An internet invention?

While I was catching up with friends and family on Facebook, I came across a post on a friend (and fellow Cambridge ESOL presenter)'s page:

"The Marquis de Gouvernet replied saying that he should accord only a small number of leaves, not to those who said they were sick, because the abuse was too great, but to those who could prove that they had important business to attend to."

This had me confused for a minute - what on earth was Phil talking about?

Then I read on:

It's international book week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your status.

Here is 5th sentence from page 52 of the nearest book to me (the one on the top of the pile of books I have just read):

"It was a wonderful surprise, particularly after the shock and worry of Gary's accident."

It occurred to me that this activity could be done in class.  Students could be asked to find this sentence  (page 52, 5th sentence) in different books in English and then they could discuss which sentence they think comes from which book (looking at the cover), what the book is about.

The sentence from Phil's book shows that the book is about an older period than my book probably.   

I did a search to see when International Book Week is and found that there isn't actually an official international book week!  There is a World Book Day on April 23rd (but this takes place at the beginning of March for the UK and Ireland apparently!)

I also checked to see where this meme had originated (as well as checking out what the word 'meme' itself means! = an idea or pattern that spreads via email, blogs, Facebook...).

Oh, and while I was searching the web to find photos and information for this post, I came across another interesting challenge:

my mission to read a book from every country

As the planet celebrates World Book Day, I'm midway through a plan to read a book from every single one of the 196 UN-recognised countries. Have I gone too far?

You can read more about this challenge here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/23/world-book-day-read-country

And as usual, this led me to another interesting webpage:

  http://www.pbase.com/abott/196_photos

Many of the photos on this page could be useful for class - you could show students the photos and ask them where each one was taken.  If you showed me the UK photo, I would never have said it was taken there!!!

Singing the praises of internet!

I'm just back from a trip to the UK.  (Well actually, back from a PLANNED trip to the UK and an UNPLANNED trip through France!!)  Along with a group of friends, I took the ferry from Santander to Portsmouth 8 days ago.  The plan was to visit the New Forest area, with a shortish motorbike ride each day and some cultural visits and pub lunches.

Lyndhurst, UK  (Photo from TripAdvisor)

That all changed when I heard on the radio that Brittany Ferries had decided to cancel all its ferry sailings till further notice!

Suspension of Brittany Ferries' Services

We ended up taking a ferry from Dover to Calais and then riding 1,300 kilometres down through France over two days.

We're back in Cantabria now, safe and sound.

Our original trip was planned using some of our previous knowledge, plus a lot of research done using the internet.  For some visits, we had bought our tickets in advance.  The hotel and pub meals were booked in advance too.

The route through France was also helped a lot by access to the internet - while we stopped for lunch, we checked out hotels and booked them online so that when we arrived we knew where we were going, and very importantly, that we had enough rooms (there were 11 of us in the party and we needed 6 rooms, plus somewhere to park the 5 motorbikes and the van securely).

I was very impressed by the Hotel de l'Europe - its location, rooms (small but confortable) and especially  the covered area for parking bikes - a storm broke just as we arrived!!!  I find I am using Tripadvisor more and more to find out things like this!

And I still keep thinking (as I do so often!) - How did we exist before internet?

(I certainly wouldn't be talking to you via this blog!!!)

Another goodie from my 'For later' bookmarks

In my previous post, I gave you an idea of how many miscellaneous links I have stored in my 'For later' bookmark file.

I decided to check one or two more out and wanted to share this one with you.

As a student at primary and then secondary school in the UK, I can still remember how to spell two words because of tricks my teachers at the time taught us.

1  The spelling of the word 'isosceles' (primary school maths) - Mr Beresford made up a sentence for us to remember the spelling - 'I saw our Simon climbing Everest last Easter Sunday'.  I must have been about 9 years old and I still remember this sentence now!

http://typenuts.com/2009/04/07/rhythm/

2  The spelling of the word 'rhythm'.  My English teacher Miss Anderson had us spelling the word by saying each letter in time to a beat - the first three letters slowly, then the last three following in quick succession.

As a teacher, I have often tried to help students remember the meaning(s) and spelling of words or the meaning of idioms by getting them to make up stories, sentences and pictures to illustrate them.

Look at this picture.  Notice the two meanings of the word 'wave' that are illustrated.

http://500px.com/photo/4944047

These meanings of 'wave' are easy to show, as is the next meaning:

http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cheung/Courses/455/Syllabus/2-physical/intro.html

But  can you easily illustrate these meanings of 'wave'?  I can see that for the first one, a teacher would probably need to choose something that is featuring strongly in the news.

For the second one, I might ask students to close their eyes and to imagine themselves in a very warm room inside a building.  Someone goes outside and forgets to close the door.  It's freezing cold outside.  What do you notice first?  (The cold air coming inside.) How might your body react? (by shivering, maybe) 

The door stays open.  What do you notice now?  (my skin starts reacting)

If no one closes the door, what will happen?  Where will you feel the cold?  (probably throughout your body, even deep within).

Ask them how quickly their body would react if the building was in the north or south pole - they would feel a wave of cold.

GROUP

C2 a group of people or things that arrive or happen together or in a short period of time

Dictionary examples:

There has been a wave of kidnappings in the region.

Another wave of refugees is arriving at the border.

 Learner example:

These people, who belong mostly to the middle class, and some other[s] like explorers [...] or youngsters seeking some adventure, produce the big wave of tourists to different countries.

Certificate of Proficiency in English; C2; Greek

a wave of hatred/enthusiasm/sadness, etc.

C2 when you suddenly feel an emotion

Dictionary example:

She felt a sudden wave of sadness.

 Learner example:

As he counted the money, a wave of shame and horror hit Berthold.

Certificate of Proficiency in English; C2; Portuguese

http://vocabulary.englishprofile.org/

Anyway, back to my 'For later' bookmark.  Click on the image of the book below and you will 

go to a video on YouTube showing different words as images.  Some of them are great!!

You can find more words as images on the Word as Image Facebook page.