Issues in English cont'd

Each theme includes five different levels of video and text, from basic to advanced. You can view the text along with the video. You can also have any sentence read to you by clicking it. Definitions of the more difficult words are also available.

After students have reviewed the video and the text, they then have an opportunity to try related comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and writing activities. The listening and some of the grammar activities may not be appropriate for literacy students but the majority of the activities are. The activities change slightly depending on the level that has been chosen. The vocabulary activities include exercises on synonyms and antonyms. The grammar activities deal with verb tenses, pronouns, conditionals and other structures. The writing section includes practice with basic punctuation, answering questions, summarizing and stating your opinion. Most of the activities are user-friendly, with minimal instructions.

Other software by the same company includes The Interactive Picture Dictionary and The Alphabet. A North American version of The Alphabet is available.

Personal Budgeting 2000

If your students are interested in studying personal finances, you may want to take a look at a shareware program entitled Personal Budgeting 2000. Being shareware, this program is not as polished as other financial software such as Quicken, but the price, $12.95 US, makes it worth considering.

Personal Budgeting 2000 allows you to record transactions for a credit card and a chequing account. You can also create a monthly budget and see a comparison between your budget and your actual transactions for that month. A particularly interesting part of the program is the Investment (401) Value Calculator and the Loan Payment Calculator. Here you can find out the value of an investment over time. You can also calculate the principal, term or payment of a loan. These two features are excellent for demonstrating the principles of interest.

Although not all of the program is easy to use, it contains some diamonds in the rough that are worth digging for. If you're not interested in the software you may still want to check out their website which contains an online Budget Calculator and other money saving tips.