Our Class 2007

Our Class 2008

2008-01-20T05:32:00.003+11:00

Visit Our Class 2008 and Our Class 2009

Barcelona January 2008

Hobbies

2008-01-01T23:46:00.000+11:00

Last Session: Summer is here!

2007-11-14T15:32:00.000+11:00

Scenes from an Australian summer. The one with Santa is by markdavis. You can download this photo under a Creative Commons license only!.

Read the information on Creative Commons and answer these questions:
1. Can you publish this photo in your blog?

2. If yes, do you have to do anything special? What?
2. Can you change it?

3. Can you sell it?

As today is the last lesson of our course, I would like to ask you to complete a survey about how the course was delivered and what you think about it, Click here to take the survey. It will help us, teachers, design better classes for next year.

I also think it'd be a good idea for you to print this evaluation table about your work with blogs and podcasts and circle the section that best describes your level. This will help you assess your progress and give you goals for your future English learning.

Last Tuesday you were too busy preparing your oral presentations, so you didn't have enough time to do our blog work. Let's go back to last week's post and try and do the tasks there.
During your break from TAFE, come back to our class blog and use all the links. You can still use Time4English, write in our forum, even add content in our wiki.

This is a very good website where you can find lots of practice, Australia Network. One of their programs is Living English, a series of video episodes that are very good to practise your pronunciation (the language level is a bit too easy for you). Explore the site and find about all the other activities news, vodcasts, English bites, understanding writing, irregular verbs, etc)

One of my brothers found this video of my other brothers' group in Youtube. As I've been using their music for my podcasts, I thought I'd put it here for you to look at (at home, though, because Youtube is banned at TAFE). These two are much better quality, Hato de Foces & Quimera.

Have a great summer break and I leave you with a new character from a totally new world.

Does anyone know what this is about?

You may see more of her next year!

Racism

2007-11-07T17:23:00.000+11:00

What is this photo? Find about it and let everyone know in comments
Congratulations on a great podcast, Zee and everyone else in class last Tuesday. Listen to it here, Let's Talk! and leave a message there.

As we all know, there are many ways you can improve your English using technology like the Internet. Here is a very good website for ESL students, go there to learn more about phrasal verbs, Dave's ESL Cafe. You can answer the questions below by clicking on the letter of the alphabet for each phrasal verb:

1. What's the real meaning of this sentence?: The babysitter had a difficult time. The children acted up all evening.
a) The children were rehearsing for a theatre play
b) The children were very naughty
c) The children went upstairs to sleep

2. I don't get along with my brother's friend, John. This means:

a) I can't keep up with him when he's walking. He's too fast.

b) I don't have a friendly relationship with him

c) I can't be with him for a long time

3. Write a sentence in your own words for each one of these phrasal verbs:

have to do with, call off, take after, wear out

Today's forum is about racism. I though you may want to discuss this topic after it came up during our last class and also in preparation for our next podcast.

In our ESOL wiki: our volunteers from last week should be finishing the news about Sculpture by the Sea.

Also in our ESOL Wiki: in Agony Aunt there is a desperate person waiting for advice on a very weighty problem! Remember to revise the modals of advice in Time4English (last week's post).

Sculpture by the Sea 2007

2007-10-31T12:42:00.000+11:00

Our first task today is your assessment for Andrew. Open your TAFE portal and use your email account to find his email address there. Then follow his instructions to write him an email. You've got 30 minutes to write a draft, revise it yoursleves and send the email.
Check your our interview with Marielle here. Tell me what you think!

Last Sunday I went to Sculpture by the Sea.

It was a great day. The weather was perfect, but there were so many people that it was impossible to take a photo of the sculptures without anyone around them! Check the link above and answer these questions:

What is Sculptureby the Sea?

When does it take place?

Where does it take place?

How do you get there?

What type of art is it exhibited?

Why does it attract so many people?

Who would like to volunteer to write an article about Sculpture by the Sea in our wiki inthe news section (with the slide show) ?. Talk to me today.

Modals for advice. We are going to work on giving advice to others. Go to Time4english, Grammar, letter M and do the last exercise on modal verbs (should, ought to, had better, have to).
Go to Time4English, Upper Intermediate-Advanced and do 3P Advice column. What's the name they give to a section in a magazine where they give advice to the readers? What do I call them in our Kogarah & Liverpool wiki (check the side bar)? Read all the explanations and examples and write your advice for the last letter. You can email it to me or publish it in your blog.
Go to our Kogarah Liverpool wiki. Read the letter there and write your advice on that page.

Outstanding work:

Remember to hand out or publish the article about Melinda

Read one of the short stories and write a comment in our wiki's book reviews section

Publish your report on how to improve your English with technology (like internet, etc)

Melbourne Cup Day

2007-10-29T14:20:00.000+11:00

Photos taken yesterday somewhere in Sydney. Do you know where?

Check your emails. You will receive and invitation to a party. Please reply following the structure that we learnt last week (refusing an invitation).
Today is Melbourne Cup Day. Do you know anything about it? Check the information in the Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal, Melbourne Cup, and answer the following questions:

What is it?
When does it take place? (time and date)
What happens to the nation on that day?
What is a sweep?
What would you be looking for if you checked the milliners directory on the Racetrack Fashions link?
How long has the Melbourne Cup been around (existed/taken place)?
Which is Austalia's most famous racehorse? Why?
What can you see in the National Museum of Australia?
Who won the 2006 Melbourne Cup?
What do you think about all of this?
Use the answers to these questions to write a short report about the Melbourne Cup, with your opinion about it at the end. You can compare it to other celebrations or festivities in Australia or in your country of origin.

Last Tuesday Luisa Odelli, one of the college career counsellors, gave a talk about educational & vocational pathways. She showed us two very useful websites with course and work information: TAFE Find a Course and My Future. You should start thinking about your pathway for next year.
Last Tuesday we corrected all the answers of the webquest. Well done everyone and thank you to Marta for helping all of you.... Today you can write a draft of your report. Email it to me or print it and revise it before we can check it together.

Did you email your questions about Grant Mizens to me?

Today's ESOLForum question is about drivers. First do this short dictation in Time4English: Advanced 3L, Bad drivers!. Then go to the last entry of our ESOL forum and give your opinion. Don't forget to read everyone else's opinion before you write yours.

Reading Short Stories & Biographies

2007-10-23T17:04:00.001+10:00

Another Sydney corner that I love, Balmain Peninsula

We are going to start looking at writing invitations and refusing invitations. Visit this website, English Works! and read the notes on how to write invitations. Choose one of the three invitations and prepare a polite reply saying you can't attend the event. Hand the reply to me and we'll look at the language and structure together.

We have started looking at phrasal verbs in class. Go to Time4English and you will find a short text in the front page, This Weeek's Odd Spot, where phrasal verbs are used. Then go to the Grammar book and scroll down to P. Do the exercises on break into, break even, break down, break up, and break off.

Next Thursday you may be going to Grant Mizens' motivational talk. He is one of the Australians paralympians and the Student Association with the AMEP classes have been collecting funds to donate to the paralympians and help them go to China 2008 Olympic Games. Read about him in this leaflet prepared by Kylie, the Student Association Executive Officer. Write 6 questions about him and email them to me. We'll publish them with the leaflet for other students to practise their reading skills.
Short stories. Reading is a very good way to improve your English. It introduces new vocabulary and sentence structures in context, but sometimes it is hard to read a novel because it takes so long that you may lose track of the plot or get tired of looking up words you don't understand. That's why short stories are a very good idea for learners at your level. Visit this website East of the WebShort Stories from the UK.

1. Choose a genre: children's, crime, horror, humour, fiction, non-fiction, romance, sci-fi

2. List by length on the left of the page. You can choose stories by the number of pages

3. Check the ratings (number of stars) and read the comments to pick a good story4. Read the story

5. Write a review and publish it in our Kogarah Liverpool wiki in the Book reviews page

Couselling Services

2007-10-15T14:09:00.000+10:00

This is where last week's photo was taken. It's on the coast line from Audley to Bundeena, in the Royal National Park south of Sydney.
Next Tuesday we are going to have an information session given by one of the St George TAFE counsellors, Luisa. To prepare for it, I asked Luisa to send me some words that you should understand before her talk. Print this worksheet Counsellor's Talk Vocabulary. I also thought it'd be good for you to read a bit about the counselling services and discuss possible questions with your classmates. Work in small groups, but first print this worksheet, Counsellors.

This is the lotus seed pod I used on the sandstone photo posted last week. Many of you guessed what it was! Read the comments about it in last week's post. Jin wrote a very good one, but we have lost it! Maybe you could write it again, Jin.

It is very early for bushfires, but the seeason has already started due to high temperatures. Andrew asked me to get you to look at the NSW bushfire website. Write six steps they give you to protect your house from bushfires.

Thanks for the emails last week. I'm going to hand-them back to you for further corrections. Read them and if you see anything that can be improved, do it and return the email to me.

Please continue writing your Webquest answers! Print them when you are finished. Very soon you'll need them to write your report in class.
Photos taken last Friday when I took two young Spanish visitors on a tour of Sydney

Have a break and add yourself to our frappr map!

Sydney Corners

2007-09-18T22:00:00.001+10:00

Welcome back!

I hope you've all had a great holiday and are ready to tackle work for the last few weeks of term.

Today I'm going to ask you to finish up a bit of work from level 3 and then we'll get right into level 4 work.

Level3 work:

Check your email. I have sent you a message about the holidays and I would like you to answer it today. This is the last assessment for level 3. You can use your dictionary to compose your email.
Write a report about Bundeena.

Level 4 work:

There are some things to be finished from last semester, but they are already level 4 work:

Write an article about Melinda, after having listened to her podcast
Finish the webquest and write a report on it

Other bits and pieces:

Check emails from Liverpool and answer them
Complete your wiki page, if you haven't done it yet

So you went to Bundeena...Report wiriting

2007-09-18T16:35:00.000+10:00

Can you guess what this photo is?

Hi everyone!

Sorry I can't be with you f2f, but Andrew will help you with your work today. To make his job very EASY, please read my instructions carefully. Don't rush!

First of all, congratulations to Marta for another great podcast! She interviews a childcare worker this time. It's very interesting and very clear: Marta: The Rainbow.

First do some catching up work, if you need to*:

Listen to Emile's podcast

Publish your writing about the sleeping girl in your blog

Answer any Liverpool emails

Write on your wiki page.

Write your opinion about gender roles on the forum (only one person did it last week!)

NEW WORK
You went on an excursion to Bundeena with AMEP classes. Complete the following activities:

Publish a recount about the excursion in your blog.

Read the article that Sally links to in her post, Bundeena excursion and do this worksheet, which includes writing a report. By now you know the structure of a report (information text). Write a draft and let me check it (you can email it to me).
Listen to Melinda's podcast. Read the post carefully before you listen. You should print the listening worksheet to get help with the listening. Do all the exercises and writing on the worksheet.

* Remember that you've got one week to do all this work, but that it becomes too much if you leave it undone and then you have to catch up.

Lifestyle choices: Travelling around the world (Week 9)

2007-09-18T11:01:00.001+10:00

Lisa and Marta receiving their prize (a yummy technological prize: a chocolate mobile phone!) for their achievements with wiki & podcasting.

Listen to your introductory podcast in Let's Talk or in our wiki (in Kogarah students). Write a commnet in Let's Talk about it.
Write your opinion about the article I gave you last week with the photo of a little school girl sleeping in the middle of a busy street. Publish it in your blog.
Go to our forum and answer Marion's question about gender roles.
If you have received emails from Liverpool, answer them.
Type your comment in our wiki map (in Kogarah & Liverpool wiki, Kogarah students)
Continuing with our lifestyle topic, listen to Emile's podcast and do the worksheets. When you finsih, show them to me, please. I want to keep track of your work in our blog assessment grid.
For those of you who know Spanish, this is a good place to practise your questions
Have a look at this bubbleshare*. You can subscribe and create your own! Just follow the steps or ask Eva and Summer, they learnt how to do it last week!

*bubbleshare ceased to funciton in 2009. You can use slide.com,, photobucket, flickr,animoto, etc to create slideshows or mini videos

Week 8

2007-09-11T17:48:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago there was a total lunar eclipse. Did you have a look at it? It was spectacular, especially when the moon was totally covered by the earth and you could see it like a dark red ball.

These are some photos we took from our house back verandah.
Congratulations to Marta for her podcast. She recorded it and edited by herself! You can listen to it in Let's Talk.

Congratulations to Lisa too for her page in our Kogarah & Liverpool wiki. She was the first student to create her ownpage in the wiki without any assistance! Summer has also published her own page and told us about your excusion to Bundeena. Well done!

Today you can continue working on your wiki pages and the world map.

Other work to be completed:

Forum: old forum: Marion's topic on gender roles & ESOLforum: quickly add a topic or two to talk about.

Check this vodcast (videos) site out: Living English . It's like a TV series and there are about 4o episodes. The level of language is not very high. Every episode has some listening exercises and grammar explanations. The best thing of all: it's Australian!

Listen to Lois talking about her earliest memories

Now listen to Aaron about growing up as a kid in Australia

Think of your own memories and childhood. Prepare a talk about it. We will record it in class.

Visit this website and do the punctuation exercises on commas. They will help you with your writing.

Check your Webquest answers with me and publish them in you in your blogs if you want.

APEC week (7)

2007-09-04T12:20:00.000+10:00

Welcome back!

Here is a view of the Sydney we want the rest of the world to see this week. It's going to be a bit hard to get close to it during the APEC week, so I thought you may like a reminder of the beauty of our city while you work away on your assignments.

I hope everyone is working on your webquest and final report. We will do more work on report writing in the afternoon, but keep checking the previous posts for ideas on structure and language.

Today I would like to work on our exchange with Liverpool. We will work on email writing and our wiki. Most of you should have received mail from one of the Liverpool students.

Check your emails if we haven't done it yet and start preparing an answer. This is part of your unit of work Developing literacy using technology. Write a draft and feel free to ask me for help if you need it. When it's ready, send your reply.
Some of the students from Liverpool have already written about the type of topics they would like to discuss in our forum. Go to ESOLforum and give us your ideas. Read everyone else's first and agree or disagree.
Go to our Kogarah & Liverpool wiki. By now you know what a wiki is (basically a collaborative website). Today you are going to create your own page and write in it. There are two things I would like you to do:

First go to the voicethread world map (it's in the page Kogarah Contributors in a link called Kogarah Students). You can listen to my recording as an example of what to do. To be able to write, you have to register with voicethread. Most of you have already done it. Type your name and where you come from. You can draw a circle or a cross to tell us where your hometown is. Tell us something interesting about your hometown. If we have time, we'll try to record again, although I haven't heard from our IT person who was working on it last week.
Then ask me for the wiki password. You need it to be able to create a page and write on the wiki. First read the suggestions on what to write as an introduction. You will find them below the big picture of the Sydney Opera House. Click on the tab called New Page. Give it your name and link it to your name on the student list. Write an introduction about yourself. Add a couple of links to an interesting website about your country and hometown or anything that intersts you (hobbies, music, etc). At home you will be able to add a photo, etc. I'll be around to assist you if you need help, but you'll see how easy it is!

2007-08-27T16:07:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Sydney. You could already smell spring in the air. I went to one of the most iconic beaches this city offers, Balmoral Beach. There were people swimming, sunbathing and sitting under the huge fig trees that line the promenade along the beach. The cafes and restaurants were full and it was only Monday! If you have never been there, make sure you go and have a walk, a picnic or a swim. Every summer there is a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Twelfth Night or The Taming of the Shrew at the Band Rotunda on The Esplanade opposite Balmoral Beach. Who wrote these very famous plays?

Congratulations to Svieta, Winnie, Cindy, Jin (I couldn't see the photo) on their voicethread slide shows. Check all your classmates' voicethreads:

Marta, Eva, Lisa, Summer, Svieta, Winnie, Cindy and Jin.

Write a quiz for all the slide shows your classmates or Marion's classmates have created. Each one of you has to look at 2-3 slides shows by your classmates and write at least 2 questions for each one of them. You are also allowed to ask 1 or 2 questions from your own slides. For example: Who says ..... Where did ..... go last ...? Who took a photo of....? Email me your questions and we'll put them together in our wiki fro the Liverpool students.

Continue working on your webquest and look at the notes I added on how t write a report or information text.

Forum: Go to ESOL forum and quickly add a topic or two to talk about.

Go to our other forum and read the latest topic that Marion set up for her class. It is very interesting, they discuss women's and men's roles and jobs. Read what her students wrote and add your opinion.

Webquest (Week 5)

2007-08-21T14:50:00.000+10:00

Congratulations to Eva, Marta, Lisa and Summer on your own Voicethread slide shows! I'm so impressed that you created them by yourselves and added written comments and your voice. Well done!

Today you will only have a new piece of work to prepare and a webquest:

1. Write a short presentation about yourself to record it on our Voicethread for the wiki we share with Liverpool TAFE ESOL students. It doesn't have to be very long, but make it interesting. Tell us where you come from and something you love about your hometown/country or something that you think other people may find interesting.

2. Once you've done that you can start this Webquest about our blog. A webquest is an information searching activity, where all the info is found on the Internet. Today's webquest is based on Our Class 2007 blog. You will only have to find information contained in the posts published since the beginning of this term. It will help you catch up with the work done and get to know our blogs, wikis and podcasts a lot better. Then you can use them at home to practise your 4 skills (reading, writing, listening & speaking) and improve your English while connecting to lots of people here and in the wide world.

Week 4

2007-08-14T15:51:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Fadwa and Zhi. You can visit their blogs on the student blog roll on the sidebar.

One of you, (sorry-one of Marion's students!) WeiYun, has seen where the koala in the slide show from last week is. Here is a link to a site that explains who the architect was and what the building is. You can have a look at it in 135-137 Macquarie Street.

We've been reading and writing about twins, listen to this short podcast, Twins, and answer the questions. What's the difference between this set of twins and the ones we read about? Tell us in your blog.

Today I would like you to give ideas about possible topics for our forum with Liverpool. Go to ESOLforum and start giving us ideas.

Listen to Andrew's podcast. Answer the questions in your blog.
You chose the topic of Health & Lifestyle. Read this advertisement for a Kogarah council fundraising event, Walk Run Swim. Answer these questions. You should answer them online. First click on the options and choose the correct one and then you can print the worksheet and write the rest of the answer with your own words. If you want to learn how to type the answers on the computer, ask me in class.
Sydney through foreign eyes is waiting for you to add your comments in writing or recording your voice. Some of you have already done it in one photo. You can add more comments to other photos. Think of these questions before you do it:

Have I been there? What do I think of the place? What do I know about it? Would I take my overseas visitors there? Why? Why not? Would you like to go?
Have I seen this animal? Where? What do I know about it?

Week 3

2007-08-07T22:05:00.000+10:00

Welcome back!

Well done to all the students who answered the questions on the Australian animals on the previous posts. You guessed their names (visit Summer, Marta, Eva, Jessica's blogs and the posts comments for the answers) and Summer guessed where the bat picture was taken, but she didn't know the exact name of the park. Does anyone know?

Well done too to the students who wrote their opinion about the twin sisters story. Those of you who haven't done it should try and publish it today.

Today you can spend time creating your blogs if you didn't do it last week.
This week we are going to start looking at the topic of travel, as leisure is one of the topics you chose for this semester. Sydney is a beautiful city for tourists and residents to explore. Leave a comment in this slide show of photos from different Sydney spots. Have you been there? Have you taken any overseas visitors there? What did they say? What do you think about the different places?

Listen to Patricia's (one of the librarians at St George college of TAFE) podcast and answer the questions.

Did you do the listening on arguments are linked to heart attacks? This week we'll start working on exercises related to travel and tourism. Go to Time4English and in Vacation English Course, TOPIC TWO - Australian Cities & Places to See do the exercises on Geography of Australia (V2.1) and the first text, Uluru (V2.2).

Write a post in your blogs about Uluru as a possible tourist destination for you and your family or friends. Use your own words! You can link to interesting websites a bout Uluru, but you must use your own words to tell us why you would /wouldn't chose Uluru as a place to visit .

If you travel around Australia you may hear words and expressions that only Australian people use. Do you know the meanings of these Aussie words and expressions?

dunny, tucker, Waltzing Matilda, g'day, off one's face

You can find out in Aussie Slang.

Welcome to our second class

2007-07-30T16:08:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry that I can't be with you f2f (face to face: in person) today. You can follow my instructions and have an interesting session with Andrew's help.

Those of you who created your blog last week can help the others start their own. Remember to go to Blogger. Then go to create your own blog and follow the steps. Please write down your URL (the www..... that will be your blog address), your username (which is your email address) and password. It's so easy to forget them!
Once you have your blog, write a post introducing it to the rest of the class. Write where you come from and put a link to an interesting website about your country or hometown. If you can, add a photo. Don't worry if you can't, I'll show you next Tuesday.
We still haven't got a complete answer to the animal photos from last week....I bet you know today's animals!
Write another post with your text about the article we read about twins.
Thanks everybody for taking part in the forum last week. If you wish, you can visit it again, read your classmates entries and respond to them (write about what they say, for example: I agree with you, Rosa....The same thing happened to me, Samira...).

Go to Time4English and listen to THIS WEEK'S STORY, Arguments lead to heart attacks. Do the exercises on articles if you didn't do them last week.
Finally, listen to the podcast on Patricia, one of our librarians. Do the library exercises. You can print the questions and hand the answers to me or you can write the answers in your blog. There are spare headphones in the filing cabinet top drawer. Remember to buy your own and to bring them to class on Tuesdays.
Can you tell me the meaning of these words: icon, pop-up, cursor, monitor, hardware, software, to download, to surf the net? If you can't, go back to last week's post and in the games you will find the answers.

This is a new project that you can start thinking about. We'll come back to it next week.

2008 Student blogs

2007-07-27T18:59:00.002+10:00

Semester 1
Jenny
Tanzina
Rakia
Francesca
Anna
Li
Nelson
Lisa
Ankica
Bing
Min
Ivy
Robert

Semester 2
Rosa's class
Cathy
Shammi
Sophie's blog
Suwimon
Wendy
Diana
Jimmy
Aneta
Helen
Vicky
Elmira
Marion's class
Zilin
Valeria
Seunghee
Macky
Lisa
Jessica
Gaby
Fred
Farjana
Emily
Cathy

Welcome to Our Class 2007!

2007-07-20T11:48:00.000+10:00

Hi to all the new students for semester 2, 2007 and welcome to our class blog.

Before we get going, you should think a bit about good computer habits. It is very important to get used to having a good posture when you are working on the computer so that you don't get back pain, etc. You will find very useful information and some language exercises here: Computer Health. Read the information first and then answer the Computer Health quiz. When you finish answering the quiz, print it and keep it in your folder in the blog section.

Remember to get a ring folder to be well organised with your class notes. Anderew and I will be asking you to look at things done in previous lessons.

These photos are from my holidays. Can you tell me the name of the animals shown and where my brother (who is on holidays from Spain) took the photos? You can write the answers in the comments of this post (click on the comments button below). Don't forget to write your name.

I'll give you clues if it's too hard!

This semester we are going to do work with a group of students from another TAFE college in Sydney, Liverpool. Their teacher Anna and I thought that it would be good to start with a topic that everyone knows about: your first impressions of Australia. Go to ESOLforum (on the right sidebar). Read the question and start writing. You will need the password and user name. Ask your teacher.

If you have time, look at Time4English and go to the grammar book. Do the exercises Articles 1 - Countable and Uncountable Nouns & Articles 2 - Uncountable Nouns. Ask me for the user name and password.

Now try this game to learn about computer words. You can also do this other game with more computer vocabulary in English.

For the Holidays

2007-06-22T09:17:00.000+10:00

If you get time to look here during the holidays, I'll be posting interesting things.

Check out this video site: videojug. . There are many videos on how to do things (instructional or procedural texts). The health section has great gems. They are good for your English, but also for good advice for everyone in the family!

One of the best video series is the Food & Drinks/Classic (with lots of recipes). They have a video showing you how to prepare and cook everything plus the recipe with the ingredients and method. The recipe appears below the video when you visit the site itself.

For winter time, try this Cream of Chicken Soup.

VideoJug: How To Make Cream Of Chicken Soup

Our last class

2007-06-19T14:46:00.000+10:00

Today we had our last class in the computer room.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

We learned how to create a slide show. Have a look at your classmates' great work:

Jane's families

Sharon's Sydney show

We also had a surprise visit from Anastasiya, a former student. She did level 4 last semester and is doing a Real Estate course at our college. Listen to her story Anastasiya: On Her Way Now. I think you will find it inspiring.

Don't forget to listen to Jennifer if you want to find out more about possible course to do after ESOL 4.

Thanks for the lovely lunch you prepared on Wednesday! Andrew and I loved all your dishes: the vegetables, chicken, dumplings, sticky rice with bean paste and coconut, the beautiful hot small noodles and the very different transparent non-rice noodles. We had very good melon, mandarins cake... and very healthy green tea!

This is a photo from the day, with a very young new student on the left.

Have a great holiday!

Last Day of Our Course

2007-06-12T16:59:00.000+10:00

This week we say goodbye to each other after a semester working together. Last week everyone was saying how quickly time has gone.

Last week we had the pathways session to help you with your choice of course for next semester. One of the speakers was a teacher from CEEW, Jennifer Julian. Listen to her talking about her course in the podcast, Jennifer: Empowering Women. It may help you decide what to do next semester if you are still unsure.

As promised, let's play with slide shows. You can use bubbleshare, slide, photobucket and many other image hosting free software. You will have to join, though. Today let's use bubbleshare, as it allows you to write captions and later at home to record your voice on each slide. Remember that a few weeks ago Marion's students started playing with slide shows. Have a look at what they did in their blogs (all linked in Marion's class blog).
You can choose your own work from Time4English today. I recommend you to try the highest level.
Publish your opinion text

I hope you all have a great future in this country, no matter what course of job you do. Good luck!

Slide Shows

2007-06-05T08:57:00.000+10:00

A forest of... guess what!
Two weeks ago Marion's students started playing with slide shows. Have a look at what they did in their blogs (all linked in Marion's class blog)

Today, if you are interested, I can help you try too. It's very easy, you just follow the instructions in bubbleshare. It's good practice for your reading skills in following instructions (also known as procedural texts)

Also related to reading instructions and computers, see if you can follow these instructions on how to use WordArt in a Word document. When you finish, print your work and show it to your teacher.
Listen to my interview with Carol Dilley. Print the worksheet after a first listening. It will help you a lot. You can also watch the video clip with the same interview. As with Nikki's interview, don't panic if you don't understand everything. Once you do the listening exercises you will get nearly everything. As work for this week, write an article on Carole as indicated in the worksheet.

Pathway Talks

2007-05-29T10:45:00.000+10:00

Well done, Sharon! You can listen to her radio program about dreams in Let's Talk. Everyone was very interested in the subject and you all did a very good job talking about a topic that can become very personal at times. Thank you.

If you want to take advantage of the recordings we do in class, you can listen to all the bits in which you talk, write everything you say and try to think of ways to improve it. It can be your grammar, your choice of words, feedback or pronunciation. Check with your teachers if you have any doubts. Show me your script with the corrections and practise your pronunciation.

Today we are going to attend an information session about possible study pathways for each one of you, once you finish your English course. The speakers are teachers from other sections, like Communications (English section), and the counsellor will be here too. Take advantage of the opportunity to talk to all of them, or at least the ones that you may be interested in.

To help you start thinking about it, go to Time4English, Intermediate and listen to Education in Australia 1 & 2 (4L, 4M).

Also in Time4English, Intermediate listen to Grammar lady 5 & 6. She is talking about the use of would with wish and if.

Go to our forum and take part in this week's topic.

Listen to Katarina who used to be the multicultural education coordinator at this college. She may also give you ideas about your future.

Next week we will listen to an interview with a dancer. You can start by watching the videos at home. You'll find them in Sydney's People Podcast. Remember that we can't access them at TAFE, so it's better to view them at home before we do the listening exercises in class.

Library Week

2007-05-22T14:47:00.000+10:00

Last week was Library week at our college. I hope you had time to go and have a look at their resources and entered their competitions and quizzes.

I took part in a lunch conversation about Web.2, which is things like blogs, podcasting, wikis, etc. The library launched their brand new St George library wiki. Check it out, especially their podcasts and their Virtual Library Tours (a slide show with voice), which you can listen to in different languages (including Mandarin and English).

Some of you are worried about your pronunciation. This is a good website to help you with pronunciation of individual sounds: Pronunciation Chart, but remember that when we talk sounds change a bit.

After having discussed fashion, thin models, cosmetic surgery in our forum and in preparation for Annie's radio program on fashion, I would like you to listen to Nikki's Podcast. Print the first worksheet, listening checklist, and use it while you listen. It will help you follow what Nikki says. Then you can do the comprehension questions, . I think you will understand much better after having done these exercises. I've prepared a short movie with a shorter version of our interview and with some footage of the 2007 fashion parade where 2 of her designs were shown. You'll have to watch it at home, because we haven't got access to youtube at the college.

If you want further practise with articles, go to Time4English and in grammar, letter a, do the 2 exercises on articles. They were still the main problem in your report writing!

Listen to This Week's Story, Healty People: Unhealthy Environment. It links two of the topics we've been discussing in class in the last few weeks: health and the environment.

For further practice on So do I, neither do I, etc check these websites:
Explanation about agreement with something another person says.
Using either, neither & too
Intermediate English Grammar revision Quiz: So do I & Neither do I
Neither... nor/either ...or Auxiliary verbs

Living in Australia

2007-05-15T18:00:00.000+10:00

Autumn in my garden
Last year Melinda Gleeson (from Time4English) produced some activities for students who had just arrived in Australia. Although many of you may already know about car insurance, I thought that it'd be good for you to do the activities in order to be able to talk and write about it.

As I told you last week, you will find them in Time4English Intermediate 7 (7a-7I).

Later this afternoon you will write a report or information text on Car Insurance in Australia. I will give you the facts, so don't worry about memorising any of it. Concentrate on understanding the vocabulary, verbs used and how they are used (present tense) and the structure of a good report:

General statement

Description of part 1

Description of part 2

Description of part 3

Look here for a quick revision of Report structure and linguistic features.

Two weeks ago I interviewed Nikki, a young 20 year old girl who is doing many different things. If you are curious, go to Sydney's People Podcast and listen to our conversation. There are photos and there will be a video with some of the fashion parade with her designs!

Assessment time

2007-05-08T10:40:00.000+10:00

Dan's radio programme has been published! Listen to him interviewing Yvonne, Annie and Winnie in Let's Talk. Thanks to the four of you for doing such a good job for our first program of the semester!

Let's have a break from new work and concentrate on completing your tasks for your assessment portfolio (check the 5th meaning) for level 4.

Listening:Answer the questions on the podcast Patricia: Librarian. You can publish them in you blogs or hand them to me.

Reading: Complete the readings and worksheets from last week's post on health matters ( Better Health Obesity: Obesity & Better Health Skin Cancer: Skin Cancer)

Writing: summarise the articles you read and listened to in Time4English about Hot Chips cause Cancer (7J) and Take-Away Food Dangerous (7Y). Give your opinion.

Writing : Write your opinion about the topic Thin models.

Writing: publish your movie review.

Writing: publish your report on an object of importance in your culture.

Speaking: prepare a draft for your radio program in which you have an introduction and questions on your chosen topic. You can show it to your teacher for correction.

Study: Prepare for next weeks' assessment (writing a report in class). Go to Time4English and do all the exercises on Car Insurance. You will find them in Intermediate 7 (7a-7I).

Health Expo 2007

2007-05-01T16:51:00.000+10:00

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On Wednesday 16th May the Student Association is holding Health Expo 2007. There will be some fund raising activities, like the lunch prepared by the AMEP students. There will be raffles and good prizes to be won. The money raised will go to the paralympic athletes. It is a very well organised event, please go and visit all the information stalls and talk to them about what they offer. To help you with the vocabulary and content of your surveys and podcasts, check the following activities:

1. Go to Time4English, News Library 7J. Read the article Hot Chips cause Cancer. It's a good idea to read the three levels, it will help you with vocabulary and comprehension.

2. Now read the article 7Y Take-Away Food Dangerous. Read the three levels.
In your blog write a summary of both articles and tell us what you think.

3. Check the following links to help us prepare for Health Day:
Better Health Obesity. Do the worksheet Obesity. (You can print it or do it online This is part of your reading assessment for level 4)
Better Health Skin Cancer, download the worksheet Skin Cancer.(You can print it. This is part of your reading assessment for level 4).
They have a BMI Calculator. You just enter your height and weight and it'll tell you your BMI and if it's healthy or not. (Thanks Marion for the tip!)
Check their health quizzes to get more ideas for yours.

And talking about health and fashion, did you know that Spain decided to ban models that are too thin?. Read about it in the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC7news. Write your opinion in our forum.Look for the topic called Thin Models and read everyone's opinion before adding yours.

Answer theses questions and then write an article in your blog, including your opinion:

What triggered the ban?
What's BMI?
What BMI should a model have to be allowed to participate in fashion parades in Spain?
What's the average height, weight and BMI of a runway model?
What are the arguments for and against?
Check the meanings of gaunt, emaciated and wan. You can find many dictionaries on the Internet (just write dictionary into Google). One of them is the Merrian-Webster
How can you calculate someone's BMI?

When you have time, you can listen to last year's student podcasts on the Health Expo 2006. They interviewed many of the doctors and health staff on the day. There are links to all their podcasts here.

To do at home

Forum: Read all the opinions from last week's forum about fashion. Write an opinion text in which you present the different points of views and at the end you give your personal opinion in a conclusion. Before writing it, look at the explanations and examples in your text book (Unit 18).
Go to Time4English and in the grammar book, letter a do the two exercises on articles.
We were talking about noun groups fro the writing of reports and we did an exercise on how to order the adjectives in front of the noun (size-quality-age-colour-place/origin). As it is quite hard to remember, I thought you may like to do extra practice on it. Here are some more exercises: The order of adjectives & Adjective order. If you want to know more about them you can visit this site, Adjectives, where there is a more complete table (they add material and a couple of exercises.

Expresing opinion

2007-04-24T16:54:00.000+10:00

Congratulations, Lei! You were the first one to find out the name of these native flowers. They are known as flannel flowers (Actinotis helianthii is their scientific name). I have seen them amongst eucalyptus trees in Sydney reserves and national parks in sandstone areas. One was never able to enjoy them at home before. As you know, you are not allowed to pick wild flowers from the bush, but now they are growing them commercially and are found in flower shops in spring.

I'm preparing an interview with a young Sydneysider, Nikki, who is involved in many things. As fashion is one of them, I would like you to give your opinion about fashion and other topics related to it in this week's forum.
If you didn't have time to listen to Vukosava's podcast in Splendid Speaking last week, do it now. We will be working on it later on.
Listen to another movie review from Time4English. You can start a list of verbs and adjectives used in these reviews. It will help you with your own review writing and it will help you with your spoken activities and radio programs.
Also in Time4English, in the grammar book, go to the letter i and do the ED / -ING exercise. You will find a list of adjectives useful for your movie review.
Then go to the letter p, do the exercises for plenty of, a lot of , a little, a few. It will reinforce what we did in class last Tuesday.
Finally in English Lessons - Upper Intermediate / Advanced do the first Tenses quiz.

Welcome back!

2007-04-08T19:44:00.000+10:00

Hi again and I hope you all had a great break. I spent last weekend in a beautiful part of New South Wales, the south coast. The place where we were staying was visited every day by lots of kangaroos, galahs, rosellas and other Australian birds. Have a look at some of the photos I took there.

To prepare for your radio programs, go to Time4English and then Movie Reviews. Choose one movie you have already seen and listen to the review, do the exercises and study the vocabulary to be able to talk about it. Write your own review in your blog.
When recording our radio programs, often we will be expressing our opinion on different topics. Listen to this episode of Splendid Speaking, Expressing and justifying opinions, where Vukosava talks about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Listen to it a first time to get the gist of it (the main idea, a general impression). Listen to it a second time with the script in front of you (ask me for it).
Print this worksheet about expressing opinions and we will work on it this afternoon.
Highlight the language that Vukosava uses to express her opinion and to introduce examples that help her justify her opinion. Prepare a short talk about the same topic. Record it in Audacity.
Remember I told you about lists of common words in English. Go to Time4 English and you'll find the 100 most common words in the main menu. Do you know all of them? I bet you do! Copy them and make sure you know them all and their spelling.

IF you thought that is too easy... here are the 1000 most common English words. The good thing about this list is that you have explanations about how to use prepositions and articles, which always give us trouble. Put this website in your favourites at home and visit it regularly. You can write 5 sentences each day using words from this list until you have used all of them!

Our Class 2007 (bis)

I had lots of problems using the new blogger (with Google account) at home, so I had to create another blog to prepare for our class today. I've put a permanent link on the right sidebar, below Our Forum & Our podcasts. If blogger is not working, I will prepare the class there!

Agricultural show & Winner of What country is this?

2007-03-25T12:08:00.001+10:00

Today we'll concentrate on speaking practice and learning how to use Audacity.

Some of you wanted a tutorial on basic blog functions. You can find a tutorial, Adding links and images on the right sidebar. It is a video that you have to download to your desktop. If you want a printed version, you can read/print this worksheet on how to add pictures or this one on how to add links.

Before we start with Audacity, listen to your very first podcast in Let's Talk: Introductions from Semester 1, 2007 FT students. William's students are going to listen to it and they may even try to send us recorded messages. Read his instructions here. It's very exciting, isn't it? Good work!

Later we'll correct the language of our Forum. Thanks to all the participants. It was very interesting to read your thoughts on such an important topic (multiculturalism).

But first....... IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

We've got 2 winners of our picture guessing competition, What country is this?. The first absolute winner is Marta and she is not even in our class! Marta used to be in Marion's class last year and had her own blog with links to our class blog. That's how she heard of the guessing challenge. You may remember her from her visit to the computer room last Tuesday. She's been working at this for days. Read her emails or post entries below.

The other winner is Dan from our class. He's also been working very hard at trying to find the answer. I think he enjoyed the ride and we may ask him to set up a pictorial guessing game for us, as he is such a good photographer.

Please read Marta's emails and blog entries from the past 2 weeks.

Congratulations, Marta!

These are links to your blogs, including Dan's blog, with the answers you gave:

Burcu's
Winnie's
Sharon's
Lei's
Dan's Guessing
Dan's Correcting my answer
Ada's

Yvonne's

Congratulations, Dan!

The Easter show is approaching. If you want to go, you can plan your day trip beforehand by visiting their website, Easter Show. And if you have time, you can do this worksheet from last year: Easter Show by one of our teachers (Nadia).
Splendid Speaking is a podcasting site form the UK. Its master (the person who publishes it) has asked me permission to publish a link to our Let's Talk podcasting site, so that his students can contact us. I said yes. It's a great way for ESL students to communicate with one another across the world. It will help you improve your listening and speaking skills tremendously!

Do you know the names of these flowers? Which one is an Australian native?

State elections over

2007-03-22T17:43:00.001+11:00

Balmain electoral polling booth on 24th March 2007

Last Saturday were the state elections. Australians went to their local polling booths to exercise their right and responsibility as citizens. Can you find anything in this picture that makes you say something about our electoral system? (write in your blogs)

Today's work:

Forum: Last week's discussion about multiculturalism to celebrate Harmony Day
Write an email to William's class in New Zealand and send it.
Go to Let's Talk, a website where we will publish your radio programs. Listen to Marielle's first radio program and the introductory Semester 2 Students as examples of what you can do. Today we will work on our introductions, either individually or in pairs. Later on we will start working on your radio programs.
Recording your voice: I will show you how to use Audacity to record your voice onto the computer. You can record a brief introduction of yourself and/or a classmate. On the right sidebar there is a permanent link to a tutorial, in case you need to read it when you try doing it at home.

Work to do later or at home:

Time4English: Go to Grammar Book,letter T and do the tense exercises that follow the blue ones you did last week: Tense - Future - will & going to, Tense - Past continuous, Tense - Present perfect
I'm going to give you a table with all the work that you should have on your blogs. You can start working on catching up with your blog portfolio!

What's on: Information about interesting things in Sydney, Kogarah, etc

Sydney in the dark:Earth Hour. What is it? How can you take part in it? What do you think about it? Are you going to do it? You can write a post about this.

Games: Exotic country.Many of you have had very interesting answers. Nobody from this class has got the correct country yet. These are the countries that are not correct: Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Belize, China, North America, Australia, or Mexico. The continent Africa is not correct either. I'll give you a final clue: The name of this country is related to the name of the person who got to that part of the world in 1492.

If you want to relax and improve your mouse skills, you can do these exercises on Mouse skills. I've placed a permanent How tos link on the right sidebar.

Happy 75th Birthday Sydney Harbour Bridge!

2007-03-14T14:59:00.000+11:00

We did it! 101 Ways to Improve Our English Outside Class!
Check it out here. With all your answers and the ones from my previous students and your help in class to put them all together, we have reached our goal of 101 ideas on how to improve our English skills when we are not in class. They are divided into the 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, but a few of them are general, so I put them at the beginning. They are all your ideas, so read them and put them into practice!

Some of you wrote very good answers about the photos my brother took in his recent trip to an exotic destination. Nobody has guessed the exact country, so I've left a few clues in your comments. It is neither Africa nor China! Read the clues in your classmates' blogs and some of Marion's students' blogs and also see if this helps you guess the name of the country.

Today I want to give you time to read William's students emails and reply to them. He sent a general list of emails. You can put them all in a group or distribution list in your contacts/addresses book. So, start work by reading your received emails and answer them. I'll help you if you need me to.
Last week we didn't have our forum. Check it out this week. Harmony Day is approaching, we live in a very multicultural country, we had a look at my brothers photos from another multicultural country, so the topic is very relevant: multiculturalism.
Time4English: Go to Grammar and then to the letter T. Get the Tenses Chart and print it. Now you can start doing the exercises. Today you could do the five light blue tense exercises.
Have you published your thoughts on last week's photo of an old man in a classroom in Kenya?

Did anyone do the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk last Sunday? If you did, tell us about it in this post comments.

Happy 75th Birthday Sydney Harbour Bridge!
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101

2007-03-13T10:41:00.001+11:00

Well done Classes! Last week's forum nearly achieved its aim.

Four Skills Pictures (click to make it bigger)

Between the two classes, Marion's and our one, we got 80 ways to improve our English outside class. Some of them are repeated, so we may try to get rid of the repetitions and add them to this list from a couple of years ago: How to improve your English outside class. Check it and let me know if you want to help put the 2 lists together.

How are your emails to William's students going? He has sent you one with a very good link to practise your pronunciation. We decided to send everyone all the emails. That means that everyone gets more practice. But when you get an email addressed only to you, if you prefer to write to that person only, reply to that person only, don't click on reply to all.

What about your report on your hometown? Now you know how to form noun groups (article+adjective+noun), so you can still improve your text.

One of my brothers has recently been on a holiday to a very exotic place. These are some of the photos he took. Can you guess where were they taken? In your blogs, write your answer and write about the photos. What can you see? What are the people doing? How do you feel looking at them?

Harmony Day is approaching. Visit the government site and write in your blog about it. What is Harmony Day? On the left, click on What's On? On the map of Australia, you can see What's on in your area? Check if there's anything on in Kogarah. How do you think we can celebrate? Write your ideas in this post comments.
Go to Time4English. Ask me for the username and password. Go to Lower Intermediate, 5 Cultures and listen to 5D When Cultures Meet. We will talk about this in our forum.
Go to the Forum and answer today's question about cultures. This will be one of the ways we celebrate Harmony Day.
Listen to Lisbeth's podcast if you didn't have time last week

That's all. Have fun!

101 Ways to Improve your English outside class

2007-03-10T14:18:00.000+11:00

The list below is the one we put together after getting rid of the repetitions.

Practising English in general:
1. You can study English at TAFE or AMES(CESOL or CSWE)and do all your homework! If you want to work extra time, you can go to the Learner Support Centre.
2.You can marry an English native speaker if you are single. Easy way to learn English quickly!

LISTENING

1. Listen to the radio while you do the dishes.
2. Listen to the radio when you cook.
3. Listen to the radio in the car.
4. Watch T.V. after dinner for about 20 minutes
5. Watch the news every night.It will help if you read the newspaper before watching the news. You will understand a lot better.
6. You can listen to the radio when you cook.
7. Listen to the TV when you do your housework.
8. You can watch TV with teletext.
9. You can watch children's shows.
10. You can watch DVDs and read the subtitles in English.
11. Listen to people on the street.
12. You can go to the church to listen to the Pastor talk about Day by Day with God.
13. You can listen to some songs when you do your homework.
14. Listen to the people on the street.
15.Go to church and listen to the pastor talk.
SPEAKING

16. You can talk with your family.
17. You can talk with your friends.
18. You can talk about the weather.
19. You can talk about your countries.
20. You can talk about your family.
21. You can talk about TV programs.
22. You can talk about movies you’ve seen.
23. You can talk about your life in your country of origin.
24. You can ask for directions.
25. You can give directions.
26. You can go to church and talk with different people. Chat to other church goers.
27. Speak at home for least 2 hours .(English of course).
28. You can speak in the shop with the sales assistant.
29. You can talk to the waiter at a restaurant when you order your food.
30. You can ask the waiter about how the food is cooked.
31. You can talk about recipes with your friends.
32. You can leave a message on a phone answering machine.
33. You can talk on the telephone.
34. You can phone trades people when things need to be fixed.Trades people sometimes talk very fast!
35. You can phone the real estate agent if you need anything to be fixed.
36. Repeat sentences from DVDs.
37. Record a program from the radio, listen to it many times and repeat to improve your pronunciation.
38. Repeat new words many times.
39. Work as a volunteer at a community centre.
40. Work as a volunteer at a Primary School.
41. Work a s a volunteer at a nursing home (aged care centre)
42. Do things by yourself. For example go to the doctor's alone.
43. Help another person go to the doctor's or to hospital.
44. Tell jokes to your classmates.
45. Have a party and invite people who speak English well. Invite your classmates as well, so that they too can practise.
46.Go for the Australian citizenship interview.
47.Build your own business.
48. Talk to other parents and teachers at your children's school.
49. Go on excursions with different groups of people.
50. Talk to people while waiting for the bus or train.
51. Talk in English even to friends from your own country.

READING

52. Read the labels in clothes.
53. Read newspapers or magazines when you while for a doctor’s appointment.
54. Help your children with homework.
55. Read and write the e-mails in the computer every day.
56. You can go to the library to read novels.
57. You can read every day about current events in the newspaper.
58. You can go on the Internet and read about many things.
59. You can read about popular pop stars.
60. You can read about important people.
61. Read the newspaper when you travel in a train.
62. Read the newspaper on the bus.
63. You can read the ads (specials, cars, etc) in your local newspaper.
64. You can read novels.
65. You can read poetry.
66. You can read teletext when watching TV.
67. You can read the subtitles on SBS movies.
68. You can read the subtitles when you go to see a foreign movie.
69. You can read subtitles when watching DVDs at home.
70. You can read magazines.
71. You can read the information on food packets.
72. Read recipes in our class blog.
73. Read recipes in magazines.
74. Read cook books.
75. Read instructions on electrical appliances.
76. Read instruction for your medicine.
77. Read the doctor’s prescriptions.
78. Read the signs and billboards on the streets.
79. Read the signs in a shop.
80. Borrow text books from the library
81. Read stories to your children in English.
82. Read children's books yourself.
83. Use a dictionary
84. Read each other's blogs.
85. Study with your children.
86. Read advertisements on public boards. For instance on a bar notice board, TAFE student Association, etc.
87. Read phone messages.
88. Read your class notes every night.

WRITING

89. You can write recipes.You can write a note to your teacher.
90. You can write about your day in your diary.
91. You can write letters to your friends or family.
92. You can fill in forms, like the TAFE enrolment form, joining the local library form, medicare form, etc.
93. You can write a letter applying for a job.
94. You can write E-mails.
95. You can write in the computer.
96. You can write your shopping list and check the spelling in the shop.
97. You can write postcards.
98. You can write invitations.
99. You can write birthday cards.
100. You can write sympathy cards.
101. You can write on the Internet: in blog comments, in your blog, in forums and in chat rooms.

Bridges

2007-03-07T16:02:00.000+11:00

Can you see the bridge climbers?

View from the bridge pylon

On Sunday 18th March is the 75th anniversary of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There will be big celebrations in the city. Read about it here. If you want to walk across the bridge that day, you have to register here. For more information on the Bridge, you can check the Pylon Looklout website. We went on an excursion last year because my students were interested in the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but climbing it is so expensive! The Pylon Lookout is much cheaper than climbing the bridge. Can you find out how much is it? What's the difference in price?

A different type of bridge is the one we can build across the Tasman Sea. What is this? It's the body of water found between Australia and New Zealand. There are some ESL students in New Zealand that would love to hear from you. You can visit their class blog, William's Class Blog, read what they wrote about their first day in class and write to them by sending an email. You can also write to the whole class in their classblog comments. Tell them about yourselves, your life in Sydney, etc. and ask them to visit your blog. Soon we'll be recording a message for them.
Marion's class is going to participate in our forum. It will make it more interesting. This week they have already started a new discussion. It is a challenge. Go to the forum and answer the question. The challenge is that you are not allowed to repeat any of the other students answers! This means that you have to read what everybody else has said. So go there early...
Listen to Lisbeth's podcast. She is one of our teachers. I think you will enjoy listening to her conversation with myself and my 2006 students.

Well done to all of you, including Marion's students, who wrote the answers about the beach signs, your thoughts about the text on the Aussie Cozzie and the comparison between 2 pictures from the pictures of Aussie Cozzies in different years. Please read my comments and correct your language.

I've received some of your reports on your hometown. They are getting much better and as you can see, your language improves with each draft. Keep them coming!

It's still summer!

2007-02-28T17:58:00.000+11:00

Hi again. I hope you all had a good weekend and are ready to continue our blogging adventure.

As you know, I spent a great part of our Australian summer in cold wintry Spain. Fortunately we still have quite a lot of warm weather left. In Sydney we have beautiful beaches and there are many activities we can do there. Today's work will deal with beaches and related topics.

Visit "Australian English at the Beach". First look at the signs in Safety at the Beach. Do all the exercises (on top of the pictures). Then answer these questions in your blog:

Do you know all the signs? If not,
Which ones are new to you?
Do we have all these signs in Sydney?
Do they have all these signs in your country of origin?

Read The Aussie Cozzie and do the quiz (at the bottom of the text). Read what other people have written about it in the comments page and then write your thoughts about it in your blog.
Look at the pictures in Story in pictures (also at the bottom of the text). Choose two and describe them in your blog. Compare the similarities and talk about the differences.
You can search for pictures on the Internet or the link provided below the The Aussie Cozzie text (Search for pictures), but remember that it's always better and more satisfactory to use your own pictures (and you won't be breaking copyright regulations)

Some of you wanted instructions on how to add links and images to your blog posts. I've published a video tutorial (permanent link on the sidebar)

I have also published permanent link on the sidebar to a post with all your blog links, Our Class 2007 p2p ESL EFL X. It is to make it easier for people from other ESL classes around the world to communicate with us. Make sure you keep your blogs interesting and that your English gets better and better.

Our Class 2007 p2p EFL/ESL X

2007-02-26T12:51:00.000+11:00

This is our new class for 2007. It is a full time class (ESOL 3 & 4) of ESL students living in the St George are of Sydney, Australia. We meet 20 hours a week, Monday to Thursday and our ages range from 18 to 52. This course is a semester course only and we hope to improve our level of English to be able to go onto different TAFE courses or work.

We would love to hear form you, either in our blogs, our class blog, Our Class 2007, or our audio blog, Let's Talk.

These are our blogs:

Burcu

Celina

Leslie

Winnie

Sharon

Jane

Angela

Wendy

Jason

Katie

Adding links and images

2007-02-25T13:37:00.000+11:00

Create link to Sydney.Write after link safely.
Add image.

Click here to see a video tutorial on how to add links and images to your blog posts: Adding links and images.Click on Link and save on your desktop. Once it's downloaded, you can watch it.

2007 student blogs

2007-02-18T22:47:00.000+11:00

Recipes, reading, writing, etc

2007-02-18T22:39:00.001+11:00

Podcasts

Living English Video Lessons

Digital Stories List

Adjectives

Oxford Practice Grammar Online

Manythings

English 4 U

Recounts

My Hometown

Descriptions of People

Recipes

p2p X ESL class blogs

Competitions

Games

Our second day...

2007-02-13T17:04:00.000+11:00

What is this picture?
Hi again!

You worked very hard last Tuesday and nearly everyone got a brand new blog!

Yes, you were right about last week's picture. My son took it at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. Someone thought it may be the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Not bad, considering they are both made of the same material and were designed by engineers.

1. Do a search and find out the names of the engineers who designed both the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Answer these questions:

* When were they built?

* Who designed them?

* What are they made of?

* Do you know any special interesting things about these two constructions?

Write about them in your blogs. Remember: do not copy and paste text from the Internet. It is a crime called plagiarism. Write the information in your own words and put a good link to a website that will give extra information to the readers of your blog.

3. Visit your classmate's blogs and say hello in their comments.

4. Tomorrow you are going to go to the library for a tour of the facilities. Listen to the podcast with Patricia: St George College Librarian. There is a vocabulary exercise to do before the listening. It will help you understand better. Write the answers to the comprehension questions in your blog.

5. Write a post about your hometown and I will show you how to do a link to a website with information about it. We will also upload a photo (it's better to use your own photos, you can bring them in a memory stick or a CD). Today you can just write a short description. Next week you can write a longer one. As an example look at My hometown. If you don't have a computer at home, print all the texts and exercises now.

6. I was sent a very good link for students of English by Oxford University Press. They have a section called Natural English online, with games and exercises for you to practise English in a natural contest. Check these ones about mobile phone text messages: Mobile Madness 1, Mobile Madness 2 and Mobile Madness 3. I have put a permanent link on the right hand side bar so that you can do more exercises whenever you want.

7. If you didn't participate in last week's forum, do it now.

8. Go to Time4English and in Lower Intermediate, listen to 5J Languages.

9. Also in Time4English, listen to 3A Computers. Tell Rosa if you find it too difficult or not.

Welcome to our first 2007 class!

2007-02-12T14:01:00.000+11:00

What is this photo?

See the previous post for a clue.

Hello everyone. This is our first computer class this semester.

You will be practising your English here. Some times we will discuss topics on our forum, other times you will practise grammar online in our Time4English subscription, and you will be reading and writing in English all the time. Not only that, you will be practising your listening through our podcast blog, Sydney's People Podcast, and you will be publishing your own radio programmes in our podomatic blog, Let's Talk!

You will need the following:

Buy a pair of headphones with microphone (you don't have to spend more than $11.00-$12.00). You will find them in P.O shops , big supermarkets and computer shops.
It's a good idea to bring a floppy disk or a memory stick to class, in order to save some of your work and to bring photos from home (you can also email the photos to yourself)

Don't worry if it all sounds too much. We'll learn things step by step. And the very first thing to think about is your posture when working on the computer. It's very important to sit properly and at a good distance from the computer. So let's start work:

Read this information about Computer Health. Click on all the links (Stretches, Postures, Consequences)
Do the Quiz.
Today we will have a look at what a blog is. Search the net for a definition (Google, Ask Jeeves, Alltheweb search). An example of a class blog is the one my previous class had, Our class 2006. Spend some minutes exploring it and you will get an idea of what we will be doing on Tuesdays. Make sure you visit some of the student blogs on the right hand side.
Your main teacher is Andrew, whom you met yesterday. Listen to this Sydney's People Podcast about him:Andrew: Nut & Num .
Go to the forum and answer today's topic. You will need a username and password. Ask me for it.
Now let's got going and create your own blogs. You will need an email address. If you don't have one, let me know and I'll help you get one.
Tomorrow is St Valentine's Day. If you wnat to know more about it, visit this post I wrote for previous studetns, St Valentine's Day.

Have fun!

Welcome to Our Class 2007

2007-02-05T21:44:00.000+11:00

Happy 2007 to everyone!

I'm still a bit jet-lagged from our trip to Spain. We only got back on Friday after spending nearly 4 weeks in Spain and three wonderful days in Paris.

We had unusually warm weather at first (global warming!) but one day towards the end of our stay we woke up to a Huesca in snow.

The pictures with the snow are views from my parents' balcony. You should be able to know what the lit up tower is!

Have a look at the slide show and see if you can guess which photos are from Spain (Huesca, Salamanca, Pamplona and San Sebastian) and which ones are from Paris.

Does anyone know the name of the sweet stick coming up from a thick chocolate cup? Yum!

BubbleShare

URLs for Hidden Web

2007-01-28T17:45:00.001+11:00

Thanks to Wendy Zammit for passing on this information:

URLs for Hidden Web Presentation: Thursday 20 October 2005
by Tessa Bachmayer Teaching Librarian SIT Ultimo.

Ask.com Search engine : A search engine that not only gives a list of relevant results, but also suggestions to narrow your search and lists of link collections.

Mooter Web search:An Australian search engine that clusters results visually

Cheatsheet: Summary of how to search using Google

Thumbshots: A great teaching tool for showing the need to use more than one search engine. (Only accessible with Internet Explorer)

Clusty: Organises results into categories that are intelligently selected from the words and phrases used in the original search query.

Jux2: Combines the search results of Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves, highlighting the overlap and differences between them.

Rythospital: Artist Virgil Wong, has created a glossy genuine looking scientific site where all the information is fictitious. Great for teaching the critical evaluation of internet sites.

Whois Lookup: Find out who runs a particular website, where it is hosted and what others say about it (great for detecting the authenticity of a site).

Alexa: Discover incredible details about traffic to any website

Sosig:UK Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) to high quality academic information in the social sciences, business and law

Infomine:A collection of links to important university level research and educational tools on the Internet.

Teoma: To find databases for a particular subject (say science) go to and type in science database.

Librarians' Index A database of excellent sites selected by librarians in California.

Completeplanet: Discover over 70,000+ searchable databases and specialty search engines.

Noodletools: Which is the best search engine for my needs? How do I cite internet sources?

Webbrain: Your search term became the focus of lines that lead to related areas, allowing you to move across the directory quickly and easily

Become: Search engine with a large index of material related to shopping, such as buying guides, reviews, articles, specifications, forums, merchants.

Ingenta : A comprehensive collection of academic and professional publications (mostly for a fee, but some free ones too)

Marta's guessing efforts

2007-01-01T19:15:00.001+11:00

The following are Marta's blog entries and emails that she sent me when she was trying to guess the country in the slide show.

March 17, 2007 8:50 PM megabyt (Marta in comments)said...

Hello Rosa
Marta wrote this, could you see my blog, today is sunday 18th. I read and saw many photos around the world in internet. Ihave many photos similars and same information.I think the country in the picture is Cuba. Is it?....

Tuesday, 20 March 2007 8:19 PM
I'm at it again, but I give up! I have been reading all the history of Colon and it was very interesting and the most interesting photo for me was
the sculture with the fort behing. I think it is the Fort San Cristobal in the old City of San Juan in Puerto Rico.
http://escape.topuertorico.com/postcard/scristobal.shtml
The boots are a sculpture dedicated to the discoverer of the country, Colon. So it is the streets of old San Juan in Puerto Rico .
History tells us of the arrival of slaves, first to that country and then to the U.S.A.
for that reason you find the lady with the fruit in the head and she is black. Hopefully this is it this time.
We'll see each other again.

Wednesday, 21 March 2007 6:36 PM

The last link to Colon is Panama: its capital is Colon and I'm sending you link with the streets of the city of Panama, very similar to the one in your brother's photo and with balconies and the Cathedral identical.

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/panama_city.htm

Will it be it?....Thank you very much. I had a great time!

Wednesday, 21 March 2007 12:13 AM

I didn't give up. I've put my children to sleep and I travelled through the internet again. I found one photo with the cathedral with the same street and balconies and the people too. I think it's the City Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

http://rsta.pucmm.edu.do/Ciudad_Colonial/galeria.htm

That is the link to the photos, hopefully it has many names in Spanish and a few stories of the natives +
the races which are the same to the ones that you mention in the email.

I am going to sleep.

Wednesday, 21 March 2007 9:58 AM In comments

Marta wrote this, I was all the night with Cristobal Colon in my dreams....jajaja

Really?...yes. Today I found the link with the name Colon is the money in Costa Rica, the women in the street has a skirt with colors red blouse yellow and hat red same flag colors.

I think the Country is Costa Rica

See you soon

Friday, 23 March 2007 8:16 AM

I want to tell you that I found wich country it is. It is Colombia and the Capital City is Cartagena. The fort is Saint Philips of Barajas in the Cartagena of the Indians ....

Well, I hope to have found it this time.

I will wait for your answer. Thank you,
Marta.

Sunday March 25th, 2007 I found the Country!
I found the Country, it is Colombia. It was difficult for me, I spent many days and nights reading and researching to resolve this riddle. The most important photograph for me was the sculpture with the fortress behind it. During my search I thought that the first clue was with the cathedral in the city, I found a similar place called Capitol of Havana which also has a fortress. But Rosa suggested to read the Histories of Cristobal Colon, my second clue was in the name of the discoverer of America (Cristobal Colon ). I found San Cristóbal City in Dominican Republic, San Cristóbal Fortress in Puerto Rico, Colon City in Panama and in Costa Rica the currency is the Colon. I sent many emails to Rosa with my possibilities. When I was about to give up she suggested to read again the path that Colon did. I rested for one day and continued my journey, again I thought in the name that Colon gave the first city "Las Indias" with that in mind I did my searching and found Cartagena Las Indias in Colombia

Visit her blog, BRAiN, where she's posted very good links.

Semeste 1 2009 students

2006-07-23T10:43:00.000+10:00

Kashpia
Patcharin
Bee
Yustin
Jean
Nunung
Sunita
Andrea
Desire
Lina
Igor
Mitu
Mouri
Asha
Yun
Rana
Aleya
Jovanna
Diana
Wang
Rita
Mercedes
Veena
Dina
Alan

For Teachers

2006-02-18T22:35:00.000+11:00

Rosa's Social Software Web 2

ATESOL pp on ESOL blogging & podcasting

Bloglines

Guidelines for using Blogs & wikis

Literacy Assistance Centre

Frankie's ESOL Worksheets

Judy's Podcast

Delia Bradshaw's Podcast

Reports: Information Texts (Factual Descriptions)

2005-08-22T21:16:00.000+10:00

The purpose of a report or information text is to describe facts. You can describe people, animals, places, events and objects.

The person writing the report informs the readers about the characteristics of the person, animal, object, place or event being described.

The readers read reports to get more information about those people, animals, etc.

Because we are dealing with facts, things that are always true, the verbs are usually in the present simple.

Because we are describing, we often use the verbs to be and to have.

Because we are talking about those people, animals, etc in general-not in a particular point in time-the participants (the people, animals, etc described) are used in a general way. If we are talking about Kangaroos, for example, we say Kangaroos are marsupial..., we don't say that kangaroo is a marsupial.

You always start a report by introducing the topic you are going to talk about and telling the readers what that is (classification). You don't have to say Today I'm going to talk about kangaroos. You can start like this: Kangaroos are Australian marsupials.....

After the introduction you can have one paragraph to describe each different aspect (part) of the thing you are describing. For example one paragraph to describe what kangaroos look like, one to describe their habitat (where they live), one to describe their eating, procreating habits or characteristics.

The most important things to remember are:

STRUCTURE
	GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: A statement of fact . It will include the name, group, topic: A Healthy Lifestyle is ..
	DESCRIPTION OF PART # One paragraph for each different part. Exercise, what it is and examples Diet, what it is and examples Mental wellbeing, what it is and examples
LANGUAGE	Simple present & relational verbs (be, have, includes, consists of,...) Swimming is good for ....Joggers have ... There are many foods....
	Generic nouns People... Doctors.... Children... A healthy diet...
	Noun groups (article+adjectives+noun) The mental health system...
	Circumstances of place (where), time (when) Twice a week ... . In the evening or at night ....
	Circumstances of manner (how) Everyone can keep healthy by exercising regularly.

webquest

2005-08-20T15:25:00.000+10:00

Our Class 2007 Webquest

A WebQuest for Full Time 3-4

Introduction

After 4 weeks in the computer room, you have created a blog and you have used the class blog, Our Class 2007, to improve your English. They say the best way of learning something is to teach it. Would you be able to teach someone about blogs, podcasts and wikis to improve their English skills?

Task

Write a post in your blog that describes how to use blogs, podcasts and wikis to improve English in the 4 skills: reading, writing, listening & speaking.

You can use the structure of a report or information text. These are texts that describe facts. You can have a look here for the structure and linguistic (language) characteristics of a report or factual description before you start writing your final report. But first keep reading.

Process

Search Our Class 2007, especially the last 4 weeks. Find specific examples of how anyone can improve their grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking by using the class blogs, student blogs, wikis, etc. You may have to do a google (or sensei, altavista, Ask, etc) search for a couple of questions. That is part of learning on the Internet.

To help you structure your explanation and get examples answer these questions:

What is a blog? Who writes blogs in our class?
What is a podcast? What is Patricia's surname? What does Patricia say is a good idea for ESL students? How many times was Andrew's house checked in Thailand before he could adopt? Who records the radio programs in Let's Talk? What is the latest radio program about in Let's Talk? What other titles can you see? Who interviews people for Sydney's People Podcast? What topics are there?
What is a wiki? How many colleges are involved in our class wiki? What can we do in the wiki?
What is a forum? How many topics have we discussed in our forum? How many people have participated in our forum?
What is Voicethread? What can you do with it? Where is the koala in a Sydney building? What is the name of the student who found the koala? Who has said this: Be careful when you see them (kookaburras), They're not scared of anything?
What is Walk, Run, Swim?
What is the meaning of damper, Adam's Ale, fag & fair go?
What topics cause disagreement between couples? What deadly disease is related to arguments between couples?
What is 348 metres high, 3.6 kilometres long and 1.9 kilometres wide?
Complete these sentences with the right article: cars use a lot of petrol. (General)
people next door are very friendly. (Specific - people next door)
The monitor of the computer should be The monitor should be .
a. at elbow level
b. at eye level
c. clean
What is the name of this in a computer screen?

Conclusion

Write a report that describes different ways of improving your English by using the Internet and different online tools. Give examples with links, pictures, podcasts, videos, etc.

Evaluation

Check this rubric that I will use to evaluate your blogging work. You can print it and take it home to try and achieve the highest level of performance by the end of this course.

Our Class 2007

Our Class 2008

Hobbies

Last Session: Summer is here!

Racism

Sculpture by the Sea 2007

Melbourne Cup Day

Reading Short Stories & Biographies

Couselling Services

Sydney Corners

So you went to Bundeena...Report wiriting

Lifestyle choices: Travelling around the world (Week 9)

Week 8

APEC week (7)

Webquest (Week 5)

Week 4

Week 3

Welcome to our second class

2008 Student blogs

Welcome to Our Class 2007!

For the Holidays

Our last class

Last Day of Our Course

Slide Shows

Pathway Talks

Library Week

Living in Australia

Assessment time

Health Expo 2007

Expresing opinion

Welcome back!

Agricultural show & Winner of What country is this?

State elections over

Happy 75th Birthday Sydney Harbour Bridge!

101

101 Ways to Improve your English outside class

Bridges

It's still summer!

Our Class 2007 p2p EFL/ESL X

Our Student Blogs

Adding links and images

2007 student blogs

Recipes, reading, writing, etc

Listening/Podcasting

Digital Stories

Grammar

Recounts

Descriptions of Places

Descriptions of People

Recipes

ESL Class Blogs for p2p Exchanges

Our Class Competitions

Games

Reading & Writing

Our second day...

Welcome to our first 2007 class!

Welcome to Our Class 2007

URLs for Hidden Web

Marta's guessing efforts

Semeste 1 2009 students

For Teachers

Reports: Information Texts (Factual Descriptions)

webquest

A WebQuest for Full Time 3-4