Week 8

G'day all!

It's only fitting to end this semester with a topic we studied very early on in the course. I'm talking of course about Azaria Chamberlain story. It's been in the news again these past few days as the findings of the inquest were handed down. Azaria's death certificate has been amended to say that her death was caused by a dingo.

One of Australia's well known comediennes, Wendy Harmer, has written an apology to the Chamberlains in her blog. Have a look at it and compare it with the news article about the same topic. While you've got Wendy's blog open, check out the link to Lindy Chamberlain's home page.
Here's an interesting interview with a former park ranger who worked at Uluru. Read and perhaps listen too, to the interview with him from yesterday morning's AM program. I found this most enlightening!

When you've read a few articles you can then post a response in your blog! Perhaps you can give your unbiased opinion as a person who was not even born in 1980 when this happened or someone who was not in the country at the time! Your call! Just a few sentences will do! If you're unsure what I want you to do then just ask!

Well, this is the final post for this semester. Thank you for all the effort you put into your blogs and this class. I hope you take something useful away. Remember to visit the blog if you have time next semester or even after that! There will always be useful links for you to use and access. If you post anything on your blogs in the coming months post a comment to me and I'll check it out and/or reply to you.
The very best of luck to you all in the future. I hope all your plans work out and that your dreams come true!

Keep blogging!

Week 7

G'day all

I hope you've all had a good week and not struggling too much under the weight of assessments! At least your oral presentations are over now and I'm sure you all went well! This morning you did the collaborative activity very well so, well done!

The weather has really been very cold and wet, hasn't it? It makes me just want to stay at home with a warm drink, a good book and a lovely fire! Of course that's not possible but it's okay to dream! However, for some people weather like this is a real problem that stops them from functioning properly in their day to day lives. They suffer from what's known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)  I thought it might be interesting today to take a look at some information about it. Open the Moodle and the reading is called Wintertime Blues. Print it off and work on it.

Today is also your second last chance to complete some blog activites before next Thursday's deadline!

Enjoy the long weekend and happy blogging!

Week 6

G'day

Well, we had a short blog post last week because I was just so busy to prepare one properly! This week has been a bit hectic too! It must be getting to the end of the semester!!!!

I hope your blogs are all up to date! The LAST day to get your blog posts checked will be 14th June! Everything should be completed by then so I can check that you've submitted work to be assessed in this part of the reading skills course.

Today is World No Tobacco Day! What does this mean? Who runs it? Is anything happening at a local level? (ie here at TAFE) Is the Australian Government doing anything? Do an internet search and then write a summary in your blog. Add a picture of the logo if you can!

Then, look at the Moodle and complete reading task 11.

Happy blogging!

Week 5

G'day all

I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to prepare some blog activities for you today! It's been a really hectic week and I just didn't get an opportunity to work on it. Sorry!

There are so many useful links on the sidebar that I'm sure you can find plenty to do without waiting for me to give you a set task! Try out the Textbuilder again and complete some of the online tasks. Speaking of online tasks, I hope you enjoy looking at the Dating Customs and traditions in different countries and cultures.

Happy blogging!

Week 4

G'day all!

Well today we've been invited to join in the Pathways session for students from EFS, AEFS and D4. There will be information for students by teachers/students from other sections such as ABE, CEEW, TPC, Communication Skills etc. Meri has said she'll talk for AEFS but if anyone else would like to contribute, please just let me know! It's a good opportunity to find out about some other courses available for 'exiting' language students especially if you're unsure about what to study next!! It's also a good opportunity to listen to other teachers/speakers and see how much you can understand! There will be a grid for you to complete to help you remember all the information!!

I'm sure you all enjoyed the excursion yesterday! You certainly had  lovely weather for the day! As you saw some iconic buildings on the excursion, today's reading text  about the Sydney Opera House continues this theme! Go to topic 10 in the Moodle and print of the questions and the text! Complete the tasks and hand them up to me.

Happy blogging!

Week 3

G'day all

I hope you've all had a good week. The weather has been a bit strange going from quite cold mornings to pleasant days. However, in my office it's been winter for a few weeks now!

Some of you produced very good summaries last week. Well done! Your posts on the wallwisher were interesting too!

As you are aware, Sunday 13th May is Mother's Day. Do a little web search and find the answers to these questions. When was the first Mother's Day celebrated and why? Is it celebrated all around the world? Is it on the same day? How do people celebrate this event? Is it celebrated differently in your country? Write your answers in a short report on your blog. Include a photo if you can. (Ask me how to do this if you don't know)

For today's other activity, I'd like you to check out Topics 8 & 9 on the Moodle. (See the link on the sidebar on the right hand side of this page) Read the newspaper article and answer the attached questions! Print it out and complete the exercises. Hand it up to me when you've finished it.

To all the mothers in the class, Happy Mother's Day for Sunday. I hope you have a lovely day.

Happy blogging!

Wallwisher posts

Here is the wallwisher from last week. Scroll up/down or across to see your post. If you haven't added anything please do so now!

Thanks

Week 2

G'day all

How about a quick memory test? Last week you saw a video which suggested 23 things you could read!

Have a look at this wallwisher and post a sticky with either your own suggestion for what you could read or use one from the video! First in, best dressed, because you're NOT to repeat a suggestion made on the wallwisher so READ what your classmates post before posting your suggestion!

Wallwisher.com :: What can we read?

Well done to those of you who posted a comment on last week's online newspaper quiz! I knew you wouldn't find it difficult! It was just meant to be a light-hearted exercise based around our current topic!
I hope you find the table I handed out last week useful in completing your online tasks. It should at least help to keep you on track!

Today's task is to look at Topic 7 on the Moodle. Read the main newspaper article and then look at 2 of the stories in the related links section. What's the common topic of these articles? Do you think the parents acted fairly? After you've read the articles, answer the questions I put in the introduction. Write up your summary and opinions in your blog.

If you have time, check out this link on Skillwise English which looks at identifying text types! While there are only 2 tasks on this page, there are lots more available from the main menu! This is an EXCELLENT site for language learners. I hope you use it and navigate your way around the various parts! Remember to note down on your table what activities you do from it!

Well, that's all for today! I cannot access the blog from my office computer any more because it doesn't have Google Chrome installed! I had to prepare this post at home and by the time I cooked and ate dinner it was nearly time for Revenge!!! Had to stop for that??

Have a good week and happy blogging!

Week 1

G'day all and welcome back for term 2.

I hope you're all refreshed after your 2 week break! I had a relaxing but also a hectic time !This was because I achieved a lot, so I was kept busy but most of it was very enjoyable so it was relaxing!!! At least I didn't have to come to work each day so that was good!!
By now you've probably all seen the photos and video from the Easter party! I really thought I had taken more pics!! If any of you have photos perhaps you'd like to publish them!
I'm not very confident that all of you did the work I set for the last class so you catch up on that today.

Please also have a look again at the handout which outlines all the posts you should have covered in your blogs! I'm sad to say that some of you have only published one or two posts since the beginning of term 1! Unless you have hard copies to prove that you undertook the work, then I will not be able to say that you are competent in this unit even if you show competency in our 2 class assessments later in the term!

As we've been talking about and looking at newspapers all morning, I'd like you complete this quiz about newspapers. It won't take you too long! Post a comment at the end of this post and tell me how you got on with the quiz!

I've only included one reading activity today so hopefully you'll get that done too!
As you are aware, yesterday was ANZAC Day. Now I'm sorry if you've already done a lot of work on this topic this week. However, this work is from a reading perspective and aims to help you understand a bit more about its significance. So, open this link and find the answers to the questions on this worksheet.  The website is aimed at Primary school so it shouldn't be too hard for you to navigate around! Print off the worksheet first and use your answers to write up a short report in your blog.
I found this 'weird' video on YouTube about improving your reading skills!

Happy reading and blogging!

English idioms and expressions explained

Easter party photos

G'day all

I hope you're enjoying the break so far! I bet some of you have finished all the readings whilst others are not even sure where they put the folders or books???

Here are the photos I took last Thursday! I should've taken more! Enjoy the little video too!

Customize a free slideshow design

Week 9

G'day and welcome to our last blog for Term 1.

I hope you've been enjoying these classes and that some of the the activities have been useful for you.

Today, your reading tasks are in the form of a Webquest! You'll need to print off the activity sheets and then open the link for the Easter Show and find the relevant information in the different parts of the site. Once again, the worksheet can be accessed through the Moodle.

I found this fantastic website for Reading Skills. (Of course there are many other sections to the site so you can use it to do work on the other 3 English skills areas). For today's class I've chosen to focus on Skimming and Scanning! Have a look, follow the prompts and complete the activities! If you don't finish, you can do them at your leisure during the break!!!! Here's the link you'll need to complete the activities for today's class!

Well, that's about all I have to write for the term. Enjoy the break if you can, knowing that you've completed a good term's hard work improving your English!

Have a Happy Easter and I'll look forward to seeing you all relaxed and refreshed on Thursday, 26th April.
Stay blogging!

Week 8

G'day all

Well, we're nearing the end of term 1 already! I hope you're feeling settled in the class and coping with the demands of a FT course and all that it entails!

Your first task today is to access this link to the Moodle and complete the questions in Reading task 2. Remember you'll have to enrol in the Moodle if you haven't already done so! As me for the enrolment key once you get to that stage.

Once you are in the Moodle, you can then complete the other 2 activities on Doctor Jokes and Newspaper headlines!

Happy blogging! And remember to switch off for Earth hour! And remember you have to do one other important thing on Saturday night?? What is it??

Week 7

G'day all

I hope you've had a good week. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend the Harmony Day event on Wednesday. I heard it was a great success due in part to your participation and food! Congratulations to Adel who delivered a very heartfelt and honest talk about life before, and since coming to Australia. Well done!

I'm only writing a short post today as I'd like you to get ALL your work up to date. I did put a lot of work on last week and realise that some of the activities took you quite a long time.

So, to begin, complete any outstanding work from the start of this course. Go back over the blog posts if you don't know what you should have in your blogs.

Then, I'd like you to do an internet search about the origins and meaning of Harmony Day. Don't look at too many entries because you'll get bogged down! Afterwards, you are to write a short REPORT about Harmony Day. I'm sure you all know how to structure a report and the language used! Feel free to ask me to check it before you publish it on the blog! 3-4 paragraphs will be enough! One for the introduction and 2-3 others!

If you're up to date, then click on Textbuilder and do some of the activities.

That's all for day. Happy blogging!

Week 6

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all for March 17!

G'day all

Well I hope you've all had a beaut week! My weekend away was awesome! The weather was fab as was everything else! I hope you all had a smashing time too!!!!

I was a little bit disappointed when I logged on and saw how few of you had commented on last week's post like I asked you to! It seems to me that you don't ACTUALLY read the blog but just SKIM it for the links and do that work!!! That's not good enough! Not everything I ask you to do is through a link! Please take the time to READ the post carefully and complete ALL the tasks set! To those who did leave a comment, thank you and I'll try to take your suggestions on board!

To begin today, (that is if you're up to date with the previous weeks' tasks), I'd like you to have a look at this website. It has all the newspapers from around the world! Click on the Browse icon for 'Australia', then  choose 2 Sydney online daily papers! Select the SAME story from the homepage from both papers (if possible). Read the articles, print them off, write a summary of the news item and type it on Word. Then after you've put your name on the articles and the summary, give the whole thing to me! This is the link you need.

After you've done that,  I'd like you to click on this link and subscribe to the Moodle for this class so that you can access today's reading text and activities. You'll need to log on using your TAFE user name and password. The you'll be prompted to put in an enrolment key. Please ask me for the key so then you can access the site. Once you've enrolled you can click on the link to the Reading and print off the text. Work through the activities and hand in your answers to me! Ask me for help if you're unsure of what to do!

If you still have time, don't forget to access Textbuilder and do some of the activities! They're REALLY good!

Well, that's a lot to do so I'd better let you start working! Happy blogging!

Week 5

Do you know what this picture represents? Why have I added it to the blog today?


G'day all

I hope you've all had a very good week. After our reading about Clean Up Australia Day last Thursday, did anyone take part in the event?

Don't forget to write up the answers from last week's activity in your blog. Keep your draft and write up the amended version.

By the way, I'd like to remind you that your blog will form part of your reading portfolio for this unit, so please make sure you write up or answer any questions in your blog every week! It will be hard to catch up if you fall behind! I'll give you a grid next week whcih shows what you where you should be up to and it will have room to add the topics each week! It will be a good reference for you!

How are you coping in the AEFS course overall? Is it meeting your expectations? Are your English skills improving? Are you learning a lot? Is the homework too much? too little? too hard? too easy? Please put a comment at the end of this post telling me your feelings/opinions etc. It doesn't have to be too long!

Jennifer told me that you watched some video about both Clean Up Australia Day and Azaria Chamberlain. What did you find easier? Watching/listening or reading?

After the long texts you've had to read in the computer class over the past 2 lessons, I thought it was time today to give you something as challenging but of a different nature! Click on this link to Natural English and complete all the exercises. Then click on the link to Textbuilder  and try your hand at the reading tasks! Not as easy as they look!

If you finish all that then you can find out about the event that's celebrated all around the world today! Why is it important and how long has it being going?

I couldn't resist this Youtube video explaining an English idiom!

Happy blogging!

Week 4

G'day all

I hope you all had a good week. How did you survive first the heat and then the rain? Will the weather ever settle down? I do hope that this rain will stop by Sunday so that it doesn't adversely affect the event being held all over Australia! Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, of course it's Clean Up Australia Day! What is Clean Up Australia? Who started it and why? Who can be involved? How do you become involved? What do you have to bring with you? Where do you go? What's happening in your local area? Is there a clean-up activity happening there?

To find the answers to these and other questions, I'd like you to do an internet search for Clean Up Australia. I'd like you to find at least 3 sources of (print) information/references about the event. Include one newspaper reference! Then write up a summary of the topic which answers the questions I posed earlier and any other relevant information. Remember to include the references to the sites you used.

You are to show me a draft of your work which can be handwritten or typed but NOT PLAGIARISED!!!! DO NOT COPY CHUNKS OF TEXT!

Happy blogging!

Week 3

G'day all
I hope you've had a good week. I heard that we 'lost' another student! You're starting to drop like flies out of the class! I hope the rest of you manage to hang on until the end of the course!

To begin today, can you make sure you edit your blog post with the corrected texts. I forgot to give them to one of the other teachers to bring over to you! Sorry.

To  continue, you can open this reading text. Think about the topic before you read it. Do you ever cheat? Have you ever cheated? Is there any occasion when it's 'okay' to cheat? I remember that when I used to play board games with my children I cheated sometimes to ensure that they'd win because they used to get so upset when they lost! Did I do the right thing or did I do them a disservice because they didn't get enough experience at losing and therefore didn't acquire skills to deal with failure???

When you've finished reading and you have an understanding of the vocabulary etc, print off these activites and complete them. When you finish these, you can complete the writing task for extra prectice.

Finally, have a go at this phrasal verb quiz!You can try some of the others if you like and if time permits!

Until next time! Happy blogging!

Week 2

G'day all

Welcome to our second lesson in the computer lab. I hope everyone was able to log on without any trouble this morning! During the week I manged to add most of your blog addresses to my home page. There were a couple of blogs I couldn't open because you either gave me the wrong details or I had trouble deciphering your writing! When I could open your blog I  wrote comments if you had published a post!

To begin today, you can finish off the post you began last week on Computer Health and Safety. When you've done that, unjumble the 4 sentences hidden in this wordle. The larger words indicate that the word is used more than once. The first word of each sentence is capitalised. Prepositions and pronouns have been omitted! You will need to add some of these words so that you can write sentences that make sense!!!Good luck.



Since Valentine's Day was last Tuesday, I thought it was appropriate to look at the notion of love and St Valentine's Day! Did you celebrate the day with your wife/husband/partner? What did you do? Did you share a romantic time?

How did you and your wife/husband meet? Did you answer an ad in a newspaper or meet online? Have a look at this reading text which is based on a Lonely Hearts page!  Print  off the pages and complete the activities that go with it.

Happy blogging!

Welcome!

G'day all and welcome to AEFS Reading!

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

Your first task today is to complete some online activities about Computer Health.

• Read this information about Computer Health. Click on all the sections and read the information.
• Do some of these quizzes to check your understanding of the topic.
  

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

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. As I'm also responsible for the grammar unit in the AEFS course, I'll direct you to do activities in this area also.

Once again, welcome to the class and Happy blogging!