Dear Teacher,
The UN Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen from the 7th to 18th December. Two of this month’s additions to the Downloadable Worksheets section of the Teachers’ Area of www.tuneintoenglish.com acknowledge this important occasion.
The first, written by Catrin Elen Morris, co-author of ELI’s successful Scuola Media course Team Up in English, is I Need To Wake Up by Melissa Etheridge. This is the award winning theme song of “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore’s documentary on climate change. On Saturday 5th December, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, joining in a giant blue Mexican wave, will march through the streets of London to call on world leaders to secure a safer future for us all. You and your students can join them by sending your own messages to world leaders at http://en.cop15.dk/greetings/send.
The second new worksheet is Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World, an ideal opportunity for low level students to reflect on the beauty of the world we live in.
Christmas is almost upon us once again, and the third new addition, submitted by Mena Bianco of Naples, reflects how many of us are feeling – Thank God It’s Christmas by Queen.
There are also four other Christmas worksheets on the Downloadable Worksheets section of the site: Happy Xmas (John Lennon), Last Christmas (Wham!), Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (Dr. Elmo) and the traditional Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
All of these festive songs are featured in the special Christmas Karaoke area of the Tune Into English website, featuring over 100 festive favourites, so why not have a special lesson on Christmas songs?
There are over 4,500 songs on the karaoke page, including most of those mentioned in this newsletter – if you have a free moment check out Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s beautiful version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, which segues into What A Wonderful World at https://www.tuneintoenglish.com/?p=10911. The site also features a bookstore with over 60 titles for those of you looking for alternative reading material for your students, ideal for Christmas gifts!
Thank you to all of you who hosted the Tune Into English Roadshow in 2009. My calendar is now full until the beginning of March 2010, but I would be delighted to come to your school after this. You can see a large selection of videos and photographs from over three years of the Roadshow on facebook – there is a link on the home page of the Tune Into English website.
I would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Best wishes,
Fergal Kavanagh
Tune Into English
