On 21 October, the Caribbean nation of Barbados took the first step towards becoming a republic when the joint houses of Parliament chose Dame Sandra Mason as the country’s first president, to replace Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Ms Mason, a trained lawyer and former magistrate, has been the Governor-General of Barbados since … Continue reading “Barbados Elects its First President”
The Eternals movie is based on the Eternals comic and characters created by Jack Kirby, which was first released in 1976. Kirby’s involvement with the company dated back to his co-creation of Captain America in 1941. Along with Stan Lee, Kirby is widely considered one of the most important figures in comic book history, with … Continue reading “Jack Kirby: the Man who Created the Eternals”
The Earthshot Prizes website has great short videos on the five ecological challenges the prizes aim to tackle. They are perfect for class use, either picking a theme or having groups work on different videos and share information. The British Royal Foundation is awarding five prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes: Working with Videos”
In September 2021 in California, two wildfires, one called the Colony Fire and the other Paradise Fire merged together to became the KNP Complex, a terrifying front of flames. These big fires burned through the Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada that is home to some of the largest trees in the world, which … Continue reading “2021 California wildfires: Giant Sequoia Killers”
The British Royal Foundation is awarding five prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help the planet. The Earthshot prizes have been named in reference to President Kennedy’s Moonshot project which concentrated innovators’ energies on putting a human on the Moon in the 1960s. Prince William explained that the aim of the Earthshots … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes”
The This is England short-film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for collège classes covering topics from food poverty to sharing, coming-of-age to fossil hunting. If you sign up for a collège showing, your students will see eight films ranging in length from 1m30 to 19 minutes. There’s one animation, one … Continue reading “Short Films with your Collège Students”
Halloween is a popular celebration with pupils, and it can be a great way to introduce some English-speaking culture. In the U.S.A., a major Halloween tradition is Trick or Treat for Unicef, a fundraising campaign for the United Nations children’s fund. Unicef has lots of teaching resources about the campaign. This is Unicef U.S.A.’s main … Continue reading “Halloween with Unicef Videos”
The Extinction Rebellion ecological movement first came to prominence in 2019 when after 11 days of protests it persuaded the British government to declare a state of ecological emergency. This twelve-minute-long film starring Emma Thompson is a fiction based on real events and was shot during the 2019 protests in an eco-friendly sustainable way. It … Continue reading “Extinction Rebellion Short Film”
This Netflix adaptation of a book for teenagers uses all the Halloween paraphernalia: pumpkins, witches and monsters, among which the vile Grand Guignol is planning to steal children’s nightmares to unleash them upon the world. But the members of the Order of Babysitters are determined to stop him. When young Jacob is kidnapped by the … Continue reading “A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting”
The father of the historical novel, author of Ivanhoe and the romanticised image of Scottish history portrayed in the Waverley novels, and a collector and preserver of ballads from the oral tradition, Sir Walter Scott was one major figures of Victorian Britain. This year, Scotland celebrates the 250th anniversary of his birth. Scott was born … Continue reading “Sir Walter Scott at 250”
