Well, I have finished marking the first essay. I wonder what kind of reaction my students will have when they get them back . . .

We are getting another MT student in class today. She is from Nova Scotia, and she seems raring to go. I'm glad we can have the MT student's helping us out!

I don't really have all that much exciting to blog about today. One cool thing is that I have moved my desk! I am now in the corner of EdT 1430. It's kind of funny because I have moved all of the shelves and filing cabinets to make it look like I have a proper office. I can now hide away in the corner and nobody can see me :-) I wish I had my own private office. I am feeling more and more anti-social these days, and I think it would be so great to have a private office with a view of the campus. I guess if I want that private office, I 'm going to have to hurry up and finish my PhD. It's no good wishing for things if I don't do anything about it!

Anyway, this weekend, I am going to do something great and exciting (I don't know what yet) so that I can have a more interesting blog!

Later!

New Member of the Class

The official add / drop date is now passed. I guess this is it guys and gals, we are stuck with each other for the rest of the semester :-) I hope that everyone is starting to get into the swing of things - especially with the homework. I know that it is coming as quite a shock for the some of the students, but I really think that the only way to pass this course is though all of the homework. I have seen studies that have done research on how long it takes to acquire Enlish, and some of them suggest that it takes over FIVE HUNDRED HOURS of English to move one benchmark. Basically, in LEAP IV we are trying to move the students from a benchmark seven to a benchmark 8/9 . . . there are approximately 260 hours of class. 260. What does that tell you? Any suggestions??

Oh, by the way, I really wanted to blog about how expensive the education cafeteria is . . . it cost me $8 for lunch today. All I had was a coffee and a sandwich. I need to start making my own lunch.

Perfect Tenses??

HEEEELLLLLPPPPPP! Eeep, I think my students need to study up on the perfect tenses. I think I'll have to do some more activities in class as well about these tenses. I had given my students an activity to do where they had to use the past perfect, the perfect and the future perfect tenses. I thought it was a pretty good activity. After we had finished writing out some sentences by passing around pieces of paper, the students had to email me their favourite or funniest sentences. The only problem was that when I opened my email this morning almost ALL of the sentences had huge mistakes in them in their use of the perfect tenses. Eeep. Okay, action time. I will have to think of something. In the meantime, here are three good sentences that my students sent me:

Before I was born, Scott had been born.

Since I was born, the economy of China has been developing very fast.

Before I die, at least one moonman will have travelled around the Earth.

Thanks to the people that sent me good sentences! Remember, if anyone needs help, please come and see me!

Freezing This Morning!

It was so cold this morning. I guess winter is starting to arrive. It was 1 degree when I woke up. I can tell you that I was sorely tempted to just go back to bed, but this morning was the Terry Fox Run, and I have been in the Terry Fox Run almost every year since I was a kid, so I had to get up. Usually it is much warmer than this. In fact, I am sure that this is the coldest it has ever been for me during a Terry Fox Run. Anyway, I managed to get myself up and out of the house and to Eau Claire Market,where the run was being held. I totally didn't feel motivated at all this morning. I wonder if Terry ever felt like that. It must have been cold and miserable on many of the mornings when he had to get up and run. Anyway, I made it down to Eau Claire and I registered and donated $20 for cancer research, but then I guess I sort of gave up. I am really dissapointed in myself. Usually I run 5 kms every year, but this year after I started the run I just couldn't do it. Instead I walked most of the way. Now I could make excuses, and I could say that at least I walked 5 kms, but I am really dissapointed because I didn't run. Especially as I used to see myself as "running" kind of guy. I used to run 5 kms every day! My new students may be surprised to hear this, but I have gained almost 20 lbs since I arrived back in Canada one year ago (and I stopped running). However, this is kind of a wake up call for me. Next year, not only will I run, but I will run the 10 km race! There was one problem though. Right after I had made my resolution to run 10 kms next year and to get into better shape, I ate 2 of the free hotdogs they were giving out to all of the runners. s i g h. I'll keep you all posted on my battle with getting in shape . . . in the meantime, if you are interested, check out more information about the Terry Fox Run here: www.terryfoxrun.org.

The First Posting

Hello World,

This is my first posting in my new blog. This is the place to find links to all of my past blogs, and well as links to my current EAP students at the University of Calgary. Please feel free to comment, explore the student blogs, and enjoy!

Cheers,

Scott