Materials for English teaching Part 1

[squeamish05]

Well thanks you very much for your help. I will follow your advice and look at reviews. If in the meantime you find out about one that you think has all the qualities at a reasonable price, please let me know. I've been trawling through too many pages of projectors for them not to make sense any more : )

[squeamish05]

I notice you are using a MacPro, could you recommend a projector to use with it in class? Did you buy yours in SPain? Would you recommend it? What should I look for in a projector, or for small classes of 5, would you say i should get a larger screen?

cheers

[MadridTeacher]

@squeamish05 Hi, it's not a MacPro. It's a rather large MS laptop (Windows Vista), which died a couple of years ago. I wouldn't recommend it any longer to anyone w/o a car who wants to take it to classes, too bulky . . . the same goes for projectors and screens. An Ipad with a couple of tiny, good-quality speakers will do the job well enough for a small group if you're out in company and will connect to their projector with a connector. At home, a large HD TV does a better job more cheaply.

[MadridTeacher]

Responder a este vídeo... I've got 2 screens, a 2-meter wide one which is set up permanently on my living room wall, and a smaller, lighter one for in-company classes. I'd say get a larger one at home and a smaller one to take out to companies. But, as I said, schools should have some sort of set up already in place and any "classrooms" or "conference rooms" that you might use in-company should have something as well. The only problem then tends to be small groups in smaller offices.

[squeamish05]

@MadridTeacher thanks for that but I've just bought a MacBookPro after years of working with very old Macs. Now with all the type of materials I use in class I feel it would be better to get a projector. My classes are quite small, around 5 per class although I may have some bigger in company, but they do not have screens where I teach. Could you recommend a cheapish projector that would be suitable for arrying to classes. Cheers

[MadridTeacher]

@squeamish05 Mine's an ACER that I bought years ago, but everything's changed and I see incredibly cheap prices on Amazon UK now. I couldn't tell you which to choose. A lot of them look ok, especially the brands I recognize like Philips. If I were you, I'd look up each one on the internet by adding the word "review" to the full title of the product. The main problem with the cheapo projector's is their lack of brightness (or lumens, ansi lumens).

[allendod]

Im sure your qualfied to teach but wouldnt you think it would be better for your students if you yourself spoke English English instead of the sluring and mispronunciation that occurs when all Americans or Canadians open their mouths, You are not teaching English, you are teaching American. I know the basis is the same but especially if your teaching in Europe it should be with a British Accent . Just an observation :)

[MadridTeacher]

@allendod Nope. Don't agree at all. I don't favour one accent over any other, though I do love to listen to Cambridge/Oxford/BBC English - The Economist, audiobooks with British readers, etc. The sector in general tends to try to expose students to multiple accents by the way, so you're in a minority.

[PachugonG]

nice, I am aspiring to become and online teacher. I learn more here in your video, keep uploading new. nice. thanks.

[stephenarnquist]

You say "students will accept difficulty if it's interesting." That's so true. Finding what's interesting to them is so tough though, especially with kids. It seems like it's always either a huge success or a total failure.

[MadridTeacher]

I've heard the same thing from textbook authors at TESOL conferences. Just ask any given group about any particular text at all and you'll get a 50/50 like-dislike ratio. One author demonstrated this by showing 10-15 texts on the screen and asking for a show of hands from about 60 teachers. It was always a different 50/50 showing. You just can't please everyone, can you?!

[hssimen]

Hi, I am an english teacher in Borneo, the biggest island in Indonesia. You know that! The videos in this site are very interesting. And I think they are very useful to engage the students' motivation in studying english. Thanks.

[bnleez]

Just curious, what kind of video camera/software do you use to upload to YouTube?

[MadridTeacher]

MiniDV video camera plus Powerdirector.

[koreishite]

Hi!I'm an english teacher from Morocco but actually studying educational science in France.I wanted to start teaching english in france and I'd like to have an Idea of books that you're actually using for teaching as well as web sites that you use I heard you talk in one of your videos of a site called Harlly something. Thank you very much

[bnleez]

Thanks for sharing. Are there any copyright implications for using this material (primarily the video/audio)? Does this follow the "fair use" doctrine or some other similar doctrine that provides an exception to the copyright law?

[MadridTeacher]

You can't actually sell your work if you've used others' creations to put it together, IF their work is copyright. But, nobody gives individual English teachers a problem (in Spain) for using movies, music videos, CNN news clips, whatever, in their classes. We're in a grey area.

[cyberguerrilla]

Oh yeah, that magazine "Hot English". Do you have the physical magazine to use in class, or do you use the projector to show the students?

[MadridTeacher]

I usually either copy the section of the text I'm going to use to Photoshop, rearrange it as I need it, and print it off for the students, or I print off the corresponding activity from the teachers' pack that I receive. I also "loan" the students magazines (I give them a second one when I've gotten the first one back, but I find that no matter how well I try to explain the word "loan," they usually misunderstand it.)

[cyberguerrilla]

Thanks for this!