MOOC THE GOAL MINDED TEACHER : CHALLENGES TO TRANSFORM STUDENTS LEARNING

MOOC THE GOAL MINDED TEACHER : CHALLENGES TO TRANSFORM STUDENTS LEARNING

So in my first week, I was asked to write in a blog about my first assignment and build my learning portfolio.
I’ve published my photo with three stickers relating to my life. I’ve pinpointed myself on the map and I will continue to post my work every week.

In the second week, I was asked to create a task for my students and make a digital badge to award the best student!

Today we will take part in a twitter chat, with two important guests. Looking forward to this new experience!   

INTEF MOOC: THE GOAL MINDED TEACHER

Here is the task that my Primary school students have to carry out in order to obtain the badge! 

About me!

Posted on February 19, 2018

I’ve been an EFL teacher here in Italy for 34 years and I’ve worked with students of all levels of school as well as numerous experiences in ESP situations.

I’ve been working with an ELT publisher since 2001 and I started training Italian Primary school teachers of English in 2005.
I taught English at The Italian Airforce foreign lanuage school in Loreto, SLEAM from 2008 – 2012. My work there involved a mix of ESP and general English.
I often hold workshops and language improvement courses for Primary school teachers and I still work with students from all levels of state schools in order to keep in touch with younger learners.

I really love my job and I love learning new things…..
I am a lifelong learner and ELT conference addict and I’m also now hooked on webinars!
In my personal life…..I’ve been married to Andrea for 35 years and we have three grown ups, two daughters and a son. We have two grandchildren!
When I’m not preparing lessons or courses for my teachers, I love reading, cooking, baking, watching films, playing with myt grandchildren, studying and participating in webinars!!
I love travelling too!! I hope I haven’t bored you!!

Hello everyone! This is me in action at one of my workshops for Primary school Teachers in Italy! I'm from Glasgow, Scotland originally but I've been living in Italy for the past 34 years!! Teaching English in all types of situations for 31 years and doing teacher training workshops for 13 years!! I love my family, my job and learning new things and I'm happy to meet you all!! 

I'm very happy to be involved in The Goal Minded Teacher Mooc and so happy to meet so many Like-minded individuals!!

Making a difference

“As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the youth, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

“But the beach goes on for miles and miles and there are millions of starfish,” countered the other. “How can your effort make any difference?”

The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.”

Anon.

https://t.co/LK1XJ09jDK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfH3BtWR-tA

:-)

http://teacherrebootcamp.com/2013/01/21/free-webinar-storytelling-with-the-digital-generation/

Great Webinars!

Believe in yourself! 
Have faith in your abilities! 
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. 
Norman Vincent Peale

Sursum Corda!

She walks in beauty  by  Lord Byron

 

                                                                                                                                                              She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impair'd the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Since last month, I've been working on a series of workshops for Primary school teachers here in Italy.
Not only in the Marche region where I live ( Casette D'Ete) but also in other parts of the country.

So, this week I'm heading north to Mantova and Lucca!
The workshop is about the teaching of Grammar and utilizing dictionaries in class with your pupils. After November 9th, I will upload lesson plans and other material connected to the workshop, if you have any  questions, don't hesitate to write to me here!
:-)

 

Well it's the 5th of November today, here's some info!!

Remember, Remember...

Immortalized in this nursery rhyme, the Gunpowder Plot is introduced early into the young minds of children throughout the United Kingdom.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.

By god's mercy he was catch'd
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.

And what shall we do with him?
Burn him! 

In 1605, thirteen young men planned to blow up
the Houses of Parliament. Among them was
Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor.

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer.

A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted. Indeed, the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators.

Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.

It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we'll never know for certain.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Nowadays, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.

On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.

Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.

For 400 years, bonfires have burned
on November 5th to mark the failed Gunpowder Plot.

The tradition of Guy Fawkes-related bonfires actually began the very same year as the failed coup. The Plot was foiled in the night between the 4th and 5th of November 1605. Already on the 5th, agitated Londoners who knew little more than that their King had been saved, joyfully lit bonfires in thanksgiving. As years progressed, however, the ritual became more elaborate.

Soon, people began placing effigies onto bonfires, and fireworks were added to the celebrations. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and sometimes those of the Pope, graced the pyres. Still today, some communities throw dummies of both Guy Fawkes and the Pope on the bonfire (and even those of a contemporary politician or two), although the gesture is seen by most as a quirky tradition, rather than an expression of hostility towards the Pope.

Preparations for Bonfire Night celebrations include making a dummy of Guy Fawkes, which is called "the Guy". Some children even keep up an old tradition of walking in the streets, carrying "the Guy" they have just made, and beg passersby for "a penny for the Guy." The kids use the money to buy fireworks for the evening festivities.

On the night itself, Guy is placed on top of the bonfire, which is then set alight; and fireworks displays fill the sky.

The extent of the celebrations and the size of the bonfire varies from one community to the next. Lewes, in the South East of England, is famous for its Bonfire Night festivities and consistently attracts thousands of people each year to participate.

Bonfire Night is not only celebrated in Britain. The tradition crossed the oceans and established itself in the British colonies during the centuries. It was actively celebrated in New England as "Pope Day" as late as the 18th century. Today, November 5th bonfires still light up in far out places like New Zealand and Newfoundland in Canada.

Hello Everyone!
So busy working, I haven't had time to post anything for so long!
Anyway, I did a great workshop together with my colleague Roberta Accoroni.
Actually, two workshops in Pesaro called "Let's have fun with grammar!".
Here are some photos!

 Some hard at work teachers!!

http://www.lafenice.org/corsi.asp?id=19

Hey check out two new worshops i'm doing with Roberta! I'll post photos afterwards!! :-))

http://edibleschoolyard.org/

back to love poems & poetry

She Walked Unaware

Oh, she walked unaware of her own increasing beauty
That was holding men's thoughts from market or plough,
As she passed by intent on her womanly duties
And she passed without leisure to be wayward or proud;
Or if she had pride then it was not in her thinking
But thoughtless in her body like a flower of good breeding.
The first time I saw her spreading coloured linen
Beyond the green willow she gave me gentle greeting
With no more intention than the leaning willow tree.

Though she smiled without intention yet from that day forward
Her beauty filled like water the four corners of my being,
And she rested in my heart like a hare in the form
That is shaped to herself. And I that would be singing
Or whistling at all times went silently then,
Till I drew her aside among straight stems of beeches
When the blackbird was sleeping and she promised that never
The fields would be ripe but I'd gather all sweetness,
A red moon of August would rise on our wedding.

October is spreading bright flame along stripped willows,
Low fires of the dogwood burn down to grey water, -
God pity me now and all desolate sinners
Demeted with beauty! I have blackened my thought
In droughts of bad longing, and all brightness goes shrouded
Since he came with his rapture of wild words that mirrored
Her beauty and made her ungentle and proud.
Tonight she will spread her brown hair on his pillow,
But I shall be hearing the harsh cries of wild fowl.
Patrick MacDonogh

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bzqh5great radio!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JljlVN90xg
For Charles!

Hi there!
Back again, I've been so busy with work so I just haven't had time to post anything!
Well apart from school, I'm working on a few other things which are pretty challenging, just to keep me occupied!
I'm getting mentally prepared for IATEFL in Glasgow, can't wait actually to be there!
Hope to meet lots of colleagues there!
See Ya!! :-))

Christmas is coming.....watch this space!!! ;-))

http://the-round.com/labs/webinars/

Check out this interesting now ebook available in January!!!