I make a new PowerPoint calendar every year. In this post, I would like to introduce you to the Class Calendar 2018.
Class calendars are calendars specific to the needs and interests of the class. They mark important days your students need to be aware of and days they are looking forward to. Class calendars are supposed to be informative and motivational.
Click on the link below to download the Class Calendar template
Download the 2018 Class Calendar template
The template contains 13 slides. A title slide and a slide for each month of the year.
The slides can be inserted into any presentation.
The slides in the template are blank but they are easy to customize.
The examples above show how the calendar can be customized to suit the months and the seasons.
The calendar can be use images that reflect the seasons, holidays or festivals that occur within the months, or images of your students’ interests. For example, their favorite bands, movies, TV shows or video games.
Customizing the Class Calendar
The graphic below illustrates how images can be inserted into the class calendar.
If you would like to zoom in, click on the graphic below for a larger image or follow the instructions below.
These instructions are for Microsoft® PowerPoint®. Editing procedures may differ in other presentation software. However, the core principles should remain the same.
Insert a background image
Go to the insert ribbon
Click on the insert pictures icon
Choose a picture online or from your local drive
Click insert
Resize the picture so that it is the same size as the slide
Click on the format ribbon
Click on send backward
Click on send to back
The picture will now appear as a background to the calendar
Format the slide background as an image
Go to the slide view pane on the left-hand side of the screen.
Select the month you want to edit
Right-click on the slide
Select Format Background
In the background options, select picture or texture fill
Click on file
Select an image from your local drive
Click insert
The picture will now appear as a background to the calendar
I have used my own images in this article, but if you want to find seasonal images for your own classroom calendars, try https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics.
When you have added your own background, add your events by clicking on the table and typing them within the boxes for the relevant days.
Suggestions for a Class Calendar
Numbers and dates
Students use months and days regularly to discuss their own schedules. A class calendar is a great way to practise ordinal numbers and the phrases used to talk about time e.g. What are we doing in two weeks’ time? What happens on the 25th? What happens a week on Friday?
Discuss important dates
A classroom calendar is also a way to keep students regularly informed about important dates and events. Whether it is a school event or an upcoming test, a class calendar keeps these events at the forefront of the students’ minds.
National Holidays
If you are teaching abroad, a class calendar provides you the opportunity to talk about the national holidays of the country you are living in and teach the students the names of those holidays in English. This gives the students the ability to talk about their national holidays in language they are learning.
Holidays and Festivals from Around the World
You may also want to include holidays and festivals around the world. It not only gives you the chance to talk about your own culture, but you can also introduce other festivals the students may be less familiar with. The class calendar is a great launching pad into cultural topics.
Fun Days
You can also include fun days, such as: National High-five day, Talk like a pirate day, or Pocky (A popular snack from Japan) Day. These kinds of days can bring a little humour and curiosity to the room. Encourage the students to be creative and come up with ideas for their own unique holiday or fun days.
Svetlana Kandybovich from ELT-Cation suggests:
You may also plan your future together and talk about learning preferences or some fun activities that your learners would like to do at your classes, and schedule some special events. Source: Passing the Barriers – ELT-CATION
So, if you have any activities that your learners particularly like or movies and music they would like to learn from, you might want to mark them on the calendar to help motivate your students.
And once your class calendar has been prepared, use it to your and your students’ benefit by making it a part of your class routine.
Do you use class calendars? How have you been using them?
Please leave a comment if you have any ideas you would like to share.
Thanks for reading and take care!
The calendar was created in Microsoft PowerPoint® 2016. Microsoft® Office® is a copyrighted product of the Microsoft® corporation. All images are for educational purposes only.
Additional graphics were made with Adobe Photoshop 2017.
Seasonal images were taken by the author of the article.
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