Comments

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  leila April 23, 2015 20:07
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  vafa March 9, 2015 18:23

  Hello Tanya I am from Iran can I chat with you I live in Iran I am a geologist I would like have a good relationship between I and you I am waiting for your responses
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  Josef Essberger January 12, 2015 6:39

  Thank you for your Christmas wishes :)
  All the best to you.
  Josef
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  Paul Lesly January 6, 2015 21:54

  Hi
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  Ehab Nassif December 26, 2014 17:47

  Hello Tanya

  Happy New year and Merry christmas

  
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  _Bia(noprvtplz) December 23, 2014 19:50

  lets fill the glasses with chmapagne and drink it for happiness and for our friendship..i will miss you guys....bye ....for two weeks!
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  Hassan December 3, 2014 14:30

  hey, how do you do?

  i would like to improve my language so i will be happy to find friends like you

  my skype id :hassan.hashem90
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  HamidTEFL November 23, 2014 4:47

  Hi Tanya
  Please allocate a time to talk. I really need your help to improve my speaking ability. My Skype id is: HamidTEFL.

  Warm regards
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  Rajesh October 6, 2014 19:23

  That's the greatness of such students who always give their hands to teachers!
  I also wonder where are we moving with this computer growing society. :)  By the way, I have written a blog on behalf of "modern technology' and would love to see your reply there. Thank you, dear teacher Tanya and have peaceful time! :-)
  
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  Mr. Bob October 6, 2014 4:02

  Tanya, you are right and it is not just reading in their second language that they are lacking. Many of them have never read the literature in their first language. I find it appalling too and it really does make me worry for the future. 

  When I taught in the university and junior colleges I was already getting a bad opinion of some of the education majors who would become teachers and school administrators. Some of them were among my best students, but too many of them were at the bottom in the class ranking. I followed the careers of some of the best students and many left teaching because it was already being made into a system where everything was tied to standardized tests and huge amounts of paperwork.

   

  Teaching was becoming less important than keeping a bureaucracy fed with tons of paper. The right wing party was doing their best to break the back of the teacher unions and teachers began to be judged solely on the standardized test scores of their classes without looking at the students’ educational history. Poor schools with little resources did worse on the tests and teachers had to start teaching for test results (teaching to the test) instead of educating students for life.

   

  The first places to be cut during difficult times tended to be the schools, the fire departments and the police. Government officials who knew nothing about education were beginning to find ways to cut costs and not thinking about how education was being hurt. Many of these people had lots of money and sent their children to private schools anyway, or refused to vote for small tax increases to rebuild aging schools because their children were grown. The political party of Ronald Reagan and George Bush seemed to care about the wealthy but not the average people. They voted to lower the taxes on Billionaires and Millionaires who could afford to help the country with their taxes.

   

  Now the poor and the middle class are paying for our schools while huge corporations and those with the highest 1% of wealth are getting money from the government in some cases. America has things backwards and many of our people who got poor education in school are too stupid to see the difference. I’ve seen similar problems in other countries too.