Week 46

First, a bit of poetry by Spike Milligan:

Teeth

 

English Teeth, English Teeth!
Shining in the sun
A part of British heritage
Aye, each and every one.

English Teeth, Happy Teeth!
Always having fun
Clamping down on bits of fish
And sausages half done.

English Teeth, HEROES' Teeth!
Hear them click! and clack!
Let's sing a song of praise to them -
Three Cheers for the Brown Grey and Black.

Whilst our bloggers continue blogging, the rest of us are looking at sugar...

6 minute English: The bitter taste of sugar

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/6min/141023_6mineng_sugar.pdf

By the way, here's how to convert a pdf to Word without getting spammed...

Set up a temporary email address here:
https://www.guerrillamail.com/

Then use a free online service like this one:
https://www.pdftoword.com/sv/

Week 43

This week is a gradual winding down before the autumn break... We don't want to work too hard, otherwise the break will come as a shock and everyone will probably get sick.

Social media impact project

One member of our class has decided to take a look at the costs and benefits of being connected 24/7 to one another via smartphones and social media.

I'm posting some links here and will update it as we find new material...






Epipheo. (2013, May 6). What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI

Laird, S. (2012, Sep 6). Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone? [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/09/05/addicted-smartphone/

MySecureCyberspace. (2012, June 12). Think Time: Teens and Social Networks [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWHsiMYSxw

Pflugfelder, E. (2013 Sep 20). Does your Smartphone Make you Smarter? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2mQOus0i7A

The Monthly Video. (2013, May 2). How the internet is rewiring our brains (p1). Nicholas Carr with Gideon Haigh [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dY6V9lcnzg

The Monthly Video. (2013, May 2). How the internet is rewiring our brains (p2). Nicholas Carr with Gideon Haigh [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-KTOLYkmzI

Turkle, S. (2012, February). Connected, but alone? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

Week 42

In the classroom, we're putting the finishing touches to our A-Z of Food and Nutrition.

We're also looking at the issue of Food waste (BBC 6 minute English).

Also, to encourage more talking about a wider range of subjects, we're going to try making a talking topic list in which everyone can suggest a topic and this is sent around the class. Students have to take whatever topic they get and talk about it for 1 minute. We'll write up our topics here: English talking topics

Also, if time allows, we might try out the Blip game...
This is where one person thinks of a verb and everyone else tries to guess what it is (using the word "blip" instead of the verb).

When do you blip?
Where do you blip?
Why do you blip?
How do you blip?
Can you blip someone?
Can you blip something?
Can you blip somewhere?
Do you often blip?
Did you blip yesterday?
Are you blipping now?
Are you going to blip this weekend?
Do you like blipping?
Do you blip with your hands?
If I saw you blipping, would you be embarrassed?

Our bloggers are starting work on more exciting topics - like Saturn, Khan Academy and Animals.

Watch this space!

Week 41

This week, some of us are continuing the food and nutrition theme, making up an alphabet of words related to the topic here:

Food and nutrition alphabet (Google Docs)

For inspiration, try these A-Zs:

http://daa.asn.au/for-the-public/smart-eating-for-you/nutrition-a-z/

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-a-to-z/

 http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-A-Z.aspx

Those in the group who are working on "health threats to Sweden" will get a bit of help and encouragement from me this week...

Patrick was saying he's interested in animal behaviour and biology - maybe more of the group would like to look at this topic. Here's an interesting video to get you started:

de Waal, F. (2011, November). Moral behaviour in animals [Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals

 

The transcript is here: Frans de Waal, Moral behavior in animals

Week 40

This week we're looking at the following TED talk:

As work gets more complex, 6 rules to simplify

Here are the rules:

1) Understand what your people do

2) Reinforce integrators

3) Increase total quantity of power

4) Extend the shadow of the future

5) Increase reciprocity

6) Reward those who cooperate

The thing is, how can you implement these things if you are a boss in a workplace?

Can we implement them in our school?

How can we share these ideas with our fellow students and teachers in Hagaberg?

We're also looking at food and diet with the help of the following:

BBC 6 minute English: Cutting down, eating up

BBC 6 minute English: UK's first healthy pizza

BBC 6 minute English: Dieting

 

Week 39

This week in class we're looking at the following news items:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2014/09/140919_witn_scotland.shtml

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2014/09/140915_witn_cycling.shtml

We're also practising conditional sentences with the help of the following websites:

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/rules/cond.htm (explanation)

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/if.htm (exercises and explanation)

Collaborative presentation on threats to Sweden

During today's lesson, our bloggers are invited to collaborate on this presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VY2LM2DQPh7wYJvVDFL7IKtRTwDAjaoSrvVxDDX5DKI/edit?usp=sharing

Follow the link and start creating!

Autumn term 2014: Blog projects

Autumn term 2014: Blog projects 

Our English class contains a motley collection of students this term!

Some of the students are going to try to create online portfolios of their work using blogs.

beststina.blogspot.se - Stina

damiensenglish.blogspot.se/ - Damien (Dennis)

thingsaremadeofstuff.blogspot.se - Carl

emiliasalminenenglishclass2014.blogspot.com - Emelia

englishlearninghagaberg.blogspot.com - Andreas

The rest have been dipping into BBC Six minute English, listening for detail and discussing what comes up in these programs.

There's a lot of chopping and changing between groups at the beginning of term. It sort of reminds me of this:

English week 19

This week we've started looking at countries and nationalities.

The plan is for everyone to give a 5 - 10 minute presentation on a country of their choice on Monday 19th May.

Please dig out information that you will not find in tourist brochures.

Here are some sources:

CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Travel Advice: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Culture Crossing: http://www.culturecrossing.net/

Here you will find lots of statistics. 

Remember, a statistic is USELESS unless we have something to compare it to. So use Sweden as a benchmark when telling us things like how many people can read and write, how many people die in car accidents, etc.

Happy Planet Index: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/data/

Transparency International - Corruption (by country): http://www.transparency.org/country

World Bank Data: http://data.worldbank.org/country

index Mundi - a compilation of data from different sources: http://www.indexmundi.com/

Your mission

Write 1-2 sides of A4 about your chosen country - to be emailed to me by 18th May.

Present your country to the class on Monday 19th May - preferably with music and pictures!

Marknadsföring

Denna veckan börjar våra Fritidsledare 2 klass en kort kurs i marknadsföring...

Här är några filmer som vi ska diskutera:

Lockwood, A. (2011) Amy Lockwood: Selling condoms in the Congo [video file] retrieved from: www.ted.com/talks/amy_lockwood_selling_condoms_in_the_congo

Godin, S. (2009) Seth Godin: The tribes we lead [video file] retrieved from: www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead

Cobley, D. (2010) Dan Cobley: What physics taught me about marketing [video file] retrieved from: www.ted.com/talks/dan_cobley_what_physics_taught_me_about_marketing

Godin, S. (2003) Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread [video file] retrieved from: www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread

Övning

Gå in på en hemsida av en organisation som har en liknande verksamhet som du kan
tänka jobba med.

Hur ser deras marknadsföring ut?

Målgrupp(er)?

Innehåll  - vad ger de för information?

Vad är bra/dåligt ur marknadsföringssynpunkt?

Vilka medier skulle de behöva komplettera sin marknadsföring med?

Hur ska den se ut?
(innehåll, målgrupp, utförande)

Dags att berätta vad du tycker om Hagabergs folkhögskola!

www.hagaberg.fhsk.se/kvalitet

Enkäten är öppen tills måndag 12 maj.

English week 18 - English in a Swedish environment

Last Wednesday, some of the students went looking for English words in Södertälje. This is what they found...

Samaher and Wisam walked into Södertälje and saw all this...

American-Italian: Is that a good combination?

There can be only...

Some reading for the summer holidays.

''

What you wear on your feet:

Well-dressed British men love this Swedish shop that includes British clothes sizes (inches) on their labels.

"Suit up" is a very macho phrase. Shame the rest of the sign is in Swedish. Lovely light and reflections in this picture...

A bit like "pit stop":

Lovely soft focus shot to match those soft, gentle soaps and creams: 

Registered in the Bahamas and sailing in Södertälje:

Try speaking English in this shop:

This is English as long as you pronounce the letters as, /eɪ/, /bi/, /si/

Meanwhile, Sandra, Cecilia and Lizette walked from Hagaberg to the nearest Konsum and spotted the following. ..

"Group" is so much cooler than "grupp"

Swedes really like adding "man" to verbs, don't they!

English week 18 - things of beauty

Here are photos that students took last Wednesday when I sent them out to record interesting things....

Streetlamp in Södertälje
This is a very beautiful lamp, it's located at the Södertälje Square, right outside the old "guildhall" (Rådhuset). I've seen 2 of these lamps - maybe there are a few more? (Siri)

Memento mori
This is on the town church wall, (St Ragnhild's Church) in Södertälje. I like these skulls and all the decorations around. It's powerful but in a subtle way. Memento Mori is Latin for remember that you will die or "remember your mortality". The church is pretty old (oldest parts are may be 800 years old) and have survived city fires including one big city fire in 1850.  (Siri)

Kungsträdgården in Stockholm.
I just had to take the chance to take a few shots of the flowers there - too bad it was dusk.  (Siri)

More Crime stuff

In the UK there is a sentencing guide to help judges decide what punishment to give to a person convicted of a crime.

Crown Prosecution Service: Sentencing Manual

It's pretty advanced, so not suitable for everyone!

Many criminal offences are punished by a fine.

For example, damaging property (e.g. smashing things up, breaking windows and painting graffiti) can get you punished by a "level 4" fine:

Level 1 - £200
Level 2 - £500
Level 3 - £1,000
Level 4 - £2,500 (or 3 months imprisonment)
Level 5 - £5,000 (or 6 months imprisonment)

Source: http://www.cans.org.uk/notes/administration-of-justice/treatment-of-offenders/52-maximum-fines-the-a-standard-scalea


Here you can find some easier to understand guides to how the law works in the UK:
Courts, sentencing and tribunals

This is particularly interesting: How sentences are worked out

English week 12-13

Our topic right now is CRIME.

I've put all the material we've been working on in Twinspace (Project activities > Documents).

Here is the exercise we're working on right now...

Police & Crime in popular culture

The aim of this exercise is to get a broad picture of how police and crime are portrayed in mass media.

Think of a song, film, TV series, book (including comic books) or newspaper/website that deals with police and crime.

Post examples in Twinspace (Project activities > Police and Crime) that you want to talk about in class - you can write in Twinspace as well, but that's optional.

In class, we'll look together at what you've posted and you can tell us more.

1) Why did you choose this material?

2) Give a little bit of background information about the material.

3) What does your material say about crime/police?

4) How do you feel about what it says?
For example:

• is it realistic?
• is it positive/negative/neutral?
• what perspective on police/crime does it take?
• do you share this perspective?
• can people learn anything from it?

So login to Twinspace and get posting!

English week 10

This week we're completing our work on adverts by presenting them to the class and (if time allows!) starting our new study of law, crime and the police.

Here are the adverts we're looking at:

Firaz - Armani perfume for men

Gustav- ICA

 

 

Justina - B&Q - a British DIY chain 

 

Lova - Libero nappies

  Maria - L'Oréal mascara

Milo - Quick loans

Norea & Anette - Dolce & Gabbana

Polos & Anette - Volvo cars

Robab - Pampers nappies

Samaher - Rimmel nail polish

Siri - Rom (chocolate bar)

 

Timmy - Moose park

Tugba - Levis jeans

 Wisam - Camel cigarettes

English week 8

This week we're finishing off our work on adverts in Twinspace.

See English week 4 for instructions.

After our half term break ("sportlov") we shall present our adverts for the class.

The idea is just to talk for 2 minutes about your chosen advert and then take some questions from the group.

You can use the same ad that you wrote about in Twinspace or (if you like) take a totally different ad.

If the advert is a film, then you can show us the film and then talk for 2 minutes.

What you talk about is entirely up to you - it could be the ad itself or the product or other things that you have been thinking about in relation to this project.

The quickest and easiest way to do your presentation is as a MS Word (or similar) document.

Go to Arkiv > Utskriftsformat and choose "Liggande" as your page layout.

You can then use the "Print screen" key to take pictures of your film and paste them into your document.

Finally, turn your document into a PDF.

English week 5

Steven Seagal sadly cannot make it to Monday's
Aktivitetstorg but sends his best wishes.

This week we're doing all sorts of different stuff.

From the outside, it looks chaotic but if you look very closely, you'll see that it's actually very highly organised and disciplined.

Aktivitetstorg

A-bas students have an "aktivitetstorg" to prepare for Monday 3rd February, so they've got to pull out all the stops for that. If anyone can think of how to translate "aktivitetstorg" to English, they deserve a medal.

Artist's impression of student
in English class at Hagaberg.

Appearance

Meanwhile everyone else is slogging their way through vocabulary exercises about physical appearance. Actually, it's a very rewarding activity - I have never seen such a contented, happy looking bunch of students.

Advertisements

A rare window of opportunity opens on Wednesday - the computer room is free! This will allow students who are not busy with their "Activity square" preparations or their appearance vocabulary to continue analysing adverts.

Have a good week!

English week 4

This week we're analysing advertisements.

There are two aims with this activity.

1) We learn a lot of English to do with feelings, desires and products.
2) We learn about how advertising works and how it affects us.

I posted the following exercise in Twinspace so our partners in Sophie-Scholl-Schule, Leutkirch, Germany can see what we're doing and maybe even join in.

The activity is partly inspired by this document:  Lopez, Antonio. "Advertising Analysis". Accessed 19 January 2014. http://www.medialiteracy.net/pdfs/hooks.pdf

---

Here are the questions I posted in our Twinspace under "Choose an advert..." - post your adverts and answers there!

First of all, choose an advert - not just any ad but one that catches your attention.

1) What product is being advertised?

2) Describe the setting of the advert - all the background details.

3) Describe any people you see in the advert.

4) What hooks does the advert use to make you interested in the product?

5) Who do you think the advert is aimed at?

6) What feelings do you experience when you see this advert?

7) Add any final thoughts about this advert and the product it advertises.

8) Look at someboday else's advert and post some comments on their chosen ad - to see how much our perceptions differ.

---

Next week, it would be really nice to present your adverts to the class and discuss each one - think about it!

English week 3

This week we're trying a different way of working - and trying to look on the bright side of life with the help of material from BBC Learning English.

Here is the material: How to...Point out the positive side of a situation

And here's where it came from: Learning English - How to....

Äta Sova Dö

Första dagen med A-ledare!
Tillsammans med A-bas ska vi titta på en film som klarar "Bechdeltestet" - Äta sova dö.


















Raša heter huvudpersonen - en 20 års kvinna som bor med sin pappa och som blir av sitt jobb.

Filmen vaknar många frågor och under kommande veckan ska fokusera på några ord.

Vad betyder följande ord, vad betyder inte dem.
Hur viktigt är dem och vad betyder ord för andra människor?

Hopp

Solidaritet

Trygghet

Arbete...

Introduktionsdag - Jag på Hagaberg

Idag ska vi jobbar med en viktig fråga: Hur skapar vi en bra skola?
Efter en gemensam introduktion ska vi jobba i små grupper med följande utgångspunkter:

Jag är här för att…

Jag behöver….

Jag kan bidra med…

Jag önskar att mina lärare…

Jag önskar att mina klasskamrater…

Allt som vi skriver lägga vi upp i våra klassrum och vi rita en sammanfattning i form av ett hus och sen ska vi gå titta på varandras hus.

Några resurser som kanske stimulera diskussionen...

Derek Shivers: håll dina mål för dig själv (3:16) - bra med referens till "Jag är här för att..."!

Ramsey Musallam: 3 regler för att få lärande att gnistra (6:30) - 

Faith Jegede: Vad jag har lärt mig av mina autistiska bröder (5:20)