Webinars this week

I have signed up for two webinars this week.

The first, today, Monday.  I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Language Assessment's site to attend the Webinar below:

The webinar will also take place on Wednesday morning.

From seminars, I know that correcting writing is a subject that raises a lot of discussion and interest, so I'm sure that a lot of people will be online like me.

If you can't make either of these dates or times, there is always the chance to watch a recording of the webinar and to download the slides too.

On Thursday, I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Teacher website and the webinar by Johanna Stirling on Joined-up Listening.

See you online!  (Or in person in San Sebastian on Friday!)

Avoiding Making Mistakes in Cambridge English: First Paper 2 Writing

Myself and the rest of the Presenter Team are busy busy right now.  For the next two Fridays, I'll be going to San Sebastian to give seminars, then I'll be popping across to Rome to talk at the International House Young Learners Conference at the beginning of March as well as giving a seminar here in Santander and in Miranda del Ebro and at Deusto University.  Phew!!!

Find out where we'll be by clicking here.

As always, when I'm preparing for these sessions, I come across some great material and ideas on the web.  I saved one of them and made a note to myself to share it with you here!

It's a pdf document from one of my favourite sites for materials to prepare students for First, Advanced and Proficiency:  flo-joe.

It's not new (dated 2005), but it contains some very useful advice for students when taking Paper 2 (Writing).

Get your students to read it (and read it through the day before the exam to remind themselves) and work on suggestions like planning and paraphrasing in class.  

Right, back to seminar preparation now .......   

Is this your (cup of) coffee?

A while back, I came across a quote about photography.  Having some aspiring photographers in the family, I shared it with them and also saved it on my computer.

This morning, I came across the image and thought again and googled for "Life is like ..."

I found a few interesting analogies on Quotelicious, such as:

Life is like pictures in a photo album. You can look back on the moments, but you can never recapture them.

Life is like walking through snow. Every step shows.

Deep thoughts for a Monday morning!!!???

What about this one (being a teacher of course, it appealed and I had to save and share!)

Life is like a multiple choice question, sometimes the choices confuse you, not the question itself.

And then, I ended up at a new site - Flickspire.

If I were to offer you a coffee, which cup would you choose to have your coffee in?  Why?

Click to watch a short 'flick' called 'Life is like coffee.'

The clip made me think about my coffee drinking habits - I usually choose a particular cup or mug to drink it from.  It tastes different I think, or I enjoy it more depending on the cup.  I also drink different quantity depending on the time of the day.  And I find it hard to live without my mid-morning coffee!!!

Anyway, I think I'll be using the clip in class and maybe get my students to come up with their own comparisons to complete the sentence:

Life is like .....