Graduation Photos

Today is the last day of the year 2010. The students had their graduation photos taken. A beautiful day, cold but sunny. The following are two photos taken with my camera.



My homeroom class: Class 314

Discussion in Class--Universal Qualities of Human Decision-making

Today, when we discussed the interpretation part in the textbook of Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and came to the sentence "the poem itself beautifully captures the universal qualities of human decision-making," I asked Class 314 what they thought the qualities were. Surprisingly, they offered quite a few, such as hesitation, fear, uncertainty, excitement, doubt, and regret. Before I posed the question, I assumed that the students, at such a tender age, would keep silent. However, they responded enthusiastically. Good!

On Writing--學生寫作最大問題 「平常都不寫」

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=13&f_SUB_ID=1259&f_ART_ID=290730

學生寫作最大問題 「平常都不寫」

【聯合報╱記者王維玲／台北報導】2010/12/26

Poetry Writing

Last Friday,after I reviewed with Class 309 a very important element of a poem--rhyme/rhyme scheme, I asked them to give me words rhyming with "snow." They gave me "flow," "glow," "so," etc. Then I challenged them to write a four-line stanza, the four lines ending with "snow," "flow," "glow," and "so" respectively. June immediately handede in her little poem as follows. Cute!

Two Mock Exam Essays by Students

Today students got back their mock exam essays. The following are two that score 18 out of 20. They are both the original pieces, with mistakes underlined.

Benefits of Reading--閱讀好處 吳念真：花少錢見到名人

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=13&f_SUB_ID=1259&f_ART_ID=290733

閱讀好處 吳念真：花少錢見到名人

【聯合報╱記者莊宗勳／台南報導】2010/12/26

A Study on the Correlation Between Cram School and BCT Performance--基測十年 補愈多成績未必愈好--基測十年 補愈多成績未必愈好

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=290591

基測十年 補愈多成績未必愈好

【聯合報╱記者陳智華／台北報導】 2010/12/25

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Here is a Christmas quote from the Quote Garden, whose URL following the quote.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.  ~Peg Bracken

http://www.quotegarden.com/christmas.html

Three Essays by Students about Animal Abuse

The following are three essays by students for the writing task on the 3rd mock exam. All the three are in their original form. 

作文：請寫120字的作文，第一段寫一件你印象最深刻的虐待動物事件或新聞，第二段請陳述身為高中生的你，可以在生活周遭為動物們做些什麼來幫助他們。

new words coined--維基解密紅火 成英文慣用字

http://udn.com/NEWS/WORLD/WOR4/6049758.shtml

維基解密紅火 成英文慣用字

【世界日報╱路透洛杉磯21日電】

2010.12.22 08:01 pm

Stop Bullying--廖玉蕙：請正視霸凌現象

http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/OPI4/6043014.shtml

廖玉蕙：請正視霸凌現象

【聯合報╱廖玉蕙】

2010.12.19 03:01 am

兩岸對望／傳承文化記憶 教育要多點彈性

http://udn.com/NEWS/MAINLAND/MAI1/6044297.shtml

兩岸對望／傳承文化記憶 教育要多點彈性

【聯合報╱記者陳宛茜、梁玉芳、鄭朝陽】

2010.12.20 04:34 am

A Happy Reunion--An Essay by a Student

Here is another essay for the same writing task about a boy and his dog. The essay was written with a different approach from the one presented the day before yesterday in my blog.

 

Translation Problems--檸檬愛上玉 華山欠錢？菜英文搞笑

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT5/6041694.shtml

檸檬愛上玉 華山欠錢？菜英文搞笑

【聯合報╱記者曾懿晴／台北報導】

2010.12.18 03:02 am

Max and Lucky--An Essay by a Student

The following is an essay written by a student in Class 309, based on the pictures given on the 2007 2nd SAT mock exam.

Learning from Mistakes--不用罰寫！自己訂正錯誤

http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/X1/6037416.shtml

不用罰寫！自己訂正錯誤

【聯合報╱陳欽興／退休國中校長（北縣中和）】

2010.12.16 01:46 am

More Than Academic Success

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=12&f_SUB_ID=21&f_ART_ID=271022

拼命補習 教部：家長觀念要改

聯合晚報╱記者王彩鸝╱台北報導】2010/09/13

About SAT--a Publication of CEEC

The following is a publication of CEEC, which includes some important information for the examinees of the coming SAT in January.

http://www.ceec.edu.tw/CeecMag/index.aspx

What to Read--濫閱讀 余秋雨：比沒讀還糟

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=287745

濫閱讀 余秋雨：比沒讀還糟

【聯合報╱記者陳宛茜／台北報導】 2010/12/10

Leave Them Alone and They Will Learn to Be Independent--王品集團董事長 戴勝益：我為何斷絕孩子的退路

  王品集團董事長 戴勝益：我為何斷絕孩子的退路

 作者：李翠卿 出處：親子天下18期‧2010/11/05

Speak in Class!--省話王…大學生在怕什麼

http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/X1/6027858.shtml

省話王…大學生在怕什麼

【聯合報╱沈曉翠／大學生（北縣新莊）】

Overcoming My Fear-2--More Essays by Students

Here are more essays by my students on yesterday's topic, writing about their old fear. They are interesting.

提示：幾乎每個人都有特別害怕的事或物，請以自身經驗為例，寫一篇120至150個單詞(words)的英文作文。文分兩段，第一段以I used to be really afraid of…為開頭並加以發展；第二段則以To overcome this fear, I tried many different techniques.為主題句。

Overcoming My Fear--A Student's Essay

 The following is the writing task I gave on Monday (Class 314) and Tuesday (Class 309), which I had found in English Digest.

提示：幾乎每個人都有特別害怕的事或物，請以自身經驗為例，寫一篇120至150個單詞(words)的英文作文。文分兩段，第一段以I used to be really afraid of…為開頭並加以發展；第二段則以To overcome this fear,…為主題句。

Most students did quite a good job. Here is one by a student in Class 309.

PowerPoint for Relative Clauses

Today we discussed relative clauses. I made a PowerPoint for this grammatical structure. The use of different colors made it easier for me to get my message across.

I told the students not to take notes but just concentrate and think. After class they can visit my blog and download the PowerPoint for review work.

Here is the ppt.

Count Your Blessings--幸福與殘缺存乎一心

This morning, Ken (王慶剛) visited me and shared with me a very good article, which was the assigned article he recited in the National Chinese Prose Recitation.

Ken read part of the prose aloud to demonstrate how to manipulate one's voice to vividly convey the meaning of the prose. He did a fantastic job. No wonder he got first place in the contest.

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/psyche-camp/article?mid=2831&prev=-1&next=2829

幸福與殘缺存乎一心

北育輔導教師沈湘縈

Improving Reading Competence--提升閱讀力 老師是關鍵

提升閱讀力 老師是關鍵

【聯合晚報╱記者王彩鸝╱特稿】 2010/12/07

從15歲學生的核心能力表現，可以看到一個國家的未來競爭力。OECD今天公布的2009PISA閱讀素養國際評比，台灣學生的排名倒退的背後，代表著國家未來競爭力的一大危機！

PowerPoint for Comparatives and Superlatives

Last Thursday and Friday, the grammar point we discussed in class was comparatives and superlatives. I made a PowerPoint, based on the key points mentioned in the grammar book my classes use.

grammar--comparatives and superlatives.ppt

A Webpage for Smilies

http://frostar.2y.net/News/!/mysmilies.htm

While I was getting some pictures from the Net as visual aids for Unit 11 "The Cellist of Sarajevo," I found a picture at this webpage to vividly illustrate the word "agonized." At this page, there are many more smilies to be found for different emotions.

Be Thankful--洪蘭：感恩的月 感恩的心

http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/OPI4/6011851.shtml

洪蘭：感恩的月 感恩的心

【聯合報╱洪蘭】

2010.12.03 01:44 am

The Third Anniversary of My Blogging

Today is the third anniversary of my blogging!

I still remember the two days when I learned blogging at Jingmei Girls High School, the instructors Mr. Chen (陳怡杰老師) and Ms. Tsai (蔡明璇老師), the excitement of seeing my first entry online, and the exhilaration of discovering an easy way to connect with the world, to share with the world my thoughts, my ideas, my beliefs, and my love for many things.

Bill Gates' Ten Rules of Life

This morning at the students' assembly, our principal Mr. Wu (吳正東校長) mentioned Bill Gates' ten rules of life.

I read these rules somewhere before and, if my memory serves me right, gave them to my students on a handout. However, among the ten rules, I only remembered the first one: Life is not fair. To review them, just now I decided to find the English version online and here is one.

http://www.sbioagujarat.org/articles.php?article_id=1&c_start=30&y=2014&m=7

Say the Word and Make Sentences with the Word

Today when we were discussing the review test, a student mistook the word "preserve" for "persevere." I told him that was why I'd always encouraged him to read aloud, to speak English. If he had made a sentence for each of the words, he would not have mixed them up. Even very simple sentences like "We must preserve the historic building" and "He persevered and finished the tough work" are OK as long as they help retain the words.