Monthly Archives: December 2011

My Crafty Side; My Christmas Tree

My Crafty Side

I always get in a bad mood whenever I have to mark exams. The happiness I get from marking an exam with a 10/10 doesn’t compensate the utter desolation when I see that many students can’t be bothered. Well, maybe utter desolation is a bit too strong, but I’m sure you get my mood. Anger, frustration, demotivation …etc. What can I do to get to them? Is there anything else I can do?

Well, excuse my mood  and let’s change gears completely. Today I want to show you a Christmas tree you can do with next to nothing. Well, maybe I got a bit carried away when I said next to nothing ‘casue you need books  but …only books. I wanted to show you my own Christmas Tree, but after taking several pictures from different angles and discarding all of them and starting the process all over again I realized that the picture I got the idea from has a better quality than any of my pictures , though I want to point out that my “Booktreee ” looks just as good” if not more ha, ha, ha 😉 .  The other picture is a nice idea for a photograph and again it doesn’t cost much.

Just the Word – more than a Thesaurus

Dictionaries

Just The Word is more than an online dictionary or a thesaurus. It’s just the kind of help you need when you are writing.
Type a word into the box and JustTheWord will give you a detailed description of the company which that word keeps in modern-day English.

or help you find the information you need.In the right-hand frame you’ll find the parts of speech and the types of relation that the word is found in. If you’re looking for the right adjective to modify a noun you’ve chosen, click on the ‘ADJ mod <word>’ link. If you want a verb with the noun as its object, follow the ‘V obj <word>’ link.

Let’s imagine that you are not sure if you can say VERY MAGNIFICENT , just type the two words and click on enter. You’ll get the picture below ,where the red bar indicates that the combination is wrong and offers you alternatives.

These are some of the things you can do to get you started with Just the Word.

Students in the limelight

Create your own stuff, freeware, Slides, Speaking, Students' Corner

About two weeks ago I wrote a post about an amazing site called Brainshark ( see post here) and today I want to show you the first thing I’ve done with my elementary students.

In the first video , Karen and Alice– from 1st year -perform a role-play called “At the Sports Centre” and in the second one Laura and Alba– from the 2nd year – do likewise with a role-play that I called ” At the grocery”.Thank you ,girls! It was funny, wasn’t it?

Teaching teens: Present Simple and continuous

A word on Grammar, In the Computer Room, Listening, ,

The first video is very easy to understand and though grammar is not explained as such  students, at the end of this short video,are perfectly aware of  how to use these two tenses.

The next video is a bit longer and it has different sketches, so if I’m running short of time I might decide not to use all of them.

Questions for the different sketches, click here