Remembrance Day - a Piece of History

I think it is important to tell students some information about English speaking countries traditions and history. Thanks the American movies many people know about 4th July and Thanksgiving. Unfortunately in many cases they have no idea why are those days important.
Today I want to mention Remembrance Day. If you watched the news this week you must have seen David Cameron wearing a poppy on his suit. "It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918 (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice)" Wikipedia.
So if you are going to be in Commonwealth 11th November don't be surprised about two minutes silence at 11 am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQyhVXUwM0&feature=related

The Guardian weekly - great reading activities

We all know that reading a newspaper is a great way to improve your language skills and enrich your vocabulary . Many students do not have time to read English newspaper every day or they just simply can not be bothered. Excellent newspaper-based activities can be found in The Guardian.  The material have different levels and are ready for you to print. I think it is a good way to bring the newspaper closer to your students.

Funny and endificatory stories for students

When teaching in companies where people are very often stressed and tired you need something to entertain them while still learning English. As a good tool for this kind of reading I use a page called Darwin awards- The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it... The stories are true stories which are very often unbelievable and surprise the readers by mental processes of the participants.