From Lima with love..

As a writer of English language teaching materials, I like it when a teacher comes up to me at a conference and tells me that they've tried out an activity in one of my books and that it worked really well. It's particularly fulfilling when I discover that actually they've adapted the activity quite a bit to suit their own teaching context, as this means that they haven't just blindly followed the instructions but have really taken it to heart.

One of the reasons for deciding to publish 30 of the plays from last year's competition in a book was because we wanted the authors of those plays - the Palestinian young people who created them - to have a similarly satisfying experience. I'm really pleased that the plays are now being performed in various different contexts around the world. For me this is the ultimate acknowledgement of their work and of the power of drama to make connections between people. In mid-October I received the following email from a lecturer at IPMN (Instituto Pedagógico Nacional Monterrico) a university in Lima, Peru.

Dear Nick, I had the pleasure to be present in one of your presentations in Peru, sponsored by the British Council (IATEFL - Peru) 2018. There, you encouraged us to be part of this project and perform some of the plays made by Palestinian young people with our students. Thrilled by the idea of doing something different with my students and - at the same time - making them aware of current issues that the world suffers, I invited them to use their English and go beyond what we normally do in our classes. They gladly accepted and I would like to know how we can participate making the videos you mentioned. I have 22 students willing to be part of Hands up project. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Xiuxa Ruiz.

I immediately sent Xiuxa a copy of the book for her students to choose some plays to work with, and we've been communicating through email ever since. I really like the way they've used this as a project, not only to learn the lines of the play, but also to learn about the context in which the plays were written.

On Tuesday evening Xiuxa sent me links to videos of their own interpretations of the five plays that they chose to work with and here they are. They've remained true to the original script wherever possible but also adapted them to suit the context where appropriate. Great job everyone and special thanks to Xiuxa for making it happen!

If anyone around the world would like to do something similar with your students then copies of 'Toothbrush and other plays' can be ordered here.