Post your Blog Links Here!

Well, it's that time again. Your special reports (blogs) are due this Thursday. Please bring in a paper with your name and the web address of your blog to turn in on November 20th. Please also comment on this post with a link to your blog, so all the class will be able to see each other's blogs.

There will be no school next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you all can get to taste a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. Check out this month's ALP newsletter--Michelle Luster included a list of local restaurants offering free or inexpensive Thanksgiving dinners this week and next.

I can't wait to see your blogs! I will be reading them over the break, while you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.

It is finally here, after we have talked so much about it.  No matter who the winners are, this will be a historical election.   By the time the day is over, the United States will have either its first African American president or its first female vice president. I am very proud to live in a time when that is possible.

Here is a link to explain why Americans vote on a Tuesday.  It is hard to think of America as a land of farmers, isn't it?

I am so sorry that I couldn't be in class with you today. I am curious to hear how the class voting turned out, and whether it was similar to the national results.  

I am voting today, along with the seven other members of my family.  I have a feeling that about three of us will be voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, while the other five vote for the Obama/Biden ticket.  I am happy that we can vote differently but still love and respect each other.

I appreciate that every four years I have the opportunity to vote for my leaders.  And even though it doesn't always go smoothly, as in 2000, there is always a peaceful transfer of power.  

What was interesting to you this election year?  Do you have anything similar in your country?  Do you prefer how it is done in your country?  I would love to hear your opinions on this subject.

Well, I'd have to say that the biggest news of the past two weeks has been the vice-presidentialand presidential debates.  It seems like everyone I know has been watching them and talking about them. I know many of you have been assigned to watch them by some of your teachers.  

Most commenters felt that the vice-presidential debate was a tie with no clear winner, although Democrats seemed to think Biden won, and Republicans felt Palin did better.  What do you think?  Was it confusing to understand? Many of these issues are confusing even for lifelong English speakers.

After the second presidential debate, most political sites declared Obama the clear winner, but when they asked undecided voters, it was just about even, with 14% now decided for McCain, and 15% now decided to vote for Obama.  More people may have felt Obama won the debate, but according to polls only 57% feel Obama is prepared for the job of president, while 84% think McCain is prepared.  That to me is very interesting. 

Again, what did you think? Did you watch it? Do you think one of the candidates would be a better president than the other.  Please let me know.

What an interesting class!

Hello, students! Thanks for such great participation last week! I am sorry that I didn't blog last week when I got sick.

I was fascinated to learn so much about the Mid-Autumn Festival and how you all celebrate it a little bit differently in your own countries. Now I will be looking at the Jade Rabbit in the moon-but I will imagine him cleaning his toilet!

I also was interested to hear of the baby formula scandal in China. It is so sad that greedy companies care more about making money than keeping babies healthy.  We saw something similar in the 1970s and 1980s with the U.S. company, Nestle, which sold formula to developing nations and caused the deaths of many children.  It seems that even after the boycott, they are still selling these products. 

We also talked about the ways we treat our pets, which can be very silly at times.  When we were doing our magazine assignment, I found this article about presidential pets in America.  I am looking forward to hearing more of what you think is interesting in the world today.

Thank you to the students who commented. It will count as homework credit for you. And thank you all for such interesting conversations last week.  I don't think any of us were expecting to spend so much time talking about toilets and bidets in different countries!  I found out that in Taiwan there is a restaurant called Modern Toilet.  I don't think I will order chocolate ice cream there!  

I hope you will be coming in with more stories to share this week, whether it is something from the news, something you saw on television, or just something from your own experience.  We will be talking about human interest stories this week too.  Here is one example of a human interest story.  This brave woman strangled a man who broke into her home in the night. But it turned out to be much stranger than that! Read it and let me know what you think. 

Please, share some links or stories of your own.  

Welcome to the World Today Blog!

I am so happy that we will be working and learning together this semester. The purpose of this course is to share current events, news stories, internet stories and more items of interest to the students in this class. Each of you will be responsible for bringing in something to share with the class at least once a week. It is also very important that you participate by discussing in class every day. The fun part about this class is getting to share your ideas and opinions while improving your English.

We will be using this blog as another way to communicate with each other and share interesting news we find online. As a portion of your grade (the special project), I will ask each of you to start a blog of your own with three entries. I will give more details about this later.

I will post an entry weekly, and for homework, each of you must add at least one comment per week on this blog. You may add links or information of your own at any time.

This week, I wanted to talk about the term a "small world".   Americans often use this phrase to describe an event that makes this large world seem much smaller. For instance, I once ran into a friend of mine from Australia when I was in Sea World in San Diego, CA. I hadn't seen him in over ten years and had no idea he was even in the United States.

Here is a cute web story that illustrates the small world idea:  iphone girl. This factory worker from China has now become known to people all over the world, simply because someone forgot to erase the test photos from an iphone camera in the factory.

Do you have any stories of a small world situation? If not, try googling "small world" and "coincidence" and see what you find.  I will be very interested to read your comments!