Infonews n°347 from 23/11/2008
Pigmy Tarsier rediscovered
It inspired Yoda, a Gremlin and Furby
Furby
Gremlins
Cake Day (Nov 26th)
St Andrew's Day (Nov 30th)
Christmas and other celebrations
Quiz for International Day of Disabled Persons (Dec 3rd)
Dangerous animals
A Poem : Little Tree
Dijon's Christmas page for Primary Schools
Girl's fashion in the UK
C Span Political archives
Comparing Obama to F.D.Roosevelt
Topics to avoid at Thanksgiving dinner
Monty Python's channel
Anti-bullying Campaign
ISS Water Recycling Machine
Teaching administrators about Wikipedia
Doing What Works
Open Web English
Conférence APLV à Rouen
Nouveaux manuels eTwinning à télécharger
Conférence de M.Goullier en ligne
Pigmy Tarsier rediscovered
This is a tarsier, or Tarsius syrichta
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Tarsier-GG.jpg/400px-Tarsier-GG.jpg
In its "in the News" section, the Scout report
features a special report about the tarsier : a
species that was thought extinct in wild for 80
years and rediscovered recently.
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2008/scout-081121-inthenews.php#1
Discover the real animal through this very easy and visual fact sheet level A2
http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20081119/wmonkey19/1119Monkey1000big.jpg
And here is a fact sheet with a detailed
description of what it looks like, where it lives
and how it behaves. Level B1 and above.
http://www.bohol.ph/article15.html
and an even more precise fact sheet (level B2)
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/tarsier
It inspired Yoda, a Gremlin and Furby
This very tiny monkey "is also known to be the
inspiration for the famous movie character Yoda
of Star Wars due to its small size but excellent hunting skills."
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsier
and the inspiration for the Gremlins and the
Furby robot : read this article entitled : "it's
a furby, it's a gremlin, it's a tarsier!"
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/11/19/its-a-furby-its-a-gremlin-itsa-pygmy-tarsier/
Furby
And here is what Furby was through a definition,
a site of links, the instruction manual and the
excellent site "Furby autopsy" for technology
orientated students. It was very famous at the
end of the 90s and they stopped making them in 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby
http://www.mimitchi.com/html/furby.htm
http://www.mimitchi.com/html/fbman.htm
http://www.phobe.com/furby/
Gremlins
Definition from Wiktionary: "A mythical creature
reputed to be mechanically inclined and
mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle
machinery. By extension, any mysterious, unknown
source of trouble or mischief.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gremlin
Two pages on Wikipedia : the first more about the
films, and the second more British, about the mythical creature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlin
Cake Day (Nov 26th)
Did you know that November 26th was cake Day?
Discover this page sent by Jean Sahai...and make a cake! Here are some recipes
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/c,29,0,Cake-Recipes.html
video recipes
Christmas fruit cake (level B2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuX0PyaZmmI
Chocolate cake (level B1+)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1279939/how_to_make_white_cake/
How to make an apple cake (no sound, text inside the picture)
St Andrew's Day (Nov 30th)
Discover this Scottish national day here:
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/andrew.htm
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/months/andrew.html
http://www.geocities.com/traditions_uk/andrew.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Andrew%27s_Day
Listen to the Scottish accent in that video
advertisement for the national rugby team
http://www.scotland.org/standrewsday/press-room/
And see these handicraft for the youngest,
including an origami of the Lock Ness monster!
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/st_andrews_day.htm
Christmas and other celebrations
In Infonews and Le Café Pédagogique and on
Rescol, find all the celebrations in December :
International Day of disabled persons (dec 3rd),
Saint Nicolas (dec 6th), Human Rights Day (dec
10th) Saint Lucy (dec 13th) , Boston tea Party
(dec 20th) , Hannukkah or Chanukah (dec
21st-29th) and Kwanzaa (dec 26th to January 1st),
plus a long list of sites and activities about Christmas.
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/318.htm#cal
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/lemensuel/lenseignant/languesvivantes/anglais/Pages/2007/88_anglais_fetesend%C3%A9cembre.aspx
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/290.htm#calendar
And some more addresses for Christmas and New
year (the mp3 version of Rudolf no longer works,
replace it by the address recommended by Dijon's team in the next section.)
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/lemensuel/lenseignant/languesvivantes/anglais/Pages/2007/88_anglais_Christmas.aspx
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/320.htm
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/319.htm#xmas
Quiz for International Day of Disabled Persons (Dec 3rd)
With this quick quiz from the BBC you can
introduce the topic and teach some basic
vocabulary. Level A2+, for work orientated
students (BTS or adults in Greta for example).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/worldservice/quiznet/quizengine?ContentType=text/html;quiz=127_disability
Discover Chanukah (Dec 21st-29th)
For teachers, advanced students or anybody
interested in Jewish traditions, here are 2 sites
about Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights and
the equivalent of Christmas, presented with all the religious explanations.
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
Dangerous animals
The British Council has created a page about
dangerous animals level A1/ A2, with flashcards,
songs, games, quizzes and a story. You could go
from the Tarsier to this learning unit!
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-dangerous-animals.htm
A Poem : Little Tree
For students level A2 or above, our colleague
from Martinique Laurence Bernard has created
activities around E.E.Cummings' poem "Little
tree". Children can read the lyrics with cute
pictures replacing some words, then there is an
online Hot Pot fill in the blanks activity while
they listen to the poem read by the author. You
can download the poem and the lyrics, and your
students can use this exercise to train their
memory and learn it by heart, with the correct
pronunciation and rhythm. For those who encourage
their students to podcast, you can give them the
file to work at home...( level B1)
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/absolutenglish-972/notes/christmas/cummings.htm
and to discover the author, she recommends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings
Dijon's Christmas page for Primary Schools
On e-teach, Marion Méranger-Galtier recommends
this page from CRDP de Bourgogne with resources
about Christmas for primary school and special
needs, with flash cards and pictures, how to make
a Christmas cracker, mini-books, mini-plays, songs and other activities.
http://crdp.ac-dijon.fr/Christmas.html
They suggest these addresses to listen to
Rudolf's song in steaming mp4 or in wav:
http://www.archive.org/stream/ChristmasCartoonChest/02Rudolph_256kb.mp4
http://soundamerica.com/sounds/themes/Christmas_Songs/P-R/
Girl's fashion in the UK
BBC Learning English features this article in the
"News about Britain" section. You can download
the audio (mp3) and an interesting activity sheet
level A2, with a glossary, drawings to match with
words, a reading quiz, and an exercise about
verbs and phrasal verbs connected to clothes and
fashion. This text is simple enough, easy to
understand and the worksheet is well done, ready
to use with your group of teenage girls....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/081118_what_to_wear.shtml
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/britain/nab_081118_what_to_wear.pdf
There is also a crossword : easy, efficient, with
links to interesting articles related to fashion,
allowing the students to enrich their vocabulary
while reading about artists and fashion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/crosswords/fashion.shtml
And if your students are interested in fashion,
follow the links on the right : Nov 14th to 19th was the London fashion show!
http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/
You can also use this page of advice about what not to wear (level B1)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/tv_and_radio/what_not_to_wear/
and this style guide.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/tv_and_radio/what_not_to_wear/styleguide_index.shtml
And for us, women of all ages (from young woman
to over 70s), we can take this test to discover
if we are chic or eek with this fashion
barometer, and then follow to advice to learn what to wear and not to wear...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/tv_and_radio/what_not_to_wear/barometer_index.shtml
[ What does "eek" mean? the Longman provided the
most convincing definition : "an expression of
sudden fear and surprise" as in "Eek! a mouse!".
Now are you chic or eek?!!!! ]
http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/eek
C Span Political archives
The Scout report recommends this resource
offering various documents (mainly audio and
video programs, level B2) about political event;
You can find there lots of useful resources about
the campaign, past events, the presidents, etc and several oral histories.
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2008/scout-081121-geninterest.php#3
For example, here is an archive of programs
dealing with the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath.
http://www.c-span.org/apa/jfk.asp
See also the special transition page:
http://www.c-span.org/special/presidential-transition.aspx
The Librarian's Internet Index recommends this
address and the following : an in-depth coverage
of the transition by CBS Online Newshour.
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27157
Comparing Obama to F.D.Roosevelt
The New York Times features a lesson on the
article entitled : "75 years later, a Nation
Hopes for a new FDR", with lots of interesting links to explore.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20081117monday.html
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20081117monday.html
Topics to avoid at Thanksgiving dinner
The Librarian's Internet Index recommends this
interesting site from The Nest magazine, listing
topics of embarrassment or quarrel, and safe ones.
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27097
http://ideas.thenest.com/dinner-recipes/entertaining/Articles/topics-to-avoid-during-the-holidays.aspx
Monty Python's channel
On e-teach, Jean-Luc Prost shares with us has
last discovery : the Monty Python's films online for free, and of quality!
http://www.youtube.com/MontyPython
Here is what we can read on the site (and hear
when you come on the page): " For 3 years you
YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens
of thousands of our videos and putting them on
YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It's time for
us to take matters into our own hands.We know who
you are, we know where you live and we could come
after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being
the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we've
figured a better way to get our own back: We've
launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.
No more of those crap quality videos you've been
posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ
videos delivered straight from our vault. What's
more, we're taking our most viewed clips and
uploading brand new HQ versions. And what's even
more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!
But we want something in return. None of your
driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want
you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV
shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years."
see also their page:
http://pythonline.com/
Anti-bullying Campaign
Last week (nov 17th- 21st) was Anti-Bullying
week. The theme for this year was : "Being
different - belonging together". You can download
those posters for free and display them in your
classroom, or show them to start a discussion in class:
http://www.actionwork.com/freeposter3.html
http://www.actionwork.com/images/flyer2008.jpg
Here is a Children's friendly version of the 41
Articles of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child produced by Save the Children
(STC). It can be studied even with students level
A1+ because lots of words are transparent, and
some expressions like : "Innocent until proven guilty!" can be used as is.
http://www.actionwork.com/rights.html
You can also download the film "make the
difference" made by students for the
anti-bullying campaign. The film is in 8 parts :
in part 2 you can hear students explaining what
bullying is, what it does and how they felt when
they were bullied. The students making the film
are about 15 year old and those talking are
younger, they wear uniforms : it is really
authentic documents. They speak fast, at normal
speed, but most of the key words stand out clearly.
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/tacklingbullying/makingthedifferencefilm/
On e-teach, Kimberly Oger recommends this special
report in Time for Kids with a text, questions, a
teacher's guide and this with two levels of difficulties.
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1859590,00.html
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/ns/article/0,27972,1859615,00.html
ISS Water Recycling Machine
On eteachNet, Jean-Marc Brauer who teaches
Physics in English (DNL) recommends that article
describing how the machine recycling urine into
drinking water works. The article is a bit long,
because it starts with describing a recent
problem they met, but the description of the
machine can be interesting for technology orientated students.
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts126/081121fd8/index3.html
Here is another article about this machine entitled : a wee drink ;)
http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/095ns_001.htm
with a diagram
http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/ns_diagrams/095ns_001image1.jpg
and an interview of Bob Bagdigian, the inventor of the machine
http://dsc.discovery.com/space/qa/astronaut-pee-bob-bagdigian.html
Teaching administrators about Wikipedia
Wikipedia is still banned from some schools, and
teachers don't recommend it as a reliable source.
Is it true? Are paper encyclopedia like
Britannica more reliable? Read this article and find out.
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/11/teaching_administrators_about.php
Doing What Works
The Scout report recommends this site designed by
the US Department of Education to help teachers
improve their teaching and share good practice:
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2008/scout-081121-re.php#8
"Doing What Works is a website dedicated to
assisting teachers in the implementation of
effective educational practices. The Doing What
Works website contains practice guides developed
by the Department’s Institute of Education
Sciences that evaluate research on the
effectiveness of teaching practices described in
the guides. The website also contains examples of
possible ways this research may be used, but not
necessarily the only ways to implement these
teaching practices." (from the website)
http://www.t2tweb.us/doingwhatworks/home.asp
You can go to the Workshop site, and explore the
"foreign language session". You can see the
titles of the workshops and for each session you
can access the presentation and the handouts. It
is interesting to see that there is a stress on
assessment, making learning easy and fun and the use of effective strategies.
https://www.t2tweb.us/Workshops/Sessions.asp?Content=ForeignLanguage
Open Web English
Sur [et], Rémi Thibert announces this interview
(in French) of Rodolphe Maurel, the president of
Open Web English, made by the APLV. Discover the
association of English teachers and what they do for their colleagues.
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/spip.php?article2025
http://www.openenglishweb.org/
Conférence APLV à Rouen
Christian Puren donnera une conférence le
mercredi 28 janvier 2009 à 14h30 à l'IUFM de
Mont-Saint-Aignan, « La perspective de l'agir
social dans l'enseignement scolaire des langues».
Cette conférence est ouverte à tous.
Bibliographie disponible sur le site de APLV - Langues Modernes
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/spip.php?article2015
Nouveaux manuels eTwinning à télécharger
"eTwinning vient de publier son tout dernier
manuel intitulé eTwinning : aventures culturelles
et linguistiques. Téléchargez-le dès aujourd’hui
! Surfant sur le succès des deux premiers manuels
eTwinning destinés aux professeurs et publiés en
2006 et 2007, ce dernier opus est plus
particulièrement axé sur la valeur et
l’utilisation de la langue et de la culture dans
le cadre des projets coopératifs internationaux.
De plus, cet ouvrage rassemble des exemples
convaincants de projets lauréats proposés lors de
l’année scolaire 2007-2008 et utilisant la langue
et la culture pour créer des liens et partager
des connaissances. Dans l’introduction du manuel,
Anne Gilleran, responsable pédagogique eTwinning,
explique l’importance du thème de cette année : «
La culture naît de la langue : lorsque de jeunes
Européens se rassemblent, ils veulent
communiquer, découvrir la vie de leurs camarades
dans les autres pays et les autres écoles, mais
aussi apprendre des mots dans la langue de
l’autre. C’est ce qui fait la force d’eTwinning.
L’action tout entière encourage la communication,
quel que soit le thème abordé. » Ce nouveau
manuel apparaît également alors que l’Année
européenne du dialogue interculturel entame son
dernier trimestre. Tout au long de l’année, de
nombreux projets, kits et activités eTwinning ont
souligné l’importance de la langue et de la
culture. C’est pourquoi l’action eTwinning est
fière de présenter ses résultats dans ce manuel. "
http://www.etwinning.net/fr/pub/news/nouvelles/new_etwinning_book.htm#i3086
Conférence de M.Goullier en ligne
La conférence sur le CECRL que M.Goullier a
donnée à Rouen le 22 octobre est en intégralité en ligne. Ecoutez-la!
http://langues.ac-rouen.fr/colloque/videos.html
Ceci est un message de la LISTE INFONEWS
réalisé par Christine Reymond
lycée Blaise Pascal, Rouen, France
E-Mail: Christine.Reymond@ac-rouen.fr
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reflètent que mon opinion personnelle.
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http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/sourcinfonw.htm
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