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![Profile picture of Tugce Cankaya Simpson]()
Tugce Cankaya Simpson posted in the group 2.7 What would be your top tips?
Great tips thanks! I will repeat myself, but I wanted to put my tips on this page as well:
Tip 1: Do not just throw out an environmental theme/topic in the middle of a lesson or course here and there. Think about the language focus, vocabulary focus and target skills. So use eco-friendly topics for to foster contextualised language learning.
Tip 2: Do not let them passively listen to you! Make them work, think creatively, participate actively. You can achieve this by a project task to get their hands dirty with the topic.
Tip 3 (a FUNNY series of tips from Teacher Tugce 🙂) Make sure that they do not waste too much resource while cleaning their hands that they have been keeping dirty with the lesson, that they put their full potential “(renewable) energy” into the material, “recycle” the material and the target language in the materials, and please do “dispose” these “tips” with care after use.4 Comments-
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![Profile picture of Tugce Cankaya Simpson]()
I haven’t started with my ESOL college students yet – as their classroom dynamic is a bit different just for now. They need to settle a bit more and feel more relaxed. Then I’ll be planning things for them. But I have done things with my young adult and adult learners. We contributed to a huge project by planting trees. That was very exciting! Now we have a small wood in a big forest. We have been involved in more activist part with my adult learners as well – which I would not prefer to mention here, to be honest. 🙂 I can only quote from a poem here “To live like a tree alone and free, and in brotherhood like the forests. This yearning is ours”. N. Hikmet.
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![Profile picture of Ben Crompton]()
Wonderful! Tree planting is such a great cause to be involved in. One of the schools in a region nearby set up a forest planting project with its learners, with the long term aim of reforesting a hillside that has been left desolate by decades of olive farming. I wonder how feasible it would be for your ESOL learners to be part of a college-based project, whereby they produce something (be it posters, advice, give a talk, etc.) for other members of the college community?
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![Profile picture of Tugce Cankaya Simpson]()
That’s a great idea! I wonder this could be a project for an environmentally significant day for the upcoming academic year? I’ll think harder. 🤔
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Oh I LOVE number three – takes me back to my art lessons at school when you’d be vigorously scrubbing the paint off your hands with nothing but icy cold water in that giant sink. Wonderful! I wholeheartedly agree with all your tips here, Tugce, and I could talk at length about this. I do reckon that one of the reasons why teachers are often so scared to bring sustainability into the classroom is for fear of becoming that lecturer teacher that makes their learners passively listen to them, and yes, they need to be actively involved.
I wonder, have you done anything in class to achieve this, and to get your learners thinking more actively and creatively about these issues? If a teacher came to you and asked for your advice in making environmental issues more active in the classroom, what would you tell them?