Anastasia Oplakanets: Week 4 'Tips and Advice'

The following text is the one I have chosen for the first task of this Week's 4 assignment 'Tips and Advice'. The whole text is not shown in the blog, I have decided to show the two points I liked the most.
You can read the whole article by clicking here

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· A good teacher is an assertive teacher

Your students can have problems, bad days, stress, or even depressions as well. If you see that some of your students start to study worse, have no desire to do all schoolwork you give them, and just want to give up everything, do not be in a hurry to argue and tell them about how bad or lazy they become.

You can become like a parent to them. Support your student, ask about what happens to him, push him to do better. If you see that your student is depressed, maybe it would be better to meet with him after classes and find out what exactly is going on. 

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· More explanations

Even if you consider yourself a cool teacher who explains everything in a way that even the stupidest person would understand you, don't be lazy to explain it to your students several times, and what is even more important – try to do that in different manners. Sometimes, they really don't get it, but it's not because they are stupid: maybe some of them just think different.

Be patient, and explain your material over and over again, making sure all students understand what you're talking about. You know, how difficult it will be for them to learn further, if they don't get the basis.

 The next texts belong to the second task of Week's 4 assignment 'Modal Verbs'. This text is an extract of Sabaa Tahir's book 'An Ember in the Ashes'.

She walks carefully, gingerly—the Commandant must have whipped her recently. And yet she doesn't hunch or shuffle like the others slaves. The straight-backed grace with which she moves tells her story better than words. She'd been a freewoman before this—I would bet my scims on it. And she has no idea how pretty she is—or what kind of problems her beauty will cause for her at a place like Blackcliff. The wind pulls at her hair again, and I catch her scent—like fruit and sugar.

“Can I give you some advice?”

Her head flies up like a scared animal's. At least she's wary. “Right now you...” Will grab the attention of every male in a square mile. “Might stand out,” I finish. “It's hot, but you should wear a hood or a cloak—something to help you blend in.”

She nods, but her eyes are suspicious. She wraps her arms around herself and drops back a little. I don't speak to her again.”
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― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

Modal verbs meanings:

· Must have → used to say something that is likely or logical
· Can → used to ask permission to do something
· Might → possibility that something will happen or be done
· Should  → shows what is right or appropriate

Assignment nº 3 of this Week: What activities you have done in the last 4 weeks to improve your English?

Apart from attending my English lessons, I did what I always do to improve my English, which are my usual everyday activities: I love to check out movies and series in their original language, which is mostly English, because I love listening to the actors' real voices. Through these past weeks I have seen many 'Vikings' and 'Friends' episodes in its original language but I think I haven't seen any film. I also love watching YouTube videos, such as PewDiePie's videos, which I truly find very amusing. Apart from watching videos on YouTube, I like to scroll down the comments and learn new words and expressions from there.

I love listening to music too, everytime I hear a new song I try to understand the lyrics and I must confess that it is a great exercise to practice because the music in the backround is really distracting and you have to concentrate quite hard on the singer's voice and understand the words.

Finally, reading is my favourite activity of all time and although I did not like to read in English not so long ago, now I find it much easier and I like it more and more, I've just finished reading 'The Foxhole Court' by Nora Sakavic in English and I really enjoyed it.