Do you want to learn Swedish online? Then be sure to check out Paula's videos: www.youtube.com/@LearnSwedishwithPaula.
Even for those who don't want to learn Swedish, I really recommend checking out her videos. This is a really good example of how to make language "comprehensible." It is remarkable how often Paula repeats the phrases!
Then again, learning Spanish can be done with Albert Subirats: www.youtube.com/@alsuvi.teacher
Albert only tells stories using the technique of Story-Listening. He draws everything while he is telling in order to give meaning to what he is telling. In addition, he still uses a lot of gestures and facial expressions to explain difficult words.
Paula and Albert's videos are truly gems!

​This school year I decided to permanently switch to a "Deskless Classroom" system. In the past I had done this several times with the modules of the lowest levels, but this time I continued to do it throughout the modules. The school year is slowly coming to an end and so it is time to compare the pros and cons.
First and foremost, what is a deskless classroom? What does that mean?
In a 'deskless classroom' the tables are not in a classic U-shape. Instead, they are put aside and the students sit in a semicircle.

​This way my students can easily see the board and walk around the space at the front of the classroom. My tables are against the wall (behind the chairs) and the students only sit at a table when they have to complete a written exercise independently.
​Benefits of a "Deskless Classroom":

1. Better engagement: The semi-circle arrangement promotes visual and verbal interaction and communication between students and teachers. I find that my students are much more focused without a table in front of them. After all, they can't secretly look at their cell phone all the time, leaf through their book, ...
   And they can't put their heads on the table to take a nap (more than once in the past a student put his or her head on the table and closed their eyes)!
2. Flexibility: Moving around the room at the front of the classroom and going to the tables against the wall for written exercises provides a dynamic learning environment that can be adapted to different activities. Here too, I notice more focus among the students and automatically more structure within myself. For example, I first explain an exercise to the class on the board (because the students are not yet sitting at their table, they cannot start yet but must first listen to the explanation. Only then do they sit at a table to quietly do the exercise. Here too they are less distracted because they sit with their heads to the wall.
3. Collaboration and communication: The format supports group discussions and collaboration, while also allowing room for individual, targeted activities. Students can quickly create groups by simply taking a seat and joining the appropriate group. If they do need a table, they take one in the back. I must confess that we have "single tables" which are so much more convenient because they are quite small and easy to handle).
4. Active learning: The design encourages active learning through movement and interaction, creating a flexible environment that can be adapted to different teaching scenarios. I also think of Brain Breaks or plays, tableaux vivants, ... that can easily be performed.

Of course, there are also a number of disadvantages to a deskless classroom.

1. Infrastructure / time investment: Not every classroom can simply be "transformed" into a deskless classroom. If there are large tables in a classroom, this may not go as smoothly. In the school where I work, the classrooms are large and the desks are small (see also photos). Ideal for setting up a deskless classroom. But because I am almost the only teacher who works deskless, I have to put all the tables aside before the lesson and put everything back after the lesson. I consider this a major disadvantage for myself.
2. ​Distraction and Discipline: Some students have difficulty with the less structured environment. It requires a lot of classroom management to work in this way and to ensure that flexibility is not at the expense of the learning objectives.
3. ​​More tiring to teach: I find it much more tiring to teach this way. On the one hand because it requires so much classroom management, and on the other hand because the students participate so much more actively and I therefore have to be more focused.

All in all, I mainly see the benefits, both for the students and for myself. I certainly don't want to go back to the U-shape with tables!

I appoint a "Brainbreak Manager" to each lesson. ​This student is responsible for the brain breaks within this lesson. He/she may ask for a brain break when necessary.
​During class work I always use a Google presentation. I put the symbol you see here at the top right of the slides. Only when I do an exercise where I prefer not to be interrupted, I don't put a symbol.
​However, when there is a symbol and the Brainbreak Manager gives me a sign that it is time for a Brainbreak, I immediately stop and click on the symbol that has a link to the website with the brainbreaks. The brainbreak manager determines which brainbreak we do.
This works really well!

From Thursday, May 9 to Saturday, May 11, I was invited to give a Dutch Language lab at the CI conference (Funn) in Frankfurt. It was the 3th edition of the conference and the 2nd time for me to go. It was great to be there again. I met so much lovely people, I could work with a fantastic group and I had the opportunity to attend some really good presentation where I got really inspired.
Here are a few photos and a link to a video with testimonials: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7R-wuUDnKA 

​Peter's casserole is one of my favorite stories. It is originally a story by Nasreddin Hoca. Nasreddin Hoca's stories are usually very short. For that reason I edited the story and eventually it became "Peter's casserole". So this story seems a bit familiar to many students, precisely because it is based on a folk tale that is passed on from generation to generation.
This story is for a beginner level (yet not for absolute beginners).

I only use 2 pictures while telling the pan. One photo to explain the word "old" and a photo of a calendar to visually "count" the days. For the rest I draw the full story.

Above you see the story as I usually draw it while telling (in Dutch).

​​When I say "How many?" then Hasan must stand up and shout, "One, two, three or more!"
When I say "Where?", Cimen stands up and shouts, "Here or there!"
And if I say "What is he/she doing?", then Habibe shouts " Eating, drinking, working, sleeping!"
My other assistants are the supporters, the timekeeper and the Brain Break guard. Every class I ask 3 people to support. This means that if the student answers well, they positively support the student in question (Wow! Good job! Super! Fantastic!). This is a coveted task in my current group. And they do it well, too. Often a student who is not as language proficient, but still gives a good answer, even gets a round of applause!
The timekeeper tells me when it's time for recess or when class is done, the Brain Breakkeeper tells me when it's time for a Brain Break. We do 2 to a maximum of 3 brain breaks per class. It is very helpful to have an assistant for this because before you know it, the class hour is over and you haven't thought of doing a Brain Break (even though it is necessary). 
At first, my students thought the Brain Breakers were a little weird and they were a little uncomfortable with it. By now, most of them like it and see the point. Once they know all the brain breaks, the assistant can choose which Brain break we do (I have cards with pictures of the Brain breaks for them to choose from). 

​A long time ago I received the link to a video from Alike Last - Thank you, Alike!
It was an Anansi story told by Mara The Storyteller. I was so excited! The way Mara tells the story is simply sublime! The story is not very simple and there is a lot of talk about food, especially about African cuisine. But it is a very nice story, especially if you have a group with several African students. they will certainly know these dishes! And by the way, nothing is more fun than talking about food. O dear! Is that the Anansi in me coming up now? 

The story as Mara The Storyteller tells it is quite long and complex - especially if you are working with low-skilled students. For that reason, I simplified the story a bit. I also use photos of the typical African dishes that are talked about, to make the story more comprehensible.
At first I had no idea how to draw this story. And so I asked my colleague Marijke Renneboog for advice. And she immediately drew the whole story for me. Thank you very much, Marijke!

In this video you can see Mara The Storyteller telling the story of Anansi.

I am using ChatGPT more and more for my classes. 
As a "snack," I like to give my students a dilemma. At one point I ran out of inspiration and turned on ChatGPT. I got some really nice suggestions. You just have to be careful to make the prompt as clear as possible. The clearer your prompt is, the better results you will get from ChatGPT.
I asked the following question to ChatGPT:
Can you give me about 20 dilemma questions for my Dutch students? I want questions where students have to choose between 2 choices. My students are adults and have a very low language level. They are currently halfway through grade 1.1 of the CEFR. The students do not know each other very well yet. Therefore, the questions should be rather non-committal in nature.
This is what I get as a result when I ask 20 dilemma questions in English:

A Podcast I really enjoy listening to on my way to or from work is "The Motivated Classroom" by Dr. Liam Printer.
​This Podcast is about Comprehensible Input, but with motivation in mind. 
Highly recommended!

I had the honor and pleasure of being a guest myself in episode 95, an episode about "Trauma-informed teaching with illiterate students."​
www.liamprinter.com/podcast.html

I first heard this story at the conference in Agen (2019) where Myriam Gelaude presented it at a coaching session. I immediately loved it. 
Meanwhile I found out that the story was originally written by Keith Faulkner. ​The story as I heard it from Myriam is not quite the same.

About 4 years ago I told this story for the first time in class, but it was so difficult to draw it. I could see on the faces of my students that they were not "seeing" what I was drawing. Frankly, I have to say that I hadn't prepared the story - and especially the drawings - enough. Since that lesson, I always draw the story I want to tell a few times in advance. If I can't draw something, I search the internet for drawings and then I practice until I can draw it as best I can. And sometimes I look for other solutions like I did here. I now draw part of the story and work with photos for the rest and that works perfect!

I got this story from Caluke van Hoften. It is originally a Spanish folk tale.
I like the story for several reasons:

1. It's funny (I'm not so keen on sad stories or stories that end badly)
2. You can easily adapt it to a lower or higher language level
3. It really is a story for adult students.

The story as I got it from Caluke was a bit more difficult. Because my students have a low language level, I have simplified it a little bit.

I am still very reluctant to draw. I am practicing a lot because I really do believe in this method. But I try to progress in small steps. It is not that I cannot draw at all, but I draw very slowly. And although the intention of drawing is  that you slow down the telling, if you draw too slowly, the story looses its flow. And that is not good either. Hence I replace the things I find difficult to draw with a picture or a drawing (which I print and laminate) and everything else I draw.
In this case I looked for drawings of the farmer, the professor and the train. To sufficiently slow down the story, I describe both persons while pointing out everything. That way, students will hear the words 'farmer' and 'professor' several times. I repeat the word 'train' by adding a few elements to the story:

• The train runs through the forest (easy to draw)
• The train runs along a meadow with a sheep (a cow was still too difficult to draw :-))
• The train runs through the tunnel
• etc.

​Another good advice I got from Caluke: make sure you have some more space to draw the mountain. Draw the wagon on the right side of the whiteboard, so that you can draw the mountain on the left. After all, it is very important that the students understand the farmer's question!

This summer, at the online conference "A witch in Agen", I attended Megan Hayes' workshop  "I told a story.  Now what?". She talked about activities that you can do after you've told a story in class. A very interesting workshop!
I told my colleague Marijke Renneboog about it and together we "translated" Megan Hayes' document into a document with activities you can do with adults or adolescents (Megan Hayes works with children, that's why we couldn't use her document integrally for our target group).
You can download the document below (see button below the picture).

I definitely want to thank Megan Hayes, on the one hand for the inspiring workshop she gave us, on the other hand for allowing me to post this document on my weblog. 
Again, her document was our 'starting point' to make this document. She deserves the honor!

I hope I have explained everything clearly and comprehensibly. As you know, with this blog I want to practice my English. So it is quite possible that some sentences might seem a bit funny. I apologize in advance. Comments to improve my English are always welcome :-)

A few months ago I attended a workshop "PQA" with Kirstin Plante and Carmen Meester.
I had already seen Justin Slocum Bailey and Sabrina Sebban-Janczak at work in Agen, where they also did a PQA with us. So I was convinced of the value of this method.
Already in the 1st week of september I tried to do a PQA with my students, but that was disappointing! I soon realized that a good PQA is so much more than a 'class discussion' with your students. And so I was very happy to have the opportunity to attend the workshop with Kirstin and Carmen. I still find it difficult to find 'good questions' for a PQA, because the 'quality' of your PQA depends entirely on the questions you ask.
So, if you have already done a nice PQA with your students, let me know the question you asked. You would do me a great favor.

A while ago (before the lockdown) I asked my students the following question: "Which country would you like to visit once? Suppose you can travel anywhere. Money or papers are no problem, you can choose wherever you go. Which country is your favorite country? Which country would you really want to visit once?".
Everyone was given a sheet of paper and colored pencils. I asked my students to draw the flag of that country in the middle of the page (if they didn't know the flag, they could look it up on their cell phone via Google).
Then I asked them some additional questions. They had to draw the answers to those questions around the flag. To make sure everyone understood the questions correctly, I used the presentation you can download below.
While they were drawing, I walked around and told what they had drawn. E.g. "Oh, you would like to go to Morocco. And you want to go with your husband and your children. And I see that you want to go by car. And you want to go during the summer holidays. Do you want a holiday home or do you want to go to a hotel? ... ".
The questions I asked with the presentation were:

• Which country would you like to visit once?
• When would you like to visit that country? In which season or in which month?
• How long would you like to stay in that country? (a week, a few weeks, a few months, a year, ...)
• Who would you like to visit that country with? Would you like to go alone or rather with your family or friends?
• How would you like to visit that country? Would you like to travel by plane or by train? By bus or by car? Or would you like to cycle? ...
• If you are in that country, where would you like to stay? Would you like to stay in a hotel? Or do would you rent a holiday home? Or would you take the caravan or tent with you? ...

It was easy to clarify all these words through the photos on the presentation.

As I walked around in the classroom, I also checked who would go to a hotel. After all, I wanted to make a story with them about a holiday in a hotel (after the PQA). My colleague Marijke Renneboog had already done a TPRS story about a hotel with her students and she was very enthusiastic about it. And so I also wanted to try it out.
When everyone had finished his/her drawing, I asked the questions again. If the students were unable to answer immediately, they could point to the answer on their drawing and I could express what was on the drawing. When I noticed that a student preferred not to speak (after all, not everyone likes to be the center of attention), I immediately switched to another student. I also asked a few students who knew already a little bit more of Dutch: "Why do you want to go to that country? Do you want to go there because you think it is a beautiful country? Or do you want to go to that country because the climate is good there? Or because the food is nice in that country? ". These questions are not so difficult to clarify.
The result was a very nice conversation where a lot of input was given and the students could tell a lot about themselves without many words :-). Most of the students told a lot, but also those who are not so good at learning a language could express themselves through the drawings and the photos.  

During the PQA I had already decided that Amir would play the 'leading role' of our story. He had made a beautiful drawing.
He would go to Switzerland with his family - by plane. He would go during the summer holidays because then the children have no school, and they  would stay in Switzerland for 3 weeks. He chose Switzerland because you can take beautiful walks there. When I asked him where he would be staying, he immediately said he wanted to go to a "fancy hotel" as  "Hey Janique, money isn't a problem, is it?". Just what I needed for my story  :-).
I showed the slide of the "fancy hotel" and that immediately set the mood for the rest of the story. When the elevator (see the next slide) was out of order and the whole family had to climb the stairs, Amir could well imagine this situation. The kids who would ask again and again, "Daddy, are we almost there?", The youngest he should take on his shoulders, ... He saw it all happen.
And then, when everyone was finally upstairs and they came to their room, I said in a somewhat mysterious way, "People, Amir, his wife and his children are finally at the door of their room, but there is a problem. There is a big problem! What do you think is the problem? To which Abdullah promptly said, "Key broken! Must go down again!". Can you imagine how happy I was?
The class decided that Amir's wife and the children would wait upstairs and that Amir would go down alone. Downstairs at the reception he got another room. But of course there was also a problem in that room!
I never had to ask a lot because the class could think of enough problems and tried to explain with hands and feet what happened in the next room. Only with the cockroach it took me a while to understand what they meant. I had collected several pictures of problems before, but never thought of cockroaches! :-)
In the end, it was decided that Amir would demand the hotel manager to refund all costs  and that he and his family would move to another beautiful and fancy hotel. End of story!
​
It was nice to see everyone so active. All students did their best to understand everything, they helped each other, using hands and feet to express themselves, ... What an amazing experience! Worth repeating, I would say!
After class I made a short text about the story that we have read in the next class.

Above you see on the left the 'drawn answers' to the questions during the PQA (these are not Amir's answers) and on the right you see a photo of the text I wrote after the lesson (although in Dutch).

Last year, at the conference in Agen, I first heard about Brain Breaks. I saw Sabrina Sebban-Janczak doing Brain Breaks in her class and I also followed a workshop with Hélène Colinet about Brain Breaks. Since I work with low-educated adults, I was immediately convinced.
From the first lesson in September I did brain breaks with them. No superfluous luxury for this target group, believe me! 
They loved it and I immediately saw how much virtue a brain break can do.
Since then I "collect" brain breaks. I would love to share my collection with you. I have translated them, but keep in mind that English is neither my mother tongue nor my second language. So excuse me if you see any language mistakes.
​They are in a PowerPoint, so you can translate them into your native language if you wish.
​I made a snapshot of each card and put it in a Word document (2 cards per sheet). I printed and laminated them. I keep them in a box and every lesson I choose a few of them.

Of course, if you teach online, it's not easy to do brain breaks, but some are still useful. Yesterday at the conference of Agen online I saw how Fadi Abugoush did 'Scissors, paper, rock'. The students had to play against him. Whoever lost had to sit down. The others were allowed to continue playing.
He also did the brain break 'Colour palette' online. In class I let my students walk to an object in an indicated colour, Fadi did just the opposite. He gave the order to get an object of an indicated colour and keep it in front of the screen. And so there are more brain breaks that are useful. Think about:

• Apple-pear-banana
• Wink and snap
• Head and belly
• Waving your hands
• High five (hand towards the screen)
• Do the wave
• Move and freeze
• Touch your ears
• Clap-step-snap

So, feel free to download and use the brain breaks. Have fun with them!

I have no idea if the term "Art Talk" actually exists. But it describes exactly what this post is about: talking about art, but with the principles of Brain-Friendly teaching:

• 100% comprehensible input
• SLOWLY is the code word! So repeat enough (by circling), don't go too fast! 
• Less is more and that certainly applies to the new words you use. The number of new words strongly depends on the level of your group. Keep that in mind.
• Personalization always works!
• Every output you get is good, no matter how limited. The most important thing is that the students understand what you are saying.
• Definitely don't force an output. 

​A while ago Anuschka De Coster told me very enthusiastically about her online lesson in which she had worked with Caravaggio's painting "The Fortune Teller".
It seems like a great idea to me as well to tell about a painting in an online lesson, using CI-methods. 
Pointing out things in the painting, talking about what you see (giving input!) circling, 'searching' a story in the painting, ... very nice to do!
Because I find it important to introduce our students to the 'typical things from here' - including art - "The Peasant Wedding" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder seems like a good choice to me. It is one of his most famous paintings (1568) with which he probably wanted to show how difficult peasant life was at that time. You can tell a lot about it, but you can also keep it limited, depending on the group you work with.

Project the picture of the painting onto the whiteboard. If you teach online, you can use the picture of the painting (downloadable file below the picture of the painting) as virtual background.
Some things you can discuss:

• The wedding takes place in the barn after harvesting. The walls of the barn are filled with hay (maybe because it was cold?)
• The bride sits in front of a green cloth. She doesn't eat, she doesn't talk. Nobody looks at her. Her wedding wreath hangs above her.
• The groom may be the man who fills the jars.
• The painting was painted in a period of bad harvests and a lot of looting by soldiers. You can tell by a number of things:
  • Only porridge and soup are given.
  • The beer that is served is light in color (the darker the beer, the more expensive).
  • People don't laugh, they are not cheerful.
  • The bagpipe player is clearly hungry and may be hoping to get something to eat
• ​The child in front has a peacock feather on her hat. She still seems hungry.
• The food is served on an old door
• The people bring their own cutlery (spoon on the hat, knife on the belt)
• The bagpipers provide music, but no one is watching them.
• Everybody talks and eats, but nobody's happy.
• The man on the chair with the back is probably the notary who had to write the marriage certificate.
• On the far right is a monk talking to a nobleman. This may be the landowner.
• A nice fact to know: The painter made a little mistake. The man carrying the food has 3 legs.

​Again, it goes without saying you don't have to discuss everything. This will depend on the level of your group. Don't forget to circle, but don't exaggerate. The intention is to give input, not to get output.
You can also work out some nice 'storylines' around this painting. Who are the people on the left side of the picture? Why aren't they sitting at the table? Maybe they weren't invited? Or is there not enough room and do the guests have to take turns eating? What are the two men on the far right of the painting talking about? Why doesn't anyone speak to the bride? Maybe she speaks another language? Are those her parents sitting next to her? Or her parents-in-law? ...
And you can pass it on to the students. How do you celebrate a wedding? What food is served? How long does a party last? Who's coming to that party? 
You can really do a lot with this!

​Last Friday I watched the 4th webinar of "The Stories First Foundation", in which Ignacio Almandoz told a story through Story-Listening. I liked the story and I want to tell it in my class! Ignacio also told us that the story is originally from Tolstoy.
You can watch the video of Ignacio Almandoz below, in which he tells the story.

​This story is told entirely in the past. It seems to me rather a story for a higher language level.
Because the bear and the horse have to change places, I use photos for it. But I draw everything else.
Below a picture of my whiteboard while practicing. I am not very good at drawing, so I have to draw each story a few times before my lesson (then the story drawing is better during the lesson itself). For that reason you now only see drawings and photos on the whiteboard and no written words. The photo was taken halfway through the story.

​"The hedgehog and the hare" is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. Recently I saw Rachel Salvi tell this story so beautifully. She also made a video.
Before telling the story, Rachel interviewed a "hedgehog" and also shared some interesting facts about the hedgehog. It has become a very nice video. I'm already a big fan of her! There are not many people who can make input so comprehensible as Rachel Salvi does!

​The story is quite long and again I use a combination of drawings and photos.
I also posted Rachel Salvi's video below. I would really recommend to watch that video. I have learned a lot of it in every way. Rachel also uses a combination of photos, drawings, objects and drawing while telling.
I am not very handy to craft a hare and hedgehogs, so I use pictures for the hare and the hedgehogs. But otherwise I tell and draw the story completely in the same way as Rachel. Under the motto: Never change a good thing! 
​I would also like to thank Rachel for her inspiring videos!
Below her video you can see the pictures of my whiteboard with the drawings on it. I have a whiteboard that you can tilt. So I drew the hedgehog's kitchen and yard on one side and the field on the other. Such a whiteboard is ideal for this story.

I got this story from my colleague Marijke Renneboog. The story is better known as "The parable of the goat", but because a sheep is easier to draw, Marijke tells it as "The man with the sheep".
And because I don't have a great talent for drawing myself, I am happy to follow her advice.
The idea of ​​linking sounds to the story comes entirely from Marijke. I worked out the idea because I already had a lot of sounds on my computer and it didn't really take that much work to work it out, but I would like to thank Marijke for the tip!

Before I start telling the story, I let my students guess what sounds they hear (audio 1)
The sounds are:

1. A lid from the trash bin that falls
2. Someone is walking down the stairs
3. Someone is setting the table for dinner
4. Knocking a carpet
5. Cutting vegetables
6. The microwave oven
7. Someone is sweeping the floor
8. The vacuum cleaner
9. Someone is emptying a bucket of water
10. A door that opens and closes

Tip: If necessary, use the photos in the downloadable file below to make sure the students understand what you say (in case they cannnot guess the sounds they hear).

​Then you tell the story. You draw the man, his wife, his 4 children, his aunt and uncle and you say that they live together in 1 house. You also say that the man has a problem and you ask what the problem could be.
Then you let hear audio 2 (lot of noise in the house). You continue the story by telling that the man is going to see the old wise man. After you told the students that the man took a sheep in the house, you could ask if the problem would be solved. And you let hear audio 3 (the problem is not solved at all!) before you continue telling the story
On the picture of my whiteboard here below you can see how I drew the story. As I teach Dutch, the words are written in Dutch.

I have already told a few stories and I feel more and more that my students love them. This really works! Especially in the way we do it:

• I tell the story
• I name the drawings / photos
• I ask questions that are indirectly related. For example, with the story of the lazy ox and the donkey, I asked my students whether they lived in the city or in a village and if they had animals.
• After class I send a picture of the whiteboard and the text (sometimes with pictures of the "new" words) to my students with WhatsApp
• I read the story via a WhatsApp voice message

In addition, I always enjoy brainstorming with colleagues. A chat with  Marijke, Myriam, Anuschka, Fatiha, Caluke, Petra, ... it can be so much fun and above all educational. And then I always have new ideas. A big hug to all my "exchange colleagues!"

This originally Egyptian fable can be found in different variants. It is probably an adaptation of a story of 1001 nights. When I tell this story, I combine photos with drawings. I find it very difficult to draw an ox and a donkey (in that way that my students can see clear what I draw). By using this combination I can focus more on the story and the details I draw, just because then I don't have to constantly draw the ox and the donkey. You can see how this works in the photo on my whiteboard.

​Here you have the photo of my whiteboard. I started by telling (and drawing) the story that the farmer is married and that he has 4 children.
Then I drew the stable with the ox and the donkey at the bottom of the whiteboard. Because the photos of the ox and the donkey are a bit large, I did not have enough space to leave the drawing of the farmer, his wife and his children. I then wiped that off to draw the farmer and the ox on the field. That is why you do not see the woman and the children on the whiteboard.

This weekend Caluke van Hoften sent me the beautiful story "Mister Cake and Miss Cheese". Caluke felt a little bit embarrassed because the story was "not yet neatly finished". Really not necessary to feel bad, Caluke! I am very happy with the story. I mainly need input and ideas. That is already very valuable to me. Finding photos or updating the text is not much work. That's done in no time.
The story was originally told by Ben David Rose. Here below you can see a video in which Ben David Rose tells the story and also a picture of the story. My version of the story is more for a beginners level in comparison to Bens story.
In the meantime I have also watched the video of Consuelo Palencia as Caluke advised me. I would keep looking at it. She tells it in such a nice way!

Promise is debt, so today I had to "treat" my students to a piece of music. I was just playing with trembling hands. After all, I never play live for someone else. Playing the piano is something I always do with the headphones on so that no one can hear me play. I was really nervous, but the students thought it was great. Another round of applause. I've been spoiled lately :-)!

Then I told the story of the little stone bird. Again they were very enthusiastic. It is therefore a beautiful story. With this story I drew again everything during the telling. Only here and there I showed a photo before I drew the word in question (just to make sure they understood me well - my drawings are not always very clear after all).
Although I also like the combination of drawings and photos. It has a certain " je ne sais quoi".

I couldn't find this story on the internet either. I found it on the drive at our school and reworked it a little bit.

I sent this photo (of the text) via WhatsApp after class. At the same time I read the text again in a WhatsApp voice message.

Last week I told the story "Music for the clouds". The students were very enthusiastic. They thought it was a wonderful story. After I told the story, I spontaneously received applause from my students. That was the first time they just did that. It was heartwarming - really!
Noor asked if I could send a picture of the whiteboard (with the drawings) via WhatsApp. Zarifa then asked if I could also forward the text of the story. She said she would ask her son to read it. And Doris came up with a fantastic idea and askes me if I could read the text through a WhatsApp voice message.
Illiterate students are incredibly creative in coming up with solutions to problems that arise. We can often take an example from them.
And they are also highly motivated to listen to the stories. Yamina faithfully clicks the link every day at 2pm to come to the online class, including Saturdays and Sundays, and even on public holidays. She is so sorry every time I tell her there is no class that day.

After the story, I asked if any of them also played music. Turns out Yamina sometimes plays music with her son. She has promised to play some music for us when her son doesn't have to work. And I promised to play some music for them next lesson. O dear, what have I started? :-)

I have no idea where this story comes from or who wrote it. Unfortunately I also found no information on the internet. So I can't give a source. I heard the story from my colleague Marijke Renneboog and reworked it a little bit.
Below the text of the story, the photos that I show during the story to explain difficult words, the board schedule and the photos that I send to my students via WhatsApp after the lesson.

I sent these 2 photos via WhatsApp after class. At the same time I read the text again in a WhatsApp voice message. The idea came from my students who asked themselves. I thought it was a fantastic idea and since then I have applied it to every story.