Τετάρτη 20 Ιουλίου 2016

Our Blue Planet-the Cradle of Life

We are so lucky to live on one of the most beautiful spots in Universe.
This film is a wonderful testimony to this fact!


So what do we do with our Home?
How much do we look after it?




...and how about our co-habitants on this jewel of the universe?


How willing are YOU to act and reduce your ecological footprint?
First, let's found out how significant it is by doing this quiz 
What's your role in this? What do you, your family, your school and your country already do to save our planet? What commitments are you willing to make?
1. Write an article for your school's magazine urging your classmates to action

REVISION TIME
Last day of revision today in view of our final test. 
Revise  
1.  Reported Speech, Used To, Modal Verbs, Modals of Deduction
2. Unreal Past
3. Passive Voice   and here and here (1st eexercise written in notebook)
4. Revise vocabulary from Handouts and notes.

Have you ever thought that Revision can be easy AND fun?
Well, don't laugh... here's some advice you're sure to find helpful...

Keep Calm and...Revise!!!




Language Review
In 5 weeks we have revised all the important points of English Grammar. 
We have refined our skills and learned how to answer exam questions!
Isn't it amazing? 

Now it's time for a revision
Today we practice:
1. Contrast sentences (handout p. 106/ex1)
2. Vocabulary of Crime (study  vocabulary from the handout and do exercises ABC
3. Reading (handout)
4. Conditionals, Tenses, Causative, Comparatives/Superlatives, 
Quantifiers, Articles, Despite/Although, Relative Pronouns, Gerund or Infinitive
Tommorrow's another day...
Enjoy!!!

Δευτέρα 18 Ιουλίου 2016

You are what you eat...


What do these two young people have in common?
What, in your opinion causes eating disorders?
1. Let's take a look at a very interesting article to get an expert opinion.






Food for thought!
Can you guess a reason behind the difference in these two reports?
Would you ever imagine that eating habits are behind them?
2. Read this article and comment on how our food intake affects our school performance 

3. Explore the food pyramid and take  this interactive quiz!
4. Then write a food quiz for your class.

Language Point
The girl whose father is a doctor loves ice cream.
My friend Anna, whose father is a doctor, loves ice cream.
What's the difference between these two sentences?

5. Study advanced Reative Clauses here.
6. Practice here and here.
7. Then take Tests 1, 2 and 3 here

Τετάρτη 13 Ιουλίου 2016

Bullying the bullies

What's the definition of bulling for you?

What do bullies at your school target?
What is some good advice for young people who are victms of bullying?
Let's watch this ad to find out



Here's a quiz  to see if you know what to do when in the face of bullying.
There's also the chance that one is a bully without realising it. Here's another quiz to find out!

Our favourite page on teen issues TeenHealth has some tips on how you can stand up to bullies.

1. Read the tips and write an essay in your canvas on reasons you think bullying exists at schools in the recent years and suggstions to face the problem which of them you find most useful and why.

Language Point
2. What would you do if you were in a bullied person shoes?
What do you wish school did to help victims and bullies?
Here's a tutorial to help you learn to use wishes and unreal past.


..and here's some practice 

Τρίτη 12 Ιουλίου 2016

The most successful...luger!




This is luge, an Olympic sport..


...and here's an even more extreme version....



So, what do you consider to be an adventure?
Why do people seek adventure in extreme sports?
Would you take an adventure trip in the wilderness?
1. Here's the account of people who did! Read and write a comment in the blog

2. Now write a story - real or imaginary- of an adventure or unusual experience you have had.
Remember: A successful story needs:
Past tenses (check this link for consistency)
Action- Reaction
adjectives
adverbs and expressions of time
some Direct Speech
action verbs

3. Take this survey to see how adventurous you are
and post the result as a comment! 

4. Record yourself talking about what you think of adventures

5. Let's work on our word order skills with a game!

Language Point
6. What could your life be like if you had taken a bungee-jump?
Here's to (mixed) conditionals!
Tutorial and practice here

Πέμπτη 7 Ιουλίου 2016

The Future is Now!!!



What does the future hold for young people who are now students and preparing for the world of work? Watch this video with amazing facts about the future and comment on what you find to be the most impressive information. What do YOU think will be a job that doesn't exist now and you'd like to do in the future? Write a comment about it to share with your group.

It is said that the jobs of the future will be quite unusual for current standards. Young people are said to need to learn how to be flexible and constantly adapt to new roles. What do you think?

How can you make Passive sentences with Reporting Verbs? Find out here. 

...and then practice here
You will learn it once and for all when you do ALL the activities.

SELF-EVALUATION TIME:
We're already halfway in our course. What have you learnt so far?
What more would you like to learn/discuss/ revise?
Take this short survey to take control of your learning!

Τρίτη 5 Ιουλίου 2016

The Social Media and You




So, what do you think the people "devined" by the magician should have done to protect their privacy?

 




The new generation is called the Millennials and are digital natives. Children today seem to be born with a remote planted in their heads and a keyboard installed as an extension to their fingers!

Watch this video and read this text about social media.
Then do the quiz to see how much you've understood.
You can read the text as many times as you want to get all answers right!


Language Point You may say you didn't need to see the video to realise the problem. Do you need to revise Modal Verbs, though? Well, here's a tutorial and practice activities for you. ...

Then write an argumentative essay in the canvas on  social media. What are  some positive and negative aspects of using social edia for young people?  How do you think they can affect the lives of people who are involved? Use your own experiences as exmples.

Δευτέρα 4 Ιουλίου 2016

Feelings

How long does it take to form an impression on a person we meet for the first time?
How important or long-lasting is this impression? What can you do to make a positive first impression on people?
 Read this article to find out!

So, how good are you at making out what the people around you are feeling? Why is it important?
What emotions can you recognise in these people's faces?




 














How many synonyms can we find for these feelings?
Let's write them in this form.

Our feelings can be hard to recognise and ever more of a challenge to face.
Here's a great article with  5 ways to overcome shyness.

Let's remember everything e know about Reported Spech looking here.
Now, some practice...

...and a great song talking about feelings...




You have been asked to write an article of 180 words for a young people's 
magazine about first  how much you trust your own first impressions. Also explain which of the tips provided in the article you find the most essential and explain why.
Write in your canvas


Τετάρτη 29 Ιουνίου 2016

Freshman, sophomore, what more?

Today we go on talking about education. How different are educational systems around the world and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each way of learning?

Let's take a look at an Infografic of the Finn Educational System first:
There
From Visually.


1.Every one will look up for information about a different country and fill in the form here
so that we can then discuss the pros and cons of each system. 

2. Hmmm, Passive Voice, eh? What do you want to revise?
You can find a tutorial here and practice here and here (ex 21, 23, 26, 28, 30 are a must!)

3. When will you have your hair cut? Study and practise this form here and do this activity at the end.

4. So, the Finish system has been designed around the students' own needs. How can Greece be advised by having its system compared to that of Finland? You have the magic wand. What do you suggest?
Write 10 sentences with your suggestions in the Passive Voice and Causative form in your canvas

5. Of course, we never stop having fun! Watch this video and guess what happened.
You can share with us by posting a comment in our blog!

Δευτέρα 27 Ιουνίου 2016

Making the Mark

Imagine a school...

Where kids have freedom to be themselves...Where success is not defined by academic achievement but by the child's own definition of success...Where the whole school deals democratically with issues, with each individual having an equal right to be heard...Where you can play all day if you want to...And there is time and space to sit and dream......could there be such a school?YES, and it's called Summerhill. Here's a video of the students talking about their school. 




1. You can watch a really touching movie on Summerhill here and write a different ending to the plot!









Be creative:
2. Now, let's use our imagination a little more...Imagine you've just finished Summerhill and your friend is about to start. He's asked you for some information on what to expect at  school and advice on classes, school rules and so on. Respond to him through an email that you will post in your canvas,. 
The email needs to include: 
- the new vocabulary
- an overview of what we have learnt on Summerhill
-your personal recommendations 

LANGUAGE POINTS3. Now let's review the TENSES by looking at this page
First study the tutorials and the do the activities for the tenses you feel you need to revise
so that you're ready for the class review in our next lesson.

Τετάρτη 22 Ιουνίου 2016

Travel Broadens the Mind


So, guys and gals. Here's the big surprise of our first class: 
Our course has a unique NOVELTY: no books! Just the net, this blog and specially designed material by our teacher, Mrs Effie Kyriklakis.

IN our first lesson we found a common interest:
Travelling is a pssion for veryone in our team, so
today we'll talk about travelling and getting to know the world.
Let's look at different kinds of exploration one can do here.

Language points
Talking about travelling, we get to use a gerund.
How much do you remember about Gerunds and Infinitives?
Well, here's a YouTube tutorial to watch.
After that do activities 3,4, 13,15 here.

Activities
 ...and the change goes on!
Even assignments are completely different: 
First, look at the holiday pictures/videos and read about them on Pinterest.
Then, find photos (on Pinterest or Google) of  YOUR favourite way to explore the world and chose   
- create a board on Pinterest
- create a photopeach presentation and be prepared to present a 5min talk about where you would like to travel and why USING the VOCABULARY we've seen in class.
AND
-Write a comment of 120 words in this post about your favourite holiday destination USING the VOCABULARY we've seen in class.
Fun, eh? Can't wait to see your posts, everyone!!!

Your presentations will be published here!


George K. in Photopeach

Summer School=Summer Fun

Hi everyone. We are a team of 1 girl and 1 boy who excelled in our B1 course and as a result we've been rewarded with a shorter B2 course, taking us from B1 to B2 level in just 11 months. This is our summer class blog. We  pledge we are going to have serious... fun, learning and living the language through technology at the same time!
Our LEARNING AIM for this course is...





We're going to give our 100% to learning...fun!

The most important aspect of success in to know one's own strengths and weaknesses well!
It's what our ancestors wisely called "γνώθι σ'αυτόν"!

So, how many ways are there for someone to be intelligent?
Strange question?
Well, check out this page to find out how modern research proves what you probably already know about yourselves!

How are YOU smart, do you reckon?
Take the test in that same page and save the code generated in the results page.
We'll need it to compare our class results!

Being creative:
In this class we'll be learning with and from each other!
To be able to be easily in touch, let's create (if you do not already have one)
-a gmail account
-a Google+ account
-a pinterest account
-a canvas
-a skype account

Summer Fun
-Send a email  to a friend (ekyrikakis@winners.edu.gr) telling them why you are taking this course and what you expect it to be like.
-You may want to keep everyone updated...so share your contact details in the class Viber group.