Freddie Mercury doodle

Who doesn't know Freddie Mercury? Who hasn't heard of the rock band QUEEN and the lead vocalist?
If Freddie Mercury were alive, he would be 65 today and to honour him, here it is an amazing google doodle.
I just couldn't help it, folks - Queen and Freddie Mercury are still my favourites... I simply can't forget the acclaimed London musical our school group watched in April 2009 which was absolutely fabulous! We still talk about it at school and if you ever have the chance to see it, don't miss We Will Rock You - it's still rocking after 9 years and has just been awarded the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award at the Olivier Awards in London :)

Now, the google doodle:



For more infos, please check:
http://www.biography.com/articles/Freddie-Mercury-9406228
http://www.queenonline.com/
http://www.queenzone.com/

RUNNING DICTATION

Keeping our learners motivated – no matter how old they are – is a really challenging task. Facing a class of students, with different learning styles (and paces!), with different personalities, is not easy but, as a teacher, I feel I have to cater to all in the classroom, to everyone’s particular needs.

Bearing this in mind and as often as possible, I put different and somehow unexpected language activities into practice – either in the classroom or out. Why not?
Anyway, this time the challenge was a RUNNING DICTATION (running in English as sts mockingly put it). The school year was coming to an end and the weather had been great. Yes, why not? It would be much nicer than sitting still inside the classroom.
After choosing the activity, my concern was now the text, or to be more precise, the song. Some colleagues / friends emailed me some suggestions (Thank YOU), I googled a bit, I saw many youtube videos but I always stumbled over language problems – the texts were far too difficult for them and I feared the final result could be demotivation instead of having fun and learning / remembering some English. So, I finally made up my mind for an old time favourite “Friends will be Friends” by Queen, which is certainly questionable but, being adults, I believed they would also enjoy it but, above all, they would feel pleased for having understood something, for recognizing the text. And it worked! It worked not only with the learners but also with some colleagues I invited to take part in this running dictation.
As for the activity itself, here are the steps I followed:

• I split the lyrics into two parts and printed several copies in A3 sheets;
• Not to disturb other classes, I went out and placed the copies at eye level on the school building;

With some extra help, some chairs and desks were placed outside, at some distance but in front of each of the sheets on the wall (ah: each desk already had a blank sheet of paper and a pen);
Now, with the group:

• I put the learners and colleagues into pairs and for health and/or language difficulties, it was easy to decide who the writers and runners would be;
• The runners’ task would be to run to the A3 sheet and memorize a chunk of language / a sentence, go back to the partner and reproduce it to him/her; the writers’ task would obviously be to write down chunk by chunk till all the sentences had been reproduced;
• The winners would be the first pair to complete the task.

Well, no doubt we had great fun but there were no winners or losers, no prizes were awarded… we had previously arranged for a shared meal at school :)
Check for yourself – not only the running dictation but also the meal!!!

Yet that wasn’t the end of it! No, no, no!!!!
Next class, I took a worksheet with the full text / lyrics, we listened to the song and some even sang along (myself included) and we practised some vocab on the topic FRIENDSHIP (always important is to provide an opportunity to use and apply language and knowledge)

(FURTHER) SUGGESTIONS
Do try a running dictation – it’s a funny activity and it practises the four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing – not to mention memorizing!
This famous painting by Pablo Picasso can be used to introduce or extend the topic of friendship as well as some cultural data; loose words can be used to make sts look up for the meaning (in case they don’t know them yet) so that they can have lists of vocabulary (English / Portuguese) and lead them to the topic. Ask them to add some more, elicit previous knowledge.
(NOTE: if you wish my materials, please send me an email and I’ll be glad to share)

TRAVEL DIARY LONDON - DAY 1 (Wed. 7th April)

I'm back, folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back from London, I mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By this time last week we - a group of 14 adults and kids from our school - were already walking along Oxford Street, London.
We arrived around 10 a.m., left the baggage at the Youth Hostel and headed straight to Oxford Street. After a stroll, we came back (completely exhausted after being up all night), had dinner and you know what???? We still managed to go to the Dominion Theatre in the West End to enjoy the musical "WE WILL ROCK YOU".

It was...

"Fabulous" (teacher Paula and Bernardo)

"Wonderful" (teacher M. João); "amazing" (Beatriz);  "fantastic" (teacher José Fernando)

"Immortal" (teacher Clara Pilar); "very good" (Rui)

"Very, very beautiful" (teacher Graça Gonçalves); "dark" (Tiago)

"Phenomenal" (Ana Cristina and Fátima)
"Astonishing" (João Diogo)
Teacher Clara Luís reported being "speechless" and indeed there are no words to describe the excitement we all felt: adults and kids sang QUEEN's all-time favourites with heartfelt enthusiasm and the musical ended with a standing ovation. Don't miss it if you go to London - really, really good!