November 29th

Today we had a simple, yet interesting, peer teaching. One of our classmates asked us to sit in a circle and just talk. The idea was to share with the class the little things that  make us happy so that we didn't forget about them in these stressful times. Basically we are all in the last weeks of this semester and, as usual, it is a ridiculously stressful and exhausting period for everyone. I learned interesting things about my classmates (which is always valuable when you're not very good meeting new people), for instance, many of us enjoy being barefooted, some enjoy laying on the grass, others being with their pets, watching sunsets, looking at the clouds, and so many other things. Something that I personally enjoy a lot is starting seeds because I love the contact with the soil, the water and the sunlight.

image from this awesome article about conversation circles

 The activity was brilliant because we don't really have many instances to share this kind of things on a regular basis, besides, it was quite relaxing for everyone according to what I noticed.

Now, some of the potential uses of this activity in the EFL classroom could be:

- Teaching likes and dislikes. In fact, it could be done in smaller groups so that everyone gets their chance to participate, and so that the activity doesn't last for too long.

- For younger students (or older students who like drawing), we could ask them to draw what makes them happy and then explain it either in front of the class or to a partner (depends on time constrains and on group dynamics)

- If we ask them to draw or write a description first, then we could do the typical activity find someone who..., in which they would have to find someone who likes something similar to what they like, someone who wrote/drew something they don't like at all, someone who wrote/drew something completely different from the rest, etc.

I think it is a nice activity that can be done at the beginning of a course, so that students get to meet one another, or at the end of a course, when everyone is stressed, in order to help them calm down a little like in our case.