Wednesday, 4-29-2015 (cover letter)

Hello students! If you want to practice formatting another business letter, I have another one for you today. This one is a letter inquiring about a job. We will learn to make a bulleted list.

 All the information is below. Copy it and paste it into a Microsoft Word document. Then add all of the necessary spaces. I will put the finished version up on the screen. Try to make your letter look like that. I will show how to make bullet points at about 6:15.

****YOUR NAME****

555 Green St.,

San Francisco, CA 94117

****TODAY'S DATE*****

Jessica Rogers

241 California St.

San Francisco, CA 94114

Dear Ms. Rogers, I see on Craigslist that you are looking for a restaurant manager at Golden Café. I am very interested in the position, and I believe I am well qualified. I have three years’ experience as a restaurant manager. I have also worked as a server and a cook, so I understand all aspects of restaurant operation. I have excellent references from within the restaurant industry. Golden Café is one of my favorite places for lunch, and I very much hope to become a part of your team. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, ****YOUR NAME****

Tuesday, 4-28-2015 (unforgettable)

Hello everyone! Thanks for all the great comments yesterday. I'm happy to hear you had interesting and productive weekends.

I have a song for you to work on today. It's called "Unforgettable" and it's by Nat King Cole. Here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Nat+King+Cole+unforgettable

Here are the lyrics with some words missing. Copy the lyrics and paste them into a Microsoft Word document. Replace the asterisks with the correct words. Use "Tile Windows Vertically" to put video and a Word document side-by-side.

Words you need:  stay, thinks, what, song, every, incredible, too, never

Unforgettable

That's ******** you are,

Unforgettable

Though near or far.

Like a ******** of love that clings to me,

How the thought of you does things to me.

******** before

Has someone been more...

Unforgettable

In ******** way,

And forever more

That's how you'll ********.

That's why, darling, it's ********

That someone so unforgettable

********** that I am

Unforgettable, ********.

[repeat previous two versus]

Monday, 4-27-2015 (writing about weekend)

Good evening students! How are you today? I hope you had a good weekend. Would you like to practice some writing? If so, open Microsoft Word and write a few sentences about your weekend. Was it nice? Relaxing? Busy? Stressful? Fun? What did you do? Copy and paste your writing as a comment on this blog. Remember how to do that? If you do, I appreciate it if you can help others.

Here's a little about my weekend:

I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday, I went to Family Billiards on Geary Street with my wife. We took a billiards lesson. It was the first time we ever took a lesson. It was very fun! I also watched a lot of movies this weekend. On Saturday, my wife and I saw "Whiplash." It was very good. On Sunday we saw two more movies. "Drive" was very good but had a little too much violence. "Sunshine" was not very good, in my opinion.

For those of you interested in advanced animation techniques in PowerPoint, here are a couple new animations to check out:

http://www.newtongue.com/ppt/appreciate.pptx

http://www.newtongue.com/ppt/behind.pptx

Thursday, 4-23-2015

Hello! I'm possibly going to be doing a presentation at a teachers conference on August 13 called "Poetry in Motion: PowerPoint animation for ESL students." If you want to create a PowerPoint animation and present it at the conference just let me know. The conference will be here on the Mission Campus

Some of you already have animation projects that are ready to be shown. One thing I think you should add to them though is this: make the animations automatic so you only need to press the spacebar once and all the animations will play. We will do a short project today at around six o'clock and I will show you how to do that.

Until then, you might want to take a look at this nice video with lyrics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54gNizQj3HY

It’s a good story, but it’s sad.

Wednesday, 4-22-2015 (kitchen items)

Good  evening! Welcome back.

First, here is a keyboard shortcut you should try: use ALT + Tab Key to switch to a different application.

Next, here is some kitchen vocabulary. Do you know these words?

timer

stove

pot

oven

ladle

cutting board

frying pan

grater

wok

sink

grill

food processor

colander

cookie sheet

strainer

hand mixer

spatula

Test your knowledge here: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-kitchen-equipment.html

For the rest of today's class you can do whatever you want. You might want to finish up old projects. Or you can start something new — maybe a new PowerPoint project, or a new PowerPoint animation, or a writing project, or work with Side-By-Side.

Here are a couple of ideas for writing topics:

Are you a good cook? What dishes do you like to cook?

OR

Tell me about your favorite restaurant. Where is it? What kind of food do they serve? Why do you like it?

Tuesday, 4-21-2015 (Lovely Day cut and paste)

Hello there! Welcome back to the computer lab! We have been practicing a lot of copying and pasting. In the exercise I suggest for today you can practice something just a little different: cutting and pasting. When you copy something, the original text stays there. When you cut something, the original text disappears. The keyboard shortcut for cut is CTRL + x.

1. Listen to this song. It's a good one. It's from 1977.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYi7uEvEEmk

2. Copy the lyrics below and paste them into a Microsoft Word document.

3. Use "Tile Windows Vertically"to listen to the song and look at the lyrics at the same time.

4. The lines in those lyrics are not in correct order. Cut and paste them as you listen to the song, (click on the video to pause it) and put the lines into the correct order.

Bears heavy on my mind

And something without warning, love

And the sunlight hurts my eyes

When I wake up in the morning, love

And I know it's gonna be

Just one look at you

And the world's alright with me

Then I look at you

A lovely day

When someone else instead of me

Always seems to know the way

When the day that lies ahead of me

Seems impossible to face

Monday, 4-20-2015 (Fufu story completion)

Good evening and welcome back! I hope you had a very enjoyable weekend.

My first suggestion for today is a story where the letter "a" is missing. Your job is to insert "a" wherever it is needed. This is a good opportunity to practice using the arrow keys to move around in a document. You can click with the mouse wherever you want to add the letter, but it will be easier and faster if you use the arrow keys.

Story Completion Project

The story is about a cat named Fufu and what happens when a dog moves into the house.

1. Go here to find the story:
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t7BboPx9VvAlR52BYlubl2bRr-VB-dHLpE5ZjC13Muo/edit?authkey=CJyU77MB

2. Press Ctrl + a to highlight everything on that page.

3. Press Ctrl + c to copy everything.

4. Open Microsoft Word.

5. Press Ctrl + v to paste the story into your Word document.

6. Read the story and add the letter "a" where it is needed.

Other Stuff Related to Cats

Here are a couple of articles about the history of the house cat. The first one is at an intermediate level. The second one is at advanced level.

Intermediate:   http://www.catsinfo.com/history.html

advanced:   https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/cat-history

And here is an interesting video clip about an art show where all of the art is related to cats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zpzonwqPLU

Thursday, 4-16-2015 (fabric patterns vocabulary)

Hello everyone! Welcome back on this windy but beautiful Thursday. I have some very advanced vocabulary for you today. If you are interested in fashion, maybe you will be interested in these words. These are names of different kinds of fabric patterns. These patterns are often used on clothing as well as on curtains and furniture. You might want to copy the list and use Google Translate to get a translation. Then you might want to make a Microsoft Word document with a 14 row table showing all the words in English and in your first language. After you study the meanings of the words, try this exercise: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-patterns.html

Fabric patterns

solid color

pinstripe

striped

floral

leopard

herringbone

polka dot

checkered

plaid

zebra

paisley

argyle

houndstooth

camouflage

Something completely different…

If you like rock 'n roll, here's a good video with lyrics. It has a lot of good past tense verbs in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ZOS0Fgdrg

Links to a lot of good ESL webpages here: https://sites.google.com/a/mail.ccsf.edu/esl/

Wednesday, 4-15-2015 (Internet search)

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. The activity I suggest for today is this: practice searching the Internet for information. I'm going to give you some questions and, if you want to do this exercise, your job is to use Google to find the answers. (You can also use Bing if you prefer.)

Remember that you can usually search Google just by entering your question or your keywords in the address bar at the top of the browser and pressing enter. Some browsers, though, might use Bing when you do that. If you want to be sure to use Google, start by going to Google.com.

Sometimes you will find that the answer you are looking for comes right up when you search. Usually, though you will have to click on one of the links and read the page to find the answer.

Here are some questions for you. Copy them and paste them into a Microsoft Word document. When you find the answers, write them beneath the questions. Have fun!

1. Who is the president of Ecuador?

2. What is the highest mountain in Argentina?

3. What kind of tree is the tallest?

4. How many countries are there in Africa?

5. How much should I tip in a restaurant in Canada?

6. Do dogs see colors or only black and white?

Tuesday,, 4-14-2015( "your eyes" song)

Greetings to the dedicated and hard-working students of room 469! I'm glad you could join us again today. If you didn't finish the business letter formatting exercise yesterday, you might want to continue that today. If you want to try a new ESL webpage, there are a lot of ideas here that you can explore: https://sites.google.com/a/mail.ccsf.edu/esl/

Also today I have a music video to recommend. It's a song called "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU8OJAOMbPg

Below are the lyrics. Copy them and paste them into a Microsoft Word document. Listen to the song carefully and replace the asterisks with words. (Use "tile windows horizontally"to make things easier.) When you get all the lyrics filled in, you can try different fonts or add images.

love I get so lost, ********

days pass and this emptiness fills my heart

when I want to run away

I drive off in my ********

but whichever way I go

I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they ********

and the grand facade, so soon will burn

without a noise, without my pride

I reach out from the ********

in your eyes

the light the heat

in your eyes

I am complete

in your eyes

I see the doorway

in your eyes

to a thousand churches

in your eyes

the resolution

in your eyes

of all the fruitless searches

in your eyes

I see the light and the heat

in your eyes

oh, I want to be that complete

I want to touch the light

the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don't like to see so much ********

so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away

I get so ******** of working so hard for our survival

I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

Monday, 4-13-2015 (business letter)

Hello everyone! Well, my suggestion for today is not as much fun as usual, but it is very practical. If you want to join us, we will practice formatting a business letter. A business letter should look serious, so there will be no colors or pictures or anything like that. We will use a standard business letter format. If you prefer, you can work on Side-By-Side or any other project or webpage you want to work on.

Business Letter Project Instructions

1. Copy the complaint letter (which you will find down below these instructions).
2. Open a Microsoft Word document, and paste the letter in.
3. Replace ***YOUR NAME*** and ***TODAY'S DATE*** with your name and today's date.
4. Select everything and change the font to Times New Roman.
5. Change the size of everything to 14.
6. Add blank lines where needed. (See my example on the big screen.)
7. Center the return address.
8. Format the telephone number correctly with ( ) and -  .

The Letter

***YOUR NAME***

171 15th St.

San Francisco, CA 94110

4155551234

***TODAY'S DATE***

Joseph Williams

836 Main St.

San Francisco, CA 94110

Dear Mr. Williams,

I am the tenant in apartment #12 of your building at 171 Green Street. I am very upset that the light in the hallway outside my unit is still not working. I left two messages on your voicemail about this problem, but I have not received any reply.

As landlord, you are responsible for keeping hallway lights in working order. I believe this is an important safety issue. I am asking that you fix this problem no later than April 17.

Sincerely,

***YOUR NAME***

Monday, 4-13-2015 (business letter)

Welcome back on this lovely Thursday! I suggest you start with a little conversation. Ask the students around you:

What are you going to do this weekend?

Answer example: I am going to see a movie.

As always, you can work on whatever you want today. I have a couple of suggestions for additions that you can make to the "Math Trainer" we were working on yesterday. First, I will give you a chance to catch up if you didn't finish or if you were not here yesterday. Here are the instructions for what we did yesterday:

Open Excel.

1. OpenExcel.
2. In cell D1, put this:  =RANDOMBETWEEN(1,12)
3. In cell D3, put the same thing: =RANDOMBETWEEN(1,12)
               hint: copy that formula from this page and paste it in both places.
4. In cell B4, put this: X
5. In cell D4, put this: =
      hint: use the  tab key to get out of the cell
6. In cell G10, put this: = D1*D3
7. Highlight cells D1, D2, D3, and D4.
8. Set font size to 48.
9. Center the text.
10. Merge cells A1 through E1, and put this title in there:  Math Trainer
11. Highlight the title and make the font size 48.

If you want to do some more, you might want to merge some cells together and add this somewhere:

          Instructions: press F9 to get a new math problem.

Also, try to make the title look nice by changing background color and font color.

Advanced students might want to add another math problem that uses addition instead of multiplication (Thanks for the idea, Roxana!).

Deissy, remind me to give you back a paper I have of yours.

Wednesday, 4/8/2015 (math trainer)

Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to be back in class today, and I look forward to seeing anything you have been working on. I know that some of you have created some beautiful animations that have not been seen by the whole class yet, so I want to gather some of those on my flash drive and show them to the class.

I also have a little Excel project you can do today if you want. Let's call the project "The Math Trainer." This project could be useful to help children learn multiplication, or it could be useful for adults who just want some mental exercise. I will take you through the project step-by-step a little after six o'clock.

Wednesday, 4/7/15 (song)

Hi! Sorry I still can't be there. I'm 99% sure I'll be in tomorrow.

Thanks for the great stories yesterday! I enjoyed reading them a lot.

You can work on whatever you want today. If you want to work on a song, here's a nice one.  It's the opening of the "Star Trek: Enterprise" series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPn-lTytfGo

And here are most of the lyrics. You can paste them into a Word document, listen carefully, and replace the asterisks with words. Use "Tile windows vertically" to see two windows and make things easier. Remember how to do that? As with yesterday, I appreciate any help you can give to other students. Here are the words you will need: strength, finally, star, believe, dreams, heart

It's been a long road

Getting from there to here
It's been a long time
But my time is ****** near

I will see my ******* come alive at last
I will touch the sky
And they're not gonna hold me down no more
No they're not gonna change my mind

(Chorus)
'Cause I've got faith of the *******
I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to *******
I can do anything
I've got ******* of the soul
No one's going to bend or break me
I can reach any *******
I've got faith
I've got faith
Faith of the heart




 If you like space, you might like this: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-space.html

4/6/15

Welcome back!  I'm sorry I can't be there with you today, but I would like to hear about some things you did last week. If you want, write a short paragraph in Microsoft Word. Ask your teacher for some grammar or vocabulary tips.  Copy your writing and paste it in as a comment on this blog post. If you can help other students with this, I would appreciate it very much.

Other things you might work on:Typing practice, PowerPoint Animation, side-by-side, rong-chang.com, a4esl.org

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!