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With the end of the school year already on the horizon,
we bring you some practical ideas on how to improve
your cognitive abilities using gymnastics. All students
can benefit from it
and the teachers might
find it useful, too. We
bring you new ideas
on how to use
technology in the
classroom and
modernize your
teaching experience.
This report comes with
an offering to take
part in online learning
sessions for the
interested parties.
Finally, make sure to
watch the video on the
history of English, not
because we think you
should revise it, but
because we think you should have fun! ▪ I.P. & M.I.
“LOVE IS IN THE AIR…”
Inside this issue:
Groundhog Day 1
Valentine’s Day 2
Singles’
Valentine’s
4
Brain Gym 6
ICTREV & DOTS 7
Wordle 8
History of
English
8
FEBRUARY 2014
ISSUE 10/14
DID YOU KNOW—GROUNDHOG DAY
Many people hope that the end of January and beginning of February
mean the winter is almost over. According to folklore, February 2 is the date we can be sure about it. On
that day, called Groundhog Day, a groundhog emerges from its burrow.
If the day is cloudy and the groundhog doesn't see his shadow,
then spring will come early; however, if it is sunny, the groundhog will sup-
posedly see its shadow, and scared by it, retreat back into its burrow, which means the winter weather will
continue for six more weeks.
Modern customs of the holiday
involve celebrations where early
morning festivals are held to watch
the groundhog emerging from the
ground. There are numerous social
events in which food is served,
speeches are made, and plays or skits
are performed for entertainment. The
largest Groundhog Day celebration is
held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
The 'official language' of the event is
the Pennsylvania German dialect and
those who speak English pay a
penalty, usually in the form of a nickel,
dime, or quarter per word
spoken. This year's celebration begins
on January 30th and continues until
February 2nd. ▪ I.P.
Monthly newsletter for and by English learners and teachers
Editors:
Maja Ivanović, prof. Komercijalna i trgovačka škola
Bjelovar
Irena Pavlović, prof. mentor Srednja škola Čazma
email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Sparkles.newsletter
CONTRIBUTORS
TO THIS ISSUE:
Ivan Lukovečki, cartoon artist
Dario Vidić,
High School Čazma
And here it is, the month of love… It’s hard to believe
how fast time passes, and this short month will be over
before we know it. The second semester is already in
full heat and the seniors
have only three months to
go. Regardless of your
current relationship status,
this issue of Sparkles© has
something for all of you—
those happily involved
and the blissfully single.
As is now our tradition in
the making, we are ask-
ing four your valuable
opinion in deciding on the
best love films, songs an
romantic couples in recent
history, so make sure to
visit our Facebook page
and vote on the polls.
While there, feel free to
comment and share your
ideas on whatever comes to mind.
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February 14th is dedicated to people in love.
The custom of celebrating Valentine’s Day
probably began with the Roman festival of
Lupercalia on February 15th. During
Lupercalia there were games and dancing.
Every young man took the name of a young
lady from an urn and that lady was the young
man’s sweetheart for one year. Those pagan
customs were not permitted after the arrival
of Christianity but still the festival continued.
Later on, in the 7th century, it was called St
Valentine’s Day.
The origin of the name is still a mystery.
Some historians say that the name was taken
from a Christian martyr named Valentine,
who died on February 14th, 270. It is also
believed that Valentine was put in prison by
Emperor Claudius because he secretly
married young couples, the practice the
Emperor didn’t like. There is also a legend
that says that birds begin to mate on
February 14th.
The celebration was brought to England by
the Roman conquerors where the pagan
customs began to combine with the Christian
ones and form the Valentine festivity.
The Valentine tradition was popular in
Shakespeare’s time. His characters, Romeo
and Juliet, are the eternal symbol of love.
In the 17th century in London, sweethearts
exchanged presents on that day. This
romantic tradition was brought to the New
World by the English settlers. They made
beautiful cards and painted them with
butterflies, flowers, cupids and hearts and
they wrote love verses inside. With the
development of industry there was the loss of
interest for making cards so everyone bought
manufactured ones. Today there are all types
of Valentine’s cards: romantic, poetic, comic,
artistic and handmade.
St Valentine’s Day
THIS MONTH’S BUZZ Page 2
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In Great Britain it is customary to send an
anonymous card or a present to your loved
one. In the United States this day has a bigger
meaning today. On Valentine’s Day people
send gifts and cards to family, friends and all
the people they care about. In New York City
the top of the Empire State Building is
illuminated with red lights to celebrate
Valentine’s Day.
The usual presents one gives on Valentine’s
Day is a box of chocolates, flowers or some
other token of appreciation.
In 1947 the town of Loveland in Colorado,
USA, became Cupid’s residence. Every year, a
few weeks before the 14th, their Post Office
receives thousands of love letters and cards
from all over the world. There they put special
stamps on these letters and send them to the
addressees. ▪ M.I.
THIS MONTH’S BUZZ
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Darling sweet
I love you!
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STUDENTS’ CORNER
SINGLES’ VALENTINE’S DAY
Throw a party. Invite your friends over to celebrate being fabulous! You can make it a theme party, like suggesting that everyone wear all pink and create a playlist with songs like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Holding Out for a Hero.” Give love to those around you. It has been proven that kindness spreads, so start an epidemic. Give Valen-tine's Day cards to those close to you and help those less fortunate than you. Seeing their faces light up from your small gesture will restore your faith in love and make the world a better place. And don’t complain about not having a Valentine when there are millions of them waiting for you in shelters.
Adopt the love of your life! ▪ M.I.
Just because you’re single doesn’t mean you’re alone! Round up your single friends and have your own Valen-tine's Day for singles! Go to your favourite café, organize a karaoke or a stand-up comedy night. If you don't feel like going out, spend the night with your favourite actor. Rent a handful of his/her movies and treat yourself to a movie marathon. Organize a Secret Admirers gifting session. Have a group of friends draw names and deliver small gifts like chocolates, flowers and teddy bears to each other. Since you aren’t spending your money on that one per-son, spend it on yourself. Give yourself some credit for how amazing you are and get yourself something special. Since Valentine's Day is all about love, spending the day loving yourself makes perfect sense.
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STUDENTS’ CORNER
CHECK IT OUT! Have you heard this? Have you seen this? Have you read this?
If you are amongst those hard core
fans, who were more than delighted
when it turned out that James Blunt
hasn’t in fact given up the music busi-
ness to be a full-time soldier, well...
We’ve got a treat for you! Moon
Landing was released on 18 October
2013 and is Blunt's first new material
in three years. I guess he was trying to
decide whether or not to stop making
music (and, boy, are we glad he did-
n't). The album was announced with
the single Bonfire Heart and instantly
became a hit, rating in the top 10 in
different countries all over the world.
The album is filled with strong lyrics
and Blunt's voice sounds as amazing
as always. He even paid tribute to
Whitney Houston in the song Miss
America. James, you were made for
making music!▪ M.I.
Social Nightmare (2013) is a film about a high school senior whose life
gets turned upside down when someone creates a fake web page in her name and starts posting her
pictures all over the Internet. The Student body President, Catherine Hardy, has it all. Smart and ambitious
as she was, everybody liked her and everybody wanted to be her. She was a straight A student who was accepted
to the university of her choice and dating the most popular boy at school.
Until one day everything fell apart... Played by the young an upcoming Kirsten Prout, she shows us the
dangers young people can get themselves into on the Internet nowadays. ▪ M.I.
Joyland is a novel by Stephen King, published in 2013. The novel is set at
a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and involves a carny who must confront the "legacy of a vicious
murder and the fate of a dying child." Devin Jones is a student at the University of New Hampshire who
takes a summer job at Joyland in North Carolina after his girlfriend left him. Soon he finds out that a girl had
been murdered in the park’s haunted house, and her ghost still haunts the
ride, so he becomes interested in the murder. He later learns that this was only the latest in a string of unsolved
murders, which had never been connected by the police. Another one of King’s amazing spine-tingling,
action-packed page-turner. The King
does it again!▪ M.I.
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Sparkles© lovers already know that we are always eager to
find out what you think about a particular topic and what
your likes and dislikes are. Since this month's buzz is
Valentine's Day and since February in general is
considered to be the month of love, the topic of our
Facebook polls is exactly that - love. Not only have we
prepared the usual array of songs and films with love
themes, we have also come up with a selection of well-
known (but mostly fictional) couples. Let us know what
you think and, as always, our polls are open to your
comments in case we have forgotten something or
someone. Here they are, listed alphabetically.
BEST LOVE FILM
Armageddon (1998; starring Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler)
Dirty Dancing (1987; Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey)
Ghost (1990; Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore)
Love Actually (2003; Hugh Grant and Martine
McCutcheon)
Notting Hill (1999; Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts)
P.S. I Love You (2007; Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012; Bradley Cooper and
Jennifer Lawrence)
The Bodyguard (1992; Kevin Costner and Whitney
Houston)
The City of Angels (1998; Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan)
The Notebook (2004; Ryan Gosling and Rachel
McAdams)
BEST LOVE SONG
Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith
(Everything I do) I do it for You by Bryan Adams
Just Give me a Reason by Pink and Nate Ruess
Stand By Me by Ben E. King
The One I Love by R.E.M
Without You by Mariah Carey
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
Your Love Is King by Sade
You're My First, My Last My Everything by Barry White
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous
Brothers
BEST COUPLE
Chuck and Blair (Gossip Girl)
Edward and Bella (The Twilight)
Homer and Marge (The Simpsons)
Jack and Rose (Titanic)
Marshal and Lilly (How I Met Your Mother)
Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet (Jane Austen, Pride
and Prejudice)
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's tragedy)
Shrek and Fiona (Shrek film series)
Snow White and Prince Charming (Once Upon a Time)
Stefan and Elena (The Vampire Diaries)
LET’S TRY THIS!
Brain Gym® exercises, based on the copyrighted work of
Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D., and Gail E. Dennison, are exercises
designed to help the brain function better during the learning
process. Using the idea that our bodies are very much a part
of all our learning and learning is not an isolated "brain"
function as the starting point, Brain Gym® tells us that
simple physical exercise helps blood flow to the brain and
improves the learning process by making sure the brain stays
alert. Carrying out specific movements prior to a learning
activity, learners can improve their stability, mobility, and/or
sensor motor coordination. In turn, these motor skills support
ease of learning. There are 26 activities which movements
have been designed to coax the two hemispheres of the brain
to work in synchronisation. Their creators claim they foster
eye teaming, spatial and listening skills, hand-eye
coordination, and whole-body flexibility, which are to
activate the brain for optimal storage and retrieval of
information. The exercises can be done by students on their
own, while teachers can use them in class to help keep
energy levels up throughout the day. Besides exercising,
students should drink masses of water since it is essential for
the development of the nerve network during learning.
Drinking water is very important before any stressful
situation as we tend to perspire under stress, and de-hydration
can affect our concentration negatively.
Except with learning, Brain Gym® helps with staying calm,
problem solving, keeping positive, goal-setting, public
speaking, being assertive, boosting self-esteem, taking
responsibility, dealing with disappointment, keeping a sense
of humour, communicating effectively, keeping enthusiastic,
speed reading, handling rejection and many more areas of
private and professional life. Why not give it try?
The picture below shows some of the exercises and you can
always visit their official website to find out more:
http://www.braingym.org/. ▪ I.P.
Brain Gym®
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LET’S TRY THIS!
USE OF ICT IN SUPPORT OF
LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
What is the initiative about? Language education is an area where open-access
resources, online courses, virtual classrooms and
social networks based on information and
communication technology (ICT) are being
increasingly used to give learners access to
in fo r mat io n, pro mote int eract io n and
communication, and enhance digital literacy skills.
However, the rapid development of tools and
resources presents both opportunities and challenges.
In order to maximize the potential of ICT in
language teaching, it is crucial that it is used in a
pedagogically sound way that corresponds to the
individual needs of the learners. It is also important
that the use of ICT is introduced and supported in a
sustainable way and in a range of pedagogical
approaches that promote lifelong learning.
Objectives The objectives of this initiative are as follows:
To promote the benefits of ICT in language education;
To identify and review a selection of freely available ICT tools and
open educational resources which support language teaching and
learning;
To provide training and awareness-raising workshops for teachers,
education stakeholders and multipliers, focusing on self-training in the
use of ICT;
DEVELOPING ONLINE TEACHING SKILLS (DOTSACT)
BITE-SIZE TRAINING FOR LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALS
Many language teachers want to use up-to-date
technology in their teaching but often do not have the
time or resources for the necessary training.This
training kit presents bite-size activities for ten popular
tools that even the busiest language professionals can
fit into their schedule. Working through training units
which can be completed in around 30 minutes, teachers
will get to know the uses and pedagogic benefits of
online tools and learn how to integrate them into their
language classes. On the workspace users can join a
community of language professionals and online
teaching experts to watch video clips of experts
explaining their use of tools and discuss different
experiences and needs. They can also create their own
training activities, upload materials for others to use
and translate the existing activities into various
languages.
• The training kit for language teachers contains 30 bite-
size activities for self-training in using Moodle, wikis,
forums, blogs, audio-conferencing, Audacity, online
surveys, YouTube, podcasting and quizzes. Information
about the project is available at: http://dots.ecml.at.
• The online version on the workspace contains interactive
features and encourages collaboration with others. You can
sign in and explore the interactive online workspace
ht tp://moodle.dots.ecml.at for act ivit ies and
communication.
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There are things every teacher should be doing in order to achieve order in the
classroom. The problem is that not all teachers agree what they are.
Here are some suggestions.
TEACHERS’ CORNER
Set out your behaviour expectations from the
very start.
Many students will assume that there are no rules
until you tell them the opposite. It simply suits
them better. So, have a whole lesson talking about
the rules; put a poster on the wall…anything that
gets the point across that there are rules in your
classroom. Students probably know how to be-
have, but that’s not the same as knowing how you
want them to do it.
Have a seating plan. Sketch out where you want students to sit. If you
don’t know them, simply break them up alphabeti-
cally or by gender. This dislocates friendship
groups, by introducing a random element into their
pairings and groupings. Not only will a seating
plan assist you with behaviour, but it will help you
to know their names which is essential (and good
manners). Make a point of speaking to every pupil
in your class throughout the lesson at least once,
and naming them. Not knowing their names,
makes any kind of sanctions nearly impossible.
If they break the rules, they have to pay the penalty. Sanctions are an essential part of running a classroom. They are intrin-
sic to guiding pupils on to the path of better behaviour. They need to
be fair, consistent, and proportionate. If at first you don’t succeed,
keep it up. Also, get the parents involved. Some parents are unsuppor-
tive, but they are by far in the minority. The vast majority want the
best for their children, just like you do.
Don’t freak out.
In case you’re not getting the behaviour you planned, then it’s very
tempting to scream your head off. Never do this - the students are
most likely to put their feet up and think ‘Oh, great! A TV show!’. It’s
a totally disproportionate response to most classroom behaviours and
makes you look weak. Don't let them have the pleasure.
Be prepared and be the teacher.
Be there before them, have your resources ready and a lesson planned
in advance. If you turn out to be more badly organised than students
are, they’ll rarely respect you. The mental attitude you need to suc-
ceed is ‘They are here to learn, and my job is to help make that hap-
pen.’ Don’t try to be their friend; students need rules, boundaries and
an adult who will treat them with manners and civility, encouraging
them to do the same. You are supposed to be an authority figure with
a responsibility for their education so be it.▪ I.P.
HAVE YOU TRIED...?
Ever thought about a new way to encourage guided writing
or present your students word lists? Why not try Wordle?
According to their website http://www.wordle.net/, it is a
toy for generating word clouds from text that you provide.
The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear
more frequently in the source text. You can tweak the
clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes.
The images you create with Wordle are yours to use
however you like. Give it a go! You're bound to like it!
CPD in 10 minutes or less
You've probably forgotten the most of what you've learnt about
the history of the English language. Here is a short video to
remind you of the nitty gritty. Plus, it is guaranteed to make
you laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=H3r9bOkYW9s&feature=youtu.be