Monthly Archives: November 2012

Recordmp3: my favourite online recorder

Audio, Create your own stuff, Resources, Speaking, ,

I am running out of time. The term is coming to an end and I haven’t had many opportunities to listen to you. That’s why our next project is going to be giving an online speech using www.recordmp3.org, which is probably my favourite tool to record audio. Advantages of this simple tool:

1. you don’t need to register

2. You can save your recording

3. it gives  you an url (this is what you will have to send to me)

How to record yourselves

♥ Go to http://www.recordmp3.org/

♥ Allow the recorder access to your computer. See picture below

♥Click Record. Click Start Over if you have made mistakes

♥Save your recording on your computer (just in case)

♥Send me the url you get. Choose the Click to Copy option and send me an email with the url you have just copied.

Good luck!

Learning Saxon Genitive:A tip for Spanish Students

A word on Grammar, , ,

I got this tip from Vaughan ( yes, the archifamous Vaughan ) by sheer chance.

I normally subscribe and unsubscribe to tons of different sites which, at some poin, find interesting and then I get  bored and unsubscribe. When I decide to unsubscribe from a mailing list, it  is because I’ve been for some time too bored to read the same kind of stuff all over again. I was about to do likewise with Vaughan when I decided to give him a last chance. I opened the email and Voîla! a great tip about Saxon Genitive for my students.

The thing is that I normally teach  Saxon Genitive the way he does, that is, by using translation and by pointing out that what you say first in English is what you say last in Spanish but it had never ocurred to me to use numbers… and numbers are very visual and… visual things work very well when learning.

So, here’ s his tip, which I’m dying to try with my students. I’m going to use his same examples.

♥El perro(1) del vecino(2) de mi tío(3) es ciego. My uncle’s(3) neighbour’s(2) dog(1) is blind.    La mesa de trabajo(1) de la jefa(2) de mi jefe(3) está desordenada.My boss’s(3) boss’s(2) desk(1) is messy.

♥A bit more complicated ???La novia(1) del médico(2) de la hermana(3) de Carlos(4) está embarazada. Carlos'(4) sister’s(3) doctor’s(2) girlfriend(1) is pregnant.

♥ Even more…? Mi gato se comió al canario(1) del vecino(2) de la tia(3) de la mujer(4) de mi jefe(5).My cat ate my boss’s(5) wife’s(4) aunt’s(3) neighbour’s(2) canary(1).

Now, can you solve this puzzle? Remember Spanish  1,2,3 …. English 3,2,1

My name’s Frank. Who is my mother’s younger sister’s father’s bother-in-law’s wife’s father’s only great grandson? My uncle is called John and his father is called Jim. Jim has got two brothers Jack and Jeremy

What’s your guess? Check here

 

A Website with 346 Writing Prompts to Ignite your Creativity

Writing skill, , , , ,

I found this website quite by chance. It’s one of these sites that you definitely want to bookmark as it comes in very handy when you want to do some writing practice, need to come up with a good story starter or some prompts for a five-minute writing activity and your inspiration has run dry. Don’t worry! It happens in the best families!

The site is called Creative Writing Prompts. Right now, they have 346 prompts and as you can read on their  page  you just have to choose a number, point your cursor to this number, read the prompt and then write your story.

Some suggestions to use this website:

  • A quick writing activity in class. Students decide on a number and write for about 15 minutes. You can do this activity often as it only takes 15 minutes and gives them a lot of practice if done regularly. They also get direct help from the teacher as it’ s a class activity.
  • You can also divide the class into pairs or groups of three, depending on how large your class is and ask each group to assign a writing task to another group in the class by choosing a random prompt. Students write their stories. Set a time limit of 30 or 35 minutes. Put their stories up on the walls of the class  for all the students to read.
  • Brainstorm vocabulary recently studied. Make sure there is a variety of nouns, adjectives, phrasal verbs, idioms…etc to choose from. Write them on the board. Ask  students to choose two numbers and write the two prompts on the board too. Students choose one of these options and write their story including some of the  target vocabulary.

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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!!!!!