Today I’d like to share with you an idea of a lesson which I particularly like as it allows students to learn more about themselves and their priorities. I first came across the concept of ‘The Jar of Life’ at the psychological workshop about two years ago and it made a huge impression on me. I decided to share it with my students and every now and then I would come to the classroom carrying a jar, golf balls, a bag of pebbles and some sand. Now, I can use a video from youtube, but I guess a live presentation is more interesting for students, so have a go at it!

You’ll find the photocopiable handouts below.

The moment I saw Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk I knew I had to create a lesson on it – it’s such an inspiring speech that I felt everyone should learn about it ? I’ve been working on the lesson plan for a while, constantly rewriting, correcting, tweaking and modifying the content of it. Ta-da! It’s finally ready, waiting for your B2+ lessons with teenagers and adults. It might serve as an incentive for discussion but it is not only a ‘speaking’ lesson. For me, it is more of a life skills lesson, as students can prepare for all the important but stressful situations in life such as an English exam or a job interview. To be quite honest, I believe that this TED Talk is also great for us, teachers, as we can brush up our knowledge of body language and at the same time learn how to deal with stressful situations  – it can come in handy should you want to change your job in the near future ; )

The lesson is based on the concept of power posing, which is tightly interwoven with body language and the question: ‘Can our body change our mind?’ If you want to know how you can change the way you feel about yourself (and the level of hormones in your body as well!), watch this fantastic TED talk by Amy Cuddy. This is truly an idea worth spreading!

This activity is a continuation of the lesson about clothes & stereotypes, however, this time the focus of the activity is put on the image of girls. Are women the weaker sex? What does it mean to do something ‘like a girl’? I have a strong suspicion that when you read ‘like a girl’ you had an image of a person who is not capable of doing something correctly, in a right way – it is more of a caricature,  isn’t it?

This phenomenon is perfectly shown in an advert  (or a campaign, to be more precise) made by Always. It is striking how a single image of doing something ‘like a girl’ varies with age – young children are not spoiled by the stereotypes and they know that doing something like a girl means that you do something as well you can and the word ‘girl’ is a simple description of the gender. But there comes a time when everything changes and this expression becomes an insult… Time to change that!