Mark Twain's birthday

Beautiful!
To mark Mark Twain's 176th birthday, Google greets us today with the above gorgeous mural with a scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The moment depicted here and used by Google is Tom painting the fence as punishment by Aunt Polly for dirtying his clothes in a fight with another boy :)
What a great way to honour on of the greatest masters of American Literature!!!
For further infos please check here.

FADO earns UNESCO recognition

Streetart of Amália, Lisbon

That's right! Today the Portuguese FADO was added to UNESCO's List of World's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes traditions and skills passed on within generations.
For those who aren't very acquainted with FADO, Fado songs are usually peformed by a solo singer, male or female, traditionally accompanied by a wire-strung accoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitar. The most famous Fado singer was / is Amália Rodrigues, who in the 20th century made Fado known beyond Portugal, performing all over Europe, Japan, South America, and even in the United States; contemporary FADO singers include Mariza (considered the new "Queen of Fado"), Carlos do Carmo, Dulce Pontes among others.
Let's hope Portugal and the Fado Museum cling to their goal of preserving FADO's cultural legacy throughout generations :)))

Now Enjoy!



For further info,
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00002
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00011
http://www.economist.com/node/250031
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariza

THANKSGIVING 2011 - 24th November

Much has already been said here last year about Thanksgiving and if you do some research on the web there is no shortage of Thanksgiving Day resources for us teachers to explore.
So, besides all those referred to last year, my selection for this year - with or without the general strike :) - is:
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/who-were-pilgrims - loads of data on the Pilgrims, Mayflower, Indians...
http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/smartboard-thanksgiving-holiday-resources.html 

Painting by Norman Rockwell

- stuff for smartboards
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/seasonalholidays/thanksgiving/ - varied resources from coloring pages to crosswords, unscrambling the words...
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/first-thanksgiving/ - it's no surprise any more that National Geographic has very good quality materials also for the younger ones, perfect for our learners of English from stories / info to activities (such as a recipe here or crafts here) or games - do try this Quiz Your Noodle here to test your knowledge on Thanksgiving!!! For ourselves, teachers, check this as well from National Geographic.
http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/holidays/thanksgiving/preview.weml - very nice resources with audio

Though Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Portugal, as teachers / educators, we can always take advantage of raising cultural awareness to teach learners to be grateful for who/what they are and what they have, especially now that we are facing harder times, and gratitude and generosity should be a constant. More: both the Pilgrims and the Native Americans worked together in an environmentally sustainable way and celebrated their plentiful crop giving thanks; nowadays, in a time of environmental concerns (for most, at least), we should question ourselves about our dependence on the earth as a food source - if we destroy it, what and how will we eat???
Soooooooooooo, whoever and wherever you are, do give THANKS.