alice’s posterous

I found this fab quote today:

"A few of my keener students have asked me to give them with advice and hints to help them keep their Spanish going over the summer, in anticipation of next academic year. Earlier today, over at http://www.asisehace.net/blog, I provided them with a list of websites containing audio and video resources that will help them keep their Spanish ticking over and, who knows? They might even learn one or two new things. The list is copied below:..."
from http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=1187
You should read the whole article.

What about you? Do you have a list of fun and engaging resources to learn a language?

David Lynch is an extravagant film director who is most famous for The Elephant man and Twin Peaks.

He has just set up The Interview Project which is a 20 000 miles road trip over 70 days accross the United States. David Lynch meets people in different locations and interviews them about their lives, how they would like to be remembered, what they are proud of.

I find this project quite fascinating as it is not about fame, it is about everyday people who are sharing a bit of their lives.
I enjoyed this interview with Palmer Black, a retired naval officer who lives with his wife in Blanding, Utah. He says he wants to be remembered for "his barbecue and making people around him happy".

http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/all-episodes/004-palmer_black

What is your favourite interview? what do you want to be remembered of?

• describe the bedroom/ the characters
  
• write a narration for the story in the present tense
  
• think of an alternative ending

Last week, I was outraged when I read some comments on a TES forum about Twitter. Obviously, they were comments made by people who have no idea of what Twitter is about but still they have the need to criticize it.

When my brother (@chewie33 on Twitter) told me about Twitter last summer, I thought "what's the point in writing what you're having for breakfast?!". I didn't know much about social networking. I had just registered on Facebook and I quite liked it because I was getting in touch with old friends I had lost contact with. But that was all and I thought Twitter was completely pointless. Nevertheless, I carried on and started sharing more useful information in relation with my job and other areas of interest to me. I also started blogging on Posterous and then I started to meet new interesting people.

For me Twitter is as @langwitches describes it in her fantastic post about a traditional Argentinean Asado (BBQ) and Social Networking in the 21st century. It is like having a conversation with lots of different people at a party. Yesterday, I was having a leaving do at my house with a big barbecue and my friends and family and it was like being on Twitter and having different conversations about different topics. At times, I would be quiet and listening, at other times, I would be participating, I would leave a conversation and follow another one. Sometimes, the conversation would be pointless (i.e. about what we're having for breakfast! because we are humans), sometimes it would be meaningful.





Thanks to Twitter, I have met a bunch of great people from all over the world and I have learnt so much from them. My teaching job has become so much fun and exciting because I am always keen to try out the new things I learn on Twitter. So please, stop criticizing and start giving Twitter a go!

And you? what do you compare Twitter with?

In 1956 while working at the University of Chicago, Benjamin Bloom developed his theory on Educational Objectives. He developed a taxonomy of activities and behaviours that exemplify higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and lower order thinking skills (LOTS). It is used to rank and structure different classroom activities and plan the learning process. In my classroom, I have this poster:

In 2001, Lorin Anderson and others revised Bloom's original work which lead to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy:

Picture from http://teachershelper.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Taxonomy

One of the major changes is going from Nouns to Verbs, as the verbs imply an active process. Also the focus is now on creating.
However, I still don't have this poster in my classroom!

What are your thoughts? do you use these areas when planning a lesson?

• the people: who are they? describe them, what are they doing?
  
• the rooms: name them, describe the different objects in the rooms
• opinions: what do you think about the people? are they helpful? kind? unkind?

• need help with your plans for literature/reading in the classroom, click on the Discussion tab and start a thread with your question and/or comment.
• have a link to a video, song, poem, article, website, etc. for a reading, click on the century for which you have something to share and get started today!

I have been watching OSS 117 Rio ne répond plus, the second movie about the famous French secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (who shall be referred to as Hubert, to spare you the tedious length of his name) and I've found it as funny (even funnier) than the previous one OSS 117 Le Caire, un nid d'espions.

Hubert (played by great actor Jean Dujardin) is the anti-hero, a parody of the traditional espionage movie. He is the stereotype of the arrogant Frenchman, misogynistic, a chauvinist, filled with racial, colonial and cultural prejudices. The character is so grotesque and exaggerated, it is impossible not to laugh at his stupidity. And when we laugh, we can do it without feeling guilty because it is not the Arabs, Jews or Chinese that we are laughing at, but the outdated attitude of the old-school Frenchman.
Hubert is a mix of Austin Powers and James Bond, but in the French way with alcohol, women, and deranged dance moves. It is very politically incorrect but it works because it is French!