SOME READING, SOME PRACTICE, SOME SMILES

Someone sent me this a few weeks ago, after Mother's Day in Spain. Do not worry! No more "mothers" entries after this -funny- one!!

WHY GOD MADE MOMS Answers given by 2nd grade school children:
Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2.. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.
How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.
What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.
Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.
What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.
What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?
Why did your mom marry your dad?
1.. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.
Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.
What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them..
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.
What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.
What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.
If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter.. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

BBC LEARNING ENGLISH

Our students want to know about sites to keep on improving or practicing their languages.

BBC LEARNING ENGLISH is one of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

Here you can find General & Business English, Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation ,Quizzes ,
The Flatmates,Community , Specials, Downloads where you can practice Listenings, pronunciation, podcast, news, even a 6 minute English and if you have children try English kids!

WHAT’S BEHIND THE MOM´S SONG?

WHAT’S BEHIND THE MOM´S SONG?



http://www.anitarenfroe.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/anitarenfroe3


DON'T MISS THIS IF YOU WANT TO MEET HER:
CBS — October 03, 2007 — After years of parenting, comedian Anita Renfroe put her semantics to song and the result is an Internet phenomenon. She sits down with Hannah Storm to talk about her comic brainchild.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHJN2PGm1Yo

Who is Anita Renfroe???
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anita Renfroe (born 1962)[1] is an American Christian comedian from Atlanta, Georgia, the wife of a Baptist pastor and the mother of three children.[2] She became a sensation after her comic rendition of everything that a mother would typically say to her children in the course of a day, set to the William Tell Overture and entitled Momisms, was posted on YouTube.[1] She is a regular commentator on Good Morning America. [3]
According to Christian Book, "Anita Renfroe has the spiritual gift of saying what most women think but are afraid to say out loud." [4]
In April 2009, it was reported that Anita is taping a pilot for a new sitcom to air on ABC called "The Anita Renfroe Presentation."[5] She is set to costar with fellow comedian, Ryan Stiles. The show is about a couple raising two kids.
Anita has been touring with the largest touring Christian women's conference, Women of Faith, since 2006.

Haver you ever heard about Anita Renfroe?

What do you think of her " It’s been a wild decade going from “stay-at-home-mom” to “YouTube comedic Phe-mom-enon"?

The Mom's song

The course is coming to its end. Many of you complain about lack of time, lots of work, many other tasks and activities to be done, family to take care of...
Let me put a smile on your faces, moms and dads as well. And enjoy the weekend, even if studying!




source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkeL9Djgm0Y

As always, your comments and impressions are more than welcome!!

ELLLO: English Listening Lesson Library Online

elllo.org

Do you know ELLLO? ELLLO means English Listening Lesson Library Online :

Learn English naturally.

You can practice English in the funniest way.

Listening Lessons (Views, Mixer, Games ...)Activities include multimedia, free MP3 files, vocab tasks, language notes, print page and more.
Views
Mixer
Games
Videos
Songs
News
Points

There are now over 600 audio clips on ELLLO. Below are just a small sample of what is on the site.
High BeginnerThese activities are good for students who are new to learning English.
High IntermediateThese listening activities are a little more difficult.
Low IntermediateThese listening activities are a little more difficult, but not much.
AdvancedIn these clips, the speakers talk faster and the topics are more difficult.

The mp3 files and text on elllo are Creative Commons. Students and teachers are free to download, copy and distribute these materials for educational purposes. They are not transferable for commercial purposes.

ELLLO! Listening Games:

http://www.elllo.org/months/weeks/games.htm

MAUREEN AND URSULA AND (...).How to write an effective essay/ movie script

May be you need some good hints on this, so two for the price of one: some listening practice and some good clues on writing. Enjoy yourselves!



http://www.engVid.com/
In this lesson, I give you a simple method for writing a good, effective essay in English. If you don't know where to start when you are given a writing assignment, start here and learn how to do it right!





Watch an introduction to writing a movie script in this free screen play instruction video from our motion picture expert and experienced executive producer.Expert: Ron BecksBio: Ron Becks has been acting since he was a child. His feature film "1st Testament--CIA Vengance" (2001) and his documentary "Haitian Slave Children-- Forgotten Angels (2002)" have won film awards.Filmmaker: Nili Nathan


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYfbzubKRt0&feature=fvst

http://vox-nova.com/2007/06/

Teaching English as a ‘global’ language?

Posted by Kati Sule here:

http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/teaching-english-as-a-global-language?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macmillandictionaryblog+%28Macmillan+Dictionary+Blog%29

Do you remember one of our very fisrt posts, back in February "Teaching a Foreing Language? Best Teach in the accent of the Listener" ??

Now the question is Should English be taught as a ‘global’ language.??

A new video by David Crystal , answers the question:

Now it is up to you: do you agree with Mr. Crystal?

Should English be taught as a ‘global’ language?

Share your opinions with us.

--David Crystal is a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as

intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

More: http://www.davidcrystal.com/

MAUREEN AND URSULA AND (...).Texting slang invading academic work

http://alician.glogster.com/obsessive-texting/

Texting slang invading academic work
College professors are anything but LOL at students' writing habits.
By Matt Krupnick
Contra Costa Times
College professors are anything but LOL at their students' recent writing habits.
Not only are instructors not laughing out loud — shortened to LOL in text messages and online chats — at the technology-oriented shorthand that has seeped into academic papers, many of them also sternly telling students to stop using the new language even in less formal writing.
The shorthand often consists of shortened variations of common words — "u" instead of you, or "ur" for your. Text speak may be appropriate for a quick note to a friend, but professors are increasingly stymied by how casually students are using the terms.
"Despite the fact that I happen to be perfectly capable of reading any incoherent drivel you may send to my (e-mail) inbox directly from your phone keypad, 'wut up ya I cnt make it 2 clss lol' is insanely unprofessional," reads the syllabus of Alejo Enriquez, a Cal State East Bay instructor.
"Therefore, I am imposing a higher standard of grammar, spelling, and use of the enter key upon you and kindly request that all e-mails sent to me resemble any other letter to your teacher, supervisor, grandparents or parole officer."
Faculty members increasingly have expressed irritation about reading acronyms and abbreviations they often do not understand, said Sally Murphy, a Cal State East Bay professor and director of the university's general-education program. One e-mail to a professor started with, "Yo, teach," she said.
"It has a real effect on the tone of professionalism," said Murphy, who also has seen younger instructors use the shorthand. "We tell them very specifically how this is going to affect them in life. It's kind of like wearing their jeans below their butt. They're going to lose all credibility."
The introduction of such casual language into term papers is a sea change from the days when nearly all students addressed their instructors as "professor" or "doctor." More faculty members ask students to call them by their first names, but many are drawing the line at texting shorthand or even emoticons — smiley faces made out of punctuation marks.
Tech-speak has been moving through the educational pipeline toward colleges for a few years. A 2008 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that two-thirds of middle- and high-school students had accidentally used instant-messaging-style words in their work, while a quarter admitted using emoticons in assignments.
The breakdown in language skills is an odd phenomenon given how much time children and young adults spend in front of the computer, said Marcia Linn, who teaches about technology in education at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education.
"Writing has actually increased as an activity," she said. "Standards are another issue. Maybe we haven't quite thought it through well enough in an academic setting."
Many students communicate constantly via text and instant messaging, so it can be difficult to leave the tech lingo behind in class, said Mohammed Shahid Beig, a senior and student-body president at Cal State East Bay.

Contribution: Dr. Jordano

(...) read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2011602956_slang14.html

Do you text? Do you think the article is appropriate? Our unit is about writing, what's your opinion about texting and writing?

MAUREEN AND URSULA AND OTHER INSPIRING WOMEN. Writing a script.

Pic: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2917920/Top-secret-Harry-Potter-movie-script-left-in-a-pub-by-boozy-film-crew.html
Posted by Sarah Harlan - email (NBC) - Here's an example of what not to do after a night out drinking at a pub. The British newspaper The Sun claims to have obtained a copy of the top-secret script for the next Harry Potter movie. A film crew allegedly left the script under a table at a pub in England after a night of drinking, where someone picked it up. The Sun said the script was marked "private and confidential" and contained some major changes from the original book by J.K.... http://celebrifi.com/gossip/British-newspaper-Top-secret-Harry-Potter-script-left-at-pub-2118632.html


It was given to The Sun by a reader who found it at a boozer in Kings Langley, Herts, often used by star Daniel Radcliffe, 20.
The script - marked "Private and Confidential" - was spotted under a table.
It reveals how film chiefs have made several dramatic changes from JK Rowling's book Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.
Studio Warner Bros last night thanked The Sun after we handed back the lost script.
And bosses launched an urgent investigation into how the inch-thick booklet was lost - as sources told how the film's crew went on a major drinking session.
The £250 million film, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the schoolboy wizard, is currently being completed at Leavesden Studios in Kings Langley, Herts.
On Thursday night a large group of film crew went to the nearby Waterside Tavern.
A source at the pub said: "They'd got behind schedule in filming but then caught up, so they went out for a celebratory drink which led to many more.

Surprise ... we've obscured script to keep spoilers secret
"There was a huge group. They were here all night, laughing and joking, chucking back beers.
"They usually come down for a session on a Friday, but because it was Easter they were in a day early.
"Daniel Radcliffe is the only member of the cast who has been known to come down and have a laugh with them, but he wasn't there that night."
The Sun reader who found the script said: "I couldn't believe my eyes. I know guys that work on the film drink in the pub, but it's very embarrassing that someone could just leave it there.
"I'm glad I've helped to stop any surprises being leaked."
The script shows how film bosses have split the final Potter story into two parts to keep fans in suspense. The first film - with Daniel's co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint back in their usual roles - is due for release in November. Part two will follow in July next year.
The Sun has seen how producers are making a number of dramatic changes from the book, but we are keeping the details secret and have blurred our picture of the script so as not to spoil fans' enjoyment.

Crew's boozer ... Waterside Tavern
A Warner Bros spokesman said: "We are grateful to The Sun for the safe return of this script." It is the THIRD time that Harry Potter secrets have almost been revealed prematurely.
In May 2003, copies of The Order Of The Phoenix book were found in a Suffolk field six weeks before the publication date. Then four years ago the script for that film was found at an alleged "dogging" site beside the A25 in Chipstead, Kent.
a.crick@the-sun.co.ukRead more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2917920/Top-secret-Harry-Potter-movie-script-left-in-a-pub-by-boozy-film-crew.html#ixzz0kVQxDIKh
Contribution Dr. Jordano


Now, is this serious? Are we going nuts? Are those writers sensible, responsible, good workers?
Isn't it that important? Can this happen to anybody?
Why, in your opinion, is this happening more and more often at work?

MANAGING EXAM ANXIETY

http://www.teachercreated.com/blog/pics/TCR2907%20p9_1.jpg
http://www.english.ucla.edu/faculty/mcgurl/anxious%20students.JPG
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2007/02/17/images/2007021702670301.jpg

MANAGING EXAM ANXIETY
Exams are round the corner...

Almost everyone feels nervous before an exam. Butterflies in the stomach and worrying thoughts - 'Will I be able to answer the questions?' 'Have I done enough revision?' - are indications of exam nerves that are probably familiar to all students. In fact, a certain amount of nervous tension probably helps us perform to the best of our ability, producing a rush of adrenaline that helps us to feel alert and focused.
But too much anxiety can BLOCK thoughts, create a negative frame of mind, and lead to panic and potentially poor exam performance.There are a number of things you can do to help manage exam anxiety and turn uncomfortable, panicky thoughts into more creative tension
http://cs3.brookes.ac.uk/student/services/health/exam.html

What does test anxiety feel like?

Some students experience mainly physical symptoms, such as headaches, nausea, faintness, feeling too hot or too cold, etc.Others experience more emotional symptoms, such as crying easily, feeling irritable, or getting frustrated quickly.A major problem of test anxiety can be its effect on thinking ability; it can cause a person to blank out or have racing thoughts that are difficult to control.Western students are strongly encouraged to seek assistance in the Student Development Centre if you experience interfering levels of anxiety prior to and/or during tests and exams; if you are not a Western student, speak with a counsellor or physician about support services.

What can you do to control test anxiety?

Be well prepared for the test.Include as much self-testing in your review as possible.Maintain a healthy lifestyle:get enough sleep, good nutrition, exercise, some personal "down" time, and a reasonable amount of social interaction.As you anticipate the exam, think positively, e.g., "I can do OK on this exam. I've studied and I know my stuff."Engage in "thought stopping" if you find that you are worrying a lot, comparing yourself to your peers, or thinking about what others may say about your performance on this exam.Before you go to bed on the night before the exam, organize anything that you will need for the exam -- pen, pencil, ruler, eraser, calculator, etc. Double check the time of the exam and the location.Set the alarm clock and then get a good night's sleep before the exam.Get to the exam on time - not too late but not too early.Be cautious about talking to other students about the exam material just before going into the exam, especially if this will make you more anxious.Sit in a location in the exam room where you will be distracted as little as possible.As the papers are distributed, calm yourself by taking some slow deep breaths.Make sure to carefully read any instructions on the exam.As you work on the exam, focus only on the exam, not on what other students are doing or on thinking about past exams or future goals.If you feel very anxious in the exam, take a few minutes to calm yourself. Stretch your arms and legs and then relax them again. Do this a couple of times. Take a few slow deep breaths. Do some positive internal self-talk; say to yourself, "I will be OK, I can do this." Then direct your focus on the test; associate questions to their corresponding lecture and/or chapter.If the exam is more difficult than you anticipated, try to focus and just do your best. It might be enough to get you through with a reasonable grade!When the exam is over, treat yourself. If you don't have any other commitments, maybe you can take the night off. If you have to study for other exams you may have to postpone a larger break, but a brief break may be the "pick up" that you need.
http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/learning/mcanx.html

***Many universitites offer help so have a look whether you need it or just to tell us if you think these links can be of any help:
http://cs3.brookes.ac.uk/student/services/health/exam.html
http://www.studygs.net/tstprp8.htm
http://www.theiet.org/students/resources/revision/exam-anxiety.cfm
http://www.ualberta.ca/~uscs/managing_test_anxiety.htm
http://www2.essex.ac.uk/stdsup/welfare/examanxiety.shtm

***As for UNED :TÉCNICAS PARA EL CONTROL DE LA ANSIEDAD EN LOS EXÁMENES:
http://portal.uned.es/portal/page_pageid=93,150664&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&text=ansiedad&desde=0&hasta=10