To optimizeis to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible,to make the best of anything.
And this is precisely what this little tool does for your computer to keep it in good shape. It’s calledCCleanerand it might be one of the best cleaning systems you can find for free.
Its main purpose is to clean any unnecessary files from your hard-drive and on opening the program you can see the various aspects of Windows that you can search through and clear. CCleaner will also detect your installed applications that may hold on to files which are no longer any use, such as Google Earth histories or Flash Player configurations and it’ll allow Windows to run faster while freeing up valuable hard disk space.
There’s even a portable version you can carry around .
The end of the course has finally come and it’s the beginning of ,what I think will be, a nice summer.
This blog is also going on holiday but I hope you’ll come back and visit me again in September . I leave you with a story with moral and trust me on this, I’ll make sure I am sitting really high
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, Can I also sit like you and do nothing?
The eagle answered, Sure , why not?
So the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
When I first saw this video I thought, Wow! Isn’t he cute?
At first , I could only see his pulling faces and peering at the camera with inquisitive eyes but soon I realized that the message he wanted to send was crystal clear . Then, I got into the car and drove off to work but as I was driving to school his words came back to me (as the echo in the video) Are you going to be my teacher? You can’t be my teacher! You can’t be my teacher if you don’t know how to use a computer or the Internet , if you don’t know how to teach me to be safe on the Internet, if you refuse to learn how to use technology.
And it dawned on me that he’s absolutely right. I’ve got two children and I realize now ,more than ever ,that what they need to learn is much more than I needed to , because they have more opportunities and more easy access to the kind of information we could never get and only at a click away.
Our children need teachers ,and even parents , who know… who know how to teach them get the best of new technologies , who know how to help their children in their never ending quest for information , who know how to make them safe on the Internet because Internet is not a passing fad , it’s here to stay and our children , in every single school , everywhere in the world have to be ready for life, for the world they have to live in when they finally leave our classes. It’s our duty as educators to make an effort to keep up with the new technologies, to know how to help students use the Internet and the fact that our generation is not a digital native is a very lame excuse for , at least , not trying.
And I’m not saying that the traditional way of teaching is no longer valid… I don’t believe textbooks are a thing of the past, not yet , at least. I believe in a combination of the old and the new, of trying to achieve the right balance between what is useful in both methods.
If we can’t, at least, make the effort, we should maybe consider, making room for someone who wants to try.
This is what our children need and I want to conclude with the last words in the video ” Do you really think it’s possible to be an educator in the information age and not understand and use the Internet?Continue to pretend the internet is just a fad.”
This is part of the lyrics of a song by Dolly Parton and it has never been truer.
Photopeach, the tool I have been using to create the role-play videos has decided to take a one-or-two -day maintenance break , just now. I can’t believe it!!
This is what they say on their website so hopefully tomorrow it will be working again
Meanwhile, you can enjoy the Dolly Parton’s song the title of this post makes reference to
I had to choose a singer , it would undoubtedly be her, I absolutely love this woman !!. The beautiful sweet Sade ʃɑːˈdeɪ /is the lead vocalist of the English group, Sade , and I’ve been addicted to her music ever since I heard her song Smooth Operator back in 1984 .I’ve got lots of favourite songs but two of my favourites are “By your side“ and“Is it a crime? “
My love is wider, wider than Victoria Lake
My love is taller, taller than the Empire State
Now ,after 10 years in retirement she’s just released her new album “Soldiers of Love”and she’s as good as ever but I want to show you what made me fall in love with her music.I was very young when I watched the music video of The Sweetest Taboo but I was mesmerized by her beauty, her elegance and her incredible voice .I’m convinced that Sade’s music will be in my life for ever.
This song is probably not her best one but I think it very well shows the essence of Sade and what made me fall in love with the sound of her music.
Sent by Fanny García López, from the pre-intermediate level. Many thanks , Fanny!
I live in Avilés, which on the coast in the north of Asturias, Spain. It has a population of 86.000 inhabitants and it´s the third biggest city in Asturias.
It´s an industrial city near the river. There are lots of enterprises like Aceralia, Cristalería, Asturiana de Cinc..
There are different restaurants and a lot nature around the city.
Here, it´s always cold in winter and in summer it´s hot.
Avilés is famous for its iron and steel industry which transports a lot of building material.
I like living here because it’s beautiful and quiet and I have here my friends, my family and also because I´am studying here .
Now that we are up to your eyes in exams and I have just what you need. A good laugh!!
Look at this picture
If you cannot decipher anything, then try pulling the corner of your eyes as if you were Japanese. Keep
pulling until your eyes are almost closed. Can you see it now?
If you can see it without doing anything to your eyes, then … Congratulations!!
Thanks to Tatiana Baena , a student at Pre-intermediate level, for her hilarious speech. We really had a nice laugh listening to you.
One day, in December, I don’t know if it was one or two years ago ,a lady came into the shop. This lady wanted a black coat; she needed the coat because she had a very important party. It was a business dinner.
She wanted a cheap coat because she had a very good, expensive and pretty coat; of course she was talking about her mink coat
Well, while we were talking about the business dinner she went to the changing room and tried the black coat on. She liked it and before paying she warned me if there were any problems she would take it back and I said:” .Of course .No problem” , so she bought the coat and paid cash.
After three or four days, the lady came back with the black coat. She changed it for a black t-shirt and black trousers, we said:” see you, bye, bye”, and I put the coat on the coat stand.
When I was alone, without customers, I put the coat on the clothes rail, and I don´t know why I looked into the pocket of the coat but I found a bus ticket and a 50€ note.
I don’t know how I felt, but the best is coming.
The lady came back again after one hour. I couldn´t believe it! She wanted to try the same coat again because when she arrived home, she thought the coat fitted her very well. I saw her put her hands into the pocket and then she looked at me with a white or red face and I said with a beautiful smile :”What´s wrong?”. She didn´t tell me anything and she thanked me because I was so kind and she left.
After two months the lady came back and she asked me to forgive her for her behaviour and I returned her the 50€ note, since then she has been back to the shop every month.
If only I had known first I’d have paid more attention to my mother when she persistently tried to teach me and my siblings good table manners ,but when you are a child you can’t see the point of not getting a bit of fun out of flinging crusts of bread, making a mashed potato snowman or getting my brother and sisters’ hair red with tomato sauce (my mother would have never allowed ketchup to enter her kitchen) .
My mother was educated in a nun’s school. It was a time when subjects such as Maths or Languages were not as important as knowing how to knit or embroider . In a way it wasn’t as different as the education received by the female characters depicted in “Jane Eyre” by Charlote Brontë or in “Pride and Prejudice” by my very much admired Jane Austen.
One of the things my mother was taught was good table manners and since me and my siblings were very young we were insistently reminded of things such as keeping elbows off the table, eating small bites ,sitting straight, placing the napkin on our laps and …. a long etc I’m not going to bore you to death with .
What I didn’t know and have just found out is that good table manners can help you lose weight so as I’m a bit on the plumpish side my mother might not have taught me so well .
That’s why I have paid careful attention to this video where Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, an Australian and an etiquette expert, explains how good table manners can help you lose weight. Watch the video and if you have time to answer some questions or do the whole lesson plan I have prepared for my pre-intermediate students onRestaurants and Food, click here.
