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Thursday, 1-29-2015

Welcome back!

1. Have a conversation with one or two or three other students. Talk about this question:
What do you like to do in your free time?

2. Open Microsoft word and type in your own answer to that question. Here's an example of what you could write:

"In my free time, I like to read magazines and go to restaurants with my friends. I also like to go to the beach when it is warm."

3. Save your file. Give it the name "in my free time".

4. Copy everything you write in Microsoft Word and paste it into a comment on this blog. I will show you how to do this.

5. If you have more time you can use Side-By-Side or YouTube or whatever you want.

Wednesday, 1-28-2015

Hello! Today I want to show you a program called Side-By-Side. It is not on the Internet. It is on our computers.

There are four levels: 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B.

1A is good for ESL level 1 and level 2.

1B is good for ESL level 2 and level 3.

2A, and 2B are good for ESL level 3, 4, and 5.

On most computers, you can find Side-By-Side by clicking "Start ". Be careful to pick the right level.

If you get tired of Side-By-Side, or you already know how to use it, and you want something different, you might check out this music video with lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VCuCm6XKeA

Advanced students might want to use Google to find the lyrics and then use Google Translate to translate the lyrics, then copy and paste the lyrics and the translation into a Microsoft Word document.

Hello everyone. Today we are going to work a little bit more with Microsoft Word. We will review how to center text on a page, and we will learn how to make VERY big text, and we will learn about zooming in and out on your document.

Imagine that your dog is lost and you want to make a poster to put up on telephone poles around the neighborhood. You want to make the print as big and clear as you possibly can.

1. Leave this webpage open, and open Microsoft Word.

2. Practice going back and forth between this webpage and Microsoft Word.

3. Type or copy and paste the following in your Microsoft Word document:

LOST DOG

Call 555-4321

4. Use clipart to insert a picture of a dog in between those two lines.

5. Center all of the text and the picture.

6. Make "LOST DOG" very big — size 100 should be about right.

7. Make "Call 555-4321" very big as well — size 65 should be about right.

8. Adjust the size of your picture. Make it as big as possible, but make sure everything fits on one page.

9. EXTRA FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS: add additional information about a reward and the name of the dog. Make all text bold. Or experiment with different fonts. Remember that you want the letters to be very big and clear, not fancy or complicated.

10. Still have time? Try looking for your favorite songs on YouTube. Include the word "lyrics" if you want to find Videos with words to the songs.

Monday, 1-26-2015

Welcome back! Today we are going to continue working with Microsoft Word. We are going to review how to change font and font size and how to use clipart. And something new: we will learn how to center text on the page.

1. Highlight and then copy the following sentences:

For this sentence, use the Arial font and make it size 24.

For this sentence, use the Broadway font and make it size 16.

Below this sentence, insert a clipart picture of an elephant.

Make this sentence size 18 and center it.

2. Open Microsoft Word and paste in those four sentences. (Use control + v)

3. Follow the instructions for each sentence.

4. Save your document. Name it "word practice 1"

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5. Vocabulary exercise. Do you know these fruits?

lemon, plum, pineapple, pear, apple, peach, orange, banana, strawberry

Try this exercise: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-fruit.html

Can you spell those fruits? Try this: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/spell-fruit.html

Thursday, 1-22-2015

Welcome back everyone! Here is my suggestion for today.

Typing in Microsoft Word.

1. Put your name and country on the paper I will give you.

2. Open Microsoft Word and type the words on the paper into your Word document. Be careful with capital letters and punctuation.

3. Save your document onto your flash drive.

Extra: Use clipart to add a picture of your country or your country's flag. Also, you can try changing the font and the size of the text. I will demonstrate.

Wednesday ,1-21-2015

BEGINNERS - practice basic mouse skills here:

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-things-in-the-classroom.html

INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS

1. Highlight the following lyrics by dragging across them.

Isn't it romantic?

Music in the night, a dream that can be heard.

Isn't it romantic?

Moving shadows write the oldest magic word.

I hear the breezes playing in the trees above,

While all the world is saying you were meant for love.

Isn't it romantic?

Merely to be young on such a night as this?

Isn't it romantic?

Every note that's sung is like a lover's kiss.

Sweet symbols in the moonlight,

Do you mean that I will fall in love perchance?

Isn't it romance?

Sweet symbols in the moonlight,

Do you mean that I will fall in love per chance?

Isn't it romantic?

Isn't it romance?

2. Copy the lyrics by pressing Ctrl + c.

3. Open Microsoft Word (but leave this webpage open too)

4. Name your document by clicking "file" and then "save as" then "My Computer" then ADATA (or the name of your flash drive).

5. Type in this name for your document: romantic

6. Paste the lyrics into your document by pressing Ctrl + v.

7. Click "file" then "save" to save your document.

Congratulations! Now you have the lyrics on your flash drive in a file called "romantic".

Here is the song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uxFeEDLHZc

the singer is Ella Fitzgerald, and she is one of the greatest jazz singers of all time.

ADVANCED

Advanced students might want to add a translation of the lyrics to their document

Go to Google translate. (Find the link above on the right.)
Paste in the lyrics.
Select your first language.
Copy the translation. (There's a little icon down at the bottom that you can use to select the translation.)
Go back to your "romantic" Microsoft Word document and put the cursor down below the lyrics.
Press Ctrl + v to paste in the translated lyrics.
Save your document!
Try changing the font and font size if you want to make it look nicer. (I'll give a demonstration. Here's a tip: use Ctrl + a to select all.)
You can use clipart to add a picture of Ella Fitzgerald.

Monday, 1-20-2015

Welcome back to ESL Skills Computer Lab! I hope you had a great weekend.

1. Music video. "Three little birds" by Bob Marley. This version has lyrics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4sNi2PUiWM

Here's the original video without lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYAAsHT4QE

If you want to just read the lyrics, you can find them here: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/threelittlebirds.html

2. We have on our computers a very good ESL program called "Side-By-Side". There are four levels: 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B. To find the program, click on the "Start" button. If you don't see "Side-By-Side 1A", I will help you find it. I will demonstrate how to use this program at about 6:15.

Thursday, 1-15-2015

1. Hello again! Today we are going to begin working with Microsoft Word. But first, let's relax and enjoy some music. Here is a video of "Rainbow Connection" with lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTb9-eDmvKQ

2. Next, were going to learn how to start up Microsoft Word. I will give detailed instructions in a little while. But here are the basic steps we will follow:

Start up Microsoft Word.
Type these words (Press "Enter"to make a new line)
     shark
     jellyfish
     dolphin
Go to "Insert" and "Clipart" to find pictures of a shark, a jellyfish, and the dolphin and put them in the document.
Change the size of the pictures by clicking on the picture and dragging the corner..
Use "save as" to save the document onto your flash drive.

If you have more time, you can continue by finding pictures of the rest of the sea creatures that we learned about yesterday.

Or, try searching YouTube for songs that you like.

Wednesday, 1-14-2014

Hello everyone. I hope you had a pleasant and productive day!

1. If you didn't have much time yesterday to practice with Google Translate, I suggest you start with that today. Try using Google translate to translate this group of words: (instructions below)

shark

jellyfish

dolphin

whale

sea lion

turtle

octopus

starfish

crab

lobster

Highlight the words (make them blue) by dragging from the beginning of "shark" to the end of "lobster".
Press (ctrl) + c to copy the sentence.
Click the link to Google Translate on the upper right side of this page.
Press (ctrl) + v to paste the sentence.
Select Spanish or any other language you want to translate into.

2. Play around with Google Translate. Type whatever you want into the translation box. Click on the speaker to listen to it in English, and in your first language, and in other languages. Keep in mind that Google Translate works pretty well, but sometimes it makes mistakes.

3. Vocabulary practice. Try this exercise. You must identify the sea creatures that you translated above.

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-sea-creatures.html

Advanced students may want to try spelling the words:

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-sea-creatures.html

4. Do you have more time? You could explore some of the websites on Armen's ESL Links Page. Find the link on the upper right of this page.

Tuesday, 1-13-2015

Welcome back! Here are some suggestions for today.

BEGINNERS
1. Yesterday we learned how to make webpages look bigger or smaller. Remember? Practice a few times right now so you don't forget how to do it.

Did you get 100% on the San Francisco tourist sites exercise we did yesterday? If not, try it again. http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-san-francisco.html

2. There are three different ways to scroll up and down in a webpage. You should try all three and see which one is easier for you.

Use the wheel on the mouse.
Use the mouse to drag down on the bar on the far right side of the webpage.
Use the down and up arrow keys on the keyboard.

INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED STUDENTS

3. Below are some common sayings in English.

Where there's smoke there's fire.
Two heads are better than one.
The early bird gets the worm.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Discussion questions:

What do you think those sayings mean?
Do you have similar sayings in your language?

4. Try Google Translate.

Copy the sayings above by dragging to highlight and then pressing ctrl + c.
Go to Google translate (find the link on the right of this page).
Press ctrl + v to paste in the sayings.
Select Spanish.
Try clicking on the speaker to listen through the headphones.

Welcome to Computer Skills for ESL! (Monday 1-12-2015)

Hello students! Welcome to class. I hope you had a nice winter break. I look forward to getting to know all of you as we learn about computers and how to use computers to study English!

I don't think we will have much time to do anything today. But if we do, here is a little exercise about the names of famous things and places in San Francisco.

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-san-francisco.html

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/spell-san-francisco.html