L.O.V.E. – activity/lesson plan | ELT stories St. Valentine’s day is approaching so here’s a lesson plan on the topic of love and friendship. Students warm up by playing a word game (stages 4-5) that encourages them to think deeper about what they read into a range of concepts related to love and friendship andpushes them to recall vocabulary on these topics The lesson ends in a discussion activity (stage 6). Level: B1-C1Length: 30-60 min (depending on whether you do the discussion activity)Focus: speaking (a conversation class)Materials: Worksheet Stage One. (Collage produced using [Optional] If the students came up with the topic of St. Say ‘I’m thinking of one of these pictures. unitysupportfriendshipvow (for a B2-C1 class) Get the students to quiz each other in new pairs: one person chooses a picture and says their associations, the second guesses which picture is being described; listen in an board some of the students’ associations. Stage Two. Stage Three. Stage Four. Stage Five.
We Are Singing Stardust: Carl Sagan on the Story of Humanity’s Greatest Message and How the Golden Record Was Born by Maria Popova “We [are] a species endowed with hope and perseverance, at least a little intelligence, substantial generosity and a palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos.” In 1939, just before his fifth birthday, Carl Sagan visited the New York World’s Fair, where he marveled at the Time Capsule evincing the fair’s confidence in the future — a hermetically sealed chamber, filled with newspapers, books and artifacts from that year, buried in Flushing Meadows to be revisited in some far-off future era by a future culture very different from and curious about the present. Sagan, in his characteristic eloquence, writes of the motivation, offering a poetic, humbling, and timelier than ever reminder of just how misplaced our existential arrogance is: The coming of the space age has brought with it an interest in communication over time intervals far longer than any [of our predecessors] could have imagined, as well as the means to send messages to the distant future. The Golden Record
40 more maps that explain the world Maps seemed to be everywhere in 2013, a trend I like to think we encouraged along with August's 40 maps that explain the world. Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. You might consider this, then, a collection of maps meant to inspire your inner map nerd. 1. Data source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, World Bank. Those dots represent people: the brighter the dot, the more people. 2. Click to enlarge. Human beings first left Africa about 60,000 years ago in a series of waves that peopled the globe. 3. (Wikimedia commons) The Mongol conquests are difficult to fathom. 4. Click to enlarge. This map shows the Spanish and Portuguese empires at their height. 5. This map shows British, Dutch and Spanish shipping routes from 1750 to 1800. 6. Click to enlarge. 7. Bluer countries have better income equality. Yes, the United States has worse income inequality than Nigeria. 8. Click to enlarge. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Four sisters in Ancient Rome - Ray Laurence | TED-Ed Welcome to the world of Lucius Popidius Secundus, a 17-year old living in Rome in 73 AD. His life is a typical one of arranged marriages, coming-of-age festivals, and communal baths. Take a look at this exquisitely detailed lesson on life of a typical Roman teenager two thousand years ago. Freeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives) but could not vote or hold political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by Roman historians. Porticus of Livia: Begun by Augustus on the site of the house of Vedius Pollio (q.v.) in 15 B.C., and finished and dedicated to Livia in 7 B.C. The Colosseum is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.
War witness The Science of Our Optimism Bias and the Life-Cycle of Happiness by Maria Popova “To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities, and not just any old reality but a better one.” “If I expect as little as possible, I won’t be hurt,” Susan Sontag famously wrote in her diary. And yet we’re wired to expect a lot — and to expect great things. So argues neuroscientist Tali Sharot in The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope — a short, absorbing TED Book summarizing Sharot’s own research, as well as that of others in the field, using a combination of neuroimaging and behavioral science to explore why we’re “more optimistic than realistic,” what this might mean for our everyday well-being, and whether it’s due to the specific architecture of our brains. The root of optimism, Sharot suggests, isn’t far from what Montaigne argued five centuries ago. Optimism starts with what may be the most extraordinary of human talents: mental time travel. She traces the intersection of memory and optimism to a neural framework:
HISTOIRE • De l'Antiquité au XIXe siècle, ces femmes qui ont fait l’Afrique Toutes ces reines antiques ou ces égéries contemporaines se sont fait valoir grâce à leur personnalité, leur beauté, mais pour beaucoup par leurs actes. Toutes différentes, mais portées par le même désir : contribuer à un avenir commun pour leur peuple. Cléopâtre Egypte, 69-30 av. J.-C. Cléopâtre est un personnage phare dont la légende s’est emparée de son vivant. Aminatu Gambie, XVIe siècle La reine Aminatu de Zaria est surnommée “la reine guerrière”. Anna Zingha Angola, XVIIe siècle Anna Zingha est reine du royaume d’Angola pendant plus d’un demi-siècle. Kimpa Vita-Nsimba Congo, XVIIeXVIIIe siècle Kimpa Vita est une prophétesse congolaise. Abla Pokou Côte d’Ivoire, XVIIIe siècle Abla Pokou est une reine d’Afrique de l’Ouest qui mène le peuple baoulé du Ghana vers la Côte d’Ivoire pour le libérer d’une guerre fratricide pour le contrôle du royaume d’Ashanti, au Ghana. Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh Bénin, XIXe siècle Son nom se traduit par “Dieu dit la vérité”. —Grâce Loubassou
How to understand power - Eric Liu Watch Eric Liu talk more about these ideas in his TED talk, “Why ordinary people need to understand power.” Interested in what power really is, who has it and why? Take a look at Citizen University, watch some great presentations about various topics at Citizens University on YouTube, and consider attending the next conference. What would a citizenship agenda look like? Is being a good citizen important to you? What is patriotism? Who Will “Us” Be?
CIVIL WAR - Giving Voice to the Invisible Partipants: Introduction by Margarert Garcia, Hosler Middle School Modified by Cherie Lange, CV Middle School Students will research the "other" groups involved in the Civil War. These people were rarely mentioned or recognized in text books due to their lack of political, social or economic power in this turbulent time in U.S. history Introduction Your publishing firm has just started a new magazine. If at any time during your travels you need help or have questions, remember to contact your editor in chief, in other words, your teacher . The Civil War had a huge impact on the United States as we know it today. There were other people involved in the Civil War of different genders and ethnicity - These people fought on both sides - Union and Confederate.
Sleep and the Teenage Brain by Maria Popova How a seemingly simple change can have a profound effect on everything from academic performance to bullying. “Sleep is the greatest creative aphrodisiac,” Debbie Millman asserted in her advice on breaking through your creative block. In Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep (public library) — the fascinating exploration of what happens while you sleep and how it affects your every waking moment, and also among the best science books of 2012 — David K. Biology’s cruel joke goes something like this: As a teenage body goes through puberty, its circadian rhythm essentially shifts three hours backward. Randall points out that those early school start times originated in an era when youths either had a job after school or had to complete chores on the farm, so the schedule was designed to fit everything in; thus, the teenage circadian rhythm has only become problematic in the past century or so. The school, however, stuck with the plan for the academic year.
The Heroes Unit: Subunit 1 – Qualities of a Hero and the Heroic Journey – The... This is a mammoth of a blog post, so I am going to split it up into three parts for your viewing pleasure.This unit is on Heroes with three subunits – fictional heroes, modern day heroes and personal heroes. You can go through it in about 2 -3 months. Do me a favour. Ask your students who their heroes are. I was quite shocked when not very many students could identify a hero in their life or even someone to look up to. And that’s how I begin this unit. I push the little muffins by questioning the hell out of them -what’s the difference between an idol and a hero? “Well – an idol is someone you think is really cool.” Yes, but so is a hero. “An idol is someone famous.” But now you are generalizing – what about Malala? “An idol is like a role model, and a hero is like somebody who has helped you in your life.” But couldn’t a hero help you indirectly? Keep questioning them – make them think. There are many other questions you can go through to make them think. Lesson Plan 8A – What is a Hero?