The culmination of a fantastic first term was a
trip to the Prado museum. Three of our classes and teachers from various
departments visited Madrid's largest art gallery.
The students were given a specific painting
before the visit, and were tasked with writing a presentation on it and
delivering it to their schoolmates in front of their painting. I was truly
impressed with the fantastic work that the students had done in preparing
their pieces and the confidence with which they delivered their presentations
in front of the groups.
The students seemed to love the experience of
visiting one of Madrid's real treasures. It was also a wonderful treat after a
first term that I had really enjoyed. Seeing the progress that the students had
made with their speaking especially made me realise quite how rewarding the
term had been.
The children and I outside the Prado Museum
Class Workshops and Progress
At the end of the last term I was working with
my Primero B class on improving our writing and understanding of tenses,
specifically the present simple and present continuous. I am happy to report
that with just a couple of concentrated lessons we were able to make huge
progress. They my sound like simple concepts but the confusion amongst the two
forms of the present is vital to the use of good English and their misuse is
surprisingly common amongst non native English speakers.
We have also been working on presentation
skills. In this photo I am running a class workshop on this topic, focusing on
students bringing a photo of their own choice into the classroom and then using
three methods to bring the photo to life for the group. These are summarising,
locating and speculating. Locating vocab, such as here, to the right/left, in
front of etc are vital, practical terms foreign speakers of English need when
they visit and anglophone country. I am confident that we can advance on the
excellent progress of last term as we move into the post-Christmas period.
Sharing and describing photos in class
