Activities to captivate my students

[Belmondo]

I am now a Tourism and Economy teacher in Portugal and it's not easy. The kids (ages 16-19) are ruthless critics and the school has no money.

So, what can I do to make classes more interesting?

Here are some of the activities I've already tried:

a) A trip on the Ho-Ho bus around the city of Funchal. The kids loved it!

b) We did a blog about tourism.

c) Role playing: the kids worked in groups and did a job interview for an airline company. Then the whole class selected the best candidate and I surprised the two winners with movie tickets!

d) Lots and lots of short videos (long feature films don't work, classrooms are too uncomfortable for that).

e) Poster design: they loved this one, too!

f) Lots of field trips: the international airport of Madeira and a travel agency are next on the list.

Any other ideas?

 

[somone uk]

(ages 16-19)

This

 

[DoctorHouse]

Have the kids create their own Theme Park that would attract alot of tourism. A Prize to the 3 best ideas. Have the class vote on whose idea is the best once they present it to the class.

 

[Belmondo]

Have the kids create their own Theme Park that would attract alot of tourism.

This is excellent.

I wish I had thought of this when we were studying the different types of hotels & resorts. We're not familiar with theme parks here in Madeira but a resort could have worked.

A Prize to the 3 best ideas. Have the class vote on whose idea is the best once they present it to the class.

I'm not so sure about this part, though. It's not easy to choose the best ideas in this case (i.e. too ambiguous and vague).

We did that with the job interview (I gave movie tickets to the best students)but the objectives of the activity were simple and clear.

Thank you very much, House!

Any other ideas, guys?

 

[HughJass]

some kind of fundraising activity.....




Which will pay for a brutal survival course to be held in one the most inhospitable, unforgiving and harsh environments in the world.




It will build character.

 

[DoctorHouse]

Belmondo, I always thought every child was familiar with Disney theme parks.

 

[Belmondo]

Belmondo, I always thought every child was familiar with Disney theme parks.

Disney characters are not as popular as they used to be.

They know who Mickey Mouse and Donald duck are, of course, but they don't care.

All they're interested now is Lady Gaga and Facebook.

 

[Belmondo]

We don't have Disney theme parks here in Madeira but we do have lots of cruise ships. A visit to one of those would be great...

(We even had the visit of a Disney cruise ship after the terrible storm of February 20th that killed over 30 people and almost ruined the local economy; it was really wonderful of them to pay us a visit at the time, God bless them)

 

[Belmondo]

some kind of fundraising activity.....
[...]

Yes, but with these kids it would have to be something really simple...