535 Watt 34 Amp power supply
Asus M3A78 Motherboard
AMD Phenom x4 9550 (2.2Ghz quad-core processor)
Half-height low-profile Kingston DDR2 (800Mhz) 2 gigabyte ram
AVF case
XFX Nvdia 9400GT PCI-E video card (550Mhz core, 512 megabytes ram)
Seagate SATA 80 gigabyte harddrive
Samsung DVDRW (taken from a computer here that doesn't work)
The dvdrw needs to be replaced at some point. For now, however, it works for what I want.
I have other harddrives, but I really don't NEED more space than 80gig for the main drive.
For now, to keep the data on those drives safe, I am not connecting the other drives unless I want to use them. I couldn't get a removable drive bay when I bought parts, so I'll pick one up later. That will make it a lot easier to swap drives.
I am using the stock cooling for the CPU and video card. Later I will change these to better cooling.
The case is an ugly red color, but it was cheaper, wider, and has a 120mm fan in the front for more air flow.
Later, also, we will need to buy a monitor of our own. I'll probably go with a Samsung LCD, 21 inches or so, I want a wide-screen.
This computer runs great. :-)
Today we went out and bought a printer. We got a Samsung clp-315.
I will not buy an inkjet printer. The reason for this is pretty simple really. When you do not print frequently, the ink in the inkjet will dry out, at that point the printer is useless until you run a bunch of maintenance (which uses up a ink fast). You end up wasting ink and paper doing maintenance, as well as a lot of time, in order to print 1 freaking page! After you get to a point where you can print again there's the price to consider. Inkjet printers are cheap. Ink for inkjet printers is expensive!
So, I use laser printers. They cost more to buy. Yes. But they print faster, require much less maintenance, print on demand without hassles, cost about 75% less, do not bleed ink and have a much higher print-per-cartridge ratio.
Sit down and do the math and you'll see that that expensive laser printer actually costs much much less than the "cheap" inkjet printer.
I'll stick to laser. Thanks very much!
November 12, 2008
Structure
I taught my first structure class today.
It was rough. I'm getting used to teaching, to speaking louder, etc. I am not used to dumbing what I say down however.
I was teaching a level 1 class so I need to force myself more to speak at their level.
This is a 2 hour class. I did ok. . not great however.
I am going to observe this class again tomorrow while the other teacher conducts the lesson.
The other teacher is leaving the school Monday. She's moving to another city. That means that I get to take over this class completely starting Monday. I'd better learn fast!
Classes ended early today because the school I teach at, I'm not telling here, had International Day today.
3 of the students from our English school participated in the festivities.
One of the students is a P.E. teacher and apparently break-dances and jumps rope. He coached 2 of the other students in jumping rope and dancing.
It was pretty good. I recorded it because those 2 other students are in my classes.
Later I can play the video in class to tease them.
It was rough. I'm getting used to teaching, to speaking louder, etc. I am not used to dumbing what I say down however.
I was teaching a level 1 class so I need to force myself more to speak at their level.
This is a 2 hour class. I did ok. . not great however.
I am going to observe this class again tomorrow while the other teacher conducts the lesson.
The other teacher is leaving the school Monday. She's moving to another city. That means that I get to take over this class completely starting Monday. I'd better learn fast!
Classes ended early today because the school I teach at, I'm not telling here, had International Day today.
3 of the students from our English school participated in the festivities.
One of the students is a P.E. teacher and apparently break-dances and jumps rope. He coached 2 of the other students in jumping rope and dancing.
It was pretty good. I recorded it because those 2 other students are in my classes.
Later I can play the video in class to tease them.
November 11, 2008
Fast Post
Old computer going to be giving back to youngest sister-in-law.
Built a new computer, it kicks ass. Still want to improve a couple of other things about it later to make it last longer.
Have to teaching a structure (grammar) class tomorrow. It's a level 1 class. I am not sure how I'll do since it's sudden. Worse, I have to take over teaching that class starting Monday!
I'll write more tomorrow.
Built a new computer, it kicks ass. Still want to improve a couple of other things about it later to make it last longer.
Have to teaching a structure (grammar) class tomorrow. It's a level 1 class. I am not sure how I'll do since it's sudden. Worse, I have to take over teaching that class starting Monday!
I'll write more tomorrow.
November 5, 2008
Teaching
ELS started me off teaching 3 Conversation classes per day.
I'm working part time for this first month. If they decided to keep me I'll be moved to full-time.
I mention this because I'm still horribly green to teaching. I feel nervous each morning before class. I worry constantly that I'm not doing well enough and that I won't be up to the job.
That being said, I am currently the only native English speaker at this ELS facility. This gives me a large advantage in teaching English. Hopefully I'll be able to use this to better effect and become a good English teacher.
Currently this facility has levels 1-6. Level 1 being an absolute beginner, on up to level 6 being fairly adept with English. Other facilities go up to level 9.
My 3 conversation classes are levels 2-4. I see a lot of variance in the levels of the students amongst each level. Of course that makes sense, however some of the students are so shy to speak it's rough.
My level 4 class has 8 students. My level 2 and 3 classes each have around 20 students. I'm trying to get each of them talk-time so I can hear them and help coach them to correct usage of language. It's a bit difficult, but I'm managing.
My nervousness isn't going away until I'm in front of the students. Once class starts, unless the class is being observed!, I feel fairly comfortable teaching the class.
If everything goes well and I am hired full time then I will have 2 more classes as well as having to cover the full gambit of subjects and ability range (1-6). Hopefully in the coming weeks and I can adjust quickly enough to rate that full-time position.
I shocked one of my Japanese students today. She told me yesterday that she is not comfortable speaking or listening to English. She doesn't feel that she understands what's said. I know a little Japanese, so I used a few Japanese words with her to help her understand and to make her feel more comfortable. I think this will help her feel more at ease and willing to speak in class.
I have a lot of students from the Middle East. Most of them are willing to speak, not all of them are good at it however. I only ask that they try and practice. What I do not like about them the most is that they tend to be a powerful force in the class. What I mean with this is that they dominate the volume of the class more and actually try to dominate me at times.
I am the teacher, you are the student, I'm in charge so you are going to have to listen to me and follow my directions. End of story (for them, not for you, you poor sucker reading this).
An example of this I shall give you.
Yesterday my 102 class I split into 4 groups and assigned them the task of finding information out about Malaysian holidays that I picked for the groups.
One of the Arabian students demanded I change his groups' holiday from Wesak to Chinese New Year. I said no. The main reason I said no is that one of this group members is from China. Of course she will know more about CNY, making things too easy. I assumed that that was the end of that when I said no.
When they groups introduced their given holidays today guess who's group was divided into 2? 2 people in their group prepared to tell everyone about Wesak and 2 people (the girl from China who did all of the work) and the Arabian guy who was too lazy to look things up on his own, instead relying on someone else to do the work for him?
I scolded him about this, advised him that when I said to cover Wesak, I meant it. If he doesn't know how to look things up online, that is not my problem, obviously others did. I asked another Arabian who DID look things up on his own, to help him with it next time. There really was no excuse for that kind of laziness.
One Korean girl, on a good note, put together a power point demonstration covering her holiday. She's very hard-working. The rest of her group, however, didn't do anything. I scolded them and made them read parts of her slide show to the rest of the class. It should not have been up to that girl by herself to look things up.
One thing about that Korean girl (I do not want to give student names in this blog) that amused me however. She copied things from the internet. She did not write her own material. She plagiarized. I don't mind that as much for this, however she didn't really UNDERSTAND what she'd plagiarized.
Bye.
I'm working part time for this first month. If they decided to keep me I'll be moved to full-time.
I mention this because I'm still horribly green to teaching. I feel nervous each morning before class. I worry constantly that I'm not doing well enough and that I won't be up to the job.
That being said, I am currently the only native English speaker at this ELS facility. This gives me a large advantage in teaching English. Hopefully I'll be able to use this to better effect and become a good English teacher.
Currently this facility has levels 1-6. Level 1 being an absolute beginner, on up to level 6 being fairly adept with English. Other facilities go up to level 9.
My 3 conversation classes are levels 2-4. I see a lot of variance in the levels of the students amongst each level. Of course that makes sense, however some of the students are so shy to speak it's rough.
My level 4 class has 8 students. My level 2 and 3 classes each have around 20 students. I'm trying to get each of them talk-time so I can hear them and help coach them to correct usage of language. It's a bit difficult, but I'm managing.
My nervousness isn't going away until I'm in front of the students. Once class starts, unless the class is being observed!, I feel fairly comfortable teaching the class.
If everything goes well and I am hired full time then I will have 2 more classes as well as having to cover the full gambit of subjects and ability range (1-6). Hopefully in the coming weeks and I can adjust quickly enough to rate that full-time position.
I shocked one of my Japanese students today. She told me yesterday that she is not comfortable speaking or listening to English. She doesn't feel that she understands what's said. I know a little Japanese, so I used a few Japanese words with her to help her understand and to make her feel more comfortable. I think this will help her feel more at ease and willing to speak in class.
I have a lot of students from the Middle East. Most of them are willing to speak, not all of them are good at it however. I only ask that they try and practice. What I do not like about them the most is that they tend to be a powerful force in the class. What I mean with this is that they dominate the volume of the class more and actually try to dominate me at times.
I am the teacher, you are the student, I'm in charge so you are going to have to listen to me and follow my directions. End of story (for them, not for you, you poor sucker reading this).
An example of this I shall give you.
Yesterday my 102 class I split into 4 groups and assigned them the task of finding information out about Malaysian holidays that I picked for the groups.
One of the Arabian students demanded I change his groups' holiday from Wesak to Chinese New Year. I said no. The main reason I said no is that one of this group members is from China. Of course she will know more about CNY, making things too easy. I assumed that that was the end of that when I said no.
When they groups introduced their given holidays today guess who's group was divided into 2? 2 people in their group prepared to tell everyone about Wesak and 2 people (the girl from China who did all of the work) and the Arabian guy who was too lazy to look things up on his own, instead relying on someone else to do the work for him?
I scolded him about this, advised him that when I said to cover Wesak, I meant it. If he doesn't know how to look things up online, that is not my problem, obviously others did. I asked another Arabian who DID look things up on his own, to help him with it next time. There really was no excuse for that kind of laziness.
One Korean girl, on a good note, put together a power point demonstration covering her holiday. She's very hard-working. The rest of her group, however, didn't do anything. I scolded them and made them read parts of her slide show to the rest of the class. It should not have been up to that girl by herself to look things up.
One thing about that Korean girl (I do not want to give student names in this blog) that amused me however. She copied things from the internet. She did not write her own material. She plagiarized. I don't mind that as much for this, however she didn't really UNDERSTAND what she'd plagiarized.
Bye.
November 3, 2008
Nerves of Rusted Steel
Today was my first day as an English Teacher.
A place called me Friday, October 31st for an interview for a job. They had me come in on Saturday for an interview and asked me to start today (November 3rd).
I've never been a classroom teacher before. They didn't provide me with any training.
I was allowed to observe part of a class, then Ei Leen lead one of my classes. After that I was on my own.
Granted, I just finished a TEFL course. . . it granted me only theory and the speed of things hasn't given me time to develop any new theory, no practice, nothing but an un-gentle shove into teaching that has left my nerves rather frayed and fried.
I hope that I can adjust to things quickly. I'm working/getting paid as a part time worker for this first month, so they can see how well I'll work out.
IF things work out, then they'll get me a work visa (which I need here in Malaysia) and pay me a salary for teaching English fulltime.
I won't mention what the rate of pay is here, but it's pretty good for Malaysia.
They're supposed to provide one month paid leave off per year as well as a round trip (I think) ticket to my home country for that month. I doubt that I'll take that ticket, what would be the point? The exchange of currency from Malaysia to the USA isn't worth the trip (as far as how it affects my budget). Maybe I can get them to give me half that money as a bonus instead? I'll have to remember to ask when I get to that point.
If things work out then this will be a good job for me. Low-work hours, high pay, work visa and I'm still with my beautiful wife. :-)
Wish me luck, PLEASE!
A place called me Friday, October 31st for an interview for a job. They had me come in on Saturday for an interview and asked me to start today (November 3rd).
I've never been a classroom teacher before. They didn't provide me with any training.
I was allowed to observe part of a class, then Ei Leen lead one of my classes. After that I was on my own.
Granted, I just finished a TEFL course. . . it granted me only theory and the speed of things hasn't given me time to develop any new theory, no practice, nothing but an un-gentle shove into teaching that has left my nerves rather frayed and fried.
I hope that I can adjust to things quickly. I'm working/getting paid as a part time worker for this first month, so they can see how well I'll work out.
IF things work out, then they'll get me a work visa (which I need here in Malaysia) and pay me a salary for teaching English fulltime.
I won't mention what the rate of pay is here, but it's pretty good for Malaysia.
They're supposed to provide one month paid leave off per year as well as a round trip (I think) ticket to my home country for that month. I doubt that I'll take that ticket, what would be the point? The exchange of currency from Malaysia to the USA isn't worth the trip (as far as how it affects my budget). Maybe I can get them to give me half that money as a bonus instead? I'll have to remember to ask when I get to that point.
If things work out then this will be a good job for me. Low-work hours, high pay, work visa and I'm still with my beautiful wife. :-)
Wish me luck, PLEASE!
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