Category Archives: Students’ Corner

The Voice:Blind Auditions. Revising Physical Descriptions

Funny Stuff, Games, Listening, Music, Speaking, Students' Corner, Vocabulary, , , ,

Whether you are a fan of this kind of programmes or not, nobody can deny this talent show has been a big success worldwide. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about The Voice is a singing competition that consists of a blind audition where four coaches (famous singers ) select the members of their teams, a battle phase and then the final, where the audience selects The Voice. It started in The Netherlands like two years ago and since then the format has been sold to many countries where it has also been a big success.

The idea for this activity came from the French teacher in my high school, Yolanda (see picture). Just by chance she commented  on how much fun their students had just had doing this activity and  right away I asked her to borrow her idea for my English class.

The instructions are fairly simple.

♥Students in pairs and with their backs to the whiteboard  listen to someone singing but they won’t be able to see them, that’s why it’s called Blind Auditions.
♥Working with a  partner, they decide what the person they are listening to looks like (see handout).
♥When the audition finishes and without turning their backs, they need to decide whether they want this person in their team to be THE VOICE. If they want them, they should raise their hand making the V gesture and saying I WANT YOU!
♥Now, they’ll have to compete against the other students who also want the singer. The singer will belong to the team who has the most accurate physical description of the singer.

I have selected these two videos you don’t like the game, at least enjoy the music!!

Christmas Decoration for my Classroom and for my Home

General, Students' Corner, ,

Well, folks! With only a fortnight to go before Christmas Eve I can safely say that the holidays are upon us and it’s time to start decorating. Below I have posted two presentations . The first one is for inexpensively decorating our  classroom .Big fun! (I have used the tool  Slide.ly , which I highly recommend because it’s free and easy to use).  In the second presentation I have included ideas to decorate the house and to dress our Christmas tables.Hope you like them! And …a big thank you to my students ,who have enthusiastically helped me decorate.

 

 

Classroom Decoration by Slidely Slideshow

Word of the Day: crib notes

Students' Corner, Word of the Day,

What’s  a “crib note” in British English or a  “cheat sheet “ in American English?

It is a small piece of paper containing the answers to an examination . The note is very small so it escapes detection and can be easily destroyed or eaten if detection is imminent.

I never thought I would write a post about crib notes, not with me teaching adults, but when you are teaching teenagers this is something you have to become an expert at .Don’t get me wrong here! I am convinced that most teenagers do not cheat  and that it was only  by sheer chance that  in these two weeks of exams I’ve  caught two students red handed .New technologies? No way! The picture accompanying this post is real ,from one of my classrooms: the students used the inside of the curtain to write his crib note. I wonder if I should send the curtain home to his mum to wash it!

I have done some research on the Internet looking for alternatives to spoiling a – if not beautiful- curtain , at least , the only one we’ve got.

I have learned that the most important thing is to be able to conceal the crib note successfully. Now, pay attention , I have become an expert!

♥ Hide your notes under the exam . This is the traditional one but I am going to give you a very important tip. Don’t look at the teacher. This is the most common mistake because it immediately gives you away.

♥ Use a bottle of water. Cut the outside wrapping , glue your notes and glue the wrapping back to the plastic bottle. Please, don’t stare at the bottle for too long or I might think you have gone postal.

♥ Use a cap with the notes glued on the inside. Take off your cap and let the show begin!

♥ Use glasses . Give yourself a rest to rub your eyes and … you know what to do!

♥Use your mobile phone.  Easy, no effort , but a lot more expensive than the rest!

The truth is that if you are going to write your notes by hand  ( in the computer , use Times New Roman font, size 6) you’ll find that you have  accidentally studied and you might end up never even using it.

To Dream or Not to Dream…

Students' Corner,

Unfortunately , it is not very often that I get students to contribute to the blog with an article , but this does not apply to Patrick M. Hyyryläinen , who I didn’t have to ask twice and readily accepted the challenge. Sorry it took me so long to publish and many thanks!

Now , aren’t you dying to read his story? It starts right below

I was sitting in the train.
It was like any other day; I took the train to school at 5:45 AM.
The winter had started and it was completely dark outside.
The trip takes 55 minutes. I decided to spend the time usefully so I took a nap.
Suddenly I woke up because my phone was ringing. I answered it and it was my mother. She told me that I needed to run, as fast as I could, and then she hung up.
I was stunned, of course, because my mom had sounded like she was trying to get away from something, but also because it happened so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to ask her what had happened before she hung up.
I was trying to figure out what had made my mother so afraid, when I noticed that a man was looking at me from the other side of the train. I could see that he was talking to a device that looked like the ones secret agents use in films.
Then it came to me like a lightning from a blue sky, that it could be why my mother was so afraid; perhaps the government had found out some dark secret about my mother or our family, and now they were catching us, one by one.
That last part made me realize a very important thing, I was a part of that family, so if my theory was correct, then they will be trying to catch me as well. I had to think fast so I pulled the emergency break in the train and as soon as the train began to stop, I got up from my seat Continue reading To Dream or Not to Dream… →

Halloween Party Video

American Cultural aspects, Cooking, Students' Corner, ,

Now, I promise this will be the last post about Halloween but I took some nice pictures of our Halloween party at the high school and I wanted to show you how much fun we had and how hard students worked; because not only did they spookily decorate our common room and prepared the games for the party but , they also cooked delicious creepy dishes,which I’m afraid are right now sitting comfortably around my hips.
Anyways , thank you guys for making our Halloween celebration a big creepy crawly success!!!
Enjoy the video!!!!!