Infonews n°347 from 23/11/2008

A la une this week, a cute little animal : a tarsier. In the Calendar, Cake Day, St Andrew's Day, Saint Nicolas, Saint Lucia, Christmas, Hannukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year Resolutions : all the celebrations until January 2009, because I'll interrupt Infonews for a few weeks before the holidays to concentrate on my Comenius project.
In the Resources for primary school, find resources about dangerous animals, a poem for Christmas, with interactive activities, and a page of links for Christmas, including songs, handicrafts and various activities. In the resources for secondary school, try this quiz to know if you wear the right clothes, and then encourage your students to do it and discuss it in class, then advanced students level B2 or above will find interesting resources among the audio and video documents on C Span and in this activity around an article form the NYTimes to compare Obama and Roosevelt. Then a list of topics to avoid at thanksgiving (and at Christmas too!), a new Monty Python's Channel and the documents from the anti-bullying campaign that took place last week (videos, posters, etc.). Then technicians will find out everything about the new water recycling machine aboard the ISS, and in the teaching practice section, you'll find arguments for Wikipedia, conferences to improve the way you teach (and assess) , Open Web English, to find and share resources, and then two conferences in French and a eTwinning manual to download.

I wish you a pleasant month of December and happy Christmas holidays!

Christine Reymond

Sommaire

A la Une : A real, living Yoda, Gremlin and Furby

Pigmy Tarsier rediscovered
It inspired Yoda, a Gremlin and Furby
Furby
Gremlins

In the Calendar

Cake Day (Nov 26th)
St Andrew's Day (Nov 30th)
Christmas and other celebrations
Quiz for International Day of Disabled Persons (Dec 3rd)

Resources for Primary School

Dangerous animals
A Poem : Little Tree
Dijon's Christmas page for Primary Schools

Resources for Secondary School

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

Science and Technology

ISS Water Recycling Machine

Teaching Practice

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


A la Une : A real, living Yoda, Gremlin and Furby

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

In the Calendar

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

Resources for Primary School

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/

Resources for Secondary School

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

Science and Technology

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 Practice

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
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


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