Fragile in Sidi Bou Said!

How fragile you are! How fragile our world is! Your heart is fragile! Fragile images breaking up the world!

Fragility is the theme of the newest exhibition at the Galerie Municipal in Sidi Bou Said.

Fragility is the latest trend in comtempory art and impacts politics,economics and society at large.
Are fragile countries,fragile economies and fragile governments affecting art?pop

The Fragile event begins in the village of Sidi Bou Said famed for its poets and painters apparently 50% of the population are painters and the other 50% are poets! The event will travels to other Mediterranean countries and will return to Tunisia where the result of the entire process will be seen.

The photographer,Lilia El Golli, has focused on the theme of social fragiltiy via her photographs of the rubbish collectors in Sidi Bou Said who work at night. Her photographs show an insight into the world of a thankless task of clearing away the rubbish in the street.

Another exhibitor has illustrated  the fragile society and the feelings of manipulation and media 'lies' .

Tunisia is in a state of fragility;when the Fragility event returns here from its Mediterranean journey will Tunisia have escaped its fragility and formed a stable government?

Lets wait and see.
Meanwhile try and see the exhibition before it departs on the 6th April!

MENA Teacher Conference in Dubai 2013

Teaching English Radio ' Live from El Kef ! '

This month Teaching Radio English came from the city El Kef !  a city in the north-west of Tunisia and not far from the border of Algeria.The city is well-known for its Byzantine kasbah and the nearby 'Jugurtha's Table Mountain ' ,actually it's 50 miles/60 km south west of the city so perhaps not so near! By the way it's a great place for a picnic sitting on the edge of the lunarscape 'table mountain,but watch out for those big cracks !

Click here for more information on El Kef

The centre of El Kef.

The view from the Kasbah !

Another first for Teaching English Radio!, it's the first time that a English programme has been broadcasted from Radio El Kef! The studio audience included local Primary and Secondary teachers from El Kef and Dalia Adel,British Council Regional Projects Manager based in Cairo,Eygpt.

Today the programme discussed the practical benefits and problems of group and pair work activities.

Some of the key points that were discussed:

• Pair work is useful for sharing reading, writing or grammar tasks, but especially effective as a way to give students an opportunity  to speak and try out language for themselves.
• It’s important to start using pair and group work from the very first lesson.Grouping weaker and stronger students together is very useful as it enables stronger students to help their peers.

• Putting stronger with stronger and weaker with weaker allows students to work at their own pace and level. Teachers can then give extra challenges to the stronger ones and more support to the weaker ones.

The studio audience all agreed on the positive aspects of pair and group work and one of the Primary teachers mentioned its role on a social level as well as the language level,working together and teamwork are key elements in the real world.One person pointed out that though group work is beneficial the weaker students tend to hide behind the stronger ones and thus not make any effort in the group activities.Overall,the teachers said that pair and group activities allowed the students to become more confident in their speaking and to express themselves.

The audience of teachers at the CREFOC Centre,which also included three young female  trainee teachers,agreed that it was important to start pair and group activities right at the beginning of a course and also to clearly set up the rules so that the students soon get used to such activities.

The example 'running dictation' activity that was mentioned relating to collocations and the topic of weddings should go down well in a Tunisian classroom especially as the season of weddings soon approaches!

click
http://www.radiotunisienne.tn/rtci/sounds/anglais/anglais06032013.mp3
to hear the complete programme!

The teachers at the CREFOC Centre deep in thought !

Well,it's goodbye from El Kef !

Next month's programme will be on the topic of 'Teaching Listening';so remember to tune in for more tips and activities and of course more chances of winning some great prizes!

Patric

Hello everybody.
This is my first time on a blog and I'm glad it's Patric's.
Unfortunately, these days my job's taking a big part of my time. It's the reason why I'll write just a couple of things.
At first, even though it's strange for me to be on the other side of the blackboard, I'm really happy to be in my first session with all of you and with our teacher Patric.
Then, I hope I'll soon have more time to write longer and tell you more about my life !

By the way Patric, I hope you'll enjoy your stay in Dubai.
Take care and see you all very soon.
Réda.