2012-04-26 It was pouring tonight.

"Ocean" was tonight's topic. 

Before we dive into our discussion, there are some facts about the ocean we should learn first.

(1) The ocean contains 97% of the planet's water and it covers approximately 71% of the surface.

(2) Earth has five major oceans. The largest is The Pacific, located between the Southern Ocean, Asia, Australia and the western hemisphere, over an area about 15 times the size of the USA. It contains more than 25,000 islands.


(3) The largest ocean on Earth is the Pacific Ocean, which covers approximately one third of the Earth’s surface.  It measures over 180,000,000 kilometres square and has a larger surface area than all of the continents of the Earth combined.  It is also the deepest ocean, with an average depth of 4,280 metres, but at its deepest, measures an amazing 11,033 metres.  The deepest point is called the Mariana Trench which is at the bottom of the Challenger Deep.


(4) On average the depth of the ocean is 12200 feet, or 2.5 miles or 4.5 kilometers.


(5) The oceans are the greatest habitats on the planet providing more than 99% of living space with more than 90% living in the deep sea or the abyss. This means that more than 90% of the wildlife on earth live in the oceans.


(6) The deeper you travel into the ocean the more the pressure that builds up. At the deepest part of the ocean, the pressure is 8 tons per square inch; too much for any human being to handle

2012-04-12 It was a GREAT night!

What an amazing night tonight! The atmosphere was boiling and each of us grabbed the opportunity to speak up and share something with each other!

Today, teacher Abbie led us to read through the thought-provoking article "A Farm Boy Reflects http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=2&hp" written by Nicholas Kristof of NY Times. I was late again and we had finished the first 5 paragraphs when I arrived. However, it was wonderful that Abbie helped us to go through every word and every sentence. Anyone was welcome to read any paragraph as a volunteer, and we stopped to express our own perspectives and ask questions at each end of the paragraph. It was FABULOUS and it was one of the great ways of learning English reading!

Videos about amazing animals

1.Kartick Satyanarayan: How we rescued the "dancing" bears   (4 min 02 sec)

04-06-2012 Class Review: Animals

The weather forecast was precise and we did have some rain. It's nice to let the rain wash away something we've wanted to get rid of once in a while. Today was the first class in April which means that we've already finished the first month. Wow! 


Animals is this week's topic. Teacher Abbie let us do the mingling again but this time, the students assigned with Bs had to move around. I was lucky to be the asker twice in a row thanks to Ammar's suggestion. Ha! 


Here's the list of the questions from Abbie:
(1) What wild animals(creatures) have you seen?
(2) What animals live in/around your home?
(3) What pets have you had in your life?
(4) What animals did you grow up with/around?
(5) Have you ever loved an animal?
(6) Have you been to a zoo? What were your impressions?
(7) Do you think a zoo is a cruel prison for wild animals or an important safe haven?
(8) Why are there so many stray animals?
(9) How are wild animals and stray animals different?
(10) Have you ever seen an animal that needed help? What did you do/think?

2012-04-01 Gathering on April Fool's Day

On the way of driving my students home after playing basketball for almost 3 hours on the night of March 31st, I got a phone call from Barrett and he told me on the phone that we were going to have a gathering with our teacher Abbie and Helge at his house in the afternoon the next day. It was totally a surprise especially the date of the gathering was really suspicious! However, I was still thrilled by the invitation.

Barrett's wife, Jonas and crying Smiley, Abbie, Helge, Barrett, Jerry. Picture taken by Summer