Estonian teachers on strike

Happy Birthday Estonia!

Google celebrated with all of the Estonians the 94th anniversary of our small state.
The independence was declared on 24th of February 1918, but the real independence was won only after being at war for 2 years and the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and Estonia on Feb2 in 1920.

The Estonian television channel always broadcasts the speech of the President as well as the formal reception that everybody  in Estonia calls: "the Parade of the Penguins".So, everybody in Estonia spends about two or more hours in the evening being envious and criticizing the clothes of the ladies and gentlemen  having been invited to the reception.
And there will be another week when we can read about it all in the local magazines and newspapers.
However, we are happy and wish:
Happy Birthday Estonia!

Let's hope there won't be any invasion until the end of the world...

How do we learn?

We learn from our mistakes and failures.

I love winter!

Although we have -25 to -35 degrees Celcius temperatures in Estonia... I LOVE WINTER! I love the fire in the stove. The sound the wood makes when it burns. The Snow covering everything. The sound of snow below your feet when it's really cold. I love winter!

Conditionals

I've been thinking that one of the ways I've learned languages is through music. So I'm compiling a page where people could listen to songs making use of conditionals types 0-3. Check for yourself and suggest other songs!

Free Rice Campaign

Make use of the games and also help end world hunger!

American Literature syllabus

I have been really busy at school and new chores and obligations pile up continuously.

I've been working on the syllabus of American Literature course (which actually focuses on the literature of the USA). The title of the course is deliberately broad :)

The course itself consists only of 35 lessons, so you can imagine, I cannot really introduce the whole mountain of good literature that has sprouted from the United States which is a great pity.

I would really like somebody to comment on what I've put together this far and maybe help me make this course a bit better for next year. It's a work in progress. We have had about a third of the lessons thus far and I've only been able to cover SO LITTLE. I feel overwhelmed.
They do have to read one book and make a presentation - so that will be about 3-4 lessons as well.

The address is here: http://iamkirjandus.pbworks.com/w/page/49659057/IAMcourse12
Feel free to use the materials that are useful and give me advice on the ones that need improvement.

Happy New Year!

I hope the next year will bring you all lots of love and pleasant surprises and calm and happy evenings with your family and exciting moments and much much more!

I'm really thankful for the year 2011 because I got to know so many wonderful people and experienced so many new things.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Show 2011

I'm so proud that we managed to pull off another great event - it was the 20th time our school celebrated Christmas with a show and 4th time when we had the Christmas Show on the theatre stage of our town! 

I think the show is improving with every year and it's quite a masterpiece already.

This year the topic was nations and nationalities or UNITY IN DIVERSITY. 

Every class was given a country - it was like lottery. 

Then they had to brainstorm, investigate and write a script. So all the short plays or shows were original pieces of work by the students. All in all, 15 classes of students participated (9th-12th grade) - which is about 450 students in all. Other classes helped to organise, host and record the show. 

To me it seems that this show really helps to create friendships and change  the relationships within the classes as well as show how wonderful their other schoolmates are. A lot of alumni came to see the show as well as many parents. I'm so happy that we managed to have another wonderful show and just to give you another glimpse I'll post another video from last year featuring our national hero whom we also talked about in Boone - KALEVIPOEG. Some sentences in that clip are in Estonian but all in all you'll get the point I hope.

AND I'd like to wish you all wonderful holidays, Merry Christmas!!

A news commentary about our show.

Christmas Show 2010

Here's just a sample of what the students do in our school every year.
In this video there is a class to whom I teach British-American literature. They were 10B last year.

Enjoy!

Literature circles @ SCH

It's been hectic time at school recently because the Christmas holiday is approaching and everything needs to be done before it begins...
I attended a course by Tiger Leap Foundation about formative assessment (rubrics and portfolios etc) and I can say that I got some really good ideas and links from there. But I'll talk about that sometime soon.

Today, I actually wanted to say a few words about the Literature Circles. You probably remember the lesson we had not really prepared for in Boone and therefore couldn't try out how it would work. At that time we were supposed to learn about the Literature Circles...
Well, I did try it now.

One of the lesson plans I submitted to IREX was the one about "My Papa's Waltz" - a literature lesson. We read the poem, we listened to an interpretation (a song) by a young guy on Youtube and then I gave them all numbers from 1-5 (they asked whether these are the grades for that lesson - haha!). All 1's, 2's etc. had to form a group together - so I got about 6 groups. They had to start distributing roles and working on the poem together and the homework was to work on their role.
Literary circle roles - I gave them this page to help them decide their roles and remember what they had to do.

DISCUSSION LEADERS working hard

Next lesson: I gave the orginal groups some time to work together (about 5-7 min) and then grouped them according to their roles (illustrator, messenger etc.).

These are the CONNECTORS

 They had once again about 7-10 minutes to decide on what they are going to talk about (with the help of some discussion questions).

 

The WORD WIZARDS

The work of the illustrators was OK for the first try I guess - you can see it here. At least we had something to discuss.

It seemed that we did have more fun doing that than any lecture could have provided. They are used to me lecturing about literature. Now they had to be involved. I'll have to check how much they know afterwards but it still felt good to do something new. 

The students are NOT that different from the US students - so it can be done! They might need a bit more training as to group work and sharing responsibilities and so on but IT CAN BE DONE.

The timing in my lesson plan was seriously OFF - I expected it to be ready in 2x45 minutes but it will take me twice as long with my students.

Next time I'm going to talk about the Christmas Show that we are preparing for. Fun and stressful time...

Where I'm from

I promised to share some of the poems my students wrote. Actually I made both my 12th-graders and the 10th-graders write their own Where I'm from poems. This year I have two groups of seniors and I teach a writing course in the 10th grade where I've got three groups. All in all, now I have 83 poems :D Some of them are really good, some of them very simple but still nice. I thought I could just pick out some of the lines that I personally like a lot.

Images shared by the 10th-graders
I'm from a place where winters are cold and sometimes lonely,
I'm from a place where I can see millions of stars in the sky...
I'm from a humble home, from candles that stand on the windowsill,
I'm from big dreams, decent manners and from the traditions of my family...
I'm not from a place of emotional flow,
but more from a place where nothing will show...
I'm from the land where the sun came to rest and the Vikings ruled with steel and shields,
I'm from the land where blood was spilled for religious beliefs...
I'm from hiding and not knowing your feelings,
I'm from falling, despite it trying...
I'm from dirty roads and endless fields
where everything is grey and dreary...
I'm from a place where you can actually see your own breath in winter and you need to think
how to go to school because there are piles of snow...
I am from a family that was a long time ago ONE whole
but now has fallen into TWO separate parts.
I'm from my friends whose sentences I can finish,
from the closest people who don't know how much they mean to me...

Ideas by the 12th-graders
I am from the sour apples and the worm-eaten raspberries,
I am from the Internet, since our coverage is excellent.
I am from the church of logic, the religion of reason,
one nation under science...
I'm from where nobody talks with passion and keeps to oneself;
I'm from the potato salad we have on every birthday;
I'm from the people who have children way too early and then divorce.
I'm from gulps of emptiness and pretended warmth;
I'm from yearning to go anywhere else in the world...
I'm from a place where everything isn't perfect.
It's a place where are beautiful women, perfect ones, better than the rest.
It's a place where everybody is free and can do whatever they like
but you mustn't forget that things you do have consequences...

It's Sunday afternoon and there are so many work-related things I should do... But I just don't feel like it :( Although it's just 3 pm here, it's already getting dark and this makes me feel even worse.

I miss summer and sunshine and millions of other things... and people...

Ideas

So, I had this idea at some point in the US or maybe even before but in Boone, NC I had more time to think (in Estonia I only have to work).
Well, the idea was to have the students think about what they would like to learn and then they should search for a "how-to" video on the topic, post it on wiki and try to do the same thing and introduce it in class.
I chose my technology class as guinea-pigs for this "great" idea.
Of course, I didn't realise how much fun has been made of all the absolutely stupid how-to videos on the web...
But some of the people from that class pointed it out to me.

Viral Video FILM School

MAKES FUN OF THE HOW-TO VIDEOS
Don't be afraid of the girl in apron - it's not that bad :)

This guy for example makes fun of the how-to stuff

When you watch it - start at about 2:58

(and thanks, Pablo, for showing him to me in Boone - he's hilarious)

You might start to think that this is a really stupid idea to use how-to videos in your English class BUT actually we did have a lot of fun and they had to listen to the video and watch it carefully in order to come up with anything.

In addition to these (a box, a crane, a ninja star weapon made of paper [English reading text], pencil crossbow and a Noah's Arc) there was a guy who learned to draw Bart Simpson, a girl who learned to make Lady Gaga hairdo to her little sister, one boy who learned how to tie his tie properly and a guy who gave me a rose made out of a napkin (a useful thing if you are out on a date with no money). All in all, I enjoyed it. 

And with a more motivated class the procedure might have been:

1. Think about what you would like to know about, what would you like to learn how to make (can be food, hairdo, origami, card trick - anything you are interested in) - I showed them the crocheted flower and a brochure made of A4 paper that I had learned to make.
2. Find a how-to video that will teach it to you.
3. Post the video to a wiki (Mahara :D or whatever common web-environment that you could be using)
4. Describe your reasons why you want to learn how to do this thing
5. Learn how to do it
6. Show the results (either pictures, videos or real thing in classroom) to the classmates
7. Tell them if it's difficult and how you feel now that you can do it.

The list is my ideal lesson. At least I took some small steps forward and tried something like that for a change. It helps if you have a topic of HOBBIES or FREE-TIME activities at the same time - so you wouldn't feel that you're wasting precious language lesson time :)

Snow... sleet... rain... elves... Spain

The weather here in Estonia is just crazy! In the morning when I woke up at 6.19 am, I was pleasantly surprised as it was snowing and everything was white.

Karel (my little one) was really happy to see the snow. He found a small chocolate bar from the slipper he had placed on the windowsill for elves to visit.
While eating the chocolate, he said, "You see, elves made it for me."
"How did they make it?" I asked.
"With their little tools," he claimed :D

The view from our balcony this morning :)

It was really nice to walk to school, I could almost feel Christmas approaching. I had no idea that it would sleet and rain soon and by 5 pm most of the snow would be gone. So now we have streams and ponds instead of roads here :P

The view from my classroom at 11.30 am.

I taught seven classes in a row today. During the 8th class we decorated the Christmas tree in the auditorium and some of the high school students practiced ballroom dances as we have Christmas prom on 21st December. To make things more interesting we're going to have a dance competition between teachers and we will have to dance with last year students. I'm dancing with one of my students and we're going to dance jive :P

The Christmas the students decorated. For some reason we have a pretty small tree this year. But I loved the way the tree smelled :) (I have trouble choosing between American and British spelling here).

Finally, here's a photo of my class. My classroom was really crowded because we had two groups together and my students were talking about their trip to Basque Country.

I'm also going to share a video with you. It shows the trip from the students' point of view and it was made by Nils - one of the students who went to Spain with us. I hope he doesn't mind I'm sharing his video :) Here's the link.

Four Corners Activity in SCH.

I tried the four corners discussion activity today with my 11th-graders. You remember the one where we had labels on the walls: I strongly agree, I agree, I disagree, I strongly disagree, and people had to go to the one they felt described their views.

My classroom

Well, it seems that with students it needs a lot of practice and I need a lot of PATIENCE because Estonian students are not really used to walking around in the classroom, doing groupwork and defending their opinions.

I agree-group

They might even have the necessary language skills but they don't know how to use them.
The four-corners activity requires also controversial or provoking statements. I couldn't come up with any really good ones. I used: People who do exptreme sports are crazy. AND I would allow my daughter to choose whatever extreme sport she wants to go into. (or sth like that)

If you can come up with some more statements like that on the topic of sports or hobbies, I'd be glad to report on how they worked.

A month till Christmas

Today's weather was horrible - wet and windy and gray - but it didn't really bother the people of Estonia. As you've probably noticed, we are used to bad weather and darkness and hardship.
Everybody gathered on the town hall square of Tartu today to light the first candles and celebrate the fact that there is just one month till Christmas and also to the time when the days are becoming longer again.

Tartu Town Hall Square
The statue of Kissing Students on the background

 I had to go to the Town Hall Square because my kid sings in a children's choir and all the choirs of different schools in Tartu gathered together to celebrate this event by singing several Christmas songs.

Pretending it doesn't RAIN!

 Ah, yes. And the things that appear to be like outside blinds of the windows of the Town Hall - they are like a Christmas Calendar - they are going to be "opened" each day to reveal a story by Christmas time.

Mayor of Tartu
Town Hall

The lights

It was really heart-warming and nice to be there among all of these people, listen to the words of the mayor and think about the good things. And most of all - it was really great to see the Christmas lights in the town be lit all at the same time when the Mayor of Tartu had lit a candle.
Here you can see more pics of the same event.

Busy busy busy

For me, November is the time when most of my family and friends have their birthdays. Yesterday morning when I checked Facebook it turned out that five of my friends had their birthday. It was also my mother's birthday, so we drove to my parents' place yesterday after work. AND today my younger son turned four.

We've been back home for two weeks now and I've almost gotten used to the everyday routine again. I haven't got much choice, have I? Luckily, I can escape from the routine once again as tomorrow I'm travelling to Spain. I'm the coordinator of an international Comenius project called The Universe of Youth Culture and we're going to visit our partner school in Vitoria Gasteiz in Basque Country. Our project partners from Turkey will also be there.

That's the logo of our project. I must also add that the project lasts for two years and is funded by the EU as part of Europe’s Lifelong Learning Programme.

We have to be at the airport tomorrow at 5.20 am so I should probably go to sleep but I wanted to write a short entry before going to bed. I hope I'll have some time to share my impressions of Vitoria with you :) Actually, it's my second time there as I visited them last November too.

OK, to finish off, here are two photos I took today. That's our main teachers' lounge. We also have several smaller ones for FL teachers and Science teachers and Maths teachers and so on.

My next entry will be written in Spain. Have a nice weekend y'all.

Ms. Grumpy

View from my window

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you really are not in the mood for anything. The alarm clock sounds wrong and you keep hitting the snooze button. Your kid wakes up and says that she's caught cold and you have to let her stay home. You crawl out from under the duvet to find that it's cold again in the apartment. Opening the blinds in the livingroom you encounter Estonian November in its nastiest form: low gray skies, fog, damp air, grumpy people already late for work.

Then you just have to make a cup of coffee (even if you have no paper cups and Irish Cream) and be thankful that you have to go to work an hour later. 

Another sunrise

Greetings from Jüri. It's getting colder and colder here. Last night it was -5 degrees and this morning when I went to work everything was frozen.

A frozen car in our street. That's why I walk to work every day - getting rid of all the ice would take at least 10 minutes and walking to school takes exactly the same amount of time.

One of the reasons why I like my classroom is the fact that every morning I can see the sunrise. That's the sunrise we had today. I took the picture at 8.20 am. It was really beautiful to see all the pink, purple and yellow shades of color. Unfortunately, the sun disappeared into clouds ten minutes later.

I still miss my other reality... a lot.

Cold days

First flakes of snow in Estonia...

Today was really cold - I'm not used to cold weather at all. Our summer was two months longer this year due to our wonderful days in Boone, NC. So it was really weird to feel so cold. Even the buses had ice inside - on the windows and on the ceiling. But sunrise was stunning. I loved it!

 view from my classroom window at 8am today