A video for teaching Conditionals

Use this great video at the lesson when you are teaching conditionals. You may also watch it on YouTube or download it to your PC.

The Poetry Channel

I just discovered a new website The Poetry Channel which presents poetry in videos.
The poems are read by the authors themselves. The site is not big yet because they have just started but I liked it at once because it is exciting and inspiring to watch the poets and listen to their voices.
There are poems which are fantastic for classroom use.

I loved this poem http://thepoetrychannel.org.uk/poems/back-in-the-playground-blues/

Moderating my first online course

[P o s t p o n e d !]
Next month I am starting a new course, approved by the British Council and the Ministry for teachers who want to learn new ways of using the internet with kids at school. This is a great course, challenging, demanding but also satisfying the needs of a caring, professional teacher who wants to be knowledgeable in Web 2.0 tools.

I am looking forward to this course not only because I will have to test my skills as a moderator but also as a blogger who has been blogging in solitude for about a year, writing for myself, as I like to remark. I would love to have comrades who would care to visit my blog and I would be immensely interested in visiting their blogs in return.

I don't feel like twittering or chatting but somehow blogging has an inexplicable appeal to me. A blog is like an open door to a person's thoughts and views. I would like to have a chance to be a guest to another world-of-mind now and then...

Happy New Year

It is the 31st December, 2009. I am living through the last hours of this year, and then... everything starts again?... or just goes on ... because nothing has stopped?
I love what Frost once said:

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
/Robert Frost/

Make a snowflake!

This is the right time to learn how to cut your own virtual snowflake.
You just need to go to the site which presents a tool for doing it.
Here are some examples of what you can make. 
Make a flake

A new tool KUBBU

I just found an amazing and extremely practical tool for making online activities, exercises, quizzes, puzzles etc called KUBBU - a strange name (meaning nothing) but don't be put off by it.
It is free, you only have to register. I tried it out and was delighted. Something new at last!

Follow this link to see what you can create with this tool - 
http://www.kubbu.com/a1/2498_jobs_and_professions

Web application WALLOVERS

I just discovered a new web application - online pattern painting Wallovers which are symmetrical designs painted on a virtual wall - and got carried away like a kid. It is a tool for drawing patterns in the frame.

One drawback is its very limited choice of colours. I played with the tool tonight and see what I got.

You will need Shockwave player.

Worksheet - Englishman in Japan

Reading task about an Englishman in Japan. Students have to put the events in order. It is good for teaching cultural differences and the topic of culture shock.
There is KEY at the bottom of the page, so if you give this task to your students, don't forget to remove the answers.

Another online task

Here is another task which I made for teaching Present Continuous. It contains a video (a popular song by Fool's Garden) so you will need loudspeakers. Enjoy!
TASK 2

Halloween

˙ƃuısınƃ oƃ llıʇs uǝɹplıɥɔ puɐlʇoɔs puɐ puɐlǝɹı ɟo sʇɹɐd ǝɯos uı ˙uǝʌıƃ sı ʇɐǝɹʇ ou ɟı ʎʇɹǝdoɹd ɹıǝɥʇ ɹo sɹǝuʍoǝɯoɥ ǝɥʇ uo ɟǝıɥɔsıɯ ɯɹoɟɹǝd oʇ ʇɐǝɹɥʇ (ǝlpı ʎlʇsoɯ) ɐ oʇ sɹǝɟǝɹ ,,ʞɔıɹʇ,, pɹoʍ ǝɥʇ ,,¿ʇɐǝɹʇ ɹo ʞɔıɹʇ,, 'uoıʇsǝnb ǝɥʇ ɥʇıʍ 'ʎǝuoɯ sǝɯıʇǝɯos ɹo ʎpuɐɔ sɐ ɥɔns sʇɐǝɹʇ ɹoɟ ƃuıʞsɐ 'ǝsnoɥ oʇ ǝsnoɥ ɯoɹɟ ǝɯnʇsoɔ uı oƃ uǝɹplıɥɔ ˙uǝǝʍollɐɥ uo uǝɹplıɥɔ ɹoɟ uoıʇɐɹqǝlǝɔ ʎɹɐɯoʇsnɔ ɐ sı ƃuıʇɐǝɹʇ-ɹo-ʞɔıɹʇ

Could you read this? Did you think it was Arabic?
Take a closer look. It is just a good-bye from Halloween!
Here is a 'normal' version of the text. (If you got interested in how I did it, here is the link to a very simple tool - Flip Text.)

Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costumes from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" refers to a (mostly idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. In some parts of Ireland and Scotland children still go guising. In this custom the child performs some sort of show, i.e. sings a song or tells a ghost story, in order to earn their treats.

On Halloween night I had some unexpected guests in disguise, I did not recognise anyone but they must have known where I lived. Luckily, I had prepared a bowl of sweets beforehand, so I treated them and was spared tricking but got thanks instead!