I'm a happy camper

I got the computer, an ibook G4, that I've been dreaming of for a long, long time.

Happy Xmas to everyone

seasonal greetings to all my students

I hope everyone has a great time during the holidays.

It was the school's wine and cheese do last night

And a good time was had by all who attended. I posted a few photos to show those who didn't come what they missed. Of course, with the right financial incentive I can be persuaded to take down the photo of your choice. LOL

Discussion Forum

I have linked this site to a discussion forum (see the links section of the blog on the right). That's something like a chat room in which you can express your opinions. The first topic is;

What did you think of this term's lessons ? Feel free to express your opinions (you can do it anonymously).

Let it rip!!!!

And the hits keep on coming !

Create your own tv or radio ads


1 Tell the students about your favourite tv ad e.g. I love the latest
ad from Nova which shows a Greek cop chasing a a chicken thief
through a village. He finally catches up with the guy, and then
starts reading him his Miranda rights (in English).

The slogan is that the some people are glued to Nova.

2 Ask students to describe their favourite tv ad to each other.

3 The students then discuss the following questions;

What makes an ad successful ?
Apart from selling something, what else do ads want to achieve ?

4 Elicit answers. Write them on the board.

5 Show students three or four ads in English on video
(alternatively pin up ads on the board).

6 Are they successful according to the criteria we set
out in (5)? How could they be improved ?

5 Tell students that they're going to create their own radio
or tv ads. Divide students into groups of three or four.They
then decide what product or service they want to advertise.

6 Explain to students that they are going to write a script
for a 30 second radio/tv spot.Emphasise the fact that it has
to be 30 second exactly.Students then write and rehearse
their ads.

7 Record students using a cassette recorder (for you old
skoolers!!), mobile phone, mp3 player, digital camera (for
the low tech Hitchcock wannabe's)or a video camera (for
that full - blown Dolby home cinema experience).Pop corn is optional.

8 Play them to the other students who suggest ways in
which the ads can be improved.

Copyright Teacher Dude (just kidding)!!!!!

jellyfish

jellyfish
Originally uploaded by Gen Kanai.

No comment. Just a really beautiful image from Flickr.com to gaze at.

Correction Code

The object of this code is to let you
look at your mistakes on your own and
learn from them.

sp Spelling e.g. Friends not frinds
gr Grammar e.g. Lots of money not many money
pr Preposition eg. I live in London not I live at London
pu Punctuation e.g. I like milk not i like milk
vt Verb tense e.g. I went to Spain in 1995 not I have gone to Spain in 1995
wo Word order e.g. I like dancing very much not I like very much dancing
ww Wrong word e.g. I missed the bus not I lost the bus
mw Missing word e.g. I saw a bird not I saw bird
r Repetition i.e. saying the same again and again and again etc.

songs

Here are some of te songs I'm listening to at the moment.

Na,na,na,na,na - Kaiser Chiefs
Zeros and ones - The Prodigy Vs Jesus Jones
Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
Queen Bitch - David Bowie
Flash- Queen
I just want to celebrate - Rare Earth
Superstyling _ Groove Armada
Bombs over Baghdad - Outkast
Song 2 - Blur
Soul Rebel - Bob Marley and the Wailers

Long time, no see or Χρονια και ζαμανια as they say in Greek.

Well, I haven't had much time for this blog over the last couple of weeks. Exam time was upon us and it definitely was not the season to be jolly. Good luck to all my students who took the FCE, ECCE and CPE - talk about alphabet soup!



Here's my idea for a class project for advanced levels i.e. post B2 using War of the Worlds radio play by Orson Welles and the mercury theatre (see here for link to free mp3 download of the play and here for the transcript).

The idea is for students to update and adapt all or part of the story to fit in with their local circumstances. This means changing character and palce names, modifying topical references etc.

The original version

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.
At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity.
Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation, and describes the phenomenon as, quote, "like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun," unquote.
We now return you to the music of Ramón Raquello, playing for you in the Meridian Room of the Park Plaza Hotel, situated in downtown New York.

The new, improved Greek version

Hi everyone. we interrupt our laiko program to bring you a special news update from ET1. At 7:40 Professor Vritkas of the Thessaloniki university observatory, reports obsrving several large explosions of incandescent gasThe spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity.
Professor Vafopoulos of the Observatory at Athens confirms Vritkas's observation, and describes the phenomenon as, quote, "like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun," unquote.
We now return you to the music of Antonis Remos, playing for you in Mouses, situated in downtown Thessaloniki.


The students then record their version using their pc. Audacity has a free to download programme that is easy to use. The more computer literate may wish to post it as a podcast.

If anyone has any suggestions for warm up exercises, please let me know. This is very much a work in progress and I've yet to test it in class.

Black American

Black American
Originally uploaded by Kirja-addikti.

The point of learning is not to understand the world, but to change it!

A good site to do research

Check out Wikipedia

This is a great site to find out stuff like the ex 1 on Get ready page 38.

Any ideas what the sign means ?

beware of...
Originally uploaded by mjd-s.

I found this at www.flickr.com. Obviously, not eating all your crab is a big no-no in Japan.