Thursday, 2-26-2015 (Yesterday)

Good evening and welcome back! I have some music for you today. It's the classic song "Yesterday" by the Beatles. Also, we are going to learn how to put two different computer windows next to each other on your monitor. I will show you how to do this at about 6:10 If you want to get started, here are some instructions:

1. Copy the following lyrics and paste them into a Microsoft Word document.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far *********

Now it looks as though they're here to stay

oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the ******** I used to be

There's a shadow hanging over ********

Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why ******** had to go?

I don't know, she wouldn't say

I said something wrong

******** I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to ********

Now I need a place to hide away

Oh, I ******** in yesterday.

2. Leave the Word document open, but come back to this webpage and click the following link to listen to the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rIEVBIP5yc

3. Try to fill in the missing words (where you see ********). I will show you how to put your Word document and the video next to each other so you can listen and read the lyrics at the same time.

4. Compare your answers with a partner.

5. Save your document on your flash drive. Name it "yesterday".

Wednesday, 2-25-2015 (tools)

Welcome back everybody! Feel free to do whatever you want for the first part of the class — Side-By-Side, typing practice, etc. Or, you can get started on what we will be working on later: the vocabulary of common tools.

1. Highlight and copy the following list of tools:

TOOLS

drill

bolt

screw

screwdriver

pliers

nut

wrench

hammer

flashlight

nail

saw

2. Go to Google translate (link in upper right corner) and paste in the list of tools. Translate to your first language and study the meanings of the words.

3. Try these exercises:

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-tools.html

http://www.newtongue.com/abc/spell-tools.html

4. Conversation. Ask a partner:

Do you know how to use a hammer?

Do you know how to use a drill?

Do you know how to use a wrench?

Do you know how to use a screwdriver?

Some possible answers:

Yes, I do.

Yes, a little.

No, I don't.

No but I want to learn.

Tuesday, 2-24-2015

Hello students! Welcome back to the computer lab. I hope you had a happy and productive day. Today we are going to do some computer programming and create a simple game. The game is called Boggle. Usually it is played with dice that have letters on them. Take a look at this video to get an idea of how the game works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TsvAfukeS8

Instead of using dice we will use Excel. We will use a formula to generate random letters. I will show you how to do this at about 6:10. For advanced students, if you want to try it on your own, here is the formula you will need:

=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))

Monday, 2-23-2015 (past tense writing)

Hello everyone! Welcome back on this sunny and windy Monday.  Today, I suggest that we do the same thing we did last Monday. It's a great way to practice using the past tense

1. Conversation. Ask a partner: How was your weekend? What did you do?

2. Open Microsoft Word and write about your weekend. You can write just a sentence or two or a whole paragraph. It's up to you. Put your first name at the end.

3. Print your paragraph and bring it to me. I will make corrections and give it back to you.

4. Make the corrections in your Microsoft Word document.

5. Save your document to your flash drive.

6. Copy your writing, go to our class blog, and paste in your writing as a comment.

1. Click comments.
2. Click the box where it says "Enter your comment".
3. Click the arrow next to "comment as" and select "Anonymous".
4. Click "Publish".
5. Click the checkbox next to "I'm not a robot".
6. Type the numbers or letters you see.
7. Click "Publish" again.

When you finish, you can do typing practice, or Side-By-Side, or help other students post their comment on the blog, or whatever you want.

Thursday, 2-18-2015 (drawing)

Today we are going to learn to make drawings in Microsoft Word. I will show you how at about six o'clock.

Later,you should walk around the room and look at other students' drawings. Here are some phrases you can use:
What's that?
That's interesting.
That's beautiful!
That's funny!
That's cute.
I like those colors.
I really like this part.

Tuesday, 2-17-2015 (writing)

Hello everyone! I hope your long weekend was filled with fun and learning and lots of other good things. Today, I want to practice writing about the past again. This time, I want you to also practice revising.

1. Talk to one or two other students. Ask , "How was your weekend?" and "What did you do?" Here are some past tense verbs you might use in your answers:

was, went, watched, visited, ate, cleaned, played, bought, did. (Use Google Translate if you are not sure what those mean.)

2. Open Microsoft Word and type in a sentence, or a few sentences, or a paragraph about your weekend. Make your document double spaced. I will show you how.

3. Print your document. Usually, you should not print anything in the computer lab. We need to save paper and ink. But for today I brought in some recycled paper we can use. I will show you how to print.

4. Give me your printed document. I will make corrections and give it back to you.

5. Revise your document based on my corrections. Save your document on your flash drive

6. If you have time, copy your writing and paste it in as a comment to this blog post. If you don't have time, please do this tomorrow.

Thursday, 2-12-2015

Welcome back to the computer lab on this absolutely beautiful Thursday! It feels like spring is here. I don't have any big new projects planned for today, so you can work a little more on the Excel sales report project if you want.

1. Conversation. Ask other students this question:

Do you know the names of these punctuation marks?

.

,

;

?

:

"  "

( )

...

/

-

'

@

*

2. Try this exercise when you think you know most of the names: http://www.newtongue.com/abc/read-punctuation.html

3. Make a Word document with each punctuation mark and its name.

Other ideas: typing practice, Side-By-Side, YouTube videos of your favorite songs with lyrics.

Wednesday, 2-11-2015 (more formulas in Excel)

Welcome back! Yesterday we learned how to make a formula for multiplication in an Excel spreadsheet. Today we are going to continue with that project and learn how to make a formula for addition. If you want to try working on this yourself, here is a hint: Highlight the numbers you want to add, then go to "Formulas" and click "AutoSum". We will work on this together at about 6:05. Also, we will try to make our sales report look nice by adding some color and formatting and maybe some pictures.

Until then (or after you finish) here are some other ideas for things to do:

Typing practice, Side-By-Side, and here's another great song with lyrics: "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRQm7Yt77k0

Tuesday, 2-10-2015

Greetings students! Thanks for all the comments yesterday.

Today we are going to learn how to create a simple sales report in Excel. We will start that project at about 6:05. Until then, you can do whatever you want: maybe Side-By-Side, or typing lessons, or listen to this beautiful song and read the lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUMoiU3h750.

Monday, 2-9-2015

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend.

1. Let's begin with some conversation. Ask another student, these questions:

How was your weekend?

What did you do?

Here are some past tense verbs you might want to use:

went

had

visited

cleaned

watched
relaxed

2. Write a sentence, or a few sentences, or a paragraph about your weekend in Microsoft Word. Put your first name at the end.
Example:  "I had a very nice weekend.  On Saturday, I went out to dinner with my wife and some friends. We had Mexican food in Oakland. It was great! --Kurt

3. Copy your paragraph and paste it in as a comment in this blog.(I will demonstrate.)

4. Still have time? Try this website: http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp

It's a website with lots of good videos of people speaking English in a very natural way. You can watch with or without subtitles. And there are exercises that go with each video.

Thursday, 2-5-2015

Hello everyone! For the first half of today's class, I want you to work on your own. You can go back and finish projects from earlier this week or last week. Or you can work on Side-By-Side or typing practice (see the link on the upper right side of this page).

In the second half of the class we will continue with the Excel project we started yesterday. We will add a couple more animals to our list, and then I will show you how to automatically sort the list from slowest to fastest or from fastest to slowest.

Wednesday, 2-4-2015 (Google search)

Good evening, everyone! Today we are going to practice searching the Internet for factual information. First, talk to another student. Guess what the answers are to these questions:

How fast can a zebra run?

How fast can an elephant run?

How fast can a lion run?

Now use Google to search for the answers. When you find an answer, write it down in your notebook. Maybe later we will put it in an Excel document.

Start by copying and pasting the first question into the address bar of your browser. Then press enter. You will get a list of results. Sometimes you can see the answer right there on the results page. Sometimes you will have to click on one of the results to get to the information you want.

When you are ready to search for the second question, use your back button to go back to the Google search results page. Erase "zebra" and put in "elephant".

After you find all three answers, maybe we will put the information in an Excel document and make a chart. But that will probably have to wait until tomorrow. Have fun!

 EXTRA: Find the speeds of some other animals.

Also: Sid-By-Side.

Tuesday, 2-3-2015 (Excel)

Hello again! Thanks for all the great comments on the blog yesterday. If you weren't able to get your comment published yesterday, you might try it again today. Also today I want to introduce you to Microsoft Excel. It's the most popular program for accounting. It's also used a lot by scientists and in many other situations.

1. First, have a little conversation with another classmate. Here are the questions:

What do you think is the coldest month in San Francisco?

What do you think is the hottest month in San Francisco?

2. Highlight and Copy the following abbreviations for months:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

3. Open Excel. It's the icon with the green X.

4. Click on cell 1A, then press control + v to paste in the months.

5. For each month, enter a temperature in column B. I will give you a little piece of paper with this information. Press "Enter "to move down one cell, or use the "down arrow" key.

6. Highlight all your data in both columns.

7. Click "insert", then "column", and choose the first 3-D column chart.

8. Click on your chart and drag on the corner to adjust its size.
9. Save your file to your flash drive.

10. EXTRA: Try other kinds of charts. Or, right-click on an empty part of your chart and choose "Format Chart Area". Experiment with different backgrounds or colors for your chart.

Monday, 2-2-2015

Hello class! Happy February! Thanks for all the great comments you put on the blog last Thursday. I would like you to post another comment today. This time, try to remember to put your name in the comment. Just your first name is fine.

The question for today is this: What kind of music do you like? (Here are some kinds of music: rock, pop, jazz, classical, rap, hip-hop, reggae, salsa, reggaetón, bachata...)

Remember, I suggest that you write first in Microsoft Word then copy and paste your comments into the blog.

When you finish with that, you might want to use Side-By-Side.

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.