Apples to Apples

I purchased this game and played it with various family members over the holidays.

It's great! Lots of fun and a great vocabulary builder.

Thanks Jeff, for the suggestion.

Audrey

Class materials from Stats Canada report

Stats Canada gave a report on immigration from the 2006 census today. There is some very useful material on this in the Globe and Mail online edition (www.theglobeandmail.com) that I'm going to have my students look at including the main article "Foreign-born population hits 75 year high" plus:

Internet Links:
*Interactive: The New Canadians - 13 stories from across the country
* In Pictures: One hundred years of immigration

Videos:
* The immigrant experience
* Immigrants in rural Canada (The sound quality isn't as good on this one. I'll probably just recommend the first one.)

There will a lot more material in tomorrow's media reports. If anyone finds anything particularly useful post a comment.

Steve

P.S. I was dissapointed to miss the ProD day. Any comments on the first month's experience would be appreciated.

Immediate Learning Outcomes

• summarize a newspaper article
• wrote a journal daily
• corrected his/her journal mistakes
• wrote & responded to emails
• wrote to the tourism branch of each province for information
• asked and answered questions with the Ministry of Social Services about an address change
• went to Tim Horton’s and ordered coffee for a number of people
• went to a recreation centre and ask about what program are available
• organized a “movie night”
• took advantage of free ESL classes
• attended the Santa Claus Parade
• went to the Surrey Art Gallery
• read and understood the comment book in the art gallery
• expressed opinion about the Richmond Street Banner photograph submissions
• gave advice to another student about living in a “satellite family”
• understood what kind of information in found in the Yellow Pages, White Pages and Blue Pages

Official Provincial and Territorial Tourism Web Sites

In preparation for a class assignment in which students have to collect tourism/travel information from various provinces and territories, I have compiled a list of all the official web sites. I haven't decided yet whether or not I should give this list to the class, or have them try to find the sites themselves. My gut tells me I should do the latter, as I also want them to research it on their own. After all, they aren't always going to have someone do the research for them! Perhaps I will make them show me the web site they used to request information as a sort of validation test, as I want them to use official sources for this particular lesson. Any comments? Here's the list:

Canadian Tourism Web Sites

Alberta:

http://www1.travelalberta.com/en-ca/

Saskatchewan:

http://www.sasktourism.com/

Manitoba:

http://www.travelmanitoba.com/default.asp?page=77

Ontario:

http://www.ontariotravel.net/TcisCtrl?site=consumers&key1=home&language=EN

Quebec:

http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/accueil0.html

New Brunswick:

http://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca/

Prince Edward Island:

http://www.gov.pe.ca/visitorsguide/index.php3

Nova Scotia:

http://novascotia.com/en/home/default.aspx

Newfoundland & Labrador:

http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/

Yukon Territory:

http://www.travelyukon.com/en/

Northwest Territories:

http://www.explorenwt.com/

Nunavut:

http://www.nunavuttourism.com/new/site/default.asp

Guest Speakers

Hi all,

I should probably post this comment after she visits our level 4 and 5 classes tomorrow (Nov. 27), but just in case I space it out I would like to suggest what I think will be a great guest speaker. Her name is Julie Jaggernath, and she teaches a 3-hour seminar on money management, debt, and related matters. I'm really looking forward to her visit. Here's some more detailed contact info:

Julie Jaggernath, B.A., TESL*

Director of Education

Credit Counselling Society

The Non-Profit Debt Solutions Service

Direct Line: 604.636.0219

Reception: 604.527.8999

Toll Free: 1.888.527.8999 ext. 219

Fax: 604.527.8008

Email: julie@nomoredebts.org

Website: www.NoMoreDebts.org

#330 - 435 Columbia Street

New Westminster, BC V3L 5N8

Websites

Dear all,
Two useful field trip websites:
BC Field Trip Guide
CWP community web pages

Stella

Songs

Hi Everyone,
I have a CD of songs targeting grammar points.
It's a fun and easy way to teach grammar.

If you're interested in a CD, please "blog me"
and I will make copies with a sample lesson plan.
I can bring them to the Christmas Party.

Audrey

Games

Hi Everyone,
Nice to see you all today! It was great to hear everyone's ideas.

Here is a list of the games that were mentioned. If you
need instructions, post a request here on the blog and
the instructor who mentioned the game will, I'm sure,
be happy to post them or bring them to the Christmas Party. Also, please feel free to add to the list!

Pictionary (review of vocab)
Jeopardy (review anything)
Apples to Apples (synonyms) (purchase at Drexoll Games at 4th and McDonald) (see Jeff's comments)
Card Game 99 (practice with numbers)
Tic Tac Toe (review anything)

Audrey

PRO D

Hi Everyone,
I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Monday.
It will be great to hear how everyone is doing.

See you at Pender.

Audrey

My Student's English Ability Scare

One of my ELSA 4 students had a “scare” last night. She turned on the TV while she was cooking not really paying attention to what she was watching. She told me she just wanted to have English constantly surrounding her so that she can get used to being in an English speaking environment. This went on for almost two hours until she started to panic. She didn’t understand anything! Not even one sentence. She yelled to her son to come into the living room because she couldn’t understand the TV show. She said to her son, “I have to go back to ELSA 1! My listening ability has gotten worse from speaking too much Chinese.” Her son took one look at the TV show and said, “Mom, you are watching the French channel.”

Remembrance Day Homework Activity

Hi Everyone,
Have you checked out the CBC ESL webpage? They have some lessons that your students might be interested in doing for homework. I am going to assign the "D Day" lesson to my students for homework this weekend. Here's the webpage: http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/esl/index.html

Audrey

Pronunciation

My class wants me to spend some time on pronunciation. Any ideas on something I can do that is fun for an ELSA 4 class, but at the same time a challenge for them too?

How was the first day?

Did everyone survive their first day teaching ELSA 4/5? There's 9 students in my class and we spent the whole day getting to know one another.

What did you do on your first day?

Have Fun Tomorrow!

For those teachers starting their ELSA 4/5 classes tomorrow, I wish you all the best on your first day.

Ice Breaker

Here's an ice breaker:Each student thinks of 3 questions to ask about the Teacher.
Ss pair up and decide on 3 questions from their 6.
Groups decide on 3.
Then the whole class has to reach concensus on the 3 most important questions to ask.
Of course, the Teacher then has to answer the three questions.

Audrey

Small Class Size

Hi Everyone,
It looks like I'll have a very small L5 class initially.

Any suggestions for working one on one and/or teaching to a
very small group?

Audrey

Read the comments

Dear all,

If you want to reply to a question or comment, click on "comment."

Bill

Journal Writing

Hi Everyone,
Has anyone tried journal writing with their students?

Just Checking This Out

Welcome everyone!

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Happy blogging!