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Showing posts from June, 2021

KIDDLE: A search engine for kids

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  HAPPY WEDNESDAY! πŸ’“ Teachers, how many times have you asked your students to do an investigation and when they search for information on Internet, the web pages they find are too difficult for them to understand? In my case, I teach Science in English and that happens most of the time. However... Look! πŸ‘€ KIDDLE is a visual search engine for kids , offering safe kids webs, image and video search. It is in English, so it is perfect for CLIL and English teachers.  How is KIDDLE designed specifically for kids? Have a look at the images below: Did you know about Kiddle?  What do you do to help your students search for appropriate information? EvaπŸ’•

21st CENTURY COMPETENCES

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  Hi Super Teachers! Today's post is about the 21st Century Competences or Skills . These are 12 abilities our students need to develop in order to succeed in their future careers.   These skills can be divided into 3 categories: 1) LEARNING SKILLS . These skills teach students about the mental processes required to adapt and improve in a modern world environment.  2) LITERACY SKILLS . These skills focus on how students discern facts, publishing outlets and the technology behind them. There is a strong focus on determining trustworthy sources and factual information to separate it from the misinformation that floods the Internet. 3) LIFE SKILLS . These skills take a look at intangible elements of a student's everyday life. These intangibles focus on both personal and professional qualities. Nowadays it is not enough with "filling" our students with a lot of contents. As educators, we should help develop the 21st century skills. Do you have into account these skills...

THE FOUR SKILLS IN CLIL

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Hi teachers! How are you doing?πŸ’– Today I would like to ask you a question: do you bear in mind the 4 skills ( listening, speaking, reading and writing ) when planning your CLIL units or projects? I try to do so, even if sometimes it is a bit tricky. From my point of view, it is highly important that our students have time to practise the 4 skills in their CLIL class because, in fact, they are using a language to learn in a similar way they would if they were learning content in L1. Whenever they are learning contents from any subject in L1 they are also using the 4 skills: maybe they are watching a video and they are listening to information they need for a purpose (listening) ; they are discussing a topic (speaking);  they are searching for information in books or on internet (reading) or they are writing a report (writing). So, why not practising the 4 skills in our CLIL lessons?  Would you like to find out what activities I use in my CLIL lessons to practise the 4 skill...

STEM WEBSITES FOR YOUR SCIENCE CLIL LESSONS

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  HIYA! What is STEM ? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics . You may also have read STEAM. In this case,  the A stands for Art.  STEM or STEAM programmes aim to increase students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students are involved in a new way of learning and problem-solving. In STEM sessions students have an active role and they are engaged in hand-on activities. Moreover, they are developing the 21st-century skills they will need in their future workplace. I am not an expert in STEM, but I have started introducing some activities in my CLIL Science lessons and I promise my students love them! I love seeing their faces when they get their aim and their enthusiasm. Whether you are already teaching STEM or if you want to get started, here you have some STEM websites recommendations for your CLIL lessons. You can also adapt the activities for your students. 1) SCIENCE FOR KIDS :  https://www.sciencekids...

BOOKS FOR CLIL TEACHERS

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  HOWDY! 😍 It's been a while since my last post. As teachers, you know that the end of the school year is overwhelming: meetings, grading, festivals... and these are some of  the reasons why I've been absent. I have had this post in my mind for weeks and today I have finally some time to share it with you. I love reading books for teachers to keep updated, to learn more and to help me reflect on my practice. I want to share with you these two books which can be really useful for CLIL teachers: 1) " CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning " by Do Coyle, Philip Hood and David Marsh. For me this book is the "bible" of CLIL and it is a "MUST HAVE". Not it only deals with theoretical concepts, but also how you can adapt CLIL to your context, assessment in CLIL, evaluating the impact of CLIL, programmes and future directions. 2) " 101 Scaffolding techniques " by Donna Lee Fields . If you are looking for ideas for Scaffolding, here you h...