Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Fear Can Hold You Prisoner, Hope Can Set You Free


The Shawshank Redemption is our next film in the "Read the Book, Watch the Movie' series, and it's one of my all time favorite films. It's from the book "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King - one of my favorite authors and the "Dickens" of the 20th. Century.

It's a story of friendship, loyalty, patience and belief. Andy Dufresne is sent to prison - Shawshank - for murdering his wife and her lover, a crime he says he didn't commit. There he meets Red Redding, the wise old fixer, who can get anything for anyone, and over time they become great friends. They can both get things done for people, but for each other they get respect. One has a price, one is priceless. Prison is tough and the brutality comes from the warders and prisoners alike. And the film doesn't block that out. However, the real story is of good and evil and how they can be reversed in both our minds and in real life. For there is nothing which is good or evil unless we think it. Is it the evil we see, or evil to see it?

The movie will be shown on Saturday 6th. June at 4.30pm. It will change your life.

Click here to watch the movie trailer.

To get the ebook send me an email at cmudiploma@live.com

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

FREE HUGS


Tonight in The Diploma class (Level 2c) we're studying newspaper stories.

This is a news item from 10 News Australia. It's about an Australian guy who started giving free hugs at a shopping mall once a week. What a wonderful idea! But the local government decided that he needed insurance in case someone got hurt while hugging. How crazy can they be?

So, he started a petition and got 10,000 people to sign up saying "let the love in". And then a band called the Sick Puppies wrote a song about him and posted it on YouTube. It got to be a big story and now Free Hugs is spreading around the world.

Watch the videos by clicking on the links below and give someone a free hug.

Free Hugs News Report

Sick Puppys Free Hugs Song

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

TOEFL PREPARATION II

Review and Practice

60 hour Syllabus



TOEFL Preparation II is for those students who have completed Preparation I and would like more opportunity to practice.

There will be a short review of techniques, but most of the time will be taken up with classroom and lab practice.

There will be more time spent on the writing and speaking sections with more feedback time from the teacher. Students will also be expected to do homework and a lot more time will be spent in the classroom correcting and perfecting students’ work.

Students will also be able to complete a full test in the lab and obtain a full score from the teacher.


TOEFL PREPARATION I

Question Answering Techniques

60 hour Syllabus


1. READING – 18 hours

Introduction to the TOEFL – Advice on study and practice – How the different sections are linked - Structure of Academic Reading Passages – Finding the topic and main idea – How to read actively – Following direction markers – The importance of skimming – Breaking down and simplifying sentences – Dealing with difficult vocabulary – Basic principles for answering questions – Process of elimination – Two-pass system – It’s in there – Question Types – Classroom practice and lab practice.

2. WRITING – 15 hours

Scoring on the writing section – Understanding and answering the questions – Essay organization – Planning – Time constraints - Writing a thesis statement – Giving appropriate reasons – Supporting your reasons with examples and details – Introduction, Body and Conclusion – Use of linking words – Keeping it simple - The 2 writing tasks – Using templates – Practice in the classroom and at home.

3. LISTENING – 15 hours

The different listening tasks – The importance of the first 20 seconds - Listening for the main idea or purpose – Following the structure – Sub-topics and examples – Tone and attitude – Transitions or signal words – Question types – Attacking the questions – Using POE – Practice in the classroom and the lab.

4. SPEAKING – 12 hours

Scoring on the Speaking section – The six different tasks - Delivery, intonation, pronunciation, flow and clarity – Developing your answer with reasons and examples – Using appropriate language – Templates for the different tasks – Beyond the templates – Speaking practice in the classroom and recording your voice in the lab – Listening and analyzing your answers.