Grab the best stuff

 

Well I am heading into school now just to have a look around and see what the place is like after the summer. I won’t be ‘grabbing stuff’ but have no doubt others will. I shall be sniffing around and then will head down to City Centre Souk 100 fils stores and then over to Teachers’ Cellar to pick up a few odds and ends.

Summer’s over.

Demolition Coffee

Believe it or not, I have just watched Demolition Man for the first ( probably the last ) time. It caught my attention because Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock were in it. He kicks ass as they say across the Atlantic, and she’s a charming wit. I thought I was to be spared Sly Stallone’s twisted lip when I saw him sink beneath the ice, but that relief was to be short lived as he resurfaced some minutes later, to ‘get the bad guy’…..any way, how awful, the world in 2030 something was a world without, not only swear words and cigarettes, but salt and COFFEE!!!

Now, I know it’s fiction, but have Mr Starbucks , Mr Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Ms Gloria Jean seen this movie??? And if so, have they sat down and thought about a long term business plan? Is it worth putting your heart and soul,dollars and dinars into opening more coffee shops than Kuwait has mosques, only to be denied the joy of serving the delectable beverage in the not too distant future? Is that the way things will go? No salt, no meat, no caffeine……no fun…..no heart attack, you health freaks yell.

Seriously tho’ who would have thought five years ago that you couldn’t have a fag ( that’s cigarette for our US contingent)  with your whiskey in an Irish bar? Who knows what prohibitions the future will bring?

You see now I’m thinking maybe I should invest in that 140KD Nespresso machine from Sin City- it might be a priceless heirloom in a few years.

Gary Glitter Update

 

The update on shamed paedophile Paul Gadd ( aka gary Glitter ) is that he tried to enter Thailand, where he resides, but Thai officials refused him entry. Thumbs up to them- if only the would be as careful with other paedos at their borders.

At present, Glitter is refusing to return to Britain because he would be forced to sign the sex offenders’ register and would have a travel ban put on him. ( Nice one- but make sure you keep the UK kids in his vicinity safe).He has been put up at an airport hotel in Thailand for the moment.

Latest news is : He has just been denied entry to Hong Kong after flying there from Thailand.

”Chinese authorities informed their UK counterparts that they had barred the 64-year-old from the country after his arrival.”

Let’s hope Home Secretary Jaqui Smyth gets her teeth into this one : no sanctuary!

Jason Castro- my American Idol

 

This guy is so cute- in a you want to mother him way……..and what a sweeeeet voice!

Cats have 9 lives- and 4 ears?

 

Look at this- it almost reminds me of one of those aliens I was shooting at on my Wii this morning.

SKY NEWS SAYS,”Unlike the cruel and unusual punishment of the cat o’nine tails, this cute cat o’ four ears is nothing to be afraid of.”

I’m scared.

Approach to teaching-an answer

re a request: ‘‘good day,
im a teacher in Malaysia. Im doing a research on how other teachers from other parts of the world carry out their lesson. if u dont mind, can u share some of your experience on how your teach your students?What approaches u use ? what type of students you have and hoe do u use technology in ur class. Its my pleasure if you can share”

This is the kind of question you hate having in an interview because you have so much to say that you don’t want to sound like a bumbling idiot….

1. My students are second language English speakers ( first language Arabic )- so a communicative TEFL approach to any subject is essential.

2. Group work is important, but I also insist on working alone and while noise in a classroom is healthy, I always insist on quiet when appropriate. Students should know the boundaries.

3. Students should have no fear of speaking up and asking questions in my class- but should remember that it gets my goat when I have  to repeat an answer 5 times!

4. I try and link everything-make it cross-curricular: my Art is linked to History and Geography for example and History linked to English, re reading and writing. I don’t stick rigidly to timetables either. Because we have to fit in subjects such as Arabic and Religion, we have timetables even for Primary. But I’m definitely not a ‘ it’s 9 am so it must be Geography’ person. As long as the curriculum is covered………………..

5. Don’t  be scared to let a day pass without the student writing anything- not all learning comes from writing.Discussion, language games, Art, Music all play a major role.

6. When we make notes on Science, Geog etc we make ‘group notes’. I brainstorm the information from the students and put it on the board in good English for them. Just sticking photocopied notes into their books is not a good way of digesting the material they have discussed and certainly isn’t my way. These should be gap fills and used for homework reinforcement.

7. Always discuss first and explain and THEN hit the textbooks and the writing.

8. Videos and listening cassettes are great learning aids when used correctly: so in my classroom I have a TV,DVD or video player, a cassette player and a computer.

9. Writing- I am the first to admit that I am not the ‘queen of the handwriting class’- while I admit that kids need to  be taught how to write, I am a firm believer that they should  be allowed to ‘find their own style’. As long as the work is presented neatly, I don’t care if it’s typed or written in bold! ( Ouch-detention for me ? )

10. Praise, Sarcasm, Wit, Concern, Discipline and a good dose of ‘ sharing a part of yourself’ makes the perfect class-teacher relationship. We expect our students to give us so much, it is only rational that we should give them a part of ourselves.

I hope that gives you a little glimpse into ‘my world’.

Exciting Verbs Poem

 

Try to encourage the use of exciting verbs- keep a list stuck up around the classroom for students to refer to.

Here is an activity thanks to Karen Kinsley )

EXCITING VERBS

Choose some exciting verbs to fit into the gaps and then try and

think of some more things you might hear happening in the night

and fill in the last four lines.

It was so quiet that I heard

An ant __________ across the lawn

It was so quiet that I heard

A leaf ____________onto the floor

It was so quiet that I heard

A raindrop __________down the window pane

It was so quiet that I heard

A mouse ___________across the floor

It was so quiet that I heard

A woman _________in her bedroom

It was so quiet that I heard

The wind ___________ down the road

It was so quiet that I heard

A man ____________in the street

It was so quiet that I heard

The trees ___________ on the window

It was so quiet that I heard

________________________________________

It was so quiet that I heard

________________________________________

It was so quiet that I heard

________________________________________

It was so quiet that I heard

________________________________________

 

More disaster for Spain

My heart breaks for people on this afternoon’s flight from Barajas Airport in Madrid to Gran Canaria. It seems that on the second attempt to take off, the plane crashed off the runway. So far 26 people have been reported taken to hospital and the remaining passengers and crew (6) feared dead. There were 163 passengers and 6 crew on board.

Gran Canaria is a holiday destination, even for the Spaniards themselves. This comes soon after the bombs in Costa del Sol. A bad summer for Spanish tourism.

So far 90 confirmed dead.

Display Boards (2)

 

I have a colleaugue who has dragged out the same old laminated cartoon characters every year for the past 7 years for her welcome back board. This year several of us thought of kidnapping the characters and sending them off on a round the world trip like the famous garden gnome. Anything to force her out of her lazy apathetic approach to teaching.

The Welcome Back Bulletin Boards has knocked Adjective Poem off the top for the most viewed post so I thought I would put up a few more display ideas.

Backing Paper

Essential of course , but not essentially expensive or standard catalogue supplies issue. You can use any of the following:

Newspapers , magazines, silver aluminum, brown lunch/sandwich bags, shopping bags, A3 paintings from art lessons - depending on the subject of the display, these can be quite effective.

Fishy Business- Angles ( Numeracy )

 

Check out this wonderful website for some excellent ideas on displays and other things.

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/

Getting Your Olympic Knickers In A Twist

 

This has to be the silliest Olympic story of the month. The New Zealand hockey manager was banned from watching the team in a crucial match because his players’ underwear was non regulation.

Yes that’s right UNDERWEAR- ’scuse me matron, are we back at school tally-ho!? Apparently the Olympic hockey rule is that underwear must match shorts. New Zealand were drawn against Germany but had to swap their usual black strip for their alternative white one. Unfortunately ( or fortunately, depending on your view on undies ) no one had white knickers with them. So, unperturbed, the Kiwis went ahead with their white shorts and black undies- apparently a  fashion faux pas of Olympic proportions……..bet it looked cute tho.