Be the Change You Wish to See in the World.

The other day, one of the students from the summer class and I had an interesting discussion about Canadians and their place in the world. He said that he thinks Canadians are programmed to be comfortable and that they don't take the time to care about the big issues in the world. They get up in the morning and join the other commuters to work, work all day and come home too tired to think about anything else, any of the big world issues. We only care that we are warm and comfortable, and we trust someone else will handle the big world problems.

That sounds a little sad to me. Iwould hope that is not true. However, it is true that most of us feel we don't have time to do important things, and that we are encouraged to take short cuts, and make our lives more convenient in any way we can. One of the ways I fell into that trap is with making food. I spent a lot of money, and gained a lot of weight, because I didn't think that I had time to cook for myself. So I ate a lot at restaurants, and ate convenient foods, and as a result was not any happier and certainly not healthier.

So, I think that we can make whatever changes that are important to us, regardless of how hard it is.

Do you want $20.00?

On October 9, I posted the name and phone number of a university student who is doing research on the services that the Edmonton Public Library offers to immigrants. You can read it if you scroll down.

He is now offering $20.00 to anyone who will talk to him. He will even come here to do the interview, so it will be simple for you.

His name is Daniel De Castro and his phone number 780 231-9836.

A Power Point File

I am trying to figure out how a powerpoint, or other file can be put into an entry. I couldn't find any way to do this except to first upload it to an on-line service.

Seeing The World With Canadian Eyes: Helping Immigrant Students Move From The Classroom to the Workplace. This is the presentation that Mary and I did at TESL Canada Conference at the beginning of October.

In order to upload this,I signed up for an on-line publishing service called Scribd. Think of it as being like Youtube, or Flickr, but for documents.

Okay, if anyone wants to publish their own powerpoints on their blog, you may (1)sign up for this service yourself, (2) find a different service and sign up for that, or (3) send your ppt to me, I will upload it and send you back the link for you to put on your blog. NOTE THAT WHAT YOU POST ON-LINE MUST BE YOUR OWN WORK. IT CAN NOT BE A POWERPOINT THAT YOU BORROWED FROM SOMEONE ELSE. This includes the information in it.

More about how things aren't what they seem

Blog Question #1

Yesterday in class we listened to one group's presentation on Global Warming and the unstoppable two-meter rise of the oceans. It was a bit scary!

But as was pointed out, everybody has a role to play in saving our environment. So the question is: What do you do? What changes have you made in your lifestyle to make our planet more green and healthy? And do you think that people as individuals can make a difference when so many big oil and manufacturing companies are making it so much harder?

Study on Edmonton Public Library's Services to Immigrants

I have been contacted by a Library Sciences student at the University who has asked me for help finding people who are interested in participating in a study for his graduate research project.

If you are interested in participating, please contact him directly using the email address, or phone number below.


Have you immigrated to Canada within the last ten years?

Are you 18 years of age or older?
If so then contact us and participate in research study conducted by a Library and Information Studies graduate candidate.
This study will help us to understand the library-related needs of new Canadians.
You will be asked participate in a recorded interview.

Daniel De Castro (MLIS Student)
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alberta
Email: ddaniel@ualberta.ca
(780) 231-9836

Dr. Lisa Given
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alberta
Email: lisa.given@ualberta.ca



The plan for this study has been reviewed for its adherence to ethical guidelines and approved by the Faculties of Education, Extension and Augustana Research Ethics Board (EEA REB) at the University of Alberta. For questions regarding participant rights and ethical conduct of research, contact the Chair of the EEA REB at (780) 492-3751

TESL Canada Conference, Banff

I had a really great conference this time. I saw some great presentations. I went to one on language in the workplace, another on dictionary usage, and one on Web 2.0 in the classroom. My and Mary's presentation went really well also. We had over 65 people there. People were sitting on the floor, others had to leave when there was no more floor. And they seemed to like it. So, yay!

Friday was a beautiful day. It was wonderful being in Banff with the fresh mountain air. It was too bad that I had to wear nice clothes for my presentation and carry my heavy laptop all day. So, I didn't stray off my path. On Saturday, as you can see by the picture, the weather was not very good. It snowed, so no straying off my path again.

But, even though it was colder on

Saturday, we still took the opportunity to go for a walk along the river and look at the waterfall. It was very good for the soul.

Volunteering in Edmonton

New Survey Shows Canadians Care About Community


The 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating is a comprehesive survey that looks at how Canadians give back to their communities through ways like volunteering, providing financial donations and directly helping individuals.

Highlights from the survey:
- 12.5 million Canadians volunteer, the equivalent of 46 per cent of the population aged 15 and over
-Volunteers contributed the largest average number of hours to religious, sports and recreation, social services, and arts and culture organizations.
-The top benefits cited by volunteers were gaining interpersonal skills, communication and organizational or managerial skills.
- 44 per cent of non-volunteers cited that one barrier to volunteering was that no one had asked them to volunteer.
To read more results from the survey, visit www.givingandvolunteering.ca.

Here are some places you can go to look for a volunteering opportunity.

Volunteer Edmonton

A list of suggestions of places to look for volunteer opportunities

Volunteer Opportunities in Edmonton (Mostly long-term)

In Thursday's writing class -

Do Exercise 4.8 Internet: Planning Your Message, in Excellence in Business Communication, page 118.

You can click the link below, or find it through the book. The report covers multiple pages.

Message from TELUS CEO


This assignment is to be done in the computer lab during writing class.

Email it to me!

Real World Writing

Real World Writing

The link above is from Sacramento State University. Read it to find out about how people use writing in the world beyone school

Employability Skills Survey

Skills Credentialling Tool For Individuals


Employability Skills Survey

Acounting In Canada Website

We would like to ask for your help in testing and evaluating a new website for Accountants in Canada.

Steve Sutherland, an associate of EMCN and some others are starting a field test of the www.AccountingInCanada.ca website. This is an online guide for newcomers to Canada who wish to begin or bridge their career as a professional accountant here in Canada.

The field test will consist of reviewing the website and then answering a brief feedback questionnaire on your experience with the website. They are looking for people who are immigrant accountants themselves or whose clients fit this description.

Please take a look at this website www.AccountingInCanada.ca



Once you have had a good look at the site, please complete the feedback survey which can be found at:

Survey

You may wish to preview the survey before you visit the website, so you get an idea of the kind of feedback for which we are looking. Please have the survey completed and submitted by next Friday, September 25th. Please feel free to forward this message to anyone whom you feel would be an appropriate field tester of the website (whether they work for an immigrant serving agency, another organization, or are an internationally trained accounting professional themselves).



Thanks for your help with this.



Susan

Welcome Accountants Group 2009

Here is the blogging assignment -

A blog is an on-line journal, or a place to share your thoughts with others. You are going to create a blog in class today. I will show you how.

Then, from now until the end of the term you are to 1) post a minimum of one entry per week to your own blog, and 2) read other people's blogs and 3) make two comments per week on someone else's blog. That's it. If you do that, I will give you 100% for this assignment, which will be worth 5% of your writing grade.

You can write about anything that interests you, post pictures or discuss interesting things you have found on-line. Anything. It's YOUR blog.

There is only one rule - Don't copy and paste things from other websites to avoid writing anything of your own. If you do find something interesting from another site that you want to share, make sure that you write an introduction telling your blogmates why you found this interesting and why you wanted to share it.

The objective of this assignment is to get to know each other better, to have fun and to learn to use writing to communicate in a casual, informal way.

To get you started today, maybe you would like to post the paragraphs you have been working on. Or look through the entries in my blog and see if anything there sparks your interest. How about the issue of Lucy the Elephant?

Should Elephants Live in Alberta?

Lucy, Edmonton's Elephant
Zoo rejects bid to move Lucy
An interesting story in the local news right now is the story of Lucy, an elephant living at the Storyland Zoo. Some American celebrities think that it is very cruel to keep her here in Edmonton, because it is just too cold for her here. They say that she should be moved, and that she is sick and very unhappy living here. They want her to go to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee USA where it's warm, even though she has lived in Edmonton for her entire life - 32 of her 34 years. But many veterinarians say that she is too old and not healthy enough to be moved and she would be unhappier away from the people she has bonded with, and the only home she has ever lived in.

What do you think?
Look at these sites. Which do you think would be better for Lucy?

Edmonton Valley Zoo
The Elephant Sanctuary

Excellent pronunciation site

American English Pronunciation / Rachel's Page

It is an excellent site, although a bit heavy on the American part. She doesn't pronounce things quite the same as I do, but the theory and practice activities are great. Be sure to look at her Links, as well.