Teacher Patrick's Shinmin CALL Blog

My 703 class does a skit: good student, bad student!

teacherpatrick — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:10:22 +0000

Students Frank and Tommy make teacher Lilly crazy. Watch how she gets angry!

Assignment: World news

teacherpatrick — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:18:17 +0000

In your next assignment, you will find a news story from another country. You will write a few sentences about the story and link to the original story. Please follow the following rules:
1. Cannot be a story about Taiwan, China or USA.
2. Do not copy!
Here is an example:
News from Iran (from CNN)
On February 4, an important Iranian diplomat was kidnapped(誘拐). His name is Jalal Sharafi. He was badly tortured (拷打). His doctor said said he had holes in his foot from a drill, broken nose, deep cuts on his back, bleeding inside his stomach and one broken eardrum. He says the people that took him had Iraq ID cards. He says that the US (CIA) were behind his kidnapping, even though he saw no Americans at any time during his kidnapping. The CIA and US military deny(否定) any of this.

Welcome back Shinmin students!

teacherpatrick — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:48:21 +0000

How was Tomb Sweeping Day? More importantly, how was your very looooong weekend? Mine was very lazy and relaxing, except for Thursday. On Thursday my son was playing outside by himself. You will never guess what he did…

He covered the neighbor’s car with mud and washed it with small stones. Really, I am not joking. Oh my god! The neighbor was very understanding and is not going to make me pay for a new paint job. Thank you. I must remeber to give him some fruit.

I also downloaded an HBO show . It’s called The Wire. We don’t get this show in Taiwan, unfortunately. I watched the entire first season, or 13 shows. As I said, a very lazy weekend! But I have to tell you it is a great show. Probably the best cop show since Hill Street Blues, the greatest cop show ever, in my opinion. ANyway, The Wire really develops the characters, both the cops and criminals. They seem like real people, for a change. It has been on the air since 2002–I can’t believe we don’t get it here! It has won best show of the year by very important magazines like TIME, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian and the Chicago Tribune.

What do you think? Part 1

teacherpatrick — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:13:40 +0000

Watch the video below which is about “betelnut beauties” in Taiwan. Then go back to your blog and answer the following questions:

1. The man at the beginning says this topic is interesting for what reasons?

2. The girl “Jane” says some positive things about being a betel nut girl. What are they?
3. The doctor says that binlan is responsible for what? How much?
4. DO you think binlan beauties are ok? Why or why not?

5. Do you think binlan should be illegal? Why or why not?

Note:You may have to watch the video several times before you can answer all the questions. When answering the questions, find a way to link back to this post.

NT$823,000 diamond found in prison shower drain 監獄浴室排水管裡發現貴重鑽石

teacherpatrick — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:42:19 +0000

THis is a story from the Taipei Times bilingual page Here, you can find a story in both English and Chinese. Try to find other sites that have both English and Chinese news. If you find one, please come back to my blog and write it in a comment to this post.

4 second frenzy

teacherpatrick — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:13:37 +0000

I found a pretty cool flash game called 4 second Frenzy. In this game, you only have 4 seconds to do something. This “something” could be getting water from a bucket, avoiding stars in your spaceship or shooting something until its destroyed. You never know what the next game will be and you only have 4 seconds to figure out the rules and do it. It’s pretty hard, but really addictive!
Do you want to try? here is the link:
http://www.funnymos.com/4-second-frenzy/

Taiwanese Set Off 8.1-Mile Firecracker

teacherpatrick — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:38:06 +0000

Did you go to Tainan to see this world-record lighting of firecrackers on March 4? Do you know anyone that did? It must have been so loud and smokey!Do you have any photos? If not, can you help teacher find a better photo than this one? If you find one on ther Internet, please give me the link by writing a comment. Here is the story from Yahoo!

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Organizers lit up a 8.1-mile string of explosives in a southern Taiwanese county Sunday, hoping to create the world’s longest firecracker in a record-setting attempt expected to last two hours. ADVERTISEMENT

TV footage of the Chinese New Year celebration in Tainan County, dubbed “Legend of the Fire Dragon,” showed rapid flashes of bright red explosions that created huge wafts of white smoke.

Throngs that had gathered to witness the spectacle wore masks, goggles, and even motorcycle helmets to protect themselves from the pollution.

The firecracker was expected to take two hours to finish burning.

The record-breaking attempt needs to be verified by Guinness World Records.

Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News reported that Spain holds the current world record for the longest continuously burning firecracker at 7 miles.

The record wasn’t listed on the Guinness World Records official Web site, which only contains partial listings.

The festivities in Taiwan Sunday marked the last day of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebration. Other locals set aloft lanterns in the sky.

Michael Jackson’s many faces

teacherpatrick — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:13:07 +0000

Do you like Michael Jackson? I used to be a fan of his when I was very young. I won’t tell you how long ago that was…but I can tell you that by the time his album Thriller came out in 1982, I didn’t like him any more. At least, that is when I stopped spending money on his record. I guess you could say I started not being a fan at the same time he started changing his face. Teacher Kevin showed me this video called The years/ many faces of Michael Jackson – Man in the mirror
It’s pretty strange and scary even. I laughed the first time I saw it, but now I just wonder at what could make a man want to change like that.

Grade 8 Weekly Blog Assignment

teacherpatrick — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:44:02 +0000

This semester, you MUST write something in your blog every week. In English, of course! It doesn’t matter what you write; it can be almost anything. The only thing I ask is that:

You not use bad language. (swear/dirty words)
You link your source if you copy someone else’s words

You can write about something that happened to you, how you feel about something, what you think about a movie/book/comic/song/artist/singer/actor/etc.You can write about something you found in the news. Anything is ok. You have to write 3 sentences, or more.

You will have 15 minutes of class time to do this, but it will be better if you do it at home. Why? Because if you do it at home, you can look at Chinese websites.

For example, you find something on on yahoo.tw like this.

There is a new movie with Jim Carey called The Number 23. I like this actor. I think he is very funny. This doesn’t look like a very funny movie. Maybe this movie is not so good. I will wait until I can see the DVD to watch this movie!

Of course, if you don’t do your writing at home, you can use the 15 minutes of class time. But if you do it in class, you can only look at English websites. Remember, 15 minutes goes by very fast when you are on a computer. So better do it at home

Here is the good news: If you do it at home, you get 15 minutes of free surfing time in class!

An alternative for my classes

teacherpatrick — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:06:02 +0000

I am getting more and more frustrated with tblog’s slowness, especially when I have 30 or 40 kids all trying to post something at the same time. I will give my students the option of using wordpress, which is by far a much better…everything.