5 students using MyBrainShark for their landmarks presentations

Audio, Create your own stuff, In the Computer Room, Slides, Speaking, Students' Corner

Did you think you have seen the last of MyBrainshark in this blog? Far from it!

Now I have engaged my students (level A2) into giving a presentation about a landmark of their choice. The fact that they did it at home and at their own pace , repeating as many times as they wished until they were completely satisfied and choosing their own photographs to illustrate it must have boosted up their confidence in using English because , with the exception of some students, most of them made a great effort and passed with flying colours.

Below are some of my students and their MyBrainsharks. They are: Victor Areces, Sara Días, Paula Fdez, Jesus Fdez and Paula García.

And here are their landmarks.
Grand Arch by Victor Areces

Petra by Sara Días

Ellis Island by Paula Fdez

Petronas Towers by Jesús Fdez

The Arch of Triumph by Paula Garcia

If you’re interested in using MyBrainshark  , click here to see my tutorial in Spanish ,

15 Grammar Goofs that make you look silly

A word on Grammar, , ,

I’m up to my eyes with exams so I don’t have much time to publish. I was saving this post for a rainy day -so to speak- and the rainy day has finally come.
It is literally embedded from the webiste www.copyblogger.com and if you’re wondering what a “goof” is you are about to know. A “goof” is a silly or stupid mistake. Without further ado here are the 15 grammar mistakes that make you silly:

15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly
Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.

My Crafty Side: DIY Bracelets

My Crafty Side

And yet another post for this section . Spring is just around the corner and we’re willing to bare our arms and enjoy the sunshine on our exposed skin. These easy DIY bracelets will make your wrists look beautiful . The only problem : deciding which colour you’re going to choose for your bracelet.

Remember that the aim of these posts is for you to practise your skill at understanding real English. Click on the blog below to get to the original post.

Source: Honesty…WTF.

Word of the Day: Leap Year

Word of the Day,

If you were wondering if I was going to let this special day go by without giving it my full attention, the answer is No! How could I not jump at the chance of explaining what a leap year is? How could I possibly let the 29th of February (leap day) go by without dedicating it a whole post?

2012, 2016, 2020…etc  are  leap years. This means that we get an extra day on February 29th, so instead of having 365 days there will be 366. A leap day is added  very four years.

Why do we need a leap year? Every four years we have a leap year to correct discrepancy between the calendar year of 365 days and the time taken for the Earth to complete one orbit of the sun -365 days and 6 hours.

I just  love the way Epipheo explains what a leap year is. Watch the video and then answer this question: What is a leapling?

Well done! A leapling is a person who is born on February 29th and they are all invited to join The Honor society of Leap Year Day Babies

Are there any traditions associated to this day? Yeah! And I love it!

According to the legend it started in Ireland around the 5th century. It is said that St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose and he decided that women could propose to the man they wished to marry, only on this day. In 1288 in Scotland a law was passed stating that if the marriage proposal was refused then the man had to pay a fine: a pair of leather gloves, a single rose, £1 and a kiss.

See I could not let this chance slip!

Hope you have liked this post! Happy Leap Year!

Wanna someone to read your slides?

Audio, Create your own stuff, Reading, Slides, Writing skill

welcome Helloslide.com.

So often , especially when giving a long presentation with slides where I need to  first type and then read and explain what I have written I have wished for someone to read and/or explain  it for me( call me lazy but my voice demands a rest after maybe four hours speaking maybe non-stop.

HelloSlide transforms your slides into a rich audiovisual format, recreating the experience of a live lecture. Simply upload your presentation, type the speech for each slide, and HelloSlide automagically generates the audio.

HelloSlide gives more exposure to your presentations, making them searchable, editable, and available in 20 different languages.

It’s simple to get started:

  1. Upload a PDF of your presentation to our website.
  2. Type the speech for each slide using our editor.
  3. Press play to hear your presentation.

My first experience with HelloSlide has been this PowerPoint Presentation on A For and Against Essay though first I had to convert the ppt file into pdf. I did it using this wonderful online converter http://es.pdf24.org/onlineConverter.html

Have a look now at my HelloSlide and tell me what you think. I like it when the robot says my name at the end (ha, ha) .