Last class for 2007!!

G'day all!

Well today is definitely your last chance to finish off any outstanding work in your blog portfolio. Ask me for your work sheet so that you can tick off the remaining items.

As we were looking at Idioms in class on Monday afternoon, have a look at Dave's ESL cafe and try some of the words and meanings. You can start with A or pick another letter of the alphabet if you want. It is a very comprehensive list and will keep you quite busy!

When you've had enough there, you can open Issues in English from the 'Start' icon on the bottom left hand side of your screen. Choose a topic that interests you and have a go!

It's been my pleasure teaching you this semester. You've been a great group and I'm going to miss you next year. I wish you all the best of luck in the future. Don't forget to visit me sometime!

Bye Bye!

These photos were taken last Friday evening before and during my daughter Katie's Year 12 Graduation Formal.

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Week 5

This is a photo I took in my back yard last Sunday. What is it? Is it native to Australia? What's ONE interesting fact about it? (clue- answer is in its name!) Post your answer in Comments below. Remember, this will count towards your writing portfolio evidence!!

G'day all,

RoseMarie and her class are joining us today so please make them feel welcome!

What a good job you did on your presentations the other day! I'll give you your feedback sheet on Monday, ok?

Well, today it's time to start making sure that you have all the writng pieces you need to show me your competence in the writing unit for this course. I'm giving each of you a checklist so you can check that you have covered everything.

You can complete a lot of it by looking at last week's post and completing the activities. Please open your TAFE emails and reply to mine. If you haven't yet accessed your TAFE email, then you must do it today or if you don't have an account yet, then please email me from your Yahoo or Hotmail so I can send you the email with the assessment.

Happy Blogging!

Port Douglas

Some photos of my time in Port Douglas.

Week 4

G'day all

Wow, what an exciting week you've had? I'm sure you're all exhausted from resuscitating and bandaging each other as well as having your heads full of new medical vocabulary! I hope you all get a lot from the course as well as passing the assessments and getting a First Aid Certificate.

By now you should all be ready to do your presentations on Monday (except for Lei and Yang who have until Monday week). The ones I've read look very interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing you all speak on Monday.
Don't forget to PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE.

For your work today, we are going to use some of the tasks
from Rosa's blog.

1. Tuesday was 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.

2. 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.

3. Today's ESOL Forum 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.

4. 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 on paper, 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.

This afternoon before we continue with The Castle, I'll give you some information about replying to Invitations.

Well, that should keep you all busy for a while! Happy blogging!

Last weekend I waslucky enough to go to Port Douglas for a couple of days. I was invited with my husband to the launch of the new Toyota Landcruiser. It was also a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Toyota landcruiser in Australia. The theme for the launch was very Australian with horses and stockmen riding on the beach. Toyota was hoping that the new car could arrive on a barge to the beach but windy weather stopped that from happening. The other days I was free to explore the sights of Port Douglas including the Skytrain and the Great Barrier Reef.


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Week 3

G'day all

I'm sorry I can't be with you today. I do hope you find the pathways talks useful and that they help you with your course choices for next year.

Take care and happy blogging!

Week 2

G'day all!

First of all, well done on guessing the name of the tourist attraction in last week's post! I enjoyed reading the comments!

I hope you all enjoyed the Migrant Information Day yesterday. Please add to your blog writing portfolio, a short recount (about your visit there - who, what, when, where, why, how you went etc, and the sequence of events) or a report about what the Migrant Information Day was all about. Remember the structure and language used in each different text type!

Thanks to all of you for your emails last week. I have replied to you but will return your emails in hard copy form for you to make the necessary corrections.

As Geeta may have told you, next Wednesday you will have a talk by the College Counsellor. To prepare for that, please print off the Vocabulary worksheets for the talk. Next week, Geeta will get you in small groups to do this worksheet for the Counsellor's talk.

After that, you can start your research for your presentation.

Happy Blogging!

Week 1, Term 4

This is a well known Australian tourist attraction! What is it? Where is it? Have you ever visited it?

Post your answer in comments but don't spend too much time doing this part of the lesson!

G'day all and welcome back for term 4. Welcome too to our new students. We hope you enjoy your time here with us as you improve your English.

I'm still waiting for some of you to write your report and your recount about Bundeena. It forms part of your writing portfolio (a collection of written texts on various topics) for this course. Please finish this today!

Another thing to do today is to send me an email (Ask me for my address if you don't already know/have it) and tell me how you felt when you had to do your oral presentations last Monday. Talk about what the hardest thing was, how you felt and if you learnt anything from the experience.

Once you have completed these tasks, you can see me for the information sheet about the topic for your oral presentation. I will not give it to you until you have completed the other tasks!

Enjoy the class and work hard!!!