The Diary Of John

Friday, August 27, 2004

Got it figured..

Okay, now i see why the icons arent working. Its an internet explorer problem as it is working just fine here in Opera. I guess its a later version of IE needed to get the icons to show properly. I'll have to get them to upgrade things here so i can have a better version of internet explorer, or maybe just stick with using Opera lol. To be honest though, some sites dont work well with the Opera browser although it has many other great things built into it. Unfortunately though, IE is still needed so icant get rid of it just yet..

posted at 4:09 PM by john |

Kerrang honours Darkness

LONDON (Reuters) - The Darkness have been named best British band at the Kerrang! Awards, the UK's biggest accolade for hard rock music.

The spandex rock heroes also won the title for best live band, beating out U.S. heavyweights Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Slipknot.

The coveted best band on the planet award went to rock veterans Metallica.

With nominations dominated by U.S. bands, British groups still managed to snatch a number of titles at the London awards ceremony on Thursday, compered by ex-Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable.

Rock trio Muse won the best album award with "Absolution" while Lostprophets walked away with the best single title for "Last Train Home".

Masked rockers Slipknot were the surprise upset, failing to take any prizes, despite being up for four awards.

posted at 3:48 PM by john |

Mail..

Im trying to setup that new mail it link but i'm not sure if i can have both this and the quick edit link at the same time. I've tried but all i get are two tiny parts of the graphics for both links. the code seems to be exactly the same for both of them and i tried adding and messing with it but its still the same. In the end i had to ask Blogger for some help with this lol. The thing is i think they are both handy ideas to have so now i will find out if its possible or not.

Hmmm Claro isnt allowing me to send messages to Robertas phone, i wonder if a reboot will solve this problem? I'll just go try it hehe!!

posted at 3:27 PM by john |

Lazy..

Man, i'm feeling lazy today. I think its lack of coffee that it. I will have to up my intake to a gallon or so a day ;-) At the start of the semester though i am always full of fire and go but by the end of the semester the fire starts to burn lower and lower and then i have to get a caffeine drip fitted to keep me going hahaha!!

I finally got my groups from the other school last night, two more MEC groups. With conversation classes im up to nine groups this semester. I was supposed to have another VIP student too, i tried ringing to find out about this students but after calling 4 times in one day and getting nowhere i gave up and decided to let them call me, after all they have my cell phone number. I dont think one of the secretaries there likes me all that much either as she must have known i was going to call there but kept fobbing me off with some crap in portugues that i really didnt have the patience to try to understand hahaha!! Now i will wait for them, i have plenty of groups so for me its not as if i have to chase after them, i have enough money to get by on. They will either call or not, right..?

Fridays is extra class day, we use it to give class or help to students who missed classes in the week or who need extra help. They can even come here to sing kareoke if they really wanna lol. I like extra clases as i just give them at night time, three hours or so and usually i just have a couple of students who wanna practice vocab and stuff. Today i dont think i have anything at night, so i'll probably just get a video or something.

Its no good, i have to go get something to eat as im starving lol..

posted at 8:02 AM by john |

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Bright spark..

Who is this bright spark we see here? When i first came to Brasil this person who has never even visited my country decided to tell my then wife that basically i was full of shit and that i didnt know anything about my own countries education system, all this despite the fact she is Canadian and has never visited my country and also ignoring the fact that i had been teaching my children at home for the last few years before coming to Brasil. Sounds a wonderful person doesnt she? I think she must be some sort of voodoo medicine woman to know so much about the UK even though shes never been there, probably plucked the info right out of the cosmic stream of the universe lol. So who is this? Katy Cox From Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasilia. Man i wonder who would give someone like this a job in an English school when she doesnt have any real knowledge of the UK? My advice to her, get your facts right, put your brain into 1st gear before you open your mouth to speak..

posted at 10:05 AM by john |

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Games..

I've spent some time this morning going over some lyric game i made for one of my groups looking for something that isnt correct, but i cant find it lol. My students pointed out to me that something is missing but ive gone over the words twice now and i cant see what the problem is, i'll get Roberta to have a look and see if she can see what i cant.

At the moment its red hot here in the lab, well i think its more me thats feeling this not the actual school is hot lol. I cant wait for the rain to get here so that it cools things a little and the dust washes away. It gets everywhere, no matter how many times i wash my floors within a few hours they are dirty again. Still the rain here beings problems too, It doesnt seem to occur to people here that building drains would be a good idea to stop roads flooding and sometimes theere are 8" or more washing down the streets. Of course for thos people living at the bottom of the hills in Planaltina this isnt a good thing as the streets soon become unpassable until the rain stops and all the mud and garbage that people just dump in the street gets washed everywhere too. Why cant people realise that leaving garbage in the streets only breeds germs and infections etc? I dread to think what it must be like for the people who live under the bridges when the rainy season starts :-(

I have been trying for the last couple of days to get a hold of the coordinator of the other CCAA in Sob to find out about times for a VIP student they have there for me. Man, you wouldnt believe how much hard work it is and i still didnt get a hold of him even now. Four times i called the school yesterday and he wasnt there or when i called at the time they suggested he would be available he was giving classes hahaha!! Its a good thing i dont have this problem here, the secretaries always know exactly where i am all of the time so they can get hold of me, plus they just ring my cell number if its urgent. Still its just one student and i think they are stalling me off so another teacher can teach it, for me its not a problem as i have 9 groups ;-)

Okay its time for Coffee!!

posted at 9:14 AM by john |

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Grammar..

Man, grammar gets to be so boring lol. I like to teach just the basics of grammar, enough for the methodology and then concentrate usually on vocabulary and try to engage the students in conversation. Most of the stuff i have is basically for this, i have folders and boxes full of it. Grammar has its place but in the big scheme of learning English its just a small place compared to reading, writing and speaking. I know that some teachers love grammar but most of the time my students get frustrated because they wanna say something and just dont have the words to express themselves clearly. I like to spend time sitting chatting with the students but the time flies away doing this and i tend to get behind schedule quickly. I was looking for some grammar stuff for my students but got sidetracked into vocabulary instead lol. So now i have some phrases and stuff to print for my students to practice, i have to create some time in my schedule for this but not a problem. I have to get a shitload of photocopies for my conversation classes in Formosa too, just for roleplay cards and some vocabulary too. Roberta is going to help me to make some posters that have the vocabulary on them so i can just slap them onto the wall for the students to look at as they complete the roleplay i have dropped on them :-) I like to use as many activities as i can in class, as i gain more experience at teaching i learn more and more about what sort of things i can do and how simply some of them can be done with just bits of torn up paper. The students always love to do something a little different once in a while to break up the methodology. After studying for 5yrs or so they can get a little bored with the methodology. This afternoon i will try out another music game just for fun. Something rock though, not this terrible stuff that Brasilians listen too hehehe!!!

posted at 10:38 AM by john |

Sad init..?

Did you guys read the story underneath this post? Can you believe that British people can be so prudish? They ring to complain about this yet they thought it was great when there were posters of Angeline Jolie with her nipples sticking through a swimming suit. You can bet its just old people complaining, young people in Britain are alot more relaxed about sex and stuff. Old people just cant adjust though to the fact that the world has moved on alot from the attitudes Of 70yrs ago and have to find something to complain about. I remember there was one real retard called Mary Whitehouse, she thought of her self as the moral conscience of the British people who complained about anything and everything. It must have been a miricle for her and her fella to have any children hahaha!!! Now you can understand why people in other countries have problems understanding Brits right? How can someone complain about something like this yet say nothing about a huge gay carnival that we have every year in the UK with people practically naked cavorting all over the place? I have to laugh every time i read one of these stories hahaha!! My God, it gets worse and worse, i think it must be just women ringing to complain as at 41yrs old they probably dont look half as good as Sharron Davies does

Today i should know what hours my groups are going to be at the other school, i need to know as soon as possible because they have VIP students for me to teach at yet another school lol. Man, this semester is turning out to be wild! Strange though as they have alot of teachers at this other school so why did they ask me to teach it? I think its because there is loads of vocab in the MEC classes so people shy away from it and for me the vocab isnt really a problem. But then again having the time to teach it will be, they better ring me soon..

Im just roaming around the British Council website to see whats new. They usually add some stuff frequently and some of its nice for my students. The BBC World service is yet another good one to look around as it has many interesting things for both teachers and students alike. There are loads of links to many other sites here too, i dont know whether i will have time to reads them all this morning though as i have to prepare some stuff for my OM1 group who are studying comparisons and also superlatives + most in their classes today. Sound riviting doesn't it? lol

Right better get something done, like getting some mango juice and pretending im doing something..

posted at 8:27 AM by john |

Talk about Prudish..

Sharron Gets Nipple Furore Off Her Chest

Olympic TV presenter Sharron Davies says she cannot understand all the fuss over her revealing tops. BBC bosses have ordered cameramen to shoot her above the chest after viewers complained they could see the outline of her nipples.But the 41-year-old ex-swimming star says it is just a storm in a D-cup.

Sharron, a previous silver medal winner, said: "If it means more people are watching the Olympics, then it's a positive thing.

"They might learn a lot about swimming, get drawn into the sport and actually find they enjoy it."

But she is also slightly annoyed about the preoccupation with her bust.

She told the Daily Mirror: "At first it was a bit of a chuckle and nicely flattering.

"But if it's overshadowing things, then it's quite irrational because I take a real pride in my job.

She went on: "People are talking as if we don't have nipples for God's sake.

"What's the big deal? It is very sexist when you have men wearing Lycra in practically every sport."

posted at 8:25 AM by john |