It's Sunday morning.  One thing I miss about not being in the UK, is not spending a large part of the morning reading through the newspaper like I used to do, drinking numerous cups of tea.  (I still read the newspaper online if I have time, but it's not the same - I miss those huge pages!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eloctre/7855061406/

Once I'd tired of reading, I would then start on the cryptic crossword.  I've always like doing crosswords.  (For a few years, I was subscribed to the Telegraph Puzzles website, just to be able to do the cryptic crossword!)

So, thinking about this, I thought I'd have a look at what crosswords to use with students there are out there.
I typed three words into the search bar:

As usual, when you do a search, it is amazing just how many free resources there are on the web.

I went to the first 'match' - a very familiar and amazingly rich site for online exercises for students:

http://iteslj.org/cw/   

The Level 1 crosswords are suitable for beginners and are great for practising gap fills (words like 'he', 'had' were two of the answers to the clues in Very Common Words #1).  Then there are thematic crosswords for Level 2 and in the higher level crosswords, expressions and less common vocabulary is focussed on.

I then clicked on the link to a related website (Manythings.org) and found lots more crosswords, including Puzzles with Images as Hints.

http://www.manythings.org/cs/

I checked out a site that I had not come across before and enjoyed trying out a couple of 3 X 3 crosswords.  (I might revisit and play some more later...... - I have an extra hour today with the clocks changing!!!)

http://www.goobix.com/crosswords/

And of course, there are also numerous sites that offer printable crosswords.  Definitely worth checking out are:

esl galaxy  (Crosswords are thematic.  The only snag I see is that you will use a lot of ink when you print them.)

Bogglesword (more print-friendly)

abcteach.com

As always, if you know of any useful websites for today's theme (crosswords), please share by sending us a comment!

Black Cat Online practice for Cambridge ESOL exams

This morning I received an email updating me about the resources available on the Black Cat Readers blog:  

Did you know that you can find hundreds of different kinds of interactive exercises on the Black Cat Readers blog?

Click on w.w.w.blackcatreaders.com/quizzes and discover a world of useful and interesting activities to practise your English: Grammar exercises, Vocabulary, Pronunciation and Listening activities, but also sections specifically designed to help you practise Cambridge ESOL exams.

Access is free! Hurry up!

 Given my obvious and known interest in any website or blog that claims to help students practise  and prepare for the Cambridge ESOL exams, I clicked on the link and checked out the materials there.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can search for Exam skills for the different levels of the CEFR - for Cambridge English: Key, Preliminary, First and Advanced.

As the next seminar I will be giving (November 9th San Sebastian) is about Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools, I selected the activities available for B1 and this list appeared:

It looks very useful.  I'll be recommending it to my students and colleagues to try out.  If you recommend it or use it, let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!

Famous English Speakers!

Just got back home from presenting some Cambridge ESOL certificates at the school where my daughters studied from when they were 3 years old before moving on to do Bachillerato when they were 16.

What memories!

I love going back there, especially when it's for an  event like this - presenting certificates that show how well students have done.

Colegio Sagrada Familia students with their 2011 certificates    

Every year I prepare a short presentation to start the ceremony - it's important for both students and parents to know exactly what the results mean.  To pass the Cambridge English: Key or Cambridge English: Preliminary exams, for example, students have to obtain an average total mark of 70% or more.  This. can come as a surprise in a country like Spain, where the pass mark is 5 (or 50%).

This year, I decided to include some videos of famous people talking English.

First, I showed them a youtube video of some false takes of football players trying to say a couple of sentences in English for an advert.

I think you will agree that at the time the videos was made, the players needed to think seriously about raising their level of English!

Then, I showed them some information about two famous Spanish people and how they had learnt English:

In 1992 Antonio Banderas made his Hollywood debut with Los reyes del mambo tocan canciones de amor (1992). Because he did not speak English at that time, his dialogue for the film was taught to him phonetically.

IMDB.com

Fernando Torres also revealed the method used by his two teachers to improve his English when he first moved to Liverpool from Madrid:

''One of the biggest problems I faced when I first moved here was the language barrier,' writes Torres in his autobiography El Nino.

Two people were vital during my first few days in the city: Rob and Alan, the English teachers Liverpool laid on for me.

'One of the things they used to make me do was ring people in response to adverts in the paper. You'd get on  the phone and ask about a puppy for sale, or that kitten being advertised, or the price of a second-hand car."

That's the first time I've heard of such a way of learning and practising English!  

And to finish, I showed the students a short excerpt from Shakira's speech to the Oxford Union.  I was very impressed by both her performance and her English!

Anyway, once again, congratulations to all the students who took and passed their exams in June.  I have set you a challenge - reaching Proficiency by 2018!  I hope some of you rise to that challenge - you are certainly well on your way!!!

Great blog(s) for Cambridge English: First!

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/spain/seminarios/index.php

Yesterday, I was at the British Council, Bilbao for a 2 hour seminar on the theme of:

'Planning and teaching short exam courses'

I really enjoyed the session - there were some teachers I've met at previous seminars in Bilbao, plus some new faces.  Great to share ideas with you all!  Thanks for coming!

When planning the session, I decided to take the Cambridge English: First exam as the focus for the course we were going to plan.

We looked at the English Profile website - the Vantage pdf document that can be downloaded via a link there, at the Vocabulary Profile and various other useful resources for material to guide us with our course content and focus planning.  

One point that all of us at the session agreed on is the need to offer students the opportunity to practise and study outside the classroom (especially with students that you may only see once a week for example).

We looked at various online resources for doing this.  I've mentioned some of them on this blog before - mailvu, IH  Bristol...

Interestingly, when looking around the web at what is available for teachers and students to prepare and practise for Cambridge English: First, I discovered that there is a British Council Bilbao blog for Cambridge English: First!

The blog has posts on different aspects of the exam and some practice materials based on authentic texts.

I also showed the teachers in Bilbao a blog about Cambridge English: First that I discovered recently. 

http://fceblog.blogspot.com.es/

This blog, by Claudia Ceraso is (in her own words)

An afterclass meeting point for all First Certificate in English Students

 I like the mixture of advice for the different parts of the exam and the fun links.

Why not visit Claudia's blog  and the FCE British Council Bilbao blog yourself and see what you think!

Great source for examples of answering questions

I have spent most of the day looking at some different web tools and pages.  One of the things on my 'to do' list for this academic year is to start using some new tools and applications with my students.

I was revisiting a favourite of mine - Nik's Daily English Activities.

I mentioned Nik back in a post in January this year.  I had been watching a recording of a webinar Nik gave and had really enjoyed it.

Anyway, today, I clicked on Nik's link to VYou.  

First, I watched the questions asked by Oprah Winfrey, then I looked at some other questions and answers on the site.

I thought that it would be a great page to use with students preparing to take the Cambridge English: First, Advanced and Proficiency exams, in particular when preparing them for the first and final parts of the Speaking Tests.

For example, someone out there has set the following question:

If a book has been made into a movie, which do you prefer to do first, see the movie or read the book? Why?

http://www.odcpl.com/index.php?p=1_81_Books-into-Movies

As I write this post, 4 people have recorded their answer with a video camera.  You can watch them here.

I think that this and similar questions and answers could be a great source for discussion in (or outside) class.
Students could be asked to 'give marks' using the criteria that Speaking Examiners use:

- Grammar and Vocabulary
- Discourse Management
- Pronunciation

(It's a bit difficult to evaluate the answerers' interactive communication because they are monologues!!!)

And I also think that the site could provide us teachers with some interesting discussion and opinion questions to put to our students (or they could each choose a question to ask the teacher and/or their classmates!)

And if you're feeling brave, they could also record their own answers and share them!

(Note:  Some of the questions (and answers!) might not be suitable for sharing with your students, especially with teenagers, so I suggest you choose the ones you can use carefully! )

101 things to do

It's Monday morning.  Getting myself organised to start the week.  Have started making a list of the things I have to do - and no, it hasn't reached the number 101 yet!!!  (But may well do!!!)

I am working on a seminar I have in Bilbao on Friday.  The session is on 'Planning and teaching short exam courses'.  I want to include some useful website recommendations, and was revisiting squidoo

(If you are not familiar with this site, here is what it says under 'About us':)

 an open, free platform that gives people a simple way to organize their interests online – and bring more human, curated, original content to the web. We make it easy for writers of all stripes to create portfolios of beautiful webpages, each one about a single thing or story or opinion that they know and love

While I was on the first page of squidoo, I clicked on  internet and came across the following 'Top performer':

Now, I suspect that I might not be trying out some of the things on the list (like How about chatting with a random person or Get help with Online Poker Games) and I am already familiar with a couple of the sites that clicks took me to like ted.com or google translate, but there are several others that I will add to my 'for later' bookmarks.

And I have already clicked on 63 Incredible Statistics Art: Awesome (Pictures) 

What a fantastic page!  

It has some beautiful pictures made up of objects that represent different statistics (Running the numbers).

http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#toothpicks

Like the one above, for example:   toothpicks representing the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

Ah well, I can now cross one thing off my 'to do' list - I've just written my first blog post for the week!  Hope it's a good one for you all!  
Maybe I might see one or two of you in Bilbao on Friday!

Several digital coincidences!

It's happened again.  Several things that I have discovered and accessed in the past 24 hours seem to be linked!

Yesterday, I received an email because Glyn Jones had posted a comment to my previous post on painting.

I had a quick look at the Five Card Stories recommended by Glyn and will write a blog post about it next week when I've had more time to look at it!  You all know how much I like using pictures and photos (I've talked about this several times in previous posts!), so I will definitely check this out!
Thanks for sharing Glyn!

Then, I clicked on a link in another email and completed a survey for Cambridge ESOL about my use of technology.

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/survey/digitaluse/

After that, I started checking out other things on the cogdogblog, 

Alan Levine’s (hey, thats me, writing about myself in third person!) place to bark about cool technology, web X.0 hype, weird web sites, photography, and other targets big and small- things that get under my fur or make me wag my tail.

and ended up on Michael Wesch's YouTube Channel.

I had seen the first video that appears on Michael's channel last year and was very impressed - both by the way the information was portrayed, as well as by the facts themselves.  You may well have seen the video too because it was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.

A Vision of Students Today

The facts are fascinating, and I suspect that some of the figures may have changed - with the time spent on Facebook, online, sending messages, talking on cellphones having increased since the video was made.

As a teacher, it certainly made me think about the way we teach and organise our classes and classrooms.  Since it was made, Cambridge ESOL has introduced Computer Based versions of many of its exams and judging by the Survey on 21st century teaching and learning I completed, Cambridge ESOL is also keen to keep up.

I will check out some of the other videos on Michael Wesch's Channel, more of the posts on the coddog blog and the Five Cards Stories.  I suspect that this will may well lead to more time spent online  as well as to more digital connections!

Painting

One of the first things I came across when I switched on my computer this morning was this:  

I like it, so I shared it on Facebook and now I'm sharing it with you via this blog!

And here is an activity based around the subject of paintings:

The two paintings below have something in common.
What?

- Can you see them in the same museum?  
- Are they the same style?
- Were they painted by the same person?  

Click on the link below to find out!!!

ABC News Article

The paintings in this article could be used in class.

Each student (or group or pair of students, depending on the number of students in your group) could read about a different painting and note the following information:

Who painted the painting?
Where was it stolen from?
How much is the painting worth?

Students can then discuss which of the 7 paintings they like or dislike and why and whether they think it's right that a painting or violin should be worth so much money.

If you want to continue with this debate, you could also show students pictures of the most expensive works of art sold at auction here.

The Cambridge ESOL Spain Seminar Team get coaching!

I got back to Cantabria from Madrid very late Friday night (even later than planned due to my flight being delayed - I finally got home at midnight!)  Still, the next day was Saturday, so I didn't have to run!!

The reason for my trip was to meet up with lots of the other members of the Spanish presenters team.  It's something we do every year at the start of our seminar programme, but October 2012 was going to be different.

This year we were going to be 'coached' by a trainer from Coaching y Comunicación.
Mónica Martín was our coach for the day.

Mónica

After introducing ourselves, (two new members of the team were with us too - welcome Cathy and Graham!) we shared ideas and experiences ......
and had a lot of fun, (as you can see from these photos!)

Sue, Katie, Rosie, Cathy

Katie & Helena

Mike & Caroline

Myself and Steve

Nick, Graham, Caroline 

Anne, Steve, Jane, Mike

We came up with lots of ideas and suggestions and thoughts.  In the photo above, Nick, Graham and Caroline were discussing and noting ideas for things to consider about the ideas and facts we want to present.

In my group, we were asked to talk about and write down important things to consider to ensure good communication with our audiences.

As usual, it was great to meet up with this great group of presenters, who also happen to be great people too!  

You can read about Rosie and Steve and one of their seminars on this blog in earlier posts.  We will be interviewing other members of the team for future posts.  Watch this space!

Right, let's go off and start communicating!!!!  Let's take our enthusiasm, empathy and energy and engage and empower our audiences!

Setting up a penfriend scheme with another school

When I was looking through some of the recent posts on the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe blog I told you about in my last post, I started reading about Cambridge English Penfriends.

I checked out the scheme on the Cambridge English Language Assessment website, and it looks very attractive.

Schools register to join the scheme, then Cambridge English puts two schools in touch.  The idea is that students at the two schools design and share cards on a theme.  (The current theme is Amazing Animals).

But why I am I trying to explain all these details, when the process is so well explained in the Cambridge ESOL penfriends leaflet!?

You never know, getting involved in this project may mean that like me, your students might form a lasting friendship with someone from another country.  I am still in contact with my French exchange partner, Genevieve - our friendship has lasted more than 30 years.

Last year, we met up again at her daughter's wedding!

A quick post about the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe Blog

I have just been looking through some of the posts on the Cambridge ESOL South East Europe blog.

There are so many interesting links and pieces of news on the blog, that I will be checking them out and no doubt sharing a few of them with you via this blog.

I have signed up to receive email alerts when new posts are added to the blog.  Anyone who is interested can do the same.