Trade matters to me

This years' WTO Public Forum opened on 1 October 2014 under the theme "Why trade matters to everyone". The opening session featured the video "Trade matters to me", which shows the importance to trade in our daily lives. You can watch it with your students and reflex about the origin of the things we use in our everyday life.

Innovation in the BEDA Programme

Tomorrow I will participate in a round table talking about innovation in the BEDA Programme in the Udima’s II Congress about bilingualism. Here you can find the programme:

Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity

This is one of the most watched conferences on TED, the website where you can find speeches about almost any subject. I really think it is interesting to analyse why it is one of the most popular ones.

Do we need to change something in our classes? People do care about education.

You can download the TED App here

The birthday party: interactive adventures

Do you remember the interactive adventure books we used to read a long time ago? Did you enjoy them?

Watch this video!
If you are a teacher you can use this activity to work the conditionals:
What do you think it will happen if we decide to ...?
What would you do if you were...?

Students love it!

Making progress

Some times our students have the feeling that their English is not improving.

Mariaje, one of my International Trade 1 students showed us this video of Nadal and Federer reading Kiplin’s poem “IF”. Comment with your students Nadal and Federer’s pronunciation. What could he improve?

Read the poem

Afterwards, I looked for a more recent video of Nadal speaking English. Do you notice any difference? What can you do to improve your English?

Ban Bossy Campaign

HAVE YOU SEEN THE BAN BOSSY CAMPAIGN? IT WAS TRENDING TOPIC #BANBOSSY!!

When a little boy asserts himself, he's called a "leader". Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded "bossy". Words like bossy send a message: don't raise your hand or speak up. By middle school, girls are less interested in leading than boys - a trend that continues into adulthood. Together we can encourage girls to lead.

What is it like in your school? If you want more ideas for your class visit the Ban Bossy website by clicking on the picture.

Valentine's day

One of my favorite songs by the Beatles: "When I'm 64". You can use it to work present simple as future.
Happy Valentine's day!!

Help your children with reading and maths

Oxford Owl is a really interesting website by Oxford University Press to help parents with their children’s learning. You can find age-specific reading and maths and tips and activities, FREE eBooks, and lots of fun ideas to really bring your child’s learning to life.

BEDA Programme study trip to London

We are back!!

The experience was really interesting, just having the possibility of sharing ideas and exchanging experiences with the rest of the 45 BEDA coordinators participating in the trip was very motivating, a really spontaneous TeachMeet. 

We had the opportunity to visit Saint Mary’s University and learn about the English Educational System, experience the National Gallery teaching programme through art, and follow a guided didactic walk around the City, among other things.

But what I enjoyed the best was visiting Heathland School in Hounslow, London. It was really challenging, assisting different classes and seeing the role of teachers and students. Classes are really interactive, a lot of “hands on”, team work, reflecting, learning from peers and self-evaluation at the end of the class. Arts are completely integrated in their curriculum, and we were amazed by how students had developed their teamwork competences, communication skills, decision making… All the activities were very stimulating and short, so students got really involved in them, and there was no time to get bored. Corrections from the teacher were very rare, just when the groups did not reach the right conclusion.

Different class layouts, assembly room, spaces to share and assess, work shows… You can see part of the conclusions on Chris Fuller’s blog, who taught us about innovation in the classroom.

It is now time to analyze all the new ideas from the trip, give feedback and decide how to apply them to our school, the Escuela Profesional Javeriana.

Thank you FERE to give us the opportunity to share this experience!

Resources for teachers

Have you ever visited the International House teacher training website? They offer a lot of fun ideas for an English class or a class in English.