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Showing posts from March, 2010

323. Ready for one battle

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Just to let you know I'm going to be out for a few days. You can leave your comments - if any. williamthecoroner files wordpress com, thank you for the photo. I guess - I may be wrong - this armor is German, 15th century; it's the sort of the ones I've told you.

322. A marvelous scenery before my eyes

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Today I would like to thank some experts at teaching/learning languages , who I owe a lot to. Also I thank others that have helped me some or another way. I have received much from every one of them, either "live" or from reading their books and publications. Antonio Bueno; my father, Mary Jane Amaya, H. D. Douglas, E. W. Stevick, Neil McLaren, Marisa Alzueta Zubiri, Javier Yeguas and Luke Huidgbredgts (sorry, Lucas, if I mispell your Dutch family name), Eugenio Olivares, J. L. Marti, Andrew Johnson, Kitty, Rebecca Oxford, Jane Arnold (I like her Californian accent as well), Antonio Barnés, Chwa, Chris Judd, David Crystal. Etc. Thanks to the website above for the view photograph. Once again some stuff about The Lord of The Rings : you may know that, at least, the first sequel was filmed in these wonderful lands.

321. Flying high

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One day teacher B said to teacher A, " Presentations made by the students are something convenient. They speak about a topic their choice for example, for longer than a mere response to a question. It's very different when one student has to speak for one minute, five, or half hour. The main point should be the presentation be clear, easy to understand. Maybe with an introduction, plus the development, plus a conclusion. But not necessarily this procedure. As well the topic ought to be really interesting for the listeners. You can implement this activity as young the learners as 11 years - so as to say a certain limit I think it's right." www futurebytes ch, thanks for the awesome picture.

320. Literature

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I know you like movies, Eugenio, thank you for your comment. For this post, see what said on # 302 too. One day teacher A said to teacher B, "Massive and continuous reading novels creates a process of thinking in the target language. This massive -and intensive - reading sure boosts the learning process of a language. If the learner reads novels - more in the case of unabridged ones, he will get a great fluency at speaking: he will have learned many words and idioms, and as a result he will be able to express his ideas more easily. And obviously reading may be something relishing." www moviewallpapers net, thank you for the case poster of The Lord of The Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring . Worth rewatching it! There is a remake with a few new scenes.

319. J. R. R. Tolkien was very creative

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, “ How they learning to make stories , how they learning to link diverse sentences so as to bond a story? One example: I’ve tried training my students to do this by writing myself one story on a sheet of paper, a simple one, a funny one. Then, that done, I cut out the story into stripes of paper. In the class-period I hand out two, two different stories, jumbled inside those sets of stripes of paper, to two teams, which have got to make out the stories, by moving around the stripes, over and over again. The winner team is the one that finishes first. They learn to construct meaningful stories.” thecia com au, thank you for the picture. Some hobbits, Frodo Baggins as head. I guess this shot is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring.

318. Perseverance if you want the fruit

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How can a learner achieve to learn English, you ask me? With his learning strategies. Read the definition of learning strategies by Rebecca Oxford. The quotation is from her book of 1990. I already gave you the title of this essential book. “Operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information. [... ] specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations.” (8). Thanks for the photo to thailand ipm-info org.

317. Leading the way

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, "Treat each student tactfully in the individual tutorials. Help the student, in order to get him rid of his flaws, if possible; do this in order to help him improve his study and his learning process. Help him pull out the best from himself, and teach him the ways to success in learning a language. Make him realize his correct techniques at learning. Think of him as frequent as possible. Approve his correct responses in the class-period. Polish his poor process of learning. He may not know how to study. Pull him upward. He will improve. And you too. However, remember that his first educators still are his parents." imagenes foro-ciudad com. The picture shows a picturesque view of a street of Herrera del Duque, province of Badajoz, in Extremadura, west of Spain. It's a quiet village.

316. Your goal

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When you want to correct something in one of your students, talk with him apart, and bear in mind the resolution to try to help him become a better person. And remind him of what is expected from him. And you remind of what is expected from you. www cadenaser com

315. More weapons

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Some learning/teaching strategies I have learned from my work with my kids. I gave you some of them a few posts below. Begun on April 2, 2009 Translating sentences by all. In their tests they have translations. The student makes up a test as though he was the teacher. Just 4 questions. It is the “opposite side” of their desks – they are now the “teacher”. And they make some metacognitive learning: they see what someone may expect from their learning. All the class makes up a test on the WB. The teacher proposes one question. What do you have to study to prepare a test? The teacher helps him. And the How do you study the test. The teacher asks them questions to elicit vocabulary. Or grammar. The student writes one sentence with a new word, in a practical use. Better: 2 sentences. The student adds one more sentence, similar to the ones of a given exercise. The student reads a specific text, not set as hw, and the teacher asks him question. In this way, the teacher may convince him of th

314. Hey, can anyone help me amidst this mess?

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, “A couple days ago you said that both the teacher and his or her students can create history, with their daily work, ok. Now I tell you that with my human thinking and reasoning can reach the knowledge of the existence of God. What I intend to tell you is that all good comes from God, and also from men and women of course. You can create history and a fairer society, being aware that you may count on the help of God, count on the help of the Other. Even more, God utilizes persons to help one another, as a loving father. If I did not say this, I guess I wouldn’t be honest to you.” blog luxuryproperty com: thank you for your pic.

313. Keeping on helping them

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Thank you, Betty, for your comment about the importance of the fact that whatever we teachers say and the way we say influences on our student kids - definitely paramount. Glad to reveive a comment from a TeacherLingo colleague. Well, I saw you tried hard to make me reach your comment - also thanks for that! Picture from timesonline typepad com.

312. He has made us happier

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, “ Every person leaves some trace in history , either some good or some bad dregs. You influence on history, on humankind. Just with your everyday work. You serve society, with your teaching. You connect people with your teaching a language. If you fulfill your work nice, you make goodness to people, although your work could seem insignificant for all the people in the world. And moreover, you are teaching your students also to leave some good in history. It’s not necessary to do something Big. But you can do something Great. Attending your post of work one day after another day. Tell your students that they alike can serve society with the language they are learning.” Thanks for the picture to images allmoviephoto com. Peter Jackson is the genius director of the movie of The Lord of the Rings . I certainly know that he directed The Fellowship of the Ring , but I don’t know whether the sequels.

311. Shhhhh! They are very concentrated

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Below you have some games that have been very helpful and fun in my classes . On the Labels column, on the right hand of my blog, you have one label which if you clic on you'll have a long list of 107 games, all levels of English. Now just some games, especially popular amongst my students. 1. Dictionary. The teacher writes a new word on the blackboard (or digitalboard or...). The first student who finds the meaning, one point. Very helpful to practice looking up words in a dictionary. Every activity can be done individually or in pairs or in groups of three. 2. The teacher writes words beginning with the same letter. The students have to order those words as they appear in the dictionary: belong, believe, beneath, be, beep, bend, bachelor, believer. 3. Hangman. Also to construct sentences. 4. Simon says … They really enjoy this one! If you say "Simon says" plus an instruction the students have to do it; if you don't say "Simon says", they must do nothing;

310. Embarked in the same ship

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One day teacher B said to teacher A, "I've lately been thinking of female teachers , ye know? In Spain there are more women than men dedicated to teach English - better said, to help their students to become more and more autonomous learners. I have noticed some digg qualities women have. They have something, say, characteristic, peculiar to them. Think of their tenderness, their big generosity and commitment, their fortitude and endurance, their being sensitive to the detail, their intuition. I do see these things especially in my wife, who also teaches English here in Spain. It's not necessary for you to tell you men also may have these qualities." Picture thanks to www aerospace-technology com

309. Trying hard to reach my goal

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Here you have two compos I've written for my C-2-level course. We the students were assigned as homework to write two compositions or essays or stories. Would be nice they like you - I had real fun at writing them. NB.: Please don't get me wrong if the stuff about "The insurgent" be of any bit of a disgust for anyone: was not my intention: it's just a story. The first comp is also a story, science-fiction, not my vision of our world, etc. The digital addresses of BBC are fully made up, not real. I know these comments were not necessary for you anyway. Just one more thing, welcome, new follower. Pictue from www theage com au. From: Fernando Díez Gallego. http://fernandoexperiences.blogspot.com 8B English 10 March 2010 Writings. From Teacher’s Book page 176. Exercise 2. We were assigned to write two people’s profiles. People who could be leaders. For the first person I have invented a character which is not among the people we had to take as possible characters f

308. My dog is cute, but my family is more cute

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One day teacher B said to teacher A, " If we deal with teaching English, and how about its daily implementation, first we have to think of the teacher himself . He is the main source and resource for the classes. I want to refer now to his or her own family, and his relationship with his wife, or with her husband, with his or her children. If the teacher is, for example, unfaithful to his marriage, this charges his daily teaching, no doubt, and his trying to transmit values to his students. On the positive side, for example executives of firms who everyday fight to truly love his wife and his children, are more likely to have success in their companies. Likely ok, not always, but very likely. I've seen this fact." gentlegiantsrescue com - Thank you for the pic.

307. A correct confrontation

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, " One father told me a few days ago the way he tries to correct and educate his children, some of them adolescents . He takes one of them, who has done something wrong, has done some mischief. By the way, it's something we teachers can learn from. He does not just reprimand the fault or call his son a liar, or a bad person, or mortifies him. This father says that usually young people adhere themselves to what is upright. They often don't like rules said by adults, though they admit those norms if the why of them is explained. So he makes his son realize his trouble, he makes his son think whether he did something bad. In a few words, this adult holds a dialog with his son. This father educates his son treating him as someone sensible, with an intelligence and a free will." A nice picture from doctorheadly files wordpress com.

306. More about learning strategies

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A key point to learn/acquire a language: Rebecca Oxford defines learning strategies as “[... ] actions taken by second and foreign language learners to control and improve their own learning. Learning strategies are keys to greater autonomy and more meaningful learning. Although learning strategies are used by students themselves, teachers play an important role in helping students develop and use strategies in more effective ways.” (ix). Taken from an expertised authority on learning strategies. I hope it be helpful for you to have clearer ideas about that paramount point about your profession. The reference is, again, Rebecca Oxford (1990) Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know . Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. An Iranian school; photo thanks to weneedtrees com.

305. Doing good

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One day teacher A said to teacher B, "For sure the students, though young they may be, even more because of this fact, note and realize all that happens in the classroom. Pointedly they observe you, wide acute eyes and acute judgment . They judge whether you work hard, or whether you are skiving your expected commitment and work. So, you do influence a lot on them. Whatever you do, whatever you don't. Even the way you live your private life or your life out of the school influence on them. You set an example. And alike you transmit your enthusiasm." Photo thanks to rgr-static1 tangentlabs co uk.

304. Among people

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Today I'm fortunate to present you something very interesting and which can help us, teachers. It makes a stack profound contribution to this blog. It's something to be pondered, and from that point to draw conclusions for our daily battle. Sorry for the format bugs. The author of the original entry is José Luis Fomt Nogués, an expert in education, based in Granada. One of his blogs is http://albayalde.wordpress.com/ . The photo is from www spraguephoto com. It shows a subway moment in Seoul subway - South Korea. Febrero 17, 2010 Sobre la “hechura interior” Archivado en: Hechura interior — albayalde @ 10:22 am Para los seres humanos son de interés esas corrientes interiores que corren cual ruidosas torrenteras o por bellos cauces tranquilos hasta despeñarse en cataratas o, serenas, alcanzar la mar. Esa hechura interior se inicia en las características personales -en parte innatas-, pasa por las disposiciones adquiridas con hábitos de actuación, llega al trabajo o actividad q

303. So, are these your students?

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One day teacher B said to teacher A, " When I began teaching English to a class-group of nearly thirty students age 13 and 14, I spoke in Spanish. I presented the vocabulary of the new unit. The students were asked next day, because they were expected to have learned those words, words not meaningful to them. I presented the grammar of the unit also in Spanish, on the blackboard, and the boys listened and copied. Also exercises from the textbook were done. No communication. No real and authentic communication. One positive point was that they were grateful for the notes on their memobooks, explained in a clear way. Widely speaking this was the unit working on." www alcozar net: sheep on a picturesque hill slope. Alcózar is a village in Spain.