European Day of Languages 20 Years : Celebrate at school or at home ! New resources & activities

https://edl.ecml.at/

European Day of Languages

https://edl.ecml.at/

European Day of Languages 2021: 20 years celebrating linguistic and cultural diversity.

Throughout Europe, 800 million Europeans are represented in the Council of Europe's 47 member states and all are encouraged to discover more languages at any age, as part of or alongside their studies. This stems from the Council of Europe’s conviction that linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Therefore, the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, promotes plurilingualism in the whole of Europe. 

At the Council of Europe’s initiative, the European Day of Languages has been celebrated every year since 2001 on 26 September - together with the European Commission.

European Day of Languages
https://edl.ecml.at/

“The European Day of Languages gives us an opportunity to value and promote all languages and cultures in Europe. This year we are putting a special focus on inclusive language education, which supports all learners to reach their potential and play an active part in diverse and democratic societies”

It is estimated that there are over 225 indigenous languages in Europe, without even including languages which have arrived on the continent through migration.

Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić

The specific aims of the EDL are to:

• raise awareness of the importance of language learning in order to increase plurilinguism and intercultural understanding;

• promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe;

• encourage lifelong language learning in and out of school.

European Day of Languages

https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDayofLanguages/

• Education:

A dedicated website, which is available in 41 languages (some partly), provides details of the hundreds of events taking place in celebration of the Day, as well as a wide variety of resources and activities for everyone interested in languages and language learning.

New! Activities :

 https://edl.ecml.at/Portals/

Poster :  "20 things you might not know about Europe's languages"

In 10 languages. 

https://edl.ecml.at/Activities/

• App: The secret agent’s language challenges app

The challenges and quizzes contained within this app encourage learners – future international agents – to take advantage of the plentiful opportunities available to practice or learn more about a language beyond a classroom context. 

By passing through a series of levels you can rise from a lowly agent in training to become a master secret agent. 

Students can compete with friends and schoolmates in achieving challenges, identifying countries and languages and completing quizzes. 

The challenges go from the easy, such as, “count from 1-10 in 3 different languages within one minute” to ones that are a bit more demanding, “together with a friend, write the words to a song/rap in a foreign language.

Join EDL's 20th Anniversary Great Bake-Off 

This year, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its inauguration, the European Centre for Modern Languages invites all of you to participate in our EDL's Great Bake-Off.

The goal is to collect birthday recipes from different parts of the world and in different languages to then include the 20 most original (and tasty!) desserts in a special 20th-anniversary-edition recipe book. 

If you would like your birthday dessert to be included (after a rigorous selection process!), please read the instructions and get ready to bring out the chef in you!

Submission deadline: 30 September 2021

https://edl.ecml.at/Activities/

Lara's language journey across Europe:

During this short journey, students will discover lots of similarities. European languages largely fall into three main categories: Slavic, Romance and Germanic, the languages within each group have the same roots – however, over centuries they have developed in their own distinct directions. You will also find out about their differences: the variety of alphabets (such as Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian and Georgian), often using artistic scripts; how they deal with creating words for new inventions and their sometimes mysterious origins. All have a unique identity and their own story to tell! 

Download book here

hybrid learning cartoon
https://edl.ecml.at/

Struggling to find ideas for a ‘socially-distanced’ event for this year’s European Day of Languages? In these uncertain times, it can be challenging to organize events which are both safe and are attractive to a large number of people. 

Here 7 ideas to get the creativity flowing:

Suggestions involving social distance

https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDayofLanguages/

Materials:

Posters, flyers, figures, wrist bands, stickers, logos, handbook & so.

Teachers and students can download here and here

screenshot Languages Challenges app

 https://apple.co/

App: The Secret Agent's Language Challenges app

An app, created specifically for the EDL, encourages users to carry out a series of language challenges, thereby developing further competence and confidence in using different languages.

The app offers a wide range of challenges to keep language learners motivated – in particular during a prolonged period away from the ‘physical’ language classroom. 

The app can easily be used by students/children independently or together with teachers and parents. Lots of fun and in more than 15 languages!

iOS: https://apple.co/3mq7qfz
Android: https://bit.ly/3hFp2QG

https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDayofLanguages/

Facts & fun:

"According to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order letters in a word are written; the only important factor is that the first and last letters should be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without any problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole."

• Languages facts
• Language games
• Languages fun

Here the page to learn, gaming and having fun.

Well, if you couldn't include the European Day of Languages into your school curriculum, you can do it next week. 

We are living different times, you are teaching in different times. Difficult times. So, be cool! Teachers can use the activities in different ways and propose them to students in the classroom when they think it will be important.

Be safe! Don't forget your mask and ask your students to use their masks as well. And out of school, always respect the social distance.

We will be all right!

G-Souto

25.09.2020

update 26.09.2024

Copyright © 2021G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools: European Day of Languages 20 Years : Celebrate at school or at home ! New resources & activities ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

 

Schools : World & EU Day Against Death Penalty : resources

World Day Against Death Penalty

https://deathpenalty.org/

On 10 October 2018, the 16th World Day Against the Death Penalty aims at  raising awareness on the inhumane living conditions of people sentenced to death.

UN

Every 10 October since 2003 the United Nations celebrates the World Day Against Death Penalty. The aim is to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. 

Its ultimate objective is to obtain the universal abolition of the death penalty. To achieve its goal, the World Coalition advocates for a definitive end to death sentences and executions in those countries where the death penalty is in force. In some countries, it is seeking to obtain a reduction in the use of capital punishment as a first step towards abolition.

Theme 2018:

"Overcoming the isolation of the people sentenced to death and their relatives."

One of the observations made by the World Coalition while doing the preliminary work for this year’s World Day, is the isolation in which the people sentenced to death might live.

European Day Against Death Penalty

https://www.coe.int/

The 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union have published a joint statement to mark the European and World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October.

The statement underlines the two organisations’ firm opposition to capital punishment in any circumstances.

It also calls on countries still using the death penalty to commute any existing sentences and to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as a first step towards abolition.

Europe against the Death Penalty from Council of Europe on Vimeo.

Through the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe has created a death penalty-free zone covering 47 countries and over 820 million people.

No executions have taken place in any Council of Europe member state for over 20 years.

Dignity For All

http://www.worldcoalition.org/

Education:

Of course, schools, teachers and students will take part at the World Day Against Penalty talking, discussing and participate in different activities into school curriculum.

Citizenship curriculum is about Human Rights and their values. But Human Rights and values are a cross-curricular theme. So every teacher can include it into the curriculum they are teaching, no matter the grade.

To know more about the death penalty...

... all over the world: read the facts & figures

... and living conditions on death row: read the leaflet, the detailed factsheet

Students:

Things students can do to help to end the death penalty

1.  Write to a prisoner on death row.

2.  Send support messages to their relatives.

3.  Organize a visit to prison following the World Coalition's guidelines.

4. Organize a school debate and a movie screening death penalty, or with families of people sentenced to death, exoneres, lawyers and experts. See mobilisation kit for useful tips!

5. Organize an art exhibition (of art work made by the people sentenced to death, of photographs of death row, of drawings or posters) or go to a theatre performance (movie or drama)

6.  Join the events prepared for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

7. Follow the social media campaign on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: #nodeathpenalty

Schools:

Mobilize the media to raise awareness on the issue of the death penalty.

Participate in “Cities Against the Death Penalty/Cities for Life” on 30 November 2018.

This year, for the world day Cities for Life on 30 November, more than 1.850 cities around the world will light up to say "No To The Death Penalty". Has the impossible become possible?

Cities For Life
http://www.worldcoalition.org/cities

About 80 cities participated in the first edition in 2002. More than 2,000 cities were listed to participate in 2015 in more than 90 countries on the five continents, including in countries that retain the death penalty.

The aim is to made use of symbolic monuments and squares to hold educational and artistic events aimed at raising public awareness. All cities taking part in the initiative make their major monuments available as “living logos”, which “speak” with the help of special illuminations, thus becoming symbols of a commitment to hold a dialogue with the population aimed at achieving a world without the death penalty.

~

Students against death penalty

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/

Resources:

True Crime 

Andrew Klavan, 1995

https://www.amazon.com/

Livres

True Crime, Andrew Klavan, 1995

Le Dernier Jour d'un Condammé
Victor Hugo, 1826
Lire en ligne sur Gallica BnF
https://gallica.bnf.fr/essentiels/hugo/dernier-jour-condamne

Death Man Walking

Tim Robbins, 1995

https://www.imdb.com/title/

Films:

Dead Man Walking/ Tim Robbins,1995 (up-16 year-old)

Based a true story: A nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.

The Life of David Gale/ Alan Parker, 2003 (up-14 years-old)

A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.

True Crime/ Clint Eastwood, 1999 (up-14-year-old)

Can an over-the-hill journalist uncover the evidence that can prove a death row inmate's innocence just hours before his execution? Based on the novel True Crime by Andrew Klavan, 1995

Links:

European Day Against Death Penalty
https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/10-october-against-death-penalty

Amnesty International/ Death Penalty
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/

5 Myths About the Death Penalty
https://deathpenalty.org/facts/5-myths-death-penalty/

Cities Against Death Penalty/ Leaflet Cities Against Death Penalty
http://www.worldcoalition.org/cities

"It is not 'progressive' to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life."

Pope Francis 

G-Souto

10.10.2018


Schools : World & European Day Against Death Penalty : resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Schools : Science : Cassini The Grand Finale + Resources

This artist's rendering shows NASA's Cassini spacecraft above Saturn's northern hemisphere, heading toward its first dive between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

After almost 20 years in space, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins the final chapter of its remarkable story of exploration: its Grand Finale.

Cassini launched in October 1997 and arrived at Saturn in July 2004. The end of mission is set for September 15, 2017.

Between April and September 2017, Cassini will undertake a daring set of orbits that is, in many ways, like a whole new mission. 

Following a final close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, Cassini will leap over the planet's icy rings and begin a series of 22 weekly dives between the planet and the rings.

Cassini will end its mission with 22 daring loops passing through the gap between Saturn and its rings
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Erick Sturm
http://www.esa.int/

No other mission has ever explored this unique region. What we learn from these final orbits will help to improve our understanding of how giant planets – and planetary systems everywhere – form and evolve.

It's always sad when a mission comes to an end. Cassini's finale plunge is a truly spectacular end for one of the most scientifically rich voyages yet undertaken in our solar system. 

From its launch in 1997 to the unique Grand Finale science of 2017, the Cassini-Huygens mission has racked up a remarkable list of achievements. 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

On 22 April, Cassini successfully executed its 127th and final close flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

The image presented here is a raw image sent back to Earth yesterday, taken on Saturday at 18:42 GMT. It is one of many that can be found in the Cassini raw image archive.

The manoeuvre put the spacecraft onto its ’grand finale’ trajectory: a series of 22 orbits, each lasting about a week, drawing closer to Saturn and passing between the planet's innermost rings and its outer atmosphere. The first crossing of the ring plane will occur on 26 April.

credits: NASA

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

The Cassini spacecraft was launched by NASA on October 15, 1997. It reached Saturn's orbit in July, 2004 and has been studying the planet and its moons ever since.

The fly through Saturn's rings is part of the last phase of Cassini's mission. Dwindling fuel reserves mean NASA will crash the craft into the planet - rather than risking any biological contamination of Saturn's moons by depositing it there.

Diving between Saturn's rings will start today, April 26 and the little spaceship will be taking pictures of whatever it can as it passes through the giant sheets of icy debris.

Google Doodle:

Google Doodle: Cassini Spacecraft Dives Between Saturn & its Rings

https://www.google.com/doodles/

This dramatic manoeuvre has inspired a Google Doodle that will run on the world's most famous homepage on April 26, 2017.

The importance of Cassini in Science:

As Cassini plunges past Saturn, the spacecraft will collect some incredibly rich and valuable information that was too risky to obtain earlier in the mission:

• The spacecraft will make detailed maps of Saturn's gravity and magnetic fields, revealing how the planet is arranged internally, and possibly helping to solve the irksome mystery of just how fast Saturn is rotating.
• The final dives will vastly improve our knowledge of how much material is in the rings, bringing us closer to understanding their origins.
• Cassini's particle detectors will sample icy ring particles being funneled into the atmosphere by Saturn's magnetic field.
• Its cameras will take amazing, ultra-close images of Saturn's rings and clouds.

Artist's concept of Cassini diving between Saturn and its innermost ring

NASA/JPL-Caltech

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

Why End the Mission?

By 2017, Cassini will have spent 13 years in orbit around Saturn, following a seven-year journey from Earth. The spacecraft is running low on the rocket fuel used for adjusting its course. If left unchecked, this situation would eventually prevent mission operators from controlling the course of the spacecraft.

Two moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan, have captured news headlines over the past decade as Cassini data revealed their potential to contain habitable – or at least "prebiotic” – environments.

In order to avoid the unlikely possibility of Cassini someday colliding with one of these moons, NASA has chosen to safely dispose of the spacecraft in the atmosphere of Saturn. This will ensure that Cassini cannot contaminate any future studies of habitability and potential life on those moons.

Cassini by numbers

credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

Education:

Since some of the last years we had the possibility to follow Cassini and its exploration.

The end is coming. And what a great event to follow with your students! Wow! And this time, students are all at school. No excuses. Propose your students this fantastic scientific event.

Most of us are excited about Cassini the Grand Finale! Of course, teachers and students, specially if you teach sciences and your students learn sciences, you will be even more excited. 

My usual readers know I don't teach sciences. I'm a Humanities specialist. But I'm a huge fan of science. Astronomy is my passion. Follow all these fantastic events that Jules Verne predicted in his books is amazing.

Graphics
credit: NASA
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

So don't miss this good live educational resource in the sky to enhance your Sciences lesson! Cassino Grand Finale

Students can access online to the the spacecraft Cassini and explore in detail all the resources made available by NASA.

You have a perfect and so complete real resource to include into your curriculum, in different moments.

Resources for students & teachers:

What we learn from these ultra-close passes over the planet could be some of the most exciting revelations ever returned by the long-lived spacecraft. 

This animated video tells the story of Cassini's final, daring assignment and looks back at what the mission has accomplished.

Join the Cassini orbiter in real time - or at any point during its epic mission. NASA's Eyes on the Solar System is a 3-D environment full of real NASA mission data. Explore the Saturnian system from your computer. Hop on a moon. Fly with Cassini. See the entire solar system moving in real time. It's up to you. You control space and time.

Cassini’s First Grand Finale Dive: Milestones

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/milestones/

Where is Cassini now?
Students van follow Cassini here

The Journey:
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7580/

Facts sheet: Cassini's Grand Finale

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/66/

Graphics: Orbit Plot: Cassini Grand Finale (Artist's Concept)

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/6007/?category=graphics

Giovanni Domenico Cassini 

Italian mathematician & astronomer

 https://alchetron.com/

Who was Giovanni Domenico Cassini?

Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an Italian mathematician and astronomer born in 1625.

He was the first person to notice the division of the rings of Saturn in 1675 and now, over 300 years later, a space probe bearing his name is orbiting the planet .

The Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997, was named after him and became the fourth to visit Saturn and the first to orbit the planet.

Social media:

Facebook : NASACassini

Twitter: @CassiniSaturn

Google + : NASA

Hope you are enjoying Cassini the Grand Finale as much as I do. Admiring the beauty of this awesome event. 

G-Souto

26.04.2017

Copyright © 2017G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Science : The Cassini Grand Finale + resources  by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Source: NASA/Cassini The Grand Finale