Videoconference with our American epals

Next week we are holding our first videoconference with our American epals. Their school, Park Middle School is located in New Jersey, USA. My 2 ESO students are thrilled with this new experience. They have been exchanging email messages (epals.com) with their respective epals for the last month and they are really looking forward to this event. Hopefully, this will be the first videoconference of many others.
My students will get some general knowledge about New Jersey and Park Middle School from the following webtask that I have created:

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=171919&page=1

Let's enjoy this experience!

EnglishCentral

My 2 ESO and Diversificación students are working hard on a speaking & listening-based project through which I put them to a weekly test. They must reach the goals that I set every week by watching and speaking some videos. Thanks to this online tool they can improve enormously their oral skills in English. You can check out their development by clicking on these links:

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esoa
http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esob
http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esoc
http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esod
http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/4diver

2º ESO: Decorate!

This is a nice game that you can play to improve and test your vocabulary about household items. Have a go... and play! Click on the following link to start.
http://www.ur.se/sprk/engelska/inredning/main.swf

2º ESO: Addicted to technology

Hello everyone! This time I want to put my 2º ESO students to a test. We have just finished the unit whose main topic is 'digital technology'. This is a video about how technology can affect our brain and its pros and cons. Watch the video and choose the answers to the questions below.




Questions:

1. What's the main topic?
a. health issues
b. technology addiction & possible health issues
c. the Internet

2. The average young person spends ........ each day exposed to digital technology
a. 7 hours
b. 8 hours
c. 8 hours 30 minutes

3. Technology is altering our brain. Is it........?
a. all bad
b. all good
c. not all bad, not all good

4. What affects your brain? (choose the best answer).
a. everything you do
b. the time you spend on the Internet
c. Reading

5. What's a digital native?
a. someone who was born at a time when technology was widely used
b. someone who started using a computer at age 3
c. someone who started using a computer when they were older

6. What's a digital immigrant?
a. someone who was born at a time when technology was widely used
b. someone who hates technology and tries to avoid computers
c. someone who has come to technology later in life

7. What does the writer suggest to overcome the technology gap between generations?
a. to mix the generations, kids and grandparents help each other
b. There is no solution to overcome it
c. Both kids and grandparents should go to school together

8. Surgeons who play videogames…
a. make more mistakes in the operating room
b. make fewer mistakes in the operating room
c. go nuts

9. What's not a problem caused by technology addiction?
a. grumpiness
b. loss of human contact
c. worse symptoms of attention-deficit disorder

10. What have pediatricians recommended for children who are under two years old?
a. play as many videogames as possible

b. play videogames for only an hour a day
c. no videogames or television

Send me the answers by writing a comment in this post. The deadline is Sunday 20th April. Let's give it a try!

2º ESO: Text message

Hello folks. Do you enjoy sending text messages? This time you will have to try to understand and rewrite the following chat into proper English. Send me the answers in the comments. Deadline: Friday 28th March. Good luck!

2º ESO: English Central

My 2º ESO students are going to work on a speaking & listening-based project through which I put them to a monthly test. They must reach the goals that I set every month by watching and speaking some videos. Thanks to this online tool they can improve enormously their oral skills in English. They can enrol their respective class by clicking on one of the following links:

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esoa

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esob

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esoc

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/2esod

Halloween: idioms of fear

Hello folks. This time I am going to dare you guess the three idioms (expressions whose meanings can't be inferred from the meanings of the words that make them up) that this misterious man explains talking about Halloween. You should hand me a brief composition with a scary story using the three idioms and the past simple and past continuous tenses in it before Thursday 7th November. Don't forget to decorate the sheet of paper and write your name on it!  Click on the following link to watch the video.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/the_teacher/mp4/teacher_halloween.mp4

3º Diversificación: Introduce yourself

This is the first online activity that my Diversificación students have done this school year. They introduced themselves with the help of Oddcast PhotoFace.
These are the links of some of the results of this assignment:

http://host-d.oddcast.com/photofacev2/?mId=50215354.3

http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/application_UI/doorId=357/clientId=1/?mId=50215338.3

http://host-d.oddcast.com/photofacev2/?mId=50215357.3

I invite you to check them out. Congratulations, you did a good job!

Create your own avatar

Hello! I am sure you all would like to change your identity image in your Voicethread account. You can create an awesome avatar on the following website:

http://www.faceyourmanga.com/

Do not forget to sign up first... and have fun!

2º ESO: Movie Challenge

I dare you to guess the titles of the following movie segments (obviously the original titles). In each segment you can read some of the most famous lines said in films. Those 2º ESO students who get the answers will get a special prize. Do not forget to write your answers in the comments! Deadline: Tuesday 7th May.

2º ESO: Parts of a house

The main topic in the next unit is 'household items'. This video can help my students remember or learn some vocabulary related to a house. We will watch it in class pausing it word by word. In any case, it can be a useful list for them in the future!

History of St. Patrick's Day

On March 17, Irish and Irish descendants celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Somehow we are going to share this festival with them by answering some questions after watching the following video:



Questions:

1. The story goes back to the
 a. 5th century
 b. 15th century
 c. 1st century

2. St Patrick was born in
 a. Ireland
 b. Britain
 c. Scotland

3. He was
 a. a slave
 b. a missionary
 c. both

4. He became a priest and got back to Ireland in
 a. 432 BC
 b. 32 BC
 c. 432 AD

5. It is a fact that St Patrick
 a. drove snakes from Ireland
 b. converted Irish people to Christianity
 c. worked miracles

6. St Patrick used a shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity
 a. True
 b. False
 c. We don't know

7. Many Irish people emigrated to America in the
 a. 1940s
 b. 1840s
 c. 1880s

8. The first place to celebrate St Patrick in the USA was
 a. New York
 b. Chicago
 c. Boston

9. The traditional food on St Patrick's Day in the USA is
 a. corned beef and cabbage
 b. baked potatoes and shepherds pie
 c. roast beef and yorkshire pudding

10. St Patrick's Day is the Patron Saint of
 a. Ireland
 b. USA
 c. both

Once again, send me the answers by writing a comment in this post. The deadline is Monday 18th March. Come on, have a go!

3º & 4º Diversificación: EnglishCentral

My Diversificación students are working hard on a speaking & listening-based project through which I put them to a weekly test. They must reach the goals that I set every week by watching and speaking some videos. Thanks to this online tool they can improve enormously their oral skills in English. You can check out their development by clicking on these links:

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/3diversificacion

http://es.englishcentral.com/class/11017-colegio-montpellier/4diversificacion

2º ESO: Teacher for one day

Some 2º ESO students have volunteered to prepare a lesson based on a song for their respective classmates. They are the first students at Montpellier school to participate in a wiki project. They can create and edit webpages. You can see the astonishing result of their hard work by clicking on the following link:
http://montpeenglish.wikispaces.com/Music

4º Diversificación: phone conversation

Hello again!
This is a speaking activity that I prepared in Voicethread.com for my 4º Diversificación students. They had to record several phone conversations.

 

They have done a great job!

3º & 4º Diversificación: Glogster Edu

By the end of the first term my Diversificación students worked on a couple of interesting topics: 'Household items' and 'Sports'. Each of them created a poster with the help of an outstanding online tool called Glogster. Here are some examples of the superb outcome of this activity:

elenamartin
dikramohamed
miguelbravo
Rober1995

They are really made of the good stuff!

Learning English through music: Lyrics training

Lyrics training is a great tool for students to improve their understanding of lyrics. The site includes YouTube videoclips which are organised in different levels of difficulty and cloze-type activities to complete the whole song.

2º ESO: Sharing our favourite music with our epals

Hello folks!
This time I have told you to write about your favourite music and share it with your respective epals. Don't forget to attach a video! These are the links of your walls:

http://wallwisher.com/wall/myfavouritemusic-2A

http://wallwisher.com/wall/myfavouritemusic-2B

http://wallwisher.com/wall/myfavourtiemusic-2C

http://wallwisher.com/wall/myfavouritemusic-2D

Remember you have to add the link of the wall where you posted your composition in the message that you will send your epal.

On the other hand, I also told you to write in that email message a composition about your Christmas customs. Go to the following website to get some tips for that composition:

Christmas customs writing plan

The deadline to add the post in the wall and to send your email is Friday 21st. Thank you so much for the effort you are making. You are great students!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dickens bicentenary webtask

In 2012 celebrations all over the world, especially in Great Britain, have been held to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. This is the webtask I have prepared:

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=164918

Write your answers on a separate blank sheet, you have to add at least two famous quotations by Dickens. The deadline to hand it in is the last lesson we will have before Christmas. Come on, give it a try!

Christmas: Treasure hunt

This is the 'treasure hunt' that I dare you do. Go to the following website:
http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Find the answers to these questions:

1. What do men in Bangladesh plant outside their homes at Christmas time?
2. How many dishes do Bulgarians eat for Christmas dinner?
3. What is carol singing called in Welsh?
4. People in Ethiopia eat Doro wat at Christmas. What is it?
5. Who wears white robes and a golden crown at Christmas in Germany?
6. What do people wear to mass on Christmas Eve in Malta?
7. Norwegians eat sand kagers at Christmas time. What are they?
8. Who reads a story on Christmas Eve in Syria?
9. What does the Ukranian Cristmas carol Boh predvichny mean?
10. What is St Stephen's Day in Ireland?

Write your answers on a separate blank sheet, you have to decorate it with some Christmas drawings. The deadline to hand it in is the first lesson we will have next week (either Monday 17 or Tuesday 18). Come on, have a go!

3º Diversificación: British epals

This term our 3º Diversificación students are going to start up an exchange with British students from a school located in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in the north of England. This is their school webpage:

http://www.ashville.co.uk/

Our students are going to keep up with their respective epals via e-mails under the supervision of the teacher. This exchange is kept thanks to the following organization:

http://www.epals.com/

This is the first time we are going to establish such an activity with a British school. It is challenging and our students are going to learn a lot, that's for sure!