TESTING FOR GOSSIP

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

“Triple filter?”

“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “Actually I just heard about it and ...”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really …”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

HOW TO CREATE A WINNING LESSON.

1.   KNOW YOUR PEOPLE:

Before you can make any kind of effective lesson plan, you have to know your students.

2.   KNOW YOUR PLAN:

Officially, you should know your learning objectives. These are the language specific objectives for your lesson. If you are teaching content, think about ways to tie it to reading, writing, listening and speaking for your English students.

3.   KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES:

What are the most important things your students should know from the lesson you are planning? For example, in a speaking class learning a specific set of vocabulary may be secondary. Learning cultural nuances may be a third level priority. When you define your priorities at the start of your lesson planning, you can be sure that your students will learn what they need to learn by the end of your class.

4.   KNOW YOUR PIECES:

Just like any good story, a good lesson plan needs a beginning, middle and end. Plan a way of introducing the subject that will get your students thinking about what they already know, making connections in the brain. Plan more than one activity to introduce and practice new material.

5.   ANTICIPATE YOUR PACE:

One of the hardest tasks for a new teacher is determining how much time a given activity will take. Make sure you are ready for anything in your class by over planning activities for each lesson. Be ready for anything, and after you present your lesson make note of how long you spent on each activity.

6.   PROCESS YOUR OUTCOME:

It is always beneficial to spend a few moments after a lesson evaluating how it went, but your evaluation does not have to be a complicated process. This will not only help you the next time you go through the same material with a future class, it will help you plan upcoming lessons better for the class you have now!

This entry was adapted from BUSY TEACHER. Read the full version >>here<<

ATIVIDADES DESENVOLVIDAS EM SALA DE AULA #2.

 ESL Dialogue: Introduction Words and Phrases.

veja o site desse vídeo >>

Essa postagem é do interesse de todos aqueles estudantes de idiomas de níveis iniciais. Para melhor aproveitamento da mesma, sugiro que tire um tempo para ler os textos e ver todos os vídeos. Como julgamos ter muita informação aqui, daremos um intervalo maior entre essa postagem e a próxima para que você, leitor, possa ler tudo. Obrigado, não deixem de curtir o blog. 

Se você está iniciando seu curso de idiomas ou está iniciando sua jornada no aprendizado de uma nova língua sozinho, lembre-se que não existe um período pré-determinado para aprender o idioma. O que quero dizer é que todos, ou pelo menos a grande maioria de alunos de cursos de línguas, sempre se faz aquela pergunta: “em quanto tempo que eu vou falar inglês?”. Aqui exaustaremos a importância da paciência e da repetição. 

No primeiro vídeo, temos uma demonstração de como se apresentar em inglês. É um bom exemplo para alunos iniciantes.

Transcript: ESL Dialogue: Introduction Words and Phrases

Hi, I'm Ellen Quish from the Adult Learning Center at LaGuardia Community College in New York City for About.com. Today, I'm going to teach you how to introduce yourself in English. To do this, you can use these words.

English Introduction Words and Phrases

·         Hi/Hello, my name is ____.

·         What's your name?

·         Nice to meet you.

·         Nice to meet you, too.

Nesses vídeos (vídeos #1 e #2) feitos em duas aulas minhas, os alunos fazem uso de suas habilidades linguísticas para se apresentaram. Lembro a todos que o fato de terem sido filmados fez com que os mesmos se sentissem nervosos e pressionados, o que pode ter diminuído a performance de alguns. Mas, no geral, as apresentações ficaram muito boas. 

(vídeo #1 - Starter - 2010.1 - Noturno) 

                     

(vídeo #2 - Elementary - 2011.2 - Turma da Tarde) 

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Se você gostou dessa postagem, poderá gostar das opções que aparecem aqui logo abaixo. Deixem suas sugestões ou críticas. Ajudem-nos a fazer um blog melhor. Em breve, teremos mais novidades para nossos leitores. Aguardem. 

Lesson planning: very short observations about the importance of planning the lessons.

by Bruno Coriolano de Almeida COSTA

It is known that teaching is not only a question of teaching rules, graphics, how to use maps and the likes. Moreover, it is much more than simply standing in front of the classroom and faces an audience hungry for knowledge.

Some teachers, with experience or not, seem to have an ability to think on their feet, which allows them to believe that they do not need to plan their lessons. However, most teachers go on preparing lessons throughout their careers, even if the plans are very informal. It is said that teaching needs preparation. It is, teachers must prepare and guide students into the path of success. In addition, authentic teachers need to observe and deal with an amount of details.

Firstly, teachers have to adapt the lessons to their students’ realities; in language classes, it is not different from any other kind of classes, students expect their teachers to be creative and plan their lessons.

One thing that teachers should consider is that students will realize if the lessons were not planned before and it can show the image that the teacher does not care about his/her job. Unfortunately, it happens more frequently than we think.

There is no doubt the lesson plans are important in teaching. When planning, we, teachers, should observe students’ needs and possible problems that may happen; and think about the tools we are going to use in advance. In addition, teachers are supposed to arrive earlier in the classroom in order to check if the equipment and the likes are really available that day. 

this text is appropriate for pre-intermediate levels.