PBA 11-5 ESL Weblog, CAG

Final weblogs are due tomorrow at 16:00. ESL 1A students are expected to have the CAG essay as the homepage and then three (3) more essays posted as pages. Images are are great to embellish your page, but I am more interested the quality of the writing. That said, Level 1B students have already been graded on their writing, and the final weblog project grade for 1B consists of making your blog as appealing and interactive as possible. Also, your blog should link to and from the wiki page, as we are culminating the technological requirements of the school year. Your final project grade should combine your year’s work as webmaster on the wiki and the blog simultaneously. Your weblog is a reflection of the web skills you have acquired throughout the school year. In addition, you should be checking out your fellow students’ work, and leaving comments. Some of the material is excellent, and I suggest that you read the Grade 12 blogs as well, as they were involved in completely different projects. I will post further requirements. Tomorrow is the last day of classes but the assignment will stretch through to the end of the school year. See you at 7:30!

It’s hard to believe, but this is the last week of classes.  The Level 1A class will be finishing their weblogs this week.  All 1A students will need to post a minimum of four essays.  I will be grading the work starting on Friday, June 5th. Level 1B will be doing a last-minute check of all web posts, pages, and essays for their final weblog grade.

Your final exam will be Wednesday, 10 June, at 10:00AM.  If you’ve done your work all year, the test will not be too difficult.  Good luck, and thanks for a great year!

Finally, the introductory class is ready to begin writing!  Congratulations on your hard work this year.  All students in the Level 1A class should already have their introductory article (CAG Experience) and their synopsis of one article from “The Sting” to their weblogs.  We will be gong through the editorial process all week long.

The 11-5 advanced class is reading their first novel in English, Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street”.  The first weblog assignment will be an essay on themes of the students’ choice, from a list we compiled in together in class.

We will begin the weblog today, and we hope to complete it within two weeks.

It’s official.  The second trimester is over.  Your exam will be on Thursday, March 5th, at 7:30AM.  Please bring a pencil, a pen, and a highlighter.  The exam will be two hours long.  The oral portion of the exam will be on Monday, March 9th, and will take about 20 minutes.

All second trimester work is due at 16:00 on Thursday, March 5th.  This includes your weblog and all late or missing work.

Good luck!  See you in the third trimester!

The second trimester is almost over.  Our final exam for Trimester 2 will take place in the gym at 7:30 on Thursday, 5 March 2009.  Please bring a pencil, a pen, and a highlighter!

Our weblogs are evolving rapidly, nice job everyone!

Also, the creative oral exams this morning were excellent!  I will be converting the videotape into a DVD as soon as possible.  This is a memory you’ll want to laugh at for a long time!

Only four months left.  Time is flying!  The 11th graders took their first temario in English this week, and the majority said it wasn’t too hard.  I guess that means we’re becoming bilingual quickly!  We are rapidly approaching the end of the second trimester.  End-of-trimester exams begin March 3rd.

The CAG school newspaper is out, and for our next assignment, 11-5 students are required to read one article in English and write a synopsis.  Enjoy!

Well, we still have not received any responses from the other AASCA schools, but the 11-5 students (Level 1B) have written their introductory letters and posted them to their weblogs.  More news as it happens!

Greetings and salutations.  My name is Mr. David Sherman, and I teach ESL for grades 11-12 at the American School of Guatemala.  The students whose work you will be reading are part of the PBA program, el programa de bachillerato avanzado, where 25 of the best students in Guatemala City are chosen for two-year scholarships, all expenses paid.

We hope you like our weblog, and we remind you that English is a relatively new language for the majority of our students, so have patience with us!

Our first post will be an introductory letter, designed to tell other students a little bit about ourselves.  I have contacted with the other schools in the AASCA region to do a 21st century ‘web pal’ project, but so far I have received only one response.  When the other schools respond, we plan to communicate (in English) with these schools, using the weblog as our vehicle.