Easter 2016

                                        HAPPY   EASTER

Forget the bad moments in life and think about
spring time and the hopes everybody has for a world where peace and love are part of your life

I    WISH YOU ALL   HAPPY  EASTER! 

IRELAND 2016

              IRELAND  AND  THE EASTER RISING
Getting into the past  and learning about  
the  Easter Rising

2016  marks an import anniversary for the Easter Rising when a group of Irish men  tried to fight against the English in Dublin.  Some women were also involved in the  riots. 
I happened to be in Dublin  in 2013 and 2014 and I was told that Dublin would celebrate the 100th anniversary with lots of events in 2016.
In 1916 there was an important  event which marked the history of the island and people would never forget it.  You can find articles online, learn about the heroes and the men who wanted the land to become free. If you walk along the streets in Dublin - in the area of the Post Office- you will find  the names of  people who were involved in the events.  I keep on telling myself that you can learn a lot about a country by visiting  its places and streets. Dublin is  a  piece of history in every corner of the city. Irish people are proud of this history.
This video is about the past history of Ireland and explains why the Irish  wanted to become independent from  the UK:

The poet  Yeats wrote about the  event  : you can  read the text online here 

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/soundings/easter.htm


This is a reading aloud of the poem by  the actor  Liam Neeson: the text is a sad reflection on the death of those who were involved in the rising. The lines from the poem can be found in many  tweets which I am going to share with you.

If you search the web you will find more documents  that remind us  of the death of the  Irish heroes in 1916:

Made with Storyboard That


Resources online

http://www.thejournal.ie/google-dublin-rising-1916-2543958-Jan2016/

http://timelines.tv/index.php?t=2&e=9
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/50-facts-about-the-Easter-Rising-which-began-99-years-ago-today-PHOTOS.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/an-easter-rising-timeline-monday-april-24th-1916-1.2187749

http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/History_Links/Easter_Rising.html

For teachers

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/subjects/history/history-the-full-story/ireland-the-early-20th-ce/the-easter-rising/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/

Classroom resources for teaching the Easter Rising

LITERATURE

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/20century/topic_3_05/welcome.htm  ( Topic  Easter 1916 to the Troubles
http://www.1916rising.com/pic_poetry.html  ( The poets of the  Easter rising)

http://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/literature-and-1916

Google does 1916 from Orna Farrell

As a teacher of English  I have always been interested in the conflict between the Irish and the English in the XIX and XX century. I have learnt a lot by reading online and by visiting Dublin when I did a course about teaching  Literature in English and when I  could learn more about this city and its past history. 

I am on Twitter and so I have found  interesting hashtags about the event: you can check them now and see what is happening in Dublin today.
If you are interested there is tour guide online which can help you learn about the rising and what happened.

 https://dublinrising.withgoogle.com/welcome/


These are some interesting   hasttags which I have found 

Tweet riguardo #easter rising Tweet riguardo easter 1916






Have a nice journey into Ireland and its past history!

Education for everybody

Education  is  Power, Education is  a  great  Tool

If you search online, you will find plenty of  quotes about " Education".  I just want to remind you about the quotes by Mandela and  Dewey :

" Education is the most powerful weapon  which you can use to change the world"

"..... education is  life  itself"


As a teacher I feel that it is the greatest and most powerful tool for  creating a world where everybody is important and can achieve happiness and get satisfied.

What happened yesterday in Brussel  was the result of the lack of education and respect for the others. We do need to promote digital skills at school and learn about  school subjects  but  also  to support our children and students to learn about  differences among cultures and respect for all people.

Just follow  some hashtags and you  will see that  thousands of people are aware of this and are working to help  our students become aware of the importance of differences among people and human rights.

This is the greatest aim in our  lessons and  teaching units and  a lot of  language  teachers are working online with the help of other  teachers   to  spread such ideas .


Tweet riguardo #education







Tweet di @aworldatschool

# Brussels

This morning marked another sad day in the history of the world and also in Europe. Violence is now entering our streets and more and more  people who hate  peace and culture and which they are afraid of  our way of living are  destroying  what we have achieved and what we love: FREEDOM and PEACE. It happened in Brussels this morning, it happened in Paris too, but it had also  happened in Africa, in Turkey and many more countries in the world. It is a long list of violent attacks where thousands of people  were killed.
While we feel speechless and we mourn the death of innocent people we need to ask the men who decided to bring  Wars into our  world to stop them. VIOLENCE AND  DEATH  are not a solution to the problems they have and they think they might have.
We should all teach our  children just  from primary school that   PEACE and RESPECT are values we should share.
Borrowing from the words of an English poet "  Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
 ( quote from  John Donne).

Let's remember these  words and let's talk about what happened  so that our  young students can share the values of  LIFE and think  about what has happened. Any life and any man is important in the world.

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johndonne136861.html

LIVE: #Brussels mourns after deadly attacks. https://t.co/PxtW4nGHlz https://t.co/gWoGlZcXjj

— Reuters Live (@ReutersLive) 22 marzo 2016

CPD for English Language Teachers

Getting into  special events :  IATEFL   2016 

Last year I could follow   IATEFL 2015  online.  My  experience was a great discovery and I could meet many speakers who shared their experience and ideas dealing with many issues in English.
It was  a  virtual experience but  I could see how  talking and  sharing  ideas among  teachers is a great  way for learning and  finding  new  paths into teaching.
I will do this again this year. I wish I could be in the UK and meet the many teachers and speakers who are presenting this year. Hopefully, we have a great  organization online that offers access to the many  conferences which will be  run this year.


The schedule is ready online:  http://www.iatefl.org/annual-conference/birmingham-2016 
You will learn about the speakers and more about the topics.



When?    From 13th  to 16th April  in    Birmingham.


It will last four days  and it will be an international event with many interviews and presentations.
I am also following Twitter so that  I will know more about what they have decided to do this year.

I think it is a  must  for  ESL/ EFL  teachers and anyone who wants to learn  about how we are approaching learning  languages and English.


Be ready to start the journey in  April!  It will be a  great way for   developing your  skills as a teacher and developing your   PLN.  


Tweet di @iateflonline

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and the English  Language: 400 years of Shakespeare

Website:  http://www.shakespearelives.org/
2016 marks an important anniversary in the history of the English language. The year has been characterized by international events about the Bard, his works and the language presented in his plays. It is said that he died on 23rd April 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon, the same place where he was born. 
As a teacher of English I am an eager reader of his plays and most of my trips as a learner have focussed on the plays and the sonnets he wrote.  These are some videos which have been shared online and that focus on the man, the poet and the dramatist. Much has been written about his ideas and what language was presented in his plays. The English language, Modern English, was born with him and today we still rely on many quotes from his plays. Also modern  literature has links with his plays.
Here you can find  interesting  documents online about his works and the English language: students and teachers have watched the conferences online and they have shared their ideas. I was so pleased to watch the events online!

Tweet riguardo # shakespeare lives

An important event  was  " Shakespeare lives- live " which was run by the British Council and presented many voices about the way we still consider  the Bard and his tragedies.

Among the great  tragedies he wrote we have " Romeo and Juliet", a tragedy about love which is still important today and read by our students.

Social networks have also shared ideas and pictures about this important  anniversary:





Tweet di @shakes400chi






ON  LINE  RESOURCES FOR TEACHING   SHAKESPEARE  

Teachers have now  access to many resources  about the best ways for teaching his plays

https://www.tes.com/teaching-shakespeare/

http://www.folger.edu/classroom-resources

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/education/teachers/teaching-resources

http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/lessonplans.html

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-teens/uk-culture

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/shakespeare.html

http://www.enotes.com/topics/how-teach-shakespeare-first-time


A WEBINAR ABOUT  TEACHING  SHAKESPEARE  (British  Council)

http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/continuing-professional-development/teaching-shakespeare-language-learners-0

By following the link you will find the recording and the  slides of the presentation. The webinar was on 14th January 2016.



Here is my collection of  websites for learning and teaching " Shakespeare and his works"



William Shakespeare my favourite web sites, by italianteacher

My PINTEREST COLLECTION



  Follow Tiziana's board Shakespeare THE BARD and more on Pinterest.





In February I also wrote my ebook about   English learning and the topic was  Shakespeare and his play " Romeo and Juliet":  I chose this  play as there is much online and I wanted to create some activities about this tragedy that has been studied by thousands of students.It was a nice way for  devising  activities to be done by the students and I had to rely on videos online. Youtube was the source of most of the links but as you can see not all the videos are now online.  








Tools to present   William  Shakespeare: for educators

Thinglink


Blendspace

http://www.scribaepub.info/reader/private/Qt8cgYHw2kIYbWIRMFF9Rw&asset=55556255

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SMORE 





SYMBALOO - A  webmix which can be shared on line and where you can  keep the best  websites that you have bookmarked






Sharing  collections with  www.participate.com

https://www.participate.com

8th March Women and Education- Education and Women

Education and   Women-  Women and Education
"One child, one  teacher, one book ... can change the world "

A young girl talked to the world and asked for a pen as she wanted to be able to learn and write and continue  learning on her own.She underlined that  her wish to continue  learning  was  a necessity in a world where  girls and boys were forbidden  to  have access to learning and education.  She risked her life and after she left her country she could recover and she could talk to the  world - you can read her speech  and see how powerful her words are for us also today:

https://secure.aworldatschool.org/page/content/the-text-of-malala-yousafzais-speech-at-the-united-nations/

Education is important for every person, but  for women like Malala  education has  a special meaning.  Education means  freedom.

Women 's voices have  always talked about the need for freedom and literature has seen many voices of writers and poets who thought that  " women " should be given the same chances as men.

Now in the XXI  century we are still fighting against prejudices and a lot of girls and women are fighting to get access to their freedom. This happens in poorer  countries but also in some developed countries too. It is their right to exist that can cause problems in their societies and also at work. It must be difficult to get recognition to their right to exist as " free  girls  or women".   


Shakespeare's sister

The great writer Virginia Woolf was interested in the conditions of women and why they could not achieve the same goals as their brothers.
Read the text online
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91r/chapter3.html
   Listen to the commentary about the text   Shakespeare's sister by V.Woolf: we cannot talk about her as  women's life was based on the family's choices when Shakespeare became a great dramatist.  Girls could not choose but  obey and get married. There can't have been  a  female Shakespeare and if she had existed she could not have become as famous as her  brother. 

I have always  liked this text as it presents the woman's point of view and it describes how hard life must have been for women who wanted to become writers. The XX century meant more rights  and  writers  like    Virginia Woolf and  Dorothy Richardson  could become writers, journalists and choose their own life. Among the many  female  writers I have studied  I love thinking about   Virginia Woolf ,  and  the others who  reshaped the novel at the beginning of the XX century. They are now  great  Giants in the  English Literature. 


What we can do at school

We can teach about the forbidden rights of women: internet can offer a great number of resources online and useful tips:

 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/blog/english-women-literature

In the same website we have access to a list of  activities : 

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/blog/ideas-international-womens-day?utm_campaign=GB-RES556


Women's Suffrage: a viewing and listening comprehension for teachers of English who want to discuss the issue at school






 We can also  watch a video about the presentation of the film  " Suffragette" and  learn about the period of the suffragettes who suffered deeply while they were fighting to get recognition of their rights. 

  

If you check on most social networks you will find a lot of pictures or slogans and documents.........  As  I am on Twitter I am just checking some  and sharing them with you  

Female writers have used ghosts to condemn their role in society: https://t.co/fbVfSpVLl1 #IWD2016 pic.twitter.com/B4BZZtIwmg

— BBC Culture (@BBC_Culture) 8 marzo 2016

.@itcnews calls for a greater share of women in global working - on #IWD2016 https://t.co/1RpnxURc33 #shetrades pic.twitter.com/AF7W4QYvzE

— United Nations (@UN) 8 marzo 2016

Know your value! That’s @jameelajamil’s #RewritingTheCode mission. What’s yours? #IWD2016 https://t.co/ZWL96NRBIC pic.twitter.com/hkQdWWLcgv

— A World at School (@aworldatschool) 8 marzo 2016

Let's celebrate and let's remember that education can really change the life of  girls and  women  in the  world.

EVO 2016 My experience online

                               EVO  2016 
On  14th February I finished the EVO sessions for year 2016. EVO means  ELECTRONIC VILLAGE ONLINE and it is  a  special session online for  teachers and  educators who learn together and share ideas and their work.

I did some courses and I was pleased to learn from the others. The tutors were " great" and supported us online  by using  different learning platforms :  Google+, MOODLE and websites where the tutors guided us.

 Here you can find my final production online about this  experience which should be shared by  others:




   

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More posts will be written about FLIPPED LEARNING and E-BOOKs.