If Jesus taught my students

Funny Stuff,

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain, and gathering them
about him, he taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor.
“Blessed are the hungry.
“Blessed are those who mourn.
“Blessed are the oppressed. . . . ”

Then Simon Peter said, “Do we have to write this down?”
And Andrew said, “Are we supposed to know this?”
And James said, “I don’t have papyrus with me.”
And Philip said, “Will we have a test on this?”
And Bartholomew said, “Do we have to turn this in?”
And John said, “The other disciples didn’t have to learn this.”
And Matthew said, “Can I be excused?”
And Judas said, “What does this have to do with the real world?”

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’ lesson
plan and inquired: “Is this lesson aligned with state standards? Does
it address multiple intelligences? Where are your objectives in the
cognitive domain?”

And Jesus wept.

From webenglishteacher.com

Giving a speech with a nice presentation and using a Wiki

Create your own stuff, Resources, Students' Corner, Writing, Writing skill, , , ,

I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by asking my intermediate students to give a speech  about the advantages and disadvantages of a certain issue (I’ve already published a guide on how to do it here) as before working on pronunciation and intonation  they had to write it  , which ,in this course ,is essential if they want to pass their English exam with flying colours.

I have used a Wiki , from Wikispaces, so that they could choose  from  25 issues the one they fancied most   and the date that suited them best . By doing it with a wiki I  gave them plenty of time to think , rethink and then change their minds about  what they had previously decided.You can see one of the wikis I created here with the instructions on how to use it. I also gave them the option of illustrating their speeches and this is just an example of some of the nice presentations we have enjoyed.

This one has been done by Andrea Martínez Pérez. Thanks Andrea! It looks great!

Word of the day: verbs from a song

Music, Word of the Day

There are some verbs we never seem to use.It’s like when I tell my students not to use the verb “say” all the time when they are writing essays and  they invariably stare at me probably   thinking : What the hell does she want us to use instead? As if I didn’t know that, deep inside their brains , the verbs “claim” or “state” are there to use as substitutes for the mighty “say”.

So let’s widen our vocabulary by revising the meaning of some of the verbs used in this song. I hope that ,in the early future , you use some of them .

Let’s listen to this beautiful song by the country music group Lady Antebellum and focus on some verbs and expressions

-to scatter:to cause to separate and go in different directions scattering confetti from the upper windows

–to wonder:to feel curiosity or be in doubt  I wondered what happened

-To cross one’s mind:to be a sudden or passing thought; be thought of by

She looked so well it never crossed my mind that she was ill.

 To guess: to think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine I guess I can get there in time.

Road to Grammar

Grammar, Vocabulary, , , ,

Road to Grammar is a great site to practise grammar and vocabulary. One of the best things about this site, in my opinion, is that if you choose the wrong answer in the quiz  and you click on NOTES, it provides  a note explaining why your answer is correct or incorrect.
Apart from these quizzes there’s a section that I love called Games. My favourite one is called FLUENT and it allows two students to play. Be careful if you choose to play, it’s kind of addictive!
I also recommend trying the Extra Practice section and the Downloads, which has some great PDFs for students and teachers. And last but not least, there’s a section called Road to Grammar JR dedicated to young learners