Attending the 20th annual IATEFL-H Conference

Everything has been great so far, apart from the usual small technological problems, the conference goes smoothly :) More info coming soon

A fabulous conference in October

STANDING OUT OR BEING OUTSTANDING

Exploring new normalities in the classroom

IATEFL Hungary is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. We all recognise the dramatic changes that have happened in almost every segment of society during these decades. What once seemed rare and unusual, went unnoticed or did not even exist are today everyday realities. How are these changes being realised in our classrooms? We invite you to discuss with us your strategies on how to handle new normalities.

Have a look at the IATEFL Hungary website for more information on this year`s conference, visit our website and join our event on Facebook.

More information coming soon, so keep coming back if interested :)

Hope to see you there!

Snowy ideas

I don't know how it is elsewhere but here in Budapest it has been snowing massively for days now :)

My school doesn't allow us to go out to the nearby park for a good old snowball fight - of course instead of teaching very important stuff... - so I thought of a few ideas how to 'incorporate' snow into our lessons.

1. Lesson idea no 1 can be used as a warmer at the beginning of either a regular lesson or an ICT lesson. If it's a regular lesson, you might want to bring in some dictionaries, monolinguals are the best in this case. If it's an ICT lesson, you need the internet and maybe some online dictionaries.

Write the word "SNOW" on the board and ask them to collect as many words that collocate with it as possible, then put those on the board as well. Now you organise groups and decide if you want to use the internet, or dictionaries. Tell them to find more words in connection with 'SNOW' in a limited time, let's say, 5-8 minutes. If you decided to use the net, you can do two things: you either let them explore and use google, or give them a wee help with leading them to online dictionaries. If you choose the latter you save some time, I believe.

Here's a list of dictionaries:

The Free Dictionary by Farlex

Yourdictionary.com

Merriam Webster Dicionary

My find:

snowball, snowboard, snowbound, snow-capped, snowdrift, snowfall, snowflake, snowman, snowstorm, snow-white, snow chains, snowline, snowplough, snowblower, snowdrop, snowfield, snow mobile, snow globe

Idioms:

a snow job, not have a snowball's chance in hell (of doing something), be snowed under (with something), as clean/pure as the driven snow, be snowed up, white as snow, snow bunny, snowball effect

Collocations:

heavy/fresh/crisp/thick/driving snow, snow melts or thraws

2. Lesson idea no 2 isn't exactly a lesson idea but some arts and crafts/handouts/activites sites in connection with winter and snow :)

Apples4theteacher

Teacherplanet

The teacher's corner

I hope you'll like these because unfortunately, I'm at home sick (yes, again....) so I can't try them, unless there'll still be snow next Monday when I go back to work :)

Caroling differently

This year I wasn't really equipped with fancy Christmas lesson plans due to very unfortunate events... We had a school trip to Vienna which ended pretty badly for some students thanks to mulled wine. :) So I had a lot of non-teaching related things to sort out at school.

Hence, I simply asked my students what they wanted to do, what they most favoured for 'pre-Christmas school-time'. Much to my surprise, even the older ones wanted to listen to and sing Christmas songs. I gathered up some songs suitable for younger-beginner(ish) Ss and some for older-pre intermediate (or above).

Christmas songs for the wee ones:

Number one is of course Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Ella Fitzgerald version. I also tried this KARAOKE version and it went pretty well!

Next one is of course Jingle bells, the Frank Sinatra version followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks's Christmas Don't Be Late. They seem to enjoy the latter one the most, yet it is so very annoying :)

Christmas songs for the more mature ones:

12 Days of Christmas by Relient K, it's a pop-rock version of the original with a very funny (and very true) extra verse in it - I'm not going to tell you what, I'll just let you explore ;)

Or: I've recently came across with Straight No Chaser and I'm absolutely fond of this jam version of several Christmas songs, actually.

Next one is Santa Baby, Pussycat Dolls version.

Tomorrow and Tuesday: New Year's Resolutions :) I'm planning to make a list of the best ones and post it before Christmas. Stay tuned!

My favourite printables on CLOTHES

Okay, so this post is going to be a a wee bit like Lindsey's Six Things, although I have no idea how many I'm going to end up with :)

Even though it's almost Christmas, I had to teach the wee ones (5th graders) some items of clothing, they probably would have enjoyed some carol singing more, but I wanted to get this over with before we go completely crazy and Christmasy :)

So here are my top favourite websites with DOWNLOADABLE & PRINTABLE material, all about clothing!

eslflow is a very nice-looking site (maybe I'm childish but I prefer warm and bright colours and playful fonts :) with tons of links. These concern vocabulary (describing people, housing, environment, etc.) and some other things like icebreakers, debates, grammar.

eslprintables is a tricky site but it's totally worth the trouble! So here you don't exactly get the goodies for free, but you also have to contribute with some of your own handouts. First you have to register (with this unfortunately you have to download an eslprintables toolbar, but I got rid of it in seconds, so no big deal..you just have to uninstall it) and upload some handouts done by you. If somebody else downloads them, you get points for which you can also download other teachers' stuff. You probably need to visit this site long before you need something because you have to wait for your points :) But some of the uploaded handouts are just gorgeous! You can preview them before you download.

teachchildrenesl is a site with loads of flashcards. Maybe that's why I like it so-so much :) With the little ones you definitely want to use a lot of these things. In my experience they enjoy the pictures, the coulours, the games we play with flashcards. But be careful, they can go seriously mad :)

freeeslflashcards is another flashcard site with dozens of topics including clothing and holidays as well

esltower doesn't have too many printables about a topic (maybe 2-3) but those are very nicely done. Check their grammar and pronunciation sections too!

eslkidsworld is designed for teachers of young learners. They have very usable and free handouts, my only problem is that sometimes the level required for completing the tasks is far too high for such young kids...

anglomaniacy is a site with both online and printable material !for kids only! :)

So, this is my list of favourite websites with printables, I hope you can make use of it! :)

Next time I promise, I'll go Christmasy! :P

After Halloween and Thanksgiving but long before Christmas :)

I've been quiet for a good while now, no particular reason really, just lack of time and laziness :) So, I haven't seen any of those Halloween Party pictures yet, but note to self: contact the colleague responsible 1st thing in the morning. On the whole, the party was good, not too many kiddos came, but it hadn't been advertised early enough, so maybe next year...We had fun, I had my witch costume and make-up too :D

We also had some activities about Thanksgiving, which I'll share with you when I'm less tired and have more time, plus, I still have to figure it out if it's possible to upload files here (to share handouts)...

But the next post is going to be about IATEFL-H and a very memorable Vienna trip, so stay tuned! :)

Ideas for a terrific Halloween party :)

It's a pity that at our schools the autumn break makes it impossible to celebrate Halloween at Halloween, but never mind!

At many schools it's before the the holiday breaks out but we couldn't start the arrangements in time (due to my illness and my boss's absence), so it's going to be after the autumn break.

1. The obvious: Jack-o-Lantern carving competition. Here you have to consider who's going to bring what... I'm not quite comfortable bringing all the knives and carving tools, so I'm going to ask one of my colleagues who is responsible for the students' kitchen ('tankonyha') if she has any.
2. Costume competition: in Hungary we dress up in fancy dresses at 'farsang' so it is possible that the students will not understand why they should wear a costume; therefore, I'm not sure anybody will wear one. If yes, definitely must be rewarded :)
3. Quizzes and other round games: these are good if the students had already learnt something about Halloween so I like to deal with Halloween traditions and customs preceding the actual party. In our school the whole thing must be held in Hungarian because not everybody learns English :( So make up a quiz plus/or word-search puzzle, maybe some arts and crafts and games and there you have it! We'll see how many of them turn up but I'd like 3-5 groups and they could compete at the different games.

Some material I found quite handy can be found on...

Larry Ferlazzo's collection

Family Fun Halloween Ideas

Happy Halloween everyone and

Stay tuned for pics and other goodies of our Halloween Party! ;)

Btw! What do you think about my perfect pumpkin? :)