Category Archives: Audio

Grammar Snacks Videos

Audio, Grammar, Listening, ,

Grammar Snacks is a great site from the British Council  to watch videos about grammar shown in a natural way.

The videos offer the grammar in context with subtitles and although the videos might be a bit too long for an elementary student , it gives them the chance to read along and improve pronunciation. So, as the idiom goes, you kill two birds ( or maybe three) with the same stone. After watching the video there’s a clear grammatical explanation about when and how the grammar is used and some attractive interactive exercises.

So far, the site offers videos on the following :

♥Comparatives and Superlatives

♥There is/are  and It

♥This, these , that, those

♥The Present Continuous

♥The past Simple: regular and irregular verbs

♥To Be: Present and Past

♥Countable and Uncountable

♥Have Got

♥Present Simple

VEO: A video Converter

Audio, freeware

VeoVideo Converter is a site in Spanish which converts any type of video online. It’s versatile and very handy. Paste some video URLs or upload videos from your PC and convert them online to MP4, FLV, OGV, AVI, MP3, OGG y WebM  to name a few.

What I like most about this site is  that not only does it convert your videos so that you can see them in your PC  but also in your  Android, iPhone o Windows Phone and tablets.

The only thing you need to do is register for free and paste the URL  or upload the video you want to convert and you’ll receive a link in your email with the link to download the video.

Another important feature of VEO is that it offers the posibility of downloading  just the audio from Youtube .

Video Lessons: TedEd-Lessons Worth Sharing

Audio, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Listening, , ,

I’ve known about TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) for quite a long time but although I found their videos very interesting I thought they were too long or too difficult for my classes. Now TED has launched a  new  site, called TedEd,  with  a collection of educational video lessons you can choose by subject and view in class or assign as homework. Every video is accompanied by a lesson with Quick Multiple Choice questions that check your general comprehension. If you have one wrong, you can always check with the video hint and you can also have Think questions that further explore the topic.

For teachers , one of the most powerful features is the FLIP THE LESSON where you can customize the lesson by editing the title, giving your own instructions, select  or deselect any multiple choice questions…etc.

This is a lesson I have flipped for my students. I used the video Questions No One Knows the Answer To to give my students some practice using Reported Speech Questions. You can see my lessonhere

 

Ready-To-Go Lessons:Breaking News English

Audio, Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing skill, , , , ,

I cannot believe I have never posted about Breaking News English. I have been a subscriber for a long, long time. But, you know, sometimes   the things you are more familiar with are the things you more tend to forget to highlight but the site is incredibly helpful.

♥Breaking News English mainly helps you improve listening and reading but also if you read along it’ll help you with your pronunciation.
♥It has more than 1,500 lesson plans based on current events and news.

♥These lesson plans are very useful for the teacher as this site provides warmers, pre, while and after reading/listening activities, discussion ideas, writing suggestions and even homework activities, all related to the news story. There is an MP3 listening you can download or listen online.

5 students using MyBrainShark for their landmarks presentations

Audio, Create your own stuff, In the Computer Room, Slides, Speaking, Students' Corner

Did you think you have seen the last of MyBrainshark in this blog? Far from it!

Now I have engaged my students (level A2) into giving a presentation about a landmark of their choice. The fact that they did it at home and at their own pace , repeating as many times as they wished until they were completely satisfied and choosing their own photographs to illustrate it must have boosted up their confidence in using English because , with the exception of some students, most of them made a great effort and passed with flying colours.

Below are some of my students and their MyBrainsharks. They are: Victor Areces, Sara Días, Paula Fdez, Jesus Fdez and Paula García.

And here are their landmarks.
Grand Arch by Victor Areces

Petra by Sara Días

Ellis Island by Paula Fdez

Petronas Towers by Jesús Fdez

The Arch of Triumph by Paula Garcia

If you’re interested in using MyBrainshark  , click here to see my tutorial in Spanish ,