.

Why teenagers find listening difficult

Some teachers find that their teenage students are often so busy chatting amongst themselves that the teacher has to make an effort to gain their attention and help them focus on the English lesson.

I find that the level of motivation of teenage students can vary enormously. Some teenagers are of course very keen to learn while others are in class because they are forced to be there, not because they want to be there.
I seem to see more and more teenagers who have problems of short attention spans which makes the discipline of listening to reasonably extended discourse in English much more difficult.
There is also the problem that confronts all students of English and that is the way that individual sounds change in connected speech (i.e. assimilated, elided and weak forms). This can mean that students simply turn off when listening to English being spoken as it seems too difficult to follow without a high level of concentration.

Making listening more engaging for teenagers:

Many of us will rely on course books for the listening material we use in the classroom and this material may or may not be suitable for our teens. I think it is important to consider ways in which we can supplement listening material in course books with material which will motivate our students.

One possibility is to ask students to bring prepared songs or any other listening material in English to the classroom. When I have done this I have often been very surprised to see how much work students put in to prepare the material if asked to do so.
Students often seem to enjoy bringing a song on tape to school with the words suitably gapped. Apart from anything else, in this situation the students decide themselves what they are going to listen to instead of having a listening activity imposed on them by the teacher. I believe that this is a key to motivating our students.
Another idea that has worked well in the past for me is to record a short interview with one of my fellow teachers. I find that I get a lot of mileage out of a 10 minute interview with an English speaking colleague and that students are really interested in hearing about the life of one of the other teachers at school.

Helping students understand spoken English

I always give my students a transcript of tapes they have listened to after we have completed the listening tasks. Even if students only read and listen to part of what they have heard, it should allow them to become more aware of the difference between how spoken English sounds compared with how it is written.

After using a tape where students have to listen for the gist then pick out detail, I always pick out a tricky sentence and do a piece of intensive listening. Here students listen several (maybe ten) times to the same sentence and have to work out how many words there are in the sentence then what the words are exactly. I find my teenage students enjoy doing this and a competitive element can be introduced by putting students into teams.
A complex sentence such as "I asked him what the time was" can be analysed after the students have worked out what the words are. The teacher can point out that the 'k' in 'asked' and 'h' 'him' sounds disappear in this piece of connected speech and that this is an example of elision.
Sometimes I simply dictate a sentence like the one above at the beginning of a class as a warmer and follow the same procedure.

Making predictions

It will certainly help the listener to make predictions about what they are about to hear before they listen.

I try to turn prediction activities into a game by putting my teenage students in groups before they listen and asking them to try to predict the answers to listening tasks where they have to pick out detailed information.For example, students could try to guess the missing information in sentences such as "The city of Glasgow is always………". My students always seem to enjoy this competitive element and it's always interesting to see who has made the best predictions. I always point out that good listeners are often good at predicting.
In an exercise where students have to identify who someone is speaking to on the phone (e.g. a landlord / an architect / a builder) I would draw a grid on the board and ask students to predict the vocabulary, situation and tone of voice for each of the three possibilities. Again, students could do this in teams and a competitive element could be introduced.

ConclusionI believe that it is important for teachers to prepare thoroughly for a listening activity if the activity is to be successful and I think that this is especially true with teenagers. As motivation is so important when dealing with young learners, doing some pre-listening activities that are designed to raise interest in the listening task at hand can often make the experience more engaging and enjoyable for everyone.

by Kevin Thomson [British Council Barcelona]

Love and The Cabby

2008-03-17T21:52:00.002Z

I was in New York City the other day and rode with a friend in a taxi. When we got out my friend said to the driver, "Thank you for the ride. You did a superb job of driving."
The taxi driver was stunned for a second. Then he said, "Are you a wise guy or something?"
"No my dear man, and I'm not putting you on. I admire the way you keep cool in heavy traffic."
"Yeh," the driver said and drove off.
"What was that all about?" I asked.
"I'm trying to put love back in New York City," [my friend] said. "I believe it's the only thing that can save the city."
"How can one man save New York City?" I asked.
"It's not one man. I believe I have made the taxi driver's day. Suppose he has 20 fares. He's going to be nice to those 20 fares because someone was nice to him. Those fares in turn will be kinder to their employees or shop-keepers or waiters or even their own families. Eventually the goodwill could spread to at least 1000 people. Now that isn't bad, is it?" he asked.
"But you're depending on the taxi driver to pass your goodwill to others," I responded.
"I'm not depending on it," he said. "I'm aware that the system isn't foolproof so I might deal with 10 different people today. It, out of 10, I can make 3 happy then eventually I can indirectly influence the attitudes of 3000 more."
"It sounds good on paper," I admitted, "but I'm not sure it works in practice."
"Nothing is lost if it doesn't," he stated. "It didn't take any of my time to tell the man he was doing a good job. He neither received a larger tip nor a smaller tip. If it fell on deaf ears, so what? Tomorrow there will be another taxi driver who I can try to make happy."
"You're some kind of a nut," I said.
"That shows how cynical you have become," he exclaimed. "I have made a study of this. The thing that seems to be lacking, besides money of course, for our postal employees is that no one tells people who work for the post office what a good job they're doing."
"But they're not doing a good job," I responded.
"They're not doing a good job," he replied, "because they feel no one cares if they do or not. Why shouldn't someone say a kind word to them?"
We were walking past a structure in the process of being built and passed five workmen eating their lunch. My friend stopped, "That is a magnificent job you men have been doing. When will it be finished?"
"June," a man grunted.
"Ah. That really is impressive. You must be very proud," he stated. We walked away. I said to him, "I haven't seen anyone like you since 'The Man from La Mancha'."
"When those men digest my words, they will feel better for it," he said. "Somehow the city will benefit from their happiness."
"But you can't do this all alone!" I protested. "You're just one man."
"The most important thing is not to get discouraged," he responded. "Making people in this city become kind again is not an easy job, but if I can enlist other people in my campaign..."
"You just winked at a very plain looking woman," I said.
"Yes, I know," he replied. "And if she's a school teacher, her class will be in for a fantastic day."

By Art Buchwald

Good Teaching: The Top Ten Requirements

2008-03-12T00:03:00.002Z

By Richard Leblanc, York University, OntarioThis article appeared in The Teaching Professor after Professor Leblanc won a Seymous Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence including a $10,000 cash award. Reprinted here with permission of Professor Leblanc, October 8, 1998.

One. Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It's about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students.

Two. Good teaching is about substance and treating students as consumers of knowledge. It's about doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. But knowledge is not confined to scholarly journals. Good teaching is also about bridging the gap between theory and practice. It's about leaving the ivory tower and immersing oneself in the field, talking to, consulting with, and assisting practitioners, and liaisoning with their communities.

Three. Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students. It's about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times.

Four. Good teaching is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It's about getting only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling good. It's about deviating from the course syllabus or lecture schedule easily when there is more and better learning elsewhere. Good teaching is about the creative balance between being an authoritarian dictator on the one hand and a pushover on the other.

Five. Good teaching is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that they are the conductors and the class is the orchestra. All students play different instruments and at varying proficiencies.

Six. This is very important - good teaching is about humor. It's about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It's often about making innocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings.

Seven. Good teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction.

Eight. Good teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible institutional support - resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire organization - from full professors to part-time instructors - and is reflected in what is said, but more importantly by what is done.

Nine. Good teaching is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one's peers. Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through training and development programs.

Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards ... like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anything else.

What do you think? If you any a few minutes, let me know your opinion :)

DNA

2008-03-11T13:30:00.003Z

click on us :)

Biotechnology Through the Ages

2008-03-11T13:26:00.003Z

click on me :)

Cloning

2008-03-11T13:25:00.001Z

click on me :)

Genetic Modification of Crops

2008-03-11T13:22:00.002Z

Click on me :)

The Scales of Justice

2008-03-11T13:17:00.000Z

An Inspiring Story

2008-03-11T01:28:00.000Z

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much.." were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
******************************
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes.." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

in http://www.crazy4teachers.com/F004.php

Education = Success

2008-03-11T01:15:00.001Z

Book Report Due Today

2008-03-11T01:13:00.002Z

It's a Hard Life... :D

2008-03-11T01:12:00.000Z

I wonder...

2008-03-11T01:05:00.001Z

Just for a Laugh...

2008-03-11T00:54:00.003Z

Trading Places :)

2008-03-08T19:20:00.001Z

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home. He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed:
'Dear Lord: I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through, so please allow her body to switch with mine for a day. Amen.'
God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish. The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman.
He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate, awakened the kids, set out their school clothes, fed them breakfast, packed their lunches, drove them to school, came home and picked up the dry cleaning, took it to the cleaners and stopped at the bank to make a deposit, went grocery shopping, then drove home to put away the groceries, paid the bills and balanced the check book. He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog. Then it was already 1P.M. and he hurried to make the beds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home. Set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework, then set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing.
At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for supper.
After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.
At 9 P.M. he was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint.
The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said:
'Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day. Please, oh! oh! please, let us trade back.'
The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, replied:
'My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have to wait nine months though. You got pregnant last night.'

This has been voted Women's Favourite E-mail of the Year!

This Is England

2008-03-02T15:54:00.002Z

Release Date: 27/04/2007
Certificate: 18
Genre: TBA
Run Time: 100
Director: Shane Meadows
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Joe Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure

It‘s 1983 and school is out. 12–year–old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is an isolated lad growing up in a grim coastal town, whose father has died fighting in the Falklands war. Over the course of the summer holiday he finds fresh male role models when those in the local skinhead scene take him in. With his new friends Shaun discovers a world of parties, first love and the joys of Dr Martin boots. Here he meets Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, racist skinhead who has recently got out of prison. As Combo‘s gang harass the local ethnic minorities, the course is set for a rite of passage that will hurl Shaun from innocence to experience.

Ae Fond Kiss

2008-03-02T15:52:00.002Z

Release Date: 17/09/2004
Certificate: 15
Genre: TBA
Run Time: 104
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Atta Yaqub, Eva Birthistle, Shabana Bakhsh, Emma Friel

When a second–generation Pakistani DJ Casim falls in love with a ‘goree‘ – a white girl – named Roisin in his home town of Glasgow, his devout Muslim parents are not happy. And as a Catholic, Roisin, finds that her own community isn‘t very supportive either. So when their relationship is discovered, the repercussions of the scandal reach far and wide and sparks fly as cultures clash and personalities collide in the new movie from "Sweet Sixteen" director Ken Loach.

London To Brighton

2008-03-02T15:47:00.002Z

Release Date: 30/11/2006
Certificate: 18
Genre: TBA
Run Time: 85
Director: Paul Andrew Williams
Cast: Lorraine Stanley, Johnny Harris, Georgia Groome, Sam Spruell, Alexander Morton, Nathan Constance, Jamie Kenna

This tightly wound thriller deservedly won British writer–director Paul Andrew Williams the award for Best New Director at this year‘s Edinburgh Film Festival. Lorraine Stanley stars as Kelly, a London prostitute who has taken 11–year–old runaway Joanne (Georgia Groome) under her wing. The film hits the ground running as the visibly terrified pair flee to Brighton in the dead of night. Hot on their tail are a number of scary criminals, including Kelly‘s foul–mouthed pimp Derek (Johnny Harris) and the extremely creepy son (Sam Spruell) of an ageing crime boss.Williams‘ impressive script layers in a series of cleverly constructed flashbacks, in which we gradually learn how Kelly met Joanne and exactly what happened to them in London. The superb, naturalistic dialogue feels genuine and Williams makes terrific use of his authentic locations, particularly Victoria Station and the Brighton seafront.The performances are excellent. Lorraine Stanley is particularly good as Kelly, transcending the usual ‘tart with a heart‘ cliches and creating a character that is painfully, recognisably real. Harris is equally good – he even manages to generate a twinge of sympathy for his character, despite Derek being an all round nasty piece of work.Williams orchestrates some genuinely nail–biting suspense sequences and you‘re constantly aware of just how much danger the two leads are in, heightened by the fact that no–one would really miss them if they disappeared. In short, this is a thoroughly gripping British thriller and one that marks Paul Andrew Williams out as a talent to watch.

The Imagined Village

2008-02-29T21:42:00.003Z

As a group of musicians and record producers we'd like to welcome you to this site. We started this project back in 2004 as a way of exploring our musical roots and identity as English musicians and music makers. Some of our names may be familiar to you whilst some of us swim hidden in the fringes of the big village pond; some of us have backgrounds in traditional music whilst others are as far away from the folk club as you can get.
There is a lot of discussion in the media at present about what constitutes the English identity, we hope to use this web site and our first record as a contribution to this discussion. We are not trying to re-invent the wheel or for that matter re-invent the English folk tradition. What we are interested in is building an inclusive, creative community were we can engage in the debate passed down to us by the late Victorian collectors of English song, dance and stories spearheaded by Cecil Sharpe and his contemporaries and brought into contemporary resonance by Georgina Boyes in her book 'The Imagined Village', Billy Braggs recent works 'The Progressive Patriot', academics such as Paul Gilroys in 'After Empire Melancholia or Convivial Culture' and the commentaries of musicians such as Chris Wood, Eliza and Martin Carthy amongst others.
We all walk in the footsteps of our Victorian song collecting ancestors but feel it is more relevant now than ever to question who decides what it is to be authentic and English and more importantly what it is that makes us proud to be English musicians. We are not providing a manifesto or for that matter any easy answers. We also understand there are a lot of people out there who have been discussing these issues a lot longer than some of us who are relatively new to the debate. As musicians the primary focus for our communication comes through our music and we hope you feel inspired by our first CD to come and see us play live. We also hope this web site provides a vibrant and creative arena for discussion and exchange of ideas. Thanks for checking us out, keep it positive and keep it rooted.
Articles in The Financial Times and New Statesman written around the first rehearsal gathering of the Village in July immediately before our WOMAD show this summer are worth a look, they give you a real sense of the fun we had getting the show on the road.
We've got an informal filmed interview/discussion between Simon Emmerson and John Copper recorded at the end of the filming session for 'ouses 'ouses 'ouses - John tells the story of a musical family going back his 'great grandfather's grandfather. We have also had a lot of requests for the audio from the open discussion on English Identity that took place between Billy Bragg, Chris Wood, Simon Emmerson and an audience of 400+ on the afternoon of the WOMAD gig, which is now available as a download in the audio/video section.
We have some amazing live footage from the 1st ever Imagined Village performance at Real World Studios. We played to a small invited audience of friends and family as we were getting out set together for last summers Womad gig. Our 'retold' version of 'Hard Times Of Old England' is available now and we'll be adding 'John Barlycorn' soon.
Finally on the subject of having fun, no one does it better than the deep south USA re-mixer Doghouse Riley who has come up with a completely inspired and totally mad do-wop re-mix of Cold Hailey Rainey Night that can be found on the Real World Remixed site.

in http://imaginedvillage.com/

Sweatshops - How far has our society gone to achieve its purposes?

2008-02-23T12:50:00.003Z

One of a kind...

2008-02-21T22:24:00.003Z

Some things aren't meant to be forgotten...

http://www.museumoftolerance.com/

http://teachers.museumoftolerance.com/

Did you know...

- The Museum of Tolerance is the only facility of its kind in the world.
- The Museum has served over 4 million visitors, including over one and a half million children and youths have participated in the Museum experience and programs. since 1993.
- Since 1996, over 110,000 adults have been trained in the Museum’s customized professional development programs.
- A trend-setting pioneer, the Museum of Tolerance’s original exhibits and programs are being emulated in institutions throughout the United States and around the world in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Israel, Mexico, Chile, Canada, The Netherlands and France.
- More than 350,000 people have visited the Museum’s traveling Friedl Dicker Brandeis exhibit in Japan alone.
- The Museum has over 200 devoted volunteers serving as docents, library assistants, and book store attendees.
- Soaring above the national average for museums of our size, in our busy season the Museum provides 35 guided tours per day!
- According to recent UCLA study, the Museum has the most diverse visitor and membership base compared to other area museums.
- The Museum’s Tools for Tolerance for Law Enforcement is the largest training provider for Criminal Justice professionals on the West Coast.
- In December 2004, the Museum won the Global Peace and Tolerance Award.

Diary 18

2008-02-21T21:55:00.002Z

Dear Diary,

this game is stupid: I'm not a peanut! And what the hell does world peace have to to with peanuts? All these thoughts rolled through my mind as I tried to piece together a puzzle consisting of people and Planters. What was the message? Today Ms. Gruwell and I were not on the same continent, let alone the same page. At first I just sat there trying to glue together any thoughts that seemed to even break surface, but still I found nothing.

There I stood with both feet out the door, on the brink of tears, and quickly closing in on insanity, when something played out in my mind. I remembered a saying that I had heard: "It's not the messenger, but the message." Slowly my peanuts began to take form. I wasn't afraid because they weren't accompanied by a tophat, tap shoes, and a corny jingle. Instead they began to have purpose, they began to see goals, dreams, and ambitions. My peanuts, before my very eyes, changed into human beings. Short, long, fat, thin, and otherwise odd, but nevertheless peanuts. Brown, black, white, yellow, and all in between, nevertheless human. So why is it we don't care about the contour of a peanut, but would kill over the colour of a man?

The more I thought about his, the more the concept overwhelmed me. I began to analyze and reflect on my life, my many encounters with injustice and discrimination. It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. I think this is one of the most important realizations I've ever had. World peace is only a dream because people won't allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts. We won't allow the color of a man's heart to be the color of his skin, the premise of his beliefs, and his self-worth. We won't allow him to be a peanut, therefore we won't allow ourselves to come to live in harmony.

in The Freedom Writers Diary

Diary 17

2008-02-21T21:36:00.003Z

Dear Diary,

In Ms. Gruwell's class today, we played the "Peanut Game". The rules of the game included one piece of paper and a description of a peanut inside and out. I wrote about the peanut and said it was small, round, and dirty. On the other side of the paper I stated that even though it looked terrible, it tasted fantastic! We categorized all of the peanuts by mentioning their different exteriors. I soon realized the "Peanut Game" was similar to the situation I had about my weight.

One day in junior high, I was getting off the school bus from a seat in the back. It is a seat where no one likes to sit and is always empty. I heard people shouting, "Hey fatso!" "You big buffalo!" A group of obnoxious girls screamed such awful comments that I, and "obese" twelve-year-old girl, will sadly remember for the rest of my life.

"Oh no, not again!Please not again!" I thought to myself as I stood up to get off the bus. I had tried to ignore the girls' name-calling the entire ride home. Now that we were at my stop, I knew I had to face them before getting off. In order to leave the bus I had to walk through a long crowded aisle and face the obnoxious girls. As I stood up, the girls followed. They crowded together, and approached me as if they were ready to strike me. Why did they want to take their anger out on me? What did I do to them? All of the sudden, the girls began to kick and sock me repeatedly. I could feel the pain all over my body but felt defenceless. I did not fight back.

They continued to hurt me as if there was nothing more important to them than see me in pain. The last few kicks were the hardest; all I wanted to do was to get off the bus alive. My friends were staring at me, hoping that I would do something to make the girls stop. Why? Why didn't my friends help me? Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to release myself from their torture. I got off the bus alive. Imagining that the worst had already passed, I began to walk away from the bus and the girls stuck their heads out the window and spit on me. I could not believe it! They spit on my face!

The feeling of their spit striking me, running down my neck, and their germs accumulating on my face, felt disgusting. I heard paper crumbling in their hands, and then they threw it at me. I began to walk faster as the bus was on its way. While I was cleaning my face with a napkin, I could still hear the girls laughing. When they waved goodbye, my nightmare was over.

Today in Ms. Gruwell's classroom, I realized that a peanut is still a peanut even if the shell is different. Some taste better, other look fresher, but in the end they're all peanuts. Ms. G's analogy, "Don't judge the peanut by its shell, judge it by what's inside of it", made perfect sense to me. As long as I know that I am a human being, I don't need to worry about what other people say. In the end, we all are the same!

in The Freedom Writers Diary

Delivery, Till Nowak

2008-02-14T18:58:00.001Z

A BIG thanks to:

www.projectovideolab.com

http://projectovideolab.blogspot.com

A Family is a Family - Robert Munsch

2008-02-06T23:43:00.000Z

Dear Dana,

Yes families can get complicated! Here is a poem I wrote about your family. It could also be about my family.

I have a stepmother
And also a father
And keeping track
Is sometimes a bother
Cause there's a half brother
Who isn't my father
And also a mother
Who isn't my brother
And also a father
Whose step but not quite
So its really quite hard
To keep it all right.
And did I mention
That I have a sister?
In all of the bother
I just may have missed her.
This naming of names
Is really a fright
and it may keep me up
for half of the night.
But this family’s my family
And I don't have to fake it
Cause a family is a family
No matter how you make it.

Robert Munsch

Looking Closely at Second Language Learning

2008-02-03T22:15:00.000Z

Harvard Graduate School of Education
October 1, 2002

As Massachusetts voters consider a ballot initiative to overhaul bilingual education this fall, Shattuck Professor Catherine Snow discusses the research about second-language learning and English immersion.

Q: Do you believe that the critical period for language acquisition affects one's ability to learn a second language? Might it affect the way in which one learns that second language?
A: The evidence clearly demonstrates that there is no critical period for second-language learning, that there is no biologically determined constraint on language learning capacity that emerges at a particular age, nor any maturational process which requires that older language learners function differently than younger language learners. There are, however, myriad differences between older and younger learners that play themselves out in second-language learning just as they do in the learning of a musical instrument, a sport, or nuclear physics. For some aspects of learning, older learners have compelling advantages; for others, they have disadvantages. Those advantages and disadvantages emerge as a result of many variables that vary with age. These variables include how much one already knows, how strategic one's learning can be, how embarrassed one is about making errors, etc., and are not biologically determined.

Q: Could you offer any potential explanation(s) for the fact that older learners of a second language typically achieve basic proficiency in the new language more rapidly than younger learners?
A: Older learners do have many advantages. First, they already know one language (and sometimes more than one) quite well, and have therefore practiced with the linguistic capacities that speed language acquisition. Second, they are typically better at intentional learning. In other words, they have study strategies, mnemonic devices, literacy skills, and other resources to utilize. We are not surprised that older learners are better at algebra or history; we should not be surprised that they are faster second-language learners.

Q: Are some second-language skills more naturally acquired by younger learners than by older learners? Is the opposite ever true, that is, do older learners acquire some skills more readily than younger learners?
A: It is hard to understand what one means by "naturally acquired." Younger language learners, like older ones, work hard and struggle while learning. But younger learners are probably more willing to learn socially useful language, including phrases and longer utterances, without knowing exactly what it means. Thus, they can sometimes function better in certain social interactions. Younger learners generally are learning in the context of more contextual interactions; therefore, they may have advantages in picking up the meanings of the words they hear. And, while younger learners certainly start out with a "foreign accent" just like older learners, they may be more willing to experiment with unfamiliar sounds and sound sequences.

Q: How different would you imagine the learning of a second language to be, comparing older and younger learners? When might changes in learning style begin to take place?
A: One of the pieces of evidence that most strongly argues against the existence of a critical period for the acquisition of a second language suggests that there is no particular age when the ability to learn a second language declines. A critical period would be associated with a rather sharp fall-off in speed, ease, or success of second-language acquisition, but no such decline has ever been reported. Furthermore, studies that have compared the errors of older and younger learners who learn in similar contexts have found they make very similar errors, suggesting again that they are applying quite similar cognitive processes to the learning challenge.

Q: Do you have any possible explanations for the achievement of adults who demonstrate exceptionally strong abilities to learn a second language?
A: Studies of highly successful adult second-language learners suggest that they have a high motivation to learn the target language, and a period, typically early in the acquisition process, of full immersion in the target language, with minimal recourse to the first language. Of course, it is more often children who learn second languages that find themselves in this position of being highly motivated and left to sink-or-swim in the second-language setting. Consequently, it is perhaps not surprising that they are somewhat more likely to achieve high second-language proficiency.

Q: What influences in second-language learning would you say are repeatedly overlooked by the researchers who conclude that children demonstrate a greater capacity to learn a second language than adults do?
A: The missing variable in research on age differences in second-language acquisition is first language maintenance. Child second-language learners are somewhat more likely to achieve native-like proficiency in the second language than adult learners, and massively more likely to lose proficiency in their first language in the process. Adult second-language learners almost never become monolingual in the process of learning a second language, as children often do. Thus, they master the greater cognitive and linguistic challenge of maintaining two languages, often at a very high level, with much greater success than do children.

Q: What implications does this research have for the potential successes and/or failures of bilingual education, foreign language classes, and English immersion programs? Is the age at which second-language learning begins irrelevant?
A: The age at which immigrant children learn English is not irrelevant—they need English during elementary school in order to access the curriculum, to be accepted by English monolingual classmates, and to pass high-stakes assessments. But the research shows that we need not be panicked about pushing children into English as early as possible, that there is no window that will shut on them and make it impossible for them to be fluent English speakers. Furthermore, if we decide to value bilingualism as an outcome for American children, we should be alert to the findings that suggest that young second-language learners can easily lose their first languages. We should appreciate the value of educational programs that provide for first-language maintenance while building second-language competence.

What do YOU think?

by Abigail Bucuvalas
© 2008 President and Fellows of Harvard College
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/snow10012002.html

Messy Room by Shel Silverstein

2008-02-03T17:25:00.000Z

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or-
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

Shel Silverstein

2008-02-03T17:10:00.000Z

English

2008-02-02T20:31:00.000Z

There was a girl named English,
And English was her name.
It also was her language,
And so they were the same!
But how do we distinguish
Which English is what English?
Mistakes are quite inevitable,
And who are we to blame?

(For a girl named English)

© Bob Munsch Ent. Ltd.

Teacher Development Session in Carregal do Sal

2007-12-11T22:08:00.000Z

Caras/os colegas,

Aproveito para divulgar uma acção de formação (não creditada) que o Grupo de Inglês da minha escola - ES/3 de Carregal do Sal - irá dinamizar no dia 16 de Janeiro de 2008, com o formador Miguel Dias, e que será subordinada ao tema No Right to Remain Silent – Using Humour, Games and Songs to Increase Students Speaking Time in the Classroom.

Não deixem de aparecer! Conto com a Vossa presença!

Os meus cumprimentos (e beijinhos)

Celeste Simões

Being a Teacher...

2007-12-08T18:47:00.000Z

Once there was a man named Nathan. He wanted very much to be a teacher. So he went to seek the advice of the wisest, most highly respected counselor in the land.

"Wise counselor," Nathan began, "it has always been my dream to be a teacher. I want to stimulate the minds of the young people of our land. I want to lead them down the road of knowledge. Please tell me the secret of becoming a teacher."

"Your goal is a commendable one, Nathan. However, it is also a very difficult one to achieve. First you must overcome three major obstacles."

"I am ready to meet the challenge," answered Nathan bravely.

"First you must swim the Sea of Children," directed the knowing counselor.

Nathan started off to swim the Sea of Children. First he had to learn their 38 names. He had to send the line cutters to the end of the line. He made the paper throwers stay after school to clean the room. He commanded the name callers, pushers and punchers to apologise to their victims. He gave M&M's to those who finished assignments and stars to those who were sitting in their seats quietly. Nathan checked passes to see how many children were in the bathroom and he tracked down students who were gone longer than was necessary. He arranged the desks in alphabetical order, then boy-girl, boy-girl and finally into small groups of four. He lined his children up for physical education and music and library and lunch. Then he stifled a cry when the secretary came into the room with number 39. Tired and shaken but still undefeated, Nathan returned to the counselor for his second task.

"You are a very determined lad," said the advisor. "However, now you must climb the Mountain of Paperwork."

Nathan set out at once. He wrote objectives and drew up lesson plans. He made out report cards and graded papers. He filled out accident reports, attendance reports and withdrawal reports. He completed inventories, evaluations, surveys and request forms. Finally, he made dittos and more dittos. He ran them off until he was purple in the face. But the courageous boy's resolve never dwindled. He went to the wise counselor for his third task.

"You are indeed very strong, Nathan. But this third task will take all the courage you can muster. You must now cross the country of Duties and Committees."

At first Nathan was hesitant. But his convictions remained steadfast. He began his long journey across the country of Duties and Committees. Nathan took lunch duty, bus duty and recess duty. He was on the social committee, patrol committee and the faculty advisory committee. He was the adult supervisor of the student government and ran the United Fund and Easter Seal drives. He went to PTA meetings, NRA meetings, SST meetings, School Site meetings and in-service workshops. He organized bicentennial programs, talent shows, and book drives. Finally, he was elected the building representative of the union. At last Nathan reached the outskirts of Duties and Committees.

Exhausted but happy, he returned to the knowledgeable counselor.

"I swam the Sea of Children. I climbed the Mountain of Paperwork. I crossed the country of Duties and Committees," Nathan proclaimed. "Am I not worthy of the title of Teacher?"

"Why, Nathan," began the counselor, "you have been a teacher all along."

Nathan protested, "But I have not stimulated any minds. I have not guided anyone down the road to knowledge, I have not had any time to teach"

"Oh, you say you want to TEACH! I thought you said you wanted to be a teacher. That is a completely different story!!

Celebrating Christmas

2007-12-06T22:34:00.000Z

Hope you find this website useful :)

http://carollingineurope.wordpress.com/

2007-11-10T13:18:00.000Z

Education in Finland

2007-11-09T22:06:00.000Z

How do you feel about what you just heard?

What is Estuary English? - English Teaching Professional Nr 3

2007-11-06T00:29:00.000Z

Estuary English is a new name but it is not a new phenomenon. As often happens in language matters, argues John Wells, the English have got into a muddle.

There is a new buzzword doing the rounds in England - Estuary English (EE).It is supposed to be a new kind of English that’s due to take over as the new standard English. We are told it’s going to replace fuddy-duddy old Received Pronunciation (RP) as the standard accent. Not only are politicians sportsmen, and media personalities claimed as typical speakers of it, but even people as eminent as Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, Prince Edward.

But at the 1995 Conservative party conference the Minister of Education, Gillian Shephard, launched into a denunciation of EE, condemning it as slovenly, mumbling, bastardized Cockney. She claimed that teachers have a duty to do their utmost to eradicate it.

As often happens in language matters, the English have got into a muddle.

The term ‘Estuary English’ was coined as long ago as 1984 by David Rosewarne, an EFL teacher. He characterised it as ‘a variety of modified regional speech... a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation. If one imagines a continuum with RP and London speech at either end, ‘Estuary English’ speakers are to be found grouped in the middle ground.’ Rosewarne claims that Estuary English, named after the ‘banks of the Thames and its estuary’, is to be heard in the House of Commons, the City, the Civil Service, local government, the media, advertising, and the medical and teaching professions in the south-east.
In 1993 the London Sunday Times reported that Estuary English was ‘sweeping southern Britain’. A few months later Paul Coggle published his popular paperback Do You Speak Estuary? triggering another bout of media publicity. (Coggle is a university senior lecturer in German, and his book is actually very well-informed.) In the newspaper Independent on Sunday Neal Ascherson claimed that the upperclass young now speak Estuary English, ‘the faintly Cocknefied accent of the South-east’. In 1996, a Guardian leaderwriter could allude to someone’s arriviste social position simply by using the adjective ‘estuarian’.

Mrs Shephard seems actually to have misunderstood the term. For her it was ‘a form of London dialect with glottal stops’ and ‘a bastardised version of Cockney dialect’. She did not see it as a variety of Standard English, but as something to be eradicated. Perhaps she had confused ‘Estuary’ with ‘Essex’, (the county to the north of the Estuary) and with the sociological stereotype of Essex man, the well-paid ex-working-class philistine with more money than taste.
What are the phonetic characteristics of Estuary English (EE)? Many of the features that distinguish it from RP are features it shares with Cockney: things that may mark it as being distinctively south-eastern (as against RP, which is non-localisable within England). But these features are spreading geographically and socially, thus losing their localisability and thus to some extent justifying the claim that EE is ‘tomorrow’s RP’.

Unlike Cockney, EE is associated with standard grammar and usage. But like Cockney it shows tendencies towards such phonetic characteristics as the following:

● l-vocalisation, pronouncing the lsound in certain positions almost like [w], so that milk bottle becomes [÷mâok fibIto] (almost like ‘miwk bottoo’), and football becomes [÷fŸ?bÊo] (‘foo’baw’). The l-sounds that are affected are those that are ‘dark’ [Ä] in classical RP, namely those which are not immediately followed by a vowelsound, but rather by a consonant sound or a potential pause.

● glottalling, using a glottal stop [?] (a catch in the throat) instead of a t-sound in certain positions, as in take it off [=teâk â? ÷If], quite nice [=kwaâ? ÷naâs]. This is not the same as omitting the t-sound altogether, since plate [pleâ?] still sounds different from play [pleâ]. Nevertheless, authors who want to show a non-standard pronunciation by manipulating the spelling tend to write it with an apostrophe: take i’ off, qui’e nice. The positions in which this happens are most typically syllable-final - at the end of a word or before another consonant sound. London’s second airport, Gatwick, is very commonly called [÷gæ?wâk] (‘Ga’wick’).

● happY-tensing, using a sound more similar to the [i*] of beat than to the [â] of bit at the end of words like happy, coffee, valley. Many recent works on English phonetics transcribe this weak vowel as [i], which can then be interpreted in various ways according to the speaker’s accent. In strong syllables (stressed, or potentially stressed) it is crucial to distinguish tense long [i*] from lax short [â], since green must be distinct from grin and sleep from slip. But in weak syllables this distinction does not apply - the precise quality of the final vowel in happy is not so important.

● yod coalescence, using [tÜ ] (a chsound) rather than [tj] (a t-sound plus a y-sound) in words like Tuesday, tune, attitude. This makes the first part of Tuesday sound identical to choose, [tÜu*z]. The same happens with the corresponding voiced sounds: the RP [dj] of words such as duke, reduce becomes Estuary [dú], making the second part of reduce identical to juice, [dúu*s]. However, unlike Cockney, EE does not involve, for example:

● h-dropping, omitting [h], so that hand on heart becomes [=ænd In ÷G*?] (‘and on ‘eart); or

● th-fronting, using labiodental fricatives ([f, v]) instead of dental fricatives ([C, ö]). This turns I think into [G* ÷fâÉk] and mother into [÷mJvP].

Phoneticians at University College London have recently been attempting to fix a standard phonetic transcription for EE. This would open up the possibility of teaching it in the EFL classroom, if that were thought desirable. The main problems in standardising a transcription, relate to the notation of certain sequences of vowel plus the residue of vocalised /l/: in standardising EE. For example, do we retain the RP distinctions fool vs full vs fall ([fu*l, fŸl, fÊ*l]), or do we merge them all into [fÊo] as many Londoners do?

Estuary English is a new name. But it is not a new phenomenon. It is the continuation of a trend that has been going on for five hundred years or more - the tendency for features of popular London speech to spread out geographically (to other parts of the country) and socially (to higher social classes) made all the more rapid by radio and television, most of which is broadcast from the London area. The erosion of the English class system and the greater social mobility in Britain today mean that this trend is more clearly noticeable than was once the case.

Rather than try to adopt EE, perhaps a more realistic aim for EFL teachers and learners would be to make sure that our description of Received Pronunciation keeps up to date. It must not remain fossilized in the form codified by Daniel Jones almost a century ago. We must modernize it by gradually incorporating one or two of the changes typical of EE. To star’ with, we migh’ le’ people use a few glo’al stops. Or would tha’ no’ mee’ with everyone’s approval?

Coggle, Paul 1993 Do you speak Estuary? London, Bloomsbury

Professor Wells is the author of Accents of English and The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. He is Head of the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at University College London - the Department founded by Daniel Jones and subsequently headed by the late A.C.Gimson. He also directs the acclaimed annual UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics, of which you can find details on the World Wide Web at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/scep/home.

Lessons my trainer taught me

2007-11-01T12:51:00.000Z

Franca Schiavo offers some teaching tips for trainees and trainers

Over the past 10 years spent teaching EFL and running a private English language school in the south of Italy, I have more then once found myself involved in teacher training. Some months ago I wrote the following for a trainee, but think they could be useful for others in a similar situation - either trainees or trainers. They are based on my own teacher training and experience of 18 years. Although there may be little new in my notes for an experienced colleague, if you are just starting or planning to start a career in Tefl, here is something you can read and perhaps go back to every now and then.

Although not every lesson will follow the same pattern, and some days you will want to concentrate on practice rather than presentation, it is important to know how language chunks can be introduced so that you are then free to depart from, or go back to, that pattern.

A typical lesson

Introduction: Hello, how are you? Ask what the date is and write it down. Check the homework (do not spend too long on this).

Why? To welcome the students and gently lead them into the lesson, while also allowing late comers to join the class without interrupting the core of your lesson.

Warm up: You may want to do a five-minute activity at this stage, like a game (or physical activity for children) you have done before - or you could introduce a new one. I increasingly use this space to revise and recycle material. I also play music at this stage on some occasions.

Why? To revise or retrieve language (and/or to get children moving before settling down if they seem too energetic and noisy that day). Music helps the students - and me - to relax, especially adults after a day's work. It is energising and helps set the mood for the next hour or so.

Presentation: Introduce the language aspect that is your target for the lesson.How?· with pictures (can you draw?)· sounds or sound sequences· texts or dialogue, written or spoken · mime: hungry thirsty tired etc· photographs· using real objectsIf you are using a textbook, leading the class into the text or activities with separate visuals or real objects first generates interest and makes virtually any book more appealing.

Why? To provide a clear model in context of the target language.

Repetition: Use repetition - choral then individual - of core lines of your target language for the lesson at this stage, and of vocabulary and difficult sounds throughout the lesson.

Why? Repetition gives confidence and helps overcome difficulties with pronunciation (eg consonant clusters for speakers of Italian). Choral repetition will not expose weaker students before they have had a few goes, individual repetition takes care of the details.

Practice: Practice through exercises: spoken and written activities, listening practice, drama, role-plays, discussions.

Why? Practice is the chance to use the chunk/s of language you are teaching in a context that is (hopefully) similar to how it is used in real communication outside the lesson.

Keeping control: Practice is traditionally divided into controlled practice, where teachers carefully monitor activities and correct at this stage, and free practice, where tasks are set in such a way as students are free to use the language naturally (teacher gives feedback on mistakes and content etc later).

Staying focused: Remember to include singing, movement and games in your lessons, especially when teaching children, although I personally think language games, music, and to a lesser extent movement, play an important role in any class.

Why?

· Children and some particularly active or kinaesthetic types of learners of all ages have a short concentration span. Alternating more structured learning activities with physical actions and singing (especially for children) or games breaks the routine, provides novelty and combines the "security" of knowing what to expect from a lesson with the excitement of something different

· learning is an experience that involves the whole person, so varying activities creates memorable information.

Posture: It is usually best to begin a class standing up. I find myself standing at the start of a lesson when I am feeling energetic and there is something I want to get going, eg a discussion).

Why? It focuses learners' attention and makes your presence felt. Standing and circulating for part of the lesson works well with groups of rowdy teenagers or any large group.

Pace: This is vital - stop an activity before students become bored, vary and adjust your pace to suit your own and your students' working style.

Why? Two main reasons: one, we should try to respect each individual's learning style - including speed. And two, alternating a fast face with a slower one creates a natural balance within a lesson.

Circulate: Circulating, as well as standing still, is important during written work in class to deal with questions, check students' work and to control behaviour if necessary.

Why? It allows you, the teacher, to see for yourself what is really going on during the lesson and puts you in touch with your learners. It breaks physical barriers and makes it easier to give individual support and praise.

Praising: Praising students is very important. Make an effort to reward your students' hard work.

Why? Positive and negative feedback tells learners what the are doing right and wrong. A well placed comment encourages the learner and strengthens your relationship with him or her.

And finally:

Have your lesson prepared and audio/video cassettes ready when you arrive - you should, more or less, know your lesson/s by heart, especially at the start of your career, and should only need to glance at the book every now and then. Go through your lesson while you cook, drive, do the housework to make sure you know what you are doing and why.

If you teach afternoons you should save some of your energy for those hours, so do not exhaust yourself in the morning.

Keep all your notes, especially if you are teaching without the aid of a textbook. This will both help you plan the next lessons and make up the basis for possible tests.

Invest in professional training as soon as you can (if you haven't already done so). Think of teaching as a trade to be learnt.

· Franca Schiavo is and EFL teacher and manager at O'Connell school in Consenza, Italy

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/teaching/story/0,,1374340,00.html

Make your teaching child-friendly

2007-11-01T12:47:00.000Z

John Hughes

Friday November 19, 2004

Many initial teacher training courses provide little preparation for teaching children and yet young learners' classes often make up a large part of a teacher's timetable. It is fair to say that the classroom techniques we learn to use with adults do transfer across the generations. However, bitter experience taught me that asking a group of 12-year-olds on their first day to stand up, get into pairs and interview another pair is a recipe for chaos. It's like giving permission to run around the classroom, shout and laugh and do no work.

Some years later I heard this useful advice: "Don't smile at them or play games until the end of the second week." Although this sounds draconian it does mean that you can impose some control at the beginning and let children know who's in charge. The "friendly colleague" role we often assume with adult classes does not transfer to young learners.

All this does not mean that you turn your class into a place of dreary learning. First of all, the activities you would use with adults can work, but make them shorter. For example, a role play may have to last five minutes instead of 10. Also make sure activities are varied: an activity that involves moving about and noise needs to be followed by a quiet task that allows kids to "cool down".

Remember also that children will not do a task because it is good for their English. Tasks need an end result rather than being open-ended. Building in a quiz or competitive element can work or ask learners to produce work that is displayed on the wall.

It's a great feeling when the children are busy, but their enjoyment of a task might manifest itself in terms of noise. Develop signals to get attention. This can be a raised hand or switching off the lights. Whatever you do, don't try to out-shout a class because they will always win. Where groups of children are getting really loud it may be time to change the groups around.

Adults like praise, but children really love praise. Avoid over-praising individuals and try to compliment whole groups. Use affirmative commands like, "Please speak English" rather than negative reprimands like, "Stop speaking Spanish!" You'll also avoid problems if you set out rules at the beginning of the course. If possible, involve the children in preparing and writing out the class rules - it is especially good practice with modal verbs. A child that then breaks these rules will see greater justice than if you make up your own rules on the spot. More importantly, you will be punishing the inappropriate behaviour, not the child.

· John Hughes is an ELT teacher, teacher trainer and author of Lessons In Your Rucksack (Modern English Publishing, £14.95).

He will be answering new teachers' queries in future issues of Learning English.

Send requests for advice to tefl.advice@guardian.co.uk

Follow instructions for giving instructions

2007-11-01T12:45:00.000Z

John Hughes

Friday December 10, 2004

"I recently qualified on a Celta and now I have two classes in East London (beginner and pre-intermediate). I have trouble getting my instructions across. The students eventually get there, but only after the break while I'm out the room."

Relying on students to explain a task to one another is something that happens in many classes and is often helpful. We expect students to work in pairs or help their partner, so re-explaining your instructions in lesson time may be appropriate. But in most cases it's preferable that students follow your instructions first time round.

As a starting point instructions need to be broken down into manageable steps. If instructions are given all in one go, people stop listening; by the time you've explained the final step, everyone has forgotten what happens at the beginning. So as one instruction is given, students should complete it before hearing the next step. For example, if you want the students to work in pairs and then talk, make sure they know who their partner is before they start talking.

Reducing the number of words in your instructions to the bare minimum is also a good idea and this applies to any level. For example, saying "Would you mind standing up?" might expose students to polite forms but a straightforward "Stand up" will get the job done. Nor is this rude: there are moments in the classroom when students simply want to know what you want them to do next. Besides, efficient execution of instructions frees up more time for productive activities in the lesson.

Some teachers find that scripting any complex instructions helps to avoid potential problems. Rehearsing the instructions - including the gestures you intend to use as well as the words - is also useful. Try them out on some colleagues pretending to be students and get their feedback.

As the two groups you mention are low-level, demonstration rather than explanation is especially important. Sometimes you might need to model the actual activity with a student so everyone understands. With a speaking activity, play an example first that models the target dialogue. When handing out a worksheet make sure that an example is given. Alternatively, do number one together as a class. As soon as students see that they have to fill the gap or re-write the sentence in number one they will logically assume that the rest of the questions will require the same approach.

Finally, building in routine approaches to instructions helps relax students as they become used to, for example, working in groups of three or discovering a rule. Before you know it, students start the next activity without a word from you.

· John Hughes is an ELT teacher, teacher trainer.

He will be answering new teachers' queries.

Send requests for advice to tefl.advice@guardian.co.uk

Teaching Strategies - Barrier Exercises

2007-10-28T22:19:00.000Z

Using two slightly different pictures as a barrier exercise

1. The students work in pairs.
2. Each member of a pair is given a picture, which the other member cannot see because of a barrier such as a low cardboard screen on a desktop which is put between the two students.
3. The partners then talk to each other to determine differences and similarities between the two pictures.
4. These tasks allow students to practise: new vocabulary, new sentence structures and the asking of questions.

These tasks allow students to practise: new vocabulary, new sentence structures and the asking of questions.

Using a crossword as a barrier exercise

Adapt a crossword so that each student has some of the answers and some of the clues and each student must find the missing clues/answers by asking their partner.

Teaching Strategies - Whispering Game

2007-10-28T22:18:00.000Z

This strategy can be used to revise key vocabulary.

Method: The teacher divides the class into teams. S/he gives the last person in each team a word. When the teacher says "Go", the last student whispers the word to the one in front and so on until the first in line has the word and runs up to the board and writes it. The first team with the correctly spelt word on the board gets a point. At the end the students are able to see the whole list on the board again.

Teaching Strategies - The Doughnut

2007-10-28T22:16:00.000Z

The doughnut activity enables students to have a structured conversation with several people in a short space of time. It is particularly suitable for younger students.

1. The students stand in two concentric circles facing each other.
2. Working with the partner they face, they take it in turns to share information and ideas or ask each other questions.
3. At a signal from the teacher the outside circle moves a given number of places clockwise.
4. Students now report to the new partner what was said between themselves and their previous partner.
5. These steps can be repeated.

See also http://www.eazhull.org.uk/nlc/doughnut.htm

Teaching Strategies - Running Dictation

2007-10-28T22:11:00.000Z

This is an activity you can use with any level group from KS2 to A level, with any number of students from two upwards. You can use it to practise dialogues, role-plays, short texts, grammatical structures – anything you think your students need practice in or would find interesting. This is a multi-skill task involving speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is a meaningful activity, which students enjoy! Essentially, this is a race!

Organising a running dictation

Choose a short text at the right level for your group or class.
Photocopy several examples of the text depending on the size of your class. Pin the examples up on the walls of the room where you are working. The challenge for each group is for them to reproduce a written form of the text you choose.
Explain that each group or pair must choose one person to write down a text, to be the scribe.
Depending on the size of your groups, explain that the other members of the group, everyone apart from the scribe, will leave their place in turn to go and read the text you have pinned up on the wall. It is very important that only one person from each group is reading and memorising at any one time.
That person memorises as much as s/he can and then returns to the group to dictate what they have remembered to the other members of the group, but especially to the scribe, who must write down what they say as accurately as s/he can. When the person reading and running has come to the end of what they have remembered, the next person in the group sets off.
You continue like this until the group has written down the whole version of your text.
The group that finishes first is the winner!

Marking the written text

Method 1
The winning group has 100 points. Second place - 90 points, third place - 80 points and so on. Groups swap versions and are given your correct version of the text, which they use to mark another group’s version against. For each error that a group has made, a point is subtracted from their total, so if one group had won, but made 10 mistakes, they would have ninety points. The group that has the most points after the running and the marking is the overall winner.

Method 2
You can ask each group at a time to come and write a sentence on the board or OHP to check the accuracy of their version. This way of checking is quite interesting as you get a lot of questions about spelling and grammar. Because people are writing as a group, they are not being put on the spot individually and are mostly quite willing to share their version.

Variations
A. You can dictate a text rather than letting students read. Students run to you and you read a sentence of your text out loud – i.e. they listen and remember, they don’t read.

B. You can use pictures. Students run, look, then describe what they see.

C. With more advanced classes you can use notes as the text. Ask the students to make full sentences from the notes, then you have all sorts of versions to share.

One final task
Once the groups have finished, take their texts away and get them to work together to rewrite the text from memory to see how much they can remember. This is a very good way of getting them to stretch their memories a little.

Teaching Strategies - Verb Stories

2007-10-28T22:06:00.000Z

How to use a Verb Story to Practise Verbs and Reduce Mistakes

The teacher tells a story and as the teacher talks she writes the verbs on the whiteboard, each verb on a new line.
The students retell the story, using the verbs as prompts. They can then write the story and compare their version with the original. In this way a skills flow is used - the students listen, then speak, then write and lastly they compare and notice the language differences.

Benefits of Verb Stories

They help students to:

focus when listening;
notice and use correct verb forms;
retell with appropriate scaffolding (the students hear the same story more than once and they use the verbs as prompts). When the students have retold the story once or twice orally each students writes the story. There should be no verb mistakes.

Example of Verb Story

There was once an old man who slept each night on a hard park bench. Across the road lived a rich woman in a big house. She saw the poor man sleeping on the uncomfortable bench in the park and said to him, "I have many spare bedrooms in my house, come and sleep at my place." So that night the old man slept in a bed at the rich woman's house. The next morning he said to the rich woman, "Thank you but I will return to the park." "Why?" she asked. He said, "When I sleep in the park I dream of your comfortable beds and I am happy, but when I sleep in your comfortable bed I dream of the hard, cold park bench and I am miserable!"

Thanks to Dorothy Brown

Para vender...

2007-10-28T10:38:00.000Z

Vendo os livros abaixo mencionados. Estão todos em óptimo estado, como novos, porque mal foram usados.

Caso esteja interessado/a deixe uma mensagem que logo entro em contacto consigo.

Introdução à Linguística Geral e Portuguesa
Organização de Isabel Hub Faria, Emília Ribeiro Pedro, Inês Duarte, Carlos A. M. Gouveia
Colecção Universitária – série linguística, n.º 9 - Caminho
ISBN: 972-21-1048-9

Gramática da Língua Portuguesa
Maria Helena Mira Mateus, Ana Maria Brito, Inês Duarte e Isabel Hub Faria e tal
Colecção Universitária – série linguística, nº. 2 - Caminho

Sátira e Lirismo no Teatro de Gil Vicente I
Sátira e Lirismo no Teatro de Gil Vicente II
José augusto Cardoso Bernandes
ISBN: 972-27-1213-6

A Correspondência de Fradique Mendes
Eça de Queirós
Edição Livros do Brasil
ISBN: 972-38-0248-1

Teatro de Gil Vicente – Auto da Índia, Auto da Barca do Inferno, Auto da Barca do Purgatório, Farsa de Inês Pereira
Introdução e Notas por Gilberto Moura
Biblioteca Ulisseia de Autores Portugueses
ISBN: 9725681339

Clepsidra
Camilo Pessanha
Livraria Estante Editora

Eurico, o Presbítero
Alexandre Herculano
Biblioteca Ulisseia de Autores Portugueses

História Critica da Literatura Portuguesa [O Romantismo]
Carlos Reis e Maria Natividade Pires
Verbo
ISBN: 972-22-1563-9

História Critica da Literatura Portuguesa [Humanismo e Renascimento]
Carlos Reis e Maria Natividade Pires
Verbo
ISBN: 972-22-1959-6

As Obras de Gil Vicente – volume I
Centro de Estudos de Teatro da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra
Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda
Nota: Tem alguns apontamentos das aulas nas obras mais significativas, mas encontram-se em excelente estado

As Obras de Gil Vicente – volume II
Centro de Estudos de Teatro da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra
Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda
Nota: Tem alguns apontamentos das aulas nas obras mais significativas, mas encontram-se em excelente estado

Poesias de Francisco de Sá de Miranda [Esgotado na Imprensa Nacional]
Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda

Dicionário Português – Latim
Porto Editora

Dicionário Latim – Português
Porto Editora
ISBN: 9789720050502

Compêndio de Gramática Latina
José Nunes De Figueiredo, Maria Ana Almendra
Porto Editora
ISBN – 9789720302014

This is me... Now, who are you? :)

2007-10-26T22:30:00.001+01:00

http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/what.cfm

Y u lrn 2 spl

2007-10-26T14:54:00.000+01:00

U lrn 2 spl
So u cn txt
Ur frnds ezly

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

Punctuation Poems

2007-10-26T14:52:00.000+01:00

I am a Full Stop

I am a full stop,
At my command,
Sentences halt.
At its peril,
A letter which follows me
Forgets it should be a capital.
I place myself between words.
I create meaning.
When children ignore me,
I cause confusion.
I am a full stop.
Learn to control me
And the whole written world
Is yours.

I am a Question Mark

I am a question mark.
I sit on the keyboard
Waiting to be of service
In investigations and interrogations.
I help people with their enquiries.
If you’re lost,
I can help you find the way
If you’re puzzled,
I can help you search for a solution.
If there’s anything you need to know
Just ask
And I’ll show
That an answer’s expected.

Dad’s Views’ on Apostrophes’

Apostrophe’s often appear in place’s
Where they are not mean’t to,
Like in grocery shop’s windows’
Advertising orange’s and apple’s,
Or they are omitted where they shouldnt be.
Its all very confusing, isnt it?
Dad say’s if hed got any say
(which he hasnt)
Hed abolish the bloomin thing’s.

Commas

Commas, like apostrophes,
often, appear in places
where, they shouldn’t,
but Dad, says
they are s different,
kettle or fish,
you need, to know
how to use, them properly,
you shouldn’t just scatter them,
everywhere like, confetti.

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

whatspunctuation

2007-10-26T14:51:00.002+01:00

whatspunctuationweallneed
itsothatwecanread
whatotherswritewithoutitwed
besoconfusedwewouldnotknow
ifweshouldstoporgo
onreadingwewouldlosrtheflow
ofwhatthewritermeanttosay
yeswedallloseourway
sopunctuationsheretostay

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

Animal Apologies

2007-10-26T14:51:00.001+01:00

‘Sorry’, said the kangaroo.
‘I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.’

‘Sorry’, said the camel.
‘I can’t help it. I’ve always got the hump.’

‘Sorry’, said the dog.
‘I’ve been barking up the wrong tree.’

‘Sorry’, said the electric eel.
‘I got my wires crossed.’

‘Sorry’, said the donkey.
‘I shouldn’t have stuck my neck out.’

‘Sorry’, said the crocodile.
‘I shouldn’t have snapped.’

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

Month by Month

2007-10-26T14:49:00.000+01:00

Jan you are really cold.
Feb you’re even colder.
March with a spring in your step
April has a smile on the face.
Maybe the sun will shine, maybe it won’t.
D’you know it’s meant to be summer.
D’you like getting a suntan
Or gusts of spray in your face?
Sept-embers glowing red cheeks.
Octo-burns the autumn leaves.
N-N-November’s chillness.
Dis ember is flickering… stillness.

John Foster
in The Poetry Chest

Autumn News Bulletin

2007-10-22T00:00:00.000+01:00

Today, the trees are in shock.

Overnight, a sustained assault

Has left them battered and bare.

There are leaves everywhere -

On roads and pathways,

Scattered on lawns and flowerbeds,

Clustered in doorways

And the corners of buildings.

In some gardens

Men with rakes have appeared.

In due course, barrow loads of leaves

Will be heaped into bonfires.

Now, in the aftermath of the storm,

There is an air of resignation.

As one of the residents put it:

'I suppose it's to be expected.

It happens every year.'

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

It's Raining Cats and Dogs

2007-10-21T23:53:00.000+01:00

Mum: It's raining cats and dogs out there.

Gran: The dog's out where?

Mum: No, it's raining very hard.

It's very wet out.

Gran: The vet's come out.

Why? Is the dog not well?

Mum: The dog's fine.

Gran: No, it's not.

It's raining cats and dogs.

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

Immigration Trap

2007-10-21T23:49:00.000+01:00

Farida's num is being sent home
But Farida's allowed to stay.
Farida doesn't want her to go
But Farida doesn't have a say.

Farida's lived here all her life
She's British, like you and me.
But Farida's mum came here
As a stateless refugee.

And now the people who make the rules
Say Farida's mum must go
Back to the land she left
Twelve long years ago.

Back to a troubled land
Where people live in fear
She has outstayed her welcome
She is not wanted here.

But because Farida was born here,
Farida's allowed to stay.
She doesn't want her mum to go,
But she doesn't have a say.

John Foster
in The Poetry Chest

The African Farmer's Song

2007-10-21T23:39:00.000+01:00

The sun is fierce and hot

The earth is hard and dry.

Day after day, no rain falls

Out of a cloudless sky.

Oh, bring us some water!
Bring us some rain!
So our fields can all
Grow green again.

The water-hole is empty.
The stream is no longer flowing.
There are no leaves on the tress.
The crops have all stopped growing.

Oh, bring us some water!
Bring us some rain!
So our fields can all
Grow green again.

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

The Recycling Rap

2007-10-21T23:32:00.000+01:00

John Foster

in The Poetry Chest

TV Wars (1991 version) by John Foster

2007-10-21T16:18:00.000+01:00

We sat in our living-rooms and watched

With a mixture of awe and pride
As the bombs poured from the sky
And Iraqi soldiers died.

We sat in our living-rooms and watched
The scenes on the mountainside
With a mixture of horror and guilt
As Kurdish families died.

We sat in our living-rooms and watched,
Feeling powerless we sighed,
As the Serbian troops advanced
And Croatian people died.

We sat in our living-rooms and watched,
'What else can we do?' we cried.
As we silently wrote our cheques,
Passing by on the other side.

John Foster

The Poetry Chest

Teachers! I don't understand them - John Foster

2007-10-21T16:07:00.000+01:00

Teachers!
I don't understand them.

They say:
When you hand in your work,
Make sure it's neat and tidy.
Then they mess it up
By scribbling illegible comments
All over it in red ink.

They say:
Don't interrupt when I'm talking.
Put your hand up
And wait until I've finished.
But if they've got something to say,
They clap their hands
And stop your discussions in mid-sentence.

They say:
Always plan your writing
Take your time. Think it through
And do a rough draft.
Then they sit you in an examination hall
And ask you to write an essay
On one of six topics -
None of which interests you -
In an hour and a quarter.

They say:
All work and no play
Makes Jill a dull girl.
Make sure you allow yourself
time off from your studies
To relax and enjoy yourself.
Then, when you don't hand
Your homework in on time,
Because you took their advice,
They keep you in at lunch-time.

Teachers!
I don't understand them.

The Poetry Chest

John Foster