Field Trips in July: Tasty Thursday and Scarborough Ribfest

A monstrous deep fried blooming onion at the Ribfest!

On Friday July 29, we have a field trip to the Scarborough Rotary Ribfest. Besides ribs, you're free to enjoy the beer garden, hot dogs, french fries, corn on the cob, and plenty more. Bring some money with you if you'd like these or other entertainment. Parking is free, and some of us could car pool from Don Mills Station at 10:25 a.m., but let's meet for a group photo at the entrance at 11 a.m.

Thursday's Assignment

So what's between cottages and the city? Have a look at the following video and fill in the blanks below:

"We're _______ Happy Days now. So, this is Happy Days Houseboats. This boat's _________ Knot 1, and _________ boat's a 12-person. So we're going _________ to take a look at this one. So this is the insides of the 12-person. So it's got a nice _________ area there with dinette, TV on the wall ... here's the ________ station ... there's a nice ________ couch there."

So, who's going to organize our August/September field trip on a nice Canadian houseboat?

Anyway, moving on, let's start thinking about this coming weekend first.

Here are your tasks:

1. Take dictation of this movie from 0:33 to 0:49. The following wordlist might be useful: 
1. 1997, 
2. directors, 
3. the Griswalds, 
4. inexplicably, 
5. previous.
2. Read the comments on this article.
3. Check out the TTC service to Bluffers Park or Rouge Beach Park during the holiday.
4. Plan your coming long weekend with a partner, and publish your calendar.

Wednesday's Assignment

If the first thing that you think of when it comes to Canadian celebrations is John Graves Simcoe, you can jump up and shout Woohoo!

You may already know of Lake Simcoe and Simcoe Street downtown. Well, how about a Simcoe Day, and who really was Simcoe?

What Canadian celebrations are represented above?

Here are your tasks:

1. Look for at least 5 new words about Governor Simcoe here.
2. Listen to the story using a free TTS (Text-to-Speech) website online.
3. Find the meaning of those words.
4. Read the sentences containing those words to a partner to check for pronunciation.
5. Wait for class take up.
6. Write a dialogue using those words.
7. Read your classmates’ dialogues, and identify their words from Simcoe’s story under Comments.

Tuesday's Assignment

What happens when the weather in Canada gets really hot?

The barbecue gets hotter!

Is this how other people celebrate the summer?

Here are your tasks:

1. Identify the tenses used in the chairman’s message.
2. Then identify 10 useful adjectives.
3. Click on all the links at the site and tell a partner what the top three things are that you’d like to do there.
4. Under Comments below, list your proposed field trip itinerary for Friday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Monday's Assignment

Are you excited about the holidays of summer? Or do you dread them?

Here are your tasks:

1. List the types of public holidays in Canada.
2. Compare and contrast the public holidays in Canada with those of another country.
3. If you had a chance to change the calendar of holidays in that country, what 3 changes would you make?
4. Discuss and publish your decision.

Friday's Assignment

Which do you like better as a national anthem, O Canada or Maple Leaf Forever?

Feel free to vote at this site.

Here are your tasks:

1. Take notes on Citizenship Test based on Discover Canada:
1. Modern Canada
2. How Canadians Govern Themselves
2. Check out this video tutorial.
3. Complete any assignments this week that you have not completed.
4. Interview a classmate and write one paragraph on what aspect of our last field trip (last Thursday) was most surprising. Include a picture from our FB album or anywhere else.

Thursday's Assignment

Who is a Canadian? What are we as a country? How does this compare with another country and its citizens? These are just a few questions relating to citizenship. Discuss them with a partner.

Here are your tasks:

1. Publish your chirbit.com audio links on your blog for:
1. Yesterday's conversation-extending Dictation Triptych exercise
2. Your singing of Canada's Royal Anthem, making sure to connect "save our," "live, our," and "reign over us."
2. Leave your feedback for the LINC class under Comments here.
3. Back to the Citizenship test, do your reading and listening of selected chapters here:
1. Who We Are
2. Canada’s History
4. Review your knowledge here: Video tutorial

Wednesday's Assignment

Who are these people?

Can you remember how to start a conversation at a party? How about:

"Excuse me, but I heard you were the person who made the punch. I just wanted to tell you it’s unbelievably good."

So you get talking for the next 10 minutes. Then what? Silence starts to set in. So does panic.

Can you keep it going? How can you keep the conversation alive? How would you do that in your first language? Write a few lines and check with a partner before publishing:

A;

B:

A:

B:

Tuesday's Assignment

What do you promise when you become a Canadian citizen? What if you are not sincere? Check out the following video and tell your partner what you think.

What other controversies do you think exist over the Citizenship Oath?

Here are your tasks:

1. Identify what the Canadian citizenship oath says and doesn’t.
1. List 3 things it promises.
2. List 5 things it does not promise.
3. Compare it to another country's citizenship oath.
2. Listen to five stories, and upload your story.
1. Publish the link to your story.
2. Comment on your classmates' links.

Monday's Assignment

Last Thursday we saw what happens at the municipal level of government. Hopefully, some of you have started dreaming about doing your part politically. Guess what you need to do first.
This week we begin on the theme of Canadian citizenship. What does it take to make you a citizen of Canada?

Why is this citizenship ceremony funny? What does it say about Canada?

Here are your tasks:

1. Read and list the eligibility requirements.
1. Which of the requirements is/are the biggest barrier to your getting Canadian citizenship.
2. Tell a partner what your plans are in regard to citizenship--when, how, and why.
3. Write an email to a relative overseas about those plans.
2. Read and comment below on this letter to the editor: Too Easy
1. What does the author think of Canadian citizenship?
2. List the reasons given in the letter.
3. Respond briefly with your position and reasons.
3. Class activity: review of Cheaper by the Dozen 2

1. Write down the new expressions in the movie.
2. Google for the meanings of those expressions.
3. Make sentences based on the meanings, and post everything under Comments, below.

Friday's Assignment

What community service telephone numbers are best-known in your country of origin? Before the Internet era and when watches were expensive, Singapore used to have a time-announcement phone number. What number can you call in Toronto to get help on social, dental, legal, and other services in your neighbourhood?

Here are your tasks:

1. Sign up to study up, call up, and sum up on one of these 211 services.
1. With one partner at the computer, role play a 211 call from the other partner.
2. Record your role play after 3 rounds of practice, and then reverse roles.
3. Go make the phone call!
2. It's been a busy week. How about reflecting on its impact on you?
1. How did you feel about this exercise? Describe in no more than 30 words.
2. How do you feel about this week’s activities? What worked best? What could be improved? What would you change? Describe in no more than 30 words.

Wednesday's Assignment

Do you have many neighbours who are hungry? Do they come knocking on your door for bread or rice? Do they carry a sign at the traffic intersection asking for donations or for food?

For more such amazing signs in North America, check these out!

Here are your tasks:

1. Listen to this news report, first by clicking the Listen Button and later by watching the video.
1. Write down at least 5 words that you corrected the pronunciation for.
2. Practise saying them in new sentences to a partner.
2. Record only the first 60 seconds of your reading of the news report twice, checking on pronunciation between the 2 recordings.
3. Using at least 5 new words you just learnt, create a 30-second radio advertisement for the nearest food bank.
1. Think about who you are targeting.
2. Consider what might be keeping them from coming.
3. What do you want them to do today? Or next week? Or at some future time?
4. What bits of information must you include?
5. Do you need any special effects?

Tuesday's Assignment

Good morning! Before our special workshop this morning on Self-Care, here are your vocabulary words from which to make sentences (five examples given free of charge):

Word	Sentence
Stress	Stress that is good will make you stronger, but bad stress can cause distress and mental illness.
Distress
Mental Health
Depression
Mood
Self-care
Equity and Equality	Equity and equality have to do with the perception and actuality of fairness in a given situation.
Diversity
Culture
Migration
Discrimination
Mutli-tasking
Pressure
Myth
Fact
Breathe
Concept
Managing Stress
Stress out
Stressor	In many families, the in-laws can be a stressor that raises one's blood pressure.
Physical reaction
Emotional reaction
Behavioral reaction
Hormone
Coping skills
Socially acceptable
Socially unacceptable
Social
Stereotype
Prejudice
Humour
Situation
Avoid
Alter
Adapt
Accept
Support system	Does your support system include a rich uncle or your Ward Councillor when you are faced with a life crisis?
Attitude
Hobby
Pledge
Promise
Handouts
Purpose
Embrace
Warm
Feeling grounded
Relaxed
Adapted
Circle
Feelings
Meditation
Yoga
Mindfulness
Low mood
Sadness
Frustration
Hopelessness
Helplessness
Anxiety
Anxious
Sleepless
Anger
Spiritual
Environmental
Occupational
Employment
Housing
Financial
Social
Economical
Racism/Race	Is it racism when some people demand more rights than others, or that their lives matter more than others, e.g. "Blue Lives Matter"?
Religion
Gender
Ethnicity
Geographical

Monday's Assignment

Did you know that there are lots of government and community resources in your neighbourhood? Did you know it's possible to learn painting, sculpting, guitar, and other artistic skills? What about skating and skiing, or biking and other rec skills? Or, perhaps, you might want to try out line dancing, yoga, or zumba. Or some resume-glamming courses in computers or languages.

How can you access these programs? Or, better yet, access them for free?

How to find and share community resources is an essential skill as these folk found out some 2,500 years ago.

Here are your tasks:

1. Google for arts, recreational, social, and adult education programs in Toronto.
1. List 1 program suitable for you and 1 program for a friend, giving brief reasons for each.
2. Give directions to a program venue, and make a chirbit.com recording of it.
2. Listen to a classmate’s recording of directions, and post a hand-drawn map of it.
3. Write an FB invite to your program, including key details. Then respond to a classmate’s invitation.

Friday's Assignment

Tell a partner what this picture is about.

What we are doing this morning before the 10 a.m. meeting is to do our final exercise from Wednesday. One partner will ask questions looking at the handout, and the other partner will respond without looking. The difference is getting it recorded. So:

1. Have your handouts ready, and practise a few times until you are pretty familiar with the conversation.
2. Go to chirbit.com and click on the record button, giving permission to record when asked. If unsure, ask around.
3. Record the exercise both ways, sometimes with a partner as A and sometimes as B.
4. Publish the audio links on your blog together with a picture of the handout.
5. Write about what went well and what didn't go so well in this assignment. Then give your comments on your classmates' blogs.

Hmm, what would be the purpose of your recording this assignment?

Thursday's Assignment

When you have the right skills, you can move around between jobs. You could even move vertically.

Here are your tasks:

1. Please give feedback on yesterday's exercise on openers, "Bling, Buzz, and Bravos." Write your comments below. How was the jumping exercise? What about the last one, where only one partner had the paper?
2. Role play: Losing Employees to Competitors
3. Write down what skills you think are missing in your resume, and compare these with 2 partners.
1. What hard skills are you missing?
2. What soft skills?
4. Explore this website.
1. Discuss the content with your partners.
2. List what you agree with, what you disagree with, and what you are unsure about.

Wednesday's Assignment

Sometimes you just have to learn a new skill for a new job. Is that easy to do? Tell a classmate about one time when you had to do that.

What idiom in English are in these cartoons?

Here are your tasks:

1. Role play: Learning a Skilled Trade
1. Write down 3 previous skills/jobs you had.
2. Write down 3 future skills/jobs you would like to have.
2. Read the headers and graphics in this article. Discuss with 2 partners.
3. Think about your future in Canada. Write down for yourself what you’d like to stop doing, start doing, and continue doing. Write comments on each other's blogs.

Tuesday's Assignment

So you have some useful job skills. Can you write them down in a list? How about putting "Novice," "Mediocre," or "Expert" beside each of those skills, and sharing your list with a partner? So your list might look like:

1. Typing - Mediocre
2. Managing a team - Expert
3. Big data - Novice
4. Java - Expert
5. Thai cuisine - Mediocre
6. TENS acupuncture - novice

Is it important to describe accurately one's skill level for the job? What difference does it make?

Which one's the expert? It's costly not to master the art of the educated guess.

Here are your tasks:

1. Role play: Describing One’s Skill Level
1. Find vocabulary words that could replace those on your skill list.
2. Practise, as usual, by yourself, with a partner, and then together with an audio/video program.
2. Browse this LinkedIn page.
1. Identify 5 skills you see and indicate the level: B, I, A (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
2. Add 5 skills you have that were not listed there, with their respective skill levels.
3. Post comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts.

Monday's Assignment

Welcome back to school! Are you glad or sad to be back?

This week we start with a new theme. Look at the picture below and guess what it is:

If you guessed job skills, you're right!

Here are your tasks:

1. Vocabulary: Diverse Skills
1. Identify at least 5 news words/terms.
2. Learn their pronunciation and meaning.
2. Role play: Upgrading Job Skills
3. Take this Skills Assessment Test.
1. Post your results and comments.
2. Post your comments on 3 of your classmates’ results.