Newsy- the video news you can easily understand

Audio, Listening, Resources, , , , , ,

I just can’t wait to share this amazing site with you. It’s so very much what any teacher teaching advanced levels has ever wished for. It not only presents the world’s news coverage through two or three minute video segments but it also gives you the transcript. Wow! Amazing …! no more playing and replaying to get the transcript for the piece of news you want to bring to your classes and definitely,a chance also to improve pronunciation by reading the news at the same time as the presenter.

http://www.newsy.com/

Now, watch this video about Lady Gaga  getting 13 awards at the VMAs. The video you can see here is embedded so you won’t be able to see the transcript. To see it, click here http://www.newsy.com/videos/lady-gaga-dominates-vmas/. Ready? Enjoy!!!

You never know…

General

This post you are about to read is meant for my students at the EOI Avilés. I don’t really know how many of you are still reading this blog, but if you are, I want you to know firsthand that I won’t be teaching at the EOI this course. It’s been a personal decision and it’s a temporary one ‘cause I’ll be leaving  you only for a year.
The truth be told I don’t really know whether I’ve taken the right decision or I’ve made a poor one, only time will tell but I felt I needed to spend more time with my children because,as you well know ,my afternoons and evenings for 20 years now have been filled up with teaching while my children stayed at home being taken care of by domestic help.
So I’m going to try something new; I’m not exactly thrilled about it, the feeling could be more or less described as being on tenterhooks but I feel my children deserve ( if their mother is given the option) to have their mother while they are at home and you never know… I might even like teaching teenagers ‘cause this year I’ve decided to teach at a high school.

Anyway, although I’m moving physically , you can still find me virtually in this blog which will be maintained and updated as usual.

“Life is like a road. Just like any road, there are corners, detours, and crossroads in life .You do not really know where a road will lead you until you take it“. Adam Khoo

Word of the Day: Optimization

freeware, General, Resources,

To optimize is to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible,to make the best of anything.

And this is precisely what this little tool does for your computer to keep it in good shape. It’s called  CCleaner and it might be  one of the best cleaning systems you can find for free.

Its main purpose is to clean any unnecessary files from your hard-drive and on opening the program you can see the various aspects of Windows that you can search through and clear. CCleaner will also detect your installed applications that may hold on to files which are no longer any use, such as Google Earth histories or Flash Player configurations and it’ll allow Windows to run faster while freeing up valuable hard disk space.

There’s even a portable version you can carry around .

A bit of magic

Funny Stuff, In the Computer Room, ,

Hi!  Welcome back!! After this, some-would-say, longish holiday (you know there are some things you never get tired of ) I am back and so are you, if you are reading this post.

Today I want to introduce you to Akinator, the Web Genius. Akinator can read your mind and tell you who you’re thinking of by answering a few questions. Think about a real or fictional characte, and he will try to guess who it is !
You too can try to trick Akinator. You will see that he is not infallible. But hush… he does not like to hear it. Be careful though: you must answer honestly. Remember the frightening warning of our genie!

“I am capable of guessing who you are thinking about with a few questions. If I cannot, if you beat me, then I shall leave you alone. But be careful! Answer my questions accurately or… or you will take my place in the lamp.”

Click on the genie or follow this link http://en.akinator.com/.

Kind of creepy,isn’t it?

I’m going on holiday

General

The end of the course has finally come and it’s the beginning of ,what I think will be, a  nice summer.

This blog is also going on holiday but I hope you’ll come back and visit me again in September . I leave you with a  story with moral and trust me on this,  I’ll make sure I am  sitting really high

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, Can I also sit like you and do nothing?
The eagle answered, Sure , why not?
So the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.


Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.