Sunday, August 26, 2012

What is Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley has become synonymous with the High tech bubble.  Many of the most successful names in the Internet are located there.  go to this blog post to find out more

 http://www.live-english.net/blog/traveling/what-is-silicon-valley/

Have fun the last day of summer vacation!

Rachael Alice
I am still available for haircuts this week!
call 052-750-0608
www.travelinghairsalon.weebly.com 

Saturday, August 25, 2012

New Children's Story looking for publisher!

Here is a new children's story, hot off the press, or shall we say from the pencil and paper.

http://rachaelorbach.weebly.com/cat-stories.html

This is only a sample, mind you.  The whole book is 28 pages long full of cat adventures.

I am actively looking for a publisher!

Any and all leads that don't involve self publishing are appreciated.

Thanks,

Rachael Alice
www.travelinghairsalon.weebly.com
052-750-0608

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Primary School System in Israel

Now that the school year is about to begin, we need to find out about how the primary school system works.

If you are just coming on Aliyah, this is very important information.
I was really green about this and I didn't know anything.  But now after being here for 20 years, I can tell you   a thing or two about it.

Here is a blog post about it:
 http://www.live-hebrew.net/online/the-primary-school-system-in-israel/

Good luck for the coming school year!

Rachael Orbach 

CAE English Achievement tests

The CAE English test is a high level test used by universities and the job market to gauge the English level of their candidates.  The test has many parts.  In this blog, you can find out about the English in Use part.

http://www.live-english.net/blog/english-exam/cae-use-of-english-section/

Good luck on the test!

Rachael  

Thursday, August 16, 2012

How to correct bad spelling

Lets face it.  Spelling in the modern world is getting worse.   Even with spell checker, many times the student chooses a wrong word just because it looks right.  But they don't know the meaning of the word, so it doesn't fit into the sentence!

I came across an old book written in 1918, by David M. Roth

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24648168M/Roth_memory_course?v=2

Here is a lesson about spelling, sometimes old can be good!

He takes some words that are commonly misspelled, and have the student practice them in a different way than we usually do.

There are two ways that we can do this:
First we take the word that has a letter that we don't usually hear:

Privilege:  The letter i people usually don't hear and spell it with an e.

So how do you practice spelling this?
You make the i bigger.

privilege  This is much easier when you are working with a pen rather than on computer,
Write the word this way five times. Then test yourself the next day, writing the word regular.
See if you can spell it correctly!

Another way is to make the i a different color.
privilege  this also works better when writing by hand.
Write it five times , test yourself the next day to see if you can spell it correctly.

If you are teaching in a class,
Have the student keep a personal spelling dictionary of words that the student has had trouble spelling.
Have the student practice spelling the word, using one of these techniques.

I'm in the process of reading this Memory Course, and as I have other insights, I'll write a post about them so you can use them for yourself and in your classroom.

Till next time,

Rachael Orbach
www.rachaelorbach.weebly.com




Thursday, August 9, 2012

Vacationing during the summer

If you are like me, then you like to get away during the summer when it is very hot here in Israel.

There are many places to go where you can use your English.  I like to return to where I grew up in Los Angeles.

I have wonderful memories of Disneyland, rollerskating up and down Santa Monica Beach, playing First chair in the Santa Monica Symphonic Band, One time I was late to the performance which was on the boardwalk,  I parked in the tall parking garage, put money in the meter (not enough as it turns out) and put on my purple rollerskates, that just happened to match my dress, and pelted through the streets with my clarinet in the backpack.  I got there just as the Band Director had almost given up.  They left me a seat on the edge, so I saw my seat, rolled down the incline, grabbed the clarinet, put it together and the Director, Wally Umber nodded at me as I had the reed on the mouthpiece and we began to play.  Such memories of California!

Here is a blog post of places to visit in California if you are making plans, don't miss these!
http://www.live-english.net/blog/traveling/visiting-california/

If you want to stay in Israel there are lots of places to go up North!
http://www.live-hebrew.net/online/going-up-north/

Rachael Orbach - Get ready for your next job interview!
www.lifecoachjerusalem.weebly.com
lifecoachjerusalem@gmail.com
052-7500608

Baby Shark Game like Hangman. . .

This is an example of how I played the game today with a student:  You can print this or play it using Zoom! I think of a word from the less...