Recently in Other Category

I usually keep a record of my students' birthdays, but then I tend to forget when they finally come up. I have a terrible memory that way.
It was Julia's birthday today, a student in my Step 3C class, so she is the first person who I'd like to wish a happy birthday! She just turned 18 years old! WOW! Do you remember when you were 18 years old? It was such an exciting time in my life for me.
Kaori (Step 3E) also had a birthday on October 8th, but unfortunately I missed that one. Sorry Kaori!
In my Step 3F class, there are many birthdays around this time of the year. Kazuei had a birthday on October 4th and Fumie had a birthday on October 21st. Next, Yasushi will have his birthday on October 30th. That's coming up soon!
Atsuya, from my Step 1A class, will also have a birthday on October 27th.
And as for September, Emiko from my Step 2M class also had a birthday on September 10th.
So Happy Birthday to all of you! I know there must be many more of my students with birthdays in September and October, but unfortunately that's all I know about.
Let me know when you birthday is coming up!
Take care everyone!

Welcome back to JOY (or welcome to JOY for those of you who are new students here). This week and Monday and Tuesday of next week will be the first classes for all Step classes this term. Thank you for signing up for my class, I hope you will enjoy studying with me and your classmates.
As most of you already know, we've decided to change the teacher BLOG system. So now Trish, Paul and I will be writing only about one message a week to all of you. Please check my entry every week and please feel free to check out Paul and Trish's BLOGs as well and also comment on them. And I hope to get a lot of comments from everyone at JOY.

Please e-mail me anytime (to my joyworld account) if you want to....
1) write a comment about a class or ask me a question about a class or what we studied
2) find out what was assigned for homework
3) tell me that you'll be absent for your next class
4) chat with me about the weekend or tell me a story about something

I will always try to reply to all of your questions and comments as quickly as possible.

Anyway, please take care and study hard this semester! I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again soon.
Bye!

I was so busy this week that I wasn't able to update my blog entries for classes. If you have any questions, please e-mail me or reply to this entry.
Sorry for not writing this week.
Talk to you all soon, Joe.

Unfortunately, I've been so sick this past week and couldn't write my class blog entries as usual. So I'm very sorry about that. I'm feeling better today though, so thank you for your patience.
As you can see, one of my students volunteered to submit an entry instead of me for my Step 4 class. If you'd like to try to write a blog entry for your class, please do so! Just send it to me!
This is a challenge for ALL students.
Take care and have a great weekend and week everyone. Bye for now!

The Vancouver Olympics is just under two years away! It's so exciting for Canadians and even more exciting for those of us who are from British Columbia.
I took this picture in Vancouver. It counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

So here is the picture of the baby moose that came into my front yard in Canada and began to eat our tree!
I like to call it my "pet moose."

Well, it's been a great semester and I've really enjoyed teaching all of you. So I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for coming to my class and for trying your best and making it fun for me to do my job! You are all great students!
I'm really looking forward to seeing you next semester. If you have any questions or concerns, please come and talk to me. I will always be available to speak with you!
And next week is our week of events. There are no classes, so please try to join at least one of the events. It's good opportunity for you to use English outside the classroom in a relaxed, fun environment. Please give it a try!
(We are still looking for bowlers, so please sign up! If you're not good at bowling, don't worry.... Neither am I!).
Have a great weekend everyone! And good luck with your English studies!

Well, summer vacation is now over and classes have begun once again, so welcome back! I hope you all had a good time and good rest over the summer! I would love to hear all about your summer vacation, so please feel free to discuss it in class.
It has been three weeks since we last meet, so I'm sure you will feel nervous in class this week. But please don't worry too much! Just do your best and try to stay positive and cheerful! I hope you will "jump" right back into English!!!
By the way, we only have just over a month left of classes this semester (5 more), so you should all be thinking about registering for next semester. Please do it early! If you have any questions or concerns about anything, please come to me and talk to me. I would be very happy to hear from you and answer your questions!
Let's study hard and have a great time together! Good luck everyone!

The new semester will start soon! So please make sure you register for your new class A.S.A.P. (as soon as possible). And if you have any questions about your level or student evaluation, please come and talk to me right away. We also have the new textbooks on display in Bucky Hall, please take a look at them.
Classes will fill up quickly, so please don't delay... REGISTER RIGHT AWAY!!!
Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you all next week! Bye for now!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to welcome you all back to JOY and to wish you a great year this year! Did you enjoy your New Years? I hope you had a wonderful time whatever you ended up doing!
We have less than three more months of this semester left, so let's study hard to increase your English language skills! And also, let's have a good time in class!
I'm looking forward to seeing and talking with all of you! And don't forget to enter our New Years Lottery....Good Luck!
All the best in 2007, Joe

Well, this was my first week teaching classes at JOY. Thank you all for coming to my classes. I had a great time teaching all of you. And thank you for checking out my BLOG and writing comments! Please come to my BLOG often and read about your class and other information. I'm looking forward to our next lesson together! Have a great weekend!

PS: Are you going to the Grammar Event this Sunday? If you have a chance, please go and tell me about it! I'm sure you will learn a lot!