ESL job: Nordhausen October 6 through December 14, 2009

[NoelHolburn]

As regards the business basics book, we got to the end of unit 7 p89.

[Torsten]

Hi Noel,

Please continue completing the exercises in the Business Basics books. Ideally, we would complete all of them by the end of the course.
Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: At the cash register

[NoelHolburn]

Conditionals knocked out done and dusted !!!
I´m writing this down because the group were so successful in finding the german equivalents !

Cond 1 - If I find a problem, I will let you know. Wenn ich ein Problem finde, werde ich es Sie wissen lassen.
Cond 2 - If I found a problem, I would let you know. Wenn ich ein Problem gefunden habe, würde ich es Sie wissen lassen.
Cond 3 - If i had found a problem, I would have let you know. Wenn ich ein Problem gefunden hätte, hätte ich es Sie wissen lassen.

FAB !!!
More on this on monday.

[Torsten]

[NoelHolburn]

GREAT STUFF !!! We bow to your superior knowledge Torsten ( of german ! :-)) )

27th November. We reviewed past simple and past continuous so as we could combine them as in e.g. I was waiting at the bus stop when a bomb exploded. Many supplementary exercises on this. We reviewed adding "s" to the third person present simple. Discussion about the leipzig trip. The three conditionals ( plus live examples everytime one occurred naturally throughout the day ) - and more to be done here on Monday. I also introduced the idea od using either "to" or "ing". We finally finished off the poem and ended on internet time. An excellent productive day today. We have decided to spend two - three hours on both monday and tuesday exclusively on the TOIEC.

[Torsten]

Hi Noel, it's fantastic to see the course has been running so smoothly and congratulations on your Paris assignment! Yes, please do continue with more work on the tenses on Monday/Tuesday and go through the TOEIC questions.

Have a good Monday.
Thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A produce cart

[NoelHolburn]

Monday 30th. So far today we have reviewed the conditionals and the passive voice, as these occurred frequently in the TOIEC work. I intend later to review the present perfect as well. Otherwise the rest of today is going to be spent on the TOIEC test sections 3 / 4 / 5 as far as we can go, although we do not have a disc here so i am treating it as a vocabulary exercise for sections 3 and 4. Section 5 will be used to spot recurring patterns and teaching how to find the answer by a process of eliminiation. Any remaining time today will be spent on line. Tomorrow will include further review of the conditionals, the present perfect and the passive voice again, leading on to sections 6 and 7 of the TOIEC.

[NoelHolburn]

December 1st. We spent the first two periods today on the final section 7 of the TOIEC test. Today Simone and Peter joined in and coped very well on this final complex and advanced section. We are now on internet time at Sylvias request, but we still have to finish off the TOIEC. This being my final day in Nordhausen, I plan rather than teach new material, to go over and reinforce many things from the past. On the agenda : Present Perfect, making units out of uncountable nouns, making questions out of "am - is - are", reviewing the past simple and continuous in conjunction with each other, negation ( don`t ), question construction with "do", "I`ve got", "s" on third person simple, strong and weak verbs in past tense. I doubt we will do it all, but if there is time left over at the end, we will look at "since" and "for".

[Scott Graham]

Hi Noel,
Looks like the group have made great progress and you've enjoyed yourself. Please pass on my best wishes to the group and tell them I'm looking forward to meet them next Wednesday in my 'home-town'.
Can they confirm if they are coming with a van, I ask because it will help with the plan.

Best wishes
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[NoelHolburn]

Hi Scott, If you want to have a look at the notes above, the plans for December 9 are very uncertain. Not all the group is here today and Torsten is with them tomorrow, so i am assuming that he will want to allow the group to come to a final decision as to what they want to do. But there have been so far some hefty objections to travelling all the way to Leipzig. I will leave the matter with Torsten to clarify tomorrow. All the best, Noel

[Scott Graham]

Noel, ok, doesnt sound so promising, but I'll wait and see to hear what Torsten arranges with them.

Cheers Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten and Noel,
So have the group come to a decision regarding the trip next week. I understand that the journey to Leipzig is further than say Erfurt. But i think the group could really benefit from the trip.
I look forward to your response.
Best wishes
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Hi Noel and Scott,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences and thoughts with me. As for the Leipzig trip, it will take place next Wednesday as planned. The group will arrive by train around 9:30.

Scott, if you get time please check the ideas I have added to Google doc to make sure we are on the same page. I look forward to working with you next week.
Regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A tent