EF5 Class 1

 

 

 

Good morning, everyone.

 

This is the Summer Period 1 (P1) (M-F 8:30-12:00) class for this course:

English Foundations 5

 

First come, first served for seats.

 

Are you in the right class? I sent you an email. If you got my email, you are in the right class.

 

If you did not get my email, you may not be in the right class, or the office may have an incorrect email for you. Check your email now. Check your JUNK folder.

 

If you are on the waiting list, you should have gotten an email from the school. If not, go to the office.

   

NOTE: Everything that you see on this screen, I will publish on my blog every day. You can find my school blog here: haleyshec.blogspot.com

 

I will talk more about the blog later.

 

My name is Allan Haley.

I will take attendance.

Distribute course outline

 

 Today’s Agenda

·      Welcome

·      Housekeeping (preliminary information, matters to deal with)

o   Student wifi

o   Parking

o   Covid protocols

·      Communication via/by email

·      Class blog

·      New cell phone policy for BC schools

·      Curriculum- education, class, course

o   Dates, times for our class

o   Course overview- handout

·      Small group chatting- icebreaker

·      IF TIME Student Questionaire

 

 

 

VOCAB agenda

Every day I will post an ‘agenda’

-‘agenda’- used for meetings, school, business or government

-the things that we are going to talk about, plan, schedule

-business world- business meetings always have agendas, e.g. Strata council meetings

 

VOCAB Strata – own an apartment, condominium, condo

 

Strata council meetings- homeowners meet to discuss the building

 

daily agenda- daily list of items to teach, schedule for the class

-helps to keep the class on track, organized

-lets everyone know what to expect, what is coming

 

IDIOM ‘stay on track’ ‘keep on track’ – stay organized, not get distracted, have a plan and follow it, stick to the plan

stay on track, get off track

 

IDIOM stick to your plan– follow your plan

 

She wants to go to college, so she will stick to her plan of finishing her courses at SHEC.

SHEC – South Hill Education Centre

She wants to go to college, so she is trying to stay on track finishing her courses at SHEC.

The little boy finds it hard to stay on track with his homework. He is easily distracted.

I want to lose weight, but I can’t stay on track.

Sheila finds it challenging to stay on track with her gym routine.

 

VOCAB challenging – difficult, not easy

professional word- Instead of ‘difficult, hard’, say ‘challenging’. 

Instead of ‘difficulty, problem’, say ‘a challenge’.

Her life has many challenges.

Learning English is very challenging.

 

 

*Welcome

My name is Allan Haley.

Please call me Allan. Calling me by my first name is fine. I will call you by your first name, too.

If you have a name that is different from the name in your school record, let me know. I will try to remember it.

Some people have an English name.

 

This is my school email: ahaley@vsb.bc.ca

I sent you an email. Did you get my email?

If you got my email, that means that we can communicate by email.

If you didn’t get my email, check your JUNK folder.

If you did not get my email, that means that there is a problem with the email. If you did not get my email, you can fix that in the office.

 

**Wifi*

We have school wifi for students.

Wifi: VSB-Commons

Wifi password: FZUVvsdR

 

**Parking**

We offer free parking for students.

Scan the QR code on the pink piece of paper.

Put it your licence plate- licence plate on your car

Put it in your first name and last name.

Sign up so that you will not get a ticket.

 

VOCAB First name – given name

Last name- family name, surname

 

Causes confusion when filling out forms and documents.

 

Chinese and Vietnamese is opposite.

 

Ling Yan- English

Yan Ling – Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean

Source of confusion- order of names

 

You will be able to park in the SHEC parking lot until August 31, 2025.

SHEC- South Hill Education Centre

 

IMPORTANT   If you brought your car, sign up in the app asap so that you do not get a ticket. Your car will probably not get towed away. I have never seen a tow truck in the parking lot at SHEC. Plenty of people have gotten tickets.

 

VOCAB ASAP asap   as soon as possible

Call me asap. Call me as soon as possible. as soon as you can

VOCAB RSVP – French respondez sil vous plait- please respond, please let me know your decision

 

Invitation to a wedding: Wedding July 13, 2025

You are invited to our wedding.

RSVP
+1  plus one – You can bring one more person.

 

I’d love to come to your birthday party. Can I bring a plus one?

This is my brother. He is my +1.

+1 – party, celebration, barbecue, social gathering, not business

 

 

***Covid protocols***

Are we still worried about Covid?

IDIOM sick as a dog- very sick

high fever, muscle soreness, sore throat, coughing, hacking, tired, low mood, bad dreams- nightmares, crying. lose weight

VOCAB nightmare- night, mare-horse

night horses- old English superstition- hear horses running at night- bad luck

 

VOCAB protocol- accepted ways to act, best ways to do things

 

Protocols to reduce the spread of illness:

Wash your hands many times a day.

Stay home if you’re sick.

Wear a mask.

 

Use moisturizer/hand lotion/hand cream.

 

In class:

Two bottles of sanitizer at the front. One is for your skin; the other is for the table.

Feel free to wear a mask if you want.

I will not wear a mask when I’m talking to the class. When we wear a mask, we lose the facial expressions. We lose the lip reading.

We get a lot of information from facial expressions, lip reading, etc.

Talking on the phone is challenging. It is harder than talking face-to-face.

 

VOCAB challenging- difficult, hard

EUPHEMISM – ‘you fem ism’ a word that we use instead of the less polite word

challenging- difficult, hard

challenge- problem

die- pass away, pass

dead- hard word- passed away

toilet- washroom, restroom, bathroom

 

 

**Emails***

I sent an email to you. If you received that email from me, than that means we can communicate via email. If you did not receive an email from me, that means I do not have your email in the computer system. We will have to fix that.

 

VOCAB via (preposition)- by

via – the way that you go, your route, through

She gets to school by/via Knight Street.

 

ViaRail- Canadian railway company, train

Amtrak- US train from Vancouver to Seattle, San Francisco

 

Hossein came to Canada from Iran via Turkey.

He flew to Canada from China via Hong Kong.

Maria flew to Halifax via Toronto.

 

You can fly directly to Tokyo from Vancouver. It is a direct non-stop flight.

You fly to Ethiopia via Frankfurt.

She flew to Vancouver from Tehran via Istanbul and Montreal. She had a three-hour layover in Montreal.

VOCAB layover (noun,verb)- scheduled wait

VOCAB delay (noun,verb)- unscheduled wait

Have you ever had a long layover in an airport?

It makes for a long day of travel.

 

She became a college instructor via nursing.

He got into accounting via banking.

via- from, through, the path that you follow

 

***

Emails-

When you send an email to me, please put your full name and class in the subject line of your email.

e.g. SUBJECT: Joe Chen, EF5

 

I asked you to respond to ahaley@vsb.bc.ca with your full name and the class you are in the subject line of your email. Only a few responded to the email as I requested.

I responded “Thank you. See you in class. Allan.”

If you got my response email, everything is ok.

Thank you for that. I want email communication to be seamless between us.

 

 

 

VOCAB/IDIOM seamless(adjective)- smooth, no problems , no confusion

seam – where two pieces of cloth are sewed, joined, rough area, bumpy

seamless- not rough, smooth, easy

 

I hope registering for this class on the reg page was seamless. adjective

Taking the Skytrain using a credit card is seamless.

Raising teenagers is rarely seamless. It is challenging. The road can be rocky.

Immigrating to Canada is not a seamless process. There is a lot of stress, paperwork, and money. There are a lot of hurdles. There are a lot of hoops to jump though.

IDIOM hurdles, hoops to jump through

VOCAB hurdle- something to jump over

IDIOM – jump through hoops

I had to jump through a lot of hoops to become a citizen.

There are many hurdles when becoming a citizen.

 

***IMPORTANT***

When you send an email to me, please put your full name and class that you are in in the subject line of the email. Then I will know who you are and what class you are in.

Some people might not be familiar with email. I can help, or maybe a classmate can help.

 

10-minute break

 

 

*** Class Blog ***

Everything that goes on this screen, I will put up on our class blog.

CLASS BLOG: haleyshec.blogspot.com   It’s on the course handout.

You do not have to make notes as we go because everything on the screen will go onto the blog. Nevertheless, making notes during class is an excellent way to improve retention. The best students usually make notes during a class or lecture. They review their notes on their own afterward, within 24 hours. It refreshes the knowledge. It helps to make the new information permanent.

 

The blog can serve as your notes.

Making your own notes in a class helps you to retain information.

 

VOCAB blog – weblog- keep a written record on the internet, online diary, publish your thoughts

Some people are bloggers.   substack

the web- worldwide web- www, internet, the et

log- written record

-nurse in a hospital, truck driver- keep a log, weight loss plan-watching your diet- record events as they occur

 

web + log = blog

 

two words mushed together to make a new word

breakfast + lunch = brunch

smoke+fog = smog   dirty air above a city

Spanish + English = Spanglish

Chinese + English

Farsi + English

 

I will update my blog every day after class. You can check it and review what we did in class. Reviewing material is the best way to help remember new information.

VOCAB review(verb,noun) re- again view-see,watch,look

 

rewrite, redo, repeat, reheat, replace, remember, recognize, retain, retension

 

recognize re-again cogn-understand cognitive(adj)

 

cogni- brain understanding

cognitive(adj) – understanding

cognition(n)- think, understand

cognitive(adj)- President Biden had some obvious cognitive decline.

Alzheimer’s disease- dimentia

 

My grandmother had a sharp physical decline when she broke her hip.

Difficult cognitive work can stave off dimentia. Difficult brain work can help keep your brain healthy as you get older.

VOCAB FROM CONTEXT stave off- keep away, stop

 

Difficult cognitive work- puzzles, learning a new language, ping pong, chess, Go, new musical instrument, etc.

 

Are you worried about cognitive decline?

 

Learn something difficult. e.g. English

 

 

 

#1- nurture a good vibrant social circle Loneliness kills!

 

 

 

You can check the blog as much as you like. There is no sign-in, no password. It’s all public and accessible.

 

You can keep using it after the course is over. I am planning to keep my blog up forever.

 

Our blog is a tremendous resource that you can use.

 

My class blog goes back 11 years.

 

My blog is searchable. You can search for something specific that you are looking for.

 

The search bar is in the upper lefthand cornr of the main blog screen. Search for whatever you want to learn more about.

 

The search bar might not work on your phone. Click on “View web version” on the bottom of the page.

 

 

***ACTION***

I will post today’s notes so far on the blog.

Go to the blog now. Make sure you can open it.

haleyshec.blogspot.com

Let me know if you are having trouble opening my blog.

Any trouble getting in? We’ll figure it out.

 

If yes? Good!

If no? Let me know, or ask somebody.

Excellent work!

 

 

**Small group chatting

Let’s change gears.

Small group chatting

-chat(verb,noun) - casual talking, friendly, chew the fat

IDIOM chewing the fat – nice friendly chatting

We went to a coffee shop and chewed the fat.

discuss(v)- talk seriously

We have to discuss this problem.

 

FIRST DAY ICEBREAKER:

Get into groups of 4-5 people. Choose some people who you don’t know yet. Ideally, choose people who do not speak your mother language.

Topics to chat about with your partners.

1.    Name

2.    Home

3.    Family

4.    Job/Profession/Employment

5.    Travel

6.    Hobbies- pastimes, activities in your freetime

7.    Future plans

Of course, we will chat in English.

 

A.   Chat with the group about these topics.

B.    Choose one of your partners. Get information about them.

C.    Introduce your partner to the class.

 

Stand up. Talk to the class.

 

food-culinary, chef, cook, patisserie chef (pastry chef)

types of food- cuisine, French cuisine, Italian cuisine

 

interior designer-

architecture, engineering

 

She has been here since 2023.

She came to Canada in 2023.

She has been here for two years.

 

She likes swimming, hiking, and cooking.

She likes to swim, (to) hike, and (to) shop.

 

Her daughters are six years old and eight years old.

He is 35 years old.

 

He is studying music production.

She is studying business.

 

archery- shooting bow and arrow

 

short-term goals, long-term goals

She has long-term goals. She has a five-year plan.

ten-year plan

 

ice-breaker

 

Ethiopian food, cuisine- family style

 

waitress, waiter- server

 

Yellowstone Park

 

She likes swimming, hiking, and playing basketball.

 

She is an outdoorsy person.

He is a homebody.

 

She comes from Iran. He is from China.

She came from Iran. His home country is China.

AUTHENTIC She hails from Japan. She was born in Japan.

 

I want to introduce my classmate to you.

 

Good introductions. People from all over.

 

Mexico

 

**

25 minutes left

Student Questionaire- pass in to me today

Vocabulary exercises “Odd Word Out Exercise 1”- finish for homework