Infonews n°301 from 01/04/2007
Discover the Qode
Crash boy speaks about discovery
World's tallest man marries
Sydney in darkness
Mystery of the great Pyramid solved
Satellite Terminator Tether
Student punished for spaghetti belief
Free prescriptions in Wales
Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain's garden centres
Story of the Day
How different countries celebrate it
***Quizzes and Tests
World's media plays the April Fool
Practical jokes and Pranks
Hoaxes
Links
Easter egg alphabet cards and "go fish" game (from Everyday Teaching
Newsletter Mar.30th)
Rubber Band Eggs (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Unique Eggs (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
6 Little Teddy Bears (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Easter Webquest
Easter links
April is Poetry Month
Fooling With Words With Bill Moyers ( from [LII New This Week] March 29)
Mr Bean's Holidays
Seeing feelings with Van Gogh (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Catering : recipe of a cheesecake
Math for morons like us (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
InterMath
Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications
Biology, Life Sciences : Exploratorium digital library
Physics, Sciences : Virtual courseware
Flash Cards 1.0 (from The Scout Report -- March 30)
60 ways to liven up spelling lessons (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Directives pour l'oral du bac STG
Le numéro 1/2007 des Langues Modernes, : Séjours et Echanges
Discover the Qode
you take a photo of a bar code with your phone, and access extra information
about the product, special offers, extra information on a newspaper article,
or a reward (a free ring tone or a sweepstake of some kind)
article in the New York Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/01code.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/01codeside.html
Site of the company
http://qode.com/en/index.jsp
visual explanation of what it can provide from a code on a newspaper, a flyer
or a brochure
http://qode.com/en/usingQode.jsp
Video of how it works and the history of the device (with testimonies of how
useful a mobile phone is)
http://qode.com/en/uq_prenticeHall.jsp
here is what the site says : " Download the software on your mobile, then
click on a smartcode with your camera phone using the code reader or enter
a keyword or barcode number in the search-style window. [...] Based on time,
day of week, or user preferences (age, gender, location, language), qode® can
connect to different mobile Web sites from a single smartcode, keyword or barcode
number. A page may simply be presented in a different preferred language, or
a promotion in one time zone can differ from that in another, i.e. breakfast
hour in San Francisco is lunch time in New York."
http://www.qode.com/en/hiw.jsp
Three companies provide this type of services, read this article from the Wall
Street Journal and see the table comparing their services and access modes
http://www.neom.com/news/nm/WSJ_052406.pdf
Read also this article from the OMMA (the magazine of Online Media Marketing
and Advertising) which suggest further use of this device including voice and
the largest scripted SMS execution to date.
http://www.neom.com/news/nm/MediaPost_OffTheHook_20060802.pdf
Read more about this SMS game about “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” : "Texting
the message “dead” to short code 3323 on a Verizon phone initiates a series
of up to 300 SMS exchanges with the program’s producer, Vibes Media. Much like
the old PC text adventure games Zork, the Pirates adventure is a branching
system. ...."
http://blogs.mediapost.com/mobile_insider/?p=25
and find a list of SMS translation of some current words and expressions (OIC!)
https://vtext.rsgo.net/vtext/txtplay_viewall.jsp?categoryId=3
Crash boy speaks about discovery
Lower intermediates and above will easily read this news article from BBC
Newsround (easy news for children), or just deduce the story from the pictures.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6510000/newsid_6514000/6514097.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42750000/jpg/_42750583_chris.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42397000/jpg/_42397782_xray_203.jpg
World's tallest man marries
many articles have reported this info. Our colleague Jean Sabiron from the
university of Poitiers has put together all the headlines about the news so
that we can use them to study and enrich vocabulary. Read Vigilangues n°37
and download the document.
http://sabironlangues.typepad.fr/
http://sabironlangues.typepad.fr/vigilangues/files/tallest_man__headlines.doc
here are pictures of the tallest man and the smallest woman (not married together)
http://www.panasianbiz.com/uploads/bao.marries.jpg
http://www.risingsunofnihon.com/uploads/pea%20princess.jpg
here are articles for lower intermediates from BBC Newsround : easy to read,
and it adds the story of the dolphins he saved last year, which children will
enjoy too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6500000/newsid_6506600/6506619.stm
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/03/worlds_tallest_.html
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=303230
and another one more centered on him
http://spluch.blogspot.com/2007/03/worlds-tallest-man.html
and here is an article including Bao and the pea princess
http://www.panasianbiz.com/2007/03/worlds_tallest_man_bao_xishun.html
Sydney in darkness
Lights have been turned off across Australia's largest city, Sydney, in a
hour-long event aimed at raising awareness of global warming.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6509437.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6514287.stm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21484349-421,00.html
Mystery of the great Pyramid solved
read about this new theory (sponsored by Dassault system) which explains
how the heavy blocks of stones were brought to the top of the pyramids.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6514155.stm
http://khufu.3ds.com/introduction/
Satellite Terminator Tether
Read this article from the New Zealand Herald called "rubbishing is
a time bomb". It deals with space junk and suggests a way to put an end
to it with this terminator tether.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=38&objectid=10431911
Student punished for spaghetti belief
" A student has been suspended from school in America for coming to
class dressed as a pirate. But the disciplinary action has provoked controversy – because
the student says that the ban violates his rights, as the pirate costume is
part of his religion." the full article in Metro today:
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=43272&in_page_id=2
Free prescriptions in Wales
and the price will increase in other part of the UK to make up for this benefit....The
full article in "in the News" today:
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/free-prescriptions-launched-in-wales-$1073052.htm
Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain's garden centres
For adults : an article from today's Independent discovered by our colleague
Annie Gwynn....;)
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2411405.ece
Story of the Day
new ones
http://www.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/april.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/Holidays/celebrate/april.html (the
same)
http://wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool's_Day
(including several hoaxes)
short ones
Columbia : http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/AprilFoo.html
http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/other/aprlfool.html
longer ones
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/april/aprlfool.htm
http://pressroom.hallmark.com/april_fools.html
http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p593.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/aforigin.html
http://www.2camels.com/destination44.php3
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/5365/fool.html (plus
ideas of how to turn the prank on the kids)
How different countries celebrate it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6505837.stm
http://www.calendar-updates.com/info/holidays/canada/aprilfools.aspx
http://members.aol.com/DonnHolidays/AprilFools.html
http://homepages.tesco.net/%7Ederek.berger/holidays/aprilfool.html
Quizzes and Tests
http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/hisholidays/l/blquizholapfool.htm (about
the history of the day)
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tests/afquiz.html (
a written test : is it true or is it a hoax)
http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/ideas/010402_april_fools_day_quiz.htm (a
classic, but I couldn't find it ready made)
*** http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/assemblies/index.cfm?mode=searchdisplay&id=34&history=keyword (same,
with the text of the mock test)
http://www.virtualgravy.com/cards/aptest.shtml (online
test : in two click, got ya!)
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa040198.htm (spot
the language mistakes. very difficult. fro advanced students)
World's media plays the April Fool
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1254570.stm (several
stories published in the papers)
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa040201a.htm?terms=April+Fool+Gags (April
fool's day sampler, plus links)
Practical jokes and Pranks
http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1939.htm
http://www.scatty.com/ (jokes for children,
by categories, including the famous knock-knock ones...)
Hoaxes
http://www.april-fools.us/
See especially the GM carrots, or the tax on pets, there is also a list of
pranks...
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
Read about the spaghetti tree, and some other hoaxes. the top 100 hoaxes of
all time.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/virushoax.html (Urban
Legends and Virus Alerts)
Links
http://www.2meta.com/april-fools/links/ (humor
sites and newspapers, etc.)
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/categories/category/April%20Fool's%20Day/
and don't miss the excellent addresses on Michèle Henry's site :
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/april.htm
Easter egg alphabet cards and "go fish" game (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Print out two copies of these colorful Easter egg alphabet cards to use for
a game of alphabet recognition in "Go Fish!"; you may wish to use
card stock to ensure durability.
Students will mix the cards and deal out four cards each; the remaining cards
are put into a pile, face-down, in the middle. Students will take turns asking
each other for a letter of the alphabet in their own hands. If the request
cannot be filled, the student must then "Go Fish"
from the middle pile. When a match is made, the student turns over and collects
the pair from his or her hand. The player with the most matches/cards wins
the game. (PreK-2)
http://everydayteaching.com/Helpers/ww.Easter.egg.alpha.pdf
[ to help students learn the form of a letter in handwriting and capital letters.
You can also use this game in French!]
Rubber Band Eggs (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Use different sizes and widths of rubber bands to tie around hardboiled eggs,
and then dip them in dyes to see what happens. You can use the dye recipe listed
here, as made with food coloring and vinegar, or incorporate a science lesson
on natural plant dyes, made with items such as onion skins, beets, or berries.
You could also use the suggestion above of a simple crepe paper dye. (PreK-3)
http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/eggs2.shtml
Unique Eggs (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
You will probably want to have some disposable plastic gloves for this activity,
but the results are wonderful. Use shaving cream to cover the oval egg templates,
then drip on dabs of different food coloring. Follow the directions to scrape
off the shaving cream for multi-colored eggs. Be forewarned that this art activity
is rather messy; you will want to have plenty of newspaper to put down. (PreK-4)
http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/excellenteggs.shtml
6 Little Teddy Bears (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
This audio-enhanced story book for preschoolers helps them to understand
the concept of counting and "taking away", as teddy bears think the
bed is just too full for all six of them. A cut, glue, assemble, and color
paper teddy bear is available with the 2nd link. Use brad fasteners instead
of glue to make the teddy bear limbs movable.
(PreK)
http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/activities/6teddys.asp?themeid=2
http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/activities/takehometeddy.asp
[ a short story with a nice sound, like a nursery rhyme. I could help children
learn how to pronounce head and foot, three and pull, and just right.]
Easter Webquest
Our colleague Thomas Sugden recommends this webquest for young students.
You can download the Word file:
http://www.editionsdidier.com/enjoy/fichiers/HAPPYEASTER.doc
On my computer, the links in the word file are not active, so here they are
if you need them:
http://www.request.org.uk/infants/festivals/easter/Easter02.htm
http://www.marks-english-school.com/games/mes-easter_01.html (click
on review to learn the expressions, and then on game to play with them.)
http://sunniebunniezz.com/eas5mat.htm
http://ospitiweb.indire.it/galilei/livelykids/easter/ce9.htm (the
story of egg rolling, nicely explained in pictures)
Easter links
Find the egg rolling and several other useful resources on Michèle Henry's
site:
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/easter.htm
April is Poetry Month
Educational CyberPlayGround recommends this site of poetry : National Endowment
for the Arts Announces Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest High school
students across the nation to compete in national poetry recitation contest.
See Online Poetry Classroom
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/Poetry_Website.html
Fooling With Words With Bill Moyers ( from [LII New This Week] March 29)
Companion to a documentary that visited the 1998 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry
Festival, held in Waterloo Village, New Jersey. The website features the poetry
of Amiri Baraka, Marge Piercy, Robert Pinsky, and others. Includes audio and
video clips of readings, photos, teaching materials, and related resources.
From Thirteen/WNET.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/
Mr Bean's Holidays
In this edition of ENTERTAINMENT! from the BBC, we hear extracts from an
interview with the creator and star of Mr Bean, Rowan Atkinson, whose film "Mr
Bean's holidays" will soon be released. He also talks about the link with
M. Hulot's holidays by Jacques Tati.
You can download the audio file and the full transcript.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/163_entertainment_ex/
Fractured fairy tales (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Maybe Cinderella doesn't even want to wear a glass slipper in the first place.
Or perhaps Snow White Just Said No! to the poisoned apple. The ending can change,
the beginning can change, and the in between can change in this guided student
exercise in recognizing fairy tale elements, adding a twist to the traditional
stories. A fairy tale element student handout is also available (2nd link).
(4-8)
http://everydayteaching.com/Worksheets/Fractured.Fairytale.pdf
http://www.everydayteaching.com/Worksheets/Fairy.Tale.checklist.pdf
[ for good intermediates or above.]
Seeing feelings with Van Gogh (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
Students will look at everyday or familiar objects and landscapes in a new
light when they carefully observe a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, as guided
in this lesson plan. They will begin to associate color and line with representations
of different emotions, and then translate those feelings to create a painting
filled with mood through color and brush strokes. Although this lesson plan
recommends using markers for grade 3-6, I would definitely let them get the
feel of the paint brushes, and experiment with inexpensive acrylic paints.
(3-9)
http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/lvanGogh.html
Catering : recipe of a cheesecake
Our colleague Dominique Dental recommends this site with a video, a text
close to the script and all the information (and tools) you need to make a
cheese cake.
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-american-cheesecake
Math for morons like us (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
This ThinkQuest entry offers an extensive supply of math resources for understanding
systems of equations and inequalities, polynomials, factoring, powers and roots,
quadratic equations, coordinate geometry, and other high school algebra topics.
Each section is well laid out with a tutorial and sample problems, followed
by interactive quizzes for students to test the concepts. (9-12)
http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/alg2/index.html
[ very useful to discover all the math term in English...]
InterMath
Educational CyberPlayGround recommends this site is designed to help middle
school teachers deepen their understanding of math concepts. More than 200 "recommended
investigations" are offered for teachers to solve and then modify for
use with students. They're presented in 13 units: patterns, functions and equations,
graphing (algebra); circles, quadrilaterals, triangles, polygons, 3-D objects
(geometry); fractions and decimals, integers, ratio and percent (number concept);
statistics and probability (data analysis). (University of Georgia, National
Science Foundation)
http://intermath.coe.uga.edu/
Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications
Educational CyberPlayGround recommends this site which offers articles, learning
modules,
"mathlets" (single-purpose learning tools), reviews of online resources,
and a developers' area. Search contents of the journal by type of resource
(e.g., article), by subject (e.g., number concepts, data presentation, plane
geometry), or both. The journal makes extensive use of graphics, animations,
video clips, and other media. Articles and other materials are peer reviewed.
(Mathematical Association of America, National Science Foundation)
http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/4/
Biology, Life Sciences : Exploratorium digital library
This site recommended by Educational CyberPlayGround presents activities,
animations, and lessons on cells, diversity of life, ecology, evolution, heredity
and genetics, and the human body. Topics include cell division, embryos, energy,
genes, traits of life, muscles, eyes, optical illusions, depth perception,
mutant fruit flies, frogs, extremophiles, bacterial terrarium, mold, yeast,
and more. (Exploratorium, National Science Foundation)
http://nsdl.exploratorium.edu/nsdl/search.do?category=Curricular+Area-Life+Sciences
Physics, Sciences : Virtual courseware
Educational CyberPlayGround recommends this site which demonstrates fundamental
concepts related to earthquakes and global warming. Learn how to find the epicenter
of an earthquake, how to determine Richter magnitude, and how rocks are dated.
Interactive tutorials explain the carbon cycle, water cycle, greenhouse effects,
seasons, Milankovitch cycles, and albedo. Animations, inquiry-based activities,
and assessments are provided. (California State University, Los Angeles, National
Science Foundation)
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eecindex.php
Flash Cards 1.0 (from The Scout Report -- March 30)
Flash Cards 1.0 allows users to create their own flash cards, and they can
import data from other sources, including websites and text documents. Additionally,
a setup page gives users the ability to set the interval time between cards,
their text color, and other variables. This version is compatible with all
computers running Mac OS X 10.2 and newer. [KMG]
http://customsolutionsofmaryland.50megs.com/flashcards.htm/
[only for Mac users!]
60 ways to liven up spelling lessons (from Everyday Teaching Newsletter Mar.30th)
If you're looking for a way to liven up your spelling lessons or even get
your students connected to the idea of learning spelling, then try any one
of these creative activities: Record-a-Word, Scrabble Spelling, Magic Letters,
and several other ideas - 60 in fact! (K-4)
http://teachers.net/gazette/DEC02/spelling.html
[ those activities can be also used in ESL lessons to help student memorize
vocabulary and spelling.]
Directives pour l'oral du bac STG
Notre collègue Laurence Bernard de Martinique a mis en ligne un dossier qu'a
fait parvenir son IPR à tous les profs de lycée pour mettre les choses bien
au clair à quelques semaines des
épreuves. Ceci peut peut-être répondre à vos interrogations...
http://cms.ac-martinique.fr/discipline/anglais/news.php?=219
Le numéro 1/2007 des Langues Modernes, Séjours et Echanges
Le numéro 1/2007 des Langues Modernes, Séjours et Echanges, vient de paraître,
il fête les 20 ans du programme Erasmus!
Dossier coordonné par Bernard DELAHOUSSE - IUT de Lille
SOMMAIRE
Editorial, par Astrid GUILLAUME
Clin d’oeil, par Benoît CLIQUET
Le Mot du Président, par Sylvestre VANUXEM
*Dossier: Séjours et Echanges
- Introduction du dossier, par Bernard DELAHOUSSE
- Organiser un échange entre établissements, par Laure PESKINE
- Voyages, séjours et échanges : le point de vue de la FCPE, par Faride HAMANA
- Choisir un organisme de séjours linguistiques, par Florence YAZDANPANAH
- Mascarades estudiantines finlandaises, par Fred DERVIN
- D’Erasme à Erasmus… Témoignage d'une ex-étudiante Erasmus, par Maryne VISSER,
- Les Erasmus bisontins!, par Joachim WYSSLING
- 20 ans après… Souvenirs, souvenirs, par Roselyne MOGIN-MARTIN
- Avant – après, la « formation croisée » des professeurs des écoles stagiaires,
par Jean Claude LE BIHAN
(Articles en ligne sur le site www.APLV-LanguesModernes.org,
réservés aux abonnés:
- Echange interculturel, dialogue de cultures, Internet : le cas du russe pour
francophones, par Irina ANDREEVA-SUSSIN
- Échange poste pour poste à l’international, par Marie-Pascale HAMEZ)
*Hors-Thème
- La langue, outil de communication ou objet culturel ?, par Chrystelle FORTINEAU
et Gabrielle Le TALLEC-LLORET
*Comptes-rendus de lecture
- Language chunks and linguistic units, RANAM, Recherches Anglaises et Nord-AMéricaines,
Albert Hamm (sld), par Bernadette GRANDCOLAS
- Marginalité et centralité. Littérature, Traduction et Marginalité de Dana-Marina
Dumitriu, par Ancu a GUTA.
*C’était il y a...
- C'était il y a 26 ans dans Les Langues Modernes : Voyages et séjours à l’étranger...,
par Francis WALLET
Vente au numéro + frais d'envoi - 13 euros: contact@aplv-languesmodernes.org
Ceci est un message de la LISTE INFONEWS
réalisé par Christine Reymond
lycée Blaise Pascal, Rouen, France
E-Mail: Christine.Reymond@ac-rouen.fr
Les commentaires et réflexions entre [ ] ne reflètent que mon opinion personnelle.
Sites Infonews:
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/une1.htm
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/une1.htm
Pour consulter les sources:
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/archives/sourcinfonw.htm
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/archives/sourcinfonw.htm
Pour vous inscrire ou vous désinscrire:
http://listes.ac-rouen.fr/wws/info/liste-infonews
