Challenge - Spelling Bee

Challenging good students is sometimes a big problem for most of the teachers. Because they are aware of the fact that their level is higher than their peers, the goodies sometimes feel detached from the basic activities and wait expect a challenge to show that they are good. Here is a well known activity adapted as a challenge and engaging no matter the age and level of your students. 

1. Make groups of two/three. 
2. Explain your students the procedure: This is a challenge. The teacher will be reading a word/phrase aloud for once and the groups will be writing it on a piece of paper/mini-board. (If you think that this is a waste of paper, you can number the group members as 1,2,3 and all the 1s can come to the board and challenge for their groups.)
3. State the rules briefly.
4. Ask them to get ready.
5. Let the challenge begin.

The rules: 

1. The words will be read aloud only once! 
2. They have 10 seconds for spelling.
3. For each correct spelling the group will receive 10 points.
4. No native language! If they speak in their native language, erase 10 points.

*You will get surprised their excitement when they are challenging. If you think that you need more rules, feel free to add more but don't overwhelm students with too much rules.
*The ideal time for this challenge is 20 minutes. If you go further, it is getting pretty tiring for the teacher.
*The activity is great for vocabulary revision, but you can also add some target(challenging) vocabulary to make it more fun.

Love,
Ayca

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Educational Tools

It's an undeniable fact that technology changes every second and keeping up with it is getting harder and harder, but there are certain tools making every teachers' lives easier. Here are some of my favorites!

Blogger: Blogger is an online diary that can be used as a tool for online portfolios, self-evaluation, progress reports or writing exercises. It's possible to upload photos and videos on blog posts which make it pretty effective and more fun. The audience settings can be either private for the student and the teacher or public. This is in my list, because I believe that online portfolios are easier to save and share. Also, keeping a diary is undeniably beneficial for your students from all age and level. On one hand it is easier for students to keep record of their improvement, on the other hand it is easier for teacher to give a feedback. 

Doodle: It's a great tool for easy scheduling and great time saver if you or your students need to arrange an event that is appropriate for everybody's schedule. Try it once and it will be one of your favorites!

Dropbox: It's an online sharing tool. One can upload any documents including photos, homeworks, sound files and share it online without much of an effort. This is pretty useful when you need to share files with your students and you need more than 25 MB space. 

Facebook: Facebook is great for networking. One can share almost everything online and connect with almost everybody with the help of Facebook. However, it is possible to find similar tools for educational purposes if you have ethical concerns or your students are too young to have a Facebook account.

Glogster: It's a social tool allowing one to create interactive posters. You can create and share your posters or your students can create of their own. It's easy and fun! The tool is definitely great for project assignments.

These five tools are from the first part of my list. More will be coming soon :)

If you have any favorite educational tool, please share with us!

Love,

Ayca

* You can click on the name of the tools to discover more!

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Icebreakers

Icebreakers are simple, quick and enjoyable activities leading you and your students into the mood, decreasing the stress level of your students and engaging them into the language class.

Thus, here are some enjoyable examples that you can adapt for different age and level groups.

Icebreaker No:1 - Remember the name

1. Tell your students to make a circle. (if possible)
2. Number them starting from one to five so that they know the order. (1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5...)
3. Tell your name and your favorite color/animal/food/actor (or a word describing themselves, or ask them simply make a special movement)
4. Ask the student with number one to repeat your name and the information you gave (Ayça - red)
5. Ask the student with number one to tell his/her name and favorite color.
6. Ask the student number two to repeat your name, the information you gave, student number one's name and his favorite color
7. Ask the student number two to tell his name and favorite color.
8. Continue the activity as a chain.
9. When number five completes his chain, ask the second group to start from their number one student.
10. At the end, you can challenge your students to repeat all the names and favorite colors.

Icebreaker No:2 - How are you today?

1. Ask your students to draw a triangle or a star.
2. Tell them to close their eyes and ask them "How are you today?" 
3. Make them think of their feelings for a minute. (You can use some music at this point)
4. Tell them to open their eyes.
5. Tell them to write how they feel on the corners of triangle or star.
6. If anybody volunteers, you can ask them share their feelings with the whole class.

Icebreaker No:3 - Flying vocabulary

1. Make a vocabulary based on your students' age and level.
2. Tell your students to take a piece of paper and listen.
3. Tell them the first word from your list and ask them to write what pops up in their minds first.
4. Continue telling the words from your list one by one.
5. You can ask your students to share their related vocabulary list and learn why those were the first words they thought.

Icebreaker No:4 - Yes or No

1. Prepare some yes-no questions. Those questions can totally be silly and fun or related to the previous/future topics.
2. Make the questions appropriate for personal answers. Don't prepare questions with a certain correct answer!
3. Tell your students that you are going to ask them some questions and they or going to answer them: yes, no or maybe
4. Ask your students compare their answers with their friends.
5. At the end, you can ask your students why they chose yes, no or maybe as an answer.

Icebreaker No:5 - This is my song!

1. Find a melody for your students. This can be from a famous song or something that non of your students know. 
2. Make your students listen to the melody.
3. Ask them to write lyrics to make this melody a mini-song in 3 mins.
4. Ask your volunteer students to sing the song for the class.
5. Ask the class to vote for the best/ most enjoyable/ most creative song(s).

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