Birmingham-Oxford

Hello everyone!

We are going to write this post together because we're studying the same course in Oxford. We also want to tell you that we decided to share this amazing experience with our families. We'll have the opportunity to live like a British way.

Our adventure started last Saturday. That day we stayed in a hotel in Birmingham and we had the chance to go sightseeing. On Sunday morning we woke up early, so we strolled along the canals. We visited the National Sea Life Center, a great moment for kids (Octonauts 3D movie in English included).

At 2:15 p.m. we took the bus to Oxford. When we arrived to our destination it rained cats and dogs, so we decided to take a taxi. The weekend was energy-intensive but we finally made it home today in the afternoon. It's a lovely and traditional semi-detached house.

We've walked three kilometres to Lake School to begin our Creative Teaching in the English Language Classroom. We've started with a welcome meeting introductions. Then our teacher, Catherine Weller, guided us to show the spaces and facilities.

                                                         
In our group we can find teachers of different nacionalities, teaching children from 3 to 16 years old.
In the first session we've practised "icebreakers" strategies. The second session was about language, life and culture in the UK today. In the third session we've spoken about stories, drama and roleplay with young learners.

It has been a great day! See you tomorrow!

Ana Maria&Helena 31st July Canterbury

Hello again!

We had the first lessons today and they were great! We first met at the café at Christ Church Campus and went to our classroom in the Moore building. Our morning teacher is Patrick and the afternoon teacher's name is Isabel. We started doing a getting to know you activity by throwing around Fred (a little Teddy bear) and asking three questions to the person...this is repeated until everyone has had the teddy and asked someone else. Next, we've taken a multiple choice test to check our level of English. We also dealt with pair work and group work and he gave us ideas to put students in pairs. The best option is to do it randomly by using little games to find the partner. After that, he took us on a short tour to show us the main places to visit in Canterbury and after lunch, we kept on working with some icebreakers and the error correction. Patrick told us some ideas to correct mistakes and an error correction code. He also pointed out that we must not over correct our students and that the best way for them to learn is by making the students correct themselves, once we have identified the mistake (we underline the word and identify the type of mistake, w for wrong word, for example). In the speaking we can use cards to avoid interruption while they are speaking...It's been a very profitable day!!!! 

In the evening, the school invited us to a BBQ in a pub which was really tasty and we were chatting with classmates and with one of the organizers, Charlie.

We had a good laugh!

We leave you some pictures of today (timetable, map of campus and lunch).

I forgot to tell you that there are 2 Japanese, a Polish, a French and 4 Spanish in the class. Believe it or not, the Spanish we all speak in English among us!!! It's fantastic

Good night to everyone

    

TIMETABLE

LUNCH

GARDENS IN CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY

 l

¡Buenas tardes!
Hoy ha sido un primer día de curso muy enriquecedor. La profesora se llama Valerie y es una persona muy afable. En mi grupo somos 11 profesores de secundaria de Alemania, Polonia, Hungría, República Checa y España (yo).
Nos hemos centrado en la importancia de motivar a los alumnos basándonos en Task-Based Learning y en cómo animarlos a hablar mediante role-plays. La última clase ha sido curiosa y diferente, porque se ha enfocado en identificar los diferentes estilos de aprendizaje que los alumnos pueden tener y en los ocho tipos de inteligencias. De esta manera, conociendo cuál es la que domina cada uno, podemos reforzar y mejorar las otras.
Hemos hecho algunas actividades innovadoras y algunas que ya habíamos puesto en práctica en el colegio, esto me hace ver que vamos por buen camino.

Valerie insiste en utilizar "English for  enjoyment".

La tarde ha ido aún mejor, un baño en una de las pocas playas de arena existentes en la isla, St. George's Bay en Bizzebbuga y un paseo en barca por la Blue Grotto con chapuzón incluido en las aguas prístinas. Hemos disfrutado como niños en el Playmobil Funpark, con la compra incluida de una pieza única que solo se puede adquirir aquí: el Gran Maestre de la Orden de la Cruz de Malta.

Mañana más y mejor.

domingo, 29 julio 2017

María Teresa

Buenas noches, desde Swansea (/ˈswɒnzi/; en galés: Abertawe [abɛrˈtauɛ]) es la segunda ciudad más grande de Gales.Todos los carteles están escritos en las dos lenguas cooficiales, el inglés y el galés.

      Las tres cuartas partes de Swansea están bordeadas por el mar, que veo desde mi ventana en el típico Bed & Breakfast, donde me alojo. La playa es enorme pero no hay nadie bañándose ni tomando el sol. Llueve constantemente, sin previo aviso, ahora, ya entiendo que sea la ciudad más húmeda del Reino Unido.

    Mañana, empezaré las clases en la Universidad de Swansea, que se encuentra muy cerca de mi casa. 

Buenas noches

L

Ana Maria & Helena 29-30 July Canterbury

Ana Maria and me arrived in Canterbury yesterday. It's a lovely place to visit as you can feel its history everywhere you go. Canterbury is well known for its stunning Cathedral and Chaucer's tales. Canterbury belongs to the district of Kent in Southeast of England. Its Cathedral became a major destination of pilgrimage after the martyrdom of Thomas Becket. This pilgrimage was the frame for Chaucer's Canterbury tales. Yesterday the weather was typical English(cloudy and rainy) but today, fortunately we had sunshine. We've done plenty of things. Yesterday we did some sightseeing, had the traditional fish and chips and stayed at a very cosy hostel (We both highly recommend it: Kipps Backpackers). Today, we both moved in with our respective host families and we are very pleased with them. Both houses are quite near the city centre and the University. We also had a Stour River tour on a boat and discovered curiosities about this historic place. We went up to the top of the West Gate and tasted some delicious scones with a cup coffee.

Tomorrow, we are starting the lessons and we'll let you know !

By the way, there are still some red telephone boxes and they even work!!!

Hello from Malta!
I arrived yesterday. It is very sunny, but with a lot of humidity (very good for my allergy!). My house is really comfortable and with the typical architecture, located in a peaceful place called Zejtun.
Driving on the left side is an adventure!

Today I've been in Paceville to check where my training school is. I show you some of the inlets, where people take pleasure in swimming, far from the crowds. I've visited the Selmun Palace in Mellieha. This palace, built in the 18th century as a luxurious knights' lodge for hunting and recreation, is a good example of Baroque architecture.
I've enjoyed looking at the amazing views of the St. Paul's Bay, going for a dip into St. Thomas Bay and tasting a Cisk Beer, the local beer.