Happy Holidays!

So it is time to take a break - see you in 2019! 

Happy Holidays!/Pernilla 

We are singing Christmas songs to American students - and vice versa

Word of the week - yuletide

Word of the week - xenophobia

Word of the week - verbose

Short films for Christmas

Snowman: 

Love is a gift: 

The supporting act:

Word of the week - persevere

Snapshot from today - starting to read The Underground Railroad

Word of the week - kerfuffle

Skyping with the Flipgrid team and a school in Budapest during Skypeathon

I have recently started my planning for the 24-hour Skypeathon that we will conduct in March at our school. Microsoft's and Skype's own Skypeathon took place on November 13-14 and we decided to join by taking part in two sessions only, due to our own version coming up in a few months.

The first session was on November 14 with the Flipgrid Team in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Great session with four employees at Flipgrid that were curious about our country and students, while my students had prepared a few questions to ask the staff, regarding their company, city and country. Need I say that Donald Trump also came into the discussion?

The Flipgrid crew in Minneapolis:

Tweet from Jim Leslie from the Flipgrid team

The next session was with a class in Budapest, Hungary. Their teacher's name was Gabriella and she guided her students through the session with a great deal of professionalism. The focal point of the session were the differences between our schools and countries.

Gabriella's students in Budapest:

Word of the week - agog

Word of the week - ameliorate

An oldie goldie - bookmarks with inspirational quotes

READ by pnillaelander

Word of the week - cantankerous

Word of the week - lucid

Word of the week - digress

Word of the week - garish

20 historical words that we should bring back

Oh, are you feeling crapulous? :)

Word of the week - forte

Snapshots from the Gothenburg Book Fair

Yesterday we visited the Gothenburg Book Fair with our students in year 1. It is always one of the highlights of the year and, personally, I love the ambience it hosts. Yesterday I also had the chance to attend seminars and at the end of the day I felt very inspired by all the talks I had listened to during the day. Author Jacqueline Woodson spoke about how to create realistic characters and about how her love of basketball is a recurring element in her books. It was an entertaining session where I got to understand a little bit more about the process of producing a creative work like a young adult book.

ALMA-recipient Jacqueline Woodson talking to Maria Lassén-Seger during the seminars on Thursday.

Lucy Crehan gave an intriguing speech in the morning too when she spoke about how Sweden compared to other countries with regard to the results in the PISA rankings. Towards the end the conclusion was made that Sweden had a few things to be proud of and a few to improve. The things to be proud of, according to Crehan, can be seen below. 

photo from Lucy Crehan's lecture on Thursday.

In the afternoon I listened to Jon Keegan in a visually impressive lecture about "Visual Journalism in the Trump Era". The 45 minutes flew by far too fast.

photo:  Jon Keegan and his lecture "Visual Journalism in the Trump Era"