Last week you may have seen Sarah's posting on our big day out at EmbassyCES, Deptford filming ourselves teaching lessons using MEC on an IWB.

We had a great time and would like to say a big 'Thankyou' to EmbassyCES for letting us borrow their students for the morning, and also to the students themselves.

Sarah had a bit more footage of her lesson than I did, but a summary of my IWB lesson is below. I hope it gives you a few ideas for using MEC on the IWB in your school. Please excuse the shaky camera work…

Lesson using MEC on an IWB

Resources:  The MEC News Item 'Nanotechnology could be used in food' and the Listening Activity 'Food and Nutrition'

Language: Food vocabulary

Skills: Reading, listening and speaking

Level: Upper-intermediate

Age: Adult

Part 1

I began this lesson with a quick warmer and then I showed the class photos of different types of food on the IWB. I'd taken these directly from the internet by searching in Google images. I elicited the food vocabulary from the learners and then elicited whether each food was healthy or unhealthy. Then I asked learners to discuss with a partner two foods they hated, two foods they loved, and why. Each pair reported back to the class.

Here you see the learners talking about food. I think they were enthusiastic because it was the lesson before lunch!

Here's some feedback from a few individual students.

Part 2

The second part of the lesson was to introduce the learners to the MEC News Item. I showed them the picture that goes with the News Item and asked them to guess what it was about. Then I gave everyone a printed copy of the News Item and asked them to read it. They had 5-10 minutes to do this.

Once learners had read and understood the News Item I asked them to put the article away and look at the activity on the board. As a class I showed them sections of the News Item with key vocabulary blocked out. I asked for a different volunteer to read each paragraph out loud, filling in the missing word when they came to it. Each missing word had a definition at the bottom of the screen to help them work out the answers. Any words they didn't understand we looked up on the board together using MEDO. You can see them having a go in the clip below.

And here's a vocabulary revelation.

For the final activity we opened up the MEC level 5 listening activity 'Food and Nutrition'. As a class we listened to the information about the nutrients found in different foods. Then the learners volunteered to come up and choose the correct options from the list of vitamins and nutrients. This was a great activity for the IWB as they just had to tap the correct answers with their finger. The rest of the class fed back on whether they agreed or disagreed with the choice and as a class we got MEC to instantly mark the activity.

To round up I asked the learners to discuss the 'Food for thought' questions from the News Item in pairs, then we had a group discussion on the feedback from each pair. It was a fun lesson and all the easier to do for having the whiteboard there to make the group activities really interactive. By the time the bell went everyone was famished!

Add Forvo as a Web Link to your MEC site and send it to your learners. They could use it as an extra resource when completing their MEC Pronunciation Activities. There are 156 to choose from.

Belgium to split in two?

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about the possible separation of Belgium into two different countries.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out why this might be happening.

August word games

This month's Witch's Pot topics are 'types of film' (Easy), 'words or expressions from crime headlines' (Average) and 'words or expressions relating to music' (Difficult).

The Swamp Disaster topics are 'vehicles' (Easy), 'words preceded by ''at''' (Average) and 'abstract nouns' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'places where people live' (Easy), 'verbs that can be used in different situations instead of 'say'' (Average) and 'ways of speaking' (Difficult).

There are new Crosswords and Bridge Builders at all levels too.

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

Quite a few users have been emailing in and asking about pen pal services. I found this great website called epals. Their motto says it all 'where learners connect'.

If you're teaching a distance learning course you could use this to stay in contact with your learners. Epals also gives learners the opportunity to practise languages and make new friends from across the world. MEC users could stay in touch using epals, compare notes and give advice on the resources they have found most useful.

Having won various awards it's updated fairly often and there are some interesting news articles on members and their activities. Best of all, its free!

Here in the training department we're always encouraging teachers to use MEC in class. With more and more classrooms equipped with IWBs or projectors we think there's no excuse for shying away from technology in the classroom.

Even as I write this blog posting I can hear the cries of millions of teachers worldwide.

'Yes I’d like to use technology in the classroom, but how? Give me some ideas!'

That's why Steph and I went to EmbassyCES, London to film some demo lessons using MEC and an IWB.

We had a lovely time and have posted a few of the videos below. You can also see a description of our lesson plan. We hope it gives you food for thought and inspires you to send us your own ideas for using MEC in class.

As you're about to discover we're not experts at holding a camera so please excuse the shaky screen and unusual camera moves.

Holiday Lesson using an IWB and MEC listening activity 'Holidays'

Language - Superlatives

Level - Intermediate

Part 1

I began this lesson by showing the class three photos. Each photo represented a past holiday and what I thought of it. For example the first photo was of Tulum in Mexico and represented 'the most beautiful place I've ever been to'. I elicited the superlative from the class and then uncovered it on the whiteboard. I repeated this for three photos and elicited the three superlatives below.

most beautiful

most exciting

most frightening

I asked the learners to make questions out of these superlatives and wrote them on the board.

Part 2

The second part of the lesson was to get the learners talking in pairs using superlatives. I showed the class a slide on the IWB with three questions from a MEC resource they would do later (I didn't tell them this). The learners copied the questions and I gave them instructions to ask each other the questions and make notes.

After five to ten minutes the learners sat back down and we spoke about some of the answers they had given. It was a great way of getting to know the learners, hearing some interesting stories and an opportunity to make sure they were using superlatives correctly.

Part 3

At this point I wanted to introduce learners to some vocabulary they would be listening to in a MEC exercise so I uncovered each word from the IWB using the eraser tool and elicited the meaning. I also asked learners to say the words out loud in order to check their pronunciation.

Finally I opened the MEC listening resource Holidays on the IWB and we listened as a class. Learners had to match the speaker to one of the three questions discussed earlier. We listened to each speaker twice then the learners compared their answers with the person next to them. We listened a final time and I got them to tell me what they thought the answers were.

I hope that was useful and it has inspired you to teach a class using an IWB and MEC. Next week we will be posting Steph's demo lesson from our day at EmbassyCES, London.

Trade not aid?

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about ethical fashion and a new trend of helping people in poorer countries through business opportunities.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out more.

You could also direct students to the website of the organization mentioned in the news item:

Soul of Africa

Online testing is now available with Macmillan English Campus

Macmillan English Campus can now be used as a testing tool as well as an online practice environment with the major addition of the new Test Compiler. This fantastic new resource enables you to compile and publish tests to your students under exam conditions, using specially created new content.

Containing 650 entirely new exercises, with over 6,500 individual questions, the Test Compiler increases the volume of Campus content by over 20%. What's more, these new exercises are not accessible to students until they are formally set as a test by the school or you, the teacher. This extensive resource will be an invaluable tool for progress testing.

New exam content

In addition to the Test Compiler, upcoming changes to the CAE and FCE syllabuses are reflected in the English Campus this month, as part of our ongoing commitment to new publishing. There are 41 completely new exam practice materials and all other resources have been rewritten to match the updated exams.

There are also another 100 new English Campus exercises across the Cambridge ESOL suite of exams.

Training users

The English Campus training department is organising online training sessions on the Test Compiler for existing users. You can find details on www.connect2mec.com. There will be Test Compiler clinics running throughout August, September and October.

The British English Test Compiler is available now: the American English version will be published on 25 August, in time for the new academic year.

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If your question isn't answered above or if you would like to know more about the English Campus email us at englishcampus@macmillan.com

Spoilt for choice?

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about behavioural economics. Behavioural economists are demonstrating that many traditional economic theories may not reflect how people behave.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out more.