Update 83

Howie Gordon
Sep 16, 2022
3 min read

Updated: Dec 18, 2022

A beautiful idea of having many participants from all around the world, singing for a communal project.

Today I want to talk about our influence as teachers.

Henry Adams said, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops".

I often meet ex-pupils that ask me, after our initial banter and smiles, do you still sing with your pupils? And yes I still do. One can never have enough singing and music in class. I have ex - pupils that can remember lyrics of songs that we learnt in school, and others that remember that we did something with music many years ago. For example, one of my favourite bands is “The Carpenters”. Perfect music for any occasion. I brought the unfortunate story of Karen Carpenter to my 8th graders as a movie and then we did a project about the life of the Carpenters. We looked at their music and life. We scompared lyrics, learnt grammar in context.

These are just some ideas of what can be done.

https://www.eslprintables.com/worksheets_with_songs/other_songs/Close_to_you_The_Carpenters_220742/

https://www.eslprintables.com/worksheets_with_songs/other_songs/Sing_The_Carpenters_927675/

https://busyteacher.org/17225-top-of-the-world-by-the-carpenters.html

I brought up this idea of influence and sharing because as teachers we never know where our influence stops. I am happy to share this lovely email I received this morning.

“Just wanted to let you know that I was so inspired by your presentation at the

ETAI conference that I put together a similar activity for my 7th and 8th graders for the beginning of the school year based on the song "Feeling Good".

We only focused on the first two verses of the song and the chorus. It proved to be a great way to learn vocabulary!

Here is the link to the activity:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15kyc2VkhSjBRgtuQ4idu7HRhIz5EWf5xjNlIjkWTBgE/edit?usp=sharing

Happy new year and all the best,

Kim Kelly

English Coordinator

Nili School”

Thanks so much Kim, this made my day and my wish is that others will share as well. Let’s lean on each other and build up this “Learn in Tune Community”. I am confident that there are many teachers that are using music and song in their classrooms to enhance your lessons. So let’s share.

https://forms.gle/6x27F229j9EPEr7u5

Feel free to add your ideas to this form. I will be checking it regularly.

- Another song by Sandro Cavazza - “Lean on me”

Back to School Webinar

Thanks to all the hundreds of teachers that joined the Webinar. Although we couldn’t see you, we felt the energy. When you go into the portal look for Presentations and recordings from conferences and look for Back to School Webinar 2022. You can find what you missed there.

https://edu.gov.il/mazhap/mafmar/english/Pages/inspector-desk.aspx

E-talent - We have received a number of requests for information and publications. We will be announcing the start of this talent competition last October - early November. If you still do not know about E- Talent - then…

The Talent Show is for elementary and junior high pupils to show off their English speaking/singing/chanting/poetry reading talents.

The emphasis is on oral English and the pupil/pupils must film their performance in English.

Open to all pupils from all over Israel –

3 different age categories

3rd Grade – 4th Grade

5th Grade – 6th Grade

7th Grade - 8th Grade

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION!

Digital Tool of the Week

Mural - This digital calendar app is free. It allows teachers to create customizable and interactive calendars to display on a whiteboard in the classroom. The share option allows students to interact with the calendar from their personal computers.

https://app.mural.co/signin?returnUrl=%2Fdashboard