T3 Book Song

These T3 students rock every time there's a song on the book! So much fun!!!!

The Cup Song

The Cup Song was a real hit among the students this year! Of course my little divas got addicted to it as well (believe me, "addicted" is a mild word here!!), so we practised, practised and practised some more. And the results were actually pretty good! Check it out:

And they perform again!

Here's another video of the coolest J2 girls in town, this time performing "The Numbers Rap", from their Students Book. Rock stars!!! Ninoca was absent and we missed her!

The Family Song - J2

My J2 TA performing "The Family Song", from Smile Students Book. They are true stars!!! Thank you, girls!

Idioms - Useful and Fun

Since the begginning of 2011 I've been teaching my T6 students tons of useful idioms. Idioms are usually not found in books or on the plannings, but they are used by native speakers ALL THE TIME. We have time, they have the skills, so why not?
 To make it more fun, here's how I do it: at the end of each class I write a sentence containing an idiom on the board. They copy the sentence on a handout I prepared and gave them, take it home and try to guess the meaning through the context of the sentence. They then write the corresponding idiom in Portuguese, using the idioms we have in our own language. At the end of the year, the student with the most correct guesses will win  a surprise.

Some of the idioms they learned so far:

• An Arm And A Leg: Very expensive. A large amount of money. (O Olho da cara)
• On The Fence: Undecided. (Na dúvida; Em cima do muro)
• Saved By The Bell:  Saved at the last possible moment. (Salvo pelo gongo)
• The Last Straw: When one small burden after another creates an unbearable situation, the last straw is the last small burden that one can take. (A última gota)
• Tie the knot: To get married. (Se casar; Juntar os trapos)
• Mum's the word: To keep quiet. To keep the secret. (Bico calado)
• Like a chicken with its head cut off: To act in a frenzied manner. (Agir feito louco)
• Knee Jerk Reaction: A quick and automatic response. (Reflexo)
• Kick The Bucket: Die. (Bater as botas; Subir no telhado - morrer)
• Throw good money after bad: To waste additional money after wasting money once. (Jogar dinheiro fora)
• When Pigs Fly : Something that will never ever happen. (Nem que a vaca tussa)
• Your Guess Is As Good As Mine: I have no idea. (Não faço idéia)
• Beats Me: I don't know the answer. (Não sei; Não faço idéia)
• A Cinch: A very easy task. (Fácil; Moleza; Mel na Sopa)
• A Bang Up Job: A very successful piece of work. (Excelente trabalho)
• Finger lickin' good: A very tasty food or meal. (De lamber os dedos)
• Fits and Starts: With much stopping and starting. (Aos trancos e barrancos; De mal à pior)
• Leaps and Bounds: by large movements forward. (De vento em popa; À todo vapor)

Hello, Goodbye!

March, 2011. My T1 performing "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles, one of the songs from Imagine 1. Learning English is always better with The Beatles, no matter the age!

Think Outside the Box

 I've never been the kind of person who has both feet on the ground, at least not at the same time. I'm always looking for new ways of living life, always in search of new exciting ideas to put into practice (don't ask me where I find the time!).
 And I try to transfer this "think outside the box" concept to my teaching life as often as possible. I just can't seem to be able to look at activities and not change them in some way. Of course it would be impossible to change or even "touch up" every single thing in a class and some are just perfect the way they are, but every once in a while it's good to make students move during a grammar exercise or have them find a "surprise activity" under their seats.
 That's why I was happy when teacher Drica came to me for help when preparing one of her classes. It was a T4 class I had taught before and for which I had created and hidden "fake airplane tickets" under students' desks. The aim was to create a dialogue between students so they could practice phrasal verbs related to travelling. I told my students they had won a trip somewhere and they should discuss their travel plans with the person next to them, using the language written on the board. The activity was a hit and students were very happy to take their tickets home with them!

My very own ticket to New York!!

Link to make fake airplane tickets here. Enjoy your trip!

Damn you, Past Participle!!

 Teaching Past Participle is usually a challenge, for teachers AND students. There's no way around the memorizing struggle and even if you do study, you're bound to forget some of the verbs when you need them the most.
 To help my T3 students print those mean little verbs in their heads, I created a fun game they all enjoyed playing. It goes as follows:
 Students were "tied" leg to leg in pairs. One student held a pencil; the other, an eraser. For each pair, I taped a paper on the wall with a list of verbs in the present and a blank column to be filled with the past participle.
 When the music was playing, they had to write down as many of the past participle verbs they could remember. Whenever it stopped, they had to stop writing, run around the class, erase ONE of the other pairs verbs and take a peak at what they had written so they could copy on their paper. The music only stopped for a few seconds and when it was playing again they had to run back to their papers and start writing. The game was over when I turned off the lights.
 The pair with the highest number of accurate answers won the game. Although there will never be a miracle technique to memorize past participle verbs, this game sure helped them practise and was tons of fun!

Vocabulary Wall

  A couple years ago, in order to help my T4 students remember the learned vocabulary, I created a "Vocabulary Wall". The idea was that with each unit, students would add the new set of lexis and their meanings to the wall, where they could refer to whenever they had to use the language.
  It worked, so I've been using this technique ever since!

Last Year's Wall - a compilation of words

One of the word groups

Role Play

 It is not enough merely to provide students with opportunities to speak English, as teachers we need to encourage students to speak in a variety of different situations, and hence help them to speak with confidence.

 Role Playing is a fun way to lighten up the mood and ‘shake things up’ a bit. The effective use of role-plays can add variety to the kinds of activities students are asked to perform. It encourages thinking and creativity; lets students develop and practice new language and behavioural skills in a relatively safe setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for real learning to occur.

 These are my T1 students using those techniques to practise the Present Continuous. They created and wrote their own scripts, reherased and each had the chance to play the "interviewer". Fun, fun, fun!