Guess what! The Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL) have published an article I wrote in their newsletter. It's kind of exiting for me to see one of my articles in print. If anyone really wants to know about blogs and one of the reasons I like to use them in class, they can check out my article here:

http://www.atesl.ca/docs/Newsletter%20December%2005.pdf

It is a huge pdf file, so it may take some time to download.

Anyway, blogging is great!

Ouch! I have a sore back. I think I threw my back out yesterday when I was carrying around my big heavy binder to all of my classes. I guess I am incredibly out of shape. That's it. I am going to get back into shape. I have no choice. The first thing I am going to have to do is start to eat healthy food. Does anyone reading this like Arby's? I was in Chinook Mall last weekend, and I decided to have Arby's. I was really enjoying it until I realised there were no vegetables at all in my meal. Well, okay, I guess potatoes are a vegetable, and the buns were made of wheat, but you know what I mean. I was eating pure meat, potatoes and bread (plus lots of fat). Oh dear . . . that made me realise I have to start eating better. Can anyone help me? What do you recommend that I start eating? How do I stay away from fast food? Heeeeeeeeelp!

Hi World! These are my students from last year. I felt bad because I erased them off the side of my blog, so I decided to stick there here for all eternity :-)

LEAP II a
Cecilia
Katerina
Steve
Gogo
Ormarys
Caleb
Cody
Peichen
Roy
Crystal
Evelyn
Wei
Susan
Ted
LEAP II b
Daniel
Jamie
Eugenie
Rebecca
Maria
Phil
Ella
Betsy
Alice
Amy
Heather
Susan
Ralph
Rumi

Business Studies

It already week 2 of our business theme in LEAP IV. This week we are going to be talking about ethics in business, so I think it is going to be really interesting. Sometimes I'm worried that business people have no ethics at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Anyway, it is Monday, and I am exhausted. I have to go home and vote tonight. I hope lots of people vote. I've been really worried lately because not so many people vote. It's like nobody really cares any more. However, I care, so that is why I'm going to vote. Now that the election is already here, I wish I had been more involved in helping the party that I like win the election. Does anyone know which party I like? Try and guess!

See you all tomorrow!

Vancouver was fun!

I went to Vancouver last weekend! It was a lot of fun. I got to see my sister and hang out in one of my favourite cities. The only problem is that I had such a good time on the weekend that I need another weekend just to recover!

The picture you see is of the Sylvia Hotel. That is the hotel I stayed in because my sister has a little tiny apartment, and there was no room for me. The hotel is really great because it is right on the beach at English Bay. I got to walk along the water front a lot, and I also took a little ferry over to Granville Island so that I could wander around the market. In Granville Island I bought a lot of salmon products . . . I couldn't help myself! They all looked so good.

I also got to eat lots of really great sushi in Vancouver. I felt like I was in heaven!

The students have blogs!

This is so great. Today in class 4a we all made blogs. Sometimes the computers weren't working very well, but for the most part it went okay. I'm so happy! I can't wait to read what everyone in my class has to say. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

The big news is this: the text books are in the bookstore. I totally forgot to tell everyone in class today, so I hope that someone reads this and tells everyone because I'd really like to use the textbooks in class tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm glad we have all started blogging!

First Day of the Semester!

Hello World!

It's the first day of the semester here at the University of Calgary! It's really exciting because there are lots of students in the hallway outside my office, checking there classes and generally getting ready for the start of the year. This year I am going to be teaching LEAP 4a intensive and LEAP 4d Canadian Connections. I am really looking forward to it. We have completey reorganized LEAP IV this year, and we are going to be studying four different themes. The first theme we are going to be looking at is business. However, before all of that we have to have "success week". This is where we are going to find out what we need to do to be successful here at the university. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting all of my new students this semester. I hope they are ready to work hard and have fun!