(1) A TALE OF THREE TURTLES

A dear SHARER from Brazil, John F. Anderson, english@elogica.com.br sends us this nice story . Ideal for young learners with a pre-intermediate level of competence. And probably for not so very young learners to put their higher thinking skills into action : reading between the lines ? is there a moral ? what is it ? what values are at stake ? . Here it goes (longish but we did not want to change a single line) :

THREE TURTLES

Three turtles, Joe, Steve, and Raymond, decide to go on a picnic. So Joe packs the picnic basket with cookies, bottled sodas, and sandwiches. The trouble is, the picnic site is 10 miles away, so the turtles take 10 whole days to get there. By
the time they do arrive, everyone`s exhausted.
Joe takes the stuff out of the basket, one by one. He takes out the sodas and says, `Alright, Steve, gimme the bottle opener.`
`I didn`t bring the bottle opener,` Steve says. `I thought you packed it.`Joe gets worried. He turns to Raymond. `Raymond, do you have the bottle opener?`
Naturally, Raymond doesn`t have it, so the turtles are stuck ten miles away from home without soda. Joe & Steve beg Raymond to turn back home and retrieve it, but Raymond flatly refuses, knowing that they`ll eat everything by the time he gets back.
After about two hours, the turtles manage to convince Raymond to go, swearing on their great-grand turtles` graves that they won`t touch the food.
So, Raymond sets off down the road, slow and steadily. Twenty days pass, but no Raymond. Joe and Steve are hungry and puzzled, but a promise is a promise.
Another day passes, and still no Raymond, but a promise is a promise. After three more days pass without Raymond in sight, Steve starts getting restless. `I NEED FOOD!` he says with a hint of dementia in his voice.
`NO!` Joe retorts. `We promised.`Five more days pass. Joe realizes that Raymond probably skipped out to the diner down the road, so the two turtles
weakly lift the lid, get a sandwich, and open their mouths to eat.
But then, right at that instant, Raymond pops out from behind a rock, and says, `Just for that, I`m not going.`

(2) PLANNING TO GO ON A DIET ?

A dearest SHARER Andrea Coviella acoviella@sion.com sent me this set of rules just in case I decided to diet. Although I´m quite happy about my three digits I appreciate Andrea´s advice and I will put that into practice if I ever decide to make pretend I´m on a diet (as I always say, eating less than what I do now would simply be fasting and I haven´t got the slightest intention of becoming a fakir)

10 Diet Rules for Cheaters at Heart

1. If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no
calories.

2. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in
the candy bar are cancelled out by the diet soda.

3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if
you don't eat more than they do.

4. Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, such as hot
chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake.

5. If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look
thinner.

6. Movie related foods (Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior
Mints, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) do not have additional
calories because they are part of the entertainment package
and not part of one's personal fuel.

7. Cookie pieces contain no fat--the process of breaking
causes fat leakage.

8. Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if
you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are
peanut butter on a knife making a sandwich and ice cream on a
spoon making a sundae.

9. Foods that have the same color have the same number of
calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream;
mushrooms and white chocolate.

NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted
for any other food color.

10. Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories
are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and
Popsicles.

(3) LAURA´ S WORKSHOP ON DISCOURSE

By a most unfortunate mistake, this announcement that should have been published in our last issue, only sees the light today. Our sincere apologies to the organizers and especially to our SHARERS who might miss this opportunity.

A dear SHARER and neighbour, Laura Renart will be conducting a workshop entitled "Dealing with Discourse" today May 13th from ):30 to 12:00 at T.S.Eliot L.N. Alem 1380, Banfield.

The event is organized jointly by the Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Buenos Aires and T. S. Eliot Bilingual Studies, a prestigious language school in Banfield of which Laura Renart and Claudia Ferradás Moi are co-directors

This workshop is aimed at looking at concepts of discourse analysis and their implications for classroom use. Activities will be geared to raising awareness of the differences between spoken English and classroom language from the earliest stages of learning. Authentic video and audio material will illustrate techniques. For further information ( and why not asking for a "repeat session" ?) phone T.S. Eliot Institute 4202-3672 or e-mail them at tseliot@interserver.com.ar or the Buenos Aires Association at apiba99@yahoo.com .

(4) CLOUD- CUCKOO-LAND ?

What does this mean ? If you do not know and you want to know, there are two things you can do (a) read the definition below (b) Subscribe A WORD A DAY for free and receive daily information about words and phrases like this one.

Super Service complete with ethymology, context of use and recorded pronunciation ! A site to SHARE :

cloud-cuckoo-land (KLOUD-koo-koo-land) noun

An idealized, illusory domain of imagination; cloudland.

[Translation of Greek Nephelokokkygia, the realm which separates the gods
from mankind in Aristophanes' The Birds.]

"South African President Thabo Mbeki's New Year message to Africans to aim
for the stars in the new millennium, in line with his vision of an African
renaissance, also castigated the West for largely ignoring Africa's
problems of debts, disease and wars. But his vision, unless backed up by
the essential nitty-gritty from the United Nations and other countries, is
somewhere off in cloud-cuckoo-land. The explosion of AIDS is systematically wiping out Africa's best doctors, lawyers, lecturers, economists and businesspeople."
Michael Kibaara Muchiri, "Will Annan finally put out Africa's fires?,"
Jakarta Post, Mar 6, 2000.

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/cloud-cuckoo-land.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/cloud-cuckoo-land.ram

To Subscribe send a blank message with Subject line as "subscribe" to wsmith@wordsmith.org.

(5) FAAPI 2000 : HEADING SOUTH IN GOOD COMPANY

We asked our dear SHARER Susana Berutti from Advice Bookshop in Santa Fé to send us more details about the ADVICE Group Trip ( they call it " The South also exists..." ) to Comodoro Rivadavia to attend FAAPI 2000. Susana writes :

Services included :

* Transfer Santa Fé- Buenos Aires- Santa Fé

* Plane ticket Buenos Aires - Comodoro Rivadavia - Buenos Aires

* Transfer in/out airport- hotel

* 3 nights in a 3-star hotel (double or triple room) - plus continental breakfast. * 2 daily transfers hotel-Congress venue and viceversa

* Permanent Coordinator during the trip

Fees $ 350 + $ 39 (airport taxes) .

If you join the group from Buenos Aires, $ 300 + $ 39 (airport taxes).

Forms of Payment :

(a) 5 instalments (without interest) full payment before trip.

(b) $ 100 down payment and the rest in instalments without interests to be cancelled before the trip.

(c) Instalments to cover 40 % of the total amount before the trip and the remainder in up to 12 instalments (consult the travel agent´s for interests)

For additional information contact :

ADVICE Bookshop- San Martín 3031- Santa Fe - TE : 0342- 4533392

e- mail mailto:advicebs@ssdfe.com.ar or

LUCAT Turismo - Eva Perón 2714 - Santa ´Fe - TE : 0342-455800 -

e- mail lucat@arnet.com.ar

(6) DO GOOD ANYWAY

A dear SHARER from Villa Ramallo in the province of Buenos Aires, Leonor Salazar , leosar@arnet.com.ar writes to us :

Dear Omar,

I´m your friend from Villa Ramallo and I want to congratulate you and Marina for your `SHARE´. We enjoy it a lot : me and my pupils at school. I`ve really found a great tool for my work. I wanted to say Thank you and to contribute a little poem that a good friend sent to me from South. California . I copied and put on the wall of my office for my kids to read. Today I want to SHARE it with you :

People are unreasonable, illogical and self centered.

Love them anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

Honestly and frankness will make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

Leonor adds a touch of humour to this ,she says : " I don´t know who wrote this but he could make a good writer of tango lyrics, don´t you think ?" Thank you, Leonor for your contribution, your support and your friendship and keep on doing us all a world of good !

(7) FIFTH BIENNIAL SEMINAR IN PARANA

Estela Gambelin, Director of the American English Institute of Paraná writes to us to announce their Fifth Biennial Seminar to be held at Circulo Hotel, Belgrano 157, Parana from Thursday 8th through Saturday 10th of June.

The Seminar has the sponsorship of San Diego State University, California, USA In its previous editions ( 92 - 94- 96- 98) this Seminar had official recognition from Ministerio de Cultura y Educacion de Entre Rios which the organizers have already requested for this edition.

The Theme of the Seminar will be : TEACHING WITH THE BRAIN IN MIND and a number of lecturers have already confirmed their participation :

Maria de los Angeles Enrique and Andrea Etchelouz.

Universidad Adventista del Plata

Developing the Eight Intelligences in the Classroom

Suzanna Fuentes:

San Diego State University, Cal. USA
Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills in the E.S.L. Classroom

Enhancing Literacy Skills with Children’s Books and Videos

Alicia Gambelín:

Fulbright and British Council Scholar
British and American English: The Realm of Feelings and Emotions

Estela Gambelin de Gomez:

Instituto de Educación Superior de Paraná

Ministerio de Educación de la Nación RFFDC

Teaching with the Brain in Mind

Susan Hillyard:

INSPT de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional

IES en Lenguas Vivas Juan R Fernandez

Strategic Interaction

Write On!

Omar Villarreal
INSPT de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional

Macmillan Heinemann ELT

Centro de Pedagogías de Anticipación del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Cognition, Learning & the Construction of an Educational Technology

Text Tackling Techniques: Using Your Brain

Oriel Villagarcía:

M.A. University of Lancaster

Visualize to Learn

Fees : students $ 30 and $ 35 if they register after May 31st, 2000.

teachers $ 35 and $ 40 if they register after May 31st 2000.

For enrolment and further information, telephone 0343-4315018 or e-mail the organizers at americaneng@infovia.com.ar .

(8) DON´T CALL ME DUMB !

Why overusing a word when there are many other ways to refer to the same concept ? A very dear SHARER from Catamarca, José Luís García jlg@alumbrera.com.ar sends us this most interesting list to prevent abuse of the lexical item in question :

NICE EXPRESIONS TO DESCRIBE DUMB PEOPLE

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

A few clowns short of a circus.

A few fries short of a Happy Meal.

A few Cokes short of a six-pack.

A few peas short of a casserole.

The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.

One taco short of a combination plate.

A few feathers short of a whole duck.

All foam, no beer.

The cheese slid off his cracker.

Couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.

He fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

An intellect rivaled only by garden tools.

As smart as bait.

Chimney's clogged.

Doesn't have all his dogs on one leash.

Forgot to pay his brain bill.

Her sewing machine's out of thread.

His belt doesn't go through all the loops.

No grain in the silo.

Proof that evolution CAN go in reverse.

In the pinball game of life, his flippers were a little further apart than most.

(9) A SIG FOR HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION

Analia Kandel, APIBA Special Interest Grouups Liaison Officer, <apibasigs@hotmail.com> writes to us to announce the first meeting of APIBA´s

SIG on History and Civilization.

This SIG will be coordinated by Cristina Bardeci and Paula Lopez Cano and its

first meeting is schedulled to take place on Thursday, 8 June, from 19:00 to 21:00 hours at IES en Lenguas Vivas "J. R Fernández", Av. Carlos Pellegrini 1515, Buenos Aires

APIBA members or members of any other FAAPI Association as well students from College can participate free of charge. All others: $10 per session.

Please confirm attendance at apibasigs@hotmail.com.

Like New York ( or Calle Corrientes, for that matter) , APIBA´s Executive Committee never sleep ! Congratulations and Keep it up !

(10) A MESSAGE FOR THE ELT PROFESSIONAL

A dear SHARER and respected colleague Nicolas Ridley, nicridley@etprofessional.com writes to us with details of his excellent magazine for the ELT practicioner, ENGLISH TEACHING profesional (ETp) . He says :

" ETp is a quarterly magazine for teachers of English worldwide. It was first
published in October 1996 and now has subscribers in more than 120
countries.

ETp aims to be practical, professional, personal ... and accessible !
Our focus is on practical classroom issues more than the purely academic. We hope that what the reader reads today in ETp will make some difference
to his/her professional (and personal?) life tomorrow, next week, next month
and next year.

Our contributors include many of the best-known names in the world of ELT
We also publish a range of contributions from practising classroom teachers
with experience to share.

Our aim is to be international and inclusive. We are independent in terms of ownership, approach and philosophy. We try to reflect and respond to the varied needs and interests of our audience. Our 'strapline' is "This is your magazine" and our readers frequently play this theme back to us (which is very gratifying)
We often say "If teaching English is your profession, ENGLISH TEACHING
professional" is your magazine. "

Omar is going to meet Nic at the Santa Fé Congress and maybe... there will be a

surprise for all SHARERS after that meeting. We´ll keep you posted !

In the meantime, if you needed additional information contact Nic Ridley at nicridley@etprofessional.com or visit the English Teaching Professional

website : < etprofessional.com >

(11) TWO WISECRACKS

"Dogs come when they're called. Cats take a message and get back to you"
Missy Dizick

"A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."
Nancy Reagan

Lecturer : Patricia E. Gómez

Lecturer in Language I and in Children's Literature at INSPT de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Co-Editor of the magazine "English Teaching in Action". Former Coordinator of the English Dept , Lange Ley School. Drama Teacher and Actress.

Fee : Morning Session: $ 5.- Afternoon Session : $ 15.- Morning session is free if you attend the afternoon session

CLASSROOM ENGLISH

A hands-on workshop for both trainees and experienced teachers, which will examine the authentic language of classroom management from the straightforward conducting of a lesson to dealing with discipline problems.

Lecturer : Professor Alfredo Jaeger

Lecturer in Language and English Literature, I.E.S. Lenguas Vivas "Juan Ramón Fernandez" . Former Head of Department, Instituto Nacional Superior del Profesorado Técnico.

Saturday, June 24, 2000 from 14:30 to 17:30 hours

Fee: $20 - ( College Students: $15 )

Enrolment is now open at T.E.L. Center, Thames 511, Office Hours: Monday to Friday 15:30 to 20:30 hours , Phone/Fax 4856-0020, E-mail : telcenter@infovia.com.ar . Deadline for enrolment : 2 days before each event.

(13) VALUES IN ACTION

Our friend and SHARER , Ricardo Sampedro, director of the Teacher Training Project "Education for a Change" writes to us, to announce his next presentations

"Social Values in the Classroom" by Ricardo Sampedro

June 3, Mendoza, 9:30 to 13:00,

at Instituto Cultural de Mendoza

June 18, Tucuman, 14:00 to 15.30,

within Jornadas del NOE organised by Instituto Superior "Lola Mora"

June 24, Pergamino, 9:30 to 13:00,

at Instituto Superior de Formacion Docente nº5

"Music and Songs for Social Values" by Ricardo Sampedro

June 24, Pergamino, 14.30 to 17.30,

at Instituto de Formacion Docente nº5

For registration or further information please phone "Education for a Change" (011) 4982-2409 or e-mail them at educhange@infovia.com.ar

(14) WINTER COURSE IN B.A.

English Teaching in Action, the new magazine for the Argentine English Language Teacher and SBS, Stratford Book Services, are organizing a Winter Course to be held in the city of Buenos Aires from 17th to 19th July 2000.

The course is aimed at teachers of all levels and ages and will consist of two plenaries ( by Patricia Salvador and Oriel Villagarcía) and a series of concurrent workshops , all of them with refreshing ideas, games and resources of immediate relevance for the classroom.

The following is a partial list of the workshop leaders :