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!!!

Last post for Term 3

G'day all

I can't believe that today is our last class already! The term seems to have gone so quickly, doesn't it?

Well, today is DEFINITELY your last chance to finish your report and recount. Then I want you to start doing research on a famous person for your practice oral presentation.

Of course, if you haven't logged on to the DET Portal, then you can't do anything... not even read this post!!

Have a great break but try to do some of the activities suggested on the sheet to keep up your English skills!

Happy Holidays!!!

Week 8

What's this a photo of? Who took it? Where was it taken? When was it taken? Post your answer in "Comments" in this post!

G'day all

I can't believe that this is the second last class for the term already! I hope you are all up to date with the work you should be doing. By now the Webquest should be completed. If you are having trouble with the report please talk to me!

How are the reports and the recounts coming along? Nearly finished? They have to be ready by next Thursday so Ican check and correct them over the holidays!

Today's class will be a bit shorter than usual due to the morning tea for us in the Student Association. Congratulations to all who willingly participated in the event. As you've probably heard, the Student Association Board have generously given us $1,500 towards our end of year excursion. That's all thanks to YOU and Sally's class.

Last weekend, I went up the north coast to Foster Tuncurry for the Great Lakes car rally. It is a really beautiful place! I tried out my new camera but as you can see from the photos I got more dust than cars!

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Week 7

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Well what can I say? You were all FANTASTIC yesterday at the Car & Bike Expo! It was great hearing you use your English as you handed out show bags, evaluation forms, raffle tickets and food. You spoke clearly, were polite and very friendly. I had some very positive feedback from teachers from other sections about you all. Well done!

Last week we had a great excursion to Bundeena, didn't we? Not even the rain could dampen our spirits!!! I do hope you had an enjoyable day and got something out of it! I'm looking forward to seeing all the photos from the day.

Sally told me today about an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Have a look at the article and answer these questions.

• What is the article about?
• When was it in the paper?
• Which place is mentioned that you've recently visited?
• Name 2 ways to get there.
• What were the local people called?
• Name 4 activities the locals used to do.
• What's the beach called?
• Name 3 things you can see there.

Use these answers to help you write a short information report about Bundeena. Use the guide from aa recent post to help you with the structure.

Then you can write a recount of last week's excursion. Do you remember the stages and structure of a recount? Ask me for a hard copy of how to write a recount if you're unsure.