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!

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!

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!

Too, Enough and Very

Hello, class!

This week we are going to study TOO, VERY and ENOUGH.

Please read this overview of the rules for using TOO, VERY and ENOUGH.

You can also watch Jennifer teach a lesson about TOO and ENOUGH.

Next try this quiz to test your understanding.

We will also begin this week learning to use Microsoft Word. If you want, you can open Word and experiment with the menus. Call me over. I can help you!

Jouzeef, here is a game for you to try. It's called Phoneme Pop.

Have fun!

Kelly

July 12 and 19 - Computer Lab Days

Hello, class!

If you want, you can use Ellis Intro or practice using Google Maps.

SPELLING

NEIGHBOURHOOD vocabulary -- easier words are HERE.

NEIGHBOURHOOD vocabulary -- harder words are HERE.

THE CITY vocabulary-- click HERE.

GRAMMAR

Practice the past tense of irregular verbs HERE.

GIVING DIRECTIONS

Here is a video you can watch to learn how to give directions.

Cheers!