Week 5

G'day all!

I hope you enjoyed your week without me! I hope the assessment wasn't too hard! I hope it will make interesting reading over the next few days!

I had a fantastic time in Melbourne. I won some money on Derby Day but sadly, didn't back the winner on Cup Day! Did any of you have a 'flutter' on the Cup? I met some really lovely people during my stay there and hopefully I'll be able to catch up with them again in Sydney!

This will actually be our last computer class because, traditionally, EFS have a 'party' on the last day. As we mentioned earlier, we'll have class in the morning but at lunch time we'll stop and enjoy some time together over lunch. I will of course invite the other teachers to join us!

So, what to do for the final class? Well, as we were looking at newspapers this morning, I'd like you to try this online quiz about understanding newspapers.

Then, you can select an online story, print it off, and then write a summary of it. You MUST hand in both the article and the summary to me! In addition to the summary, include the topic of the article, the source, the register (formal or informal) and give examples to show this. Also, include 5 new words from the text. If time permits, use them in sentences to show you understand the meaning AND if you still have time, give your opinion of the article!!! 

Wow, that should keep you occupied for a while!!

It's been a real pleasure teaching you all. You are a very competent, enthusiastic group of students. I've enjoyed turning up each Tuesday to help you improve your reading skills. I wish you all the very best for the future and hope you continue to develop your English skills.

Take care, good luck and even though it's early, Happy Christmas to you and your families! Don't forget us!

Customize a free slideshow

Week 4

G'day all

I hope you've had a good week. Just a short post today!

It won't be long now before you get to the end of the course but I'm sure you won't miss the assessments!

Today, you can finish off the Halloween webquest.

When you finish that, have a look at the Moodle and print off Topic 15 which is on the Melbourne Cup. A very special event on the cultural calendar!

Enjoy the break from blogging next week! Have a good week and I'll see you when I return from Melbourne.

Week 3

G'day all

It's hard to believe that we had such warm weather when you think of yesterday and today! I heard on the radio that it's a feature of spring weather to have such  up and down temperatures!

I hope you had a successful excursion last Wednesday. Feel free to write about it in your blog if you want a bit of writing practice!

Well done to those of you who ALMOST worked out the 2 sentences from last week's Wordle! At least you were able to group adjectives with nouns to make sense!

Today (and perhaps next week) I've got a webquest for you on the theme of Halloween! Have you heard of it? Is it celebrated in your country? Feel free to share your knowledge of this event in the Comments section at the end of this post BEFORE starting the webquest. Then you can check back later and see if you were right!

I've printed the worksheets but you'll have to follow the online links to work out the answers to the questions. They are quite varied! It doesn't matter which order you do them in! In lots of the tasks, you DO NOT have to read the complete text, only a paragraph or two so don't panic yet!

OK, now you've read this post, come and see me and I'll give you the worksheets!

Good luck and happy blogging!

 

Week 2

G'day all

Congratulations to those of you who scored 100% on your Skillwise quizzes last week! I hope your certificates will have pride of place in your living rooms! :-)

Today, I'd like you to start by deciphering the text below and writing it out coherently. There are a couple of variations that you could end up with! As long as it makes sense, that will do! It is part of a news report and there are only 2 sentences in the actual report. All the articles, prepositions and pronouns have been removed! I'll give you the text later! Numbers are also missing and you'll need them! You'll need $12,000; 83 & 20!



When you have worked that out, have a look at one of today's online newspapers. Choose from The Sydney Morning Herald or The Daily Telegraph. Scan the headlines for an article that interests you. Read it, look up any new vocabulary then write a summary of the article in your blog. Post me a comment when you've finished so I can check it out! Please indicate the source of the article!

If you still have time left, see if the same news items appears on the other paper and compare the reports.

If you STLL have time, ask me to give you something else to do!

Happy blogging!

Term 4, Week 1

G'day all!

Welcome back to your final term of AEFS!

I hope you all enjoyed the break to catch up on a bit of whatever!! I hope you are all well rested and ready for what promises to be a short but intensive term!

As for my break,  I did a bit of well needed spring cleaning and managed to get to the gym on a more regular basis! I also managed to indulge in my passion of scrapbooking and card making on more than one occasion! Unfortunately, everything will now be put 'on hold' again as I concentrate on work!

I hope you all remembered to put your clocks forward on Saturday night! I

Well, let's get to it! For today's activity, I'd like you to look at the Skillwise website and complete the activities on text types. There are a few to complete so do as many as you can to check your understanding. You'll need to read the texts AND complete the tasks. Do the text types game, the types of text game and the Entry 3 quiz!

See me if you're unsure of what you have to do! Here's the link.

When you finish these tasks, you can go to your blog and write your opinion on how doing these online activites can help you to improve your English language skills.

Happy blogging!

Week 6

G'day all

I hope you're enjoying the milder temperatures Sydney has been experiencing over the past couple of weeks! It does make a break from the cold, dark mornings that seemed to drag on forever!

Well done on last week's newspaper reading.

Today's activity is a little bit different! It's an online reading task which involves skimming and scanning to solve clues to a 'crime'! I hope you're up for it! Can you help Angela Spelling? Click on the link to the video and follow the clues! Please write a summary of the activity in your blog when you finish! You can write it as a recount of what you had to do or a description of the game or a review! Your choice of text type! 

When you finish that, click on this link to Textbuilder and try some of the activities! They're quite challenging but fun too!

If you still have time, you can  look at some of the websites on this home page and do some other reading or grammar activities.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Week 5

Picture slideshow made with Smilebox

G'day all!

Welcome to spring! Last Friday I went into the city to have lunch with a couple of friends. Any idea where we ended up? (There are clues in the slide show!) I'll give a little 'prize' to the first person who can correctly identify the EXACT location of our lunch venue!

I hope you're feeling a bit more relaxed now that you've completed your research assignment! You should then be able to complete the activities for me today!

First of all, do the work from last week. Here's an extra question? Why was Matthew Coudrey's latest gold medal win historic?

Now, click on this link to the AEFS Moodle. You'll have to ask me for the 'enrolment key' so you can log on. Once you've done that, click on the link to 10752 so you can accesss today's reading text and questions. When you've printed off the worksheets and answered the questions, hand your work up to me to correct for you.

I couldn't resist this unusual video and news story so have a look if you dare!!!!

Good luck and happy blogging!

Week 4

G'day all and welcome to another week!

Hasn't the weather been lovely? There is a real taste of spring in the air! Let's hope it continues!

Well done to all those who've now created a blog! I think there is only one person missing and I hope that you get going today! Now you just have to start posting! That said, I had trouble accessing a couple of your blogs. I'd better check today that I've entered your blog addresses correctly!

As the London Paralympics are about to begin, I'd like you today to answer these questions about them AND to write up your answers as a short information report!

• What are the Paralympics?
• When did they start and why?
• When is the opening ceremony being held in 2012?
• What is the logo for the London Paralympics? (Add a picture of it on your blog)
• What's the significance of these Paralympics being in London?
• How many medals are 'up for grabs'?
• How many countries are sending athletes this year?
• How many Australian Paralympians are going?
• Who will carry the flag for Australia?
• What is the name given to the Australian Wheelchair basketball team?
• Find information about Kurt Fearnley and write about some of his achievements.

When you've done that, try some of the exercises on the present perfect from English4U. (the link is on the right of this page)

Have a good week and happy blogging!

Week 3

G'day all!

Well done to all of you who managed to create a blog last week. Unfortunately, the sheet of paper where I asked you to put your blog addreess seems to have gone home with one of you so I couldn't look at what you've done!

I don't think you all got a chance to complete last week's reading activity so can you do that first today please?

When you've done that, have a look at this grammar quiz on the present perfect. Check out some of the other exercises on the site too. Phrasal verbs are always tricky in English so try this one!

For any remaining time today, add a post on your blog introducing yourself to the class. Tell us where you come from, what you hope to do after AEFS and your plans for your life in Australia. Also, add a link to this blog and some of your classmates' blogs! And finally, post a comment to me (at the end of this post).

Have a great week and happy blogging!

Reading blog, Week 2

G'day all

I hope you had an enjoyable week and that the Olympics didn't tire you out too much! I know the Chinese students among you would be thrilled with medals won by your athletes! What about the rest of you? How did your country fare? I'm very happy because Ireland actually won a gold medal!!! In women's boxing, believe it or not!!! At least, we didn't go home empty handed! (We got 5 medals in total..Yipee!!!)

Last week, you took part in the SMH news quiz. Did you continue to enter the other days? Why not try today's quiz to have another shot at winning $50? The digital subscription will expire on the 16th so make the most of it!

When you've finished that, try creating your own blog. Well done to those of you who fitted it in to class time last week! Please ask me to help you if you're anyway unsure.

Once you've created your blog, please write your first post about yourself. Where you come from, your dreams and aspirations for life here in Australia or anything else you'd like! Then, add a second post with your 5 suggestions for staying safe andd healthy whilst using a computer!

This morning in class, we had a look at some 'Personal' ads. Here is a reading text based on the same idea, open this link, print off the worksheet and complete the activities.

Happy blogging!

Welcome to blogging!

G'day all and welcome to AEFS Reading online!

As you know, every Tuesday afternoon, our session will be in the computer room. I will use this session to give you various reading tasks to complete.

We currently have access to the Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition so click on this link to open today's edition. You'll have access (even at home) until August 16th. You will need a username and key so please ask me for one. Have a look at today's edition and complete the quiz. You should enter your answers and hopefully you'll be a winner! You can enter every day until the 16th if you'd like!

When you finish this, you can complete some online activities about Computer Health.

• Read this information about Computer Health. Read all the sections and read the information.

Once you have finished these activities, you can create your own blog! Click on this youtube link for instructions.

While this is strictly a Reading Skills class, you will also do some writing in your blog. It will vary from answering questions on various texts to summarising what you've read.

Once again, welcome to the class and Happy blogging!