Merry Christmas!

May Christmas bring you all lots of love, hope and good news. :)

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR - VOTE!

BIG EVENT!

Here is the news: Our college celebrates its 15th anniversary on Wednesday, 24th October :) I thought some of our graduates would like to use the occasion to come and see us and their friends. The official event starts at 10.00 in Collegium Minus (ul. Wieniawskiego 1) - in Mała Aula, where a few VIPs are to appear and important speeches are to be given. Later, at 5 pm. we have planned to meet at the college (room 317 and around ;), where the unofficial part of the celebration is to take place, including a new feature: the Freshman Welcome Event. If you have time and feel like renewing those GOOD memories - please come, bring with you as many colleagues as you can, and spend this time with us, in those friendly, though not yet painted, walls. You are all warmly welcome! :)

Another beginning

Here we are, starting another academic year, getting to know new people, making many new beginnings. I hope this year will be as good as the two previous ones (that's how long I've been teaching my IT course), though I admit I am a bit apprehensive. We'll see... I still think of those who have gone through our college and now live their professional and personal lives "out there," making the most of what they've learned here with us. Best wishes to you guys! You could take a look here from time to time to see how we're doing. I'm planning to write more than last year, which was really tough for me in terms of workload.
Now a few words to my new students: let's try to spend the time together doing some useful things, using whatever resources we have at hand. This is not state-of-the-art equipment, that's for sure, but we'll try to squeeze out of it as much as we can. I'm looking forward to your suggestions and ideas.

POLITICS

Never before have I talked politics here, but now I can't help it. You can imagine why: I'm ashamed. How could we let this happen? So much hope ruined. So many bright people left behind, while Poland is being ruled by ignorants and paranoids. They have been democratically elected, so this time there's no external power to blame. We have what some of us wanted, and others didn't care to prevent (by choosing not to vote). If you want to see how our country is now seen abroad, there is a great source: a post on a BBC blog containing a detailed analysis of Poland's situation in the EU, which initiated a heated international debate, with nearly 300 comments so far. Take a look, it's worth it.

Another interesting grammar point :)

It's a bit late in terms of our test, but take a look here to see an interesting example of how confusing you can be to your reader if you misuse pronouns.

Useful grammar advice to listen to

In my "Feeds" list in the blogroll (bottom right) you can find a link to the podcast site Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. This week she's talking about an issue many of my students struggle with. Give her a chance to help you remember the rule by clicking the title of this post. You may search her archive for other grammar issues you have doubts about.
Enjoy! :)

Graduation

My best wishes to everyone celebrating their graduation today. I hope that you are satisfied with how you spent your time with us, and that you will take lots of good KJO moments with you. It's been fun to be your teacher, that's for sure. :)
GOOD LUCK!

My special request

Please, do place comments on other people's blogs. Look at those written by students from other groups - I'm sure you will find at least some of them really interesting. Perhaps you will want to get to know their authors better? Only with comments do blogs make sense, don't you think? And if you comment more extensively, others will visit your blog and comment on it, too. I know you are busy and all, but it's not that you need hours to do that, is it?

Memories

Hi! I hope you are having a good time and are enjoying the longest weekend in history (not for all, though :/). Since most of you are probably at home with your families, I would like to give you a small home-based task:

Please dig into your family photo archives, and find a picture of yourself as a child. Choose one in which we can have any chance of recognizing you, so not as a baby, but a little bit later. If you can, scan it and post it on your blog, together with some words of commentary about that time in your life. If you have no way of making a scan, bring the photo(s) to our nearest IT class and we'll scan it here. I hope this is going to be fun. If you want to see me as a little girl, click here. :)

Tough work

Could you write a few words about your diploma projects? What are they going to be about? How are you doing? Are you enjoying the work? Or perhaps you haven't even started yet, and the very idea of getting down to writing something scares you? Share with others, maybe this will help! :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Getting started

Welcome everyone to our blog project. First I would like to explain to you why we are doing this: I want to show you how to work with your future students through blogs, and there is no better way than to get you to run one yourself. You will be able to see how much practice in English you can get by writing your blog and reading others. I hope this won't be just another duty - try to see it as an opportunity to express yourselves in English in a less formal way, by addressing real people whom you know very well and who may be really interested in what you have to say. Try to use this project, too, as a way of learning about other people, about yourselves, about English... The outcome of all this depends largely on you: if you want it to work, it will. :)
I have given you some time to get started, to present yourselves to the others in the most natural way. If you're having problems finding things to say, I would like you to write the following:
Tell us what brought you to our college and how you found out about it. Try to recall your state of mind at the time - what expectations you had and how you felt. OK?
Don't delay any more - do it now! :)

New blogs coming soon!

To anyone who depends on this blog in terms of links to others:
This year's IT course has come to the point at which the blog project is starting. I have decided to run it on this site again instead of building a new one (I guess I need a sense of continuity here), so I will have to remove last year's links. I want to keep those which are still fully alive, though, plus a few which were the most interesting to look at. Sorry if I'm subjective here, but there's no other way. BTW: If there's anyone who would rather not have their link here, just let me know.
Please copy URLs of any 2006 blogs you would like to return to in the future, then. And take a look at the new blogs that are going to appear here soon.

IN (THE) FUTURE

I have always thought that articles are not a problem for native speakers of English. It seems I was wrong. Click on the title to read what doubts an American linguist could have in these matters. Quite consoling for EFL learners (and teachers ;) .

Language Log: Error message iced on cake

Click on the title to get the full story :D

At Last the 1948 Show - Let's Speak English

Definitely not KJO graduates ;)