April 12, 2019 - TV Guide

After reading and doing exercises related to a TV Guide, students got together and created their own. To do that, they first talked about the shows in Brazilian TV and used Google slide to create their shortened version of this genre.

March 29, 2019 - Reading corner project

This class, we started working on the project. The first thing we did in class was to show some slides that refresh their memories on volunteer work and raised awareness on the importance of books and reading. The slides were shared by Teacher Rachel.

After seeing the slides and being aware of the different tasks needed for the project, we took them downstairs to work in different groups: marketing, contact, decoration, and catalog. The groups that had to work on most urgent tasks discuss strategies and made lists of materials. The others produced posts that will be submitted for evaluation. The best ones will be printed and serve as advertising for getting book donations. See one of the posters below and some pictures of students doing team work.

March 16 and 22, 2019

Saint Patrick's Day

We celebrated Saint Patrick's day in big style. On March 16, they learned about typical foods consumed on the day. A recipe for shamrock shakes was shared with the group. Right after that, they had a shamrock shake. On March 22, we were covering ways of getting the news. To start the class, I showed them a video about Saint Patrick. They were told to watch the video and take notes of important facts on the saint's life.

Here is the video they saw.

After they watched the video, they were asked to report the facts they got from the it. The facts were written on the board. Since we were talking about newspapers and other news media, I asked them to use one of the facts they wrote down to create a headline about Patrick and write a short article. They did on Google Slides. Here is the result. They were very creative and had a lot of fun.

February 22, 2019

Black History Month

To celebrate this holiday, we decided to have students make a speech inspired by Martin Luther King's iconic speech at the march in Washington in 1963. I first showed them the speech with subtitles. I asked them to take note of two of his dreams. They did it and shared their notes, first with their partners and then with the whole class. Next, I asked them to create a speech of their own following the same structure. In the end, they recorded their speech in slides. Check their work bellow.

November 23, 2018

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration was fantastic. We, teachers arrived some time earlier to take care of the decorations. Students started to arrive at 12 and we had lunch at 12:30. A great opportunity to connect and be thankful for the blessings we all received. When we went to class, I talked to them a little about the meaning of Thanksgiving and they talked about the food they ate.

November 16, 2018

Guest Speaker

This time the guest we invited was Nina Liakos, a retired ESL teacher who lives in Maryland, USA. After retirement she got involved in political activism and participated in several marches for minority rights and civil rights issues. During her Google Hangout, she presented on aspects of life in the U.S. such as ethnic diversity and tolerance through her activity as a political activist. She shared some slides, which we hand out to students. She talked about her participation in those marches for while and what they were trying to accomplish. After her short presentation, students asked her some questions. The questions asked addressed her political activities and perspectives for life in the USA. After a round of students' questions, she asked students some questions. Here are the slides she shared.

Here some pictures of our students while attending the online conference.

November 09, 2018

Cooking Class

Lately our students had been learning about food and the use of countable and uncountable nouns. This lesson was specifically about the use of 'HOW MANY" and "HOW MUCH" for talking about food. We decided to use their recently acquired knowledge of this content to teach them how to make chocolate chip cookies. We got the ingredients and the gear needed and invited the four groups of students to join us in the auditorium. When we got there, we invited the class representatives to come forward and follow the instructions to make the cookie dough. The rest of the students had notebooks and were supposed to copy. One teacher would hold an ingredient and elicit its name. Next, students were prompt to ask questions about the quantity of a given ingredient using "how many" or "how much" to which a teacher would promptly reply. As the questions and answers proceeded, the class representatives would add the ingredients. It was a very nice collaborative task in which students exercised the language and learned how to make cookies. When they finished making the dough and putting the first batch in the oven, they were served freshly baked cookies. They had lots of questions and promised they would try to bake cookies at home. Here are some pictures we took.

October 19, 2018

Democracy awareness

In Brazil, we are now having general elections. This seemed like a good time to bring about the topic of democracy. To discuss the subject, I first asked student to work in groups of four and make a list of the characteristics of democracy. I walked around helping out and check their work. After that, I asked to list the qualities of a good leader. They came up with personality characteristics and other traits.

Once they had finished, they were asked to list the duties of a class representative. To wrap up, I showed them the following video and asked them to check whether it listed the things they had discussed.

Finally, they were told to vote to choose the class representative. Each of them got a piece of paper and had to cast their vote. The votes were counted and the two most voted candidates were added to a Google Form for a second voting round. The form, besides the voting question, contained others that asked them to assess democracy in our country (how strong it was). Many of them were aware of the fact that we need to work towards make our democracy stronger. I showed them the index of democracy, an annual report produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit

October 5, 2018

Native Peoples

The goal was to celebrate Native Americans' Day. In my group, I decided to let them conduct an internet search on native peoples. I told them to look for tribes. They were more interested in Brazilian tribes. This might be due to the fact that many of these populations are dwindling. Within five minutes of search, we had an extensive list of tribes on the board. Most of them were South American native peoples and some were from Central and North America. After compiling this list, I put them in groups of three or four and gave each group the option of choosing which group they would like to make a slide presentation about. Once they had pick their favorites, they were given a tablet. Each group member worked on a different task: one created the slideshow, another looked for information, etc. When they finished their work, they presented it to the class. Here are some of the slides they created.

September 21, 2018

Guest Speaker

Jennifer, our RELO officer took the stage and addressed the students. She told them that she would not give a lecture. That time, the students would have to speak up. She told them to think of questions they would like to ask her. Students thought of questions. When they were ready, she threw a ball at them. They caught the ball and asked questions, to which she promptly answered. Students asked lots of very good questions. At the end, she told them a little about the program and congratulated them on their progress. At the end, she taught them a simple Access song using sign language. They all sang and danced.

September 21, 2018

American Culture - College Life

Mathew, an American TA (Teaching Assistant) came to our class to talk to students. His name was Mat. He brought pictures that were meaningful to him and had students guess what they were about. He talked about his experience attending an American college. He used the pictures as starters to illustrate important topics. It was an interesting experience for students because it did not only allow them to have a glimpse of college life in the USA, but also gave them a chance to see a native speaker using the simple past tense, which they had learned in the previous class. Finally, it was something that boosted their confidence in being able to listen and understand someone other than their teachers speaking English.

September 21, 2018

American Culture - Sports Culture

Gigi, another American TA did a very interesting activities with students. First, she talked a little about the importance of sports in the USA. Then she said that different teams usually had a mascot, generally an animal. She taught some vocabulary while she explained the topic. After explaining a little the culture of sports and mascots in American universities, she told students to be in trios. The task was to have two students look at a picture of an animal mascot and describe it while the third student draw it. It was really fun.

September 14, 2018

Biographies of famous people

In this class, we were studying the simple past and life stories of musicians that died at an early age. After, students had learned important facts about their lives and had composed their own biographies, we asked them to write a short biography of someone of their choice. I suggested some names and elicited others from them. They picked the ones they liked and did some research and wrote about them using dotstorming (a digital wall). After they finished, they read each others' bios and voted. See their work below.

August 31, 2018

Cities now and then

We were studying city landscapes and their characteristics. After learning how to talk about what features a city possessed, we moved on to explore how cities changed across time. As enhancement for this lesson, I decided to put students into groups of four. They were given two sheets of A3 paper and told to draw the grid plan of a city. Once the grid was created, they were gathered in pairs and told to draw city buildings and other features in the present and twenty years in the past. Once they were done, they displayed their drawings side by side. They moved around comparing the cities using there to be in the past and the present. Below are some pictures of students while doing the activity.

August 24, 2018

Prepositions and stop motion

After lessons in which students learned about house and furniture and prepositions of place, we decided to have them produce a stop motion video. We asked them to first work on a script in groups. Once they had the script, they worked on the the movie. Here are some pictures of students working.

These are the videos they created.

As a follow up to these activities, they were asked to work on their own tiny house projects. There were put into groups of three or four and told to design their own tiny houses. First they discusses which rooms they would have and what furniture they would add. The next step involved actually creating the pieces of furniture and placing them on the floor of their houses. They made origami and play dough furniture to decorate their tiny houses. The final result was amazing and can be seen in the pictures below:

August 03, 2018

The places we live in (VR Glassess)

To explore houses, rooms, and furniture, students were asked first to draw a floor plan. After that, they watched videos and had to write the names of the pieces of pieces of furniture in their respective rooms. Once they had done that, they got together with a partner and compared the furniture in their houses with the ones they had seen in the video using "there to be" in the present. After that, students went on a VR Glass tour. One student wore the glasses and as he/she navigated through the house he/she would say "I am in the living room," the "audience" without glasses would ask, "Is there a sofa?" to what the one with the glasses would reply positively or negatively. The students listening took notes. When they were done, the notes were compared with the student who was wearing the glasses. Here are some pictures.

June 22, 2018

Independence Day

To celebrate The Fourth of July (Independence Day), we did something typical of the American summer. We decided to have all teachers together serving one of the most typical American foods: hot dogs. Teachers stayed put in stations while students lined up to "assemble" their sandwiches with hot dogs, tomato sauce, straw potato, and sweet corn. We also had watermelon for everyone. Teacher Lucas had a great idea. He created a Padlet Wall and we asked our students to take selfies and post the pictures to the wall.

Below are some other pictures we took. They show the decoration made by our staff. It was fun.

June 15, 2018

Father's Day

Father's Day is an important holiday in Brazil and it is celebrated on the second Sunday of August. Since it is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in the USA, I decided to carry out some activities related to the topic with our students. First, I tried to connect the celebration with what we had been studying: likes and dislikes. There were asked to write a little about their fathers' preferences. The sentences they came up with were posted on a Padlet Wall.

After posting on the wall, we had a discussion on what they liked about their fathers and what they did not. Next, I told them to think about what things they did that their fathers did not agree with. Then, I told them we would see a song in which father and son (or child) were having a difficult conversation. I made it into a listening activity in which they had to unscramble the song lines as they listened. Once they were done, we sang the song together. It was an emotional moment. Here is the song: Father and Son (by Cat Stevens)

June 08, 2018

Flag Day

We talked to students about the importance of the American flag for U.S.A citizens. We showed them two short videos. One was a riddle and the other was an informative one about the holiday.

After showing the video, we played a Kahoot quiz with flags of other countries. Next, we took students down to the resource center. We raffled names of the fifty American states and told them to work in pairs. They were given brushes, A4 sheets of paper, gouache paint, and crayons. After drafting the state, they were told to first discover what that state was known for. After that, they wrote sentences using "there to be" describing the state they had been assigned. Finally, they drew the state flag. Below are some pictures of students on task and some of the flags they came up with.

May 25, 2018

Memorial Day

Aware of the importance of Memorial Day for Americans, I decided to present students with information on the holiday concerning when it is celebrated and its meaning for American people. To give them this information, I first showed the video below and asked them some comprehension questions.

Once the video had been watched, I played two kahoot quizzes on the holiday. They did pretty well. After that, I gave out two handouts: one with a short text on the holiday and another one with reading comprehension questions. They read and answered the questions individually. Here are some pictures of students on task:

In one of the questions they were asked to say whether we had a similar holiday in Brazil. Some students talked about the Day of the Dead that we celebrate on November 2nd. However, some students argued that it was not similar because we did not have a day to honor the sacrifice of a specific group of people. Listening to them come to this conclusion, I propose that they made posters proposing to honor the victims of violence in our country. As they brainstormed, they mentioned among other groups LGT, black people, the poor, the homeless, and so on. Below is one of the posters they created.

May 11, 2018

Gospel Music Show

We were invited by the American Embassy to see a gospel music show with the band Oscar Williams and the Band of Life. In the class before the trip, we conducted a survey to know whether our students liked gospel music. We also asked them to name their favorite gospel singer or band. While on the bus, we had students do a qr-code in which they accessed important information about the history of gospel music and the band. They worked in pairs. One student worked taking notes and the other used the cellphone to scan the qr-code for the answers. Here is a Google Doc of the hand out with answers. See a video with some pictures.

When we returned to the school, students posted videos of their favorite songs (gospel or otherwise) on a Padlet wall. After posting the videos, they watched the videos posted by their peers and voted choosing a grade from 1 to 10. Below is the wall with their videos.

May 04, 2018

Mother's Day

On May 13, we will be celebrating Mother's Day in Brazil. To have students show appreciation for their mothers, we decided to have them make cards. To do this, we used A4 paper and a video tutorial that taught them how to fold paper to make an eight-page mini-book. Here is the video.

At home they had to illustrate their books. Here is a picture of some cards.

April 27, 2018

World Press Freedom Day

We were asked by the embassy to join the celebrations for World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated on September 03. The first step was to raise awareness about this day and its importance. We first worked on understanding the meaning of the words "freedom" and "press" in class. Next, I asked students whether we enjoyed "press freedom" in Brazil. I listened to their ideas and moved on to the next steps. The goal of the activity was to have students collaborate to raise awareness and discovery learning. I created a Google slide template and had students work in pairs or trios to add information to the slides on different issues related to the issue of press freedom. Here are the slides.

After they created the slides above, we went back to class and were asked to read the information on the slides and create kahoot quizzes using the information they read. This was a good way of giving them access to what others had done.

The next step involved requesting them to create stop motion movies about the day. They were instructed to create a campaign for the the day. To create their videos, they were given crayons, play dough, A4 paper, and iPads. They were very creative and worked in teams. Some worked on the script, others created the play dough figures, and others explored the app for making the movie. Here are some pictures of the making off

Here are the movies they made.

March 23, 2018

Easter

We celebrated Easter by having a mix of culture and fun. In class, I asked the students about the meaning of Easter and they came up with the Christian tradition of Jesus resurrection. I said that this was true, but it had other meanings. Since we had been studying weather and seasons, I asked them what usually happens to plants in the winter, they answered that they die. So, I told them that Easter in the northern hemisphere coincides with the beginning of spring. Therefore, spring is a celebration of the resurrection of nature. We then moved to the bunny as a symbol because of its fertility. I also pointed out to the egg as another symbol of the miracle of life.

After exploring the meaning of Easter, we had them go on Qr-code egg hunt through the school. We had them use their mobile phones to scan codes that led to a google form. In the form they had to answer questions related to what we had been studying (weather and present continuous). The correct answer would direct them to another place which had another qr-code that had a question and redirected them to another place. After going from room to room, they finally met the teacher in the auditorium and claimed their prizes (some chocolate eggs). They had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Here are some pictures taken during the egg hunt.

March 16, 2018

Saint Patrick's Day

This time we celebrated Saint Patrick's Day in a very nice way. Our colleague Lucas Gontijo showed students a video of a traditional Irish ceilidh dance. Here is the video they watched.

After students watched the video, teacher Lucas Gontijo and teacher Rachel Mendoça showed them how to dance. After some rehearsal, students could finally dance. Here is a video.

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March 16, 2018

Post trip activities

The first thing we did in the class following the trip was to do the quizzes created by students about Ernest A. Batchelder and Athos Bulcão. Students had a chance to review and learn some more while playing the game. Here are some photos.

The next thing we did was to have students create tiles inspired on Athos Bulcão' work. They were given gouache paint, cardboard paper, and other needed tools. Students revealed to be extremely creative and resourceful. The work they did showed they had been significantly impacted by the experience they had in the field trip. Here is a video that showcases their talent.

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March 09, 2018

Field trip to see Athos Bulcão exhibit

Before the trip, we decided to expose students to the work of an American artist very similar to the one the students would see. We produced a slide show with information about Ernest A. Batchelder including his work, techniques, and some biographical information.

On the way

While going to the exhibition, students saw the slideshow and answered the questionnaire. They worked in pairs and while one wrote answers the other looked for information on the slides. Teachers walked on the aisles and helped out when they had doubts. By the time we got to the venue, they were done with the questions. Here is copy of the handout.

When we got to the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (the place where the exhibition was being held), we were divided into four groups. Each teachers conducted students to the four different exhibition halls. Students were instructed to take notes and try to answer the same questions they had answered about Ernest A. Batchelder. This task was a bit difficult because in some galleries information was scarce. Despite not being able to take notes, students walked around and read the information available in the tags next to the works of art. They also could see a different kind of tile work and make aesthetic judgments on its features. The work done on the bus provided a framework to compare and contrast the work of the two artists. At the end of the visit, students took pictures of a panel that all the information they would need to answer the questionnaire.

At home and in class

My group was instructed to create online quizzes about both artists. To do this, they used the platform called Quizizz . When they were done, they sent their quizzes to me. We played the games in the following class. The activity served as a nice way of put the information they got to good use and helped they learn some more. In addition to that, we taught them valuable digital skills.

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March 02, 2018

Creating Quizzes

One thing we have been doing in class is playing online quizzes to promote language learning. In preparation for our field trip, we decided to teach students how to create their own games. First I showed students how to open an account and all the steps to make questions and establish the correct answer. After that, I put them in groups of three or four. They were instructed to collaborate and create quizzes on any topic they chose. They were really engaged in the activity: they created questions that were original and fun. When they were done, they shared their work with me and we played the games they made with the whole class. It was fun. Students used the platform Quizizz to create games.

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February 23, 2018

Black History Month

To introduce this celebration, students first saw a video about the history and meaning of Black History Month. After watching the video, I asked them when was this kind of celebration in Brazil (November). We discussed how important it was to have an egalitarian society. Below is the video they saw.

After watching the video, I gave them a paragraph with the biography of Zumbi dos Palmares, an important black warrior figure in Brazil that was one of the pioneers in the resistance about slavery. They read it and we talked about it and about the kind of information featured in this kind of text. See the text below.

After reading the text, I told them that they were going to find out about some influential black personalities in US and Brazilian history. I showed them slides with pictures and names of such people. I told them that their task would be to search for information about them online and compose a short biography. They worked in pairs in class collecting information and writing. One of them was in charge of posting the final work at home. See the slides below.

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February 16, 2018

Valentines' Day

This was our first class of the year. In my group, I first asked them whether they remembered when Valentines' Day is celebrated in Brazil (June 12th). Next, I asked them about when the holiday was celebrated in the United States. Some of them knew and answered the question. I then informed them that there were some differences in the way this holiday is celebrated in both countries. I told them that in the USA it is also celebrated among friends and that simple presents are exchanged. Next, I told them we would make origami cards for this occasion. I showed them three different videos which taught step by step how to make cards. See one of the videos below .

They were divided into groups of four. I gave them scissors and other materials they needed. They collaborated with each other to accomplish the goal by using their mobile phones to watch the video tutorials. Some helped pausing, rewinding, or fast forwarding the video. Others worked in the making of the cards, cutting, measuring, helping with the glue, and so on. Great team work.

Here is a video that shows them working together and some of the cards they created. I was impressed by how they managed to make beautiful cards in such short time.

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December 01, 2017

Routines

Students wrote short paragraphs about their routines after learning how to talk about their daily activities in class.

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November 24, 2017

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, one week before the holiday we showed students a video telling the story of Thanksgiving and had them discuss the story, the foods, and drinks they saw in the video. This was in synch with the content we were studying because we had been talking about food and the different meals.

After that, students were asked to search for what foods Americans usually eat at Thanksgiving and in pairs add their findings to a Google Slide. See it below.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we had a luncheon with students. The morning group and the afternoon groups got together and we had a delicious meal. Below you can see some pictures.

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October 27, 2017

Halloween

The celebration of Halloween is growing in popularity in Brazil. It has evolved from a costume party celebrated in language schools to nationwide awareness. However, most people do not know about the origins of this party. Therefore, I decided to show the class a video that briefly explained the story behind this important celebration. After they watched the video, they talked about it with their classmates.

At Casa Thomas Jefferson, we usually decorate the school for Halloween. This time, we asked students to give us a hand in doing it. We provided them with material. Some of them check their mobile phones for decoration ideas, others already had some ideas of what to do. They really enjoyed doing it. Below are some pictures of them while working on the decoration of the school.

They loved their work, and I asked them to take pictures of their "masterpieces" and post a Padlet wall. Here is the result.

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October 20, 2017

Job Fair

One thing we had planned to celebrate Labor Day was a job fair. Since they are all thinking about what they want to do in the future, this seemed to be a good opportunity to explore the topic of careers. In this class we talked about jobs. Students told each other what their parents did and they also told their classmates what they wanted to be. This data and some other information was collected on a google form. Here are the numbers we got in terms of their preferences

Still in class, I asked them to conduct a web search to see what the top jobs of the future were. They read some articles on the internet and, in groups or three or four, chose two jobs to present to the class. So, next class, we will have some rounds of presentations with slides and some information on jobs that will certainly continue existing in the future and jobs that will be created.

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October 07, 2017

Columbus Day

In this class, we talked about Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America. I elicited from students whether he had been then only one. At this point, they came up with other explorers. We talked about the great explorers that discovered Brazil, the Atlantic route to India, and so on. Right after that, students used the app Chatter Pix in the iPads to create short narratives or interviews with these great men. Below is one of their videos.

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September 29, 2017

Learning about other cultures and nationalities

We were studying about other nationalities and holding conversations to find out personal information such as occupation, first and last name, age, and so on. Some teachers in other countries such as Croatia, Egypt, Morocco, and France recorded videos greeting students and telling them a little about themselves. Students listened and took notes of the information they listened to. Here is a video of one of the teachers. Some teachers, for cultural reasons, did not give permission for publishing.

This is Marijana from Croatia

Students made a video to thank her and others. They took the opportunity to make a video for her singing happy birthday.

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September 22, 2017

International Peace Day

Since the International Peace Day had been celebrated on September 21, we decided to have students write some messages for the occasion. They used the iPads and an app called Pic Collage to make posters. Here are some pictures of students working.

Below are some of the posters they made.

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September 15, 2017

Making a movie. Checking in at a hotel.

After learning how to get crucial personal information, students wrote a script and made a movie checking in at a hotel. Students worked as a team. One played the role of camera man and director and the others were the actors.

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International Literacy Day

September 08

To celebrate the International Literacy Day, students made an 8 page mini book in class. At home they worked on reproducing their favorite book. Here are some pictures of their mini books.

Here is a video with all the mini books. Check it out.

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September 1st,

Writing a personal introduction paragraph

Students wrote paragraphs about themselves giving basic personal information in a digital wall.

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In the first class, students learned how to introduce themselves. Once they were more confident, we asked them to do a digital task adding their first, last names, and their favorite TV shows to a slide.