Accessible learning resource - chocolate?

I am in clear-up mode at the moment.  I was going through a notebook I'd taken with me on a seminar trip a couple of years ago and came across a web address I'd jotted down.

I've just checked it out and I can see that it would be a useful resource for students to use at home.

The name of the site is attractive too!

Learning chocolate
' to make learning a new language as fun as enjoying a piece of chocolate!'

http://www.learningchocolate.com/

There are 5 pages of themes - there would seem to be 25 themes per page so.... 125 of them.

Each theme works the same - you see a set of pictures and words (Review).  Each word has a speaker icon next to it.  You click on the icon to hear the word.  The spelling and pronunciation is American English, so make sure students are aware of that if they're more used to British English or another type of English.
Next, there are 3 match up activities.  Then a fill in activity and a dictation of the words.  

The format is always the same so I doubt if your students would manage to do all 125, but I'd suggest that it would be a useful resource to share with students (and parents).

And Learning Chocolate isn't limited to English - you can also Chinese/Mandarin, German, Spanish and Japanese - I might try learning a bit of Chinese later.......

And - what about this lovely picture on the subject of learning and chocolate?  Great idea for working on writing and using interesting words from F is for First-grade Fun!

http://k-1badgerteacher.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/one-of-my-favorite-winter-writing.html

Cambridge English TV - speaking test videos, webinars and so much more!

As I said in my previous post, we Cambridge English Assessment: seminar presenters in Spain and Portugal are gearing up for a new season of seminars and conferences.  We're going to be giving more seminars in even more places.  Hope to meet some of you there!

I am starting to look at the sessions I'll be giving soon in Bilbao and San Sebastian and at the materials I'll be using.

I took a look at Cambridge English TV on youtube and found some great resources there.  Back in February, I mentioned the YLE Teaching Tips available on this Channel.  

Today, I found two speaking test videos - one for Cambridge English: Key for Schools

 and the other for Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools.

Both show a complete sample speaking test and also provide a link to a pdf. document with comments on the Test and the candidates you see.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149448-ket-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149446-pet-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

Teachers are always asking for examples of speaking tests to watch and to show their students.  Here you have two good examples!

Other brilliant resources on the Cambridge English TV channel are English Language Learning Tips, looking at various areas such as Tips for Listening and Speaking Tests, etc.  And recordings of webinars if you didn't catch them live.

Definitely worth a visit and saving to your playlists!

Off we go!!!

Our seminar season is about to begin - in Spain and Portugal, we are set to go!

Last Friday, we held our annual Spain and Portugal Presenters' Meeting in Madrid.

Here, you can see us in action!!  It was a very dynamic get-together, with a considerable amount of sharing of ideas.

The Portugal team has lots of new members - so lots more seminars should be taking place!!!
Welcome back to Lucy Bravo and Antonio Malva!
And welcome to the team Idalia Luz, Martin Heslop, Robin Barnes!

The Spanish team also welcomes two new members - Gabby Hewitt, based in Cordoba and Karen Ludlow, who lives in Madrid.

We have many, many sessions lined up so hopefully many of the readers of this blog will see us some time, somewhere!