Just as we were getting into our unit on falls prevention and how to fall to minimize injury, one of you took a tumble and ended up with a broken nose. We are all so happy that our classmate is okay.
Here are some videos to help you practice the concepts and vocabulary around this topic. On the 15th, Amanda from the U of Windsor's kinesiology department will come talk to us about preventing falls and what to do if you have already tripped and know you are going down.
Huarong reminded me that I had agreed to bring in a speaker to talk to you all about hearing aids. I'm sorry to say that my audiologist has never responded to my many messages. So I contacted the Canadian Hearing Society and was put in touch with Bonnie in their education and outreach department. She is happy to come out and give us a presentation on hearing, types of hearing loss, and hearing devices. She can even do a sort of screening, but it's not a hearing test. She is not permitted to administer an actual hearing test.
Meanwhile, let's begin learning about the ear and hearing, shall we?
And here is an instructional video on fingerspelling in American Sign Language.
And here is a little lesson on 25 basic ASL signs for beginners.
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:
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
Fun and travel (transportation). Topics will include airport announcement listening strategies and two new app-based ride services: Lyft and Uber
Canada. Topics will include our rights and responsibilities as good citizens in a local context, city government, our B.I.A.
Community Services. Topic will be our Local Integrated Health Network (LIHN).
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.
It's not often that we have an excuse to study names of flowers, but that is one of the most important features of Jackson Park. It contains the Queen Elizabeth II Gardens.
So we learned the names of ten flowers (you already knew the word "rose.")
If it ever stops raining, we may finally be able to take our field trip. When we do, we are going to practice phrases such as:
Let's...
Do you want to...
Would you like to...
...take a stroll?
...take a selfie?
...go look at that statue?
...go look at that memorial?
...go look at that monument?
...go sit on that bench?
...play badminton?
...play with the Chinese yo-yo?
Do you know the name of that...
...plant?
...tree?
...flower?
When we visit the park, we may see a statue of a famous poet. Here is a poem he wrote.
A Red, Red Rose -- Robert Burns, 1794
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!
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.
Today we talked about technology for daily life. After brainstorming some apps and tools we already know how to use, we watched this wonderful video about a grumpy old man who learned to use Instagram and what motivated him to do so.
After the short film, Awatif opened Instagram on her phone and found this page. She now follows "Drawings_for_my_grandchildren." I was also able to do this.
Next I gave you a list of apps and tools we may wish to learn to use in our class this year. You were to discuss these ideas in your groups. One group asked me the meaning of Google Cardboard. I had ordered three over the summer and put one together, so I was able to demonstrate how we can take a tour of another place on earth or visit a museum without leaving the classroom. Several of you were very keen to learn more. Awatif asked where she could order the cheaper "knock-off" version of a virtual reality (VR) viewer online. Here are some possible links for online shopping. I paid only $3 each for mine. Note that I had to remove my iPhone case in order for it to fit in the viewer.
Wow, check out this Japanese woman who has learned to write computer programming code. She has designed an application to introduce young people to a part of Japanese culture that she fears young people will not learn about otherwise.
How is your summer going?
My mother is returning to Windsor this coming Sunday for her second visit of the summer. During her last (short) visit, I could not do very much with her since I had just had surgery. But now I'm feeling much better and have enough energy to take her to the Detroit Institute of Arts, visit a beautiful park where she can paint, and so on. She will stay for two weeks.
After my mother leaves, I will start to think about planning for our new school term. I have collected your feedback forms from last term and will use them in my planning. Also, I have gained some new skills over the summer! I used my down time to take a class. It was fun. I hope I can bring fresh ideas into our classroom this fall.
Today we wrote a Language Experience Approach book to capture our experience and turn it into a way to learn language. For the rest of the week, we will work with the grammar and vocabulary in this story.
We did a needs assessment by passing around pamphlets that we picked up on Health Access Day. You chose three topics you would like to explore further: Alzheimer's Disease, the VON, and the Clinic Seeker app.
Let's start this week with Alzheimer's Disease. Although it's an ambitious undertaking, I'd like to show this movie in two parts. We will have quite a number of terms to learn before we can watch it, but I know we can handle it if we break it down over time.
This week we have divided into groups in order to share our expertise with one another. One group will teach the rest of us how to play ping pong. That will come in handy when we take our field trip to the open air ping pong table in Kiwanis Park.
The second group will teach us how to fish. Weimiao and many other students in our class are very accomplished Detroit River anglers.
The third group will teach us how to knit. That group needs for me to post three short videos for them. Here they are.
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.
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!
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.
Here is a little something to get you thinking about our new school year together. What do we want to accomplish? What do we want to learn? What do we want to share with one another? This man is very inspiring.
Check out YouTube for an endless source of "how to" videos. Try searching for "duct tape" or "how to make a cap." Here is the "no sew" cap that one student is interested in making.
I was very pleased when you asked me today to post something on this web log for you to do during the summer break. I'm so glad you want to keep practicing English.
taken May 30 (we'd forgotten to change the date on the board)
Would you like to try to find exterminators, electricians, plumbers and appliance repair people in the Yellow Pages? Start at Google. Type "plumber" and "Windsor, Ontario" to get started.
