VOA Learning English: Interesting Site to Read and Listen to American English

American Cultural aspects, Audio, In the Computer Room, Listening, , , , ,

Voa Learning English really needs some serious exploring. Though I have to say that, in my opinion, the site is a bit of a mess, it could be a great help to some autonomous learners.

What does it offer? The site provides interesting articles based on news and information. The stories are read slowly, or at least at a slower speed and it allows you the possibility of reading the story and listening to the audio at the same time. The mp3 audio can be downloaded, which is also very helpful.

What about the level? Difficult to say  because although the stories are read quite slowly, the vocabulary is quite advanced. You’ll just have to try and see.

Stories are divided into Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 and very often there are exercises following the audio.

if you further explore the site, you will find a section “Learning English TV” with captioned videos that will allow you to watch a story while reading the rolling script.

But there are two sections that I absolutely adore that deal with idioms and expressions:

♥ Words and their Stories and English in a Minute where each week idioms and expressions that many learners of American English find difficult to understand are explained. Don’t miss them!

Another interesting feature in this site is that it has a built-in dictionary. You just have to click on any word to get its meaning. You really need to give a go to this interesting site, especially if you like reading the news and are interested in American English.

First Day : getting to know my students

Games, Speaking, , , ,

I’ve been teaching for a long, loooong time and one might expect I don’t have to suffer from first-class stress . But I’ve come to terms with myself and admitted  that no matter how long I’ve been in the business, it is always going  to feel like  having a bull ( past the butterfly feeling) in my stomach. So again, I’m hunting books ,posts, and the Internet for ideas to use on the first day  to get to know my students and to give them the first chance to use the language. These are the ones I’m considering  – in case you want to use them.

By the way, these are the ones I used last year if you want to have a look https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=2694

♥Interviewing your partner: Tell students they are going to interview four or five people they don’t know in the class. Ask them to write three or four questions to ask these people. Once it is done, students get up and walk around the classroom.

♥Get to Know you Bingo: this one requires a bit of preparation but it’s not like you are already loaded with exams, is it? Let’s play bingo, then! Now, the first thing you need to do is prepare a bingo sheet with some questions ( a grid of  4×4 , for example). Make sure students know how to play bingo- this is quite  important, as you can guess. Students get up and walk around asking questions to everybody in the class but they have to have a different name for each grid. So if a student asks a question to a student and this student says “yes”, he should write the name of that student in the grid and move on; if the student says “no”, he can then ask this same student a new question. The first person to get a line down or across shouts “LINE” and the first person to fill in all the boxes with a name shouts  BINGO.

I would , of course, encourage follow-up questions  when checking,  with  the students providing the questions- of course.

♥Who Am I..? I love this game to introduce myself to my students. It is played in teams and there is a winner. If you have been reading me for some time you know I am very competitive; that must be the reason why I am definitely going to use this one this year. The game was written by Paul Adams  and here is the link

♥Five Questions. Divide the class in five groups and ask each group to write a question they would like to ask you. In turns, one member of each group comes up to the board and writes the question. The students decide if the question is correct in terms of tenses, spelling …etc. Finally, the student asks the question. Before you tell them, give the students the chance to guess your answer.

♥Writing Sample – I’m thinking it might be a good idea to use this warm-up after doing some oral practice. The idea is to ask students  to write a bit about themselves  to  get an idea of how advanced they are. Some ideas might be : Why are you learning English and why are you taking this course? or What’s your favourite hobby ?

Hope you can use some of these ideas!!!

Goodbye to High School Teaching

General

…and it is with sadness that I am waving good-bye to this stage in my career.
I’m returning to the EOI Avilés for good. I can hardly believe it was three years ago that I shared with you my fears about a change of career I was ,willingly,about to  face. What I originally planned to be one year in a high school soon turned into three and the truth is I am glad I took the decision. I have learnt so much.
This is my big thanks to all who have worked and probably put up with me and my lack of experience in all the red paper involving teenagers throughout these three years. You have certainly changed my mind about what teaching in a high school involves.
I have learned that being a good teacher is not teaching to those who want but to those who don’t. Highly motivated students, students who love learning languages are really so easy to teach but what is really challenging is facing a group of students who clearly wish to be somewhere else but right there, staring at you.
I remember my first term being a teacher at the high school as something close to a nightmare , so used was I to students always wanting more, never seeming to have enough, always eager to collaborate and participate… that when I faced my new students , most of whom had everything but learning English on their minds, I nearly dropped dead on the spot .Being the new girl on the block , I was assigned the not-so-good groups, if you want to put it kindly and ,in some classes , I distinctly remember my new students slumped in their seats, legs stretching across the aisle and the horrified faces as I addressed them in English. For three years, I’ve had to be a mother, a father, a friend, a counsellor, a psychologist, an actress, a lawyer as well as a teacher. I have had to be motivating, energetic, enthusiast, flexible, understanding, compassionate, well-mannered, tender, well-balanced as well as hard and strict and I have loved every minute of it.

This video is worth watching… because we , teachers, make a difference  :).  Taylor Mali What teachers make .

and this version with the lyrics- in case you find it a bit difficult or are too tired after dealing with your classes.

I’m going on Holiday

General

I love teaching , just like that ,  and it is not something that on certain “difficult”  days I have not pondered again and again  but still at the end of the course, year after year , this same feeling remains. I enjoy teaching!

But what no one tells you when you decide to become a  teacher is that ending the school year is way more work than starting it, than preparing classes and than marking exams. I hate writing reports !

Anyway if you have been following me you know that , at the end of the course I’m normally so burned out that I need a holiday. So, my blog is  also going on holiday. I really hope you’ll still be there when both me and my blog return in September.

I ‘ll say my “see you later” this year with one of my favourite songs from The Beatles,  some refreshing images of  Hawaii’s beaches  and wishing you the best of summers.

The Flipped Classroom: Two Interesting Tools

Audio, Create your own stuff, freeware, In the Computer Room, Resources, Slides, , , , ,

I couldn’t just wrap up the school year and kick off the summer holidays without mentioning these two interesting tools I’ll be trying this summer to add to the list of useful tools I have been trying on and off in the flipped classroom setting. The Flipped Classroom Concept is the new trend in education. Classes are flipping all over the world. Well, maybe in Spain, it is not so popular yet but I think it has a great potential in classes where the students are motivated to learn.
The Flipped Classroom is a reversed teaching concept. Basically the teacher, through about 5 minute -created videos, teaches the students at home and then “homework” is moved to the classroom. One of the advantages of this method is that students learn at their pace and while some students might need to watch the video just once to understand the content, weaker students will not feel left behind as they will be able to replay the video as often as they like without feeling they are interfering with the normal pace of the classroom. The student, then, comes to the classroom to work on what was explained in the video and time in the classroom is spent on practising, something the students cannot do at home on their own. There is,obviously, more time for student-teacher interaction. In this flipped classroom setting there are two tools I’m willing to give a try this summer and which I thought I would share with you, in case you want to give the Flipped Classroom a go next year.

The first tool is similar to MyBrainshark and VoiceThread, which I have been using for two years. It’s called Narrable and it allows you to upload photographs and record yourself or upload an audio file narrating your photo. When you sign up you only get 5 free narrables but you can get more free narrables if you don’t mind sharing them in facebook.

The other one is a bit more complicated and demanding on the teacher’s side and if you are camera shy, like me, maybe not so appealing but, anyway I’m willing to try it.
It’s called Movenote and it helps you record a video of yourself teaching accompanied by slides. First of all, you have to upload your images or presentations ( it supports pdfs, excel,.. and many more) and then you record yourself using your webcam while you explain your images. There is also the possibility of uploading a previously recorded video and synchronising it with the slides. It’s free , you only need to sign up to an account . The only thing I don’t like is that you share via an url but it doesn’t seem to offer the possibility of embedding it in a blog or website.