Flying in a hot air balloon..wonderful :)

Great way to start the day! Thanks to Disfrutalia y Glomadas :)

Flying a small plane :)

Unforgettable experience flying a plane :)

Thanks to Disfrutalia and Aerohispalis :)

Slovenia - April 2010 - and adventure home....volcano aftermath

Great OTA course with Slovenian teachers and a big 'Hvala' to Suzana for all her help :) HUGE hassle to get back to Spain (night trains, 18 hour bus rides, queues and chaos) but it was an adventure :)

Yemen - April 2010 (Sanaa, Taiz, Aden)

"Shokran" to Nashwan and his team for such an enjoyable time :)

Some links you might like:
- Values lesson plans (from the Australian government)
- Material for character and emotion lesson plans
- Ideas for Learning to Read
- Ideas and activities for emergent readers

Wonderful week in Ukraine (Kiev and Lviv)

WRITING:
Fun and easy activities for Very Young Learners
Writing Games and Activities

Two week tour of Poland

Two week training tour of Poland :) Wonderful!!

Articles on Vocabulary:
Creative Vocabulary Teaching
Helping Students Learn Vocabulary
Vocabulary Boxes in Class

Croatia - February 2010

Great tour around snowy Croatia!

Talks and Workshops 2010

• OUP Kiev (Nov 2010) "Literacy for Little Ones", "Incredibly Easy and Motivating Activities"
  
• Edelvives / CEIP "ANTONIO GARVAYO DINELLI" (Motril) (Nov 2010) - CLIL in the Classroom
• CFIE Miranda de Ebro (Nov 2010) 30 hour CLIL Course
  
• NORTHERN CYPRUS (Sept 2010) Phonics, Whole Learning, Skills Work, CLIL
  
• POLAND (August 2010) Making Digital Sense: Change at your Fingertips
  
• BRAZIL (July 2010) OTA Course Fortaleza, Goiania, Brasilia and Rio
  
• CEP Palma de Mallorca (June 2010) CLIL for ESO and Primary (15 hours)
• CEP Sevilla (Spring 2010) Series of CLIL talks in CEIP Jose Maria del Campo
  
• SLOVENIA (April 2010) "Writing", "Brain Based Learning", "Songs", "Assessment", "Projects"
  
• YEMEN (April 2010) "Reading: Getting Started"; "Teaching the Whole Child"
  
• UKRAINE (March 2010) "Building Blocks for Better Writing"
  
• POLAND (March 2010) "Making Vocabulary Meaningful and Memorable"
  
• CEP Aracena (Feb 2010) "Language and Literacy"; "CLIL"
  
• CROATIA (Split, Osijek, Rijeka, Zagreb, Varazdin) (Feb. 2010) "Bringing the Real World Into the Classroom", "Great Minds Don't Think Alike"
  
• OUP Bilbao, "ICT: Changes in the Classroom" (Jan. 2010)
  
• CEP Cordoba, "Key Competences", "CLIL" (Jan-Feb)
  
• CEP Sevilla, "ICT in the Classroom", "Language and Literacy", "CLIL" (Jan - Feb)
  
• Badajoz/Don Benito/Seville/Jerez - "Making the Most of Stories" (Jan 2010)

CLIL non-fiction readers

OUP have just published some very interesting non-fiction readers for CLIL classes (or as extra reading for English class). The books come with incredible photos, an audio CD and fantastic activity pages. To get copies, contact local OUP reps (Read and Discover series) or look for titles on amazon. My good friend, Robert Quinn wrote some of them :)

Back from Mexico...and straight to the Christmas Race :)

Wonderful 12 day holiday in Mexico. Yesterday I participated in the Christmas Race in Seville...on my stilts :)

Bilingual Education E-Journal

An online journal with articles and information for CLIL teachers (click on the image of the magazine on the webpage to open the journal). There is an article that I wrote on 'Ready Made Resources for CLIL Classes' pages 66-69.

Visit to the Rio Tinto Mines (Huelva)

Visit to the fascinating Rio Tinto Mines.

OUP Day - Sofia, Bulgaria

In Sofia for a couple of days. OUP Day organised by Milena Kostova and Rumiana Savova who took great care of Jules, Sarah, Gareth and I :) Teachers were very participative and the staff from OUP and Bookhouse were wonderful :)
Some useful links:
Writing article Kate Ruttle
Early Literacy website

CLIL in Secondary School - Ponferrada

CLIL course in Ponferrada at IES Alvaro de Mendaña. Classes on Canada with ESO students in the morning and sessions with CLIL teachers and English teachers in the afternoon :) Everyone worked very hard!! Thanks to Vicente for his perseverance getting the course up and running and to Javier for his support from the CFIE.

Turkey - September 2009

An 'Incredible English' and 'Storytelling' tour (Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara). Great evening 'out on the town' with trainers and folks from OUP/Istek :)
Some useful sites for teachers:
- Closure Activities
- Effective Storytelling
- Online stories from British Council
- Online stories from BBC
- Storyline - some really nice stories read online
- Incredible English site (sign up free and get access to info)

Preparing for PAU Exams

Some articles and sites that might be useful for Bachillerato teachers :) Click on the links to open the pages.
Criterias PAU Andalucia
Reading Comprehension Texts (some are not appropriate for Bachillerato, but some are useful)
Reading Strategies
Intensive Reading: What's Wrong?
Paragraph Writing
Vocabulary Building Tips
Strategies for Developing Reading Skills

Back from the Medulas

Week long trip around Spain with visit to the MEDULAS (just south of Ponferrada). The Medulas was one of the most important gold mines in the Roman Empire and is an interesting place to visit :) Lovely night in AldeaDuero en route home :)

Brazil July 2009

Brazil tour was WONDERFUL. Started off in Salvador da Bahia which was great :) Muito obrigada to Patricia, Ana Carla and the organisers of the ACBEU conference. Fantastic groups in Porto Alegre for the OTA course and it was wonderful working with Nancy Lake, Tim Ward and the local OUP team! The course in Recife ran smooothly and the groups were really participative :) Eduardo took Tim Herdon and I on a great tour of Olinda and out for 'acaraje' :) The groups in Rio were fantastic...very active teachers with excellent ideas! Lovely dinner one night by the sea at the foot of Sugarloaf mountain with Carlos and incredible night life and samba in Lapa with Janaina!!! Last day in Rio fantastic day in Urca, Santa Teresa, Boto do Fogo (Samba concert) and Lapa with my friend Andre :)

Some links that might be useful:
Education Oasis Graphic Organizers
About Learning: 4MAT
General information on Tetramap
How to do free-writing (and how to use free-writing as a pre-writing task)
Word Shapes Activities (from ABC Teach) (Holistic word recognition)

Key Competences for Lifelong Learning

Here are some websites that might be useful if you'd like to find out more about the KEY COMPETENCES FOR LIFELONG LEARNING.

Basic Framework for Key Competences (in PDF format)
Definition of Key Competences (in PDF format)
Key Competences in the Spanish Education System (from OUP Spain)

CLIL Course in Mallorca

Wonderful couple of days working with primary and secondary teachers in Palma. Thanks to Aina and Montse for all their help and support :) Great 'cocas' last class and really enjoyed working with Patti, Tim and Kevin. I hope that the CLIL songs from class are a big hit with students :)