"make and do" or tips how to learn vocabulary

There are different ways of learning vocabulary - making word-suns is one of the possibilities to memorize things better.

compliments to Eva-Lotta for the design...

Some links to "make/do" exercises on the web:
A very easy one of 8 sentences (checkable answers - the whole exercise);
A slightly longer one with different tenses (checkable answers - the whole exercise);
An exercise of 12 sentences (checkable answers - one sentence at a time);
An exercise of 20 sentences - a better one - it can be printed out (good layout) and answers on a separate page (not interactive);
An interactive exercise with 35 gaps - quite many good expressions (gives you immediate feedback when you click one of the options) and I'd recommend doing it although the story itself is a bit lame :)

StoneCity Gate

I am very proud to present the English-language newspaper of Stone City by 11b - titled
The StoneCity Gate

Please feel free to approach me for hard copies (current circulation - 5 copies :D) - only available for reading at the foreign language library...

Which class will publish the next issue?! Volunteers?

Illegal Drugs (History Channel)

Illegal Drugs and How They got that way – History Channel – Ecstasy/LSD

Those 11B-s who were present today should answer the questions on the basis of the programme, the absentees should find answers from the Internet.

Illegal Drugs and How They got that way – History Channel – Ecstasy/LSD

1. What was Ecstasy known as first?
2. What is the official name for Ecstasy?
3. What effect does Ecstasy have on the brain?
4. What is Suicide Tuesday?
5. What is a Schedule I drug?
6. Is LSD a pill?
7. Who discovered LSD?
8. What does LSD do?
9. What characterizes LSD-generation?
10. Why have adolescents throughout history used drugs?
11. What was the ideal cold war weapon like in the opinion of CIA?
12. Which drug is the Drug in Sex, Drugs and Rock N’ Roll?
13. Name some Schedule I drugs.
14. What does DEA stand for?
15. Why is GHB so dangerous

wisdom

Some pieces of wisdom collected over the past few weeks.

• There are people who look at the Shakespeare Sonnet 116 and exclaim: "You really think that I should learn this essay by heart?!"
  
  
• Hanging the hanged has no use whatsoever - if every other teacher uses bad grades to 'punish' them then during the last lessons of the day they are totally numb to the power of grades.
  
  
• When I go out of my way to compile a difficult test - it turns out to be really simple.
  When, however, I have promised to deliver an easy one - it's a killer (or a "tank" as it is called by them).
  
  
• If the school-day is shortened in Stone City - it means that instead of 14.00 it will end at 14.30.
  

Happy Estonian Independence Day!!!
On 24th of Feb last year I delivered a lecture on Estonia to the students of Max-Eyth-Schule in Alsfeld, Germany and the lecture notes can be accessed here. Became quite a celebrity with colour-photograph in the local paper :D So one can say that Estonia is still something exotic in places like Germany.
Unfortunately the videos integrated to the presentation will not work.
Have used the materials by Estonian Institute.

Measurements

Numbers and measurements in English are not as easy as they seem. Therefore, today's lesson is on measurements.

Open a page with instructions HERE.

Keep the instructions open till you finish the tasks.

Good luck :D

DigiTiiger

I have just finished a course titled "DigiTiiger" which concentrated on the usage of ICT means in classroom.
We learned a variety of new ways to make lessons more interesting and also how to use the computer classes at our school more effectively.
You have already tried out my two lessons on Verbals and Modals and I'm still waiting for feedback.
Other things that we learned were:

• how to make mind-maps using Inspiration software;
  
  
• how to create e-courses on the Internet (am definitely going to try this out with my BE course as there is so much trouble with the time of this selective subject);
  
  
• how to create a blog (that one I knew quite well already as you may guess - mine is classified as edublog= blog with an educational purpose);
  
  
• how to create tests and exercises and publish them on the web;
  
  
• how to evaluate webpages and educational software;
  
  
• how to use forums for communication with one's students and colleagues;
  
  
• how to use Picasa - which is a free program for photo editing and many other things.

Today, as I said, was the last 'lesson' and I had to present the best works that I had prepared during the course. Surely, you may guess, my favourite achievement was the present blog which I used as an example of all my skills :D
I also used the Christmas Show post as an example of so-called blog explosion :D which means that the commentators get carried away and start arguing their own issues in the comments (too bad that i'm not making money for my blog as my visitation numbers have nearly doubled since the nationalism-debate started in comments). Warned my colleagues that things may get quite out of hand and eventually the blog-owner will be responsible for moderating the blog.

All in all, it has been an enlightening course and hope it was much use to my other colleagues as well.

Manic Monday (new outfit)

The Manic Monday tradition has regained consciousness but in a slightly different form.

Helena made a presentation about a film she has watched - Closer- stating the main relationships in the movie and making some conclusions. She also showed us the trailer which (I must admit) is a really good one :D Some universal truths in it. Have a look!

I admit that the format of film reviewing has to be worked on yet.

Next Monday we are going to have a traditional song presentation...

Modal verbs

Following is the lesson plan for the computer-class lesson on modals.

Table of modal verbs - open on a separate page or tab.

Description of main uses of modal verbs with examples. - If you think you know all that, you can skip this link.

Do the self-study exercises on modals
1 page - mustn't, needn't
2 page - uses of need
3 page - mustn't, needn't
4 page - general (could have been, must have been, can't have been etc.)
5 page - general (all modals: could, would, might etc)
Meant for general practice.

Graded task for the lesson:
Do the test on modals - notice that the answers will be saved, sent to myself, and you will not get immediate feedback.

Write a comment using your own name (choose Other & write your name there) on the lesson - describing your feelings about the tasks (easy/difficult, knew everything, would like more lessons like this etc.)

Homework: study modals by doing exercises here.

Gerund, Infinitive, Participle revision

Revision:

Infinitive - to be, to have been

Gerund - being

Participle - being, having been

Rules – general

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_verbals.html - examples of infinitive, gerund and participle
(download a pdf)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle - general description of participles what they are and how they are used.

Infinitive and Gerund

1. exercises on Infinitive and Gerund
try to choose exercises with more *** - they are closer to your level in English.

Participle

2. exercises on Participles - all levels

3. exercise Gerund or Participle

4. exercise Present or Past participle

Test on Verbals (infinitive, gerund, participle) - results into my mailbox, you will not get an immediate answer.

Home reading requirements

Home reading requirements for 11B/11D:

Topic: Health (subtopics - healthy living, disease/epidemics, eating disorders, drugs)
Article length 10-12 A4 (given to the teacher with references either on paper carrier or as a .doc file)
Expressions: 20
Derivations: 10 (with at least 2 derivations from each chosen word)
Summary: 200-250 words
Presentation of the summary: by heart to the teacher privately
Deadline: 29.01

Home reading requirements for 11A

Topic: Media (Avertising, mass media history etc)
Article length 10-12 A4 (provided by the teacher or given to the teacher with references either on paper carrier or as a .doc file)
Expressions: 20
Derivations: 10 (with at least 2 derivations from each chosen word)
Questions about the text: 5 (or more) - given to the class before public presentation of the summary
Summary: 200-250 words
Presentation of the summary: by heart
Deadline: 6.02

Home reading requirements for 11C
Topic: Modern living/ lifestyles
Article length 10-12 A4 (given to the teacher with references either on paper carrier or as a .doc file)
Derivations: 15 (with at least 2 derivations from each chosen word)
Questions about the text: 5 (or more) - given to the class before public presentation of the summary
Summary: 200-250 words
Presentation of the summary: by heart (only key words and phrases)
Deadline: 29.01

In case you have any good ideas for the next home reading concerning topics, requirements or anything else. Please feel free to comment.

Manic Mondays

The tradition of Manic Mondays has not been cancelled. The busy times have prevented me from sharing with you the latest performances by Helena, Kertu-Kätlin, Laura and Haldo-Rait everybody of whom did a wonderful job.

So, please excuse my laziness and let's start the tradition again next year?!

Christmas Show

It's time to forget conventional learning and prepare ourselves for some serious role-play. :)

As our topic this year is 'history' , you need to get into it more than just imitate some ready-made production.

The play will be preceded by a short overview of the era and the topics of 11-graders are:

15th century - Black Death, Black Prince and other dark things
16th century - Henry VIII
16th century - Elizabeth and Mary Stuart
17th century - Cromwell and execution of Charles I

I hope to make some pics of the rehearsals but the show itself will take place on December 22: 9-11:30 at Kaunase 70, Tartu.

I've finally come to understand that the Christmas Show of our school doesn't really have to be connected with Christmas. It's just held at Christmas.
Hopefully we'll make it more Christmasish next year...

good luck!

.ppt

First, I'd like to remind you that PowerPoint is just a tool. Having slides on the screen is means to an end... However, you have to admit that similarly to the way there is a difference between means of transport (like comparing regional express and ICE), there is also a huge difference between a good .ppt and really weak presentation.

Below are some links you might find useful for preparing your materials in the future (the teaching materials are in Estonian so it shouldn't be all Greek to you).

• PowerPoint presentation - right usage of colours and more (emphasis on training teachers but nevermind)
• Using multimedia in your presentation
• Using PowerPoint programme - free e-course - for those who don't know where to find things and how to use the programme (if there are any such pagans left among us) :D

The last presentations were already rather good but there is always room for improvement.

expressions

When do 'expressions' become an issue? Usually the teachers of English (or any other language for that matter) love to tell the students to write out new expressions from the text - especially in the case of home reading.

The dictionary definition of an "expression" is a word or a phrase (or a look on someone's face - which we are not writing down, right...)

1) The task to write out expressions from the text is not intended to be pure torture to students - it has a point too - if you write out phrasal verbs, idioms or just longer phrases from the text, you will be able to use the words better in context later on. Otherwise it would be just another word to learn. Trust me - you will write out the same word for 10 times before you really learn it... (I've done my bit of home reading too in several languages...)

2) The expressions are important because their meaning usually differs from the meaning of the words taken separately. See the entry on idioms. If you do not learn the expressions as a whole, you won't be able to recognize and use them properly in the future.

3) Repetition is another key aspect. You have to either see, hear, write or use the word in speaking for about 30 times before you have totally acquired= mastered it.

4) The most important thing is not to go through the text afterwards trying to 'put together' meaningful expressions that are actually just 3 words taken from anywhere in the text making no sense at all. (less inhibited, as tall as, have been done etc.)

5) We usually do not consider of-phrases as 100% expressions especially phrases like 'number of people', 'Streets of Rome', '2 years of my working life' and 'living-room of my home'.

So let's tackle this thing one baby step at a time...

NB! When you finally understand the way teachers see expressions in the text, the vocabulary tests will never come as a surprise to you :)

Participle

There is a page that has a very good collection of participle exercises which our grammar workbook does not have on the particular topic... Feel free to practice participles here

and
I'll be adding some good links into my Link-List

Have a happy holiday!

Manic Monday vol. 4

Joosep - Slayer: Catalyst

Information about the band.

Gapped lyrics + a couple of questions.

Animal idioms

English idioms are fun to learn because they are sometimes absolutely different from what we use in Estonian. Instead of raining cats and dogs as it does in English, in Estonian it "rains from a bean's stalk", you're "as stupid as a sheep" and "the chest of a bold wolf is greasy"... These would be much fun to learn for a foreigner as well. In addition to that, we have things like 'bear's trousers' which are woollen trousers worn by small kids, 'cow cake' - meaning cow pat and all the food is referred to as being 'addition to bread' and much more.
Feel free to add any interesting translations of Estonian idioms in comments!

You may also check out a very good page for finding Animal Idioms in English.

A general idiom page (with an awful colour palette, I must add).

Pronouncing words

I cannot stress enough that you need to check how the unfamiliar words are pronounced before starting your presentation. Bombing the teacher with questions 5 seconds before you start - is too late - you won't remember the answers anyway... So there is the dictionary that you can use: www.webster.com - type in the word, click on the loudspeaker icon and listen/repeat as long as it takes. Good luck!

Manic Monday vol.3

Rivo - Urban Trad.
"Rapadoo"

The task will come later...
Just enjoy!

The Use of Board

The thing is with my teaching that it is all clear in my head. As soon as it pours out in form of sounds or images - it gets complicated. Take the given photograph for example. That's the closest I have come yet to explain Present and Past Participle.

People said I should get another whiteboard which won't help at all I fear - I'll just have two boards crammed with information that won't make any sense to the viewers.

Any suggestions concerning improvement are welcome!