Monocle

Hello my friends,
I have discovered a new website to practice our English and read about international news and reports. It contains programmes, news, articles, shop and even a radio channel. Maybe I am late and you already know about it. Anyway, enjoy it! Monocle

Silvia

Kony 2012

Hi everyone! Have you heard about the Kony video? At the beginning of the year we talked about viral videos, with the example of the University of California Davis pepper spray incident. Last week, a video went viral even more quickly--in fact, "Kony 2012", below, has become the fastest-growing viral video in history. (This article, in the Guardian, explores the implications of this kind of "virality".) At the time of writing this post, it has more than 74 million views.

The video aims to* raise awareness about Kony, a Ugandan warlord whose rebel army is known for abducting children and turning them into sex slaves and child soldiers. I thought we could talk about it on Wednesday in English Breakfast. It is quite a bit longer than your average popular video, at almost a half hour, but if you watch the first ten minutes and last three or so, you get a general sense of it (it includes English subtitles). Alternatively, you could read this article in the LA Times which presents some of the criticisms of the awareness campaign (or this shorter one in simpler English).



Some questions to consider: What do you think about the use of this kind of social media and marketing to raise awareness about such serious issues? Do you have any problems with how the issue was presented? Do you think the campaign is/will be effective, or do you think that ultimately it could do more harm than good?

*tries to, intends to

Classroom Vocabulary

Here are some frequent classroom words and phrases, in case you all ever need to reference them. Some of these may be intuitive, whereas others are set phrases you might need to memorize. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about other classroom words!


Do the exercises in your notebook.
Turn to/open the book to page 35.
Who wants to come up to the board/front of the class?
Take one and pass it on.
Let’s skip that question. Who wants to go next?
Can I go first/next? Sure, go ahead.
I'm going to collect the essays today, and I'll hand them back next week.
Who's out (absent) today? Who's missing?
Sit up straight, please!
Turn around and face forward/front, please!

Questions (not doubts) - Does anyone have any questions or comments?
Next class (not next day) - Next class, we'll work on chapter 4.
Due (date) - The paper is due on Thursday. The due date for this assignment is the 14th.
Remember to look over your work before you turn it in. It's very important to proofread for careless mistakes.
To go over a topic (ver un tema) - Have we gone over Unit 2 already? Ok, then let's move on to Unit 3.
To go over the homework (corregir) - We went over most of the exercises yesterday, so we'll finish going over them today.
To do a presentation on a topic, or to give a presentation on/about a topic.

To be on the exam/test (not enter) - Is this going to be on the exam? Yes, chapter 3 will be on the exam.
To give an exam. I'm going to give the students an exam on the new material tomorrow.
I hope I do well on the exam! If you do badly, that means you need to work harder.
How did you do on the exam? I did pretty well. I got a 7.

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman (2010) is a documentary about how America's public education system is failing its students, focusing on the controversial lottery to get placed in charter schools (similar to concertados). The film follows five children in urban centers across the U.S., including New York City, L.A., and D.C.. Although the documentary has been criticized for over-dramatizing the lottery process and limiting its vision to only successful charter schools, it was generally well-received and offers a critical view of the current state of American education.




The trailer is above, and you can find a review of the film in the New Yorker (magazine famous for its literary and film criticism) here.

I encourage you all to watch it online if you have the time!

International Women's Day

Hello my friends,

Do not forget tomorrow it is the International Women's Day.
Ladies... Congratulations!!!! You are doing so well...

Here you have information about many events: International Women's Day
Information for kids and young adults: UN Cyberschool Bus page - Women's Day

Micro-lesson plan: Estimation

Hello, English Breakfast!

Here you have the micro-lesson I prepared for the English Seminar. It's about estimation, an approximate calculation.

Micro-lesson plan: Estimation

In this video some students show how you can use estimation when you go shopping:


Toy Store Estimation from Jonah Salsich on Vimeo.

Learning English through multimedia

Hello englishbreakfast team,

I recommend you this website to learn English through videos, featured games.
http://lingual.net/


Enjoy it!

Adventure Tales of America

Here's a website containg tales about American history which can be worked online or printed to use them in class. I hope you find them useful! 

http://www.adventuretales.com/history.html

Universal Human Rights Project

During the first term the bilingual section explored the topic of universal human rights. The United Nations established 30 human rights after Worl War II. In class we watched videos that explore each of the human rights. Human Right Number 1: We are all born free and equal. You can watch all 30 videos on: http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

Affluent, Born Abroad and Choosing New York’s Public Schools

Good morning,

Here is a cool article about public schools in New York City. Wealthy foreign people prefer sending their children to public school in Manhattan and Brooklyn instead of private ones. Do you want to know why????


 Have a nice day!!!!