Teaching is at the heart of everything we do at Kings. Every month, teachers from our colleges share their latest observations, thoughts and day-to-day discoveries about life at Kings and in the UK.
Since the summer is our busiest time of year, English teachers usually take holiday in the spring, and I’ve had a couple of week-long breaks recently. A few weeks ago, I went up to Glasgow and as well as spending time with some family friends, I also met up with two former students. Afnan and Alaa are two girls from Saudi Arabia who were in a Kings Upper-Intermediate/Pre-Advanced skills class that I was teaching about a year ago. I was telling the class how one of my hobbies is mountain walking in Scotland, and they said ‘OK Gabrielle, we’re going to do our Masters degrees in Scotland next year, so you have to come and visit us and take us up a Scottish mountain!
Last week my pre-advanced English class decided to branch out from grammar to dancing, so they came to my weekly dance class with me. For the last year and a bit I’ve been learning Ceroc, which is a kind of combination of modern jive and salsa.
It’s a partner dance with very straightforward basic moves and the atmosphere at the classes is friendly and laid-back. I decided to go along one evening last
autumn to see what it was like, and I’ve been hooked ever since!
I spent a lot of last weekend cycling round Oxford. Â I was looking for a room to rent in a shared house – I’ve been living in Abingdon, the next town south of Oxford, for a year and a half now, and it’s a bit far to cycle to work every day, so it’s time to move. Â I’ve finally found somewhere – and it turns out that it’s just a couple of streets from where my parents had a house when they first got married. Â So when I phoned my mum and told her about my new house she was instantly reminiscing about living in that part of Oxford, and which of their friends used to live on the street where I’ll be living, and so on.
Good luck, bad luck!
I’m sure you’ve all used the English phrase “Good luck” maybe when a friend was about to take an exam, or go back to their home country, or give a presentation. But have you used the phrase “Bad luck!” What kind of situation would you use it in? (Answers at the bottom of this blog entry)
Advanced Grammar I’m teaching a pre-advanced grammar class (7A) in the mornings and it’s going well. I like teaching advanced grammar because it’s always interesting and I often find that I’m learning new things myself. (more…)
