Katsku and Salla doing their stuff

Hey hey hey,

Check out this first clip from our fabulous wedding. Our two ushers are clearly hard at work seating all the guests, and doing a hell of a job, too. I'll be posting more clips as I sort them out.

Wow!

Okay, my hat goes off to you. I have to admit that I wasn't too sure how today was going to work out, but you did an amazing job. I want to thank you all for a great wedding. I'll be posting some stills and some excerpts from the video as soon as I get the technical side sorted.

You can use this thread for your feedback: What did you think about the whole wedding thing? Did you something out of it? What? Which aspects didn't work? What could be improved? The floor is yours.

Also, Alma asked about the movie reviews and seemed kind of vexed about not getting them yet. I understand her concerns, but the reason I haven't given them back yet is a) I got the last one last Friday and b) we're going to look at them with the teacher trainees and give you a proper grade. So hang tight, you'll get them.

Thank you for this course. You are, quite simply, great.

Later edit: There was some cake left, so I took it to the staff room. It's in the fridge. Come and see me Lauri if you want it back! Also, you left the plate you brought it with.

The course is drawing to an end

Well, it seems like we haven't even started yet and now the course is almost finished. Exams start next week already. How time flies. I feel a bit bad for not having been able to teach you for two solid weeks. I would have liked to, believe me, but I couldn't really turn down the trainees either.

Jutta will still be teaching tomorrow and on Friday, and then on Tuesday we will have our big wedding. The three of us have been working hard on the preparations, and things look good on paper. We'll just have to see how it works in practice. Remember, this is a first time for everybody involved, so go easy on us. But I don't think there'll be too many problems. One thing I thought about today was Adrian. Maybe he'd like to take part in the wedding as well? If you feel like it, ask him. I don't know him that well.

Kirsti already made you fill in a questionnaire. Still, I'd like to hear some more feedback. What do you think about the teacher trainees? Did they dispupt the course? Do you think you've learnt something useful during the course? Have your say. That's what this blog is for.

Also, we'll be assessing your movie reviews with the trainees, so you won't get them back before next week. Be patient.

Taneli out.

General chit chat + small grammar point

Hi,

I just returned home after a busy day. Well, it wasn't actually that busy. I moved a lot but I didn't really get anything done. Still I thought it was a pretty decent day. Here's one good thing that happened today: my summer plans got crystallized. The way it looks like right now is that I'll be teaching a course for third-year high school students (abikurssi) for EF (Education First, maybe you've heard of it) in June. The really good news is that the course will be held in Oxford. Yippee. Maybe some of you could join in as well? Feel like hanging out in Oxford? I'm not trying to be an advertiser for EF or anything, but if you're doing the matriculation exam in Autumn, why not look into it? Anyway, then in July I'll be teaching English courses 4 and 5 at a summer high school in Siikaranta. Those you've probably done already, right? In August, I'll be participating in a course myself which is to be held in Cambridge. The title of the course is "Creativity in the English Language Classroom", so when I come back I'll be creative as hell. Hopefully.

I read your movie reviews by the way. I liked them. Some of you had really put some effort into them. You're not going to get them back before next week though: I am still unsure whether I should grade them or not. I'll get back to you on that. Here's one grammar thing that struck me: some of you use the so-called 'present continuous' a little too much. Do you know what that is? Here are some examples.

The chicken is crossing the road.
Taneli is teaching English.
Ilona is reading a book.

Notice the present continuous form which is in italics. Now contrast these sentences with the so-called 'present simple' forms, as in these sentences.

The chicken crosses the road.
Taneli teaches English.
Ilona reads a book.

All six sentences have present timeframe, so in other words they happen in the present. The first three are very different from the others, though. When you think about it, the ones with 'present simple' forms (last three) depict habitual events: we could add expressions like 'every Monday' or 'always' into them, which is something we couldn't do for the first three. Taneli teaches English means that Taneli teaches English for a living: that is what he does every day. Taneli is teaching English means that that is what he is doing right now as we speak. Okay why am I raving on about this? This is simple stuff, right? Well yes, but I think we Finns have a tendency to overuse the 'present continuous' forms for some reason and put them in places where the action is NOT happening right now. Remember that this is usually wrong. There are cases where it is possible, but they're rare. This is why we can't say Bob Murray is playing an aging actor in the movie because he does it throughout the movie: the 'present continuous' would be weird in this context.

But yeah like I said before, you guys totally murdered the film. Was it really that bad? Because I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. It may be because I'm so old already, but that finding your purpose in life stuff really gets to me.

Wedding planning

Hey,

We need to start planning for our wedding pretty soon. It's only a couple of weeks away. This is going to be a very special lesson and one that has the word 'catastrophe' written all over it, but we're going to do it anyway. The practical side of things is still a bit hazy, but the idea is that both our teacher trainees will take part in the lesson and we will put you in groups with specific assignments. One group will be in charge of, say, games and activities. Another will take care of the actual ceremony (this would include both bride and groom as well as the priest and all that). Or maybe you don't feel like throwing a traditional Christian wedding? Maybe you'd like to go Muslim for a day? That would certainly be interesting and would, moreover, tie in well with our topical notion of multiculturalism. Anyway, if you have any thoughts on that, feel free to post them.

Here's something I came across today that you can use as an appetizer. It has some handy vocabulary in it that you can make use of. Of course, this is a very traditional approach to the whole thing, but I think it's good to know the traditions first before you start breaking them.

http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/marriage.htm
http://www.weddings.co.uk/info/tradsupe.htm

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited about this.

T

Teacher trainees

Okay folks,

Quick post, I'm just on my way to bed feeling what the Brits call 'knackered'. If there are any typos don't tell anyone, especially in the English teachers' staff room.

I've been as sick as a really sick puppy over the weekend, but I'm (sort of) back in business now. There's still a funny sensation in the throat and my cough doesn't sound too good, but other than that I'm fine. I'm just mentioning this as I'm sure you're all terribly interested in my physical health. By the way, I just watched the movie The Queen with my flatmates and I thought it was pretty good. Again, if you're into action movies (and I'm getting the vibe that you are), probably not the best choice. Thoroughly entertaining nevertheless.

Also, I've been going through your movie reviews. Good stuff guys! Although it must be said that the actual movie clearly wasn't a hit. At least it made you take a (pretty firm) stand, which is not a bad thing.

For those of you who don't know, here's our schedule for the upcoming weeks:

16 March Kirsti begins
18 March Kirsti
19 March Kirsti
23 March Jutta begins
25 March Jutta
26 March Jutta
30 March Special double lesson / Wedding party!

A couple of things stand out, I suppose. Firstly, there are two teacher trainees coming up, the first one starting tomorrow. Secondly, there will be a cool wedding party on 30 March, so you need to put this in your no doubt busy calendars. No skipping school on the 30th! We will keep you posted.

Now, as you seem eager to exchange your views, I'm going to take up a topic that was raised in an earlier thread. Teacher trainees: a good thing or a bad thing? A blessing or a curse? Some of you said already that they suck. Okay, fair enough, but can you be more specific? Saying that someone or something sucks is not an argument. When Kirsti starts tomorrow, you can even comment on her, too, but remember that you NEED to be constructive with your feedback. This is no place for ad hominem attacks. Plus I'm absolutely sure Kirsti will do fine. Anyway, discuss!

Later edit: I just noticed my posts are boring because there are no pictures in them. So I'll just add some now. Here's one with me in curly hair.

Harrison Bergeron

Hey,

Nice active participation today in class! I was a bit worried you were going to find the text boring, especially after the shattering first impressions you delivered just before the holidays. It's nice to see most of you seemed to like it. Of course you were probably just pretending. Notice how relatively easy it was to read in English? And this was deep stuff, not a children's story or anything.

Some of you know Vonnegut already. He's one of my favourite authors. I don't know why really, because he always writes the same story, sort of, with his unique style, which never changes. Anyway, there are plenty of good books that he's written. If you liked Slaughterhouse 5, you'll like Cat's Cradle as well. That's one of my favourites. There are more short stories too if you're interested. Check out Kurt Vonnegut at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

Here's a link to the short story in case you lose your handout and want to read the story again (fat chance yeah I know):

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

Finally, here's a link to the song we heard at the end of the lesson. The band was called Flight of the Conchords, and I really recommend their music. An extremely funny duo. The TV show is ok too, although not as funny as their live gigs. If you follow the YouTube recommendations, you'll come across some real gems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmLHOGT0v4c

Still only 12 followers for this blog. Where is everybody?