Somebody told me you wanted to practice your reported speech skills.

My dear and beloved students,

As I know you might be losing your mind without a class I found a great site in which you will be able to practice the topic of reported speech from unit seven. Go in the site read the explanation and practice this important topic.

Take care my friends.

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech

We are on vacation!!

Hello everybody;

Well unfortunately we are on vacation and that means that we are not going to see each other in a while. On the other hand, I know everybody needs some rest but I hope you keep on checking the blog and practicing your English. Here I am blogging some of the pics from the farewell get together we had. We missed Juan Alberto (he was kidnapped by his wife), Katherine (she was grounded by her father) and Jenny (she was sick and Fabio was taking care of her) but we had a great time.

Enjoy the pics!!

What is EQ?

Hello boys and girls,
Now that we are studying this new unit on intelligence I have realized how intelligent you all are. As we learned yesterday, people are intelligent in many different ways. Learn some more about EQ by visiting the site below and watching the videos.

Have fun,

http://www.theeqsite.co.za/EQ_Site_pages/eq_videos.htm

It's Christmas time!

Hello guys,

Well, your mission for this weekend if you decided to accept is to listen to the Colombo's radio show on December 6 at 9:00 a.m.. Tune in 96.5 and learn more about Christmas traditions. Blog some of what you learned and be ready to talk about costumes.

Take care

Famous philanthropists!

Hello guys,

I imagine you are very happy having Carla in class. I'd be , if I were you. I found a site in which you could learn more about philanthropists. Visit this site and keep on learning.

www.plannedlegacy.com/newsletter/famous-philanthropists.html

P.S. You will notice neither my name nor Juan Alberto's father's is here because we don't like lots of publicity.

Take care

Tag questions

Hello my little ones,

I was very happy to see you still remember this topic. I know there is always room to improve so I am adding a link in which you will be able to do some exercises with tag questions. I could not find a listening exercise for this topic. If somebody does, please let us know.

Enjoy it

http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/tags01.html

P.S. I know there is no need to clarify but the guy in the picture IS NOT Juan Alberto when he was 7 years old!

We can become philanthropists, can't we?

You want to learn more vocabulary, don't you?

You would love to help people, wouldn't you?

Well I found a great site in which you will have the chance to donate rice to poor people while learning vocabulary. I donated 600 grains this morning. Now try it yourself!

www.freerice.com

People and charity.

Hello guys,

People have different views towards charity. We learned that yesterday from your opinions about the topic. I found a great listening exercise on the topic. As usual try doing the listening without the tapescript and once you have a good understanding of it, select the text view option.

http://www.elllo.org/english/0851/899-Paul-Charity.html

There's an additional comprehension quiz you can take if you want. And the following question is for you to blog your personal view: What would be a good reason to donate? If you want expand Katia or Paul's answers you free to do it.

Enjoy!

P.S. The picture has nothing to do with the way I taught class yesterday. Just a concidence!

"It's better to give than to receive"

Hello folks,

As you might learn today in class, we will discussing charitable causes in our class this week. Tomorrow (Tuesday Dec 2) each one of you will give a short presentation describing a foundation that helps others. There are many charity organizations in Colombia so I figure it would be very nice to learn more about them. Check the link I added to your name and find out the name of the organization, who they help, how they raise money and any other information you consider important. All of the links offer an English version so make sure to read that one. Take care and enjoy your search

Margie:
www.fundacionpiesdescalzos.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v

Katherine:
www.fundacionmisangre.org

Jenny:
www.volunteercolombia.org

Juan Alberto:
www.formulasonrisas.com/en/home.htm

Jairo:
www.healingcolombia.org

John:
www.mentorcolombia.org

Miguel:
www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/sponsor-a-child/americas-child-sponsorship/colombia.htm

Take care

Go Green!

Hello everybody, As we are close to the end of unit 5, I thought of wrapping up the unit by having a discussion on Monday about "going green". I'd like u to take a look at some videos I found. We will discussing some of the questions in these videos in our next class. I hope you enjoy them.

www.videojug.com/interview/recycling-2
www.videojug.com/film/the-toilet-tank-trick
www.videojug.com/film/how-to-clean-your-house-without-harming-the-environment
www.videojug.com/interview/energy-saving-measures-2

THANK YOU!!

I just want to thank everybody for your collaboration and enthusiasm. I think the activity came out very well. It's great to spend time with you guys and practice English. hope you have learned a lot about the pilgrims, the meaning of thanksgiving and Carla's crazy stories. I had a whale of a time!

It's here. It's Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving is a time for togetherness... it's an occasion to be spent in the warm and loving company of family, loved ones and friends enjoying turkey roast and pumpkin pies with them. Thanksgiving is also an opportunity to renew the ties that bind us with the ones we love... it is a time for remembering, cherishing and being thankful for all the good things you have been blessed with. So it's time to say 'Happy Thanksgiving'

Do not forget to bring the ingredients for our dinner:
Willy: Turkey slices
Juan A: Mashed potatoes
Margie: Cookies
Jairo: Cranberry juice
Jenny: Corn
John-Kathy: Pumpking Pie
Carla: Disposable dishes and glasses

See you tomorrow.

Practicing the "th" sound

Hello everybody,

One of the most difficult sounds in English as you have already experienced is the sound of "th" because we do not have such a thing in our native language. Besides the practice we are going to do in class today, I would like you to try the following site so you get better at this.

Take care and keep the hard work!

P.S. The guy in the picture is NOT Jairo, even though they look alike.

In this site you will find examples of the sound in different positions:

www.pronuncian.com/sounds.aspx?sound=27%206

Who are the Cherokee indians?

During the class today and tomorrow we will be learning and discussing some of the features of a great North American indian community: The Cherokee. I found a couple of sites that you might like to visit to expand the information from class. There is a reading and a video (I have to confess, it will take some time to download depending on your connection speed but it is great, just press the watch icon)

The sites are:
www.bigorrin.org/cherokee_kids.htm
www.cherokee-nc.com/index.php?page=160

"Practice makes perfect"

Margie's cookies and more about Thanksgiving!!

Hello everybody,
I found a great site with a listening exercise I hope you have the time to do. It is a radio program and it gives you the chance to listen to some real interviews. Try it and see how you score in the listening comprehension exercise. Good luck!

The site is: www.esl-lab.com/tradition/traditionrd1.htm

P.S. Margie, do not worry that much about the cookies. Any kind would make it. But if you want to try some close-to-real Thanksgiving cookies find out at Los tejaditos or El Mundo de los Pasteles (this is a bakery on Roosevelt Av. near 39 street). All in all cookies are cookies and any kind you bring will make us happy.

Thanksgiving Day is coming!!!

My dear and beloved students,
As we agreed yesterday, we will celebrate Thanksgiving day next Thursday with a delicious dinner. Do not forget to find out about the food you have to bring on that day. During the first hour of class we will discuss different things about the origins of this day, traditions, activities and more. I would ask you to visit some sites in which you will gather information for that class on Thanksgiving Day.

I hope you enjoy yourselves as you practice your English.

The first site describe the origins of Thanksgiving Day.
www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=61038&display_order=2&mini_id=1083&bcpid=1902518783&bclid=1672079702&bctid=1586348651

Take care

Endangered Species

Hello everybody, As you found out today in class, our topic for tomorrow's class is nature and endangered species. I'd like you to do a quick search on the following species. If posible bring a picture to class and a profile of the animal (where it is from, how many they are, characteristics, etc). Be ready to talk about your animal. Here is the list:
Margie: Aye-aye
Juan Alberto: Resplendent Quetzal
Jairo: Dwarf Crocodile
Juan Miguel: Blue whale
Jhon: Cat fish
Katherine: Manatee
Jenny: Babirusa
Willy: Asian golden cat

Enjoy your search!
P.S. Just to clarify that the animal you were asigned does not have anything to do with the way you look.

Adjectives with ed and ing!

Hello my dear students,

I can't tell you how much I have missed being in class. Well today we are going to be together again and I am very excited. I know you have been working hard with Carla. This time I found a site in which you can practice the use of -ing and -ed adjectives. Take the quick quiz, twenty questions and see how well you understand this topic. Bring any doubts you have to class and share them with your partners. Good luck!!
www.grammar.cl/Games/Adjectives_ED_ING.htm

Weekend practice!

Hello little ones,

As I know you are going miss not having a class during the weekend (especially being Monday a holiday) I want you to check this cool site: http://www.english-trailers.com

Here you can find trailers from different movies and cool exercises to practice you English. Just give it a try!

A new task: Let's learn about hurricanes!

Hello everybody, As you all know teacher Carla Hung will be with you this week due to the TEFL diploma course I have to teach. Anyway I'll be talking to you through this media. You are to start a new unit tomorrow on natural disasters so I would like you to visit a very cool site in which you are going to learn a lot about tomorrow's topic: Hurricanes!
Just follow the instructions and have a great time with Carla. She is just awesome!

1. Visit the following site www.nationalgeographic.com
2. On the left-hand side you will find different items. Click on the one that is titled: environment
3. Once you are there click on another item titled: natural disasters
4. Click on feature number 1:create an interactive tornado. On the upperside you will find four small pics that belong to different things. Look for the one that represents hurricanes and click on it.
5. Finally follow each of the displays and learn as much as you can about this natural disaster: take some notes and be ready to share what you learn with your classmates.
6. Do not forget to post a comment on how you liked the site and what you learned from it. Good Luck!!!

Sleep Deprivation Survey

As a pilot for the use of the blog we are going to start by working with a survey, tabulating its results, making graphs to show the results and publishing the conclusions in the blog.

Follow the instructions below to get the final product:

1. Once you have interviewed 3 people using the survey. Open an Open Office Org Calc file in the computer.

2. Make a chart with the information from the survey. The chart must have 3 columns and as many lines as questions the survey has.

3. In column 1 you are to write a short description of the question content. e.g. Trouble falling asleep for Q 1.

4. In column 2 you will write the percentages for YES answers and in column 3 the percentages for NO answers.

5. Once you have all the info. Block the chart and click on the Graph sign in the tool bar.

6. Fill in the graph will all the info needed.

7. Publish your graph in the blog or send it via mail to: willys007@hotmail.com

8. Sign in the blog and publish a comment with what you think the survey tells us about sleep deprivation issues at the Colombo.

Good luck!

WELCOME

This is the blog for the 4-6 Listening and Conversation class at the Centro Cultural Colombo Americano Cali. Through this blog we want to practice English and share ideas on how to improve and become better learners and speakers.Our class is made up of 6 people. We have two beautiful girls: Margie and Carolina and 4 nice guys: Miguel, Jairo, Juan Alberto and John.