Teachers' Zone 17

Dear Teachers,

So- this is it, as the song goes „ another year over, the new one’s just begun”. It has been a long year, full of unpredictable  action twists, ups and downs. One thing has remained the same:  no matter what, we  want all the best for our students and our career development.       Today, while planning my next week English lessons I would like to suggest some ways of using New Year-related topics.

So, to start with I suggest spending some time reflection on the year 2021. There ar emany questions we can ask.What has happened? What have we managed to  achieve? What has been our great success? How shall we remember the 2021? I guess it is very important at this stage to focus on  postive aspects and highlight how important it is to appreciate all the little things that we have experienced since January. We could also invite students to share their hopes and ambitions for 2022, stressing how powerful it is to believe in the power of dreams and magic. It is  a great moment to stop for a while, both for us and our students, and think what dreams actually mean to us, what it takes to turn them into reality, how much we want it to become more realistic and tangible. After all, so many great things in the world started with just a crazy idea someone could think of. The next question that could be  asked now is     „ May your dreams come true- what is the meaning of that?”. The truth is- do we ourselves realize that  quite a lot depends on us?  If we have time, we can prepare a very short introduction convincing students that it is worth dreaming and it is even better to make dreams come true, that so much  is up to  us and our determination to make it actually happen. The following article  https://horyzontyanglistyki.pl/artykul/vision-boards-czyli-noworoczne-mapy-marzen-na-lekcji-angielskiego  provides us with a number of useful tips how to use canva, picmonkey,dreamltalive, visuapp or mindmovies to prepare a virtual vision board or so-called Dream Map. We can also  feel tempted  enough to bring a pile of brochures,, magazines, newspapers, etc. and together with our students cut out and stick the chosen images to a piece of paper. Wasn’t it Walt Disney who said „ If you can dream it, you can do it”? It may sound lofty but somehow I personally strongly believe in its efficiency. I do not mind being called a dreamer.

 We can also discuss New Year’s Eve traditions in various places in the world.  The British one are greatly presented in the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yebaRqZGPA  whereas  the ones in totally different cultures here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SwFmMHEV_c  .  Watching  videos like these ones are a great listening exercise that can be followed up by a discussion on similarities and differences related to customs in our country. It can  contribute to raising students’ awareness as well- those are great materials to illustrate how essential it is to remain open and tolerant towards all the people.

Before I finish let me thank you for the last 12 months- I have really enjoyed submitting the texts that hopefully provided  you with a few ideas for your lessons.

And here it is to 2022- hopefully great, adventurous, happy. And may all  your dreams come true!

See you in January!

Katarzyna Nowak