Welcome....

2008-06-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

"Act the way you'd like to be as soon you'll be the way you act."
Leonard Cohen

First Immersion

2008-06-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

April 11th - Classroom Activities and Oral Practice

2008-06-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

This workshop was given by Alessandra Maria Amarante Masson, she teaches at Colégio Jesus Maria José and Peanuts English School in Poços de Caldas. It was the best workshop, in my opinion, she is an excellent teacher and we could see in her eyes that she loves teaching.The activities involving listenning, grammar and mainly speaking cause we spoke english all the time!!! These activities were excellent to aproximate all the students, improve our English and exchange ideas and experiences. The immersion happened in April 12th and was given by Alessandra too. It was wonderfull!!! She's a funny person and everybody liked her!!! I really enjoyed all the activities that we did during the day!!!

She gave us an activity to do in class, each group was asked to discuss about one of the set topics: “Teaching Grammar”; “Teaching Vocabulary”; “Teaching Listening”; “Teaching Writing” and “Teaching Speaking”. My group discussed about “Teaching Writing” and we made a step's list, after we had to read an article related to the topic discussed, written by Jeremy Harmer and post it in our blogs.

Step's list:

Discuss the points with the students;
Write the keywords on the board;
Ask the students to write a composition with the subject;
During the writing the teacher can help the students with their douts;
After the students have finished, the teacher can showthem the mistakes and give a chance to correct it.

The last step was very discussed by Jeremy Harmer, he said that the correction of student's work is an important part of teacher's job. One thing that can be very demotivating is when the students get homework back completely covered in corrections. The teacher have to consider carefully how he is going to deal with the mistakes he finds. Some teachers use written codes (V for vocabulary, S for spelling and G for grammar). Students then know what to look for when they come to re-write their material.

April 4th - An overview of the structures of the English Language

2008-06-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

This workshop was given by Beatriz Ribeiro Ferreira Pucci, she teaches at UNIUBE. It was very good to improve our manners to give classes cause she showed us some strategies to teach grammar with fun. She gave us many activities with grammar, listenning and speaking. The time passed quickly!!! I loved the activities and I'll remember then when I teach!!!

She gave us a music too, she said that retracts the teacher's journey cause the teacher is always trying to found new manners to teach adapting according to the groups and multiple intelligences we find inside the classroom.The music is here, listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBj2wsimvQ

At the end , she asked us to post two exercises about grammar structures at our blogs, so here it's:

Mountain Man

The history of sumo wrestling goes back over 2000 years. Its origins are connected to the Japanese belief in Shinto, the 'way of the gods', where winning gains favour with the gods. This is why the ritual of a sumo match is taken so seriously.
The clay fighting ring is itself a sacred shrine. On entering it, the enourmous wrestlerfirst claps, to attract the gods' attention and indicate his own purity of heart. Having done that, he shakes his apron to drive away evil spirits, and raises his arms to show he carries no weapons. Next comes his most dramatic gesture. With his left hand on his heart and his right arm extended to the east, the huge fighter raises his right leg as high as possible - to send ti crashing down with all his force. Then he performs the same earth-shaking stamp with the other leg. After that, he purifies himself and the ring by throwing salt, wiping himself, and rinsing his mouth with water. Finally, the opponents spend three or four minutes trying to intimidate each other with grimaces and threatening postures.
Tha fight itself is briefand brutal and consists of thunderous collision that rarely lasts more than ten seconds, which ends when one giant is pushedto the ground or outside the circle.

Exercises

1) What gramatical structures can you see in the second paragraph for describing a sequence?

2)Write a composition describing a sport that you know.

Refer to the following if appropriate:

where you play

what you play with

what you wear

who you play with

the object of the game

tha basic rules

Use some of the words and structures from the text to describe sequences.

3) Discus the following questions:

What sport do you enjoy palying most? Are there any other sports would you like to try?

What sport do you enjoy watching most? Do you prefer going to sports events or watching then on TV?

Italian's accent !!!

2008-06-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

This video is very funny!!! It's about an Italian man speaking english, but noboby understand what he wants!!! So, watch it and after comment !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1TnzCiUSI0&feature=related

See the joke!!!

2008-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Young Donald has been out for the evening with his girlfriend. When he arrives at home, he finds his father sitting up waiting for him. The old man looks up and shakes his head. "Have you been out with that girl again?" he asks.
"Yes, dad," replies young Donald. "Why do you look so worried?"
"I was just wondering how much the evening cost."
"No more than 5 pounds, Dad."
"Well,that wasn't too bad."
"It was all she had," said Donald.

March 27th- Beyond the Limits of the English Class

2008-06-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

" Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them" Albert Enstein

This phrase explains what Maiza Fatureto talked about when Prodocência began. She works for Cambridge University Press as an English Language Teching Consultant and during two hours she lectured about "limits" in english classes. I really liked this introduction because the teachers always have afraid

of making mistakes, they have afraid of taking risks. But mistakes are normal and we can't grow up without them.

"Don't go on automatic! Focus and awareness is everything"

Football Olympic Sport since 1900

2008-06-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Although Brazilians are keen on sports in general, in terms of popularity there is one sport that stands out. It is played throughout the country and has become a source of great national pride. It is, of course, football. I really like this sport and pratically everybody plays or watches soccer. If you want to see some funny moments of this sport take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOfk2auqZ2Y

2008-04-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"
Marcel Proust