Raise your hand against smacking

Christmas time is the time of the year to spend with our loved ones, but anyway, children are the most important and the ones who live it with most passion... So it is a good moment, to spread the message of the new initiative of the Council of Europe.

There is a campaign on Spanish TV that I love. It is the campaign against corporal punishment for children, "Raise your hand against smacking" launched by the Council of Europe.

No religion, economic situation or "educational" method can justify hitting, smacking, spanking, abusing, humiliating, or any other practice that violates a child's dignity. It is internationally recognised in human rights law that children have a right to protection from all forms of violence, including corporal punishment in all settings – home, school, penal systems, care institutions. (Nothing can justify violence toward children on coe.int)

Christmas

Short video on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens on teachers.tv site


Synopsis

A quick burst of festive spirit, as Michael Rosen visits Charles Dickens' London home to explore his Christmas legacy.

Michael Rosen, Children's Laureate visits 48 Doughty St, the elegant townhouse in London where Dickens and his family once lived.

Now a museum, Michael looks at how the house could have inspired characters from Dickens' Christmas classic A Christmas Carol and views memorabilia from the time it was written.

The programme will give students and teachers an insight into how Dickens helped shape the Christmas we know today, as well as being a way to inject a bit of Christmas spirit in the classroom.

Read it here.

Learn more about A Christmas Carol here.
And here too

More methodology

Here you have some interesting tips on methodology. They are really good pieces of advice for language teachers. I strongly recommend this reading.

Orientaciones metodológicas. Junta de Andalucía.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On 10th December is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

United Nations Office of the High Comissioner for Human Rights.

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS. FULL TEXT (pdf) or web

Read the related news on United Nations website.
Visit the Council of Europe related news website.
Read the related news on Unesco website too.

Unesco has developed six internationally-agreed education goals that are aimed to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. Read a short presentation for children in my Primary English blog.

Watch this video by Amnesty International.