2020 is Florence Nightingale’s bicentenary. After she and a team of nurses managed to significantly reduce the death count by improving the appallingly unsanitary conditions at a British hospital during the Crimean War, she became an authority on public sanitation issues. She also earned a reputation for her statistician’s skills, and her charts would influence … Continue reading “Florence Nightingale”
For the second of our series of feelgood songs, we’ve crossed the Atlantic to the UK, 1967, and The Kinks’ classic “Waterloo Sunset”. Which gives plenty of scope to work on emotions, and London landmarks Waterloo Station and the Thames. Pupils can start by watching a Biobox about the year 1967 in music before going … Continue reading “Feelgood Music 2: “Waterloo Sunset””
As we have said many times, teachers are finding amazing creative ways to keep providing their pupils with motivating, and feasible, work to do during lockdown. This sequence found on the Académie de Grenoble’s English site can be done entirely in distance learning. It mixes culture and language in a class for 6e about daily … Continue reading “Daily Routine with Rockwell”
How to take a pollution problem – discarded chewing gum – and turn it into a green resource by recycling it and using the result to make products like re-usable coffee cups. This A1+ document aims at developing your students’ reading skills and autonomy. Its general theme is protecting the environment, and should prove of … Continue reading “Chewing Gum and Doing Good”
This B1 resource is around a positive news story your pupils can study during the current quarantine. An article, and a video report from Canadian CTV News give examples of the trend for “caremongering”: using social media to organise, or ask for help during the Covid-19 lockdown. The downloadable worksheet can be filled in directly … Continue reading “Caremongering Article and Video”
Music has great power to inspire us and lift our mood. Which we could all do with a bit of at the moment. We were trying to think of work to set pupils at home that was positive and good for the soul: what better than a little soul music? So here is the first … Continue reading “Feelgood Music”
International Fact-Checking Day is on 2 April – the day after the annual feast of benign fake news stories and hoaxes that is April Fool’s Day. It promotes fact-checking to combat malicious fake news around the world. The day is organised by the International Fact-Checking Network, a team of journalists around the world coordinated by … Continue reading “International Fact-Checking Day”
This video is a positive news story your pupils can study during the current quarantine. This report from Canadian CTV News gives examples of the trend for “caremongering”: using social media to organise, or ask for help during the Covid-19 quarantine. It’s just two minutes long and can be used from B1 by pupils at … Continue reading “Caremongering: positive news video”
One of the most famous British poets is celebrating his 250th birthday in April! Why not introduce students to him by studying one of his iconic poems, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (also known as “Daffodils”), a perfect start to spring! The following activities will help your students discover Wordsworth himself, through a Biobox … Continue reading “Wordsworth: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
A new film adaptation of Jack London’s famous novel returns to the original story and focuses much more on Buck, the dog, than previous films. Pupils will also enjoy recognising Harrison Ford and Omar Sy. The activities below include watching the film trailer without, then with sound, and reading a short, simple article. Language and … Continue reading “The Call of the Wild”