Sunday, August 16, 2009

CP Florentino Zapata



I sadly inform that CP Florentino Zapata, head of UANE passed away yesterday, I feel sad, because he was a great man, some of the few that really help many people.

Rest In Peace Conta.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Some News

I have some good and some bad news:

First, something very sad, the Conta Zapata is, indeed, very sick, the head of UANE suffered a lung struck, and has been in the hospital in a very critical condition. Today UANE is celebrating a mass in the campus to pray for the Conta, the mass will be held at 12:00 pm so if you read this before this hour, your presence will be welcomed.
I, can only say good things about the man, he has always been there for the students with a smile and an authorization, I specially remember his collaboration in the "Saw in UANE" project (posted here), always in a good mood and a friendly smile; I hope that whatever the outcome is, he and his family will be in a better place.

For some better news, classes have started and right now I am teaching some Translation classes, I have also gone to Saltillo to be trained for a Teachers Training Program, it's hard but i think I can pull it off.

The LI second generation is in their final year, good luck and I hope you can take advantage of this final period of your career.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Choose Text for Students Reading

One of the most boring skills for the students to practice is reading, and that's because most of the teachers relay on the reading material that the books provide, therefore, it is imperative that we can find more sources of information, subjects that can be appealing and attractive enough for the students to get interested, so today I will post some criteria to choose text that can be useful and fun:

These texts should

* provide a framework that gradually introduces strategies required for skilled reading
* deal with themes and issues relating to the everyday lives of the readers
* provide opportunities to revisit some subjects, themes and characters
* use a simple language structure, so that students don’t have to review many oral language forms to access meaning
* offer opportunities for exploring language at the text, word, part word, and letter level
* provide opportunities for the acquisition of alphabet letters, letter clusters and common sight words in natural contexts
* present many of the conventions of written language including spelling, punctuation and capitalization
* encourage problem solving on text by having to make analogies, predictions, checking and self-corrections
* have illustrations that give maximum support for the emergent reader, gradually extending experience as reading is more confident
* use appropriate book structure, text size, spacing and layout to match text type, text difficulty and reader skill.

So every time that you want to use a text, try to choose a reading not because it's easy, but because there will be some new things, you and your students will learn.

Monday, July 20, 2009

English day 2007

This is the winning project that my LDG students did back in 2007, a great piece of work, a lot of dedication and a lot of fun, I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do

Friday, July 10, 2009

5 Thoughts about...

5 strong thoughts about teaching English:

1) We have always been the underdogs in education, I think that authorities don't realize the work we do every day, they want us to give results without any kind of help, some schools think we are magicians, and after a long break without English, They want us to take back the classes as if the students had been practicing every day.

2) There are a lot of pseudo-teachers that don't help us increase the reputation of our job, people that are teaching languages just because they know enough to speak it, but lack of the methodology to really make the students learn.

3) English is what makes a difference between a mediocre professional and an outstanding one, we are that part of the career that will make the difference with that "extra" the students have to offer to the company to get the job

4) Foreign teachers are not better than local teachers, they are a good complement to achieve goals, but we are all needed to give the student what they need

5) One of the teachers' most typical mistake is the fact that they want to adapt the students to his/her particular way of teaching, we need to take into consideration the group's personality in order to prepare a good class.

So I say it¡¡

Saturday, July 4, 2009

English Phrasal Verbs in Use Advanced
By Michael McCarthy and Felicity O'Dell
Cambridge University Press | ISBN: 978-05-216-8418-7 | 188 pages
PDF | English | 74 MB

This new level of English Phrasal Verbs in Use is specifically designed for advanced level students looking to improve their knowledge of this often difficult area of the English language. English Phrasal Verbs in Use includes many phrasal verbs useful to students preparing for the Cambridge CAE, CPE and IELTS examinations.
This book includes 60 Units Of Vocabulary Reference And Practice; presents and explains approximately 1.000 phrasal verbs in typical contexts using short texts, dialogues, tables and charts; contains answer key and a mini Dictionary with easy to understand definitions and cross references to units in the book.


Full (74 mb):
http://rapidshare.com/files/222174090/English.Phrasal.Verbs.in.Use-Advanced.rar
Reduced (5.6 mb):
http://rapidshare.com/files/222160816/English.Phrasal.Verbs.in.Use-Advanced_small.rar

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Didactic Crosswords 1, Level 1
By Edward R. Rosset
Editorial Stanley | ISBN 8478731806 | 44 pages
PDF | English | 8.8 MB

Didactic Crosswords 1 is the first of a collection of five. You will find here, not a test of general knowledge, but a series of basic words in English, the number of which will be increasing as you solve the crosswords. Crosswords ST (Stanley) are, therefore, a didactic pastime.

Download from this link:


http://rapidshare.com/files/224960594/DidacticCrosswords-1.rar