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!

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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!