Summer 2020

Hello, dear students.

It's been almost three months since we have seen each other. Soon it will be summer break. I'm sorry we cannot have a picnic in Jackson Park nor go together to the Sculpture Park as in years past. We also missed out on a trip to the François Baby House and the long bus ride to the outdoor ping-pong table in Kiwanis Park. Wasn't it fun? If you search for the words "field trip" on this blog, you can reminisce. https://my-teacherkelly.blogspot.com/search?q=field+trip

Right now I am under isolation orders because I crossed the border last Saturday. I cannot go out for 14 days. My groceries are delivered.

It is my hope that you all take advantage of the many services offered this summer online. Take advantage of Ziad's computer lessons and Conversation Café every other Friday. Stay connected.

If you cannot read this jpg image, contact your orientation worker for the PDF.

Leave me a comment below with your first name if you want me to continue posting here over the summer. I love you all so much! Take good care.

The Library

Hello, students!

Even before our needs assessment, we began a module on the public library. On March 5th, we will walk over to the new library building (The Paul Martin Building) for a tour.

Tuesday we practiced filling out the registration form. The form we used is a bit outdated because it only offers two gender choices. These days it is respectful to give more options for those who identify as non-binary, gender fluid, etc.

Some of you want to watch a documentary to help you understand concepts like non-binary while others do not want to use class time for that. So I am linking to some videos here. You can watch them on Friday in the lab.

Also scroll down for some library dialogue practice.

Here is an interview with a young person who was born missing an X chromosome. They identify as non-binary and ask us to use the pronouns THEY / THEM. However, please note that many, many people who identify as non-binary are not physically intersex. A person can be physically intersex (in a variety of ways) and not identify as non-binary, and a person can identify as non-binary without being physically intersex.

If you find the terms confusing, you can go HERE for a list of words and their definitions.

For library dialogues, go HERE.

Tour a library then answer questions (listening lesson).

Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan

This week we are viewing The Miracle Worker starring Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as young Helen Keller.

LOG IN to Spelling City to work with our new words and sentences. Put in your username and password--NO CAPITAL LETTERS, NO SPACES!!!

We listened to this summary of the story and did language exercises.

I'm glad we learned about fingerspelling before watching the movie.

Wikimedia Commons

We will really have a lot of schematic knowledge by the time Bonnie comes to speak to us!

Erie St. Clair LIHN

This week we are continuing to learn more about our Local Integrated Health Network and what it can do for us.

You can use this time to do your equipment shopping homework.

Read about Home and Community Care.


Click "I'm a Patient," and then "Getting Started" to learn how to get an assessment.

That's all for this week. You may wish to go back and watch some videos I posted in September. Have a good weekend!

Virtual Tours, LIHN, Equipment

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

Maria did a great job teaching us about long-term care homes and the residents' bill of rights. She said we can take virtual tours of Windsor's LTC homes. Here are some links for that.

First, here is a list of LTC homes in Windsor.

Huron Lodge 
Village of Aspen Lake
Banwell Gardens
Extendicare Southwood Lakes
Heron Terrace

We've decided to segue from long-term care homes to a module about our LIHN (Local Integrated Health Network). I wrote a book about this before. We can use it again if we remember to scratch out the term CCAC and replace it with the term LIHN.

We've just read the story of Olive Smith and have started a discussion. Next we will learn about equipment we can buy, borrow or rent. You can begin to look at Maxim Medical's aids to daily living and other products.

Care Homes in Ontario

Hi, students!

Maria Giannotti of the Compassionate Community Project of Windsor-Essex Hospice will be with us on the 24th to give us information about care homes. We will begin acquiring some new vocabulary and concepts the weeks prior to her visit.

Friday in the computer lab, you can learn about a leader in creating a new model of care in long-term care homes in Ontario: Schlegel Villages. They have been pioneers in a culture shift from the medical model to a social model.

Here you can read the eight aspirations that guide them in growing and evolving toward what they want the experience to be for their staff and residents.

Schlegel Villages has a YouTube channel with a variety of short videos about life in their care homes, which they call "villages" because they are set up to resemble streets and neighbourhoods.

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Update: I have finished tallying the votes from this week's NEEDS ASSESSMENT. The topics we will study this semester are:

1. Health and Safety. Topics include safe urban foraging, how to fall, a fun line dance, the most common diseases, their symptoms and their diagnostic tools
2. Fun and travel (transportation). Topics will include airport announcement listening strategies and two new app-based ride services: Lyft and Uber
3. Canada. Topics will include our rights and responsibilities as good citizens in a local context, city government, our B.I.A.
4. Community Services. Topic will be our Local Integrated Health Network (LIHN).
5. Law. Topic you requested is traffic laws.

We decided to reserve the right to occasionally insert other short topics that may be seasonal or timely.

We Visited Hospice

Hello, students!

This week we took a field trip. We rode the city bus to Rivard and Tecumseh. From there, we walked for 15 minutes to reach the Hospice. It was not raining, but it was chilly.

Everyone reported having learned something new and surprising. You told me you were very impressed by the team of dedicated, compassionate staff and volunteers who keep hospice running. I think a lot of minds were changed when it comes to thinking about death, talking about it, and considering hospice care as an option for ourselves or our friends and loved ones.

at the bus terminal

Police, Witness, Victim

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

This week we continue with our topic of the police and crime.

Below is a very interesting story of a mugging that had an unexpected ending. Can you understand what he's saying? If you want to read the transcript, click this button.

https://storycorps.org/listen/julio-diaz/

The Library

Two years ago, the seniors' class visited the library and were given a tour by the librarian.

After the tour, students went on a scavenger hunt and proved to me that they could use the self-check machine. Actually, they showed me that they could not use it and that we should have done more practice runs in class. Ha!

Scavenger hunt

new library card

Hamdi can use the self-check.

at the information desk

Here is a wonderful collection of library dialogues for you to listen to.

Listen to this tour of a big library, then answer the questions.

Need Something to Do?

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

Are you enjoying the last weeks of your summer break? Did you know that there is a conversation class each Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 until 3:00 at the YMCA? Yes! It is upstairs in the first classroom.

My mother and I joined the conversation circle this week. Zakieh told us about three things happening in Windsor:

Thursday, August 24, 2017 from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. is "Women Only" swim time at the Jewish Community Centre at 1641 Ouellette Ave in Windsor. The cost is $5.

Friday, August 25, 2017 at 8:30 p.m. - Bruce Park Outdoor Movie Night! Come early for snacks and fun. The movie is free; bring a couple of dollars for snacks for your family. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket. The movie will be good for children and adults.

Monday, August 28, 2017 from 1:00 until 3:00 p.m.  - Bike Riding. Meet at the YMCA and walk to the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative office on Wyandotte Street and Bruce Ave to borrow bicycles. We will ride together and return the bicycles after the ride.

See you soon!

Kelly

Learning to Use 211

Would you like to search for a topic on the Southwest Ontario 211 website?

Here is a video we will watch in class during the second week of this module.

If you want to practice our new words, log into Spelling City with your username and password.

Enjoy spring break!

We are CCAC Experts!

Hello, students of the seniors class!

Join me in thanking Jenna Martin for coming to answer all our questions this week.

Please click HERE to log into your Spelling City account. You can take the spelling test and play many word games with this week's words.

Click here if you want to listen to the story of Herman.

Record music and voice >>

CCAC

Hello, students!

Please visit the CCAC website.  Explore.  Read.

You can also use Ellis software - visiting the doctor.

Cheers!

Free and Low-cost Things to Do in Windsor and Essex County

What	Cost	How do I get there?	Details
Ojibway Nature Centre	free admission, free parking	South Windsor 7 bus goes there.	Watch this movie
Windsor Folk Music and Arts Society	donation appreciated	Transway 1C, Crosstown 2	First Friday of every month at MacKenzie Hall (Sandwich)
Lee Lee Hats	free	Library	Help make hats for hospitalized babies.
Knit Night at Levigator Press	free - tea and snacks	Crosstown 2
Riverside Chess Club	free	Riverside Library, bus 2
DWCC Bike Clinics	free	Wigle Park, Bruce Park (downtown)
Community Gardens	free	Wigle, Bruce, Glengarry (downtown)
Women's Drop-in Coffee and Social (Games, etc.)	free	Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative
English Practice	free	Central Library, 1A	Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m.
Life After Fifty (Seniors Centre)	Yearly membership + class fees	Transway 1C, Dominion 5 bus	Variety of activities, many of them free after membership
City of Windsor Activity Guide	cost varies	locations vary	See catalog.
Windsor Summer Festivals	Some free, some free for seniors
Windsor PublicLibrary	free	downtown, 1A	books, DVDs, periodicals, audiobooks, etc.
YMCA classes	subsidized memberships available	downtown, bus 2	See schedule.

Remember to check the bulletin board at the library for lots more free stuff happening every month!

Stewards of the Earth

It's Earth Month! April 22 is Earth Day. Not only that, but YOU told me that you want to learn more about Canadian culture. You want to fit in here and you want to know what is polite and what is rude in Canadian society.

So this week we talked about cultural norms in our first countries versus Canada with regard to waste disposal. Where can we put our gum? Where can we spit? Can we put a wet tea bag in the blue bin?

We shared answers to these and other discussion questions in small groups. The next day, we tackled these guidelines.  We made sentences:

_________ go/goes in the red box.
_________ go/goes in the blue box.
You can't recycle _____________.
You have to take ____________ to the drop-off depot.

Someone asked what the drop-off depot is. We looked at it on the map and watched this video explaining how to drop stuff off. We also learned that you can get FREE paint at the depot--but you can't be very picky about what colour you get!

Here is an easy conversation about recycling.
Here is an easy conversation about Earth Day.

Friday we read about Dan Phillips, a Texas man who helps build affordable houses from reclaimed materials. This is a great example of RE-USING. Here is his TED Talk. You can choose subtitles in your language to help follow along.

Volunteering

Hello, students!

Aiying asked me if I could record "Lazy Mailman." I did. You can listen to it HERE.

Would you like to create a profile in the WEVolunteer database?

Do you want to practice spelling our adjectives?

Try to unscramble these sentences. This helps you with English syntax.

Or listen to this 1-minute audio about volunteerism.

Here is a news podcast about volunteering. It's a bit harder.

Post Office

Welcome back to lab Fridays, morning students! I'm very pleased you have voted once again to include an hour of computer time in your week. I think it's a wise decision.

Do you want to listen again to the text we listened to on Wednesday? It's HERE.
You can watch this video of a man mailing something ExpressMail.
You can listen, read and practice these sentences.
Try completing this dialogue about renting a post office box.

Want to visit the Canada Post website? It's HERE.

These are addressing guidelines.

Listen to Lazy Mailman Hides Letters (c) Oxford University Press.

The Library

Hello!

Later this week I hope we can walk together to the library. On Thursday we learned about the sections of the library and how the Dewey Decimal System works. We also learned how to look up a book in the online catalog.

We learned that we can search by keyword, title, author and by subject.

Today we are going to practice using Windsor Public Library's online catalogue. I will give each of you a worksheet with the name of an item to find.

Here are the next steps in case you don't remember:

1. Go to the Google search screen and enter "Windsor Public Library."
2. Click "Search Library Catalogue."
3. Click the BIBLIO Commons logo.
4. Use the drop-down list to choose keyword, title, author or subject.
5. Type the word or words from your worksheet and click SEARCH.
6. Answer the questions on your worksheet.

When you are done, please visit Settlement.org - Your Library to read about libraries and watch a video.

If you want to practice spelling the library vocabulary words, click HERE. For a harder list, click HERE.

Have fun!

Kelly