Monthly Archives: September 2009

Hydrangea = Hortensia

Hydrangea ,pronounced /hai’dreindz(i)∂/ ,is the Latin name for the beautiful Hortensia. Their flower can be blue, white, pink, purple, the exact colour depending on the Ph of the soil. Asturias is full of them and so is my garden .Here is a very nice idea to make good use of the Hortensias.
This is an article published by N. Bower which I have borrowed without his/her permission . I hope he/she doesn’t mind.
Gather, beg, borrow or steal several Hydrangea heads, from different bushes to get a variety of color. Do not pick them if they are bright blue, they will shrivel up and not look good in the wreath. The heads are easier to use if they are not dry, but slightly dry will work.
Go to a craft store, and buy a 12″ straw wreath form and a box of “H” pins (refer to picture). Put a wire loop around the straw wreath form for hanging later on. Start by pinning the heads with the H pins on the inside of the wreath form, then the top and finally the outside. They should be quite close together. They will dry, keeping most of their color.
Hang your masterpiece in a protected area out of the sun and it will reward you all winter long.

From London with love

So, here I am, or rather have been for a week or so. I have, so fa, done plenty of sightseeing , learnt a lot of new interesting ideas to use in my classes and made a few friends. So, so far so good.
But you are not probably interested in what a good time I am having ( I am supposed to be working very hard) I am just writing to let you know that I have come across to yet another interesting website I think might be helpful .
This time is a visual dictionary (this always helps), and it has an interesting section devoted to practising the vocab with games. By the way, it might only help advanced students but for lower level, you can always have a look.

 

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/

It is designed to help you find the right word at a glance. Filled with stunning illustrations labeled with accurate terminology in up to six languages, it is the ideal language-learning and vocabulary dictionary for use at school, at home or at work.
It contains
– 20,000 terms with contextual definitions, developed by terminology experts;
– 6,000 full-color images of a wide variety of objects from all aspects of life;
15 major themes to access more than 6,000 images
Astronomy
Earth
Plants & gardening
Animal kingdom
Human being
Food & kitchen
House
Clothing & articles
Arts & architecture
Communications
Transport & machinery
Energy
Science
Society
Sports & games

London: get ready!

Well, gentle reader. It’s been one month since my last post.I’ve been darn busy. Doing what? You may ask (or not) but I am going to tell you anyway.
The first fortnight of July I have been collaborating with Richmond London carrying out some review work for a textbook mainly intended for adults. I quite enjoyed this as it is something different from teaching.
Then the second fortnight of July and a bit of August I have been writing a project about School Libraries that has taken me too long I should say . So as you can see I’ve been busy enough and now….. on Sunday I am leaving for London.
What am I going to do there? I am going to take a course…. yes, a boring course about methodology so when this next course I enter my classes you will see a “brush-up -your- English” kind of teacher … or so. To tell you the truth it is not as dull as it may seem as I hope to have a great time there.I am going to study in a prestigious school called International School in Covent Garden and I’ll be staying in a very nice area near King’s Cross . The place is called Nido’s and it looks very smart. I cannot recommend it yet but it looks perfect to me.
Hey London!!! Get ready !! I’m coming!!

The Importance of Punctuation

An English teacher wrote these words on the whiteboard: “woman without her man is nothing”. The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly. The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”

The women wrote: “Woman! Without her, man is nothing.”
Sorry! Couldn’t help it!!! 😉