Blog de Cristina

It’s time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It’s time to move on, it’s time to get going

                                                         Tom Petty

… I’m moving !! .. and  in more than one sense . After 15 years teaching in La Fleguera I am moving to Avilés and although those who know me are well aware  this is what I had been praying for ,for as long as I’ve been in the teaching business ,I cannot bring myself to feel completely happy. I know I’ll be missing a lot of things. . Thanks to you all who have been with me at some point or other  in my career. I’ll miss you all!

Virtually, you’ll find me here as I’ll also be moving this  blog of mine into a new one ,where blog and web will be together.To everybody who’s added me to their blogroll I hope you’ll want to do the change and add the new address for El Blog de Cristina  to your blogrolls.Thanks for your support this far, I hope I’ll see you around at my new site . This blog will no longer be updated

‘Cause this is what it is for me… fun!!!!
If you have read my previous post ,Becoming a housewife, you’ll by now know that I was left in the lurch … yes ,because this is how I felt , by my darling Carmen. And now that we are on that subject I have to confess that although I have been happily married for 17 years , it’s now that I understand that what makes me really happy is having Carmen by my side…(I hope my husband never reads this post). By the way, Carmen has returned home …it finally dawned on her that her place is by my side taking care of me and my family. God bless her!!!

Anyway, ‘cause I feel I might be boring you to death with my domestic problems let’s get to the point. What I wanted to share with you is that , apart from spending the summer cooking and cleaning, I also had some fun exploring a new programme (new for me , at least) which I think has lots of potential for my classes. I am just beginning to produce some videos and they have been a lot of effort but I also think it’s been worth the while.
First and taking as a sample a video from YouTube I had already used in my classes ,I produced a listening comprehension and uploaded it to YouTube. In fact, there were two videos and so you had to watch one and then see the answers and then the other one and see the answers too, which was quite an achievement but now I have managed to create a menu where you can choose what you want to see.
The first ,uploaded to you tube, is just below. The other one with the menu is here http://www.cristinacabal.com. I know it needs a lot of polishing but it is the first one  … I am still learning. 

Although I can’t say I’m a music junkie I spend a lot of my time listening to music. The kind of music I listen to largely depends on my mood .Normally, on my way to work I’m full of energy and anticipation so the songs I like listening to are of that kind … but when I am coming back home I need something a bit more relaxing , so I go for classical music , ballads, chill out … and all that jazz. And sometimes if my day’s been crap and I have to think about the best way to face the music , then I appreciate the silence.
Anyway, what I want to say is that I like this chick. I think she’s got a very nice voice , powerful but sweet at the same time .. When I first listened to her , her voice kind of struck a chord ; she is somewhere between Amy Winehouse and  Kate Perry with a touch of Dufy. Her first album has just been released and I anticipate it’s going to sell like hot cakes.
Her debut single ‘Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)’ was a success but ,in my humble opinion, there are other very good tracks. By the way , her album is called Turn it Up.

Want to see what these idioms mean ?
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/cat/23.html 

Now dear reader , you might be wondering why I haven’t dedicated a single minute to this blog of mine. The truth be told , I felt I needed a break from the computer and from teaching , never from English… I’m addicted!!!
But …One important event has happened in my life… my maid has resigned after 11 years working at home. Yes, I know what you are thinking… !!! Just save it, …I’m not interested in the irony!! The thing is that after so many years I had forgotten the basic things a person has to do to be able to survive.. and although it’s true that I was an expert at baking desserts, the sad thing was that I didn’t know how to cook ordinary lentils, among other things.
So, after a few burns from ironing, salty dishes hardly edible, plus mixing bleach with ammonia and almost …etc… I’m sure you are not interested in my misfortune… but there are some positive things about me having to become a housewife.. now I’m more independent!!
If you have never ironed a fitted sheet you might encounter , as I certainly did, some problems ironing and folding it properly …quite a difficult chore if you think about it! The solution to my domestic problems….. the Mighty You Tube. Have a look at these videos and learn what I am now an expert at.
 

How to fold a fitted sheet

My children also had to learn how to fold their T shirts neatly. Interesting video and also great fun for children

Speed-peel potatoes … when in a hurry

and so on and so forth…..  but…. I don’t like being a housewife , I like being a teacher…and just that!!! Carmen, please come back!!!! I miss uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!
 

 I don’t like this idiom , the only reason being the rodent in it… yes, I am that girlie!! 

Now and then, and as part of the continuous asssessment, I ask my students to write something at home to be marked later  and very often and mainly when it is writing about a celebrity, a book or a film they nick from the Internet. Setting this task when I know pretty well they won’t be able to resist the temptation of copy-pasting from the Internet is a bit of a wicked of me ,to put it midly ,but life is hard , isn’t it?

To smell  a rat= you know instinctively that something is wrong or that someone is lying to you.

So when I start reading essays and some words trigger all my sirens  , then this is the tool I use to catch you red-handed.

It’s called Plagium

I sometimes wonder how I can get so involved in something I’ve never liked. And I’m talking about football. I’ve gone a long way from not knowing how many players you needed to play a match to watching , if nothing else appeals to me on TV, the match between South Africa and USA national teams ,to name just one.

It must be love! This is what I’ve done to celebrate the promotion of  Villa de Pravia football team ,where my son plays, to the second division . I hope you like it !!

Related Links

• Playing with images: Bookr
• Warhol
• Wordle: creating “word clouds”
• Food and cooking

My son Lucas, who is 9, was watching TV (I’m afraid he’s sort of becoming a couch potato if I do nothing about it) when the video of Thriller filled the screen . He called me all excited about what he was seeing. I tried to explain who Michael Jackson was ( difficult when I got to the part of him turning white) and what the video was about ( the part about the graveyard and him turning into a zombie and scaring the girl was his favourite) and then, in my determination to show him how funny dancing could be I started searching the Net and bumped into this funny page where you can learn how to dance the Thriller Dance.

And well, I am just beginning to think it might be  very interesting to teach vocabulary related to verbs of movement in a funny way. So… dear students … get ready, next year when we get to the point of learning verbs related to movement we’ll be dancing Thriller… if you don’t believe me … have a look at how organised they’ve got it all for me , ready to be used!! We might even be asked to perform at the Christmas Party!! How about that!!! I can’t wait!!!

Let’s get started

Step 1. The Dance . There are 8 lessons and each consists of 4 clips

http://thrilltheworld.com/learn/videos

Step 2. The Dance Script

http://thrilltheworld.com/images/uploads/TTW_Official_Dance_Script.pdf

Spet 3. The Lyrics and the Script together

http://thrilltheworld.com/images/uploads/TTW_Lyrics_and_Script.pdf

Related Links:

• Karaoke online

It is called Visuwords and it’s worth a visit.

Never before have I seen such a display of colours, diagrams and words in a dictionary. It is great for everybody to use ‘cause it’s fun and it shows not only the definitions of words but also the connections between words. What’s more, if you place your cursor over any of the words ,the definition appears. You can even click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.If you ver get lost in this crazy tree of words ,use the colour-coded key on the left to understand the connections between the words.

“be who you are and say what you feel,

because those who mind don’t matter and

 those who matter don’t mind.”

Dr Seuss

Fancy a riddle??  

How many bricks does it take to complete a building made of brick?

Related Links:

A puzzle to rack your brains

What on earth is a palindrome?

Beauty is a product of Photoshop

About books

Some interesting or , at least, unusual facts about the English Language

Only one.

the last one.