what teachers make

Teaches, oh teachers! What we have to do in our carrer! We must be more than teachers. We must be singers, actors, psychologists, friends, and much more. In the puzzle  you'll see me as a doll in a white polka dot dress. Great performance (rsrs)

Now read and warch the poem written and performed with passion by Taylor Mali a high school teacher:

You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspel
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

A new magazine has been launched

Educação, Literatura & e-Learning. Esse é o nome da nova revista eletronica que circula na rede a partir de hoje. O título condiz com o propósito da revista. Educação, Literatura & e-Learning é uma revista bilíngue desenvolvida para ser uma ferramenta para ajudar professores e alunos a desenvolver o letramento em todo tipo de suporte. Se você é professor, vai encontrar reflexões sobre cada um dos tópicos que compõem o título da publicação. Se é aluno, interessado na aprendizagem, seja de Inglês, quanto Português ou Literatura também ficará satisfeito com o conteúdo. Além de uma pitada de humor, pois todos merecemos uma pausa para relaxar.

Então, só nos resta desejar uma boa leitura.

As Editoras.

Márcia Abreu & Claudia Murta

If the foolish call them "flowers"

Using the pictures of my mother's orchids and a poem by Emily Dickinson, I made this e-book. E-books are excellent tools to help students to improve their writing skills.

Let's Play and Learn

Kids love to play. That's a fact. Modern kids love  playing on computers. Modern teachers must be aware of that and use web tools to improve their teaching methods and catch kids attention to the lesson. Here's an exemple of  a game for young learners.

                            http://www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/cleanup_eng_launcher.html

Improving your English through Podcasting

Podcasting is especially interesting for English learners as it provides a means for students to get access to "authentic" listening sources about almost any subject they may interest them. Teachers can take advantage of podcasts as a basis for listening comprehension exercises, as a means of generating conversation based on students' reaction to podcasts, and as a way of providing each and every student diverse listening materials. Students will obviously find the ability to listen to these podcasts useful especially due to its portability. Teachers can use Ready‐made podcasts from the Internet or create their own.
"Imagine!!" is an example of a own creation podcast. The students participated in the process and they could listen to their speaking (in this specific case - singing) and learn on what they must improve their pronunciation.

"Moving" is an example of a ready-made one from podcastinginenglish.com. While listening to the poscast, students can read the transcript and do the activities.

Transcript:abra o link numa outra janela,assim você poderá ouvir a entrevista enquanto lê o roteiro.
 http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/wksheets/moving.pdf
Worksheet (with answers):
http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/wksheets/moving_worksheet.pdf
Vocabulary worksheet :
http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/wksheets/vocabulary_worksheet_1_27.pdf

Comics: learning and having fun

Are you looking for a way to motivate reluctant readers, engage urban youth, develop the comprehension skills of second-language learners, or teach visual literacy to elementary level students? Have you considered comics? That's right, comics! More and more teachers are finding that once-maligned comics, and their big brothers graphic novels, can be effective tools for teaching a multitude of literacy skills to students with a variety of learning needs.

According to Stephen Cary, a second language learner specialist and author of Going Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom, "Comics provide authentic language learning opportunities for all students….The dramatically reduced text of many comics make them manageable and language profitable for even beginning level readers."

The following comic was made by my second grade students (7 years old)using the software Pixton. They loved to play with the characters, and then creating the text became easy. This was the first step, at the second part of the lesson they were asked to reproduce the story in a text.
My artist's names are: Samuel Carvalho, Mariana Terra, Rebeca Andrade, Milla Barra, Douglas Sá. Enjoy their work:
Pass the mouse over the picture and ckick on the arrow to roll the strip.

Congratulations Rio, congratulations Brazil!!

Rio to stage 2016 Olympic Games
From BBC sports

Brazil will become the first South American country to host the Olympics after the city of Rio de Janeiro was chosen to stage the 2016 Games.

Rio won a majority of the 95 votes at the meeting in Copenhagen, eliminating Madrid in the final round. Tokyo and Chicago had already been knocked out.

"The world has recognised that the time has come for Brazil," said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva went to the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to persuade the International Olympic Committee to pick the city as the host of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Here are some excerpts from his address:

"Our time has come. Among the 10 largest economies in the world, Brazil is the only country that has never hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"Among the countries that are now competing, we are the only ones that never had this opportunity. For us, this will not just be an Olympic Games. For us, it will be the opportunity to be equal.

"The doors of Brazil are open for the biggest party of humanity: the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Rio, one of the most beautiful and welcoming cities in the whole world. We need your support and vision for the future. Rio is ready.

"If you give us this opportunity, you will not regret it. And you can be sure that the games in Rio will be unforgettable, because they will be full of the passion, happiness and creativity of the Brazilian people.

"For South America, it will be a magical moment. For the Olympic movement, an opportunity to feel the warmth of our people, the exuberance of our culture, the sun of our happiness.

"And to send a clear message to the world: the Olympic Games belong to all people, to all continents, to the entire humanity.

"Looking at the five rings of the Olympic symbol, I see my country in them: a Brazil of men and women from all continents - Americans, Europeans, Africans, Asians, all proud of their origins and prouder of feeling Brazilian."

Well, congratulations Cariocas and Brazilians! Let's celebrate, let's party!
But don't forget: we have 7 years to get ready for this challenge.
Let's get prepared to welcome people from all over the world.
Let's study! Let's learn languages, specially English. We may think: we have time... but time goes fast, so LET'S GET READY!!