MAKING YOUR OWN AVATAR ONLINE - AVATAR MAKER

Avatar Maker is an online tool. You can create your own avatar for free in 4 different styles. You can also select your gender and get a cool username in two clicks. It's absolutely free a d esy to download your final avatars.

Create your own character avatar from wide variety of options. Replace your photo on social media sites, forums or chat programs with your own created cartoon avatar.

From here, you will be able to make your own avatar within the limitations of selected gender styles. Once you decide, you can begin customizing your avatar from the very first tab you are given for options.

To start creating your avatar, click on this link: Avatar Maker

REPORTED SPEECH GAMES - WORDWALL

Interactives and printables

Explore the different ways of using indirect speech with Wordwall.

Wordwall can be used to create both interactive and printable activities. Most of our templates are available in both an interactive and a printable version.


Interactives are played on any web-enabled device, like a computer, tablet, phone or interactive whiteboard. They can be played individually by students, or be teacher-led with students taking turns at the front of the class.

Printables can printed out directly or downloaded as a PDF file. They can be used as a companion to the interactive or as stand-alone activities.

Reported speech Liveworksheets: activity 1 / activity 2

Link to go to the Reported Speech games: Wordwall Community

PHONETICS THROUGH LYRICS - BAD HABITS by ED SHEERAN

                   ˈɛvri taɪm jʊ kʌm əˈraʊnd, jʊ nəʊ aɪ kɑːnt seɪ nəʊ
                   ˈɛvri taɪm ðə sʌn gəʊz daʊn, aɪ lɛt jʊ teɪk kənˈtrəʊl

                                   ...

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. By using IPA you can know exactly how to pronounce a certain word in English. This helps in improving English pronunciation and feeling more confident speaking in English.

In this activity, by the song Bad Habits you can offer your students a great activity to inmerse in hte Phonetic world and work out the parts f the song encrypted to lyrics.

Here you have the hand out: Bad habits (Phonetics)

And the complete lyrics: Bad Habits (Lyrics)

THE KING'S SPEECH CLASS ACTIVITY

The king's speech

 

WORKING WITH LYRICS: ED SHEERAND - HAPPIER

 

For downloading the activity filling the gaps in the lyrics: Ed Sheeran - Perfect activity

For downloading the full lyrics: Ed Sheeran - Perfect Full Lyrics

TEA CONSENT VIDEO

If you're still struggling with consent, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you're making them a cup of tea. You say, "Hey, would you like a cup of tea?" And they go, "Oh, my God, I would love a cup of tea. Thank you." Then you know they want a cup of tea. If you say, "Hey, would you like a cup of tea?" And they're like, "No, um, you know, I'm not really sure." Then you could make the a cup of tea or not, but, be aware, they might not drink it. And if they don't drink it, then, and this is the important part, don't make them drink it. Just because you made it doesn't mean you are entitled to watch them drink it. And if they say, "No, thank you," then don't make them tea at all. Just don't make them tea. Don't make them drink tea. Don't get annoyed at them for not wanting tea. They just don't want tea, OK?

LUKAS GRAHAM - 7 YEARS VIDEO (AND ACTIVITY)

Nice song to go through with your students. Have a glance at the lirycs and work out this song all together. In this song Lukas summarises his life so far and what he hopes to achieve in the future. He said that the reason the lyrics go as far as the age of 60 is because his father died at 61 and he needed to "pass it to believe it." He continued: "It's a song about growing older.

Lyrics handout: 7 years by Lukas Graham

HOW GOOD GRAMMAR SAVES LIVES AND OTHER REASONS IT'S STILL IMPORTANT

 Your grammar skills, whether good or bad, often leave people with a lasting impression about who you are. Yet grammar errors are still extremely common as they’re so easy to miss. Unfortunately, many grammar mistakes come at the price of being misunderstood, made fun of, or even losing a job.

Luckily, poor grammar skills can be fixed as long as you’re aware of them. This article will show you how even a little mishap, like adding one comma too many, can change the meaning of the whole sentence — and explain how to avoid it.

Keep reading on How Good Grammar Saves Lives

CORONAVIRUS AND MODAL VERBS

The coronavirus is a kind of virus that mutates (changes) very fast. It’s said it comes from wild animals and its origin is China because they’re used to eating wild animals (like bats, pangolins…). Actually people think the animal which transmitted first the virus to a human was a pangolin (an ant-eater family species). The coronavirus has existed for more than 30 years but it stayed confined in China. The reason of the spreading of it is because the more often commercial transactions and, therefore, business travelling to China in this last decade and also the more habitual habits from Chinese to go on holiday to other countries.

To download the worksheet: Coronavirus activity

EMMA WATSON'S SPEECH AT U.N. ABOUT GENDER INEQUALITY

Watch the video on youtube: Emma Watson at U.N.

"Today, we are launching a campaign called HeForShe. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change and we don't just want to talk about it. We want to try and make sure that it's tangible." 

...
For reading on the full script follow the following link: Emma Watson's speech at U.N.

Watch the first part of the video (to 5 minutes and 15 seconds!), do the exercises and then have a look at the HeForShe website. Emma Watson's Speech Exercises

SANDY HOOK PROMISE

Sandy Hook Promise is a national non-profit organization founded and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.Based in Newtown, Connecticut, our intent is to honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation by providing programs and practices that protect children and prevent the senseless, tragic loss of life.

Visit Sandy Hook website on www.sandyhookpromise.org

COURSE NOTICES

In connection with the 2017-2018 school year, I have highlighted some interesting information for students and families: course organization, class does and don'ts, assessment criteria... Very clear document where you can find the essential points for this year's course. In case of any questions, contact me.

Course notices

GAMES TO LEARN ENGLISH

This is a free site for students to learn English online. There is a selection of games that students can use to practice learning English in a fun way. It is primarily aimed at ESL students, but young children may also benefit from them. Some popular games include Hangman, Two Truths And A Lie, Simon Says, Hot Seat, and Board Race. These games can help you practice your vocabulary and grammar skills. Eventually, it is also a great way to learn english. 

To go to the site: Online ESL Games

PASSIVE STRUCTURES

Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore, tenses also have "active forms" and "passive forms." You must learn to recognize the difference to successfully speak English. In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence. You can use the passive form if you think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. You can also use the passive form if you do not know who is doing the action or if you do not want to mention who is doing the action. nHave some practice in the following links:

Passive structures website

Passive exercises

And for the homework sent in class, download it in the following link: Passive Homework.

NEW!!! Here you can download the key for the passive exercises you have worked with in class: Passive key

To revise the Power Point Presentation we have seen in class and go through explanations and exercises to caonsolidate structures, click on the link: Passive Power Point

ABOUT PHRASAL VERBS

What are phrasal verbs? a phrasal verb consists of a base verb, e.g. catch or look, and one or two particles
(adverb or preposition), e.g. on or to. There are three main types of phrasal verb: 1 phrasal verbs with no object (intransitive). 2 phrasal verbs which take an object (transitive) and are separable. 3 phrasal verbs which take an object but cannot be separated by the object. These verbs may have one or two particles.
To keep on reading go to the following link: Phrasal verbs types and theory

Here you can also download the power point we've gone through in class, so that you can compile vocabulary you will need further on: Power Point about phrasal verbs

THE LOST THING

The Lost Thing is a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at a beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice it’s presence. Each is unhelpful in their own way; strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his better judgement, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature, and attempts to find out where it belongs.

EUROSCOLA CONTEST

The European Parliament Information Office in Spain, together with the Representation of the European Commission in Spain and the Secretary of State for the European Union, announces the 21st edition of Euroscola Contest devoted to the European Year of Development ç.

“A life of dignity for all: eradicating poverty and  supporting sustainable development” is one of the main
messages to be transmitted to the European society during this year. The main goals for this year are to inform about the cooperation of the European Union (EU) in poverty eradication inside and outside Europe and about the role of the EU as the biggest donor of the official development assistance in the world; to encourage civic Participation; to foster a sense of responsibility among the citizens, to sensitise the public opinion about the role of cooperation, to achieve public commitment and to highlight the importance of the contribution of the youth.

For more information: Euroescola website (also in Spanish)
For downloading the rules of the Euroescola contest in English
For downloading the rules of the Euroescola contest in Spanish

THE GOLDEN BIRD BY GRIMMS BROTHERS

"The Golden Bird" is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the pursuit of a golden bird by a king's three sons. In this post you can find the recorded story and the tapescripts for checking pronunciation and understanding of spoken English.

A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone...

For the audio, click on the following link: The Golden Bird

For the tapscripts, click on this one: The Golden Bird

For your students you can also f nd a website which checks understanding of the story with a quiz. Go to this link: Quiz on The Golden Bird

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to the beginning or end of another word. They are not words in their own right and cannot stand on their own in a sentence: if they are printed on their own they have a hyphen before or after them.

Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create a new word with a different meaning. Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word.

In this marvellous Oxford blog you can analyse the different aspects of these set of words and get rid of the common problems you come up to when we deal with them.

To go to the main page of prefixes and suffixes in the blog: Prefixes and suffixes

For more particular aspects of prefixes and suffixes:

Do you know your -ibles from your -ables?

Who’s confident [confidant?] about using -ance, -ence, and similar suffixes?

If you want to practice with some exercises online: Prefixes and suffixes exercises

HEARTWARMING THAI COMMERCIAL

There are benefits -- including intangible ones -- to doing good deeds.  The following life insurance ad from Thailand illustrates this fact wonderfully! We expect companies to go for the hard sell over the holidays—but sometimes they can surprise us. See this ad that gives us the warm and fuzzies.

To watch the commercial: Heartwarming Thai commercial