The lovely image above was made using the website Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds. I thought it might be useful for teachers using an IWB or data projector. Click on 'create' and add some text or even the url or Rss feed of a website to make a beautiful word cloud.

 Here are a couple of ideas for using Wordle in class:

1. Create your own Wordle using vocabulary you're about to teach and put it on your IWB flipchart or project it onto the wall to introduce the lesson.

2. Choose a song you'd like to do with your class. Get the lyrics from one of the many song lyric websites. (Click here for one I found earlier). Make a Wordle from the lyrics, add it to your IWB flipchart or project it. Ask your learners to guess what they think the song is going to be about by looking at the vocabulary. Below is a Wordle made from the David Bowie classic 'Changes'.

If you think of any more ways to use Wordle, let us know!

The front entrance of the Davis Campus, Sheridan Institute of Advanced Learning

We're very pleased to tell you that the Sheridan Institute of Advanced Learning has started using Macmillan English Campus. It was my pleasure to go over to Toronto, Canada to run two days of training for the Sheridan teachers on the 22nd and 23rd September, 2008.

Sheridan College provides full and part time English courses for adult students. Courses include English for Academic Purposes, Business English and General English. There are also a range of courses teaching English relating to Canadian culture. Seventeen of the Sheridan teachers attended for two days of MEC Basics, MEC in use and MEC Administration training. They are already familiar with using online resources and technology in the classroom, and the college is very well equipped with computer labs and data projectors, so we hope that MEC will prove to be a big success!

Thanks to everyone who came to the training for their friendliness and enthusiasm. We're looking forward to hearing how it goes with MEC at Sheridan.

UN balance of power tips against the West

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about how the West is losing its influence in the United Nations as emerging countries become more powerful.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out who these emerging countries are and why the West's influence is declining.

The beginning of September brought about an exciting opportunity for me to travel to Siberia. I was there to give a presentation to teachers from all around the Tyumen region in Northern Russia and also to train teachers from the Tyumen Teacher Training Institute.

The photo below shows me being interviewed by a local television company looking very serious I might add! It was brilliant to be able to give the presentation in such an amazing space with a huge screen.

After the presentation it was time for training in the Tyumen Teacher Training Institute.

Teacher trainees will be using the Campus and also their trainers. 

It was a great experience for me to meet all of the teachers and trainers in the Tyumen region and it was so nice to hear that some of them had travelled a long way to find out about MEC. It's fantastic that the Tyumen Teacher Training Institute has chosen Macmillan English Campus for their English training program and I wish them all a great start to their academic year.

Do you like a challenge?

Would you like to win your class five Macmillan readers?

We are holding a competition for all teachers using Macmillan English Campus.

We have uploaded an image and some text from one of our News Items onto Voicethread and would like your learners to leave their comments. The best comments from a class win five Macmillan Readers!

If you've never heard of voicethread before click here.  

All of the instructions are written on our Voicethread slide show. To access it all you have to do is send us your name and the email address you'd like us to send the voicethread link to and we'll send you an invitation. The competition ends at 5.30pm on October 31st 2008.

Here is one way you can use the competition with your class:

 ·         Have a look at the voicethread and familiarise yourself with the commenting tool.

 ·         To leave a comment you need to click on comment at the bottom of the voicethread and it  will give you two options. Click on either type or record. If you choose type you can write in your comment and if you choose record you can record your comment but only if you have a microphone.

 ·         Before your computer lab lesson pre-teach your learners vocabulary from the News Item in the competition.

 ·          Take your learners into the computer lab and encourage them to think about their answers and what comments they'll make.

 ·          Finally have lots of fun typing or recording comments, remembering to mention what school or class you are from.

 ·         If it's good you might find yourself with a brand new set of Macmillan readers.

We look forward to reading your comments!

One giant leap as freerunning joins the sporting establishment

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about freerunning, a new sport becoming popular in Britain, which has just held its first world championships.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out about freerunning and its origins.

You could also direct learners to YouTube where there is lots of footage of freerunning. Learners can simply type 'freerunning' into the YouTube search engine to find it.

Grammar is often seen as the most boring part of learning a language. However hard students study they still make errors when they attempt to use the language in context.

I found a very interesting grammar exercise on esl.about.com which is a fantastic resource site. In the link below you can find a couple of popular quotes made by George W. Bush. The quotes can be used during a warm-up or practice stage. Simply, give the quotes to your students and ask them to try and find grammar or vocabulary mistakes.

It is a great chance for students to experience real language in real context.

Have a look around the site by clicking on the link below as it is full of Bushisms.

esl.about.com - Bushisms

Also, why not check out our American English vs British English resources on MEC. Below are just a few of them.

• British v American English: verb and tense use - Grammar Reference Unit
• British v American English: vocabulary - Grammar Reference Unit
• British v American English: spelling - Grammar reference Unit 

August was a busy month for the training team. I was lucky enough to spend the end of it in Russia training teachers from Denis' school and Talisman.