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May 2000 - issue 5/00
DEVELOPING TEACHERS NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the Newsletter
Trust you are all well rested after Easter.
The nice thing now about the long spring term is that the
summer one is relatively short!
To coincide with May Day there are a few ideas
in the Theme about Work. They are not intended as ideas exclusively
for the business std as hopefully most can be used with a
variety of stds.
The
lesson plan is about 93 year old Jim Dowd who is still
working.
Next month's theme will be about that well-worn
ELT theme Travel & Holidays. It's in quite a few of your
stds' minds at this time of year so all contributions are
welcome.
Happy teaching!
Alistair
ted.blc@cospa.es
Please e-mail a friend Developing Teachers.
Thanks.
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INDEX
1.
THEME
2.
COURSES
3.
LINKS
4.
WEEKLY TEACHING TIP
5.
FOR SALE
6.
PS
7.
FEEDBACK
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- THEME
- Have you ever secretly wished you were a
spy? Come on, course you have. Now's the chance to find
out more. Check out http://www.mi5.gov.uk
- MI5 in site, if not person! Lots of info about the service
- Facts & Figures, Functions, Threats, Intelligence
Work, Accountability, Myths & Misunderstandings. In
this last section they feel a need to tell you that they
don't assassinate people, tap phones or routinely monitor
the lives of the famous - all sounds very boring if they
don't do any of these but I reckon it's a double bluff -
spies after all! There's a lot of material about employment
- job descriptions, application & salaries (which are
pitiful). Great material for upper intermediate onwards.
Similarly, not to be outdone, GCHQ - another British intelligence
centre at http://www.gchq.gov.uk/
has its own site. There is again info about their history
& functioning but it is more concerned with recruitment
with job & benefits descriptions (access to the skittle
alleys at the Civil Service Sports Association in Cheltenham,
no less!), downloadable application forms etc. Definitely
worth checking out in their own right (change of career?)
& very useful material for your lessons!
- http://www.economist.com
- an excellent site for the business material & there
are two weekly mailings of round ups of politics & business
- very useful to have handy for instant discussion work.
- chronological mini-timetable - going through
the stages; unemployed, scanning job adverts, job application
letters, forms & CVs, interview preparation, interviews,
starting a job, different types of jobs & their attributes,
trade unions, redundancy, retiring - spread it out over
a couple of weeks. General work lexis: commute, salary/wage,
well/badly paid, prospects, promotion, retire, pension,
ambitious, perks, increments, commission, stress, company,
location, responsibilities, job satisfaction, fringe benefits,
work environment.
- job interviews - vocab: references, short-list,
experience, vacancy, qualifications, fill in, application
forms, interview, applicants, apply - it's a good time to
review tenses & question tags - checking information
from the application form with a falling tone. Choose a
job ad that you think that the majority might find interesting,
the stds write a letter of application, discuss what they
should/n't do at the interview, get an interview panel together
of three stds & one by one the other stds are interviewed
by the 'board' who then decide on the best candidate &
give reasons for the choice. There's a lot of material in
coursebooks about interview tips.
- Ranking jobs in order of importance for society/financial
return/interest/mental & physical effort/length of working
week etc - balloon debate with jobs: each std has a different
job & has to justify importance in order to stay in
the balloon, one must be thrown overboard - decide on four
attributes for the ideal job - 20 Yes/No present simple
questions to discover the job. One std thinks of a job &
others question e.g. Do you work with your hands/outside/wear
a uniform etc.
- the writing skill - CVs, letter of interest
about a job, letter of application, application forms, acceptance/refusal
letter, faxes, e-mails, memos, letter of resignation..
- Discussion about the stds' companies - a
SWOT analysis - the stds think of two things in each category
related to their company S=Strengths, W=Weaknesses, O=Opportunities
& T=Threats & a STEP analysis where they think of
two factors that affect their companies in each of the following
areas - S=Sociological factors, T=Technological factors,
E=Economic factors & P=Political factors. The stds then
discuss their ideas. There are worksheets on both of these
in the Business English Teacher's Resource Book - Nolan
& Reed (Longman) A couple of other very good resource
books, among many, are Business English Recipes by Irigoin
& Tsai (Longman) & Business Pairwork by Flinders
& Sweeney (Penguin). Don't let the business titles put
you off as there's a lot for all kinds of stds & groups.
- If you are in need of some light but relevant
business material the 'Successful XXX in a Week' series
of short books is very good. Each book takes a different
theme: Successful Negotiating /Marketing / Interviews /Business
on the Net /Flexible Working /Web Sites etc in a Week. Published
by Hodder & Stoughton & they come from the Institute
of Management.
Back
to the index
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2. COURSES
The summer will soon be upon us. It brings
the busiest time for us at Teacher Education at the BLC.
The CELTA courses tend to be large groups & there is
a full-time DELTA course in July/August. If you know anyone
who might be interested in a training course then do pass
our address on. Tell them not to leave applying until the
last minute to avoid disappointment.
CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE IN ELT - CELTA
Full-time four week courses: June - July -
August - September
CAMBRIDGE DIPLOMA IN ELT - DELTA
Full-time eight week courses: July/August
& October/November
LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
EXAMINATIONS BOARD
FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE FOR TEACHERS OF BUSINESS
ENGLISH (LCCIEB - FTBE)
You can see brief descriptions of all of the
current courses on our web site http://www.cospa.es/blc/ted/ttframes.htm
If you would like to contact us by e-mail, snail mail, phone
or fax then please use the details at the end of the newsletter.
Back
to the index
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3. LINKS
http://www.freedonation.com
So we've had http://rainforest.care2.com
&
http://www.thehungersite & now
to make donating even easier there is the freedonation site.
Here you can choose the charity to donate your clicks to.
The last time I was there these include helping the AIDS problem,
the homeless, the fight against cancer, to end hunger, to
save children from diseases, to promote the arts & education.
It is also informative about the different areas. Groove along
& click to your heart's content.
http://www.sevenquestions.com/
Lots of interviews with a variety of US-based
people - highly usable in class.
As they say at -http://www.urbanlegends.com/
-"An urban legend:
- appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously
in varying forms
- contains elements of humor or horror (the
horror often "punishes" someone who flouts society's conventions).
- makes good storytelling.
- does NOT have to be false, although most
are. ULs often have a basis in fact, but it's their life
after-the-fact (particularly in reference to the second
and third points) that gives them particular interest."
Some more sources http://www.uncleken.com/urbanmyths.html
http://www.urbanmyths.com
/http://www.techrescue.org/archive/myths.html
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.manchester.com/interactive/uml/wwwuml.html
- I always thought Manchester was an urban myth.
Great material for storytelling &
reading skills development.
http://www.e-profesores.com
This is a new site from a past trainee, David
Harris, & it is devoted to job matching in the ELT world
in Spain. If you are looking for a job or if you are on the
other end & looking for a teacher then go along &
post it up.
http://www.yucky.com
What the younger learners love - all things yucky!
A scientific site that explains all these disgusting things!
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to the index
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4. WEEKLY TEACHING
TIPS
Feel a bit incomplete with only the newsletter?
So you still haven't subscribed? Have you had a look at the
back issues at http://www.developingteachers.com
? There's a free teaching idea straight to your in-box each
week - usually more than one idea! If it's not new then it'll
make you think about it a bit more. Check it out & sign
up. Or send an e-mail directly to weeklytip@developingteachers.com
Get that complete feeling. It's free!
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- FOR SALE
Here's your chance to try it out for yourself
- there's a thriving language school up for sale. It's fully
functioning in modern premises situated to the north of Madrid
in a booming area. Personal reasons for selling & a good
price. If interested then contact me: info@developingteachers.com
Back
to the index
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6. PS
http://www.soda.co.uk/soda/constructor
Talk of the web at the moment - check it out - go play!
http://www.blindsurf.com/
And if you've got some more time on your hands
take a random trip to some quality web sites. All you do is
choose a category & go with the flow.
http://www.emode.com/
And still even more time on your hands then get
along to Emode for a quiz or two. Are you a sex goddess/god?
What breed of dog are you? Are you a loony? What's your emotional
age? All these & lots more crucial quizzes in Personality,
Relationships Career & Health categories.
http://www.about-the-web.com/
http://cwis.kub.nl/~dbi/english/instruct/www/indexuk.htm
If you're just starting out with the Net & you're in need
of information then these sites are for you - clear, very
informative & lots of links.
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7. FEEDBACK
Please send me comments, suggestions, or questions
about this newsletter. Please don't be bashful about telling
me what you like or don't like. Any ideas for 'themes'? links?
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