Today I had the pleasure of invigilating for one of our teachers as he needed someone to be an invigilator.
For those reading this and wondering what the word 'invigilate' means let me explain. One of our teachers is currently completing an open university course through Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. As part of the course he has to complete a formal examination...but of course he can't reasonably be expected to attend the exam in Melbourne so for 2 hours today my classroom became an examination venue for Monash University.
An invigilator is the person who oversees the examination making sure the student has received the correct paper and checks that he doesn't cheat during the course of the exam.
I suppose in usual circumstances the invigilator would oversee many more students than my solitary teacher, so my task just involved hanging around and keeping quiet but it made a pleasant change and was a chance to use a rarely used word (outside of academic circles that is.)

Of course the news since yesterday has been dominated by the tragic stabbings in Akihabara yesterday. Thoughts with all those affected...

Click below to open the quiz on some of the lighter stories making the news in Japan last week. As usual there's a top page consisting of headlines, blanked out words and pictures that should get your students talking followed by the actual stories cut and pasted to create a set of notes.

The Japan News Quiz (PDF)

Of course a s every Englishman or woman knows St.George's Day falls on the 23rd April. Well maybe not, a recent survey showed that only 1 in 5 knew the correct date of their Patron Saint's day. And I bet that most of those 20% were former boy scouts, who were made to parade through the centre of town every year. As I was...

Despite the lack of enthusiasm amongst the population of England any story that involves a dragon, knight in shining armour and a beautiful maiden is sure to be a winner with young minds. As well as giving us a chance to change the signboard and generate a bit of interest in the locality. So this week we've spent class time playing with these great masks from SparkleBox to act out the story of St.George slaying the dragon.


Although one student did call St.George a cowboy...

Before you dismiss the idea of playing snap in the classroom as way too easy and not a productive use of time, except possibly with very young learners who are yet to grasp the concepts of more complex games, take a look of this idea. It's a great little space filler or warm-up game.

Using a deck of picture cards deal the pack between the students. I usually just cut the pack into about equal piles. Play as snap but the children cannot say the item that is printed on the card they must say another word with the same beginning sound i.e. if the picture shows a duck they must say another word beginning with 'd'.

You'll be amazed at how difficult it can be to stop themselves saying the item on the card. My elementary aged students just love this game.

Here just for fun is the quiz on some of the stories happening in or to Japan in the past week or so. The PDF below consists of a cover sheet which you can give your students, who using their knowledge of the news stories can provide a summary of the story, which should lead to a discussion. Don't worry if you haven't been keeping up with the news, and who can blame you as the English language newspapers in Japan are pretty dull and uninteresting, I've included a brief summary of each news story in the notes.

Japan News Quiz 23rd April

Enjoy!