Welcome Back, Poets, Philosophers, Gardeners, Explorers!

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

You're Never Too Old

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.

Are you almost ready to come back to school?

Cheers! --Kelly

Summer Greetings

Hello, extra keen students!

If you are reading this, you are a keener! You visit my blog even during summer break.

Would you like to see pictures from the annual YMCA gathering that our classmate Baoli attended in London? Those are HERE.

Qinsi has asked me many times about ordering silkworms. Why don't we do a silkworm project in our classroom this year? I can easily find silkworms of the "feeder" type that people feed to their pet reptiles, but I am having trouble finding quality silkworms for silk production. Let's try to find them.

I will bone up on "project-based learning." Can you guess what that idiom means (the words in bold)?

Oh, by the way, I sailed through my operation. This is an idiom. It means there were no complications. It was easy. I'm certainly relieved about that.

Have you seen the free 22-minute film in the Sesqui dome theatre yet? I was wrong about the colour. It's a big RED igloo-shaped theatre, not white. I might try to go on Monday, July 10th.

What are you doing this summer? Leave a comment below.

Kelly

Big Summer Review

Hello, students!

This week we are winding down from a wonderful school term. We are playing games to review prior modules' vocabulary and concepts. We are taking a field trip or two. We might even watch a movie.

Here is the jeopardy game for Thursday. You can play at home with your spouse or by yourself.

Jeopardy - Big Summer Review

Enjoy!

We Can Bargain at a Yard Sale

Here is the audio file for the listening assessment (if you have issues with Flash, try using MS IE instead of Chrome).


Audio recording and upload >>

Our Ping-pong Field Trip

Tareq is a celebrity now! His face was spread all across the front page of the Windsor Star today.

I hope this link to the video remains valid for several months. I'm sure you would like to alert your friends back home that you were in the news. http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/seniors-learn-the-language-of-ping-pong

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.

The Internet Can Help Us

Hello, students!

This tour of the brain may help us.

Here is a TED talk that will help us. Turn on subtitles to help you understand.

Sandrine Thuret: You can grow new brain cells.

Alzheimer's Disease

Hello, students of the seniors' class,

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.

http://www.pbs.org/program/forgetting/

K

M.E.

Students,

This morning I was unable to find more information on Jennifer Brea and her disease. Now I've found it. You can watch her TED Talk with Arabic or Chinese subtitles.

This one has Chinese subtitles.

This one has Arabic subtitles.

The Language Lessons

It's about time for another needs assessment. Until then, let's enjoy this touching little video and explore its message.

We Taught Each Other

Spelling City is now in the sidebar ----->

What great presentations you all did! You really rocked it.

You made posters.

You gave presentations. You spoke clearly, took turns, and used props well.

We even improvised a ping-pong table and had a live demo!

Excellent work, everyone!

What Can You Teach Me?

Hello!

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.

Cast on:

The knit stitch:

Cast off:

Leisure Time

Some of us have too much idle time on our hands. That's not good for our mental and emotional well-being. It's better to keep our bodies and minds active, isn't it?

We're compiling a long list of free and low cost things to do in Windsor, especially downtown and within easy reach of public transit.

We are also exploring the idea of teaching each other how to do something. For example, some of us know how to knit and others wish to learn. Some of us know how to play ping pong; others are dying to know how. Let's have a knowledge and skills exchange!

Log in to Spelling City to do some spelling and vocabulary activities with this week's words.

In May we are going to take a field trip to the open air ping pong table in Kiwanis park.

Eat Safer Fish

I'm sure you all did great on your reading assessments. I'll mark them on the weekend.

Meanwhile, here is a spelling test. Log in with your username and the password.

Cheers!

Get Ready for Fishing Season!

Hello, students of the seniors' class.

This week we are learning how to get information about suggested servings per month of fish caught in the Detroit River based on our weight, fish species, cleaning, and cooking methods.

Here is the video that will be the basis of our listening assessment.
https://youtu.be/cLUu85zrRHA

Cheers!

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 >>

ESINC Day is Thursday

This week we have practiced calling 9-1-1.

Thursday we will have guest speakers from the police department. Some classes will walk to the library for Emergency Services Information for Newcomers to Canada.

We've talked about the various types of emergencies.

Do you have an emergency preparedness kit?

Listen to these conversations. Someone is reporting a break-in.

Did You Get the Message?

Hello, seniors!

Here are some listening activities to help reinforce the week's learning.

Telephone Conversation and quiz

Useful Telephone Phrases

Emma's Tips for Telephone English

See you Monday (Inshallah!) I miss you all so much.