All right, I have an OHP and now what? Part 2

freeware,

Dear reader,
About two weeks ago I wrote the first part of this series which I should have called “Adventures and Misadventures of a teacher with nothing but a projector “.
The next obstacle in my path was the lack of a computer in this classroom. But, of course!.. 😉  we have one laptop for the English department but… it’s not always available. So, we have to take whatever laptop is available from other departments. The problem is that not all laptops have programmes installed that can read Flash or whatever format your video is in so the innocent teacher, unaware of this fact, walks into his classroom with a video downloaded from the Internet ready to be played, some questions about the video ready to be answered and some hours and a lot of effort put into this task and realises that the laptop cannot read his video format. Swearing and bumping your head against the wall is not a good option,  trust me on this one, I have already tried it, so what’s left?
Downloading VLC media player, which is player that reads most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio Cds, VCD …etc .

You can easily download it into your computer from this site (Click here) though I strongly recommend you download a portable version of this programme and carry it around with you, in case you have to borrow a computer from some other department. (portable version, click here).

Will I ever need to write Part 3? What are you guesses?

My Crafty Side:Turn a bar of soap into liquid hand soap

My Crafty Side

If you follow this blog you’ll surely know that this section is not mine, so at the end of these lines you’ll find the link to the blog I got the idea from.

I’ve been for ages storing complimentary bars of soap from the hotels I’ve stayed in. I should have got rid of them ages ago , but for some sentimental reason I’ve always put it off. Now, I’m glad I didn’t throw them away. I’m not going to ever buy liquid hand soap again .You’ll never guess how easy it is!

You are about to read the original  recipe, which might work just fine but I’ve slightly modified it: I’ve added two spoonfuls of liquid glycerin instead of one and added another cup of water because  I felt it was too thick, but I guess it all depends on the  kind of soap you’re using.

Source: Savvy Housekeping. Click here to read the article and good luck

The difference between the UK, England and Great Britain

General

I’m afraid very few students can tell the difference between the UK, England and Great Britain. For them , it’s always and only England and even though we try and teach them the difference  and at  first they seem quite happy to have finally grasped it ,sadly  if you ask them one month later, they will always turn to the archi-famous and useful  England. Who cares about annoying a bunch of Scottish people?

I have played this video to teach my elementary students. I hope it is helpful to somebody

Punctuaction is important

Funny Stuff, The English language,

You might not agree with me at first, but you’ll soon do it when you have read the following :

If only they had punctuated , grandpa would be alive!

 

Now , look at the difference between these two emails. Jane was very much in love with John but she never gave much thought to proper punctuation.This is the  letter John received  from her beloved Jane , which caused him great sorrow

Dear John,

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,

Jane

After sending the letter Jane was ditched by John. This is the letter she wanted  John to have.

Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours?

All right, I have an OHP and now what? Part 1

freeware, ,

Exactly and now what?

Surprisingly , a publishing company has given  the English Department an overhead projector and given that we have to almost beg for our own  children’s books I can only describe it as an act of utter generosity. I should maybe have to explain that although education  is compulsory in Spain until you’re 16 ,books are not free; not even kept at the school and handed from student to student . So you can only guess at how much publishing companies earn out of textbooks.

Right , so now I have an overhead projector but… I don’t have  an Internet connection. The thing is that I have a funny video that fits like a glove with my next lesson and I want to display it using the OHP.

That’s where this little tool comes very handy. It’s called Savevid and it allows you to download videos from Youtube, Vimeo, Metacafe and some other popular sites  to your computer or USB . The only thing you need to do is paste the url of the video you want to download, choose from 5 formats  the one that suits you best and play it on your computer.