International Friendship Day

⭐ #ErasmusPlus = friendship without borders ⭐

Millions of international friendships began through Erasmus. Don't let them fade - say hello to a faraway friend today 💙#InternationalFriendshipDay pic.twitter.com/DLjig8KLvW

— Erasmus+ (@EUErasmusPlus) July 30, 2019

I found this interesting post shared by  Erasmus Plus and  at the same time I also found an interesting story shared online about  the time of Nazism.  The story is a story about  the friendship of two girls who were penpals . One was living in  Europe while the other was living in the USA. The first one belonged to a Jewish family and when Hitler came to power they had to find a way  to  escape  and  avoid  being sent to the concentration camps.

This story can help us reflect on what we can do for the others and how we can change the life of people if  we are human  beings. If we do not  decide, we will never be " human", since caring about the others is really important.

Here is the link to the  document online which I am  going to use with  my students of the  fifth year  when school starts in September.


https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/marianne-winter


 
I cannot but say that if more people had " worked " to fight against the persecution of the Jews , we would have  changed history.

Teaching English: songs

I was surfing the web yesterday and I came across this collection of videos which can be used to teach English. It is still work in progress and it was shared online. Here you can  find some videos which have been used by educators to work in  English.

I am used to introducing some topics in English by presenting some videos. I must confess that I really like it.
What is really  interesting is  to choose among a variety of texts which we can use in class.
I will check this repository online and see if some  songs can be used in my class too.
In this way we can get more engagement and perhaps learners will be more interested in learning new idioms.


Resources online

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/pop-songs-connected-speech-fluent-english 

Remembering the first landing on the Moon

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“Artist” is not a word we usually associate with astronaut Neil Armstrong. Yet a photograph taken by him 50 years ago today, “Buzz Aldrin, Moon Walk Reflection” is now in the National Gallery of Art's collection. He and fellow Apollo 11 crew member Buzz Aldrin photographed each other and their marks on the Moon using a camera specially modified for their bulky, gloved hands. 👨‍🚀📸 Find your Sea of Tranquility and check out “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” as we celebrate the anniversary of Apollo 11’s successful Moon landing! 🌖 #apollo50 #apollo11 #ngalunarphotographs

Un post condiviso da National Gallery of Art (@ngadc) in data: 20 Lug 2019 alle ore 9:00 PDT

Fifty  years  ago we had the first men landing on the moon. The event was  awesome and as a little child  I could but not imagine  my life in a new land, the moon. I cannot remember much but  I thought the  human beings could  get any planet in the universe.
Since then men have experienced  new discoveries  but  we have also  faced difficulties.


Since I love writing and  I am interested in creativity and English  Language learning I could find this interesting ebook online created by using  an app  Story Jumper. You must  read it and be inspired.

Read this book made on StoryJumper

It is a great tool which can help your learners write about themselves and enhance their ability in writing, storytelling for example.

 The Merriam Webster dictionary  has provided some  language input  which is worth sharing:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/glossary-of-moon-terms-and-definitions/selenography

Here you can listen to an interesting document online  shared thanks to  Listenwise:

https://listenwise.com/students/lessons/585-apollo-8-mission

And here is the poem by one of the greatest  English  romantic  poets:

Read “To The Moon” by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Genius



Enjoy this event !

Teaching about Mandela and modern history

Mandela's day is celebrated every year on 18th July.

I was fascinated by  the man who was in prison and  fought for the  rights of the black people in his counntry.  I do remember  reading about  South Africa and its apartheid when I was studying  geography in secondary school. I was shocked by what I read about  the system  that  segregated people.

This year  I could teach  about the history of  Apartheid when I did a short  text by  Nadine Gordimer with my fifth year  students. I felt inspired by some videos and also  some songs which can help us  introduce  Mandela and apartheid in the English lessons.

When searching online there are plenty of resources. Here is the one  shared online by  TeachingEnglish.

🗓 On #MandelaDay (18 July), people aim to give 67 minutes of their time to helping others.
⭐️ Here, students learn about Nelson Mandela and his life in South Africa during the apartheid period.
👉 Download the lesson plan and student worksheets here: https://t.co/3LT20bgQak pic.twitter.com/2e3R49Yor2

— TeachingEnglish (@TeachingEnglish) 17 luglio 2019

Resources online

Mandela's day websources


My Lesson Plan and materials

Introduction created by using  a  free  world cloud  tool: I just had to copy the text of the song by the  Simply Minds

https://www.wordclouds.com/

Talking and guessing about the issue in the song 

The students will have to talk about the content of the song and  be guided into  finding more information about   Mandel .

Listening and  Viewing  Skills

The students  watch the video about the song and focus on the information they can get from the text and why it was  written.

The students are given the video trailer about a famous  film about  the life of  Nelson Mandela and will discuss about  what they have seen and what they know about  the man.

Follow up

The students do the activity  about  the  hero Mandela at home- it is a lesson shared online but it can help the learners work on their own and will  listen to some  more information in a guided  biography online.

https://ed.ted.com/featured/fZIlNzq6


The next  step: creativity

The students have to work in a group and  create an artefact in English about  Mandela and  the history of  South Africa.

They can use online editors for photos and create their text online  to be shared by using  Google Slides and any tool for making  videos.

Image of  Mandela created by  using  https://www.fotor.com/features/goart.html