a weekend task

Hello,

I'd like to ask the students who were present on Wednesday to write a summary of what we did in class for those who didn't attend. Can you consider the following questions:

• What did we discuss in class? What ideas did we agree on? Did we have a difference of opinion on any of the items we discussed?
• What are the homework tasks?
• Summarise the projects that students are advised to take part.
• Describe how you felt during the lesson. What did you find useful/not so useful?
• Any other comments you'd like to make.

Thank you!

And have a nice weekend!

KEEP BLOGGING!

ralitza

How to be English

Hi there everyone,

Here is an interesting video, if you want to be 'english' and take part in our favourite national pass-time of making and drinking tea!

If you want to upload a video from youtube, you just need to copy the HTML under the word 'embed' - written in grey, to the right of the video and under the name of the person. When you compose your blog message, click on Edit Html (next to compose) and paste.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any problems. I look forward to seeing some of your favourite videos uploaded soon!

Jemma

possible writing topics

Hi again,

What topics would you like us to discuss here? Here are some suggestions:

• Language topics/skills/tips
• Hobbies, interests
• Cultural Issue (i.e. What doesn't the West know about the Arabs?, What does it mean to be an Arab?)
• Things we like, Personal topics (the list is vast here)
• Abstract ideas (i.e. What is happiness for you? What are the lessons of life one should learn?( is this abstract, by the way?))
• Poems ( a favourite poem, why?)
• Talking points (issues from the news)

Add your suggestions and let's blog!

Warm regards,
ralitza

podcasts

Hi everyone,

I continue with the discussion of online resources that are available for language learners. I'd like to remind you of the listening project I posted last week and ask you to revisit the elllo site and post a comment on how useful you think it is for you.

Something else that you can do to improve your listening skills is to listen to podcasts.

Podcasts are audio (usually mp3 files) or video files published via the internet and designed to be listened or watched on a portable mp3 player of any type or a personal computer.

This is a tutorial on how to use iTunes to get podcast. It is done by Russell Stannard, who is a principal lecturer in Multimedia/ICT at the University of Westminster.

Listen to the tutorial. What do you think of the idea? Post your comment.

Regards,
ralitza

Defibrillator

(Automatic Defibillatoes)pic

Before few days I took one course of First Aid I find this course interesting that it had a lot of things one of these things was the Defibrillator .
Dose any one know what it is?
I think all of you know it, u have seen it may be in TV or some may seen it in the Hospitals.
This is my topic the Defibrillator Machine, the machine that saves people life
Let me first tell you about how the heat is working:-

The heart's electrical system causes the heart to beat, controls the heart rate (the number of beats per minute) and has special pathways (conduction pathways)
That carry the lower heart chambers (ventricles) for each heartbeat.
When heart cells in the upper heart chambers (atria) receive an electrical signal
They con-tract (pump) and then relax.
The blood from the atria is pumped into the relaxed lower heart chambers (ventricles)
And then passes down to the ventricles , causing them to contract and pump blood to
the body.

Types of Defibrillators

1) Automatic Defibrillators ( AED) are lightweight defibrillators units that are powered by micropro- cessors.
A computerized voice instructs the opera-tor to place two electrodes/pads on the
Patient's chest .
The device analyzes the heart rhythm and decides if a shook is necessary
The micrporoces- sor will not permit the device to deliver a shock un-less it detects the presence of the heart rhythm that requires defibrillation .Emergency medical personnel and lay personnel traditionally use these

2) Manual Defibrillators
Are defibrillators monitors that provide therapeutic and diagnostic functions
They are traditionally used by emergency trained medical personnel in Critical Care Units, intensive Care Units and Operating Rooms as well as EMT-Paramedics in the pre- hospital setting .
The defibrillators unit may be used as a ECG bedside monitor . it can document date /time , heart rate, instrument status and critical shook parameters as well as offer preset patient alarms and measure SpO2 as part of patient monitoring.

I find this devices interesting thing to talk to you about because it saved and still saving allot of people life till this day I like to tell you one story that happened in one of the cities in the USA

One day one lady was driving in her car like every day and at the same time there was one person who was deriving at the same rood as this lady but this person was on his way to work he was doing a Promotion for this Device , this lady stopped her car she was having a heart Attack this man Stopped to help her , he used this Device the Defibrillators and it really helped this lady then the unbalance arrived and the lady was rescued because of the help of this man and this device.

Another story says , one retired complex that people in the USA live after they retire , the people where dieing before the Unbalance arrives so they donate some money to make I device that can help them so they invented for them this Automatic Defibrillators its easy to use at emergency time.

I hope you all liked my topic and find it interesting and you can find the Defibrillators in the mall and the airports in USA, I hope all of you can take this interesting course you can learn in it a lot of useful thing that can help you and you can help the other pepole when they need your help you will know what to do.

ididnt use any web pages in this topic .

I Used one Book ;First (fundamentals of lmmediate Response Support Training)Hamad Medical Cororation (Hamad International Training Center) only to get from them how the heart is working and the types of the Defibrillator

Fatina

listening project

Hi again,

Further to today's lesson, here is an outline of the listening project. Visit the English Language Listening Lab Online site:

http://www.elllo.org/

Here is a short description (you can find it on the elllo site in the ABOUT tab)

ELLLO stands for English Language Listening Lab Online. It is a collection of over 1,000 listening activites that students can view free via the internet. Most listening activites come with a downloadable MP3 audio file, transcipt and interactive quiz. ELLLO offers a variety of listening activities that each target a specific listening skill, need or interest. See below:


Weekly Updates
Weekly Updates occur each Monday. On average there are at least five new listening activities each week. Activities are numbered for easy reference. Currently, the listening activities include interviews, newscasts, surveys (Mixer), songs, presentations (Talking Points), and listening games. Read below for details about each one:

Interviews
Interviews are natural conversations with various speakers of English that offer multiple listening options. Students can listen to a variety of English that is harder to find in more traditionally scripted textbooks. Also, unlike podcasts and other listening sites, ELLLO interviews contains rich images that help listeners follow the topic of the converation.

Listening Game
Listening Games can help students listen for gist. Students can listen to audio about a topic and choose the picture that matches the audio. There is very little reading. The listening games are designed for beginning students and for students who want to listen for fun and enjoyment. The object of the games it to reach the end of the listening activity.

Mixer
Mixer is a survey that features six different speakers answering the same question. Students can easily follow the topic and compare the various responses. Each speaker's segment comes with two questions that appear at the end of the audio segment to develop test taking skills.

News Center
News Center is an animated newscast. Each Newscast has six stories. For each story, students can try to answer questions about each news story. Newscenter can help students learn academic English and develop test taking skills for standardized listening tests such as TOEFL®, TOEIC® and IELTS®.

Songs
Songs are a great way to learn English. ELLLO contains some great songs by independent artists. As the students listen, the words are displayed on the screen so students can catch the lyrics (words to the song). Listening and reading the lyrics is a great way to improve grammar, pronunciation, reading speed, reading by chunks and common slang and idioms.


Task A) Check out what is available on the site and post your thoughts on how useful you think it is for you. Give details of which recordings you've listened to, what new vocabulary you've learnt, what is your reaction to the variety of accents and opinions presented.

After you have tried out the different options (Interviews, Mixer, News Centre, Songs) check out the LINKS and choose one more listening site.

Task B) Write a short report of what activities the other students can find on that site (provide link and short description) and give your personal recommendation.

It's keep listening now!

Warm regards,
ralitza

mid-course evaluation

Dear Student,

We are half way through the course and it seems the right time to take stock of the things we've done for the first four weeks.

Could you post a short self-evaluation of your commitment and work? You can consider the following questions:

• Have you been attending lessons regularly?
• Have you been participating in class actively?
• Have you been reading and contributing to the blog?
• Have you started your individual thread?
• Do you regularly comment on other students' posts?
• Do you use the New Cutting Edge CD-Rom as a self-study tool?
• How much do you self-study outside the classroom?
• How much extra work do you do to improve your English?

Use the scale from 1-10 (1 -for very poor, 10- for excellent) to evaluate your:

Attendance
Participation
Homework and extra work
Motivation
Blogging

Use the same scale to evaluate your:

Grammar
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking

What skill/skills do you need to work more on? What are you planning to do to improve it/them?

Regards,
ralitza