(1) Short awards ceremony to show appreciation to the class for their commitment and dedication through the semester. Awards will go to the 3 best dialogue-pairs, the best individual oral contribution, the best vocab test results, the best EC comments, and to the most persistent student.
Movie. We can watch one of 3 movies (if Liu Yufan could get us a media classroom...!). You have to tell me which one you want to see! 1. "The Freedom Writers Diaries" about a female teacher who was a model teacher; 2. "The Ron Clark Story" about a model male teacher in New York; or 3. "Walk to Remember" which also takes place at a campus, but it is a love story. So, most votes for one of these movies and we'll watch that movie!
Comments: This is then the last opportunity if you want to make a last comment (students don't return to this website afterwards ... so, it would certainly be your last comment here!). If you don't want to comment, it is okay. But to those of you who'd like to write something, tell me about your progress in English and what this year (two semesters) meant to you. I will reply to any comment (even if it is after our last class!).
P.S. Vocab Results: I attach the results of today's vocab test here. The correct answers are in bold. If you can't open it, I can send it to Liu Yufan on qq if required. Just let me know, pse. I noticed that at least one student achieved 100% ... and I know of one teacher who is very proud of you! I'll publish the individual results later.
Replies
I hope your expectation for the movie was met with satisfaction today, Cao Hualin! If you could follow the dialogue (the English wasn't always clear, I have to admit), it surely must have touched your heart too! Yes, I am also sad about this being our last class. This is the one thing I really hate about teaching ... I get so attached to my students and then, when they are deep in my heart, we have to part. Last semester it was different to me as I knew I would see you all again. But this semester I already had the knowledge about this really being our last time together ... I will miss you and CC very much, Cao Hualin.
Sorry that you had to watch a love story with the class today, Ann! But I do hope that you enjoyed a little of it?! Watch that other movie (The Freedom Writers Diaries) by yourself; you will never regret it! It is a truly inspirational movie (though a little long - two hours). If you can't download it, ask me for it as I have it on my USB disc. Thank you for your class contributions this semester, Ann. As you already know, I was not too impressed with you last semester [;-)], but you were different this semester and it was a pleasure to have you in the class. You and Zhou Yuqi have always (as far as I could see!) participated well in the class discussions (and you know that it made me happy!). I will really miss you much, Ann.
Thank you for our last comment, Li Fengxian. And thank you for attending this semester's classes with Class 13. I admire you for that. I hope you made some new friends in this class. I had the feeling that most of the students have accepted you and it appeared to me that they have mostly treated you well. I am very grateful to them for that. Though you may not use English again, I also think your language skills have shown improvement. Maybe one day you would be glad for that. This was now our third semester together and I know I will miss you dearly, Li Fengxian. You will remain a special student in my heart. Good wishes to you with your future plans.
P.S. I will forward your final semester score to the office together with that of Class 13. Pse make sure that they (the admin office) don't miss it! ;-)
Thank you, Nancy. Sorry that we didn't watch your movie choice (but it's my guess that you enjoyed today's movie with us too!). Do yourself the favour, however, and try to watch that movie by yourself (The Ron Clark Story) as it is very inspirational. If you can't download it, let me know as I have it on my USB disc. Thank you for your class contributions, Nancy, and for your enthusiastic conversations with Wang Jiajia and Crystal. You know how I like it when my Chinese students speak English, and I have often noticed your exciting discussions! Yes, I will miss you, Nancy, very, very much.
By doing the comments,i learned a lot of foreign cultures.And i think without the comment i will not search anything about it on the Internet.It widen my horizon greatly.This semester,i tried to find a good way to speak English.I trained my spoken style by reading after the radio of CET6 listening examination.What i want is my spoken English is not Chinese-spoken style any longer.I just want to talk with others as fluently as possible.
I want to see the third movie,i enjoy the love story.I had never seen it andthink it must be attractive.Thank you for your great help in the past year.Hope the next semester:)
Thank you for your comment, Kelly. I am surely going to miss our discussions based on some of your comments. I hope I'll get another student in one of my future classes that would also find an interest in communicating in such a way! I enjoyed it very much, and I am sure that it helped to further enhance your language skills. I am glad to read that you have regarded the visits to the website in such a positive light. I have discovered since introducing website comments to my curriculum for my English students, that it is surely a great aid to improve the students' language skills (despite some students not liking it!). Just a pity that we had problems accessing the website for some strange reasons. Yes, I would be forever grateful to Hou Yan for helping my class with the website!
But, after this semester, you don;t have to abandon the website completely (if you can get access, of course)! If you need to practice your language skills, you can always continue writing to me (or use my email address on qq, or j3bester@yahoo.com) and I'll eply to give you reading practice too! And on the 'listening' page there are excellent listening exercises here, not only Tara's news (but also links to the BBC, VOA, Russia English service, and Al Jazeera)! I am sure that you, with your goals of improving your English, would one day be fluent in the language! Then lastly, thank you to you too for such a positive attitude in class, Kelly. I enjoyed having you in the class. I will miss you and Ada very much and I separate from you with sadness in my heart.
Yes Zhou Yuqi, this would probably our last communication with each other. Thank you for your contributions to make our classes successful; without the those contributions from you and your classmates, it would not have been possible. I agree that you and most of your classmates have made good progress in improving your English skills. Don't stop learning now! Oh, and I'll miss you and Ann much, Zhou Yuqi!
Thank you for your comment, Pauline. And thank you for those kind words (which I'm not sure that I really deserve, by the way); I didn't realize that you appreciated me so much. I also noticed that today. You are also like Crystal, a little different from many other students, as Chinese people don't easily say they love other people (let alone a foreigner!). So, thank you for those words, anyway. In the West, I have discovered that those words, "I love you", have become too 'cheap' and people would sometimes use that without really meaning it. But when I hear those words in China being said to me, I know it comes from the heart. You know now that I love you dearly, and I will miss you and Tina and your class extremely much. Maybe it's because there were so many girls in your class (and girls mostly have such beautiful personalities), but for some reason your class climbed very deep into my heart (though I didn't show it that much, until today ...). I am happy to read you are also of the opinion that your English skills have improved; I agree with you, as I have witnessed your (and most of your classmates) progress and I am excited about that. Lastly, you mentioned making comments on the website should you miss this old teacher, but you can also write an email to me if you have problems going on the website! Use my qq mail, or my other address is j3bester@yahoo.com. ;-)
Thank you for your last comment too, Li Zimu. Haha, you have a delicate dilemma about learning English ...! But at least you attended some lessons (and you owe me two for 2014 - don't forget!). No, I can really not give you an answer about the problem with English. I think half of it is in the mind, as you were probably never told that it would be good for any student to learn an additional language (for various reasons) as I still see to much of a negativity in China toward the English language (lack of vision, I believe). And the other half is probably because you don't have a dream or goal about English for your life.
Li Keqiang (for whom I have great admiration, by the way) set himself a goal to become a great leader of China, but he knew, to be able to stand out from among his peers and competition, he had to master the English language. The rest is history - today he speaks the best English of all in the Chinese government, AND he is self-taught (no TV, computers, and English teachers when he grew up - he is my age)! But, it started with a dream, which became a goal. His dream and goals for himself didn't limit him to the borders of China! So, Li Zimu, don't limit yourself!
I already told you on qq that you gave a good contribution in your dialogue last week with Wang Shuaitian (and I mentioned that you even impressed me more than him!). I would hate to fail you, because you missed too many classes. So, that's why I arranged with you to give me two more, because I think you deserve to pass based on your oral. So, in my final analysis, I think you have excellent potential, Li Zimu, and you don't realize that! Again, don't put limitations on your potential, and don't get influenced by others. You owe it to yourself to do your best in life. Good luck! ;-)
Congratulations to you too for your award with Han Qing, Maxine! I think you deserved that because the vocab both of you used to talk about your science project, really impressed me! I had the feeling that you have worked hard on your dialogue and it showed on the day. Sorry that we didn't watch your movie choice, but I guess you could have enjoyed today's movie with us, right?! However, pse do yourself the favour and watch that movie, The Freedom Writers Diaries, as it too is a great movie and it would surely inspire you. If you can't find a copy, pse let me know and I can bring you a copy on my USB disc (or give it to one of your classmates). But you must watch it! I think you and most of your classmates have improved their English skills, Maxine. Thank you for the effort you put into it. One of the things that really gives me great joy in class, is when I hear my Chinese students talk with one another in English; and I noticed how you and Han Qing have done it with excitement, and it gave me great joy! Thank you! May you too have a great time ahead of you. I will miss you so much, Maxine.
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