Great little video

I saw this video today on TeacherTube - think it really makes a good point!Enjoy!

"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it" Alfred Hitchcock.

I am a film lover - especially Pixar films. I think they are great - the animation is really well done and the storylines are entertaining...even for an adult!
Some of my students were showing some Pixar short films on the internet recently and we came across one know as "Presto". I really liked it so started wondering how I could use it with other students who hadn't seen the film...and finally had a brain wave! Hope you like it.

Firstly, I split the class in two. Half the class were magicians and the other half were rabbits. The students then had to pair up (magician and rabbits) and get into role. The story is that the magician has the control over the lives of the rabbits, but the rabbits don't was to go on stage. The pairs have to try to negotiate an outcome. The main objective is that they come to an agreement of terms and conditions of the rabbit going on stage BUT remembering at all times that the magicians is really the one who calls the shots. You will probably find that in the end the "rabbits" give in to a lot of their demands and accept that the magician will give them a carrot or something similar if they go on and do the act. Also, the students (and I did this with adults) really get into role!

After you listen and watch the debates, you can then show the students the clip, and then ask them what was the difference in their roles and the roles they saw?

Following this, the students get back into role but this time the rabbits are in control (as per the clip). The magicians now have to sweet talk the rabbits into continuing to work with them.

It's lots of fun - give it a try.

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought" - Wallace Stevens.

Delayed bloggin of late! Apologies but school's been a bit hectic at the end of term!

So summer has arrived, and yesterday was summer solstice so I thought about a lesson that could incorporate this ancient tradition and the end of term.

Firstly, you need to elicit the meaning of Solstice from the students (maybe hinting that it comes from Latin). Then you can explain to them the root of the word:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4807555635768398200

Sol = sun
Stice = to stand still

From this, see if they can figure out why the first day of summer is thus known in groups.(As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky). The groups then present their ideas to the class and see who is closest to the truth!

Then, send the students on an information quest on different computers to compare view points.
One groups finds out about the astrological aspects by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice
Group two finds out about the pagan origins by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/summersolstice.shtml
Group three learns about religions and their adaptation on the solstice by visiting http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.htm

The groups then explain what they learned to each other - giving the different view points.

Finally, the whole class develops their own interpretation of the solstice, a "Modern Day Solstice".

A man is literally what he thinks - James Allen

Hi there everyone,
I'm not sure if you've seen a so called "literal music video" or not so I'll post an example below.
After seeing this video I thought it would be fun to try it.
It seems much more difficult than it is - in fact all you need is a movie maker programme like Windows Movemaker, Real player and a microphone.
All you need to do is

• download the video you want to make to your computer.

• Get your students to watch it and brainstorm their ideas.

• Re-write the lyrics and synch them so they fit the original lyrics

• Put the video on the movie maker
• Add subtitles with the new lyrics
• Lower the volume of the original song
• Practice practice and practice some more :)
• Record over your new lyrics
• And you're done!

Word of warning though - it's a LONG project to do - you are going to need at least 5 hours of class time to do it effectively. So you need lots of time and patience (I also brought chocolate brownies to class for some added motivation).

So here's an example of a "professional" one from Youtube.
Enjoy

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all". Hans Christian Andersen

Last week I was substituting a class who had been learning a bit about Wallace and Gromit previously. Their teacher told me I could do whatever I wanted with them...so after some pondering I decided that we would make a storyboard for a music video.

I started the class by showing them a video clip from Youtube for a new Wallmart advert , after watching the storyboard we then watched the "real" clip of the advert (sorry about the poor quality). After atching the two versions we compared the differences and similiarities between the two.

After this, we focussed on some filming vocabulary, like "zoom", "close up" and so on. To highlight the meaning of the words, the students, using a camcorder, practised "doing" the filming of this specific vocab.

Once the students were ok using all the new words, I put them in groups of three. In their groups, they had to brainstorm ideas for a story - basic plot, characters, timeline and so on. When they had the plot outline ready, I then gave them big sheets of paper to draw the 6 most important scenes of their story as a storyboard, highlighting the camera movement and angles.

Following on from this, the students had to present their stories to the rest of the class, explain how the final version would look.

For homework, each group had to decide on and agree to a song that would appropriately fit their story.

The final (and most fun) part came next. Each group had to make a powerpoint animated music video to match their storyboard and add the song to the background!

Try it out - not only is it really fun but also it raises imaginations and gives way to multiple intelligences in your class :)

Great website

Just a short post today to share a really fun website - with funny videos.
My favourite is this dog one ..made me laugh!
Enjoy

“With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured.” Abraham Lincoln

Quick activity to get students thinking and predicting:

• In pairs sts think of the best excuses.
• Do a role play to act out the excuses focussing on pronunciation and intonation
• Show first part of the clip and sts predict what is happening next - think of ideas why an excuse might be necessary then?
• Repeat for each section of the clip until the end.
• Predict what happens after he gets put in the box.
• Watch and check if they were right