Not the End of My Tale

  Since we are currently in Australia on our around the world virtual trip, I told this folktale to my students this past week. I even had one student who was able to retell the whole story to the group. Here is a rather similar version that I found on youtube. I prefer to orally tell the story before I share a link for a youtube version. Otherwise, they think the youtube verison is "the truth" and can get upset if the oral version is slightly different. If I tell it first, then I can explain how stories have been passed down and changed by each teller.  Here is the youtube version, which is just one of many if you search for it. You can use this stoy to discuss drought and weather. Or you can discuss greed and sharing. Here are a few discussion questions to get you started: Was it fair that the frog drank up all the water? How should the water be shared for the animals? How can you persuade someone else to do something? How can you make someone laugh?

  About a year ago I had another teacher ask me why I allowed my 3rd graders to “waste class time drawing pictures when they should be learning English”. I am not alone in believing that many children enhance their language learning through art activities such as drawing. Incorporating drawing in our virtual trip around the world this year, I draw together with my students as we visit each country. According to cambridgeenglish.org, there are quite a few other ways to use drawing and crafts to enhance language studies. These do not need to be reserved for preschool children but are effective in older children as well. The writing here can be done solely by the child or with help by having the teacher write the word first on the board and letting the student copy it. Here are a few tips to add drawing to your language teaching.  Students can… Label some of the things in the drawing with words, like sun and beach.  Write captions of what people in the drawing might be sayi...

 After making their collaborative film about their visit to New Zealand, the students have answered quiz questions together as a team. I found several great quizzes about New Zealand for free on baamboozle.com.   We tried these digitally, and it worked very well. The students picked the number of the next question and were allowed to discuss their answer with each other and with family members who might be present. I found it beneficial for the students to discuss together what they know or remember about New Zealand.  There are many pre-made quizzes from baamboozle, which are awesome, and I have already found my next one to use for Australia... about Australian animals. Yes, we are on our way to Australia after this on our Virtual Trip Around the World. 

 The second stop on our Around the World Virtual Tour was Hawaii. My students read and watched information from a native Hawaiian. They were especially fascinated to read about her favorite snack- dried plums and her favorite food-poi. Besides picking coconuts and using them, the students liked hearing about pineapple plantations. Food seemed to be the biggest interest in Hawaii, although some students wanted to swim or hike, too. The students were able to make a short video about their visit using adobe spark. This was done while online with me. I shared the page with the film and asked what picture they chose. Then they typed their text in the chat box, an I pasted it into the film. The students I still get to meet in person will make the audio recording for the whole film.  This week we are continuing our trip to New Zealand with a new host who shares quite a bit about the Maori people.

  Många lärarkollegor frågor var de kan hitta intressanta sagor att berätta för sina elever. Världen är full med berättelser och jag tycker om att lära nya hela tiden. Då delar jag gärna med mig av veckans saga på svenska. Här kommer en folksaga från Kina som jag läste i boken Peace Tales av Margaret Read MacDonald. Ute på den afrikanska savannen trampade en elefant förbi och stannade upp när hon fick syn på en färggrann kolibri som låg platt på ryggen på marken. Fågelns små fötter lyfts upp i luften. "Detta ser visst konstigt ut. Vad gör du, lilla kolibri?" frågade elefanten. Kolibrien svarade: ”Har du inte hört? Jag fick höra imorse att himlen kanske faller ner idag. Och jag vill vara redo. ” Elefanten skrattade och hånade den lilla fågeln. "Vem har sagt det? Hur kan du tro på sådant trams? Tror du att de små fötterna skulle kunna hålla upp himlen?" "Jag kan kanske inte hålla up himlen alldeles själv,", svarade kolibrin. ”Men jag gör så mycet som jag kan...

 To help my older students start writing fiction, I used a prompt generator at  diyMFA . I also added a word of the day from NextStepEnglish:  https://nextstepenglish.com/word-of-the-day-conflagration/ .  Our word was conflagration, a very large fire that destroys buildings or large pieces of land. As we shuffled the prompt generator, we picked...  "shopping mall Santa, lost something important, has bullets but no gun and a picture of a modern building". We discussed these elements together and wrote both together and individually. Each of the students wrote their own version of this story while I wrote one, too.  I do believe that an English teacher should be able to write anything they ask their students to write and to proudly demonstrate their craft. I realize that there is the risk of the teacher's work being judged harshly, but how can we expect the students to be brave enough to write and share with others if we are not willing to write and share wit...

 Since most of my classes will be online for the next 6 weeks, I registered for an educator account at getepic.com . It is free and full of thousands of digital books (most in English, but there are a few other languages there). Students just use the classcode (no personal info needed) and can choose books to read online. Some books even include audio. As a teacher, I can keep track of how many books each student has read (if they click on their initials when they start) and how they did on the end-of-book quiz. I even tried one of the short quizzes with one of my students, and she liked it. The quiz was short enough to not be bothersome while providing just enough positive feedback to let her feel like her accomplishment was seen. The only drawback is that the students can only read for free during school hours local time, Monday- Friday 7 am - 4 pm. You can even make reading lists for your students. I made one with books about Hawaii or based in Hawaii since that is where we curr...