Week 8

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)

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!
  

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.

Week 4

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?

Welcome to our first 2007 class!

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:

1. Read this information about Computer Health. Click on all the links (Stretches, Postures, Consequences)
2. Do the Quiz.
3. 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.
   
4. Your main teacher is Andrew, whom you met yesterday. Listen to this Sydney's People Podcast about him:Andrew: Nut & Num .
5. Go to the forum and answer today's topic. You will need a username and password. Ask me for it.
6. 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.
7. 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!