10 October 2011 / by Radmila Gurkova

Friday Meeting 07/10/2011

 

A busy start to the month but here's little update for the week. Last week we spoke about the classes at the gym and the new S1 course. Feedback has been generally good in both areas but we there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

‘Learning Capsules’ – as mentioned last week these are 30 minute learning capsules that will take place at a well-known gym in Barcelona. Several levels were taught this week (S1, P3 and P4). This precise way of teaching for s1 did not work because the S1 students are still at a level where they are learning basic vocabulary. However, the P3 and P4 class at the gym were really successful, staring off with Quick Questions (QQ), 2 structure activities and finishing off with a vocab and topic activity. Having mentioned this it is important to take into account that the Quick Questions need to be done for both 30minute capsules.

As for the S1 course, we had positive feedback mentioning that class 1 was really good, easy to follow, teacher friendly and interactive rather than repetitive. The flashcards have been updated, more pictures have been added and there is a clear guideline for the Teacher to follow. 'Building Blocks' is a work in progress...Well done guys!!

Lastly, everyone will have an extra current affairs topic for P4 starting next week. The reason for this new development is that we need to keep up-to-date with current news. We’ve decided to call this ‘breaking news’ and as this will be printed a week after, students will have the chance to read about it and have enough information to engage in the classroom.

Next week we will discuss news stories that we think would be interesting for the students.  One of the teachers will post videos related to the activities, giving students the chance to listen to news stories before the actual activity is taught.

Hope everyone has a nice week!

 

 

05

October 2011
New Apple iPhone fails to wow fans.
by Radmila Gurkova
Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO, who took over from his iconic predecessor Steve Jobs, announced its long-awaited fifth iPhone release. However fans were less than impressed! httpv://youtu.be/5uQLLpVNG5c ...

05

October 2011
New Proposal - Learn Languages at the age of 5...
by Radmila Gurkova
After reading this article, I'm surprised at the Tories new policy proposal, what with their anti-European stance . I completely agree with the idea of learning a language at an ear...

04

October 2011
Oxbridge TEFL - World Teachers' Day 5th October 2011
by Radmila Gurkova
World Teachers' Day was introduced by UNESCO on the 5th of October 1994 and has been celebra...

30

September 2011
Friday Meeting 30/09/2011
by Radmila Gurkova
Topics covered this week: - S1 (Beginners) Course. - Add more vocabulary? (not in the Target Language) - Oxbridge Students. - A new project called 'learning capsules'. ...

29

September 2011
Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library). You are going to kill it!
by Radmila Gurkova
If there is something you hate doing, please stop doing it now! Make your hobby a business. Ingredients: Patience and Passion.httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4VIDEO Written break down ...

26

September 2011
Oxbridge TEFL - Teaching Methodologies - some examples...
by Radmila Gurkova
Have a look at some of these videos about teaching methodologies... Let us know what you think of them. The Direct Method (also the Berlitz Method) httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiQvG-fvzLM &n...

26

September 2011
Current News - Conjoined twins separated by Great Ormond Street doctors.
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dJTUAFr9T0...

26

September 2011
The 9/11 Decade
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIhTBEUr_80The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington i...

23

September 2011
Friday Meeting 23/09/2011
by Radmila Gurkova
Developing the S1 Beginners Course Teaching Beginners in any language can be a daunti...

21

September 2011
Oxbridge TEFL - How to remember tenses and tense formation in English
by Radmila Gurkova
Have you missed this important session about tenses in English? Do you find it difficult to remember all these names with Latin roots? Do they not make any sense to ...