BLACK FRIDAY

I'm sure you're reading a lot about Black Friday sales everywhere. Adverts, promotions, discounts, sales... all of them under the name of Black Friday. Spanish stores have been announcing this promotional day for weeks, Facebook or twitter accounts remind us of the important day and television and radio ads are making sure none of us forget that this weekend is the perfect weekend to save money in our purchases. 

But..what is BLACK FRIDAY? Where does this come from? Whose tradition is this? What are its origins? 

As most of you may know, the last Thursday of November, American people celebrate THANKSGIVING. In Thanksgiving, American people commemorate all the things pilgrims had when they arrived to New England. Read more information here:  Thanksgiving post 

Considering this special night in the States, the following day has to be special too and that is why the next day (Friday) is a special Friday called BLACK FRIDAY. Why is it special? It's considered the beginning of the Christmas season and  many stores sell products with big discounts and great offers. People spend that day shopping and spending  time with their families or friends. It is not an official holiday but in some states citizens have Thanksgiving (Thursday) day and Black Friday off. 

WHY BLACK? Why did they call it Black? There are many theories. At first it was believed that it refered to the sale of slaves in America . However, that was not true. One theory was that it came from the "black" traffic and pedestrian congestion that usually took place that day. Other theory and the most common one was that retailers were at a financial loss from January to November (in the red) and that Friday after Thanksgiving was the point in which retailers started to make profit again and their finances were IN THE BLACK again. 

SPEAKING ACTIVITY WITH DUTCH STUDENTS

Last week, I organised a speaking activity with some students from Holland and my dear students here in Valencia. The Ducth students were in Valencia because they had come to study Spanish in ROUTE 66, a language academy located in the city centre of Valencia. Rene, the coordinator of these programs contacted me and we organised and planned the activity. ROUTE 66 IDIOMAS

1) Introductions 

We gathered together in our conference room at the school. I talked to the students a little bit about our school, our studies and about the importance of the English language for our students. Then, one of the teachers of the foreign group told us about their country and culture. Some interesting things were: They were from Eindhoven although Amsterdam is the most popular city in Holland, they have a monarchy they are quite proud of, their famous cookies are called "stroopwafel" (we tried them later), Phillips has its origins there...etc. 

                                                     

                                               

2) Speaking activity 

My students and the Dutch students sat down in groups all together and they were given a card with lots of questions to get to know each other. They talked in Spanish and English for a while about their hobbies, their cities, festivals, food...etc. It was interesting to see how my students struggled to communicate and used structures and vocabulary we had been studying. 

3) GAME

Finally , we played a game! The groups were given two ingredients: "nubes" (sweets) and spaghetti. With these two ingredients, they had to build the tallest tower. They had half an hour to do it, and the winner got a present, a delicious present: chocolates! 

My students had a great time! Some of them exchanged telephone numbers, emails or facebook accounts which is great since they will be using English to communicate outside class. They really enjoyed the activity and I hope we can do it again soon. 

CONGRESO ACEICOVA- VALENCIA - INTERESTING FEEDBACK FOR TEACHERS

Yesterday I attended the first congress held in Valencia and organised by FECEI/ ACEICOVA (Asociación Centros de Enseñanza de Idiomas de la CV) ACEICOVA WEB . I was told about this congress by my beloved friend  Maria Adsuara Martínez, teacher at University of Jaume I (UJI Castellón) and English teacher at TEC IDIOMAS TEC IDIOMAS

 Attending conferences is a must for teachers who want to innovate , change or improve their way of teaching. For this reason, I consider that it is a good idea to share what I learnt yesterday with you. 

TALK 1: THINKING BEYOND EXAMS- Guy Brook-Hart 

The main objective of this talk was to reflect on the power of exams these days. It is true that we as teachers sometimes focus on the final exams and if our students pass these exams, we are happy with our job. However, not everything is passing an exam. We should take advantage of the texts, the recordings, the grammar... to introduce different types of activitities that can also be assessed: essays, writings, speaking activities, role-plays...etc. With this, the process of learning is more complete. 

TALK 2: CHANGING THE MAP OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR- Lindsay Clanfield. 

I think this talk was very interesting because it was about how grammar is changing little by little. Whereas the Spanish is "controlled" and updated by the RAE, English does not have any "institution" that "controls" the language. So, what is really wrong? What is grammatically right when we speak? Why are we so obsessed with the idea of teaching the present simple perfectly? A native speaker can make a mistake using the continuous and we understand him/her perfeclty. It even sounds good! There are expressions that we have always taught as wrong and they are starting to be used. What should we do with the fast progress of grammar? Languages are entities that change...why don't we change as well? 

TALK 3: ONCE UPON A TIME. STORYTELLING - Ree Gilllett

Stories are motivating for students. They foster imagination and in my opinion they help our students learn English in context. Mrs Gillett gave use some ideas about how to use stories in class : flashcards, board games, role-plays, theatre scripts..etc. 

TALK 4: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEACHING LEARNING PROCESS- Lucía Carel 

I met Lucia some years ago when we were studying for our competitive exams so I was glad to see her again. I really enjoyed her talk because it was practical and she provided a lot of ideas that can be used in class. She argued that technology must be a part of our classes since it is a part of our lives. Moreover, she talked about the educational uses of FacebooK, Twitter, Tumbler and other social networks. What was useful for me was the list of apps that she showed to us because I believe my students will love them and I can motivate them outside the classroom. Finally, other resources like Moodle, Googledrive....etc have proved to be modern and reliable tools which make of our lessons more innovative and interactive.