Lesson Three - Consumer Society

This week we read about a girl who was a 'shopaholic'. She spent so much money on extravagant clothes that she ended up owing $20,000 in credit card debt. To save herself, she had a brilliant idea...she created a website and asked for money from perfect strangers!

We also turned the problem around and talked about poverty. We watched a couple of videos and discussed the vocabulary used to describe the conditions in the slums and shanty towns of Kenya.
Here are the links to the videos we watched (turn on the subtitles in English):
The Girl Effect

Jacqueline Novogratz on an escape from poverty

Students should always try to organize the new vocabulary into spider graphs, and this week's topic is MONEY. Look at your notes and put the new words in relation to other words in order to learn them.

Here are two more videos I think you will find interesting - watch one (or both!) of them and write a comment please!

Jacqueline Novogratz on patient capitalism

Hans Rosling's insights on poverty

Lesson 2 - Memory

Today we talked about memory and memories, and made a spider graph of all of the words that are connected to this topic. We also skimmed and scanned three short articles about memory enhancement. One of the articles was called "facts and figures" so as an introduction we watched a video of Arthur Benjamin performing "mathemagic". Below you will find a link to that video as well as to other pages and videos that are related to the topic.

The homework assignment is to write an autobiography after doing some exercises from the photocopies I gave to the class. Even if you weren't at the lesson, you should come to class next week with a written autobiography. It does not have to be long, but it should be well-organized and give details about significant events and periods.

Here are the links: (let me know if you have read this post and tell me what you think about the links!)

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html
15 min. video about “mathemagic” by Arthur Benjamin
(don't forget to turn on the subtitles!)

http://www.subply.com/en/Video/Improve+your+memory+with+the+POPCORN+method/1bf52548-b753-4b85-bcd1-e89da4dc8738/eng
5 minute video on a method to improve your memory

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-602962800234523793#
Excellent BBC Video on memory (50 min.)

http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html
A whole page of memory improvement techniques and links to similar articles.

Lesson 1 - Laughter + textbooks to buy

What makes you laugh? What TV sitcoms do you like, and why? Do you know any funny jokes that are translatable into English?
The lesson this week focuses on laughter, happiness and smiling, and the benefits that these things can bring to our lives.

Here are some links to articles you may find interesting:
http:/laughlab.co.uk

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200504/laughter-the-best-medicine
http://www.oldfashinedamericanhumor.com/index.html

also, here is the link to the video we watched on ted.com:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
(don't forget to turn on the English subtitles!)

I hope you enjoyed the lesson; I would love to read your comments on the reading material, or jokes and ideas - so click on 'comments' below, and let me know what's on your mind!

By the way, the textbooks I have chosen are:
New English File Upper-Intermediate
Student's Book 978-0-19-451842-0
Workbook + KEY + MROM 978-0-19-451846-8
I will be supplementing the textbooks with material online and in class.