Celebrations and Demonstrations

For Thomas...
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Here are some of the things on the board today.  There MAY BE a quiz tomorrow...



Vocabulary
Ice Rink
Audience (which is) clapping
Tom Cruise signing an autograph
spectators cheering
a parade
a protest march
chanting
banners
demonstration (like our neighbours at #OccupyDameStreet)

Set Phrases
"I prefer ---ing."
"and the crowd goes wild!"
"cheers" = "thanks"
"three cheers for Alex… Hip HIP: HOORAY"


Remember:
The goal is to extend the conversation and help the other person understand your answer.  Finishing first is not the goal.

Pronunciation stuff:
Two sounds that should be different for you are the æ sound in laugh (yes that's the American version which is also used in Ireland.  The other is the schwa sound the ə sound, that's the sound we really hear in one and love.  Here's a protest song to prove it. Listen to the ə in ONE and LOVE.

Water Week: Thursday

http://www.scss.tcd.ie/~whipplej/ces/UpperIntRecordings/

This is where you will find your recordings.  Use your notes sheet to find the thing I noticed.  See what you can notice.

Water Week: Tuesday

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H₂O. A water molecule contains oneoxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by

This kind of definition is what we call OVER-EXPLICIT.  This means it gives us too much information about something.

The opposite for example "Water is going to be more important in the future" leaves me feeling like I missed the conversation.

Today we are going to see the Surface Tension Exhibition at the Science Gallery at the far side of Trinity College, Dublin.  Dublin is uniquely the only city in Europe not to have water charges on domestic use.  Some people say that we need to do what everyone else in Europe does.  Some people say we have more rain than anywhere else in Europe- so why should we pay?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

Wikipedia's article was written over the last 10 years and as an occasional contributor, I understand how the editing process works.  It is a fairly accurate account of what is happening.

I have some questions for you to answer by using Ctrl + F or just scanning:

1. Are there water charges in Dublin?
2. Were there water charges in Dublin?
3. According to this article does Ireland have the lowest rate of tax in Europe?
4. What percent of water is used by agriculture and industry together in Ireland?
5. Tell me two things about John Gormley.

Today the Irish National Budget is being announced to the people.  You will see it in the Evening Herald (€1.20) Many people believe that soon a water charge will apply to every household. Maybe this is what the new household charge will pay for.  My brother in law works for a water company in the United States.  That company didn't exist before cities started privatizing water.

Everyone needs water.  No one can choose not use it.  Pay for it or fight for it.

------

Questions to answer at the Science Gallery about your exhibit:

• What is it?
• How big is it?
• What  is it designed to help you consider?
• What did you think about when you were there?
• Take a picture of it.
• What do you think other people were thinking when they saw it?
• -Did they "get" it the same way you did?

Tell us about 1 or 2 or 3 of these tomorrow in class.  Talk to us for about 2 minutes.  Good luck 

• See if you can learn more about your exhibit on it on this page http://www.sciencegallery.com/surfacetension/exhibits

This is just for fun.  I hope you enjoy it.

Water Week: Monday

Okay guys, here's the plan.

Monday: pages 64-65- How to "Using Imperatives as Advice"
Tuesday: Visit Trinity's Science Gallery
Wednesday: Individual Presentations on one of the Science Gallery installations
Thursday: Paired production on Water
Friday: Student's Choice

Can you do these things from the lesson today:

• Use a gerund for a subject
• Use the infinitive (even BE) as an imperative

...Oh this is easier.

Homework:

Give me a set of advice of how to improve your pronunciation.  3 do's & 3 don't's

Learner Journals ...2.

Your Journal

Your Journal is a distillation of all the new things you learn each day.  You list a maximum of three things.  Each one needs an example of how you learned to use it.  These need to be personal examples which are true from your life.  You can note grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary.  Every few days hand it in to me for review.  I will read through it and clearly point out any mistakes or errors.

How to start--

Put your name on the front and the level and room.

Use the inside cover as a record of any words which are difficult to spell.

Date, Time, Day and Teacher for each lesson's page.

Do's and Don't's

• Don't use this as a notebook.
• Don't write lists of new words. Remember only three things per lesson.  It is not supposed to be everything.  Everything goes in your notebook.  This is three favorites.  
• Do write good examples of new words in use.
• Do note things which were not the main point of the day.
• Do write about new things only.  
• Don't note things you learned in other lessons.  Focus on what you got out of that experience.
• Do be specific.
• Do give real life examples.
• Don't write: "will and going to for future" because you already knew that.
• Don't write: "going to is for future plans" because it's not specific
• Do write: "'(be) going to go to' is used interchangeably with '(be) going to'" 
• Don't write: "We are going to go to the park." as an example.
• Do write: For example "We are going to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend." =   "We are going to go to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend."  

This shows your understanding and is specific enough for me to understand that this is an example from your real life.  It is most important to be able to talk about things you know you.  They are what you will talk about most often.  Write about what you know, what you are learning and what you do.

Use one page for me and one page for Bayveen.  These journals cost about 22 cents each.  Use them up and buy yourself a present when you get to the end of each one.  A coffee costs about the same as ten of them.  So go nuts.

If you can't find three new things from your notes, the pages or the homework, it's good feedback for me.  If you aren't getting anything new out of the lessons, this is how I will find out. 

The last pages of the notebook can be used as writing space for homework and classroom assignments. 

Good luck.  (And when you get back to your home country you can look over this journal and sell it to a local publisher.  Send us a Christmas card when you are rich and famous.)

A weak week.

This is pretty lame.  I am letting the blog slip as I start catching up on my dissertation.  It is rather important.

The least I could have done was post the whiteboard shots.  So here you are.

Wednesday, Wednesday

There will always be accuracy problems if you are communicating fast but I want you to reduce them as much as possible.  Verb tense errors are errors which seem easy to fix but early elementary mistakes can carry on until Upper-Intermediate.  How did we fix these errors and what did you learn.?

I go one minute to the toilet

Where have you been?

                                            I have a headache.

What I think it will happen didn't happen.

ACCURACY IS STILL IMPORTANT... if you want to be more than a worker.  If you want to be a leader you have to do more than survive in English.  You have to try to be excellent.

-We learned about future tenses.

-We tried reducing the words in the phrase "I'm going to make a pizza"

-We explored using noun phases with question words at their heads like the "what you want" the classic Rolling Stones song "You can't always get what you want."
 

You also did your writing project on the books which you need to finish for Friday. Good luck.