Lesson #1 Is TECHNOLOGY always a good thing?

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Let’s start with something we deal with everyday. I try very hard to explain and

make my students aware of the impact that technology has on our lives.

We can’t live without it, but we should use is wisely, don’t you think?

Here you’ll find a touching YT video about being lost in the world of technology.

Watch the video with your students, answer them some  questions. Depending on time you’ve got and the class you are teaching in, this part of the lesson may take you from 10 to 30 minutes.

Here are the questions to discuss:
• Do you have a Facebook account?
• How often do you check your Facebook account?
• What’s the best thing about Facebook?
• Do you chat on Facebook?
• Do you share pictures of you on Facebook?
• Do you take selfies?
• At what age do you think you should be allowed to have
a mobile phone?
• Can social media be dangerous?
• Do you send sms or use communicators?
• Do you use Twitter?
• What information do you have on your webpage?
• Do your parents use social networking sites?
• What kind of information do you like to share and what
kind of them you don’t like to share?
• Do you know anybody at the age of 10-20 who doesn’t
have any social media account?
• Is our privacy safe in the Internet?
• How can we benefit from social media?
• Are you a technofile or a technophobe?
• Do you prefer buying clothes at shops or online?
• Do you read books?

There is one more music video that I like, but it may be too controversial for school learners, but why not checking? Enjoy 🙂 

Please, leave me a comment below, or on facebook profile, if you find this post useful, or if you have any suggestions.

PBB

 

Lesson #4 Gratefulness.

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This lesson is directed to students on a bit higher levels: B1, B2 and more. The language is not very complicated, but the content may be not understandable for children.

(if you think I am wrong, I will be very happy!)

Firstly, give your students the opportunity to get familiar with the key words. They could check them out in the dictionary:

  • mainstream,
  • valuable,
  • experience,
  • become aware,
  • gift,
  • gratefulness,
  • opportunity,
  • richness,
  • revolutionize,
  • consciousness,
  • gratitude,
  • happiness,
  • misfortune,
  • respectfulness

Then, play the video.

Remember to tell your students that David Steindl – Rast is an Austrian monk, so his accent may differ a lot from well known English ones.

After watching this video, ask them questions:

  1. Does happiness make us grateful?
  2. Why should we be grateful?
  3. What does it mean that ‘opportunity knocks only once’?
  4. Should we be grateful for everything?
  5. How do you understand the saying: ‘Stop, look, go’?
  6. What are the advantages of being grateful?
  7. What is a grateful world?
  8.  What makes you grateful? Are you grateful?

 

Tips:

  • the video takes about 14 minutes, so if you don’t have time to play it twice or stop and check the comprehension, ask the students to watch it at home before the lesson
  • if you have time, and the group needs it, you can stop the video once in a while and check the students’ comprehension
  • you can extend the vocabulary and questions with your own ideas and needs.
  • you can treat this video as a break during long courses, even without any activities. Just watch and enjoy, and take these Benedictine monk’s words seriously. 

I will be grateful if you leave your comment below…  🙂

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The video is taken from: https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector/featured

Banana Banana… Meatball!

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Do you like Total Physical Response within your classes?

 

Obviously, both teachers and learners need TPR and enjoy it a lot. Today I would like to share with you a song by GoNoodle, which is very energetic, funny and educational at the same time.

How can you use it?

  • start or finish your lesson
  • a nice break during classes, open the window to make you and your students ventilate!
  • with very little children
  • with bigger children  

I don’t think teaching them the lyrics would be possible, but simple words like banana, meatball, elbow, stomach, nod, clap, shake your hips   would be appropriate.

  • with teenagers. Yes! They will love it! And here you can teach them the whole lyrics.
  • with adults – just for fun, and it depends on the group you teach.
  • when organising some free lessons, to present the way children have fun at school
  • when organising parties, festivals, contests etc
  • when you have no idea what to do 🙂

 

  • … or when you have no time to take up some sport, but you have 3 minutes in the evening for zumba time. Hey, why not? It’s so much fun!

Well, it would be great if you could show the PATTERNS to your students with your own body. That would make you a very friendly and cool teacher. Although, if you are too lazy, or too tired or you just don’t care, just play it, kids will catch it.

 

Let me know if you like this little idea.

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Lesson #3 Listening practice with Binka!

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Do you know Binka? It’s a very friendly and curious cat. He loves sleeping and eating, but he also has his adventures in the meantime. And he has a friend – Tango. Binka is definitely worth seeing!

You can do plenty of exercises with this short video, depending on your time, your students and you 🙂

  1. You can just watch it with your students, as a time filler, it will be good for kindergarten, primary school, and teenagers
  2. I used to watch it with my matura students (the basic level). I played the video, stopped and they were to translate as much as they were able to
  3. You can ask some questions about the video:
  • How many houses does Binka have?
  • What’s the weather like in the video?
  • What  does Binka feel on a hot day?
  • Who’s Binka’s friend?
  • What does Binka do on a hot day?
  • Does Binka like to have a bath on a hot day?
  • Does Tango like to have fun in water?

      4. You can give your students the text to fill with the words they hear. It should    take a bit more time, they should watch the video first, later they should be given the text, have some time to read and then listen to it and  complete the gaps.

Download worksheets:

Binka exercises Teacher

Binka exercises

5. A good way to use this video is just playing a short part and repeating it chorally or individually.

6. For students that are a bit more advanced, you can tell them to write as many nouns/ verbs/ adjectives/ some new interesting words / sentences in Present Simple etc as possible.

Have you got any more ideas how to use this short video? Let us know in the comment section.

Enjoy!

PBB