Monday, October 31st

Sorry, I have been very busy these last days, but I'll try to tell you what things I've done.
Thursday 27th: weather report: sunny and cold day.
In the morning, We have been working (again): Storytelling in the Classroom. (Myths and Legends)
1.- Warm up! Title: I cannot find my DVD. Cards with different words which have been written by students. We mix them and choose one of them and the story starts. You have to continue the story using the word you have chosen.
2.- Giant's Causeway: You have lots of cards from the same story and you have to put them in order and invent the story. Later, the teacher tells the real story.
3. SETANTA: They have to answer questions. You give fragments of the story and students must find the answers.(I've got the photocopies and I'll upload them back in Spain.)
After break, We have been working: Exposure to Current Materials.
Activities:
- Round Table (nouns -- explaning them; verb -- making sentences
- Non-stop questions: complete the questions the teacher starts,...)
- Life Swap: who's the person of this picture? The student describes the life of the person in the picture. If another student likes his/her life they swap his/her life and takes the picture.

Storytelling
Interesting books to work in class (photocopiable):
(Imaginative Project)0-521-66805-0
(Intermediate Communication Games)0-17-555872-8
(700 Classroom Activities) 978-1-4050-8001-9
(Pronunciation Games) 0-521-46735-7
(Games for Vocabulary Practice) 978-0-521-00651-4
(Games for Grammar Practice) 0-521-66342-3
In the afternoon, we have been doing about "Film in the language classroom". All activities were taught to practise English in Secundary Education.
Film in the language classroom
Friday October, 29th: Sunny and cold
In the morning, we have been "Using Authentic Material". Teacher gave us a piece of text of an article and we had to answer some of questions. Later we had to ask other students who have read the other part of the text.
On the other hand, we had to use two magazines. With two pages, we had to ask questions and other students had to look for the answers. (Questions: open-ended, figures, dates, names,..true/false.)(Type of contents: food, adverts, letters, horoscope, article, photos, competition,...)
Authentical Material
We visited the Primary School because they were celebrating Halloween in the play ground.

In the afternoon, my group was planning the Project Action.

Wednesday, October 26th

Today, the weather has been sunny and cool again. What a fun!!

Firstly, we have been working Drama in the classroom. We've made lots of role-plays: Simon says..., A chant (The Train) , "The tip of tongue and the teeth and the lips" ( angry, happy, ...). We have mimed with a magic box (at the end of this, the teacher has destroyed the box!). Also, we have played when the teacher has given us a card with a situation and one of the student has to find out what it is happening. (Receptionist, Dentist,...) Another game "Monster Card": the same game but you have to convince everyone to do what the situation is set in your card, but you are the only one who knows it, for example, "at the dentist". Finally, we did a "Cat Collection". This is when you have to join two cards with different words (adj+noun).
Later on, we visited a Primary School next to our School. It was funny.

Drama in the classroom.
In the arternoon, we attended to a small talk about "The Irish Education". It was very interesting.
Drama in the classroom

In the evening, we went to "Everyman Palace Theatre" we had a whale of a time with a musical play called "Spring Awakening".

Tuesday, October 25th

The weather has been sunny today. Fantastic!

In the morning, we have been doing new activities:
We have showed our presentation about UCC (University College Cork). Later Sally, our teacher, has explained some Irish vocabulary and expressions, too. It has been very curious.
After having a cup of coffee, we have made five groups to do a Project about... Irish Education System. We have chosen this subject and we have visited a Primary School next to our Academy. We will visit it tomorrow at 11'00 in the morning and we'll be able to take some photos (classrooms, children,...) We will show all of them to our classmates next 4th of November.

In the afternoon, we have visited the UCC again because some teachers wanted to know it. We have visited Saint Ann's Church, Shandom where you can play the bells and you only have to pay €4, if you are a student, of course. There is a book with different songs and you can choose one of them to play with the bells.


We have visited the Butter Museum but I don't recommend you, it's boring and you have to pay €3.

After that, we have drunk a beer in a typical pub.
I'll tell you more things tomorrow.

Monday, October 24th

The weather was cold and cloudy all the morning and the sun has shone a bit, in the afternoon. Great!
My School and my teachers.

In the morning, we have been doing many activities as to introduce ourselves (Pictionary activity, Ice-Breakers activity and, do you know who he/she is activity).
Later I have written about several questions during 10 minutes and we have discussed about them.
We have talked about different sentences about Cork (T/F) and we have bet fictitiously 200€. And my group has earned 340€.
Did you know Ireland has 4 provinces? Connaught, Munster, Leinster and Ulster. I didn't.
Finally, we have worked in groups walking around the class and asking a question, which were placed on the walls of the classroom all the time. We had to look for the correct answer in the newspaper.
In the afternoon, we have been discovering Cork. There were 3 routes. My route was University College Cork (UCC). Our Teacher has given us some questions about this University and we have been finding them out. It has taken us two hours. We have taken many photos and tomorrow, we will report about our route with a power point.

Cork discovery (ucc)

I met with "Los Indignados" of Ireland


Oh, I forgot it! We have found The Indignants in Cork. Click on the photo.

ARRIVAL

Today is 23rd, October. I've just landed in Cork Airport at 13'25, so I´m in Cork!

At present, the weather is awful: windy, and, of coures, it's raining cats and dogs.
My Bedroom: