My blog

Debates

2010-04-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

The last week we were working on an interested activity about the UK's debate between the candidates:

David Cameron - Conservatives

Gordon Brown - Labour

Nick clegg - Liberal Democrats

I found my information about the debates on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/default.stm

I picked up info about the conservative proposals and I watched the first and second debate on this website.

Also the most recent polling is the next:

I really got fun with the debate we were involved the last friday, I learned more about UK and I practiced my oral skills.

My dream House

2010-04-15T12:09:00.001-07:00

Hello I have been practicing on elllo.org

This lesson was about describing the dream house for some people.

I answered a quizz and here is my result

Thinking about this I think my dream house is big and spacious like Cheryl's house, also it would have a colorfull room and a great garden !

That's all!

See you

How to survive a summer camp?

2010-04-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm applying to work in a summer camp so I was surfing on the net about summer camps and I found this interesting info.

There are 8 steps which help to you to survive in a summer camp:

Before you leave and go to the summer camp, give your adress to your friends so they could be sent to you some letters
Bring with you cool stuff like magazines or cards.
Pack extra flashlight batteries, socks and underwear, and funky items.
Take a disposal camera, then you won't be worry about it.
Don't be shy. Just say hi and introduce yourself.
Pay compliments
Voluntary for everything you can.
Don't panic if you start to feel a homesick, try to keep busy.

Finally, researches had demostrated that go to a camp can boost self-steem, increasing independence and improve social skills.

If you want to watch the video, here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDCxklsiwpo

That's all for today.

Listening practice TOEFL

2010-03-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hello, the last holyweek I had practiced my listening on the TOEFL cd and here are my results:

And also I had been practicing on structucture and grammar:

Practice-book-TOEFLtest

2010-03-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello, this morning I had been practicing my skills to improve my english. I practiced with the CD-ROM and this was the root:

Skill practice > Structure and written expression > Structure > Sentences with one clause (Skills- 1-5)

And finally here are the results:

Darling, you're absolutely imperfect

2010-03-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody. There was a homework, I needed to recording a news for practice my pronunciation. I was searching on the net and I found and interesting article tittled "Darling, you're absolutely imperfect" from telegraph.co.uk

The article is written by Jemima Lewis and talk about "Men may seek physical perfection, but women like a few flaws in their men"

Some phrasals that I have learned are:

Broadly speaking

Unkempt stubble

Soppy films

Slightly geeky

By these criteria

Reading glasses

Out of my sight

And finally I recorded my voice but the recording will be send to Seamus' email

English redaction

2010-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

I needed to write some paragraphs to apply to a summer camp and I'll record a video pretty soon.

This is my redaction:

Hello everybody, My name is Margarita Tobon, I'm nineteen years old almost twenty, I'm from mexico and I'm studing creation and development of enterprises at Tecnologico de Monterrey.
The goal of this video is to let you know a little bit of my life.
About my family. I have two sisters, Guadalupe the younger and Alma, the older, who has a baby, a little boy named Oscar that I really love to spent time with.
My parents are Alma and Antonio. I just can see them on weekends because the university is so far from my hometown, so In Puebla I live with some friends. I consider myself quite responsible because living without your family implies a lot of things to do alone like housekeeping, go to the supermarket, wash your clothes etc. But I think this is good because this help to you to take decisions by yourself and to be independient.
About my degree. I really love my degree because when I'll finish it I'll have my own enterprise and that means to create jobs and by the way to contribute to my country development.
At Tec. In my college I attend 3 special activities that I do, independently of study.
GETEC. Grupo de emprendedores del Tecnológico de Monterrey. This is a scholar group where some entrepreneurs get together and plan, organize and execute interesting projects for all students inside and outside Tec. For example, last semester we organized a lecture series entitled “breaking paradigms” in the society, politics, environment and business in order to open the mind to new ideas and overcome the limits.
Volleyball. I have been practicing volleyball since high school and right now I’m in the university team. I’m the middle back, so my role is to pass and defend the middle and the back of the court.I love this sport because for me, volleyball symbolizes the freedom in movement.
Dance. This semester I took a work-shop, where we learn to dance salsa and cumbia. There are 3 levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced, and I'm in the intermediate.
Finally, I think I'm an adventurous girl who always seeks new challenges and new routes on this journey of life.

February 12th. Activity

2010-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hey, how's going? Well the week almost has been finished and this is the last english class of it. Friday 3pm. I just came from a baseball game and I'm a little bit nervous about my next class, it's my first partial math exam! In another hand, at english class, Seamus asked for laptops and make questions about our doubts and here are some:

How long I need to write in my blog post?
How many times a week I should post?
Should I write all about my practice?
How can I find interesting widgets for my blog?
How can I be more organized to practice on time?
Is correct translate lyrics or just understand the phrases?

I think I don't have more questions so have a nice weekend and enjoy it with your family or if you have boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, make them happy everyday!

And finally...

♥♥♥ Happy Valentine's day ♥♥♥

P.s. Classroom 2304 needs dark curtains and more confortable chairs.

The busiest week.

2010-02-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hello, yeah I know I hadn't written nothing, but this week has been so hard. On monday we had the first oral presentation, I really studied my pronunciation and fluenty. I designed the slides in a uncommon way yet. I found the video and I liked a lot the part of "mybook & facespace" haha!

In another hand, I have been training my skill on reading trough english web pages, e.g. when I have a homework which needs a lot of investigate, I try to find information in english, is more confident, and I read and do my best to understand strange word only using the context.

Well, in class we are having the TOEFL test, Yesterday we did the listening and grammar part and today we'll answer the reading part.

Tomorrow I'll have 3 test! English Quizz, Math's exam and EVAP's exam.

See you!

Training in modal verbs

2010-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

Hello I have been training in a modal verbs turorial with my classmate Fanny. Here is the link. http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalintro.html

The experience of training in modal verbs is so hard, because I easily confuse with them, but well Fanny & me got a 85% in the modal final test :) Ok that's all for the moment. See you later.

The last 2 weeks

2010-01-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody, well I have been in class for 2 weeks and now I'll write down what I have been learning.

Types of words
· Nouns
· Verbs
· Adjetives
· Adverbs
· Prepositions
· Conjunctions
· Articles

TOEFL grammar common mistakes
· A missing a verb
· A missing a subject
· Extra verb or subject
· Form of a verb
· Pronouns
· S+V Agreement

Uncountable nouns
· Food
· Water
· Luck
· Sugar
· News
· Trouble

Strange words
Singular & Plural
Woman
women
Mouse
mice
Man
men
Fish
fish
Sheep
sheep
Goose
geese
Cactus
cacti
Octopus
octopi
Syllabus
syllabi
Wife
wives
Deer
deer

Expressions of quantity
…of_______
Some of
Half of
Most of
A lot of
All of

Problems listening
· Pronunciation
· Distractions
· Similar sounds
· Abbreviations
· Speed
· Phrases

What sounds are similar in English?

Beer
Bear
Bird
Beard
Bored
Bought
Berry
Very
Yellow
Jello
Shoe
Chew
Dog
Duck
This
These
Seek
Sick
Kiss
Keys
Thin
Tin
With
Wit
Thing
Think
Cop
Cope
Slop
Slope
Pop
Pope
Listening strategies
· Listening to 2nd speaker
· Synonyms, the same but in different words
· Key structure
And more... to be continued

The first one.

2010-01-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody, this semester has started in monday, january 11th and this is my first entry. I like English class so I´ll try to do my best in this blog progress journal.