A sad day.

Today is an unhappy day, the last day of the course.
                      
The partecipants showed the CLIL project made during the course.
Then we made a feedback to the Alpha College about the course, the teachers, the social activities and the host accomodations.
A few time to say goodbay to everybody and all it was finished.
  
In the afternoon I went with Alessandro and Carmelo to Howth, a small city not far from Dublin.
At dinner we took the last pint of Guinness with a wonderful dish of fish.

The time to come back is really near: I'm really sad!

A day before the end.

The first part of today's lesson was focused on project based learning.
In this case the project task has to respect some important keys: real world connection, core to learning, collaboration, student driven, multifaceted assessment.
The second part was focused on to develop the writing skill using CLIL.

In the afternoon I took part in the Irish Experience where Katie taught us how to dance in traditional Irish: I think that a seal can dance better than me!!!

Rachel is back

The teacher of today was Rachel.
She started her lesson speaking about the use of movies in CLIL.
Movies are important because the union of sounds and images is the best way to convey the information.       
The second part was about learner autonomy connected to CLIL.
Rachel's lessons are full of energy, she is extremely captivating.

ICT & CLIL.

Today the first activity was the analysis of a given CLIL lesson.
The topic was comparing map of the Roman Empire to a modern times and the focus is on towns founded by the Roman and their distribution in the Empire.

The second activity was designing a CLIL lesson using ICT.
Working with Alessandro and Carmelo (IT team) we have chosen "Why we use arrays instead of simple variables?" as topic of our CLIL lesson.
Our idea is to make a video so we have started with the job and one of the next days will finish it!

Another two examples.

The focus of the day was to give another two examples of CLIL lessons.                                    
The first lesson was on history  and uses several techniques based primarily on listening texts.

The second lesson was on natural science. Its structure was better than the first one but the target was kids.

A new teacher.

Today we met Liliane to speak about using art in a CLIL context to develop the speaking skill.

Another topic was the use of reading texts in CLIL-integrating language skills.

The lessons was interesting but it's not easy to apply this kind of information on IT. The lessons give me new ideas but I have to adapt these ideas to my subject.

An example of lesson.

In the first part of the morning Rachel done a CLIL lesson about the Celts.
She used several techniques of CLIL: match pictures with text, fill the gaps, complete charts with information and so on...
In the second part of the morning Katie gave us a list of links categorized by subject. Our aim was to test the validity of these links using internet.

In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery with the precious guide of Mick.

Inside the CLIL

This morning the main focus was to plan lessons using CLIL so we started analyzing the structure of a CLIL lesson.
Every teacher wrote a personal list of materials and techniques used at each stage. Then we formed small groups of teachers of similar subject area to compare and discuss the results.
Finally we worked to create a hybrid lesson where the content part and the language part are well balanced.
It's not easy!

In the afternoon we went to the National Museum and then to St. Stephen's Green park with a sunny day, wow!

Introduction to CLIL

This morning a new teacher presented to us the basis about theory and methodology in language learning. In the second part of the lessons we discussed about the main goals of CLIL.

In the afternoon with Mick we went to Trinity College where we saw the fantastic Book of Kells which was probably produced early in the 9th century by the monks of Iona.

I like very much the division of the course in teaching activities in the morning and cultural activities in the city center in the afternoon.

First day of course

This morning the CLIL course has started and the first feeling is positive.
The class isn't big, there are 13 students who are all teachers from different nationalities.       
Our teacher Katie is very good even if she speaks fast and it's not easy to understand all she says.
In the afternoon we made a city centre walking tour with Mick.
He speaks very very clear and tells us a lot of interesting things about the history and places of the city.
I closed the day with a delicious pint of Guinness!

It's time to go!

I've waited a long time and finally the departure day has come.

I'm enrolled in "Overseas Teacher's Course - CLIL"  managed by Alpha College of English in Dublin where I'll stay with my colleagues Alessandro and Carmelo.
  
I think this experience is the best way to improve my English and obviously to know the city and the Dubliners.