Thursday 16 June 2011

Oxford Blogs!

I've had the pleasure of teaching at the Lake School of English for just one very intensive week. I taught 2 lovely groups of students.

I spent some time helping my students to create their very first blog. First they created a google account and then went to blogger to register their blog name and address. You can see the fantastic results above and below. I feel very proud of their achievement.

Well done to Maria Anna, Maria Eugenia and Fenisia, seen above in an Oxford college.

Teaching Unplugged
In the morning classes I actually made a big effort to teach "Dogme" style, and I found that a lot of vocabulary soon filled the board as you can see in the second image. It was all language and questions that cropped up from this picture of the Abruzzo countryside where I live.

If you look more closely at my board work below, you can see some of my drawings! Can you spot the picture I drew of a dog? I am certainly no Picasso! As usual, chickens, cats and dogs played a major part in some of the questions and answers....

Getting Down To Phrasals!
I also enjoyed teaching my group of Primary school teachers in the afternoon. I taught my favourite sessions on Using Images, Phrasal Verbs and Britain Today. We discussed topical social issues and then went on to do some vocabulary work on a grand British tradition, the pub.

To bring up the topic of pubs I hid a bar mat in an envelope and played the 20 questions guessing game. I told my class that the envelope contained an object which was very common in Britain. It took only 5 guesses for beer mat to come up. I was very impressed! We then did some vocabulary related to pubs and reordered a dialogue.

I've enjoyed both classes and this week has flown by!

Below a photo of myself and Gosia, a lovely teacher from Poland. More photos to follow..

7 comments:

The Green Room said...

Hello!

We finished our course at the Lake School in Oxford.

Bye, bye!

David Warr said...

Hi Janet, I see the cute little dog, and opportunities for plants to grow!

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi David

That sounds lovely! Look forward to seeing your plants grow:-)

m said...

Dearest Janet,
I've found your interesting, inspiring and all bueautiful blog some months ago and wonted to contact you imidiately, but I'm not really sure that you still remember me?!? I was one of yours Oxford Lake School students back in 1993 (the same class with Katica from Croatia and Antonio Polito from Italy! And some others...). It was such a lovely time, thank you for being part of it!!! Your teaching was great and you are such a wonderful person! Look at you: after almost 20 years you still look the same!!!
Please contact me back when you read this, and when you have time. I'd love to hear from you again!!!
All the best! With lots of love, Marija J. (Croatia)

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Marija

What a wonderful surprise to see you on my blog!! Thank you so much for your very kind words.

Yes, I do remember this lovely class even though it's such a long time ago. I have very fond memories of all my years spent at the Lake. I will be teaching there again in over a week's time and I can't wait!!

I've just viewed your fabulous blog with the amazing photos. Well done! They are all absolutely stunning.

Please do let's keep in touch after all these years!I hope you are keeping well.

Take care

Janet

m said...

Hi Janet,
great to hear from you!!!
I'm so happy that you remember me!

Thx 4 visiting my blog - I've just started with it, as you could see (p.s. for the moment nobody knows but you!!!); I'm glad you like my photos!! There will be some more of those as soon as I repair my laptop!!!

When will you go back to Oxford than?!? Are you leaving Italy for good or is that just UK working holiday trip?

I love Italy! Did I tell you that (after Oxford) I lived there for some years(Firenze, Padova e Venezia)? Still have some friends there and we try to visit often.

It's been 2 years that I live in Zagreb, Croatia... Croatia is a pritty country where I feel strange most of the time. (?!?)
And most of the time I still miss Oxford, and now I know that's something that will never change...

So enjoy it and please let me know how are you doing?

Divertiti!!!
Tantissimi auguri
e buon wend,

Marija

Janet Bianchini said...

Dear Marija

Lovely to hear from you again. You have certainly been busy since I last saw you in Oxford. How wonderful that you have lived in such beautiful Italian cities! I love Venice and the wonderful Murano glass that is produced there.

My trip to Oxford is a working holiday and family visit - I've been in Abruzzo since June 2008 and I love it here. It's a world apart from Oxford, but when I go back to Oxford I feel as if I have never been away, so I really do have the best of both worlds, I guess.

I hope you are keeping well.

Janet :-)