Monthly Archives: September 2009

Recipe: Spaghetti with Vegetables

Cooking, Students' Corner,

Kindly written by Ana Rebollo

Ingredients:
• 400 g spaghetti
• 4 tomatoes, cut in half
• ½ cup sliced courgettes
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• ½ cup vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• thyme
• pepper

Directions:
• In a pot of boiling water add 1 teaspoon of salt and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Then, remove the pot from the fire. After that, drain and set aside.
• While the spaghetti is boiling, chop the onion, the red and green pepper the tomatoes and then slice the courgette.
• In a saucepan over medium heat, add ½ cup vegetable stock. When it´s boiling, first add the onion and after a few minutes add the pepper, courgette and the tomatoes and continue cooking for about 15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and thyme.
• Scatter the sauce over the pasta and serve.

Wordle: creating “word clouds”

Create your own stuff, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary, , , ,

It is not the first time I ‘ve used this tool, but it is the first time I’ve used it to revise vocabulary. I like it because it is easy to use and also attractive and we all know that students appreciate it when you give them something different.
How does this tool help me? Wordle is a “toy” for generating “word clouds” from the text you provide.
In the past I mainly used it to decorate some posts and in class to retell a text. It is a great tool for retelling as the clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

But today I’ve discovered a new use to Wordle. I needed tor revise some vocabulary. I normally do it as a competition game with strips of paper and the word to be revised written on them. But today I tried writing the words to be revised and this is the result. I’ve created two word clouds as I am going to split the class into two and let them compete against each other by giving them a maximum of two minutes to try to define the words to their team. So, I’ve printed the word clouds and used it in the OHP. Hope they like it! I had a great time too tweaking the fonts, colours and layout.

Related entries:
Karaoke on line
Fancy doing a dictation?
Warhol

 

And yet another way to improve your vocab

Dictionaries, Listening, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary

Now that you have a certain skill at mastering new structures it’s time to improve your vocabulary. There is no point in learning a new word unless you know how to use it and it is also important to understand how words are used.
So here is a cool site you can enjoy. It is called WORDIA. What is this and what are they? I quote “We’re a team of language enthusiasts and general word nuts who have joined forces to create a new kind of dictionary – a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life.”
As anyone can record words , it goes without saying that I accept no responsibility for anything incorrect, improper, wrong … you name it.
Click on the image and try it.

You can also get a new video sent to you everyday, just by adding your email address to the subscription field and each day you will be sent a link to the newest word.

Related links:

Recipe: Spanish Omelette

Cooking

I was racking my brains about what to do to make you use and study the new vocabulary related to food we have been learning in class when divine inspiration knocked on my door and it suddenly dawned on me, always on the search for new recipes, to ask you to write one… but not just any recipe but a recipe that would make anybody ‘s mouth drool . Now, I know some of you are going to say ….”but teacher I don’t know how to cook” so what? Better late than never!! Ask at home, parents , grandparents ..I’m sure they have a wonderful recipe to share , maybe in the end you’ll thank me for rescuing that wonderful recipe your grandmother used to cook for you.

My favourite dish is Spanish Omelette and this is the recipe I’m going to share with you as I’ve been the proud winner of the I Spanish Omelette Cooking Contest of my hometown

You’ll need. (serves 4) · 6-7 medium potatoes, peeled
· 1 spring onion
· 6 large eggs
· 2-3 cups of olive oil for pan frying
· Salt to taste
· Baking Powder

Cut the peeled potatoes into thin slices. Peel and chop the onion into small cubes. Salt onions and potatoes to taste.
In a large non-stick frying pan heat the oil (the oil should almost cover the potatoes). When it is hot enough ,place and spread the potatoes and the onion into the frying pan.The key if for this mixture to cook very gently so you might need to turn down the heat slightly. Stir from time to time with a slotted spoon. You will know that it is cooked when you poke a piece of potato with the spoon and it easily breaks in two. Place the mixture into a bowl removing as much oil as you can.
Now, crack the eggs into a bowl ,add a small spoon of baking powder and beat them with a fork. Pour into the potato onion mixture and mix together with a large spoon.
Now, pour two tablespoons of olive oil into the frying pan. Heat it. Pour the mixture and spread it evenly. Allow the egg to cook around the edges. When the mixture has browned on the bottom, you are ready to turn it over to cook the other side. Place a plate (about the size of the pan) upside down over the frying pan to cover top and quickly turn the frying pan over and the omelette will fall onto the plate. Then. Slide the omelette into the frying pan and let it cook for as long as needed. And you’re done!! Enjoy your nice meal!!

Food and cooking. Working with Flickr

Create your own stuff, freeware, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Resources, The English language, Vocabulary

Food! Food!! Food for thought! Always nice to learn something so useful. Nive way to teach too when it is as funny as doing it using this amazing tool which borrows pictures from Flickr and allows users to input sentences, phrases or even entire paragraphs and then turn them into illustrated slide shows .

Why don’t you try your own images and share them? Have a look at what I’ve done.
Ways of cooking
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17840

Kitchen equipment
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17841

Taste:
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17844

What’s the difference between Sour and Bitter?
1.Take a drink of Vinegar : This would be sour or so considered to be.
2.Take a bite of Real pure dark chocolate: This would considered bitter
1.A Grannysmith green cooking apple would be sour
2.Coffee without sugar or cream would be bitter
Sour lemons and limes, or unripe fruit before it becomes sweet.

Vegetables
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17846

Enjoy your meal!!