Nostalgia...

Today, right in the middle of my class I had an awkward feeling of missing something...
I realized I grew old :))), I looked into their eyes and faces and for a bunch of seconds I felt numb, I saw all these years running in my mind and while they were struggling to use "participle clauses" , I was struggling to get a grip on reality and convince my body to react. I still remember the thickness of the board marker, the colour of their clothes mixing into a rainbow of moving lips. It was 4 years later, I was doing the thing I am best at, still I understood there is something missing inside, I just couldn't relate to them and that scared me.
I just guess there is a time when we feel the passing time through our veins, I just had a flash -back of my first lessons, of the people talking to me at that point, I could actually see myself those days, those exact moments...I can't even understand what was the trigger, but everything worked just like in Proust's novel, maybe the smell, maybe the voice, or maybe the grammar structure became the background and I was flying through these stages of my teaching.
Age is also important in teaching, if you feel what you do, if you live those instances, then your whole teaching stream changes in time. I was afraid I lost the freshness of thinking, the enjoyment of finding new means of enacting the lesson plan, I was just scared I might have lost my "teaching youth" and just like in real life the question popped-up in my mind: "What is next?"
I just wanted to run back, see my long-time-lost students and friends (whom I can't bring back, time flies), I realized how important they were for me, because they actually witnessed my growing-up process and that made feel an acute lust for the beginnings.
Now I am different in many ways, I am happy to have learned that much, to have discovered new people, new methods, new teaching experiences,new good friends.
I can't help myself from lingering for some time in this nostalgia mood, remembering places and chatting and gossiping and me 4 years ago.
I saw some empty chairs...that was the trigger, now I know. I have been teaching the same people for almost 3 years and all of a sudden I had to do my job without them and that confused me a bit. It is also funny that we can't share the same feelings with all of them and just like we can't forget the firsts in life , I realized I will always be attached to those people, those faces that have been enjoying, crying, smiling, screaming or telling jokes by my side for such a long time. I will surely miss them, that is why I just had to stop my tears and when I said" Good!Now ask your colleague" I realized I am now in a different dimension of my teaching, maybe different dimension of my life and I will have to make it work within this new settings, with new tools,sharing precious memories with my first and former students.
Thank you for being there and enjoy spelling your mind in English!

Christmas time!

I woke up this morning smelling Christmas air...Little cold wind, snowy rooftops, foggy roads, people armured in their thick winter coats running around like bees.Yesterday it was the National Day and I was happy, actually mixed emotions (enjoying my family and friends, shocked by the narrow-minded people surrounding us, confused and worried about our own future in this small and intricately multiways-to-choose-and-no-way-in-fact country)shook my balance.
So today I feel dizzy and "so charming :)" , I am in no mood for work, I am in the mood for walking around, getting my nose frozen and my hands deepened in my pockets, buying insignificant and sparkling little presents for the loved-ones, calling the friends I had no time for in ages, seeing people smiling, making them happy.
Last night I saw on TV the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Street and I took a deep breath then imagined I was there for a second...and that reminded me how much I would like to visit New York. Watching that actually made me mumble those famous lyrics :"the king of the hill", "top of the heap" and because I could not achieve any of these childish dreams I just set a new ringtone on my phone...
...so now I am off to work waitin for a call (just to hear my Christmas ringtone) and if that doesn't happen, well, at least I will be prepared for the first snowflakes, I will run outside and let those magic white feathers enlighten my day...

Teaching- living or analyzing?

 
"Maybe you should try and do their way..." this piece of advice came up when angry I just couldn't understand some people reluctance to "playful" teaching. Why do people imagine that following the same rules, the same old path,children have better results? The worst part is dealing with students' parents: "He/She should try and pay attention more to the discussion we are having and less to noting down some words or grammar rules...",these words are like some amazing confused emotions triggers, their eyes widen and they nod their heads as if understanding when I simply realize the same words running their minds" what is she talking about? she is young and she thinks she knows better, but poor girl..."
The most important part in teaching-learning is the liberty to think and act normally, as if leading a normal life among the others, foreign language learning is not a math problem, an abstract concept, it is the ability to express feelings, desires, chores, needs; mainly it is the ease of doing so in the presence/company of a person that speaks a different language from your own. In order to speak a foreign language a person needs to develop the same courage and freedom one feels while expressing himself among his fellow speakers.
That is why a teacher, in my opinion, is a trainer, an actor and a doctor in the same time: a teacher should train his students into the process and means of using a foreign language, a teacher should cure his students fear of the unknown, untouchable meaning and  undearable and, most of all, a teacher should entertain his students , simulate with their help those instances when people want or would need to use that foreign language.
Reading the last article that Scott Thornbury wrote on his blog - M is for Metaphor you can read here I found some interesting ideas that confirm my own opinion about language teaching; I quote:

"I found that A LESSON IS A FILM was a popular choice, one reason being that “in a good class there have to be changes of rhythm, it has to be agreeable, amusing, and it has to take place without you realising it.“

I admit this type of process might take some time (first you need to train the students into understanding of means to deal with the tasks),but the moment they feel the rhythm and they use the language tools properly you can actually have a real learning feed-back from them.

So, the best approach remains conversational-based, not because it is modern and it looks good on a teacher attitude, but mainly because a language is a tool for communicating and this is the ultimate aim of a pedagogical pursuit. When I ask someone "How are you today?" the response I expect is a natural, on-the-spot one, not a grammar analysis on the topic of these following sounds I-A-M-F-I-N-E-T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U.

And I also need an emotional response, a glowing face, rubbing hands, even sad down-looking eyes can speak more about the understanding of the question rather than a perfect grammatically given answer.

Communication is a vivid process and teaching should be the unaltered reflection of that!

Taste...Tasting...Tasty

Teaching advanced groups is a bit more challenging, because they know a lot of English terms and you still need to come up with interesting discussion topics.
So the topic I was about to teach was TASTE and I consider it an interesting topic, especially because there are so many synonyms  and you can actually cover many points of interest.
So I found a series of nice quotes you can use as discussion starters - taste proverbs
Another icebreaker can be food associations , where you set their creativity free and you easily have them talk. You first pay attention to their likes and interests, then you offer them some food for thought...

The main corpus of the lesson can be imagined as a RESTAURANT-LIFE where you hand them a menu and you write there a few guide lines (menu entries) such as:

• Something to whet the appetite
• Those little mouth-watering moments
• Bearing ...fruit  

Thus you insert food idioms and your students recreate their life , they try to speak about some interesting events in their life in terms of food and meals, tastes of food, describing adjectives, comparisons. They should also select the name of their restaurant (keeping in mind that the name should also somehow summarize their life-story)
Of course you have previously taught them the original terms (appetizers,main course, dessert). Even more fun is to have them describe/invent a recipe for original meals: Chiken Miss Daisy, Jump-up Stuffed Cabbage, Make-me-crazy Grill,etc

Since you have already used the restaurant for tasting life you can continue the process by handing some types of restaurants and expect some style/atmosphere/company association and debates relating this to their own taste and life style.

Last,but not least, I like using role-plays so they need to impersonate some restaurant-goers who talk to their friend about some nice or exotic experiences:

 

Depending on the students and the type of course you are teaching, you can also create a Food Magazine in which you print their life stories. You might have headlines like Bloody pie in spicy sauce or Allspice powder on stuffed mushy chiken .
I hope these ideas will help and I am gladly waiting for your ideas on "How to teach...Tastes"...

Hollow...teen

                      The fat moon was sparkling up there in the pitch dark sky and not a single creature was ready to share a squeak or a hiss...

I was gazing over the old factory, passing the yellowish trees, the sandy playground -empty now -, running down the road towards the river, floating through the smoke-our neighbours were ready to burn the leaves-far away from here...An icy breeze touched my ear and hit the window. Silence again. 

I looked back, tried to remember if I had locked the entrance door, but then I heard Aky pawing the outer handle so I knew I was safely locked from the inside.I was just too afraid to move.

"What was that?" I couldn't help wondering again."I have only heard it once, but it was powerful, still not clear enough, like a scream immediately leashed into the void."Why did I even try to come here?This stupid nostalgia of mine for the childhood places trapped me ! My fear trapped me here!" I couldn't even light the stove to boil some water, drink a hot tea and let it flow through my veins;I was gripping the metal window sill waiting for the orgy replica, but I could only hear my dog scratching the door. 

                    Twenty minutes into the night and I was dozzing in the kitchen chair when it finally happened: the screamy wind had a slight shape of a voice, or two, or ten...there were voices, maybe whispers, words I couldn't make anything of. I stood up, opened the window, let the cold autumn air fill the room and tried to catch those distant mumblings. For a moment I thought I could hear something like "tea" but why would they have asked for tea, who would  do that on a deserted street and why ask for that aloud?

                  I ran into the corridor and pressed my chest to  the front door, I could hear my heart knocking and as a reply I heard Aky again trying to hit the handle and open the door. "Why didn't I let him come inside? I could have had an ally, now I need to take the fight alone" 

So there I was, statued to my feet listening to the mumbling voices aproaching, rewinding my life and cursing this swishing of the world, the tremble of my still voice.

They were close to the gate, now I could hear them "teeing" or something, pushing the gate, Aky running around, barking, "teee" and "teet" louder and louder, Aky was restless enough to hit the door, scratch and howl for me, the voices were too loud so I froze there palms on my ears hoping for a miracle. Then I could see a hudge shadow just through the door glass and the next second my heart stopped...The door opened: more than five smiling faces jumped on me, hugged me and yelled:

                                       "Trick or treat!"

When I felt Aky licking my palm I could actually cope with the terror and come to my senses.Then I saw my father smiling and handing the children a few candies.

" I imagined you might be here", my father said, " Long time no see, but still don't you know we are also part of this world?Small as it might be,this town has been lit with pumpkins, children started running around town dressed in vampires, we are catching up, my dear"

It was true, everything was changed, but celebrating Halloween was not something on my hometown to do list. 

                So I took my father 's hand and I walked down the road, gazing over the old factory, above the yellowish trees, not looking back...

Don't we all need a "respite from death"?

                                                     Midnight in Paris   

BRILLIANT! I really enjoyed watching this film. It confirms my idea again: Woody Allen is a great director, I also liked Match point very much, although I didn't like those depressive, erotico-neurotic films he starred in.
But let's come back to this great film. It has a wonderful idea and the whole plot is like a well-written book, it is like a vivid discovery of one's inner sensitivity, ability to dream and lust for love and passion and romantism.
I had the same feeling tonight as that year, that evening when I finished James Joyce's Ulysses.I could only understand it's a masterpiece, because it was something I hadn't read before, it was a universe, a sum of powerful feelings I had never experienced until that moment, most important, it was an intelligent and "strange" way of understanding LIFE and our role into this world. Two facts popped into my mind tonight: this Joycean flavor of Allen's film and the postmodernist view of the plot; the remembrance of the past, the need of re-living another era as a refuge from this "speed life",the need of the homo technologicus to feel, love and most of all be a part of his own cultural environment. The message I could take out was also related to the "cultural role" Paris somehow has established throughout centuries , the destiny of an artist in the modern world, choosing between an unimportant but wealthy script-writing job (in Gil's case) and the writing skills and passion that sets the real value of a writer timelessly.
The script is the one that facinated me most. There are so many lines that made me smile,think and really feel the magic of Paris(as a landmark not as a destination) -wondering the streets to enrich your soul with the magic sap of love and life people like Dali or Hemingway had the chance to,walking in the rain, feel the past and present together, lose your rationality and become a "poet" in your own life... all that made me enjoy the film even more.
"You'll never write well if you fear of dying"..." Have you ever made love to a truely great woman?"And when you make love you feel true and beautiful passion and in that moment you lose your fear of death?"...
"I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death"...
I don't know if it is just me, but I liked these words ...they talk about courage, the courage to live our lives and cherish every second , never let go...I would gladly recommend this film to nowadays teenagers, just because this film can give them a bit of confidence maybe, make them want to live and never try comiting suicide as easily as they do.And it's not just the film, is the idea of using books and these great artists as our respite from death, as our treasure that transcends these times, that makes us part of humanity-not part of a bunch of two-leg walking creatures, but creative and rational human beings.
The funny thing is I don't like Paris (the Eiffel Tower in particular), but I have to admit I saw some artistic pictures of Paris, such sparkling combinations of old and new features of universal art, a totally fresh and intriguing version of Paris, the one worth seeing and acknowledge.But for me Paris is a metaphore of Life in this film: the deeper you go, the more you understand, the less prejudice you start with, the better chance you have to get closer to the essence of things.
P.S. This film is an appetizer for culture...like that we should think of it, at least...

Teaching with a smile

I have finally found it! I have seen this video first time when our colleague showed it to us at the work-shop and I have been trying to find it for quite some time. I really think this is a nice video for all the ESL teachers in the world, especially because it speaks about a nice way of teaching, an efficient method, a visual one. I have experienced it on my students and it's 100% result-based. Just as Stephen Krashen says, even though we try to teach a foreign language through reading or writing excessively, we will only get results if we make ourselves understood. The more we move, the more pictures and visual or audio materials we use, the better and the sooner the progress is. During most of our interviews we usually like to ask this simple question" How would you teach  TODAY (Oggi,Aujourd'hui,Heute,Hoy) to your students?" We rarely found teachers naming the calendar. Everyone tends to go for the theoretical explanation, which in fact cannot really work for a beginner, because he doesn't know the language;how can you explain something in a language that person is just there to learn? :)) It's really funny and ironical.And most of all it's boring, terribly boring.And this is the last thing we want from our students...leave the room as if they escaped Alcatraz.
I guess there are are 3 basic rules we need to apply when teaching:
1. Smile (That's my no.1 rule! I know it has no methodological background, but it is extremely efficient). In order to keep ourselves smiling during the lesson we need to prepare the lesson as if we are also students, as if we teach ourselves in the same time, because if we don't enjoy it, our students definitely won't. Nobody wants a sad face standing in front of them and if we do have some problems, we can forget about them those minutes spent in the classroom, we can actually get detached and have a bit of fun ourselves.
2.Be creative and open-minded - try to think of the surrounding objects or events as potential class material; it's real, it comes from our daily experience so it will be appealing to the learners.
3.Talk less than your students! We are not there to give a speech, we are just their coach: we lead them to the understanding of things, words and we help them talk to the others (correct them when needed and praise them when they have done it great). The moment they share ideas, opinions in this new language we are teaching, we have achieved our first major success.
And I think the toughest lesson is to understand our students, learn how to read on their faces the lack of understanding, because they will rarely admit or even tell when something isn't clear.So we need to be prepared for this, change immediately the whole lesson plan, adapt it to them, find means of making ourselves clear.
And as you can see also in the video, jokes and good mood can relax them, give them confidence and even work as feed-back: if they laugh at our jokes they definitely understood; and if they understood and they don't laugh we need to change the teacher:)
Enjoy the video and good luck!

Forever young

Saying Goodbye can be the hardest thing ,no matter the age or the time it happens. The lesson they have never taught us in school, nor in those 7 years spent in our childhood universe is that one day we will say Goodbye to our loved ones. And we will never see them again.It sounds so abrupt and heartless, because it is so. And it's sad, really sad, because although we know this day will come, we can't forsee it. The only thing we can do is at least keep this in mind and try to share good moments. But still, the loss will be there and there will be no turning back.
What I know for sure is that after the first goodbye we change, our heart is no longer innocent. Losing a parent, a grandparent or a good friends destroys our balance and we turn into a different creature: the one who saw the abyss and treasures even more every dawn and dusk, the one who understood the intensity of ultimate pain, the one who laughs back at those highschool break-ups or at the tragedy impling an unsuccessful party or a stained expensive dress.
There is a nice lesson though, the one I could learn from my grandfather: how to stay forever young, how to keep yourself lighthearted and worthy of respect, how to cherish your family and the love of your children, grandchildren, even neighbours.He has taught me the power of a smile, the beauty of helping the ones who can't help themselves, the strenght in front of the last step, the strenght to never complain, nor show the pain.
He has always been the childish type, but he has been loved mainly by children; they must have felt the goodness in him...

So I will thank him now for everything, I will thank him for those moments when he pretended he hadn't noticed my mistakes, I will apologize for not calling him enough when I had the chance, for missing his birthdays, for not spending more time with him. I will tell him now what I couldn't say then, I will say my goodbye to him and thank him billion times for being himself, for never losing his ground and for loving life so much... for loving me so much...

On birthdays

I don't know about you, but I love hearing the cell in the morning and after reaching for it, never finding at first, dropping it 3 times I can hear at the other side, through small buzzing " Happy birthday!" . Once a year we get to hear that instead of annoying songs or sounds especially designed  to  make us leave that comfortable nest and throw ourselves into the mists of modern life... honking cars, traffic, steaming fast-food coffee, lots of papers to carry, never enough space in your bag... a woman's life
But I still don't understand the people who don't like celebrating their birthdays. I don't mean feasts necessarily, but their own way of sharing one single time a year some good moments with their loved ones.
That's precious, it's even magic, if you want, because living nowadays is more than a struggle, it's daily chore not to lose yourself, to find balance and love. And for me, celebrating a birthday is like a continuous proof that we can still believe in someone or something, we can be loved and we can find strength in moments of despair.
We should thank God for being alive and mostly for every little thing that reminds us of being humans, of having more than a heart, for being more than a body, being a soul...that's our strength, our treasure, our legacy. And I guess we should protect that and enjoy this gift our own way ... 
So enjoy your birthdays and as Cehov said
" Any idiot can face a crisis- it's day to day living that wears you out" ...

While...

 
Landscapes... beautiful ones can be a good teaching material. They can help you recreate an entire universe and make your students actively use English without even noticing. First, select at least four or five landscapes and stick them around the classroom : e.g. desert, beach, forest, meadow, waterfall, etc
Ask your students to choose their favorite destination and have them stand near the selected landscape. Then tell them to close their eyes and imagine 2 or 3 activities they are doing in that very moment ("I am searching for water in the desert"; " I am picking flowers on the meadow"; " I am listening to the birds in the forest"). Taking turns four or five of your students should tell an activity they're doing and also pay attention to the others' stories. Then the teacher asks : "What are you doing while Mary is picking flowers?" and they answer using as many activities as they can remember.
Thus you can teach Present or Past Continuous making use of your students imagination. Further more you can even ask your students to "create" their universe giving a name to their land and have them imagine their routine in this realm. Then they should confront their worlds, compare them by saying "while I was riding my unicorn in Catatonia, John was flying his space shuttle in Neurobia". After they have already created their realm you can practice as many grammar and vocabulary topics as you want, such as type of houses, people description, their daily chores, rules(using modals) in their worlds...
Try and let me know if it works :)

September is full of surprises.

"Have you got a trainer diploma"? this is how it all started...
I haven't imagined I could possibly need this kind of diploma after having finished the University and after almost 5 years of teaching/training children and adults. But it seemed I needed one... So I "called a friend" (in the person of my friend-colleague and "theonewhofindssolutionswhenIlackideas") and there we were, calling the company providing this kind of training of trainers and the adjacent diploma.
The same day I found out my trainer was a former student in our school :) -"this should be interesting" I thought.
So, I went to the course. That evening while rewinding the first training day, I realized how ignorant I had been and how important is to never come to a training meeting with some sort of stereotype expectations. Our trainer was indeed a well-prepared trainer and I could learn new ways of improving the relation with my students and also to be aware of my non-verbal behavior that can so much influence the teaching process.
So, dear teachers, here are some tips I learned and I am gladly sharing:

- it's highly important to stand  when you present the information, sit down and keep the same level with your students when you discuss the information and keep yourselves "away from the scene" when your students work on tasks (they should feel free to work and not pay attention to you)

-if you use a flip-chart never position the flip-chart between you and your students (always keep it somewhere behind you) and try to write on the flip-chart without covering it entirely.   

- always focus on the practical part rather than offering too much information (structure your training so that you have a longer period of time set for exercises)

-keep an eye-contact with the people in front of you and pay attention to the non-verbal message you are sending while teaching/presenting.

-discuss with the trainees the applied activities (refer not only to the message- if it was clear enough and useful, but to the feelings related to that activity- if it was difficult, frustrating, thrilling, enlightening)

-each training session must have an opening and a closure (never stop imagining creative ways to lead your trainees into the subject-don't just "hit" them with the theme, or find funny ways of assuring the correct feed-back at the end of the session; don't just say "goodbye, see you tomorrow")

-last, but not the least, make sure you work with a group not with individuals (have them enjoy being there, accept each other, respect each other, maybe even make friends)

 P.S. I really enjoyed interacting with the people I met at this course and I finally understood how important is to create a nice working environment for my students, a relaxing one, because if you are happy with the people surrounding you the learning part goes smoothly.

Beginning...

September 1st:
Another month, another year... I enjoy the "firsts" of the months, they give me a nice feeling of freshness.I am a fan of sun and waves and blue-green trees, but I have to admit Autumn has its own perfume.I sometimes think September should be January, we should start the year in September and skip January and February :) then go on living under a nice warm sun and smell perfumed air. We should then rest for Christmas, the magical moments of the year, share presents and tell stories close to the fireplace. Yes, stories...most important...reading stories. It's funny but I always feel the need of reading in September more than any other time of the year. And as I cannot think of any other suitable writer I should again choose Paul Auster. His style is just perfect, his world is amazingly vivid and tempting, his technical "shifts" make you literally jump from one place to another, from one felling to another, his works make you rethink your own position among your people, your friends, your family... If you haven't read "The book of illusions" then it's a must, and, as I can't remember which chapter, you should "swallow" the whole book to witness the best moonlight description I can think of. I even downloaded the movie "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", but I couldn't find the same "soul tickling" as I did while reading the book.
By the way, I haven't thought about it until now, but I will try and use Paul Auster's books into my classes. When I find an entertaining and active way of using them I will definitely write it down here.
Enjoy the sunny days of Autumn...

Another story...reflections on friendship

 TINNY THE BUNNY

  Suzy was a 9-year old girl. She was living in a nice cottage with her grandmother and her best friend, Tinny-the bunny. Tinny used to come every morning to her bed, lick her cheeks and ask her to play with him.  He was loved, he was taken care of and most important he was considered an important member in their family. And for that he showed them his affection. But one day Suzy ran to her grandmother and said:

“Grandma, Tinny is nowhere! I searched everywhere for him, but nothing… I am so scared… What could have happened?” Her grandmother caressed her and convinced her Tinny would come back soon. But days went by and Tinny was still missing.

Suzy almost lost hope, so she was very sad, she didn’t even want to eat or play in the courtyard.

But after three weeks she felt a soft fluffy tail touching her hands: it was Tinny! She jumped to her feet and ran outside, hid behind her favorite oak and asked Tinny to tell her all that happened.

Tinny remembered that he was smelling some nice dandelions when he was suddenly caught by an eagle and carried far away, at the end of the forest. He was close to being eaten, but the eagle dropped him by mistake. When he found himself alone, he started searching for a path to come home. On the way he encountered a fox who promised to tell him the way if he could guess the answer to her question. Suzy smiled and listened carefully.

“What makes a good friend?” “I will answer to your question with only one word”, Tinny had responded, “If you want to understand friendship you should meet my sister, Suzy”. Hearing that, Suzy hugged Tinny happily and promised him they would never part again.

While returning home they met Foxy who had also come to find a true friend…

"What makes a good friend?" ...good question.It would be interesting to ask yourselves, but the most important ask your students.Have you noticed how simple and innocent their answers are? They don't need much, just companionship and fun and maybe sharing toys or their favorite cartoons, football player cards, Barbie dolls...

Later on,when we grow up we tend to ask more and more from a friend. We want them to understand us, we want them to be always there and maybe to turn a blind eye when we make mistakes.I have rarely seen a person appreciating a friend for trying to correct his/her error and I have continuously seen people choosing wealthy friends...just because money gives them status and security and maybe a better position later on in their career.

What is friendship after all? I guess the most important quality of a friend is to be honest to you and to himself, to value life and have a bit of decency while doing the one thing we must all perform: living...

...to have a purpose, to show respect and try to improve every day (or at least reflect upon our own mistakes or blunders)  .What we really need is a solid branch that we we can cling on in our daily pursuit of happiness. Even though we might never reach the top of the tree we should still try and be that branch, the solid ground and the clear mind when our friend loses his own path, not because it looks good to do so, but because it can be a two-way street and we might find our own path while calling ourselves someone's friend. 

I have always considered friendship the hardest and the most important lesson of a lifetime and I am still making my first steps into the subject.

I am happy to be surrounded by friends ('cause I do have friends), but I can't tell exactly what friendship is.

The best thing to do is look at my little students and try to learn from them...

 

Writing poems for children...

 The child and the sun...

Once upon a time there was a boy

Who liked chocolate and playing with toys.

To his mother he said when he woke up

"What a shinny day! There is no need for nap!"

                                        

So they went to the beach and played in the waves

Then he built a sand castle and hid in the caves.

Later he laid on the burning shore watching the sun

"I have a mother, but he is whose son?"

An old ant searching for food sat on his finger

While chatting he soon understood she was a singer

She sang for the children who were good and smart

So she told him the secret of a real brave heart:

"The sea and the sun were once a mother and baby

The world was cold, his mother sick, so he thought maybe

If he lived in the sky and warmed the Earth, his mother'd be well

So he climbed up there, gave up the water and his loving shell.

But when he saw the trees and the flowers smiling at him

The birds flying high, he felt happy he wasn't a wimp.

We should never forget he was a brave child and that

When storms come by the sea's son we'd always expect."

How to use playing cards

I found  a nice way to use playing cards in my lessons.And it all started by looking at my 6-year old niece... She was given a set of cards to help her learn new words, and then I realized that could be useful for my students too. So, you can create the cards in Office Word, you set the size and then start typing... If you have a topic based on the usage of ADJECTIVES , then you write the word embarrassed and then, on a different card you will have the picture that represents a person with the pants torn in the back. The idea is to have many cards and to split them in two: a set with the adjectives and the same number of cards with the pictures. Then you add an extra card-the Jolly , the card nobody should remain with at the end of the game. The Jolly can be any cartoon character or anything funny you can think of.
Then you start the game. After you've shuffled the cards you start dealing all the cards to the players. And then clock-wise everyone should pick a card from the partner next to him and try to form a pair (the word and the picture). The winners are the ones that finish all their cards by forming pairs and the Loser is the one who gets the Jolly in the end.
It can actually be fun and educational. Even though I thought it might sound "childish" to my grown-ups, it didn't. So you can try and see if it works...
I wish you all a very nice day and good luck with your students....
Cris

Hi

I started this blog because I thought I can talk about my teaching experience and maybe share ideas. I've been teaching for 4 years now and I know this is my call. I discovered that being among other people, mainly adults, can offer a lot of fun, motivating experience and somehow can make me a better person.
Have you ever felt stranded in your own world? Have you felt the need of doing something different, special, but realized this is only a dream? Well, at first I thought I won't be able to make a change in these people's lives but seeing their glowing faces, their appetite for learning and improving made me think that all that I do it's worth it.
So, if you felt the same (and I am sure you did) I will be glad to hear your ideas and find means to create entertaining lessons. Have a nice day...