New Class Presentation: June 2010
Jun 18 at 11:11pm by ObverseView
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Jim’s Snailpionelephlyrhinosaurgiraffishbigeyeman
Apr 6 at 4:04pm by ObverseView
This picture and story present a very detailed and colorful! Well done, Jim!
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British Slangs: North To South
Nov 30 at 4:04am by ObverseView
I was playing around on the Net, when I found this great website that helps translate the Queen’s English into various common British Dialects. It’s all at a site called WhooHoo, which you can find here at http://www.whoohoo.co.uk.
My native tongue (and one I have difficulties with is Scots) you can check out on their Scottie Translator so have some fun with that!
For those of you who have no idea what we’re talking about. Check out this video from YouTube where the host introduces about a dozen different accents from the North of the British Isles to the South.
Of course, pat yourself on the back if you can understand any of the dialogue at all! It can be pretty difficult, even for me.
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More presentations: from Summer Presentations at Nozkidz for 2009!
Jul 15 at 1:01pm by ObverseView
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Local Bakery Encourages Sales With Hi-Tech Displays
Jul 14 at 12:12pm by ObverseView
We have several bakeries in our area. One of them has recently gone hitech to encourage sale in these more constrained times. I don’t know if it works or not, but here is what they did.
First they bought a large screen LCD TV. I’m not sure of the exact size but I would reckon it’s either 32″ or 37″ wide, but I’m guessing something like the Samsung LN32B360 – 32″ Widescreen 720p LCD HDTV would be about the right size. To get the best, you will need HDMI and a decent screen size and resolution, too.
Then they bought one of these smart little devices: WD TV HD Media Player which connects through HDMI to play full HD video files, audio files and photo files. Connected through HDMI or even traditional AV Cable, you will be able to create presentations from your display products (cakes, baked goods, breads), behind-the-scenes videos, videos from parties and gatherings, or even slideshows (converted to video formats) each of which will showcase your baked goods for customers. In fact, the display was big enough that it could be seen from outside the store.
Since the connectivity is provided through USB ports on the back of the device, you can add usb drives, large external drives and almost anything else that can be connected via USB for storage. I was wondering if you could add an external DVD drive. I think it should work, though its access speed won’t be as fast as some of the cards you can buy now.
We’d thought of using something similar for our school, as a way to create an external way to showcase our students’ talents. We are able to use YouTube and FLVs for video posting on the Web, but we have nothing to showcase to prospective customers and their children exactly what we’re doing.
I had considered using a CRT TV with a cheap DVD player, but there’s a lot of trouble making DVDs, getting the quality right and fiddling with the recording settings. But if you could simply use any output files in AVI, WMV or MPEG formats… that would save a LOT of time, produce a better result, and enable me to create channels of videos for different occasions… Even just the capturing of the video files would be faster on a device like a hard-drive based VideoCam so files would be created just once, then copied, edited and resaved. I predict that I could save about 1/3 of the time from copying and making DVDs alone! oh, the possibilities.
No words from my baker friend if this helps sell more products… but who cares? It’s still cool.
Addendum: In the news – it seems that Tokyo’s Toy Show opened with some of the greatest high-tech gadgets from Japan. Doraemon is now a companion robot by Bandai. “…The 16-centimeter-high device has a vocabulary of 1,300 words and will react to conversation from its owner, although it lacks the ability to really understand what’s being said…” So perhaps choosing a sun-powered battery charger for those expensive toys might be a life saver!
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Introducing Kids to Libraries – A World of Reading Awaits
Jun 20 at 1:01am by ObverseView
In an effort to develop an early love of reading and encourage usage, libraries these days are increasingly child friendly. But when is the best time to introduce your child to this exciting new world?
Each Kid is Different
The first thing to remember is that each child is different. That may sound obvious, but it’s easy to overlook how different in temperament children of the same age can be, even when they’ve grown up in the same environment. Ask any parent! For this reason, it’s impossible to offer guidelines on the basis of age. One should consider the child’s temperament. One child may enjoy the peaceful environment of the library and be content to spend long periods looking through the books on offer, whilst another of the same age may be bored and thus disruptive to other library users.
Stand in their Shoes
Try and think like a small child when considering your first trip to the library. Put yourselves in their little shoes, if you will. Remember that a child has a very short attention span compared to an adult, and will require stimulation to retain concentration for more than a very short period. It is perfectly normal for some young children to be bored by hand-off type entertainment, so bearing this in mind it may be sensible to limit your first visits to the library to short trips whilst just choosing a book.
Entice Kids into the Library
Although a child will find the different environment of the library interesting, it’s best to keep the first visit short in order to maintain their interest. The new people, interesting things to look at and different activities to explore will all appeal to a young child, and you can make each visit a little longer to enable them to explore this new environment at their own pace. The aim is to make the library a relaxed, interesting and friendly place to visit and to develop a lifelong passion for visiting. By not overwhelming your child on their first visit, you should be able to ensure that your child will look forward to their subsequent trips.
One idea for a first outing to the library would be order a book in advance, either by phone or online, and then take your child into the library with you when you visit the front desk to collect it. It will provide a brief introduction without allowing the child to become bored.
Libraries Like Kids, Too!
Do investigate what activities your local library offers for young children. Many recognise that the library can become a part of a child’s life long before they can read and offer activities from a child’s first year. These may include readings from popular children’s books, or perhaps puppet shows or re-enactments of favourite stories. For older children there may additionally be reading challenges, competitions or other interesting events scheduled.
Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of visiting the library in teaching your child valuable social skills which will be invaluable for the future. Learning to replace books and take care of them teaches respect for things which do not belong to them, whilst behaving quietly and showing consideration for other library users teaches personal responsibility.
Introducing your child to the wonderful world of libraries whilst they are young will ensure that they grow up appreciating and making the most of this most marvelous resource.
Kenneth is a teacher with many years of experience in ESL at Dickson’s English School in Tamsui, Taiwan.
You can visit the school website at http://www.nozkidz.com/english/ to find out more about what our ESL students are doing, how important fluency is, and how much fun we’re having. For other advice and help, check out the columns at http://www.nozkidz.com/english/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Dickson
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Screaming! Tantrums! Arguments! Do your children hate homework?
Mar 7 at 2:02am by ObverseView
This is an article that I wrote for my other blog, Nozkidz.com. I thought readers here might want to read it, too. So for the weekend, I’m sharing a few thoughts about children’s homework.
Screaming! Tantrums! Arguments! Is this what happens to you when you try to get your kids to do their homework? It certainly happens to many of my students when they go home.
Their homework is designed to be a. quick to do, b. managable but challenging, and c. for review. However, students sometimes express reluctance to do homework. So perhaps there are some things you can do to help you kids do THEIR homework.
1. Don’t fight
Don’t fight with them. Don’t turn the whole affair into a power struggle, because you will have to do this every time. Instead, try to encourage them to do homework. Sit yourself down with the books open and promise to help them as much as you can. Setting an example can be more effective than any words. Why not do some of your work at the same time?
2. Encourage
Encourage them with kind words and lots of questions that are easy to answer. Help them with the answers too, if they have problems. If they can’t answer, maybe they don’t understand the question or they have forgotten.
3. Take Breaks
Remember their concentration on one task is not the same as yours, they have a very short attention span (except for video-games!). So take lots of breaks to help them. But don’t let them take too long a break, 5 minutes is fine.
So, if you have tried other ways and failed, try some of these suggestions. If they work, or you have another idea, why not email your suggestion to me?
Kenneth is a teacher with many years of experience in ESL at Dickson’s English School in Tamsui, Taiwan. You can visit the school blog at http://www.nozkidz.com to find out more about what students are doing, how important fluency is, and how much fun we’re having. For other advice and help, check out his column at http://www.nozkidz.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Dickson
Is AnswerEnglish.co.uk a good answer? It is if you’re looking for Fun’n'English!
Jan 4 at 1:01am by ObverseView
I’m always glad to mention new ESL/EFL related websites on this blog, because I am actually an EFL teacher! Naturally, I was curious to visit Answer English – Practice English. I selected the English for Fun Category and was surprised to see so many options for having Fun in England while you are studying English. You can study our great culture, learn tennis, golf or horse-riding, and even massage/aromatherapy. I nearly forgot horticulture fun and fashions!
I’m pretty sure that one of these options must be enough to *rid unmotivated students of the dull experience of language lessons filled with routine grammar exercise from Jack Dull’s Basic English Grammar or tons of idioms from the 1000th revised/updated/reedited/xth edition of 10000 Basic Idioms!
So, what you waiting for? Ditch your dictionaries! Burn your Books! Come study something fun!
*And I should know, I used to teach dull grammar, and tedious idioms! I finally escaped… but that’s another story!
This is a sponsored post!
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Native American Writers Online
Apr 30 at 8:08pm by ObverseView
I found a link to etexts with some early 20th Century writings of American Native Writers. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/subjects/subjects-natam.html
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Bidding for A Topic
Sep 27 at 6:06pm by ObverseView
Trump-A-Topic
The Game:
A pack of cards are dealt among players evenly, including the Jokers. The players have to bid for a topic called out by the teacher. The highest bidder wins. All cards are secret bids, but the bidding process reveals who is the winner when the teacher calls ‘bid’.
The winner then has to talk about the bidded topic for a time of 20 secs.
I’ve tried this game with several groups of students who liked to play cards a great deal. Worked well.
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