Hello everyone,

I have to agree with earlier comments about the icebreakers done in class so far; they've been great raising the comfort level of the class. Doing two icebreakers was a good idea I thought because it gave everyone the opportunity to refresh their memories and not only put a name to a face, but some personal bit of information to a person. Review, review, review. Always helpful whenever a new concept is introduced in class, so applying it to introductions was good.

When we were going through the guidebook on Friday, I was reminded of an incident that happened with a Grade 10 ESL student I once tutored. Each tutoring session was an hour and a half, and that day the student brought his Social Studies 10 textbook and told me that he had to read 50 pages and answer a few questions. At that time it would have taken him anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to read a page. I went through the questions with him to make sure that he understood what was being asked and then skimmed the reading and underlined what I thought were the key points for him to look at later. I don't remember what I had him do while I was highlighting his book.

So many factors go into teaching ESL, when a student comes over, how old he or she is, parental pressures (my child has to go to university right after high school! No Langara or Douglas or (insert college) transfer program. So only 'A's allowed). Teachers, tutors and students are only human though.

So that's my two cents worth.

Cheers,

Sheena