Musings of a language teacher

Populations

2006-12-15T17:17:00.000+11:00

Today in class we were looking at stuff to do with populations. I checked in Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) and it says the USA has a population of about 300 million. I also checked the populations of the cities we were looking at. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population to see which cities are the biggest. Tokyo tops the list if you are looking at the wider area of the city.

If you are just looking at the city, then the top three are in India. Seoul is No 7 and Tokyo is No 10 It's hard to measure populations I guess.

You can get lots of useful information from Wikipedia, but you'll know that from your reading exam. :-)

Finished!

2006-11-30T09:27:00.000+11:00

I have finished my online course. I'm so happy. Last Saturday I had to do my last assignment which was due on midday Sunday. I decided I would get it done quickly and not spend all weekend doing it. So I did some work on Friday evening, then got up on Saturday morning and finished the assignment and emailed it to my lecturer. Hooray. Then I went to the movies to celebrate. I saw an interesting documentary about an American architect who designs very way-out buildings. His name is Frank Gehry. Have a look at one of his buildings on this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry
Then in the evening T and I had dinner at a local Thai restuarant. I always have duck when we go there.
The next day I checked my online course website and the lecturer had marked the assignment already!! You'll be happy to know I passed.

Long time, no see

2006-11-21T21:24:00.000+11:00

I have been a slacker. I have not written in my blog for about two weeks. That's because I went on holiday and didn't have access to a computer. Then I came back and I had to finish an assignment and then my brother came to stay, plus a friend from Melbourne is in town, and now I have another assignment I have to do. Truely!

But when I have a minute, I will write about my trip to Uluru, which was great. I'd like the new students to start keeping blogs because it's a great way to practise English AND there are other benefits. Right now I need to keep working on my assignment.

GEAP A's wiki page

2006-10-28T14:37:00.000+10:00

Yesterday our class launched the wiki page. Ga-Hye and Andy designed a flyer to give to all the GEAP students and I sent an email to all the teachers and staff at PCE. We got some very good feedback immediately from some of the PEP teachers. They were really impressed by the web site. I'm impressed too by all the work the students did on creating the web site.
I'm interested to know what you thought of this project. Was it useful? Was it interesting? Did you enjoy it? Did you learn anything? Would you want to do that sort of thing again? Please put your comments here.

My studies

2006-10-18T09:23:00.000+10:00

At the weekend I planned to finish my first assignment for my course. But on Saturday I got a surprise when I went to my course website (my course is online). We had another week before we had to hand in our assignments. However, I decided to finish it so I can work on the next one. I want to be finished with my studies so I can sew and plant things in the garden and study French or Spanish. Working full-time and studying part-time is lots of work.
I think I'd like to be a language student. Is it fun, or is it a lot of work?

Crazy weather

2006-10-11T16:19:00.000+10:00

Today, they said it would be 34 degrees and the same tomorrow. It's crazy to be so hot in spring. Everyone is worried about the crops and gardens. I water my plants at night or early in the morning and have put mulch around them. Mulch is to stop the water drying out and to keep the roots of the plant moist.
Something has been eating my basil!! Maybe a catepiller or a snail. I don't like using poisons in the garden but I want to get rid of those pests.

The weekend

2006-10-09T10:01:00.000+10:00

I spend a lot of time at the weekend working on my assignments for my course. I have three assignments to complete in the next five weeks. I don't like the fact that all the assignments are due around the same time but once Nov 18 is passed I will have finished everything. (note that use of future perfect, you language students).
T and I went to the nursery (that's a garden shop) and we bought lots of plants. On Sunday morning I planted basil and marigolds. Basil is fantastic herb for cooking. I have bought a few different varieties. I'm looking forward to using them in cooking but the big problem is the lack of water.

Perth

2006-10-03T17:32:00.000+10:00

I have been in Perth for four days. The first few days I stayed in a place called Freemantle which is near the beach. It's an old suburb and quite pretty. On Sunday, my friend Bonita and I went to Rottnest Island. You go there by ferry and it takes about half an hour. Going over was a bit rough - in fact, it was like being on a roller-coaster. We both felt a bit sick. OOOH.

But Rottnest Island was fabulous. We hired bicycles and rode around the island. There are no cars on the island, just a couple of buses, so it's very relaxing and safe to ride. There are a few hills so it's good to have a bike with gears. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera because I didn't want a heavy bag so I don't have any photos. Rottnest Island has lovely beaches but it was still a bit cold to swim. I saw a couple of pelicans and also a lot of quokkas. These are Australian animals which look like big rats but cuter.

Perth is 1.5 hours earlier than Adelaide so I had to get used to the time difference. I wanted to go to bed early and I woke up very early.

Now I'm back in Adelaide. It's nice to be back. As we say, 'There's no place like home'.

New start

2006-09-27T18:45:00.000+10:00

We are at the beginning of a new five week course and our class is a little different. Three people have gone in new directions and we have two new students. It's a small group, but already very cohesive and everyone works well together.
We are starting a project, creating a wiki. It's a kind of website. I think it's going to be interesting. The students have chosen Adelaide as the general topic so it will be useful for other classes to get information from. Cool!

Lunch together

2006-09-23T19:22:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, our class went out for lunch. We didn't go to Morialta as it was cold and windy. Lots of changes. Lin and Se-Won have finished their English course, and so has Fatima. Wong is going to PEP. It's always a bit sad when people leave, especially as we have been quite a close group. But everyone has their own journey, so we have to say our goodbyes and hope to stay in touch.

On a lighter note, I ate Korean food for lunch. BiBimBap. It was very tasty, but hard to describe. Lots of things like meat and different vegetables sitting on a bed of rice, plus a fried egg yolk. When you get it, you mix it all together with kimchi and hot sauce. I had the hot dish which is good on a cold day. Then, today I read a recipe for this dish in the weekend magazine that comes with the newspaper. Curious! I should try to make it at home.

Sunday

2006-09-17T17:27:00.000+10:00

I think everyone in the class must be busy with essays and oral presentations as only Kiwi has written a new post. However, four people have looked at the Morialta site and are keen to go there. I hope the weather will be ok. It's hot today but I think Friday might only be about 19 degrees.
I have been busy working on my online course too. I'm trying to be very disciplined and work hard for two or three hours and then stop. Otherwise I spend ages at the computer but don't achieve very much.

Morialta

2006-09-14T10:30:00.000+10:00

If you click on the title "Morialta", it will take you to the Morialta Park web site. Cool, eh? You can have a look at the pictures and read about it. It's a really big park on the edge of the city so it's easy to get to by bus. However, it's not a park like the Botanic Gardens. It's very natural and has waterfalls and a lot of hills. See what you think. We could also go to the Botanic Gardens for our picnic or somewhere else that you would like.

Rabbit proof fence

2006-09-10T11:06:00.000+10:00

I just finished reading a great book called 'Rabbit Proof Fence". It has been made into a movie but I haven't seen that.
It's the true story of 3 young Aboriginal girls who were taken from their families and sent to live in a kind of orphanage, down near Perth. The girls escaped and walked back to their families. I can't remember how long the journey was, but around 2, 000 km. It took them about 9 weeks and all the time they had to avoid the police and people who were searching from them.
It's an amazing story as the girls were aged about 10, 12 and 13.
It's 130 pages long so you could borrow it from your local library and read it if you are interested.

Cartoon

2006-09-09T15:05:00.000+10:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Where's spring?

2006-09-07T22:58:00.000+10:00

I think yesterday was the coldest day we have had this year! What crazy weather. 26 degrees last week and then 15 deg this week. At least we had some rain. I'm worried that we are going to have a very dry summer and nothing will grow in the garden, and worst still, on the farms.

Madama Butterfly

2006-09-03T12:18:00.000+10:00

Last night T and I went to the opera to see Madama Butterfly. The music is lovely but the story is a bit silly.
Act 1: Butterfly, a young Japanese girl, marries Pinkerton, an American sailor. At the time, he thinks she is gorgeous but that in the future he will marry an American girl.
Act 2: Three years have passed and Pinkerton has been away from Butterfly for all this time. She waits faithfully and patiently for him. A rich Japanese man is in love with her and wants to marry her but she refuses him. Then we see Butterfly has a young son, whose father is Pinkerton.
She sees Pinkerton's ship is sailing into the harbour and waits all night with her son and her maid, Suzuki, for Pinkerton to return to her. He doesn't come and in the morning she goes to sleep. Then Pinkerton arrives, but he has his American wife with him! Suzuki tells him that Butterfly has been waiting faithfully for 3 years and he realised he has done wrong and that he is a heartless man. He offers to bring up their son with his new wife!!! Then he leaves as he can't bear to see Butterfly.
Butterfly comes out and Suzuki has to tell her the truth. In the final scene Butterfly stabs herself with a knife because she would rather die than live without Pinkerton.

What do you think of that?

Mystery

2006-09-01T17:05:00.000+10:00

I wrote a new posting this afternoon but it has disappeared into the archives. Why is this so?

Friday

2006-09-01T16:41:00.000+10:00

Wow, the week goes so fast. Tomorrow I have to do IELTS examining. It's interesting but hard to do on a Saturday. It's good for me to do it though as a lot of my students are going to take the IELTS exam.
On Saturday night T and I are going to the opera. That's exciting. I haven't been to the opera for a few years. It's Madama Butterfly.
On Sunday I should do some work on my course. I have several assignments that I need to work on. There goes my weekend.
Andy said it would be a good idea to go to a restaurant. What do other people think?

New blogs for class

2006-08-30T14:02:00.001+10:00

Well, we did it. It took a bit of time as some students couldn't log in but by the end of an hour almost everyone had created a blog and read my blog.
It was good to get some comments on my blog. One person mentioned they wanted more homework. This is good feedback for Anna and me. I hope you will all feel free to tell us things like this.
One of our themes for this week is food. Maybe we can go to a restaurant for lunch one day, or cook a meal together. Tell me what you'd like to do.

2006-08-30T09:02:00.000+10:00

Today I am going to introduce my class to blogs. I hope that if everyone sets up a blog it's going to help them with various aspects of their English, eg writing, grammar, reading....
I haven't written anything since the weekend as I've been busy with my online course. I feel a bit behind with my work. Funny being a teacher and a student. Quite different roles.

My first blog

2006-08-26T15:10:00.000+10:00

Oh, it's not really my first blog, but it's my first blog here. I'm doing a course on emerging technologies and it seems to be that the best way to really learn about the application of these is to use them in the class I am teaching.
Well, if I want my students to start blogging, then I too, should write a blog. They can read mine and we can read each other's.
Why do I want my students to have a blog? First of all to see if they are useful tools in a language classroom. Secondly, to encourage them to write more frequently. Next, to encourage them to read (each other's blogs). Also, it's a way that we can communicate as a group. There are only eight students in the class so that's not too much to read.
When I see the class next, on Wednesday, we can go to the computer room and everyone can begin their blog.