http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe A place to share ideas about learning (^_^) Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:49:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Would you like to live in a city that is cloudy more than 300 days a year and has many snowstorms every winter? Neither do I! That is why I left my hometown, Rochester. I have to say that Rochester has many good points. It's quiet, making it a good ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/10/06/conversation-topic-what-is-the-best-city-to-live-in/ I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I believe it is important to learn sentences. As I often say to my students, "words are knowledge but sentences are fluency". Knowledge is certainly important, but our main goal in learning a language is to speak fluently, so sentences should be our ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/09/28/how-to-practice-sentences/ My favorite season, summer, is coming to a close. We're getting a bit more rain in Beijing and the evenings are turning quite cool. It's comfortable for now, but I hate the thought of another cold winter coming. Still, there are some good points to the fall season. I remember ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/09/22/summer-is-over-what-do-you-think/ Sunday was the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. I saw no full moon because it was raining in the evening, and I did not eat any traditional "moon cakes" either. I did, however, get to see various athletic events of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games at the Bird's Nest. I saw ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/09/15/beijing-paralympic-games/ Some readers have asked me about my new job. Yes, I am still teaching English. My new students are adults working in Beijing. They are highly motivated so every day, though busy, is also very interesting. The best thing for me is that my students really appreciate my lessons. One unique ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/09/03/public-speaking/ Okay, I finally got to see Olympic events this weekend. In my new job I have Sunday and Monday off. On Sunday, I went to Chaoyang Park and saw two quarterfinal matches of Women's Beach Volleyball. Two tall, beautiful Chinese women in bikinis beat two tall beautiful American women in ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/08/19/beijing-olympics-live/ Hi Everybody, The Olympics have finally come to Beijing! I watched the opening ceremony on a large-screen TV in one of Beijing's biggest parks. It was quite spectacular. China has already won two gold medals, in weightlifting and shooting. The games are off to a great start. I just remembered that I ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/08/09/learn-olympic-english/ This week we talked about reading and writing with our students. I did some writing exercises in a couple of classes, but in my current school I never know who will show up to class, so it's hard to build on previous classes. I gave them some advice on organizing ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/08/02/learning-to-write-in-english/ I think I promised this video to students a long time ago. It's an example of how to learn natural English rhythm and pronunciation using a song. Click on the link below to watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRHGFyfAXes Please let me know what you think! http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/07/31/video-to-learn-english-pronunciation-through-songs/ I was teaching a pronunciation class in my new job yesterday and some idioms were included in the lesson. Another teacher told me that she accidentally found some sayings on a website with MY PICTURE on it, which reminded me that I made some lessons for students a few years ... http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/2008/07/26/learn-to-speak-english-with-famous-sayings/