My first day of school

A few days ago students built up a mind map to focus on the main points about the following topic
MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
These are three of the assignement.
These students chose to talk about their first day in their high school  (for some of them it was last year)....

1)On my first day of school I got up at seven.

I was very happy and I wanted to meet new friends.

I wore jeans and a shirt and I went to school by myself

I didn’t take too long to arrive at school.

In a few minutes I was there.

Some ex-classmates of mine were with me in the same classroom and luckily I wasn’t alone.

I met new older students than me;in the classroom I had a deskmate of my age.

I knew him but one month later he left this school.

In the break I ate nothing but I talked with my new classmates and took part in their conversations.

Then, when the break finished I knew other teachers.

At first sight, I understood teachers in this school were able to teach and they were very good.

We are a big class.

On the first day there weren’t enough desks for all and so we moved out.

The first day was fun and it was a very important experience.

2)On my first day of school I wore a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers.

My father drove me to school.

I was very happy because I liked that a new experience had already started.

I didn’t know many new students, instead I knew my deskmate.

During the break I ate a sandwich and I visited the canteen, talked to my friends a lot and we exchanged views about the school.

 The teachers explained to us that we should study hard to pass the school year.

In the end it was a nice and quiet day.

3)I remember that on my first day of school I wore a pair of baggy jeans and a yellow t-shirt.

I went to school with my sister and ny cousin on my father’s car.

I was happy,very happy and a little nervous because I didn’t know all my classmates and now one of them is my best friend

My deskmate is shy and very nice.

Getting to know my teachers made me nervous and frightened because I had never seen them before.

During the break I went to the canteen and I ate a ham sandwich.

We studied immediately.

I made friends with my new classmates, we talked about our new teachers.

It was one beautiful first day of school.

Instead these students chose to talk  about their first day ....(this year)

My first day of school  was strange.
Yesterday I was strange and a little bit nervous because some teachers  have changed and I don't know the new ones.
I went to school on foot at half past eight and on the first hour we met the Italian teacher.
She's one of my favourite teachers because I like studying literature.
On the second hour we met the Eglish teacher and we revised some topics and on the third hour we did the same with the French teacher.
On the last hour we met for the first time our new  teacher of Spanish and we had fun.
We talked about the new year, about the subjects , about the new classmates. We have six new classmates!

This year my first day of school was happy because I met all the classmates I didn't see during the summer.
The awakening was shocking, because for three months I woke up in the late morning.
On the bus there were a lot of people that this year have started high school.
There are also new people in my class.I hope to make friends with them.
We met new teachers and we were sad because some of the  teachers we had last year have changed school.
However, it was a beautiful day and I hope that the next days will be good like this one.

These are some of the letters my students in the second class wrote me about the following topic"My promises and expectations for this school year"




1)   Dear teacher
I hope that you spent a good holiday and I'm happy to start a new school year with you.
My name is XXXXX, I live in XXXXX and I'm a student.
I want to learn as much as I can because I like studying the English language and culture.
I want to improve my English, above all I want to speak fluently and to write in a correct way.
I would like to learn new expressions and to use them when I need.
I want to start this year in the best way possible.
I want to do homework every time and I want to be accurate.
I know it's important to work hard for the written tests and also for the oral tests. I need to study grammar with attention and do a lot of exercises.
I know I can't use my mobile phone during the lessons or the tests and I'm happy to have the possibility(the opportunity is better) to learn English very well because foreign languages are very important nowadays.
Thank you for your competence
XXXXX

2)  Dear teacher
Another school year has started. I hope this year will be the same as the last one.
I mean, as the last one I'll come on time and Ill always do my homework. As a student I'll try to find time to study English EVERYDAY.
I'll not use my phone during the lessons.
You always get me to improve and study English.
You always respect us.
You like your job and this is of great importance.
From you I expect that you'll always try to give us clear instructions and you'll try to dedicate enough class time to speaking,listening and pronunciation work.
You are an example to follow!

3)Dear teacher
It's September and this year I want to learn a lot and I want to learn to speak English fluently.
so to spend a great year, I promise I'll do my homework.
I'll speak English whenever I can, I'll show respect and care for everyone. I'll be honest, I'll try to get good marks and I won't use my mobile phone during the lessons.
I have big expectations for me and for my classmates.
I hope we'll spend this year quietly and we all will pass in the third class.

4) Dear teacher
My summer was great because I had fun with my friends.
I'm happy that school has started again.
this is the second year for me.
I'll study very much and I'll do my homework every day.
I'll respect my teachers and I'll behave properly.
I'll try to improve my English by speaking it with my classmates and my teacher.
I won't use my mobile to send messages during the lessons and I won't cheat during written tests.

5)Dear teacher
I'm writing this letter to talk to you about  the way I hope we will study English this year.
I'd like to use the method we used last year: learn through the computer, have online lessons, watch videos and listen to English songs.
I hope that we will go to see a play in English or a movie.
I'm sure that like last year you'll teach us new words and grammar rules.
My goal is to learn to speak English and I hope that you'll help me get this goal
Best regardsXXXXXX

ICEBREAKER First lesson

An activity which always works with students you don't know.
Also this year my students in the first class have done the following activity.
I give them a mind map with some words about me.
The words are the answers I could give them if they ask me the "right question".

                                                             YOUR ENGLISH TEACHER 

1994

                                                                                                                           2000

                                 two

                                                                                                   about 20 years ago

a cup of coffee and some biscuits

                                                                        The USA

                                                     

reading, travelling, visiting new places

                                       

                                                 

                                            doing the housework

As homework they'll do the same activity about themselves.
I'll choose some students(two or three) and the classmates will guess the questions.

It's a good way to practise easy questions

This is a film review written by a student of one of my colleagues.

At the end of the school she sent me that film review, asking me to publish it.

I'm doing now and I'm pleased to do that.

This is the assignment:

An introduction with the title, year, genre, director and main actors.

A short summary of the plot, without revealing too much about specific scenes, do not tell the ending.

A description of the characters, both physical and psychological. Write how realistic/interesting the actors’ portrayal was.

A conclusion which summarizes the best and worst qualities of the film, its message and theme.

The film is " Silver linings playbook" an American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by David O. Russell, adapted from the novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. 

This is what the student wrote about the film.

Talking about my favourite film is very hard for me, mainly because I don’t have one. There are a lot of films that make me feel very emotional, but today I want to tell you about this brilliant film: "Silver linings playbook"

It was made in 2013, if I’m not wrong, but I can’t remember who directed it. In this film starred well-known actors, such as Robert  De Niro,  Bradley Cooper and the amazing Jennifer Lawrence, she also won the Oscar because of this film and she is my favourite actress as well.

This film deals with a lot of difficult themes, managing to keep it light and pleasant to watch though. The chief character is affected by bipolar disorder and has to redefine his life. Ha has a tottering relationship with his father (Robert De Niro) and a morbid one with his mom. He is obsessed with his ex-wife but can’t get close to her, because of his restraining order. Later on he meets a young widow that seems to understand him, so they become friends. After a few weeks they understand they’re in love and take care of each other’s illnesses. The plot is much more complicated than that and it plays a lot with details, this is probably one of the best features of the whole film.

The actors did a great job creating the characters’ personalities, giving them authenticity and passion. I would recommend this to anyone, because it’s funny, smooth and enthralling, yet very moving.

The title points out the goal of this film, because the protagonist slowly learns to live his life as much as he can, looking for the silver lining.

Welcome
It's school time again.
Here's a letter this year I've written for my students.

Dear Students of  XXXXXXXXXXXXX

It’s school time again!

I hope that your summer was happy, filled with many positive experiences and special memories.

My name is  XXXXXX and I’m looking forward to working with you this school year. I live in XXXXXXX and I ‘ve been teaching English in this Liceo for more than ten years.

I like teaching English very much and every day it’s a challenge for me. I think that a teacher can learn lots of things from his/her students and every school year, when it finishes, I realize I’ve learnt  so much together with my students. I know you matter to your family and to your friends. You also matter to me!

The most important thing for me is to help you improve English, so that you can speak more fluently, you can understand English better and better, you can write expressing your opinions and ideas more and more correctly using the right words and expressions.

I know we will have a successful and productive school year.

I’m sure you’ll learn a lot this year.

Now please note the following information and rules.
Homework will be given every lesson. Some of the activities will be completed on loose-leaf paper, because I’ll take them home so that I can check them.  So a “homework folder” will be used. Homework is expected to be completed and handed it on time. My policy is to mark any homework handed in after the due date as late ( that is “impreparato” on the register-on line). I’ll check homework almost every lesson. Some of the activities done as homework could be published on my blog https://englishmajorana.blogspot.it/

You will have two written tests in the first “quadrimestre” and three written tests in the second “ quadrimestre”.  Every activity or exercise gets a score. All the scores will be added together so that they may get the maximum total sum that is 100, which is equal to mark 10.

You will have two or three oral tests per “quadrimestre”. The evaluation will be given on the basis of an evaluation grid, which is common to all first classes. Of course, pronunciation, accuracy in grammar and in the choice of words, fluency and text organization will be highly regarded when giving the final mark

One of my aims is to make classroom instruction as interesting as possible and look for new and different ways of presenting materials. In my classroom, I will incorporate many different and varied tools to maximize your learning potential, including songs, pairwork, role-plays, videos on youtube, power point presentations, mind maps created on the LIM, webquests  and even your mobiles  may be useful as well as the traditional books and paper (of course!)

In addition, I’ll try to devote enough class time to speaking, listening and pronunciation work.

I expect you not to use mobile phones during English classes, not to lose the photocopies I give them, not to take school rules and English lightly, not to cheat during written class tests

I promise I’ll try to involve you all, to be fair, to take the same action with those who misbehave, to see things from your perspective….I’ll try to teach you as well as I can

Best of luck

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