48 stories for English Tenses

Today we want to show you a good recourse if you are learning or working grammar topics.

It can be very useful for teachers and students because can practice all 12 English tenses (simple present, present progressive, simple past, future perfect...) as well as reading, writing, sentence structure and comprehension. 

http://www.really-learn-english.com/english-grammar-tenses.html

It's an easy way to learn and teach grammar through stories.

Here it is:

• 4 illustrated stories for each of the 12 tenses (for example, 4 stories to practice the present perfect, 4 stories to practice the future continuous, etc.)
• 48 stories altogether
• Short and easy stories
• Each story comes with a set of exercises and an answer key
• Available online, and as downloadable/printable worksheets
• Absolutely free to use.

Thanks to Heidi J Bai one of the teachers behind the web http://www.really-learn-english.com/, sharing this work with us.

Comenius Visit to Poland

Here I want to show you a video summary of the last visit we celebrate the last school year to conclude our Comenius Project: Travelbroadens the mind. Let’s travel together!

We were hosted by families of our partners schools: Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny nr 3 im.Jana Pawła II in Ribnyck (Poland). In this visit we were six 10-year-old students and two teachers. We were really happy because with this visit our students changed their mind and knowing another culture they really enjoyed. What at the begging was just OK at the end it was amazing for them.

Here you can see some video summaries about that visit:

Following this link you can have a look to all the presentations the students did about the visit.

BlogViajando con Nubi: Visita a Polonia de los alumnos.

We hope you like it.

Javier Ramos Sancha

@javiramossancha

http://sgaguilarjramos.blogspot.com

Is Health Care a Human Right?

This week's Do Now asks students if they think that health care is a basic human right and if all people should, regardless of wealth, have access to quality health care.  This issue is back in the news since open enrollment in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, popularly known as Obamacare, begins October 1, meaning that people will soon be able to sign up for government-subsidized health insurance programs. The House GOP has also launched a shutdown battle by voting to defund Obamacare.

Here's the link to the Do Now:

http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2013/09/20/is-health-care-a-human-right/


whitehouse.gov

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #DoNowACA

Create a Google style classroom newspaper

We are sure all of you have some time used various tools to create digital newspapers and paper ones, too.
Our first tip for teachers focuses on creating a newspaper using Google Docs, a very simple tool which allows us to easily design attractive, collaborative and successful papers written by any grade reporter.

Steps:
1. Explain what Google Docs is if you are about to first use it with your ESL students, as well as what it is for and how it can be a nice writing collaborative tool. Students are bound to grasp everything quickly and it should not take over an hour to get them going.
2. Choose an adequate template to design the newspaper: Student newspaper is a good one.
3. Let students pick up their roles as reporters and decide on the newspaper sections, number of issues published, frequency, and so on.
4. Allow some time for students to gather information, search for pictures, draft their articles and contribute to the newspaper. Do not forget that it is important to respect licences and quote sources for images and any other multimedia elements that you may include in your publication.
5. Arrange self-assessment, peer to peer assessment and finally your own assessment. Rubrics are a nice means for the three kinds of assessment. You might like to use Rubistar to compile your own rubrics.
6. If needed, do some final editing, download it as a pdf file and hand it out to everybody at school. Youpublisher also provides you with the chance to have a digital publication.

The final output might look something like the example below, an idea by Laura Chesebro: The Baseball Gazette.

Source: http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-classroom-newspaper-google-docs-style/

Ready to put this tip into practice in class?

Why don't you compile your own classroom newspaper? We'd love to gather your newspapers here, all your contributions are welcome! 

Just make a comment here or mail us with the output you designed with your students after having followed the steps of this tip.

Good luck!

Talk like a Pirate Day

 

September, 19 is the International "Talk Like a Pirate" Day. 

Maybe, this doesn't say much to anybody in a non-British context, but it can be a good opportunity for English teachers of any level to try and play pirates with their students as they learn  new vocabulary and expressions, listen, talk, write... Let's have a look at some of these possibilities: 

- The official TLAP site (http://www.talklikeapirate.com/) has lots of activities like a pirate's personality test or a Pirate's Name Generator, but as it is designed for native speakers, it  might be difficult or not very suitable for beginners. 

- The Pirates Theme Page of Enchanted Learning on the other hand, has plenty of crafts, activities, word puzzles, etc. designed for the young ones; and although membership (some 17€/year) is required to download and print the original worksheets, you can surf and find ideas to adapt yourself to your specific needs. 

- There's also a Facebook Page for the event and a TLAP Wiki with easy tips to celebrate a funny TLAP Day (don't miss the video about how to change normal words and expressions  into 'pirate' language)

- Last but not least, here comes the music. Nobody would think of a real pirate party without a song. This may be a good opportunity to learn and sing the famous Drunken Sailor, either with the original Irish rhythm...

...or, why not, in the Spanish version by "Celtas Cortos" :-)



One way or another, Enjoy TLAP Day!!!...  and tell us!!

Follow me!

Have you got a twitter account?
Not yet? Well, it's about time to open one, isn't it?
And if you already belong to the blue bird tribe, or even if you're a twitter addict, are you sure you're taking the most out of your timeline?
For example, do you use twitter to improve your English? Let us give you some advice on that topic, and most of all, leave the door open to know other people's opinions and choices in order to make our own  "bank of twitstars" :-)
To begin with, obviously, you can follow us, that is, @theesltimes and, if you want, the teachers who hide behind this project, @capileiratic, @Anna_Soroya, @mjgsm, @julisanzmamolar, @teacherojeda
Here are some more teachers, students, organizations... which, in my opinion, are worth to follow, but perhaps the most interesting part of this post is still to come and it is the possibility of including, by means of a comment, your own choice, the suggestions of your "Musts"
Do not hesitate in writing comments with your favourite followees. We will share anf follow them too.
Here the list to start with:
Inglés al día ‏ @inglesaldiaSpeak & Fun Idiomas   ‏@speakandfun
Trinity College SpPt ‏@Trinity_SP_PT 
Muro de los Idiomas ‏ @MuroIdiomas
English on the Rocks ‏ @EnglishOTR
Bilingual Times ‏ @bilingualtimes
Learning English ‏ @EnglishBlogCom
Real Life English ‏ @RealLifeEng
Oxford Dictionaries ‏ @OxfordWords
English Trackers ‏ @EnglishTrackers
iT's for Tweeters ‏ @itsfortweeters
Teaching English ‏ @TeachingEnglish
EnglishClub ‏ @EnglishClub 
EnglishCafe.com ‏ @_EnglishCafe 
Pilar Pamblanco ‏ @englishteach8 

We look forward to reading your comments!!
 
 

History magazine about our city

HISTORY MAGAZINE ABOUT OUR TOWN 

YEAR 6 (Science - English) 

SAN GREGORIO SCHOOL 

One of the last activities we did during the past school year was to invite our students to investigate about the history of our surrounded area and publish and article about it. With all the articles we create a HISTORY MAGAZINE using Glossi. 

Here you have the post we published for them to read and understand the task.

You are going to become a history journalist!!!

After a term full of history lessons. We are going to investigate about the history of our area.  And publish an article and create a  History Magazine in the class.

The article will have five parts:

• Title (It should be atractive, not just the name of the Historical period)
• Historical context of the period, some short information talking about history.
• Documentary about this period. (It should be an storytelling about daily life in this historical period)
• Brief summary about what happened in our area (Aguilar de Campoo)
• The authors and from which websites or books you took the information (the bibliography).

As we have done in all the tasks it is very important to follow the process and the following steps:

1. We will divide the class into 9 groups (most of them will be pairs and some will be threes)

• Prehistory. 
• Preroman times.
• Roman Times
• Visigothics.
• Muslims.
• Christian Kingdoms.
• Catholic Monarchs and XVI century.
• XVIII Century.
• XIX Century.

2. Let's review all the history posts to look for information about your history period. 

SGAguilar Javier Ramos: History Post.

3. Write a short summary for the HISTORICAL CONTEXT  with the most important facts.

4. CREATE a documentary or "storytelling" about life in the historical period:

• My life in the Paleolithic: A Digital Story can be a good example for you. 
• Tips: Remember to create your storyboard and script and show it to your teacher to check you are in the right way.  

5. With the following links INVESTIGATE and WRITE a paragraph about this historical period in our area of Aguilar de Campoo. 

• Prehistory: The nearest Prehistory areas and remains are Altamira  and  Atapuerca.
• Preromans times: There was a tribe along this lands The Támaricos and also is very famous El Castro del Monte Bernorio.
• Roman Times: The Romans founded many cities in our province. Romans in Palencia 
• Visigothics: We can look for information in the village of Mave.
• Muslims: We don't really have remains of them but we can know what happened on Muslim times in Valderredible. 
• Christian Kingdoms: Aguilar was founded in this period. Also we have important Romanesque momuments. 
• Catholic Monarch and the XVI Century: Aguilar had Marquis. Also Charles I of Spain and V of Germany visited our village. And we have an important explorer Juan Martín
• XVIII Century: The Catastro del Marqués de la Ensenada talked about Aguilar. 
• XIX Century: The French troops were here.

6. You will create your article for the Magazine. We are going to use a new app to  create it:

This video will help you to know how to deal with it: 

(It was done by @jferna35)

Your teacher will say to you what page of the magazine you have to do and also the username and the password to enter in your class magazine.

7. Each member of the group will write a post in the kidblog as it was a page of the magazine. And send it to the teacher through the EDMODO. 

8. EVALUATION:

• We are going to have 100 points.
• 50 points will be used by the teachers. (Using the rubric)
• 28 will be used by self-evaluation. (Using the rubric, it is individually)
• 22 will be used by the teamwork. (Give out maximum 22 points to each member of the group)


You are going to create a paper as draft. You have to include:
• Your name and members of your group.
• Your self-evaluation with the rubric. (Maximum 28 points)
• Your teamwork's points. (Maximun 22 points)





HERE YOU HAVE THE RUBRIC

Rúbrica history magazine (para subir) from Javier Ramos Sancha

Here you can have a look about the products the students did after a couples of weeks working on it: Year 6A

Click to view History Magazine About Aguilar de Campoo Year 6 Colegio San Gregorio on GLOSSI.COM

Year 6B

Click to view HISTORY MAGAZINE Y6B SAN GREGORIO SCHOOL on GLOSSI.COM

We hope you liked it and you found it useful for your English or Science Lessons.
Javier Ramos Sancha Julián Sanz Mamolar @javiramossancha @julisanzmamolar http://sgaguilarjramos.blogspot.com http://sangregorio5aguilardecampoo.blogspot.com.es/

How to use dinamic views in this blog

A few days ago, we've added a very simple element to this Blog that it allows us enjoy new possibilities of viewing the content. 

Thanks to Blogger, you can choose between some different and interesting views. Just have to try.

1º Clic on the word "Views" under the header.

2º Look at the menu on the left. Clic on the short arrow and select.

3º You've got seven possibilities to test, seven different styles.

Classic

Flipcard

Magazine

Mosaic

Sidebar

Snapshot

Timeslide

I hope you like it.
Please, tell us with a comment which is your favourite view.

Do Now

Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.

Do Now orientation

Below are some materials for you to look at at your leisure. The orientation is asynchronous, which means that you can view them at any time between now and Sept. 13.
To show that you have completed looking at the materials, I require that you fill out an action plan. This plan will help you think through Do Now implementation with your students. It's a Google form that you will fill out and the link is at the end of this email.

So here are the materials for the orientation. They consist of videos for viewing and then the action plan that you must fill out. The entire orientation should not take more than 2 hours to complete. For each part, click on the title of the section to access the video.


Part 1: Set the stage: How Do Now looks in the classroom. This video profiles how a class at Burton High School in San Francisco implemented KQED Do Now. We hear from the Social Studies teacher and her students about the project and its impact.


Part 2: The Value of Do Now: KQED Do Now overview. This video is a basic overview of KQED Do Now, outlining what Do Now is and explains how it adds value to learning.


Part 3: Twitter Basics

This section contains 4 short videos (well, the Twitter 101 is a little longer) that provide a basic understanding of Twitter, its interface, functionality, how to download it and use it, and how to use if for Do Now. These videos may be useful to share with your students as well. The links to the videos and the guide are here:
1. Twitter 101 – An Overview of Twitter's Interface and Functionality

2. How to Set up a Twitter Account on your Computer

3. How to Download the Twitter App and Set Up an Account on a Mobile Device

4. How to Access Do Now on Twitter and Tweet to Join the Conversation

Part 4: Preparing to Implement Do Now with your Class

This video explores all of the variables and challenges of implementing Do Now in the classroom, and will help you plan for success. We also published a Guide to Using Twitter for Your Teaching Practice that can be useful for thinking about how to introduce it to your class in an educational context. You can access the Twitter Guide here<http://education.kqed.org/edspace/how-to-use-twitter-in-your-teaching-practice/&gt;.

Part 5: Try This Week's Do Now for Practice
Go ahead and try doing this week's Do Now, which looks at the pay for fast-food workers. We are asking students whether they would pay more for fast food if the money would go to increasing workers' pay. Here's the link to this week's Do Now:

http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2013/09/06/making-fast-food-for-little-pay/

Or you can go ahead and create/open your Twitter account, follow @KQEDedspace and then find our latest Do Now tweet.
You can retweet something meaningful that you find on Twitter, tweet an interesting article that you feel addresses the issue, tweet an opinion, or reply to someone who already tweeted for this Do Now. Remember to use @KQEDedspace and #DoNowFastfood in your tweet.
The last part of the orientation asks you to fill out the action plan which is a link to a Google form where we ask a series of questions that will help you come up with a strategy to implement Do Now. You should copy and paste your responses so that you have a record of them. Again, the action plan is due on Sept. 13 so that you are ready to begin Do Now with your students the week of Sept. 16.

Back to school icebreakers

Ready to get back to lessons? Looking forward to meeting your new students and start breaking the ice?

Here you are four icebreakers for those first lessons when you are all willing to get to know one another better.

Hope you enjoy them!

New School Year Greetings

We all know that after summer breaks, the first thing back in class is to introduce ourselves and tell everybody about our vacation, but, why not doing it through a voice mail? That will give everybody time to settle down a little bit.

Speakpipe allows you to record, receive, download, answer, and listen to your students' new school year greetings. Just embed it on your blog and let those shy new students leave their voice messages. Besides, you will be able to start assessing their speaking skills.

New School Year Resolutions

Build a Padlet wall and get your students to put their wishes and expectations for the new school year on it. It is a quick, easy and collaborative tool that you can always keep on filling along the year and then use it at the end of terms to check out if their resolutions are on the right track.

What would your students like to know about you?

As a teacher, prepare a timeline of your life in advance. Then, get students to ask you questions so they try to guess your birth date, what months are special for you and why, which years you may regard as turning points, and so on. Then, let them see your timeline to check if they were right. Finally, you can ask them to create and share their own timelines. Timerine makes this task quite easy and entertaining.

Self-portraits

Ask your students to plan a paragraph about themselves, their self-portrait, and share their writings through an online drive. Revise and assess the drafts together. When they have a final piece to hand in, get them to read them aloud as a rehearsal, and then record their self-portraits. 

You may choose either to create an audio or a video gallery with all the outputs and disseminate them all over your favourite video channel or sound community.

If they are brave enough, you could even challenge them to video or audio stream their self-portraits.

Photo from ELTpics