Linwood and Port Republic School Visits

I went on visits to Port Republic elementary school and Linwood Middle School to observe the various uses of technology in the two schools.

I was very impressed with all of the technology that Linwood Middle School had to offer their students. We visited several classrooms that had whiteboards in them. These white boards were used for many things such as student presentations and teacher lectures and lessons. I was impressed while watching student power point presentations that they knew how to use the white boards and could present their power points without any help from the teacher. Another good use of the white boards was in a math class. The students were learning about geometry, but instead of having to draw the different shapes on the chalkboard the teacher was able to draw accurate shapes with the white board and projected them on the board. This allowed for the teacher to ensure that the shapes were accurate so the students could get their measurements and it saved a lot of time because the teacher didn't have to painstakenly draw the shapes by hand. In the library Linwood also had many different kinds of technology available to the students. They had laptops for the students that had lights on the top so the teacher could monitor if the students were using them when they were supposed to be listening.

Port Republic School was small but it had a good amount of technology for such a small school. We were told that almost every classroom had a whiteboard in it, and we were able to observe one second grade classroom making use of theirs. The teacher pulled up different websites with interactive educational games and the students were able to actively participate and play them by using the white board. I think this kept the students attention and kept them engaged much better than if they had to tell the teacher what to do for the game. We also visited a technology room where students were learning how to do excel spreadsheets.

Overall the two visits were very helpful in seeing how technology is used in many different classrooms for many different lessons and subjects. I will definitely remember these visits and make use of what I learned through them.

The Great Debate

In just 5 days from now we are having our first class debate! Debates are a great way to practice our spoken English because we have to make sure we speak in such a way that others understand what we're saying and understand our point of view. I gave you all a paper with the debate topic on it, but here it is again: "First world countries have an obligation to help third world countries with funds and assistance in cases of hunger and poverty". You all have been placed in 1 of 2 groups. Group A believes that statement is true, that first world countries do have an obligation. Group B believes that statement is false, that first world countries do no have that obligation. This is a very relevant topic for us to discuss and debate on because of all that has happened and is going on in Hati. You all should be able to put your own thoughts and opinions related to Hati and other similar events in this debate.

Your homework over the next 5 nights is to gather your thoughts and opinions and put them into written form to help you on the day of the debate. You need to organize your thoughts into points and with those points give reasons, examples, etc to back your point up. You will also need to try and think of what the other team is going to say and how you are going to defend your side of the debate.

Here are some helpful words and phrases to get you started in the right direction:

Opinions, Preferences:

I think..., In my opinion..., I'd like to..., I'd rather..., I'd prefer..., The way I see it..., As far as I'm concerned..., If it were up to me..., I suppose..., I suspect that..., I'm pretty sure that..., It is fairly certain that..., I'm convinced that..., I honestly feel that, I strongly believe that..., Without a doubt,...,

Disagreeing:

I don't think that..., Don't you think it would be better..., I don't agree, I'd prefer..., Shouldn't we consider..., But what about..., I'm afraid I don't agree..., Frankly, I doubt if..., Let's face it, The truth of the matter is..., The problem with your point of view is that...

Giving Reasons and offering explanations: To start with, The reason why..., That's why..., For this reason..., That's the reason why..., Many people think...., Considering..., Allowing for the fact that..., When you consider that...

Great Job!

I have greatly enjoyed reading your short stories using the picture from the blog and our new vocabulary words. You guys are definitely progressing in your ability to write in English which means you are also progressing in your understanding of it! You all should be very proud of yourselves! Just for fun I also wrote a short story about picture number 5. In my brainstorm I chose "angry" and "young" to describe the picture. Here is my story, if you come across a word you don't know look it up!

There once was a little boy named Jack who lived in a house near the beach with his mother, father, and two brothers. His family was neither rich nor poor, but somewhere in between. Even at a young age, Jack was a very brave boy who loved adventures. Anything that looked interesting or exciting Jack was willing to try. His mother was always telling him to be careful! Once he came across a crab in the sand who was trying to scurry back into the ocean. He thought the crab might be friendly so he tried to pick it up, but it snapped its pinchers at him. When he told his older brother what he did his brother called him crazy and said crabs are never friendly. Another time Jack saw a glass bottle in the water not too far from the sand. He carelessly swam out to it thinking that it had an important message inside. He thought if there was an important message inside he would become famous for finding it. There were so many popular stories about people finding important messages in bottles in the ocean he was certain he would find one too. But when he got to the bottle there was no message inside, it was just an ugly old bottle. He felt very unlucky, and very sad.

One morning Jack was on the beach walking his dog Spot. He was very happy because tomorrow was his birthday! As he was passing the jetty he looked out and saw the most beautiful seashell sitting on a rock not that far away. The seashell looked so perfect and so beautiful that he just had to go get it, even though his mother insisted he never walk on the jetty because it was very dangerous. But being the clever boy that he was he knew his mom could not see the jetty from the house so he started to walk towards the shell. Just as he was about to grab it a wave came and pushed the shell into a thin space between the rocks. He bent down to reach it with his small hand but just then his mother grabbed him by the other arm and took him off the jetty. "You're lucky you didn't slip and fall into the ocean!" she yelled after he told her why he was on the jetty. Jack made his angry face and looked away from her. He almost had the shell! His mother laughed, "you look so cute when you're mad that I can't stay mad either". She let go of his arm and slowly and carefully walked onto the jetty and got the shell for him. "Consider it an early birthday present" she said.

Jokes and Riddles

Every language has its own jokes that play on certain words, combinations of words, or aspects of the language. There are many many English jokes, as I'm sure there are many language jokes in your first language. The ability to understand jokes in another language means that you are able to think critically about the words and what is being asked, not simply translating.

I've posted the mp3s to a couple of jokes and riddles here. Listen to them and if you don't understand the joke the first time take some time to think about it and then listen again. Leave a comment on this post explaining one of the jokes that you got, and if you didn't understand some of them one of your classmates may be able to help you out.

riddles

riddles 2

jokes

Imagine

Here is a good exercise and word-recognition activity for you all to do. Simply listen to the song and then answer the fill in the blank questions after the song is over. It's one thing to recognize words on paper but it is also very important to recognize spoken (and sung!) words. Sine the State of the Union Address has got us thinking about society I chose "Imagine"- a famous song by John Lennon. Listen to the song, take the quiz, and try and think about what John Lennon means in his song and how he would like the world to be.

State of the Union Address

Last night, as you know, President Obama gave his State of the Union Address. Hopefully you all watched at least some of the speech last night....several channels also had the speech translated in Spanish so you have no excuse! Above is something called a Wordle. This is a graphic that displays the most common words that President Obama said in his speech. The larger the word, the more often he used it. By looking at this Wordle someone can get an idea of what the speech was mainly about just by seeing what words were used.

What words do you see?

Are there some you don't know/understand?

Which is the most important, in your opinion?

After you study the Wordle from President Obama's speech click on this link. It will take you to another blog. When you get there, click on the picture of the Wordle on the top of the page. This will show you Wordle's from a couple other presidents such as Georege Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Study the Worlde's and look for the differences between the past presidents and our current president.

Chanting!

Today in class we did a chant together to practice the uses of 'in' and 'at' when describing a location. "In a space, at a place!" This is a very common mistake that everyone makes so don't get discouraged...practice! I've recorded myself saying the teacher part of the chant so you can repeat the chant after me for more practice.

chat from: http://esl.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/chant19.htm?r=e

Teacher: In, at


Class: In, at

Teacher: in a space


Class: in a space

Teacher: at a place


Class: at a place

Teacher:in a space - in the room


Class: in a space - in the room

Teacher: at a place - at the school


Class: at a place - at the school

Teacher: in the garden - at the door


Class: in the garden - at the door

Teacher: Let's meet in a city at a place.


Class: Let's meet in a city at a place.

Teacher: She lives in New York...


Class: She lives in New York...

Teacher: ... and she works at a bank.


Class: ... and she works at a bank.

Teacher: We sleep in our houses ...


Class: We sleep in our houses ...

Teacher: and we meet at the mall.


Class: and we meet at the mall.

Teacher: in, at


Class: in, at

Teacher: in a space


Class: in a space

Teacher: at a place


Class: at a place

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Working on Our Writing

Over the next couple of days we are going to be working on our story writing skills using the grammar we have learned in the beginning of the year along with our new vocabulary words. Here is the assignment: I want you to write a short story about one of the six pictures from the last post. Remember the last assignment on here was to choose at least 2 words to describe each picture...so you each already have an idea for your story! Expand on those 2 words you chose and write a story that shows why those 2 words describe that person. Post your story as a reply to this post so that we all can read each others ideas and learn from each other....remember we are a community of learners!

Below are some links to different sites to refresh the grammar lessons we have learned eariler this year. Please take some time and look at them so you do not make these common grammar mistakes in your story!

Making complex sentences
We do NOT want: Maria is a girl. She loves cats. We DO want: Maria is a girl who loves cats.
They're, Their, There
Make sure you are using the correct word!!
Family Words
If you're writing about a family click this link to refresh your memory on family relationships
Interesting- More Interesting
A couple of our vocabulary words have these grammer rules!

Happy Writing!

Our Words in Pictures

Here is a group of 6 pictures which can each be described by at least 2 of our words from the word list. Post a sticky on the wallwisher with your responses. There are a couple different words that can be used for each picture so don't worry if you have something different from your classmates!

1.)

2.)
3.)

4.) 5.) 6.)

Songs

Another way to increase your understanding of a word is to listen to how it is used in a song. In the sidebar I made a mixpod of a couple popular songs that have our vocab words in them. As you about your week try and listen for our vocab words in the songs you hear on the radio or play in your house. As you find them post them on here and I will add them to our mixpod.

Words to Describe People

Today in class we made a new vocabulary list of words that are commonly used in stories to describe a person. We decided it was important to know these words because they are very useful in our everyday speech and writing.

Here is the list:

angry
beautiful
brave
careful
careless
clever
crazy
cute
dangerous
exciting
famous
friendly
happy
interesting
lucky
old
poor
popular
rich
sad
thin
ugly
unlucky
young

http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/games/f/words.php?f=adjectives_for_people_1

This link will take you to an interactive game to better learn the definitions of these words. The game provides you with several English definitions as well as definitions in your native language. Take the time to read a couple definitions so that you have a good understanding of what the words mean. For homework I'd like you each to write a sentence of your own for each word that shows me that you understand its meaning. Please post these sentences as a response to this post.