Teaching Children: Survival Tips

http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/10/13/survival-tips-for-teaching-kids-english-30-tips-resources/

My Survival Tips

1. Channel in your inner child!- Can you identify the 2 members of our personal learning network in this slide?
   • Have the ability to act silly – I often dress-up when reading books, play charades, make silly voices and faces, and sing and dance!
2. Wear the right gear! Don’t dress to impress! Dress for a mess!
3. Children love to play pretend games!
4. Have lively music that is easy for the children to understand and that you will enjoy singing very loudly to!
5. TPR- Total physical response is a must for every lesson. Find out more by reading this post.
6. Puppets are great for children, especially when you incorporate the puppet in every lesson.
7. Play board games, physical games, and online games- We play Twister, bingo, English Raven’s games, and more!
8. Include stories from great children’s authors and make the reading time fun. Check out my class wiki for various books and the themes they support.
9. Use colorful flashcards and play games with the flash cards.
10. Color with a purpose! Give children a task to see if they can follow directions, such as telling a child to draw a circle and color it yellow. Without direction, I’ve had children color on the wall and on me!
11. Incorporate drama activities such as mime and improvisation games.
12. Felt boards are great for having children piece together what happened in a story or to learn new vocabulary.
13. Finger plays like the Itsy Bitsy Spider work wonders. Read this post on how to digitalize your finger plays using Blabberize.
14. Trust kids with technology! My five year-old students complete online activities each week which I put in a wiki. Kids love technology and will repeat what they learn.
15. Explore the outdoors with scavenger hunts.
16. Use realia- My students play Bingo with pennies from the USA. Introduce real world objects to students from an English speaking culture. Play Show-and-Tell!
17. When all else fails, have fun!

Newspapers in the Classroom: The Wall Street Journal

http://classroomedition.com/cre/

Blogs and Wikis in the Class

Summary

The use of blogs and online collaboration in education is explored as teachers discover how and why they should make good use of them.

Twilight Activities

http://www.getenglishlessons.com/5197/twilight-esl-lesson-ideas/

Activities for Movies

http://warmupsfollowups.blogspot.com/

Story: The Tortoise and the Hare

Cambridge ranked World´s Number 1 University!

Cada año tres millones de personas en el mundo en 130 países rinden exámenes de idioma inglés administrados por la Universidad de Cambridge. Estos tests son reconocidos por 11000 empleadores y universidades alrededor del mundo. Prepará tus exámenes Universidad de Cambridge en NETWORK! A new report issued this week ranking Cambridge as the world's top university, has been welcomed by language experts at University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL). The report which puts Cambridge University in the top spot was compiled by QS TopUniversities.com and has already received widespread coverage in the world's media. It was based on research quality, graduate employability, teaching and how international the faculties and student bodies are.

Cambridge University, which recently celebrated its 800th anniversary, is known throughout the world for the quality of its research and teaching, and for its contribution to education globally through its publishing and assessment departments. Dr Mike Milanovic, Chief Executive of Cambridge ESOL said:

“As a department of Cambridge University, we have a commitment not just to language assessment and learning, but to education as a whole and this report is very good news. It further reflects our uncompromising commitment to offer language assessment and learning tools around the world with an emphasis on quality, accuracy and fitness for purpose.” Every year, more than three million people in 130 countries take Cambridge English language exams run by the University's English language exams department, Cambridge ESOL and the range of tests is recognised by over 11,000 universities, employers and government departments. As Dr Mike Milanovic explains: “We work closely with individuals, governments, schools and universities across the world to ensure that learners can really use English effectively.”