Computer Lab Hiatus

Hello, students of the seniors' class.

Well, it's been a good run. When I took over the seniors' class, going to the computer lab was not a weekly thing. Back then our class was small, only six or eight students--all men! They were from Somalia, Chin State in Myanmar, Eritrea, Iraq, and China. We started going to the computer lab every Friday after break.

Then the class changed. Those gentlemen--one by one--left the YMCA. One got his citizenship. One moved to the east side. And so on.

Meanwhile, Bernie spread the word among his friends at another school. One by one, YOU drifted over to me from that school. I'm glad. We had to ask for more seats. IRCC gave us more seats. Then we had to ask again. IRCC gave us more seats again.

We have learned a lot in the lab over the past several years. But during this needs assessment, you have almost unanimously voted to go to the computer lab either "never" or "occasionally."

So this blog may remain dormant for some time. We'll see whether it is still useful on iPad days.

Sayonara!

Kelly

Spelling City

Hello, students!

This week I want to introduce you to Spelling City. This is a website many teachers use. We store word lists there so that our students can practice spelling and syntax.

I have just put some of our words and sentences on Spelling City for you.

I really hope the iPads work Friday. I hope the wifi works. I hope you can try out this learning tool.

If you like it, I will load our vocabulary words onto that site more often.

Let me know what you think!

Kelly

A Fun App

Hello, seniors!

Let's do something frivolous and fun with our digital literacy course this Friday.

I want to tell you about a fun app called Aurasma.

First you need an interesting picture, such as this one I edited in LunaPic.

Then you need a video that you will use as an OVERLAY.

Aurasma will put the two together, and we will set up a gallery of our augmented reality pictures in the hallway. We can use this app for speaking assessments in the future.

Do you like it?

Can you think of other ways to use it?

Have a nice weekend!

Computer Lesson 2 - Getting Started with Email

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

This week we got back into our lessons on navigating the health system. Friday is our second instalment of our new computer literacy course.

Two weeks from now, we will be learning how to move files from one location to another using a USB drive and also by using email and cloud-based storage services. If you do not already have an email account, I will help you open one today.

This video is about avoiding some of the risks involved in using email.

Enjoy!

Our New Computer Course (Every Friday)

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

You circulated a petition and nine of you signed it. You told me that you wish to change our Friday "short, easy story" and pronunciation lesson to a computer literacy course. That's a fine idea!

First learn some new words.

Here is a website that will help us with our first few lessons as we begin with an overview of what a computer is, the parts of the computer, and some basic terminology.

Can you label the parts of this computer?

Practice your MOUSE skills.

This is an excellent worksheet for learning the parts of a computer.

This is the book we will be using in our course. It is designed for ESL students like you!

Online Shopping...Safely

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

Last week you requested that I teach you how to purchase things over the Internet. Of course we want to do that safely!

This is a great video about online safety when shopping.
Here is the presentation we saw about shopping and banking safely online.

This week we began by learning about PayPal. If you would like to open a free personal PalPal account today, first read the User Agreement. You may want to put that through a translation site or ask a family member to help you understand it. It is very long. This one is in Chinese, but it is not intended for customers based in Canada, I don't think.

When you feel ready to register, go here.

Do you want to browse items on Amazon.ca?  Next week we will learn step by step how to order an item.

Want to look at a local grocery store flyer?

Food Basics

Zehr's

Canadian Tire

If you would like to open MS Word and work on your compositions, I can help you do that.

We Can Use iPads

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

This week we learned about iPads. We learned the parts of the iPad (e.g., home button, icons, headphone jack) and a few useful verbs, such as tap, swipe, pinch and zoom. Thursday, each team of two gave a short presentation on how to use one particular app. They were informative; thank you!

Visiting the Doctor

Hello, class!

The first thing we will do today is learn how to save an attachment, download and upload a file. Please ask me for the handout.

When you finish that, please come back here to practice vocabulary, listening, reading and spelling. Choose what YOU want to work on!


VOCABULARY:
The Five Senses (Literacy)
The Clinic (Level 2+)
Medical Words (Level 3 +)
The Digestive System (Level 4+)


LISTENING:
Making a Doctor's Appointment (Level 2+)
Seeing a Doctor in an Emergency (Level 3+)
Seeing the Doctor (Level 3+)
Video: Talking about Being Sick (Level 3+)
A Medical Emergency (Level 3+)
Going to the Emergency Room (Level 3+)
Video: Talking about Accidents (Level 4+)

READING:
Going to the Doctor (Level 1)
At the Medical Clinic (Level 2)
Read and listen: The Importance of Hand Washing
A Visit to the Doctor (Level 2)
Preparing for a Doctor's Appointment (Level 3+)


SPELLING:
The easiest list is here
The intermediate list is here.
The hard list is here.



Have fun!