Carlos and the bandits

Today I worked with 1st year students. I introduced 911, and we discussed emergencies.  I showed them a news clip about Carlos, divided them into two groups and handed out a news writeup on the story and had the students list the nouns and determiners.  This took them about 10 minutes.  They wrote the nouns on the board each from their own group, then a member from the opposite group filled in the determiner for each noun.  Then I gave them a fill in the blank sheet, which they did perfectly because they copied from their notes :-/
We went over the sheet in class, then watched a different Carlos newsclip.
Students then wrote 5 questions and in 2 co centric rings asked each other questions.

Inspired by St. Patrick

I must have been inspired by St. Patrick!!! My first time to sit in on a class and observe the teacher's teaching technique. He was quite nice about it... a little nervous at first...and so was I!!! There were 13 students there and the topic was: Past perfect tenses. It was the first year students. I could tell some weren't very clear on the subject... so when I was invited to share with them a little about myself, I tried to use some past perfect examples. I was also asked to correct them when they made errors and suggest better ways of expressing themselves. There were a few errors using the article "the" especially when years were talked about. However, my ear needs to be trained to understand their accent because i did miss a lot!!! I like the kids... said I'd sit in again on their class. The teacher has offered an opportunity for me to sit in on a 4th year class, so may do that soon too... if I can fit it in with my lesson schedule!!!! One question stumped me... Does anyone know what you call a person who falls in and out of love easily????

St Patrick's day

the 4th year students learned about St. Patrick's day today.
I used this 13 page handout as a guide for the lesson.  It seemed to go ok, nothing here about the article however.  Students seemed to enjoy the last part where they interviewed each other.  I had them stand in rotating co centric rings for the interviews.  I was able to listen in and correct some errors in article use.

cancelled due to illness

didn't see my 4th year Ss today as Helen phoned me to say she was ill.  Natalia was to have both groups together and show them a film.

second mention

4th year students
I made a restaurant power point production using a picture from The Oxford Picture Dictionary to talk about the restaurant. 
I also made activity cards with pictures and phrases where the article was left as a blank for students to fill in and use for telling a story.
Class did an exercise from Azar's Fundamentals of English Grammar to review second mention.

International Woman's day

Is the 8th of March.  Seems that students start celebrating it today.  My class was nowhere to be seen when I showed up for our 16:45 lesson...

non count nouns

4th year students
We went over exercised from Fundamentals of English Grammar by Betty Azar.  We did this with lots of drills.  I also showed a power point presentation to review count and non count nouns