Teaching/learning experiences

Teaching children

 I have took part Comenius-program three times in my elementary schools. Now we have got together seven European countries: Finland, Estonia, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Cypros. It is very interesting to travel to other schools in Europe and get to know their school life. We have done many kind of activities with pupils in the age 6-12 years; short mowies, a story book, songs,  a cooking book is coming, Skype connection between schools etc. We use eTwinning as well.  Our language is English but we try to learn every language a bit and of course we learn much about other cultures. If you want to see our activities you find some of them here:

http://comenius2015.wordpress.com

Teaching adults
I teach Italian to adults in a folk college. They come to the lessons once a week for 1,5 hour. Of course people are tired after the work. They need much different kind of activities: music, films, listening the language/grammar in video, pair exercises, stories and experiences about Italy (travelling and culture), even tastes. I try to get them move a bit during the lessons. I create pair exercices also by myself. Like this:
There are two students. The other one tries to create his dialogue in Italy and the other student knows the right answer. He can help if needed. Both of them have got the conversation paper Finnish-Italian.
Student B starts.

Student A                                                                               Student B

- Hello!                                                                                    - Ciao!
- Ciao. Come stai?                                                                   - Hello. How are you?
- I am fine, thanks.                                                                   - Sto bene, grazie. E tu?
- Sto benissimo!                                                                       - I am really fine!
- Shall we go to the bar?                                                          - Andiamo al bar?
...                                                                                               ...

This exercises can be very easy in the beginning. I think, repetition is really important in learning languages - and that the students try to speak much even if they make mistakes.

Anne from Finland