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Unlocking Student Understanding with Exit Tickets

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Exit tickets are a simple yet powerful tool for quickly assessing student understanding. By taking just a few minutes at the end of a lesson, these brief prompts can provide valuable insights into student learning and guide future instruction. Additionally, exit tickets facilitate communication between students and teachers, encourage student reflection, and offer feedback on teaching strategies. Purpose of Exit Tickets In their book, "Improving Adolescent Literacy" (2004), Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey identify three categories of exit ticket assessment: Prompts that Document Learning: These prompts help students reflect on what they have learned. For example, "Write one thing you learned today" or "Discuss how today’s lesson could be used in the real world." Prompts that Emphasize the Learning Process: These prompts focus on the process of learning. Examples include, "I didn’t understand..." or "Write one question you have about today’s

AI Tools to Try in your Classroom

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AI tools can significantly aid teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in various ways, enhancing both teaching and learning experiences. Here are some of the key ways AI tools can assist EFL teachers: Fokus AI, Credit: Phonlamai Photo/Shutterstock Content Creation:   AI can assist teachers in creating custom learning materials or adapting existing ones to fit the specific needs of their students. This can save teachers a significant amount of time and effort. Differentiated instruction and targeted teaching:  AI can help teachers create or adapt material to fit any teaching situation. Lesson Planning:  AI can help teachers create lesson plans by suggesting relevant materials and activities based on the curriculum and student profiles. Engaging Activities:  AI can be used to create interactive games, quizzes, and other activities that make learning English more fun and engaging. This can be especially helpful for younger learners or those who find traditional classroom learning

Advent Calendar 2024

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 A digital advent calendar. There is a new fun activity behind each door, from Kahoot quizes and filling in Christmas songs lyrics for the weekdays, to making easy Christmas crafts for the weekends. Image found in pixabay The doors open only on the relevant day so they can be a real surprise. If you are not sure how these calendars work you can  visit my page with my older calendars here  to get an idea.  

Erasmus Project: Aligning English Teachers to 21st Century Challenges

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The Imathia Teachers of English Association implemented an ERASMUS+  ΚΑ1 project titled: Aligning English Teachers to 21st Century Challenges.  As part of the project, members of the Association, who serve in primary and secondary schools in our region, travelled to Prague, Dublin and Helsinki. There, we attended training seminars related to public speaking, digital tools and teacher empowerment. Our aim was to redefine and strengthen our goals and motivations in order to address the multiple challenges educators face today, challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.  We had the opportunity to exchange views and good practices with colleagues from other European countries. We also explored aspects of the history and culture of the respective countries. As a result of the training received, we prepared a lesson in eclass aimed at English teachers  but not exclusively. The lesson is divided into three main sections: Teachers and Oral Communication Innovation and Digital Skill

eTwinning Project: "eTwinners Behind the Scenes"

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"eTwinners Behind the Scenes" is an eTwinning project that has exploited the power of the theatre as an investigative tool to make our pupils discover the cultural background of the partner countries and develop creativity, critical thinking skills, and the ability to work together in the process of writing an original drama. After considering several outstanding stories, pupils chose to dramatize Renata Fonte’s story and worked in transnational teams to write a 3 act play about this passionate mother, teacher, and advocate for women's rights and environmental justice. This topic made them appreciate the values of justice, activism, and community engagement as crucial for achieving the SDGs outlined in Agenda 2030.  We worked with students from two schools in Italy: Scuola Secondaria Statale di I Grado “Materdona-Moro” di Mesagne and Liceo Statale “San Giuseppe Calasanzio” and two schools in Spain: Fundación Educativa Jesuitinas Pamplona and  Colegio Internacional Eurovil

Shakespeare in Love: a Learning Scenario about Shakespeare

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Talking about Shakespeare and using his works in the EFL classroom can always be risky as we all know how difficult they are to understand without adequate guidance not to mention that the original works feel overwhelming for anyone who is less than a literature student. However there is no reason why we should deprive our students of the pleasure to experience some of Shakespeare's magic that has stood the test of time and is still meaningful today. Romeo and Juliet, Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928), Southampton City Art Gallery The following learning scenario was designed entirely for the e-class (a digital learning platform for the Greek schools) during the quarantine but it can be used in the classroom provided that there is a computer lab available or a classroom with a wireless connection and enough laptops and tablets for the students to work on.  Students are going to learn about William Shakespeare, the greatest English playwright, and why he is so significant. They are

Advent Calendar 2021

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An Advent Calendar is a special calendar used for counting the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas.  Advent calendars are usually a large rectangular card with "windows", one for each day of December leading up to and including Christmas Eve (December 24). Consecutive doors are opened every day beginning on December 1. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, a poem, a portion of a story, or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. The advent calendar that follows is a digital one. There is a new fun activity behind each door, from Kahoot quizes and filling in Christmas songs lyrics for the weekdays, to making easy Christmas crafts for the weekends. The doors open only on the relevant day so they can be a real surprise, but you can find a list of all the activities below. If you are not sure how these calendars work visit my page with my older calendars here to get an idea.     Day 1: Print and solve a Christmas crossword puzzle  Day 2: Make a sock sno