Lockdown

Due to the propagation of the covid-19 virus we are not allowed to leave home for a month except to go to work, which is rather ironic, sarcastic I'd even say.

I can go to work and be in touch with hundreds of people every single day of the week being exposed to contagion and however I cannot go to the kitchen garden and be there alone without any chance of getting the virus.

This is Spain man, too many senseless laws.

Nevermind, to pass the time I am doing things at home, like taking care of my tomato plants, which I will hopefully plant after Easter.

Happy lockdown

Happy birthday!!!

Today I have designed this "Happy birthday" card. It's not awesome I know, rather on the contrary it's a bit naive, but I wanted it to be simple and straightforward. I've  just sent it to my 9-year-old nephew and I think I've accomplished my mission.

I'm working in a completely different version of the card. It's kind of an abstract thing. I'll publish it if I think it's worth it. Wait and see.

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Merry Christmas and happy 2010

Christmas eve is a very special occasion to enjoy the company of family and friends. I love xmas and I love sharing stories by the fireplace. So it is not likely that I have the time to write these lines in my blog then so I'm doing it right now.

I want to show you my xmas card as well. Drawn with tuxpaint v.0.9.21. A very nice piece of software for these things. Here it is.



The picture says it all. Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!!!

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Christmas tree

And here it is!!!

 Once again I have prepared the tree to celebrate Christmas.

This couldn't have been possible without the valuable collaboration of all the people who have helped me decorate it.

I really love the drawings you made.

I think you all deserve a prize.

The greatest prize of all: Thank you!!!

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This is my birthday calendar!

This is my birthday calendar for this year. It was high time to change the old one. The design was inspired on a picture we discovered on the net but it grew on its own with our ideas.


I hope you like it and a big thank you to all of you who have helped me with it!!! You  know who you are.


I had to take at least 8 pictures until I found the one I liked best. You can see my penguin decoration below.

A bit too late maybe ...

I'm not sure any of you have noticed yet, but this month I have improved the English activities section by including print-outs of all the interactive activities, this way students can easily print the activities to carry them anywhere (the swimming pool perhaps???)

Anyway it's an excellent idea.

Interactive online activities

Today the English section has received a twist. My Virtual Class was a great improvement, but today I have started to upload several interactive activities that we have created online.

So far there are only four activities but they can give you a hint of the new style we are going to follow. As the section grows bigger and bigger I'll have to include a table or some other way to organise the exercises.

Hopefully next week we will create crosswords, word searches and even vocabulary games or other pastimes. I hope you enjoy them.

Chalsattack VC Virtual Classes

Hi! After two weeks looking for a way to have virtual classes in my site, yesterday I decided to create a virtual class at http://www.nonstopenglish.com/ .The name of the first class is obviously "Chalsattack". That name may not be too serious but it is fun.
Well I think that the service they provide at that site is excellent. At least what I've tried so far. I have known and used the site to do activities online for years but to tell you the truth I did not know that they provided this virtual classes thing until I started to really look for it. Oops! after so many hours searching the net just to go back right where I started from. Well, these things happen!!!

Now I must write the 'how to' on my site as clear as possible so that everybody can understand the instructions. But in short it is very easy. Students can do interactive exercises on the site without registration or alternatively they can register and provide my e-mail address so that they are forwarded to me and thus I can assign them to a class with a specific level of English, I can give them homework and follow their progress online. Again: it's amazing.

Maybe in time I start building a site like that since I have all the necessary things (Web server, hosting service, domain and debian software) except time to do it. It's one of the options that I had in mind in the beginning.
I had also considered writing some interactive quizzes to post in my site. This option is still in mind. But in the meantime let's focus on what we've got and enjoy it and learn from it!!!

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