Happy Summer to all of you!  

As spring ends, we grieve what has been lost and cherish what has been gained. We measure the rise and fall of our hopes in the Middle East and remember the catastrophic earthquake in Japan — a natural disaster erupting into a human one. As we enter a new, uncertain season, our destination is unknown, yet we travel against the flames of fear toward the promise of a better future ahead.

Shirin Neshat, an artist, is the director of the film “Women Without Men.” 

New York Times 

And for all your work

and enthusiasm making your blogs...

Miss Cristy and Miss Esthela  ; )


(Post Cortesía de Miss Gaby Castillo : )

Tools and Skills

 "It's not about the tools. It's about the Skills" 

Dear students: 
This is not a short term project.  It´s just the beginning of a very interesting journal that will prepare you to your digital future. Besides this, it doesn’t matter what carrier you are planning to study, blogging will help you to develop skills that will open you doors in many areas of your life, academic, professional and personally.  The technology tools are necessary, but the skills you might develop are priceless.  So I encourage you to do your best in this your first blog! : )  Translate the poster and this post, and discuss it with your English teacher. 

(These skill posters and a blog titled "It's not about the tools. It's about the Skills" can be found on the Langwitches Blog: The Magic of Learning.)

Are you ready to post?

 Do you feel like this? Do you know where to start?

Don´t worry, everybody feels that way when they start blogging.  I still feel that way sometimes... even though I´ve been blogging for a while... : )

Here are some steps you have to take in consideration in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed with this challange, build better quality blogs, and enjoy the process as well!  : )

1.  I assume that you have already set up your blog...  so let´s go to the next steps...

2. Writing Posts:  Review all your writings before posting them. Use all the resourses you´ve got to improve your vocabulary, grammar, spelling, etc. Here are three indent links that you already know and might be very helpful to you. 

Agenda Web

ESL Gold

Interchange Arcade

3.  Adding images

4.  Embed media

5.  Add gadgets

6. Build readership

7. Connecting to others

Concentrate in Step 2... I´ll be back to guide and support you with the other ones, in case you need it, either here or in class.  : )

And remember that...

* For those of you who asked me about gadgets for music, visitors  and calendars, you can click on the ones I include here,  get the code, come back to your blog and go to: "Design" , "Add a Gadget", "HTML/Javascript" and paste the code.

Open your Blog!

Hi, guys! Have you  gotten your blogs yet? If not, I recommend you to try Blogger. Blogger has a good range of theme templates and sidebar gadgets available, and it´s totally free.

Here you have some tutorials, in Spanish and English. Try the second one first!  : )   If you have any questions, we´ll work them out in our lab class!

Have a great day!!

Miss Esthela

Earth Hour 2011 and All We Need is Love ; )

Remember you can post videos and share your interests in any subject you like. Here you have two examples, one is a visual documentary and the other, music with lyrics,  that may help you  practice your  English!  Hope you enjoy both!

Earth Hour 2011

All we need is love!

Create your own blog!

Hi students! Welcome to my website!   Hope you have fun creating your own blogs and practicing your English, besides developing other skills! 

Use the following list to start posting:

A)  This is me:

-  about me
-  about my family
-  about my friends
-  about my school
-  about my city

Very important: Identify people (and yourself) only with their first names, don´t post addresses, telephone numbers, passwords or any confidential information.


Muy importante: Solo utiliza primeros nombres, no escribas direcciones, números telefónicos, claves, lugares de trabajo o estudio, o cualquier otra información confidencial. 


B: Likes and dislikes about:

- Books
- Movies
- Music
- Sports
- Food
- Hobbies
- Feelings (to somebody)
- Etc.

C: My world: 

- Global warming
- Pollution
- Violence against women
- AIDS- VIH
- International festivities
- Literature
- Tecnology
* Or establish your own area of interest !


Extras: Poetry, sayings, cartoons, videos, pictures, gifts, etc.

Be as creative as you can and remember that...

Miss Esthela