14th February, VALENTINE'S DAY

Google Doodle for VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine's Day is one of the most famous celebrations in the world and it is the traditional day for lovers to express their love to each other. Besides the traditional sources such as wikipedia, there are so many others referring to this topic that it is hard to choose from.
Although you already know what my favourites are because I keep using them, here they are:

History Channel has a fabulous video on the history of Valentine's Day. Please have a look:


Besides other videos, written infos and a photo gallery, the site is also featuring stories of couples whose legendary romances changed the course of history - worth reading!

Also worth reading is TIME - it has a VERY comprehensive list of romantic movies, romantic books, songs for lovers or Loners,... you will find there everything you need to know about Valentine's Day and Dating.
BBC published today some good resources which include a video on how to say the world famous "I love you" (and includes incredible images from London!!!), heart idioms,...
If teaching secondary levels / more advanced and not really elementary, there is always cnn. Here you will always find updated news and transcript with discussion questions - today it obviously includes questions but on Valentine's spendings in America that we can then use for comparison to fuel discussion about our own country.
For vocab exercises, have a look, for example, at lanternfish where you'll certainly find something for your students from crosswords to rhymes. At kaboose you will also find good resources which include recipes, coloring pages or games.
Songs and films, poems or paintings are also great to introduce or discuss this topic - as with everything, our great obstacle is... time.
To finish this blogpost, allow me to leave you with one of the greatest poets and poems of all time:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
   So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18, 1609, William Shakespeare

What about you? What are your plans for today?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, have a great St Valentine's Day!

WORLD FOOD DAY - 16th October

World Food Day, which happens every year on 16th October, is intended to focus attention on global hunger.
Please watch this PSA for 2010

Developed countries have problems with obesity and overweight children while developing nations suffer more and more from HUNGER. There is therefore little to celebrate at UN World Food Day 2010 but a lot we can do to help if we are willing to. At http://www.wfp.org/stories/10-ways-fight-hunger-right-now we can find suggestions to fight hunger and, as a teacher, I would point out the following:
http://www.wfp.org/videos/nutrition-2-minutes-0 - a very short, clear and easy to follow video on nutrition we can show to our students for information, comparison, for food vocabulary;
http://www.wfp.org/students-and-teachers - World Food Programme is well aware that teachers play an important role in changing mentalities, in persuading learners to take action and in this section, besides all the information available, there are also some lesson plans. However, for teachers and students, parents and children, all adults and kids in general, I believe http://www.freerice.com/ to be the best: a game in which for each answer we get right, they donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger. You can choose subjects, learn and contribute for a worthy cause!!! Do try :)))
As I posted here and here before, BBC Learning English has new material also on Hunger as you can see in this printscreen, ready for us to use in classes:

Unfortunately, there are loads of articles and infos on this issue. Here are just a few suggestions for further reading or research:

http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/

Image Credit:
ecoactionteams

http://www.euronews.net/2010/10/15/little-to-celebrate-at-un-food-day/

http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Society/world-food-day.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Food_Day

EAT WELL :)

BBC Learning English

Following my last blog post, another tip now to learn English with BBC.
Besides having constantly updated world news we can always introduce in class - either longer articles / special reports or even One-Minute World News, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml we have a myriad of language resources and activities for our English classes (mainly secondary). Please look at this screenshot I took:

Under Words in the News we find interesting articles starting with a summary followed by the report with words in bold, a podcast with vocabulary and finally, definitions. All these materials can be downloaded and readily used in class or further developed according to our needs.

If we click General & Business English, we'll have 6 Minute English with image / short text / question and a listening activity which takes around 6 minutes. This one, for instance, could be used with our 10th graders with the module "Young people in the global era"...

Keep your English up to date in Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation is exactly what it suggests. Aware that the English language is permanently evolving and developing, linguist experts as David Crystal have selected words and expressions that have recently made it into the language. After choosing one of the series, just by clicking on the word / expression we'll have a text and a lesson plan; we can also listen to the talk and download the transcript and audio. Try... blog! While you're there, check out the series by David Crystal and Gavin Dudeney and you will be surprised with the amount of vocabulary / exercises you can use in classes, as support material or homework with the modules The World of Technology, the Media and Global   Communication, Environment / The World Around us, and definitely, A World of many languages (The importance of English / Youth and Language / Friends without faces). They are great, believe me!

Further below News English Extra deals with news words and how different words feature in the news. There are some exercises plus the possiblity of introducing comments to the challenges presented.

In Pronunciation Tips you'll have videos, the sounds of English and similar sounds exercises, quizzes,...

Neither grammar exercises nor cultural data are forgotten here. As for the teachers themselves there is also a lot here worth our time. Enjoy (even if you are already familiar with the content...it works as a reminder)!