idioms - origins

to be in good nick

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/130340/where-does-the-phrase-in-good-nick-come-from/130386#130386

In French the slang expression, (c'est) nickel, means to be in perfect condition and nickel-chromemeans super so who borrowed from whom and when, might lead to its true origins.

10. An instance of cross-breeding, esp. one which produces offspring of high quality. Cf. nick v.2 7b.  So perhaps as the term for successfully crossed animals, specifically racehorses, was applied to racehorses generally in good form. This was then used for sportsmen in general before being used for anything in good condition, or conversely, as "in poor nick" for something in bad condition or form.

Students should play the game and then for homework, look up the origin of the meaning of the idiom as I have done above.

Passive Voice Quiz Game

Topics                                                                                                 Points

Movies: 
Who directed Pulp Fiction? (Quentin Tarantino)                               1
Where was Life is Beautiful produced? (Italy)                                   2
Where was The Lord of the Rings filmed? (New Zealand)                2
Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey? (Stanley Kubrik)                  3

Writers: 
Who wrote Hamlet? (Shakespeare)                                                   1
Who wrote Moby Dick? (Herman Melville);                                    2
Who wrote Crime and Punishment? (Dostoyevsky)                          2
Who wrote Frankenstein? (Mary Shelly)                                            3

Painters:
Who painted the Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci)                             1
Who painted Starry Night? (Van Gogh)                                            2
Who painted Guernica? (Picasso)                                                      2
Who painted The Scream? (Munsch)                                                 3

Inventions:
Who invented the light bulb? (Edison)                                            1
Who invented the flying machine? (Wright Brothers)                    2
Who invented the telephone? (Bell)                                               2
Who invented the radio? (Marconi) *                                           3

Discoveries:
Who discovered the law of gravity? (Newton)                              1
Who discovered E=mc2? (Einstein)                                              2
Who discovered the moons of Jupiter? (Galileo)                          2
Who discovered radioactivity? (Currie)                                        3

*If you're like me, you learned in elementary school that it was Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi who invented radio. Yep, Marconi claimed he invented it and as a result even shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.  But in 1943, only months after his death, the United States Supreme Court finally gave inventor Nikola Tesla recognition as the first to truly conceive of and patent the principles of radio (or what he called ‘World Telegraphy’). They struck down Marconi’s fundamental patent.   http://www.nikolateslatour.com/blog/2012/05/26/did-guglielmo-marconi-or-nikola-tesla-invent-radio/


Movies
Who directed Star Wars? (George Lucas) 1
Where was the Beach shot/made? (Thailand) 2
Where was Trainspotting made?  (Scotland) 2
Where was Nottinghill shot? (London,  UK) 3

Writers
Who wrote Romeo and Juliet? (Shakespeare) 1
Who wrote the Harry Potter books?  (JK Rowling) 2
Who wrote the Twilight books?  (Stephenie Meyer) 2
Who wrote The Hunger Games? (Suzanne Collins) 3

Bits and pieces

Writing an essay

http://www.slideshare.net/uolssds/writing-an-essay

Lesson Aims

Teach Yourself - Teaching English as a foreign language

* to teach the present perfect = NOT A GOOD AIM

PRESENT PERFECT

* I've been to France - refers to past experience and time is unspecified

* I've worked here for 10 years - refers to something started in the past and connecting to the present.

* a better aim would be:  'for students to learn and have spoken practice in the positive and negative forms of the present perfect (indefinite past event).

* to teach the positive and negative forms of the present continuous and to give written and spoken practice = A GOOD AIM

AIM
* for students to improve their pronunciation = NOT A GOOD AIM

....a better aim would be....

'for students to have practice in recognizing and using rising and falling intonation in question tags and to recognize the different meanings implied'.

AIMS:  the why
STAGES: the what

* to teach writing = NOT A GOOD AIM
* for students to learn the correct usage of selected conjunctions in written English and to have practice in a letter-writing task'. = A GOOD AIM

OR ' for students to have practice in writing a letter of application using appropriate layout, language and paragraphing'.

Consumerism

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/09/hoarders-dark-side-of-consumerism

Hello, my name is Suzanne and I have a broken blender at the back of my cupboard. In fact, more than one. And an old kettle that could be useful for someone, surely? My friend – who, like me, is totally normal – has stopped herself buying a fifth sewing machine; a neighbour has racks of clothes she has not worn for 20 years. Vintage, right? We are just waste not, want not. Not like those people on programmes such as The Hoarder Next Door, for these people are unwell. They have a mental illness, OCD, anxiety or depression.

Currently, there is a glut of TV programmes about these sad, compulsive people who have to tunnel through their own junk. Why would anyone live like that? And why would we watch them? Because although hoarders are the latest freaks in the freak show, every conversation I have had about this has not been about how deranged they are but how many of us are on the verge … of hoarding.

Britain's Biggest Hoarders - Series 1 Episode 2 BBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpgLxe9dHmw

Watch the first 15 - 20 minutes of the video and complete the questions below:

1.  What do the following numbers represent in the video?

• All my life
• 1 in 20
• 20 years
• 42 days
• 25 years

2.  The following words/expressions will help you understand the programme.  What do they mean?

• dual personality
• bang on the door
• burden
• vacuuming
• barely scraped the surface
• putting up with me
• conceal

3.  Answer the following questions using information from the video.

1. What does this programme tell us about the dark side of consumerism?
2. How do hoarders feel about their situation?
3. How would you define this type of extreme hoarding:  a problem?  Controllable?  A mental illness?  A disorder?  Part of human behaviour?  Why?
4. What problems do these hoarders face as a result of the extreme behaviour?  For example, in society, daily activities etc
5. How do hoarders affect those around them?
6. What strategies does Jasmine adopt to help cure Geoff of his hoarding?
7. What approach(es) does society take to help these sufferers (if any?)
8. What can society do to help these sufferers?

Dylan Moran on consumerism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLmkRR2oGUA

What do the following vocabulary items mean?

• fill the void
• broke (adj)
• purple furry cube
• plough through
• 4 by 4s
• roar around
• dopey (adj)
• sunflowers
• sneering
• homicide
• dysentery 
• jaded (adj)

1.  What are the names of the perfumes he mentions?

2.  Why does he mention dysentery?

3.  summarize the video in one paragraph using the above vocabulary and the vocabulary and phrasal verbs we have studied this week.

Lesson ideas...

My gypsy wedding - (topics: teenagers, consumerism, different cultures)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPeJczBLBdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMqWfUsQebc

Miranda - hotel

Cross them out

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	yell	hairdresser	stunt man	plumber	vet	spoon
2	bricklayer	chat	butcher	fork	napkin	knife
3	sieve	dishwasher	mumble	cooker	lettuce	saucepan
4	paper-clip	sink	surgeon	shout	fork	cauliflower
5	stapler	desk	optician	suit	whisper	builder
6	rubber	toaster	cupboard	cardigan	tights	kettle
7	printer	kettle	wardrobe	soup	lawyer	rice

You are left with 5 words:

They are all ways of ….. talking

1. Cross out all jobs from row 1.
2. Cross out all stationary from column A
3. Cross out all food from column E
4. all cutlery from row 2
5. all clothes from Column D
6. all food from row 7
7. all things you eat with from Column E
8. all things in the kitchen from column B
9. all professions from row 2
10. all furniture from column C
11. all jobs from column C
12. all things you use for cooking from row 3
13. all words you use to study with from row 5
14. all jobs from row 5
15. all food from C F
16. all things in the kitchen C F
17. all clothes Column E
18. all jobs row 7
19. all things to use after eating
20. all things you use in a study from Column A

Charity lesson - Alan Barnes - Conditionals and Future perfect/continuous

Charity - what does this mean?

[explain that when I was younger, I raised money for charity by doing a jumble sale and I gave the money to my brother's charity and this year I will do a run and give it to cancer research for personal reasons]

In pairs, ask and answer these questions:

Have you ever given money to charity?

Have you ever raised money for charity?  What did you do?  Who did you give the money to and why?

Explain how touched I was about a story of a man called Alan Barnes who is disabled as his mother had German Measles when she was pregnant and Alan was born partially blind.

Read the article: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-31160219  - do a running dictation or jigsaw reading, or odd and even - one pair reads odd paragraphs and the other even and they tell each other what happened.

Watch video:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31084387

Explain that the target was £500 but guess how much was raised? £330,000.  How many people donated from all over the world?  24,000

CONDITIONALS

If you were Alan, what would you do with the money?

If I were Alan, I would buy a house.

If I were Alan, I would help other people.

If I were rich/If I was rich = they mean the same but 'were' is more proper.  It is in the subjunctive mood - it is one of the few words in English which still retains a distinct subjunctive mood.

MIXED CONDITIONALS

If Alan hadn't been mugged [passive], he would be living in the same house.

FUTURE PERFECT/CONTINUOUS

This time next year, Alan will be living in the Caribbean.

This time next year, Alan will have bought a Ferrari.

What will you be doing this time next year?  Write a sentence with the future perfect and future continuous.  Draw timelines.

future perfect: will + have +  past participle

future continuous:  will + be + verb + ing

COOLER - Pictionary with new vocabulary or dialogue between Alan and Katie.

Tax Disc song

Tax disc song - Gareth Richards

Please watch this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjG2z1fQjCs

Or, type ‘Tax disc’ song into Youtube. 

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

Let's take a minute to unpack this

Whats the 1._________ of post-offices if they don't do tax discs?

When all that it is that you want, is a tax disc.

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

But they've got a 2._________ in case you want to send faxes.

Please tell me who is still sending faxes?

Why do you have a fax machine but don't do tax discs?

I thought every post-office did tax discs.

But not every post office does tax discs.

Is it on the 3.____________ which ones do tax discs?

How you supposed to 4._________ which post-offices do tax discs?

I don't need 5.__________ and I don't need a fishing license.  If I needed envelopes or bluetack I 'd go to Rymans.

I don't need a passport so that I can 6.___________ the border.

I don't need the services of Parcel Force or Postal Orders

I don't need a 7.__________ license or tickets for the Loto.

I don't need a bureau to change my 8._________into Euros.

I don't need insurance, I just will take risks.

I'm not picking up my 9._________ or benefits.

I've been standing in this 10.________ for 20 minutes.

How much of my life must I spend in this line?

Why do I have to wait 'til the end to see the sign that says: 

This post-office doesn't do tax-discs

Work in groups of 5

Write a sentence about anything you want:


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draw pictures that represent the sentence above:









------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write a sentence that you think the picture above represent:



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draw pictures that represent the sentence above:











----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Write a sentence that you think the pictures above represent: