When I am in the gym trying to sweat my kilos away I’ve sometimes considered not listening to music and instead ,making a better use of the time I spend there. Today I’ve bumped into this page and I have thought :” That’s what I was looking for!” So instead of running with Lady Gaga I’m going to start running with Jane Austen, Mark Twain or Virginia Wolf.
In Books Should Be Free you can find a lot of free audio books divided according to their genre: adventure, comedy, romance, fairy tales, poetry…etc and you can download them in mp3,iPod or iTunes format . Now, you have no excuse for not practising English, even when you’re at the gym!!
Word of the Day: Turn over a new leaf
The idea for this post came from the image of Lady Gaga at the MTV video Music Awards wearing meat and just in case wearing a dress meat was not enough, her hat, boots and purse were also made of meat and also, just in case her attire went unnoticed she asked Cher, who was giving her the award, to hold her meat purse.
But what does the expression to turn over a new leaf mean?
It means to make a fresh start, to change one’s conduct or attitude for the better as in
Lady Gaga promised her fans she was going to turn over a new leaf and stop wearing fur coats
But what’s a leaf? This is a leaf → 
So playing with the meaning of the expression “turn over a new leaf ” and the word “leaf” the rather provocative group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ) has launched a campaign seeking to stop the cruelty of the fur industry and has prompted designers to stop using fur in their designs. The photos below are part of this campaig . I have put together images of Lady Gaga and models volunteering for PETA. You choose, the options is always yours!
Writing can be fun
And this is another superb site I strongly recommend. There are lots of sites that help you improve your listening skills but Writing Fun by Jenny Eather is one of the few sites I have seen that really helps you improve Writing. Poor writing skills is an issue almost everyone tries hard to overcome but we find it really hard because we never seem to have enough time to go through all the steps that good writing requires and that’s where Writing Fun helps you. Let’s see how to use it
♥Choose the type of text you want to write:narrative, description, persuasion, letters,emails,invitations…
♥Read the different examples mousing over the tips on the right to see the examples
♥Print it or
♥Write online with the help of the text organiser.
Isn’t it just great!!
You’d better stop…
I angrily whispered to one of my new students.
Stop is the title of a song by Jamelia (I have to confess that although I had often heard the song I didn’t have a clue about the singer)… anyway .. the idea for this post comes from this change of career I’m experiencing. I must admit that I’m not used to teaching teenagers; well, you can hardly call them teens as some of my students are about 12.
In a week at a high school I’ve accumulated more anecdotes than in my whole life teaching adults.
Apart from the innocent “Teacher: Do I have to draw a title?”,” Can I go to the toilet? or What-d’ye -call-him said I was an idiot”, you have the not -so -innocent teens who try to challenge the teacher’s authority to show the other classmates the extent of the power of their arrogance and bad manners. It ‘s to one of these students that ,on the second day of my new experience at a high school, I had to say in a very low voice loaded with venom…. You’d better stop!! The amazing thing is that she … because a “she” she was…. Stopped!!. It must’ve been the tone of my voice that led her to think that I wasn’t one to be played with. Anyway, too bad!
Another anecdote but on the funny side of the story is when I asked my 12-year- students to stand up, mingle and do a communicative activity and one of the shiest students in class came up to me and whispered.. “Teacher! V…. has pinched my breast!!”” What?” I asked absolutely astonished! “Yes, teacher !He has just done the same to me ! “cried another. I looked at the so called V… and he blushed and answered that he wanted to feel if they were stuffed with cotton … Gosh!! What a mightmare! What do you think? Will I survive my students ?
Anyway , this and the reference in a reading text to Jamelia gave the idea of using this song a more serious classes where they’d appreciate the structure You’d beter+ infitive, which , as you know, in used to give very strong advice. Enjoy this beautiful song and if you want to do a “fill in the blanks” exercise ( elementary/pre-intermediate students) click on the button
The eye test
Count every ‘ F ‘ in the following text:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS…
How Many?
There are 6 — no joke!
Read it again!
Really, go back and try to find the 6 F’s before reading on.
The reasoning behind is that the brain doesn’t process ‘OF’.
Incredible or what? Go back and look again!!
Anyone who counts all 6 ‘F’s’ on the first go is a genius.
Three is normal, four is quite rare.