I am hoping that by the end of this show you will want to buy a book called ‘Toothbrush and other plays’, as this will help the wonderful Hands Up project which we are going to hear about. You will find the link to buy the book here.
So what is this show about? It’s about the difficulties of getting to and from Gaza in Palestine. It’s about the power of storytelling as a way of learning language and it’s about ingenious ways of getting classes in Palestine to create and perform plays to audiences all over the world. Nick Bilbrough is the man behind the project, and I caught up with him at the IATEFL conference in Liverpool in April where teachers of English from all over the world gather to exchange ideas.
absolutely storytelling
I had heard of the project before that but it was amazing to attend a session in a conference centre in Liverpool in the UK where we were beamed into three classrooms in Palestine where, just for a change, it was the delegates in Liverpool who performed the children’s plays to them rather than the other way around. The children were not afraid to tell us how we could have performed their plays better! So how did the Hands Up project all start?
absolutely charitable
So lots of different ways of telling stories there. You can see how this idea has grown from a modest individual initiative to a complicated operation. Surely Nick doesn’t do this all by himself and all on a volunteer basis now? You might want to buy the book ‘Toothbrush and other plays‘ if you are an English teacher or support the Hands UP project purely financially
absolutely border
Finally I was curious about Nick’s many trips to Palestine as I have heard how difficult it is to get in and out.
And since we made that recording the HandsUp project has won an award for excellence and innovation in Language Education awarded by the British Council in London. I am sure you will agree that it is an amazing project and I hope you will agree with us for suggesting that you might want to support it.
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The next show will be coming to you from Dr Laurent Borgmann in Germany on October 4th so until then stay tuned!
