This year celebrates the 76th Annual Academy Awards and we are proud to say that our very own Peter Jackson has been nominated for Best Director for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. This film has gathered 11 award nominations! Which film do you think will be voted as the best? Ask your students or take a poll. It could be a fun activity to do at the end of class!

Hot Topic: Oscars
We all know that the best actors in the world are teachers! Our performance in the classroom is in front of a live and critical audience, and day after day we have to be fresh and lively. So I was disappointed to see that NONE of us were in the list of Oscar nominations announced this week. Oh well, at least there are a whole lot of Instant Lessons about Oscars and movies and actors to help us hide our disappointment! Here are a couple of suggestions or you can browse 'The Movies' in the library for lots more:

• "Academy Rewards" Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate - The theft and recovery of the Oscar statuettes.
• "Smile" Pre-Intermediate - British actor Michael Caine says that he has learned to perfect the loser's smile at the Hollywood Oscar ceremony.
• "Last of LOTR" Advanced - Peter Jackson, director of "The Lord Of The Rings" is sad but also relieved that the LOTR movies are finished.
• "Chow Yun-Fat" Pre-Intermediate - Movie star Chow Yun-Fat, hero of the kung-fu epic "Crouching Tiger," says the key to staying young is stupidity!
• "Ryan or Cows?" Elementary - Meg Ryan or a herd of cattle? What would you choose? New Zealand born actor Russell Crowe chose the cows.
• "The Hardest Year of My Life" Intermediate - This lesson is about how difficult it is to be married to Brad Pitt... (Huh?!)

Featured Lessons - February 14: Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day: a day when students bring chocolate and other gifts for their teachers. (Well, we can keep hoping!) There is a great selection of lessons that you'll enjoy doing with your students.
Visit the featured lessons page here.

Teacher Tip: My students believe games are a waste of time!

• Explain goals first, review afterwards.
• Students teach each other a language point in lecture fashion, then again via a game. Ask them which method was more memorable.
• Students list different skills used when learning traditionally / via a game. They’ll be surprised!

Here are this week's new resources:

Upper-Intermediate Instant Workbook - Believing the Web
Can the Web Be Believed? Not Always, Study Finds.
Skills: Grammar, multiple choice. Finding mistakes.

Elementary Instant Lesson - A Very Long Life
The oldest woman in Albania -- and perhaps in the world -- has died at the age of 123. She was buried next to her husband whom she hated because she was forced to marry him when she was 14 years old. (Old age, men and women, talking about different periods in history, understanding the headline, scanning, comprehension, guessing unfamiliar words, numbers, word find.)

Advanced Instant Lesson - Swaziland Crisis
Desperate HIV-positive Swazis are lining up in droves to try the latest "miracle AIDS cures", falling victim to patchy medical regulation in a country with one of the world's highest HIV infection rates. (HIV / AIDS, bogus 'wonder drugs', con artists, Swaziland, developing countries, brainstorming and problem solving, Find Your Other Half Game, placing headlines, matching information, scanning, differentiating fact from opinion, true or false, running dictation, discussion.)

Anna Grammar - Structure en "OF"
What's wrong with, "the dog of my mother"?

Weekly Warmer - Hide The Words
This is a good way to get students, especially children, to remember vocabulary that was taught before.

Click here to access this week's new resources.

Quote of the week:
"I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn't been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they'd given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I'm an Aries. I never lose." - Bette Davis.

Have a great week teaching!
The English-To-Go Team.
www.english-to-go.com
E-mail: sales@english-to-go.com