Have Fun with English! 2

A blog for me and my 5th and 6th grade students (2005-2007) in Parede, Portugal.

Podcast: a dialogue

    Hi, kids!

This morning in class with 6.C, Margarida and Tiago recorded a dialogue about Charlotte at the doctor's (English Train, AB p. 25). It's very good! Enjoy!

posted by: teresadeca at 04/30/07 20:30 | link | comments (6)

Two "belated" (= atrasadas) pieces of news

   Hi, kids!

Guess what? I have an interesting piece of news (= notícia) for you that I'm sure you'll like. Do you remember our blog award (prize) in December of last year? Well, on 9 Jan there was an article about these awards in the English newspaper, The Guardian, online version. And our blog was the first one talked about. Isn't that special?

I only saw the article a couple of weeks ago, so why am I only telling you now? Well, because there were too many things happening (= a acontecer) in the last weeks and it was impossible to talk about everything. Anyway, "better late than never" (= mais vale tarde do que nunca), right? Take a look and enjoy! I did.

The paragraph about us says:

"The award for best teacher blog, for example, went to "Have Fun with English! 2" (fwe2.motime.com), published by Teresa Almeida d'Eça, an English teacher in Portugal. It aims to help students practice their English outside class and communicate with teachers and peers globally".

The second piece of info(rmation) is that the photos about what I did at the TESOL 2007 Conference in Seattle are finally in our blog. Take a look! The slideshow is at the bottom (= fundo) of the post. You can put the mouse over (= sobre) most of the photos and see a text. And you can also slide the orange ball [between the turtle (slow) and the hare (= lebre), which is fast] to make the photos move quicker. I hope you enjoy them!

Have a nice weekend! 

posted by: teresadeca at 04/27/07 15:26 | link | comments (5)

Podcast: a dialogue

    Hi, kids!

This morning, during class with 6.E, three students - Eduardo, Pedro and Martim - recorded a dialogue about a "health" problem (p. 52 of our textbook). It's nice. Enjoy listening to the podcast!

posted by: teresadeca at 04/26/07 21:32 | link | comments (1499)

Microsoft Conference

    Hi, kids!

I wasn't at school today, because I was at the 3. Conferência de Professores Inovadores (3rd Conference of Innovative Teachers". I was invited by Microsoft Portugal to show our blog. I talked in the morning. Take a look at the program.

There were 400 teachers in the auditorium and they liked our blog very much. There were several teachers that came up to me (= vieram ter comigo) during the lunch break to congratulate me for the work we are doing. I was very happy!

I showed the first page, the little map with the red dots, our award, two posts and some of your comments and comments from teachers all over the world, Catarina and 6.E's "Cat" Zimmertwins film, and the Halloween cube photos. And I played two messages from the voicemail board (= quadro): Francisca's and Filipa's recent messages. Finally, I showed our "CALL Lessons" blog.

Congratulations to you all from me and continue the good work!  

20Apr

Here's a photo that Microsoft sent me. It shows where "the visitors to our blog" are in the world. Enjoy!

posted by: teresadeca at 04/18/07 18:51 | link | comments (20)

What we did in class

    Here are Francisca and Francisco (6.E) to tell us what we did in class in the last seven weeks of the 2nd term (Feb 5 - Mar 23).

posted by: teresadeca at 04/16/07 20:37 | link | comments (1546)

The TESOL Award

    Some of my students and friends showed interest in the award I received at the TESOL 2007 Conference in Seattle. It was the TESOL Award for International Participation at TESOL presented on Friday, Mar 23, at 14:00 in Hall 4A of the Seattle Convention Center.

The awards were presented by Shelley Wong, President-Elect of TESOL 2007-2008, at the opening of the Plenary Session, "Language, Creativity, and Classrooms", by Professor Ronald Carter of the University of Nottingham. Barbara Schmenk from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, called out each of the four recipients. I was called out first, then Barbara/Bee Dieu from Brazil, followed by Hiep Pham from Vietnam and Peter Storey, an Englishman in Hong Kong.

The session was followed by Prof. Carter's excellent presentation and came to a close with a few words by Shelley Wong.

A 'cute' curiosity: Before the session started, Barbara Schmenk asked us to teach her to pronounce our surnames. When  she called out mine, she was so worried about pronouncing it correctly, that she forgot to refer the name of my country. I confess that I didn't notice it, but It seems that some people did, because as I was coming out of the hall, a Mexican colleague came up to me and asked where I was from. BTW, Barbara was very nice and came up to me to excuse herself.

I was honored to have received the award in such a relevant conference session. Hall 4A was packed to hear Prof. Carter talk about a very interesting and extremely current topic.

Enjoy the slideshow!

 

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

posted by: teresadeca at 04/11/07 19:24 | link | comments (7)

3rd Term: It was "Back to School" this morning!

    Hi, kids!

It was great to see you again this morning after practically a month away. There was the conference in the United States and the Easter break (holidays or vacation). I really missed you!

I know you had a wonderful time away from school, and so did I in the States and then back home for the holidays.

But now the 3rd term has started and it's time to start studying again, learn, get good grades and move on to the 7th grade. I hope you will all work a lot in all the subjects, above all, enjoy our English classes. I have a couple of ideas for the CALL lessons that I'm sure you'll love.

Let's all give our best in this third term and participate a lot in the blogs!

Here's great oral work by two pairs of students from 6.E: Daniela and Fábia, and then Martim and Rafael. They're roleplaying a dialogue from the Activity Book that they completed when I was in Seattle.

Enjoy!  

posted by: teresadeca at 04/10/07 13:15 | link | comments (7)

Happy Easter!!!

Hi kids, friends, colleagues and family wherever you are!

HAPPY EASTER to you all and your families!

Don't forget to eat loooooots of chocolate eggs!!!

Enjoy! 

8Apr07

Hi, kids!

Our dear friend and great fan, Dennis Oliver, left an Easter card for us in the comments area. Please click below to see the full image. He says:

The egg in the center is a graphic that I made. It's something like a Ukrainian pysanka--a special kind of elaborately decorated egg that is made in a batik-like process. Other central and eastern European countries have similar customs, so if, for example, you have any students from Moldova or Romania this year, this kind of egg will probably be familiar to them.

Natalia, you should recognize the decorations in the egg.

Thank you, Dennis, for your friendship and admiration!

BTW, Dennis, you didn't mispronounce "feliz" in your voice message. Your pronounced it the Brazilian way and I pronounced it the Portuguese way.

posted by: teresadeca at 04/07/07 21:50 | link | comments (19)

A very nice and special surprise :-)

Hi, kids!

When I arrived home last week, Mar 25, very tired after a long trip, I had a lovely surprise that brought tears of joy (= alegria) and emotion to my eyes. It was a lovely flower - a "protea" - with a card signed by several friends and colleagues of mine from school to congratulate me on my success and the award I received at the TESOL 2007 Convention in Seattle, WA, USA.

Thank you to all and a "special thank you" to the two mentors of this "very meaningful" idea, Margarida and Paula!

posted by: teresadeca at 04/03/07 20:22 | link | comments (7)