Have a listen to what some of the students think about the class blog

As part of the learnscope project I was require to create a slidecast.
Check out the link and tell me what you think?

http://www.slideshare.net/alannat1/tafe-nsw-riverina-institute-griffith-campus-power-point-for-slide-share/

WELCOME BACK TO TERM 4

PROUD MOTHERS Farideh, Shazia and Lata

Hello everybody and welcome back to term 4.

I hope you all had a nice break. We only have seven weeks in this term so it will be Christmas before we know it.

A few of our students have been very busy with new babies. We have had five baby girls born to parents in our English classes over the past few months.

Above is a picture of baby Maria, Noor and Happy with their proud mums Farideh, Shazia and Lata. Congratulations everyone and Go Girl Power!

Don't forget to practice writing your comments on the blog.

I look forward to reading what you think.

Until next time

Bye

Alanna

What's been happening?

Cam Wilson talks to the class about how to vote.

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!

G'day Bloggers

I found some more information on the Australian Citizen Test. You can order the information booklet on line at the below link.

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/test/index.htm

However I wouldn't panic yet. Who knows what will happen after the election.

Speaking of the election, we were lucky enough to have Cam Wilson from the Australian Electoral Commission come and talk to us about the future election and what we have to do to vote as well as how to vote. It was very interesting and lots of us had plenty of questions.

Holidays are coming up. Our last class is this Thursday the 27th. Class will start again on the 15th of October.

Have a great break everyone

Alanna

Australian Pronunciation - Session 6 - Consonant sounds 'f' & 'v'

Hi everyone

I'm a bit late with my latest pronunciation session. I've been caught up with lots of different things. But hopefully I am back on track now (been busy but am getting back to normal now)

http://alannat1.podomatic.com/

Make sure you write some comments and let me know what you think of the blog.

Bye for now
Alanna

Australian Citizenship Test

Have a look at these sample questions from the the new Australian Citizenship Test and let me know what you think.

1. In what year did Federation take place?
2. Which day of the year is Australia Day?
3. Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia?
4. What is the first line of Australia's national anthem?
5. What is the floral emblem of Australia?
6. What is the population of Australia?
7. In what city is the Parliament House of the Commonwealth Parliament located?
8. Who is the Queen's representative in Australia?
9. How are Members of Parliament chosen?
10. Who do Members of Parliament represent?
11. After a federal election, who forms the new government?
12. What are the colours on the Australian flag?
13. Who is the head of the Australian Government?
14. What are the three levels of government in Australia?
15. In what year did the European settlement of Australia start?
16. Serving on a jury if required is a responsibility of Australian citizenship: true or false?
17. In Australia, everyone is free to practice the religion of their choice, or practice no religion: true of false?
18. To be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament you must be an Australian citizen: true or false?
19. As an Australian citizen, I have the right to register my baby born overseas as an Australian citizen: true or false?
20. Australian citizens aged 18 years or over are required to enrol on the electoral register: true or false?
Need help with The Answers?

Australian Pronunciation - Session 5 - The long and short vowel 'e'

Salam my wonderful students (Salam means hello in Farsi)

Click on the link below to listen to the latest session of Australian Pronunciation.
This session looks at the long vowel 'e' as in meet and the short vowel 'e' as in met.

http://alannat1.podomatic.com

Don't forget that next week we will be starting classes on Wednesday's from 9:30 to 1:30


Khoda hafaz (that's goodbye in Farsi)
Alanna

WHO AM I?

We had a 'Who am I?' quiz in class where students had to guess the object/person/animal being described. Afterwards students had to write their own 'Who am I?' describing themselves. I collected them all up and read the clues out to the class to see if they could guess who I was describing. It was fun

See if you can guess whose 'Who am I' is written below.

Who am I?
I'm a woman
I was born in Jaghori, Afghanistan
I'm 40 years old
I have black hair and brown eyes
I'm studying English at TAFE
Who am I?


Who am I?
I am a man
I was born in the southern part of
India I have black hair and black eyes
I have dark skin
I am learning English
Who am I?

Australian Pronunciation - Consonant sounds /d/ and /t/

Hello everybody
I'm back with another Australian Pronunciation session. Session 4 is based on the consonant sounds /d/ and /t/. Have a listen and see if you can clearly hear the difference between the two sounds. You have a go! Don't forget to check past worksheets that were completed in class to help you with your pronunciation.
Until next time
Alanna

http://alannat1.podomatic.com

What's a BLOG?

I introduced my students to the "Griffith English News" Blog. We had a bit of trouble accessing a few links through the TAFE computers but if students access the site from home they shouldn't have any problems (hoping this problem is fixed soon).

Students were given their learnscope dog tags (necklaces) and were very impressed.

Photos were taken for the occasion.

Australian Pronunciation - Session 3 - consonant sounds /s/ and /z/

G'day everyone

I've recorded another session of Australain Pronunciation. This week we look at the consonant sounds /s/ and /z/.
Have a listen and see what you think.
If anyone has any ideas about what else you would like to hear or practice, drop me a line in the comments page ("drop me a line" is an idiom which means let me know what you think in writing).

http://alannat1.podomatic.com

Australian Pronunciation Take 2

Hi Guys

I forgot to mention on my last post that the first pronunciation session was based on the vowel sounds 'a' (long sound) and 'a' (short sound). Unfortunately I don't think I can use phonetic symbols on this site. I've done another session since then which I have just imported to podomatic so use the link and have a listen. This second session is on the consonant sounds 'b' and 'p'. The 'p' sound has come out a little bit rough with the microphone I was using but you should be able to get the general idea.
Until next time

Alanna

http://alannat1.podomatic.com

Australian Pronunciation

Hi Everyone

It's been a while since my last post. Lots of things have been going on around the place and we've all been really busy.
I've been fiddling with a tool called Audacity which allows me to record my voice and then export it to podomatic where you can all have a listen.
I thought it would be great for our pronunciation sessions. We can do the lessons in class together first and then you can have another listen later on in your own time.
Anyway try this link and see what you think.
P.S I've called it Australian pronunciation because you won't be hearing and English or American voice. It will be my voice!
http://alannat1.podomatic.com/

Harmony Day 2007

I found some more photos that I thought you would be interested in looking at!



http://www.flickr.com/photos/9054829@N05/show/

ESOL Photos from 2006

See if you can see yourself in any of these photos!

TRY THESE ENGLISH QUIZZES

http://a4esl.org/
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/
http://www.prof2000.pt/users/tereza_n/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/
http://www.englishclub.com/esl-quizzes/

Griffith English News

Hi Everyone

Welcome to the very first posting for "Griffith English News". I hope that we can use this blog to find out information about ourselves and improve our English along the way.

First things first, let's introduce ourselves.

My name's Alanna and I teach English at TAFE NSW Riverina Institute Griffith Campus. I have been teaching English here for 6 years. I enjoy my job because I get to meet lots of people from all over the world and learn lots of different things about other cultures, languages and customs.