Discovering the Joys of "Scoopler"

Having just read Richard Byrne's excellent "Free Technology for Teachers Blog", I decided I would look into a new real-time search feature called "Scoopler" which was highlighted in his blog post "Honduras, Scoopler and Current Events". I was amazed at the huge amount of real-time information and tweets available on the topics of the day. The number one "Hot Topic" was about an American man called Billy Mays who died prematurely young on June 28th at the age of 50. I have to own up to my ignorance here and reveal that I had never heard of him until today. Scoopler gave a huge amount of links to Billy Mays and in no time I found out that he was an extremely famous TV "pitchman" in the USA. He seemed like a nice person with a great enthusiasm for life.
The following Youtube video found on Scoopler pays tribute to his life in "rapper" style.

Asbos in the News

Asbo is a very popular acronym and it stands for "Anti-Social Behaviour Order". Asbos have been around since 1998 and were first introduced by Tony Blair's government to curb a growing tide of anti-social behaviour. Indeed, the scheme was so successful (not) that it encouraged young thugs and yobs to gain more than one Asbo in order to show them off proudly as a badge of honour. Now this topic is in the news again with Alan Johnson, the new Home Secretary, saying "We need action, not talk, on anti-social behaviour". Read the full article from the Daily Telegraph here.

Ageless
Asbos seem to have no age restrictions. Here is an article from the Daily Mirror with a reference to an Asbo being given to a very young person and here is another article from ITN News which covers a story about an Asbo given to a pensioner of 82. Learn more about the meaning of the word from this BBC Learning English lesson.

Asbos for Kids
Teachers will be able to take parents of disruptive pupils to court under Government plans to be unveiled this week. Read more of this topical article from Yahoo News here.

Who is ultimately responsible for a child's behaviour? Parents or teachers? What is your opinion?

Mucky Pup in "Draining" Loo Incident

Teaching colloquial English in the correct context is of great importance for language learners. Numerous "slang" lessons have evolved from what I have heard in person on the street or snippets gathered from the telly or the Internet. I am always looking out for examples to use and demonstrate in the classroom. In fact, there is a future lesson idea in all sorts of everyday situations that I encounter. I have just read an article from Yahoo news entitled "Mucky Pup Saved In Dramatic Toilet Rescue" and couldn't resist doing the quick newspaper clipping generator activity above from www.fodey.com.

Vocabulary
a pooch: a dog
the loo: commonly known as the toilet/lavatory in UK English
a toddler: a young child that has started walking (poetic licence used in my article)
a pup: a baby dog
mucky: dirty
a "plumb" job: a play on the word plumber/plumbing. A plum job = a fantastic job
draining: a play on the word "drain" and an adjective meaning exhausting
flush the toilet: pull the chain so that water will engulf the contents down the drain

Lesson Exploitation
Ask your students if they have ever had a "sticky" situation occur with a pet of theirs or heard of an unusual story in the news about someone else's pet. Have the students compare their stories and then get them to vote on the most unusual one mentioned in the class. Students quickly read the above newspaper snippet and analyse any new words in context. Ask them to predict the full story before reading the article. Once the article has been read and new vocabulary has been reviewed, students can do a short summary writing activity.

An Angelically Stellar Connection: RIP Michael Jackson, RIP Farrah Fawcett

The passing away of Farrah Fawcett, a once huge global star, occured on the same day as that of Michael Jackson, an even bigger cosmic personality. A coincidence or fate? Both had been glowing stars in their particular genre. Both had fought hard against personal destructive demons. Both had experienced more than their fair share of well-publicised traumatic external events. Both had climbed effortlessly to the pinnacle of fame and back. Both had inspired a generation of fans in their unique, inimitable style. A truly angelical and stellar connection in the heavens above?

Jim Morrisson, An American Prayer
Death makes angels of us all
and gives us wings
where we had shoulders
smooth as a raven's
claws.

The Day the Music Died

I woke up this morning to hear that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died in Los Angeles yesterday after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest. Today the world is in mourning for one of the true pop icons of the era and tributes have been pouring in from far afield. His life has been tragically cut short at only 50 years of age but his wonderful music will live on for time immemorial. I remember singing and dancing along to his greatest hits such as "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" and being wowed by his innovative dance moves and stunning choreography. He was the original superstar and pop idol for millions of people from all walks of life.

I loved the "Moonwalk", a move I could never emulate.

Twitter: RIP MJ
News of Michael Jackson's death has caused the internet to run slowly and at times grind to a halt as people scrambled to find out whether the reports were true. "RIP MJ" is the top 'tweeting' topic on Twitter as fans pay tribute to the King of Pop online. Read more of the article from Yahoo News here.

The Timesonline has just published "Michael Jackson RIP-the good, the Bad and the ugly"
The article outlines the highs and lows of Michael Jackson's incredible career.


Thrilling Music of all time?
The Times asks if indeed "Thriller" is one of the most influential albums of all time in this article here. Do you agree with their list?