Where Have the Jobs Gone?

Interesting information this morning in the Toronto Star:

The unemployment rate in Saskatchewan is 3.9 per cent, in Alberta it is 4.8 per cent and in Manitoba, 4.9 per cent, but there are pockets in the two westernmost provinces where unemployment approaches zero.

The article discusses the controversial issue of temporary foreign workers and notes that:

In Ontario, where the unemployment rate sits at 7.7 per cent, there is not a single temporary foreign worker in the food services industry, according to Reynolds.

What are your feelings, thoughts, and ideas about the employment situation in your province? Do you have any specific advice for newcomers in Toronto? Please click on the Comment button below to share.

Monday's Assignment

Welcome to a week on the theme of job interviews!

Here are our tasks for today:

1. Post a report on one of the two field trips from last week. Have two classmates check it before posting.
2. Listening Comprehension: Nervous at an Interview 
3. Role Play, recorded on Vocaroo.com: Getting Recommended for a Job 

Grammar, Gallery Work, and Gourmet Garden Food

Our dear volunteers Peter and Kathleen were recognized for their labour of love today, at the close of National Volunteer Week. Classmates Hamed and Nora presented the presents from our class. About seventy of us, learners, teachers, child minders all, had carpooled our way to the Malaysian restaurant and tried--for most our first time--the spicy cuisine of Southeast Asia.

UPDATE: Kathleen says thank-you: "Please allow me to say "thank you" for the lovely lunch and the kind and thoughtful gift from you and your class.  I enjoyed the time I taught them so much, and I was inspired by their hard work and enthusiasm."

What a way to end a week of hard work--grammar, the full active tense chart right up to this morning; doing the volunteer competency needs checklist and comparing it to the sample positions posted in the hallway "gallery"; and piling everybody into cars to head off to the restaurant at Sheppard and Brimley.

Peter has been running our Level 4-5 Writing Enrichment Workshops on Thursdays, and Kathleen has been joining Peter in our conversation circles on Tuesdays. They have done a sterling job, and we're just glad to recognize them for their time and love.

Do you know your active verb tenses?

Anna, Ming, Hamed, Jinni, Young, Yana, Nora, and Tina on their very best behaviour

Click the link to the left for more pictures and videos.

National Volunteer Week Luncheon, April 26

Our luncheon to recognize some of our volunteers is scheduled for April 26, at Gourmet Malaysia Restaurant (alternate website) on the northeast corner of Sheppard and Brimley.



This may not be 100% accurate, but one lunch specials menu available online shows the following:






Here's the official menu from their website.


Gourmet Malaysia Restaurant

Brimley and Sheppard

4466 Sheppard Ave. East,

Unit 101 Scarborough,

Ontario M1S 1V2

Tel: (647) 764-1188

Wednesday's Assignment

United Way volunteers in white t-shirts provide some welcome conversation.

Welcome back from the field trip! Continuing on our theme of volunteering, let's focus on the following tasks:

1. If you are taking part in the ESL Week Competition, take the first half an hour to plan your entry—either by yourself or with your team. 
2. Listen to this lesson on volunteering, and take notes. Discuss your thoughts with your partner, and record your response on Vocaroo.com. 
3. Role play with a partner: Volunteer Recognition.
4. Write about your field trip yesterday or about what else you did, and post it to your blog.

Field Trip to North York Civic Centre

It was a bright-eyed-bushy-tailed start to Enterprise Toronto's Small Business Arts Forum at NYCC, when Ming, Lan, Young, Lena, Angela, and Katie took their places in the former city council chambers this morning. Assembled there were representatives from the performing arts, music, film, and other arts-related industries, as well as business representatives and walking success stories. How promising!

As it turned out, however, the audio in the panel session--on crowdfunding--was difficult to hear, with the panelists mumbling at a high rate of speed, the volume turned down too low, and noise wafting in from the back. There was some discussion about the high fees at kickstarter.com* and amazon.com, which was somewhat interesting, but eventually we needed to pull out.
(*Check out how crowdfunding is going to replace this famous boat!)

Being where we were, we decided to make a survey of Mel Lastman Square, North York Central Library, Douglas Snow Aquatic Centre, and NYCC again, this time up on the third floor at the Parks & Recreation office getting registered for the city's recreational programs. Hopefully, it was a profitable time of learning despite the unfortunate circumstances of the Arts Forum itself.

Not the best presented forum, but making the best of it!

Watchable goodies in the ESL section of NYCL

All signed up for the season and good to go!

Monday's Assignment and Tuesday's Field Trip Directions

Field Trip Tomorrow

Please meet at North York Civic Centre tomorrow at 9 a.m. Those leaving from Don Mills should do so by 8:30 a.m. to be on time. You may wish to meet with your classmates or exchange your cellphone numbers beforehand. Do bring your printed tickets with you.

For specific directions, please see map (feel free to click on View Larger Map) below.



View Larger Map

See you there! Be prepared to have a super time of learning about the arts business!

====================

Welcome to National Volunteer Week!

1. Read this page, and discuss your thoughts on our field trip tomorrow. 
2. Watch these videos and take notes:
1. Copy down any useful quotes from this video.
2. Read this speech, and--if it works--compare the text with the audio in this video.
3. Listening and Vocabulary: Volunteer Work 
4. Share the reading task (3 of 6 stories) and share your learning with your partner. 
5. Write a tribute (thank-you note) on your blog to our volunteers.

Friday's Assignment

 

1. Complete your blog corrections or writing.
2. Role Play: Dining with a Foodie
3. Listening and Vocabulary: Feb 15, horse meat

Learning the Nursery Rhymes

Okay, some of you wanted to learn nursery rhymes in English this morning. You know, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Humpty Dumpty.

Well, I just saw this one on a friend's Facebook page:


See if you could take dictation of some of those rhymes sung in a most unusual manner.

And let me know if you still want to learn more nursery rhymes!

Wednesday's Assignment

 

1. Please complete all the corrections on your blog. Also, please email me your confirmation of registration for next Tuesday's Small Business ARTS Forum at NYCC.
2. Discuss The Hunger Project with your partner and recommend ways our class might participate. Record your plans and your partner's on your blog.
3. Does Toronto have any food deserts? Check out this article. Do you agree with the information on the map (compared to the one above)?
4. Role Play with Another Partner: Eating Junk Food

Monday's Assignment

Welcome to a week focusing on Global Issues--Hunger.

1. What is a famine? Find the definition in this resource.
2. Read the information and order a Canadian FoodGrains Bank postcard.
3. Role play with a classmate: Being Hungry and Full

Oh no, what if you forget your elevator pitch?

No worries! Listen to Willie!



Then take dictation of his speech, and use it as a model for your own!

For more interesting LiveLeak videos, check out LiveLeak Freaks or LIKE it in Facebook.

OR ...

Friday's Assignment

What a crazy week it's been meeting some of Canada's famous personalities! Guess which famous Canadian is featured in the following videos:




That's right--A.Y. Jackson, one of Canada's Group of Seven.

Here are a couple of tasks to round things out:

1. Make corrections on your blog--all of them! Use your editing checklist as necessary.
2. Sing this world-famous song (see below) along with Joseph Scriven of Port Hope.
3. Dictation and/or singing on Canadian heroes
4. How might you, your children, or your grandchildren like to contribute to Canada over the next 10 – 20 years? Blog your thoughts!

Wednesday's Assignment

1. Tense Buster: Work on gaps in grammar from bottom
2. Read up on “ordinary,” scientific, and business heroes, one from each category, and tell a classmate what you learnt. Record your summary on Vocaroo.com and post the audio links on your blog.
3. Role play with a classmate: Being Famous and Anonymous.

Free Art of Writing – Creative Writing Workshops for Women

Date:	Saturday, April 20 – Saturday, June 15, 2013
Time:	10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location:	Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, 745 Danforth Avenue, Suite 401, Toronto Greater Toronto Area

Have you always wanted to write?
Do you sometimes wish you could put some words that you think of on paper?
How would you like to write beautiful words in your language and in English?
Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto (NEW) is pleased to offer creative
writing workshops for newcomer women on Saturday mornings, starting
April 20th, 2013.
Taught by Dr. Althea Prince, who has published 9 books including In
the Black (2012), this 9-week program provides women a supportive
space to write stories that they remember from their childhood and new
stories that they heard or created as adults.
*Participants who do not write in English are encouraged to write in
their original language! – We will provide translators for the
stories. A book of stories will be published at the end of the
program.
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Dates: Saturdays, April 20 – June 15, 2013
Time: 10 a.m. – 12p.m.
Location: 745 Danforth Avenue, Suite 401
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Space is limited, please register by April 12, 2013.
How to register:
Register online at http://storytelling-420.eventbrite.com/ or call
Najma at 416-469-0196
For more information, please contact Najma by phone 416-469-0196 or
email pa@newcomerwomen.org

For More Information

Name:	Najma
Phone:	416-469-0196

Related Website

• Click here for the website

View Related Documents

• Click here for more information

Location

See this map in Google maps

#nowthatchersdead, What's the Use of Punctuation?

Those of you who have ever tweeted or used Twitter will know that a hashtag (#) is used to highlight and index topics of interest.

When this hashtag appeared this morning, it created some confusion: #nowthatchersdead

The topic could have been either

•  #nowthatchersdead = Now that [famous singer] Cher is dead ...

or

•  #nowthatchersdead = Now [former British Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher is dead ...

Which was the right story? Who, in fact, died?




If you still don't know the answer, check out this Toronto Star article.

Monday's Assignment

Welcome to a week on Famous Canadians!

Who's the genius who put Brad Pitt among the famous Canadians on Google Images?

1. Blog your impressions of the IEP Conference and add pictures. 
2. Read the passage, write down 5 important points, and upload them to your blog. 
3. Watch the video and discuss with your partner whether you agree with the ranking.

Talk about a Reunion: Classmates Old and New at IEP

Our school was well-represented today at the 10th annual Internationally Educated Professionals Conference. Besides the plenary session, there were tracks for professionals in engineering, IT, healthcare, and marketing and communications.

Besides Level 4 - 5, Workplace English were there as well. We saw Reza and wife, as well as Morteza and his wife. The others had their photos taken:

 

Angela, Young, and Lena get the ball rolling!

 

IEP This Friday

This year, the IEP Conference is again held at Metro Toronto Convention Centre's North Building. A 500-metre walk from Union Station, the program starts at 8:30 a.m. and runs through 4:30 p.m. You are encouraged to attend as many sessions as you can.

To get there and back, please make arrangements with your classmates to leave from Don Mills if you're not sure of the TTC and walking routes.

As a class, let's meet together for lunch, discussion, and a group photo around 12 noon just outside the Information and Resources Marketplace (Room 106/107).

We look forward to an enriching and enlightening experience there!