Lateral thinking quizzes

As I have promised Cristina, I am sharing one thought-provoking method to get your students engaged to speaking; the lateral thinking quizzes. They were first invented by the psychologist Dr  Edward De Bono and I have come across some of those in the coursebook we use in the class.

Advantages: 

•           You get your students thinking
•          Learners can practice the form of questions
•          Listening and skills are particularly promoted
•          It is a nice activity to end the lesson
•          It encourages pair- work
•          You can motivate your students to write their own lateral thinking quizzes
•          It can be used in all levels and for all age groups
•          It can be adjusted to different learner types, i.e. you can show it written over a projector while you are reading it aloud and draw some of the hints on the whiteboard
•         The TTT is limited since the teacher just gives short answers, like ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘it doesn’t matter’, ‘maybe’ to the students’ questions

  

       Disadvantages:

•      Shy or weaker students may not have enough time to contribute to the answer and thus they might be discouraged. The teachers can coordinate the speed of the game so that everyone can have the opportunity to utter the answer or they can form the pairs combining a stronger with a weaker student.
•        Teacher has to choose in advance the quiz that responds to the maturity and thinking procedure of their students, according to their age. 

Here you can find some quizzes that you could use in your classes. There are some for teenage students and for older ones ( some are repeated on both pages).

Cockroachesladybugs

Onestopenglish

When Greeks invade a Glass Store - Part 2

Dear friends,

More fruit on the tree!!

GRGPS ( George Raptopoulos -Georgia Psarra-Set)  are proud to present the next guest blogger, our sensitive Venia Adamakou, who is also part of the team of Greeks participating in the bull wreaking a magic havoc in the glass store

Enjoy perambulating in the gardens and please share your opinions with us!!!

          When I was asked if I wanted to participate in this project  I accepted  immediately as I love theatre! I did not imagine that this decision could change the way I am thinking.

         After a discussion full of interesting ideas we decided to play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. All the roles were wonderful and presented the ambitions, the problems and the thoughts of the heroes. There was one role, though, that fascinated me the most, the role of Laura, and I thought that I should give it a try.

        Laura is a young girl that cannot walk properly and did not have any luck at making friends as she always thought that she was not good enough for this world. She feels lonely and she creates her own world where she feels safe and happy. Her company is her animals that are made of glass as she cannot find what she needs when she speaks with her mother or her brother. When her first love appears in her house she realizes that she can be happy in the real world too. She does not care that much about her glass collection anymore but her dream is ruined when Jim, her love, announces that he is engaged.

        This role was a real challenge for me as I always rely on my friends when something bothers me and I  cannot imagine my life without  travelling, going out and being energetic in general. I had  to imagine how I would feel if I was totally isolated  and had a problem with my legs. I felt awful for her! Something that  helped me understand her more was that I hurt my leg and I could not walk properly for a day or two. I immediately thought about Laura and  that I needed to approach this role with respect  since many people in our society face problems like Laura.

       During the rehearsals we had so much fun as we were all excited about this  play and we wanted to make it perfect! I hope that our efforts will be enough to satisfy our audience! 

When Greeks invade a Glass Store - Part 1

 GRGPS (George Raptopoulos - Georgia Psarra - Set) is proud to announce that our second project -within the larger "Spread Literature into the World!"- named "When Greeks invade a Glass Store", has already yielded crops! 

The first is here to merrily peruse and for us to grin broadly,

Our first guest blogger is Paschalis Paschalidis with his fruit of labour and love!

This year, as part of  the project “Spread Arts into the World, I was given the opportunity to undertake work  with one of the most famous and significant plays of the modern theatre. The Glass Menagerie by  Tennessee Williams is a play that every young person, and especially those  who love theatre, has to study, think about and be concerned with. A simple scene in an ordinary town, common urban people, a century of change are more than enough to set up a story of conflicts, love, hate and a journey  to the innermosts of the human soul.

  The role I had to act was  that of  Jim O’Connor. He is a young man, very popular at high school , but now living an ordinary tedious  life, much lower than his ambitions. Jim is a dreamer, but not just in words. He sets goals  and works hard to achieve them, in a society of misery and routine. He is the external observer, who joins the Wingfields’ house to change the balances, to offer a taste of the dream and, finally, to take it away for ever.

  This role is a challenge for every young and ambitious person. It is a sample of the modern European and American  theatre, where nothing is said, but everything is hidden behind some simple words, moves and reactions.

  During the scene, Jim plays a major role. He is the new person who has to deal with all the O’ Connor family. The pressing but glamorous Amanda, the disappointed and indifferent Tom and ,of course, the very special Laura, who is totally in love with him.

  We had to change some expressions of Jim in order to turn him into a modern Greek man who lives in America. During this whole process we discovered that there was no big difference between the psychology of Jim and that of a modern Greek who is forced to abandon his country and his dreams there in order to find a better future abroad. 

  Summarizing, the whole process of discovering, studying and playing this very difficult role was a challenge  but, at  the same time, an opportunity for me to discover a unique character. A person of another time, not so different from ours. The whole play made me reevaluate  some situations . Rethink, change my mind and for sure be concerned. I recommend  it to everyone! 

All about me "digital" bag

This year I decided to start my journey on projects with my younger students from the very beginning. Inspired by Despina Karamitsou, I used her idea to introduce myself and let them know more about me.

The concept of the presentation is to bring a bag in the class with just four objects that can tell something about you, i.e. your interests, your hobbies, your preferences. My bag included my tablet, an English book, a German DVD and a movie. I told them that I love my tablet because I can surf the Net, listen to music and it is light to carry around all the time. I showed them the book and they could easily figure out that I like reading literature. The German DVD was evidence that I speak and teach another foreign language, German, and finally watching movies is my favourite leisure time activity.

They really loved the idea of bringing something of  theirs and share information about themselves in the next lesson.
However, I wanted to implement some technology and so motivate them to engage themselves. Thus, I took photos of their bags and asked them to think how they would present their belongings to someone who would look at their photo and listen to their voice. They prepared their paragraph and ,after editing them, we used Vocaroo to record their presentations. They were thrilled and very professional, I must admit. This application is very convenient, easy to use and its most important advantage is that one can share their recording in social media, blogs or even download it as an MP3.

Here you can see and hear the kids

A1.1. level, aged 10

Katherine
Aristotelis
Marialena
Evi

 A2 level, aged 11.

John
Sami
George
Jim
Maria

A new project has been launched!

It is this time of the school year that I have been thinking what kind of a project I could run with my students, B1+ level. And then Patty Salguero came along and suggested that our classes collaborate on an Art project. All our students have something in common. They love drawing! So, we thought of letting our students express themselves on a topic through Art. You can imagine how excited I got! Over the moon, I must admit…

We have chosen Picasso’s painting Guernica to introduce them to the topic of ‘War’. We will expand on the topic and ,as an outcome , we will have our students draw their thoughts, feelings and impressions on a large cardboard. It will be more like a collage.

Apart from the famous painting , I am thinking of using work from Music and Literature as sources of thought- provoking elaboration so that more Arts can contribute. 

But first things first… In our last lesson I asked my students if they would like to participate in a project like this. I didn’t have to convince them. The thought that they can collaborate with Peruvian students of their age was enough to get them thrilled ! It was the triggering event to introduce the topic. For the next 10 minutes they came up with words and phrases associated with war. The question was “What do you think when you hear the word “war”?

All the words were gathered in a mind map which can be edited throughout the project.

I have already shared the image with Patty in Dropbox so that she could share it with her students, talk about it,  they can edit it, add more thoughts and expand  on the topic. 

It is one way of asynchronous communication because we have to think of our time zones and the time of our lessons. We will try, of course, to have a live talk so that our students have the chance to speak to each other and exchange information about their countries and hometowns, talk about themselves, their interests and hobbies.

This is for now… Not much but the step has already been made and I am

sure this will lead us to an extraordinary journey!

When the teacher gets inspired by a student

In this post I would like to give the stand to my 16-year-old daughter, Alexandra, who inspired me with a big list of project ideas. What a kick off to starting the new school year! You may have heard of or even run some of them, some may not appeal to you or you may think that they are difficult to do. But the main idea is that educators should seek new ideas, be open-minded and listen to their students. You never know what invaluable treasure they hide in their minds. The only thing they need is to be heard.

So, take a pick and I look forward to your feedback, comments and improvements. Alexandra would love that, too!

Finally, I would like to thank GeorgeRaptopoulos for editing and proofreading!

Here we go…

1 Personal  mail box.

You make a box and decorate it the way you like. In there you put letters you write to yourself and read them out at the start of the new year. In the first letter you write to yourself what you dislike about you and you must be polite while you do that (remember you will read that to others and you mustn’t be harsh or rude to anyone, even you). During the rest of the year you write letters that congratulate yourself for an achievement or just for the effort you put in an assignment even if you failed, so you will understand that even the fact that you tried must be rewarded. You might even write something personal. Remember it is for your eyes only.

2 Inspirational board 

We all have things we want to achieve. Places we wish to go to, a goal we would like to reach. And we all have a role model or two. How about we put all that on a board that will have the purpose of inspiring us? That project will be about 6 to 10 lessons. That is because you have to share with the class the reasons you are inspired by those things. An essay must be written about the people you look up to (who says it can’t be a fictional character?), the place you wish to visit, the dreams you have. When you share with someone your goal it gives you more motivation. After your presentation you put the picture of what inspires you on a big piece of cardboard and little by little create your inspirational board.

3 Learning the language with Disney

All Disney songs  have a fair amount  of vocabulary so why instead of a script  we do something different and teach the students vocabulary and  even grammar from  their favourite childhood songs (they don’t necessarily have to be Disney. Animaniacs can teach them something as well).

4 I’m happy today because...

That’s a nice one … On a piece of cardboard write this title and write the reasons you are happy. Time to appreciate what we have and learn to be grateful about them.

5 All around the world

Take a globe and blindfold the student, then spin the globe and make the student touch it. Wherever the finger was laid, the student must find out about the culture of this place and tell the class (the ocean doesn’t count!)

6 The penguins of Mister Popper 

Have you seen this movie? There was a character there who was speaking only with words which started with ‘’P ‘’. In a scene, especially, she was reading out loud the newspaper and the paragraph happened to have all the words starting with “p”. How about we challenge the students to write a paragraph in which all words start with one letter. They can use a dictionary in order to create a paragraph on whatever subject.

7 A poster

Remember when we use songs to teach grammar and vocabulary? We can do that with funny pictures and motivational quotes and also have a spelling lesson. Then, after choosing the funny picture and the motivational quote, you make two posters that will be put in your room.

8 Negative and positive

How about learning the meaning of the worlds by themselves?  In this project the students must fold the paper in half and write the positives and the negatives of their character. NOBODY, NOT EVEN THE TEACHER MUST HELP THEM OUT. This paper is for their eyes only. Therefore, they must use the dictionary for every word. They need to fill the paper so they won’t make spelling mistakes and they’ll learn how to use a dictionary properly. Every person who might start this project will notice it is more difficult to appreciate the positives of their character rather that the negatives. The assignment isn’t over until both of the lists are filled with a fair amount of words.

9 Why not with comics

Why can’t we teach English with the stories of their favourite heroes? My love for books started after reading a comic based in a book and most of my vocabulary has been developed while reading Disney comics. That will make the lesson more interesting. 

10 Perhaps a challenge

The weirdest diseases, 10 fun facts, the weirdest addictions , the most weirdly constructed houses , tips for whatever subject ,every random idea that comes to your mind can  be for a kid  a challenge to surf  the net and find out. Every week one of the students must take the challenge to pick a random subject to inform his/her fellow students about. And to make matters more interesting, let’s make them choose from a jar the random task they’ll present to the class.

11 Story time

Team up or go solo and remake a classical fairytale. You can take the project even farther as a class and try to publish the stories. That is motivation enough for the students to put their everything into their essays. Also you can go to Storybird and make a story of your own. Those stories can’t be published but it is fun and you can challenge the students to have a creative presentation of their stories. In my class a student wrote a story about pirates and used coins of chocolate at his presentation, maybe you can help the students make costumes, or make- of cardboard – the main idea for their presentation.

12 All the world is a stage  

In the movie ’’Dead Poets’ Society ‘’ the students stand up on their desks and the teacher gives them the task to write a poem of their own. From my point of view that will boost the student self-confidence and the classmates will learn to cheer and clap for each other even if the performance isn’t suitable for an Oscar nomination. Also, the students can take ideas from other poems and the project can move their interest in poetry.

13 ‘’Not about me’’ week

How about the students give some of their spare time to make a video about a sensitive matter like food disorders or bullying?

14 OurTubes

The possibilities YouTube gives us are endless. Students can make a parody based on a story they learn in class or an adaptation.  That way reading a classic story like “The Three Musketeers” is even more interesting.

 15 Not so cool for a teacher

Maybe the students don’t realise what it truly means to be a teacher. How about they deliver a lesson from the book? They can prepare it with the assistance of a classmate or even a teacher. At the end of the lesson the classmates can write- anonymously - a short review about the lesson and how it’s been delivered. That way the students can learn to accept criticism and to be gentle with their fellow classmates and recognise the effort they put even if it backfired.

16 Payback Time

Time for the students to teach something. Give them for homework to write an essay (long or short) in which anonymously they’ll evaluate the way you teach . Then collect the papers in a box. It can be positive or it can be negative. Either way, you must take them seriously. Maybe the way the lesson is delivered doesn’t help. Plus the students might write their own ideas for a new project.

17 Carrier day

Let’s   rehearse a job interview. The day before, the students must gather some information about the career they want to follow (or maybe they don’t and just search from curiosity) The game starts when the student stands up and says what job he/she has . Then the class asks the cliche questions: “Where do you see yourself in 10 years”, “how many degrees do you have?” Or maybe ask from curiosity: “What do you do in this job?” “How much do you get paid?”.  The fun is that you can make things up, also the teacher can help a little bit with some vocabulary.

Maybe a student with humour picks the career of a … (the choice is theirs), they are allowed to do that and while we are on the subject the teacher can educate them by telling them about some jobs that they didn’t know  existed in  the past  or still exist .

18 An educational masked party

Put in a jar historical names. The kids will randomly pick  one .Then ,after knowing the name of the historical figure they will have to impersonate , they must look them up on the internet or in the library  and, after seeing some pictures ,they  must create a simple costume that will look like the character . Then in class they will say ‘’ who they are’’ and about ‘’their’’ history, always talking in first person.

19 The restaurant

The students in a group of three can pick recipes from around   the world but instead of cooking them they inform us about their story. Also it will be fun if they make a sample of what the food looks like with plasticine.

For example 

BONUS

What if the dictionary they use is the “You speak Greek you just don’t know it’’ that will make them appreciate our national heritage.

Engage with Poetry

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist

Welcome! Καλώς ήρθατε! This year the 30Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I am happy to be your next Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So where in the world have we stopped now? We are visiting Thessaloniki, Greece. I invite you to accomplish the following goal “Engage with Poetry”

What happens when teachers wish to use their national literature in their English classroom? Can they combine enjoyment, learners’ motivation and English teaching?

Finding and using literature to teach in the EFL classroom is a controversial issue and many teachers may not feel comfortable with integrating it in their methods. 

Intrigued by our passion in literature, we challenged ourselves to use translated national literature in EFL classes. The main aim is to show that literature can be adopted as an alternative and a supplement in the syllabus and using national work aids students general education.

Accomplish the Goal

Have your students create a mltimedia presentation, digital story, comic or a video in which they express their interpretation, emotions or thoughts of a poem.
Here, I am going to show you the steps I followed in the classroom to help my students. I created a video of my students expressing their interpretations, emotions and thoughts of a poem.

Level: A1+

Age of learners: 10-year-old elementary pupils

Poem: The seagull by Odysseas Elytis (free interpretation by George Raptopoulos, a colleague with whom I accepted the challenge and who ran the project with the C2 English learners)

Lesson Plan

Step 1 Hand out the poem to the learners and let them read it for themselves.

Step 2 Explain unknown words, phrases, expressions

Step 3 Let them draw what they understood from the poem. They either use just a piece of paper and crayons or you can find many drawing apps and web tools in   http://teacherrebootcamp.com/2014/02/07/draw/

Step 4 Intrigue their thoughts by putting questions:

“Do you like the poem?”

“Describe the seagull’s life and people’s life”

“ What is the seagull a symbol for?”

“What is the man afraid of?”

“How would you like to live? Why?

Step 5 Let them express themselves using apps like linoit.com or padlet.com on the PC or tablet.

Step 6 Time for recording. They can use their smartphones , tablets, cameras. It would be wise to remind them to bring them along in the lesson before. Even if they don’t own those gadgets, you can use your own and record them.

Step 7 Let them check their recording and upload them in one of the video channels, YouTube or vimeo

Reflections

Students were motivated and engaged right away. They felt confident and I was surprised by their ability and readiness to transfer their ideas to English.  Team and pair work were promoted.

It was the first time for me that I perceived, organized and ran a lesson based on national literature. I felt I got closer to my students by arguing, talking about general matters, sharing ideas , thoughts and emotions.

Resources

YouTube

Vimeo

Slideshare
Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Google Images

Wikipedia

Padlet.com

Linoit.com

http://teacherrebootcamp.com/2014/02/07/draw/

About my country

I am proud to introduce you to my country, Greece

I was born, raised in Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece, Central Macedonia, Northern Greece.

You are all invited to have a treat of our local delicious, yummy dishes like bougatsa, moussaka, dolmadakia, gemista, gyros!!!

One of the most famous songs dedicated to my hometown is  Thessaloniki

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay!

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at http://30goals.com/ and join our 30 Goals Facebook Community