Teacher Training in Canterbury (UK) 2015 summer

I wonder how well we know the British people. Have we formed any stereotypes about them?

And what do they think of us? Such questions were the focus of the teacher training course “British Life, Language and Culture”, which took place in Canterbury.

Let’s go step by step.

1. Weather: it has the important role of a conversation starter. You can always talk about it, since it is changeable. Sometimes within an hour you can even experience the four seasons. There is an important rule which says that no matter what British people say about the weather, we have to agree with them, because (it's a British rule) you cannot contradict them. "You must never ever contradict an English person when discussing the weather.”
2. “Sorry” can mean a lot. We found 13 different uses for this word. We use it to apologize, but even if you are the one who bumped into someone, they say sorry.
3. The Queue. The British are crazy about queuing. There is a phenomenon called the queue of one. The British are very angry if you break this rule and we behave like other Europeans and push to go further ahead.
4. The royal family still enjoys great popularity.
5. Trains. When buying tickets we are asked several questions: where are we going, who you travel with, whether we come back on the very same day; and I could go on. These facts determine how much discount you can get. Sometimes, when we get on a train we want to be sure if this train is really going in the direction in which we intend. We are going to be surprised, because in many cases the passengers who are already sitting in the train do not know where the train is going. “Why are they sitting there?” could be a good question.
6. Never eat on the train and you are very impolite if you make loud phone calls there. British people do not like them.
7. Underdog rule: It is interesting that during sports competitions the audience cheer for a losing player. But as soon as the losing person becomes in winning position the audience immediately switch to the other side. It is mainly observed during tennis tournaments.
8. Britons are islanders, for them we are just the continent, who are in addition driving on the wrong side. They do not adore us, do they?
9. Pub: You have to order and pay for your drinks at the counter and then take them to your table. If there is a group of people in which everyone wants to get and pay for their drink separately you might break another (unwritten) rule. You cannot pay only for your own drink; you have to pay for someone else’s drink too. (Then later on the other person invites you for another drink.) Then you have to leave some drink in your glass, how much you may ask? At least an inch, not a centimetre! Otherwise the waiter comes and with “angry” eyes he takes away your empty glass. If there is only an inch of drink in your glass it is time to decide whether you want to leave or ask for the next round.
10. In the pubs do not give a tip, but you can offer the waiter a drink saying: “One for yourself ", which means that the price of the drink is given as a tip, or he might drink it, but of course only after he finishes work.
11. The shops close at five pm. On Sunday they do not even open. Why do we complain in Hungary? In Canterbury the shop which is open for the longest is Tesco (it closes at 10 pm), in addition “One Poundland” is open until six and “Primark till eight in the evening on weekdays. (Canterbury has a population of approx. 45 thousand inhabitants, during uniterm about 65 thousand, plus 5 million tourists visit it in a year.)
12. The language. Just briefly: the most surprising thing for us that French phrases such as pardon, toilet, serviette, are used by only the lower class, the upper class keep completely aloof from it.
13. Tea. It does not always mean the tea time. Sometimes it means dinner.
14. If you are invited to a British family, never arrive earlier and do not be punctual. But never be later than 10 minutes. It's hard to follow, right?
15. The Britons are convinced that only they have a sense of humour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79V_qUp91M
16. The History of English in 10 minutes to sum up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfKhlJIAhew
17. What have I learned? Many things: acceptance, communication phrases, colloquialisms. I expanded my international relationships. I got to know other teachers from many other countries and even in our free time we wanted to get to know each other’s country, the education system and methods we use during classes.

I am glad that I took part in this course.

Pató Csabáné Szebényi Éva

Tanártovábbképzés Canterburyben 2015 nyara

Teacher Training in Canterbury (UK) 2014 summer

Teacher training in Canterbury (UK) at Pilgrims

How to create wordclouds

Use wordle.net for creating a wordcloud. You need Java to use it. Advantage: the most frequent words are bigger. You can use it for language classes. Save it with snipping tool.
	tagul.com is for creating wordclouds too. You have to sign up first. Built in shapes. To download it use the snipping tool. To connect words use ~ sign.
The easiest way to create a wordcloud is tagxedo.com You add your words, choose a shape, change colours and fonts and save it to your computer. Funny shapes make learning easier.

ICT ideas

Have you ever thought about to download a Youtube video but didn't know how? 

Or you wanted to download a song but you found it on the Youtube only 

and you didn't know how to convert it into mp3 file? 
Here it is the solution: peggo.co

What to do?

1. Find your video on Youtube and copy the link of that video. (Ctrl+C)

2. Go to www.peggo.co and paste the link. (Ctrl+V)

    The page find your video immediately and
    you can choose if you want to download it as a video file 

    or as a sound file (mp3). You can choose even the quality of the video file.      

So feel free and start now!

Why? You can use these videos during your lessons even without internet connection.

 ICT ideas designed and shared by Éva Pató Csabáné Szebényi, Hungary

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to use Google forms.

1. What is it?

Google Forms is a tool that allows collecting information 

from users via a personalized survey or quiz. 

The information is then collected and automatically connected 

to a spreadsheet with the same name. 

The spreadsheet is populated with the survey and quiz responses.

2. What is it used for (in education)?

There are a wide range of ideas you can use google form for.

- Good for tests, ex: checking grammar.

- Good for a survey around different topics, if you are interested 
   in your students habits for example reading, travelling, learning styles and so on.

- Good for improving vocabulary. (Finding synonyms to words.)

- Good for self-evaluation (what have you learnt so far?)

There are no limits of ideas.

3. What age groups can I use it for?

It is suitable especially for teenagers or young adults but even adults like it.

What's more that it is not only to fil in the form but creating your own survey or test.

I would recomend to use it for the 5th class in the primary 

to get information and from the 7th class to create an own test and survey.

4. How to get started (basic steps for using it)

Enter your gmail account and find google drive in the menu. Click on it. 

If you entered your drive click on button. 

Choose the option: Form 

Give a title for your questionnaire and choose a theme for it. (You have to decide in advance what kind of questionnaire, test or survey you would like to create.) 

When you already have a title the first question appears and you can write your question. 

For the question you can add answers (just like in multiple choice tests). Choose the button Question type and choose the most appropriate form for yourself.

Add answers by clicking in the option boxes and you can add the so called "other" option as well.

After pressing the button  your questions will be saved on drive automatically.

For the next question press the button Insert from the menu above and add the next question. Repeat the steps as long as you want.

To view the created format press view life form.

From life form you can go back to the edit page and make some changes if you need. 

When your students have already submited the questionnaire you might want to know the results of them.

To get and check the results you click onResponses and choose Summary of responses.

And you get to the following page: here you can have the statistic of your questionnaire.

If you want to have the individual answers/resposes too, just click on View responses.

5. Where can I get more tutorial / information?

If you still have questions how to do it just watch this video. 

6. How can I exploit it in my context?  

The easiest way to use it for test and check grammar, vocabulary etc. knowledge of the students.

But you can use it in your own mothertongue and you can create a survey about the learning habits,

freetime activities, where students go in the summer, what they do during summer holiday.

If you are a form teacher you can get to know your students easily and they will enjoy this task more than

simple paperwork.

7. How to share with others

There are two option how to share it with others.

1. Either you send it to the ones you want to ask to fill in. 

Click on file and then choose send form...you can sent it to several emails.

Or you can allow others to work on it.

It is called add collaborators. 

Be aware of the following fact!!! 

You want to send the created form (life form) and not the edited version!!!

So follow these steps! 

1. Go to life form.

2. Copy url. 

3. Paste url in "link to share" part and click embed. (Of course you can make a tiny url if you would like to.)(See how to use tinyurl.com)

4. Add emails, groups or invite people and then

press the button . 

Tanár továbbképzés Canterbury
(Egyesült Királyság)

Canterbury mindig fantasztikus, és mindig meg tud lepni valami újjal. 
Nem csak a város, vidékiesen pezsgő életével és turistákat vonzó régi katedrálisával, hanem a „dombtető” is.
Igen Hilltop, vagyis dombtető az a hely, ahol a Kent egyetem székel. Minden nyáron a Pilgrims Teacher Training csapata ide költözik fel, és az egyetem termeiben rendezi meg számos tanfolyamát.

2014-ben megpályáztam egy  két hetes tanfolyamot,  azonban érdeklődés hiányában ezt törölték, és ezért választottam hasonló témában, de két egy hetes tanfolyamot.

Így vettem részt a „How to use White board during lessons” és a „Mobile technology” című kurzusokon.
Ezeken az interaktív tábláról és a mobil technológiákról (tablet, okos telefon alkalmazásai) tanultam. 

Rendkívül hasznos és érdekes volt mindkét tanfolyam, és az ott tanultakat rendszeresen használom is tanításom során.
(Néhány ötletet itt osztottam meg az oldalon.)

Csak javasolni tudom, hogy ha valaki külföldi tanfolyamot választ, válassza a Pilgrims Language Centre-t. https://www.pilgrims.co.uk/