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.
Here it is: the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series: this time Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is joined by Angelica (Penélope Cruz) in his search for the Fountain of Youth, facing the pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and also starring Geoffrey Rush (who played Speech Therapist in The King's Speech) as Captain Barbossa.
This has been a really hard schoolyear and hopefully this 3-D adventure fantasy film will rise our spirits and give us enough strength to carry on till the end of July...
So, the challenge is set, folks: to meet again this week at the movies :)
Mother's Day is celebrated on various days around the world but common is that it is a day to honour Mothers and Motherhood.
In Portugal, Mother's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May which, this year, is right on 1st May, also International Workers' Day.
To celebrate this day, here is my choice of materials: 2 songs (one hilarious and with familiar words and another one in a serious tone) as well as a poem.
Have a look at this clip; it was first shown to me by Judit Feher, my teacher trainer, while attending a course in Canterbury over two years ago. Though it has been available for a while already, I still find it soooooooooo much fun: the singer has condensed in about three minutes what a mother would say in 24-hour period.
Did you like it? My favourite part is "It must be your father's DNA" EhEhEh!!!!!!
Now, in a way of an answer, read this poem:
KIDS "Sit up straight," Said mum to Mabel. "Keep your elbows Off the table. Do not eat peas Off a fork. Your mouth is full - Don't try and talk. Keep your mouth shut When you eat. Keep still or you'll Fall off your seat. If you want more, You will say 'please'. Don't fiddle with That piece of cheese!" If then we kids Cause such a fuss, Why do you go on Having us? Spike Milligan in The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry
In a beautiful moving song, listen now to Alicia Keys with "Superwoman".
For MY mother - now retired - who worked hard and fought all her life to raise me and my three siblings and made me who / what I am today. For me, my mum has always been and will always be a SUPERWOMAN and a SUPERMUM.
Wherever you are, have a wonderful Mother's Day either with your children, with your mum or better: with your mum and your children!
Our last day in Ireland! Let's focus then on what we couldn't visit in Dublin previously, and, above all, on what's around us.
Right across the street, on Custom House Quay along river Liffey, the Famine Memorial which consists of several bronze statues of starving people and a dog heading to the docks in order to board a ship that would take them to America. These disturbing life-size statues have a powerful effect on the viewer - at least they had on me: they illustrate the misery and despair of the people during that dark time in Ireland's history.
A little farther, the O'Connell Monument, the memorial to Daniel O'Connell, the 19th century nationalist leader which stands at the entrance to the street named after him, O' Connell Street. The centre of the street is dominated by the imposing presence of the 1818 General Post Office and the 120 m Spire of Dublin, a needle-like self supporting sculpture of rolled stainless steel erected in 2003 in order to replace a former Nelson's Pillar, which was destroyed in 1966 in a bombing by former IRA members.
Dublin / Ireland is also famous not only for its musical exports such as U2, the Cranberries, Enya or Riverdance but also - and perhaps even more - for its writers: William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Sean O'Casey, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce,... are among the most important names in Literature and that's exactly why, being so close, we wished to pay James Joyce our respects and went to North Earl Street to have a look at his statue.
At the northern end of O'Connell Street, a memorial to "all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom", the Garden of Remembrance, as well as Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, whose main attraction was surely Francis Bacon 's chaotic studio.
Now please have a look at some pictures of the most important visits of the day!
Hope you have enjoyed these postings as much as I have.
Before putting an end to this, some THANK YOU words especially to:
- Teacher Helena Soares and Cláudia Sousa and their group from AZOGLA. Again, we worked real hard to make this trip possible and to produce materials;
- Teacher Natália Costa from my schoolboard;
- Câmara Municipal de Soure;
- Sr Carvalho;
- Isabel Silva (our guide) and Pinto Lopes Viagens;
- other colleagues who, one way or the other, made it possible;
- last but not the least: teachers + senior participants + learners. Without YOU, this school trip to Ireland wouldn't have come true. BLESS YOU for the good atmosphere and support.
Take some time now to see us ALL in Ireland:
