Halloween makup look :)

I'm definitely going to use this one on the Halloween Event at my school, so spooky! :)

The desk of the sick teacher

No comments, really... speaks for itself...

My top ten list of the 'worst songs ever'

In my previous post I wrote about these really obnoxious songs that became big hits and were on charts for weeks or more. What's worse, they were on radio and TV for weeks or more :)

So I thought it would be nice to collect the ones that really bugged me. Here is my list of 'all time annoying songs' in completely random order:

1. Hit me baby one more time - by Britney Spears
2. MMMBop - by Hanson
3. I want it that way - by Backstreet Boys (I could probably list almost all of their tracks)
4. Cheeky song - by Cheeky Girls (seriously... how could this be a hit??)
5. Lonely - by Akon
6. Dragostea Din Tei - by O-Zone
7. Tell 'em-Crank That - by Soulja Boy (the dance is quite funny, though)
8. Summer Jam - by Underdog Project
9. King of My Castle - by Wamdue Project
10. Napolaj - by UFO (a Hungarian one about suntan oil :D)

So, what's yours?

Worst songs ever

Has it ever happened to you that you just hated a song that was on radio/MTV for months? Well, to me it has (I don't even start to list these songs but 'Hit me baby one more time' would definitely be on the list!). And I also think it could be a brilliant lesson idea! Making a compilation of these horrible but very catchy songs could be fun, entertaining and if you have some students who can play a musical instrument, they may as well want to perform at the next school event :) For less musically but more technologically talented students/teachers like my humble self: making a video compilation could be a project. If I continue to be sick for long I might as well do one myself...

New teaching material arrived

Not so long ago I ordered this book from amazon. I did it so, because I like spending my freetime doing creative things such as different makeup looks :) Lucky me, the book arrived during my sick leave, so I started making friends with it instantly. Then the part of my brain, which I call 'teacherly brain', realised how nicely some bits of this book could be used during lessons. Take the 'This is who I am' chapter, for instance. It's the story of this 27-year-old girl who became a youtube sensation in a fortnight with her makeup tutorials. A real fairy tale in the 21st century. It may even be possible that many of the students know about her. And I believe using this text for practicing past simple could be much much realistic and closer to my students' (and my...) world than the stories about George Washington and Margaret Thatcher in the book. Even though I find those stories really fascinating to read. If I can make a bargain with the history/geography teachers, I might as well be able to get hold of the interactive white board and do some more fun stuff - including watching youtube videos - with the material. So I'll definitely give it a go and will share the outcome with you! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment! :)

Introducing Quizlet.com

This site has been around for quite a while and there's a buzz about it, so let's give it a go!

First I heard about this site about a year ago and I've been using it ever since. It is perfect for vocab. learning, practicing and testing as well (!). It takes about 2 minutes to register and another 2 to create a group:)

1. First you have to register and have to tell your students to do likewise. Last year some of my 7th graders experienced a problem: quizlet.com kicked them out because they were underaged...I don't know how it could be a problem, but from then I tell my students to cheat a little and pretend to be over 18.
2. You have to create a group. I normally give names like 11b_2009 so that I will remember which group is which, but of course you can come up with more creative ones :)
3. I like to set up private groups so only my students can join them. In order to do that you have to create a group with a password. You tell your students to join the group with the password and that's all; you have your virtual vocab learning class :)
4. Then all you have to do is make different sets of words. You do that with the 'Make Flashcards' button (you cannot miss it, it's in bold). You type in the English word and the Hungarian equivalent, or with more advanced groups: a definition or a synonym. I like to make all my sets editable by the whole group, this way the students can also add items to the list and they can do that as HW (=less work for me).
5. Now about how it works: there are 6 phases of learning, out of which only one is learning:) Firstly, you familiarise with the words, the you actually learn them, test what you have learnt and at the end you play 3 different games (scatter, space race and voice race - if you have a microphone). This is what students seem to enjoy the best :)

You see, only 5 easy and quick steps and you have a lot more exciting way of practicing vocabulary. If all this didn't make sense, there is a video tutorial thanks to tanarblog. I hope you'll enjoy using this site!

Quick side-note: I'm still sick and it doesn't seem to go away soon...I may have to stay at home all week long, which would be a pity...

Technological problem, need help asap

I wanted to run 'Second Life' on my laptop and I got this error message, what do I do with it? :)