English As A Second language ( ESL )

November/December 2011 issue
Learn English
by creating interactive presentations online!

by Jose Lopez-Mercedes

Oral presentations are a great way to practice your English skills. Some teachers might ask you to create oral presentations by using PowerPoint, so you can organize your ideas and integrate pictures, images and sounds into your project. My students have been using Prezi.com as a tool to create outstanding presentations. Prezi.com is a free online-based presentation software that makes it fun to explore and to organize your ideas.

To get started you need to create an account at www.prezi.com. One of the features that my students like is the “Google Image Insert.” You can insert images to your presentation without leaving your page. Another cool feature is that more than one person can work on a presentation simultaneously.

After you create your presentation, you can share it with your friends by e-mail, blog or your favorite social network such as, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or YouTube. Feel free to share your prezis with me by sending them to Joselopezmercedes@gmail.com

Watch the tutorial on how to use Prezi by visiting: http://prezi.com/learn/

Jose Lopez-Mercedes is an ESL faculty member at Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education and MiraCosta College. He has been helping students and teachers use technology in the classroom since 2000. He can be reached at joselopezmercedes@gmail.com

Collaborating on the Internet - October 2011 issue
by Susan Gaer

Halloween is around the corner. It is one of my favorite holidays. If you follow all the steps here, you will be ready for a great Halloween. First learn about the origins of Halloween, and pumpkins at History.com. Watch a couple of videos there as well.

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

After learning about the history of pumpkins, you will want to buy one, and try carving it. Learn how to buy the perfect pumpkin at the following website.

http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com/the_survive_and_thrive_bo/2009/10/how-to-buy-a-pumpkin-for-halloween.html

The best day to buy a pumpkin for carving is one week before Halloween. I usually carve my pumpkin two days before Halloween. This way the pumpkin doesn’t go bad.

So once you buy the pumpkin, the second step is to carve it. You will want to get a pumpkin pattern to help you carve the best pumpkin. Find templates and instructions for carving at

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/mpatterns.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/interactives/pumpkin-carving-patterns

Now that you have your pumpkin, it is time to decide what you want to be for Halloween. The Costume Idea Zone has lots of ideas for making a low cost costume.

http://costumeideazone.com/

Finally after you have done all your research, read and learn vocabulary associated with Halloween from Pro Lingua.

http://www.prolinguaassociates.com/Pages/freeahh1.html

Don’t forget to buy candy so that you can treat the kids on Halloween night.

After you finished all these activities, see if you can answer these questions about Halloween.

1) What is the name of one Halloween costume? _________________

2) What is your favorite pumpkin template?______________________

3) What does the pumpkin symbolize? _________________________

Answers: 1. Varied 2. Varied 3. Human skull