About Me

My photo
Portugal
I am from Coimbra, Portugal, and am currently teaching in a school in Soure, about 30 km away from Coimbra. I have been a teacher of English for over 20 years and have already taught different levels and age groups. After all this time I can say I love working with adult groups because there are no coursebooks and I can create my own resources. I am an avid reader, a blogger and very curious about free tools and their implementation in the classroom.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

World Poetry Day

To mark World Poetry Day another poem this time by Valerie Worth

Book

Such a
Bountiful
Box of
Tricks:
Packed
With the
Five senses,
The seven
Seas, the
Earth’s
Four winds
And corners,
All fitted
Exactly in.

Find yourself a poetry book and read!
Happy Reading :=))

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Father's Day

Father. Dad. Daddy. Pops. My old Man... whatever you call him, say thank you to your father and share some moments together if you can.

With you I would like to share a moving poem and a TED Talk.


Follower

 

My father worked with a horse-plough,

His shoulders globed like a full sail strung

Between the shafts and the furrow.

The horses strained at his clicking tongue.


An expert. He would set the wing

And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.

The sod rolled over without breaking.

At the headrig, with a single pluck


Of reins, the sweating team turned round

and back into the land. His eye

Narrowed and angled at the ground,

Mapping the furrow exactly.


I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,

Fell sometimes on the polished sod;

Sometimes he rode me on his back

Dipping and rising to his plod.


 I wanted to grow up and plough,

To close one eye, stiffen my arm.

All i ever did was follow

In his broad shadow round the farm.


I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,

Yapping alwyas. But today

It is my father who keeps stumbling

Behind me, and will not go away.

Seamus Heaney in One Hundred Years of Poetry For Children

As for the TED Talk I mentioned above, please watch this 5-minute Talk by Ric Elias and think

"Are you being the best parent you can???" 




Happy Father's Day :=)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Joseph Kony - the birth of a web star

Source: freepostermaker.com
If Joseph Kony was an anonymous for many now he has the status of a web star ... for the worst reasons - a new model of modern campaigning.
Last Monday, the advocacy group Invisible Children released a 30-minute video as part of a campaign to increase global awareness about the atrocities carried out by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. He is long wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court and is now being hunted not only by 100 US Special Forces operators in four African countries but also billions of people aim to make him famous (!?) by spreading the word. Supporters are also encouraged to plaster cities with posters; now, too, the #stopkony Twitter hashtag has a global prominence.
At http://www.kony2012.com/ you can sign the pledge to help the organisation bring Kony to justice in 2012 and watch the video either on Vimeo or here.
In any case, as teachers, why not make part of this campaign? Why not somehow contribute for this world effort while teaching English and new marketing campaigns as well as instilling active citizenship values on a classroom basis? The least we can do, whether we agree with this "Stop Kony" viral video phenomenon or not, is to give it some thought by discussing it in class, right?
Source: header logo, voxy.com
From here you can download the printable content from a kit with material you may find useful and Voxy, described as "a new way to learn English" using current articles from world news, pop culture..., has just published a short article you can read here. By clicking on the highlighted words, you hear them pronounced. There are also questions on the text, its repetition to fill in gaps among other exercises - its surely more relevant and interesting than other stuff :=)

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