The Sixth Floor Museum

Although you can only see the building, I do really recommend you to go there. The ticket is $13.50 but it is value for money.

I was amazed about all the detailed information you can get from JF Kennedy’s assassination. In my opinion, all the videos shown there and the photos are touchy. If one day you go to Dallas, you should go to this place.

The Dallas World Aquarium

Going to The Dallas World Aquarium

Willis library

Sections

Willis library

This is the rare books section at Willis Library.

The book the lady is showing is one of the most famous Charls Dicken's collections. Those are all the original books and students are alllowed to use them.

Willis Library

Rare books section

The Dorms

We are living in two dorms. Mozart and Santa Fe.

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Good morning dear colleagues and friends! Hope you're having a wonderful time at the UNT.

This blog is being under construction, we would be really pleased to see your comments and opinions. Any suggestions will be really helpful to improve the blog.

Common errors among native Spanish speakers of English

This workshop was about some common mistakes and errors we make as non-native English speakers. Kristan Taylor, the lecturer, talked about the top mistakes me make when speaking. She mentioned that

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Teaching Grammar: Explicit Vs Implicit

A conclusion in the Teacher's Course

So far one of the main discussion points in the Teacher's course has to do with the way of working with grammar within a class. On one side we have the explicit method, in which, we focus on the deduction of grammar rules. On the other hand, we have the implicit method, which fosters the inference of these rules within a context. The thing is that both styles are needed in a classroom. That is to say, explicit grammar and implicit grammar work well together if we take into account that our students have different learning styles, needs, and backgrounds.

This is an example of how to have a balance of the two above mentioned methods. Let's say that we want high-beginner students to be able to compare things. We may have a short warm-up using pictures, they can be related to places and landmarks. Then we have them braistorm some differences they see. After that, they are asked to work with a receptive activity which may either be a reading or a listening exercise, which contains information about these landmarks.

Students have to interact with the text, first in a guided way, this could be through a mechanical drill, then they may have semi-guided exercise, to move to freer exercises. In this stage, students can infer the grammar rule they use in order to compare two things using comparatives and superlatives. This way, students will have again some interaction with materials, but this time they will focus on the grammar point, which is still in context. Once having worked with this process, students can have some initial oral and written practice on this topic.

Hard-working classmates, great!

TEXT REVIEW

As it is observed in the pictures we were working in groups.

Being a teacher implies taking decisions. Sometimes as teachers we are asked to choose a text book to work in our English lessons. Based on our experience and the different approaches to teach grammar, we decided if the books that Katy took to the class were a good option to work with or not.

This was a very interesting class. We weorken in small groups to analyse some grammar books; the point was to find the way the authors build knowledge.

We checked two books. The first one was called Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty Scrampfer. We ageed that the book can be used as extra material for our studnets to practice as it is not contextualized and some of the exercises are repetitive. However, it's an excellent material to reinforce grammar.

On the other hand, we also checked Grammar in Context by Sandra N. Elbaum. This book tries to integrate reading and listening skilles, but we considered exercises must be better explotated. Although we agreed this book could be used as the main text book in our class, it would be needed to adapt some of the exercises.

Bruce Hall

Cafeteria

Bruce Hall is just one of the spaces which provide cafeteria services. The cafeteria has room for about 200 students, and breakfast, lunch and dinner are served there. Staff is always polite and service is fast. The menu has a wide variety of options among which there is eggs in all presentations, pasta, salad, pizza, rice, waffles, cakes, jelly, fruit, etc.

We invite you to go throughout this blog and write down your comments about the information that will be posted everyday in order to share our experience at the University of North-Texas (UNT).

Let's start blogging!

Documentary Screening and Discussion: Concrete Steel & Paint

This presentation by Chip Cullum consisted of a documentary based on a project to conceal the two sides of crime: criminals and victims. The whole documentary is about how a muralist carried out this project to make people in both sides see the pain they have.

In the end, the murals helped all people involved and their families to relieve some pain, to avoid hating each other and to give a message of hope to the community they live in.

American Slangs

This is one of the best workshops I've been into because we can become familiarized with all the common slagns that native English speakers have and it will help us improve our communicative skills.

Prepositions & Particles

By Dr. Haj Ross

Some of us as non-native speakers of English find it difficult to understand the difference between prepositions and particles. In the teacher's training couse, we had a lecture by Dr. Haj Ross, an expert in linguistics, who brought a very meaningful activity to make a distinction between these two parts of speech in English language.

The distinction he made served as a basis to incorporate the disctintion within further lessons for Mexican students.

We would like to thank the lecturer for his extensive speech!!

Teacher's Training Course

The authors of this blog are sure the information will help us to become experts in the lingüistic field.

Are you paying attention?

Writing e-mails that give results

Dr. Brenda Sims gave a lecture about how to write e-mails that work in the U.S. One of the main points of the whole speech had to do with the fact that American discourse tends to be succint, whereas Mexican discourse may not be direct. So, as nowadays this activity has become part of everyday life, paying attention to things such as avoiding: inflated language, negative words, ambiguous words, demanding readers actions, making feel someone inferior; and being clear and specific, are key tips to make successful mails.

American Indians in the United States

Complementing our main course, we are taking 2 different workshops everyday. In this workshop we had a speech by a member of an American tribe, Dr. Jonathan Hook who told us about American-Indian pueblos in history.

Dr. Hook said some important tribes in American history were: Cherokees, Pow Wow, Apache, Iroquois, Sioux, Navajo, among others. He, as a member of one of this communities, told us about the importance of nature for the tribes, and the efforts they have made to take care of it.

Something remarkable about this lecture, is the meaning some American tribes gave to the word 'Indios'. Opposite to what most people would believe, the word 'Indios' is non-offensive, that is to say, for them, this word is "in -dios": God's people.

Walking around the Campus

One of the first day of classes, we went on a tour in the campus. There are so many buildings in the UNT that it is difficult to get to know all of them. However, in this tour, we were taken to the facilities of the campus.

In the tour, we were also told about the mascot of the UNT, which in turn, is also the symbol of the university: the eagle. It is so important that, the guides told us that when the official football team is playing the most representative sound is the eagle's sound.

After a long walk we were completely exhausted! In the end, it was worth doing because we learned about the facilities that UNT students can use, such as computer labs, gym, pool, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, football pitch, and medical services within the campus.

Traditional Hall Santa Fe

Welcome to the Summer Conferences!

The very first thing we did on Monday, was to get to know to the teachers of the different courses we are taking. Katie Crowder, the organizer of the LTC-UAEM summer conferences 2010, gave a short welcome speech to all of the students.

Later on, the Dean gave us a charming Welcome.

Isn't it cute?

I do really enjoy being in touch with nature.

Those animals are fantastic, you can see them all around the campus.

I think it liked me too, just look at it.

Awesome!

Fourth of July Festivities and Fireworks Extravanganza at Fouts Field

Learning a language implies learning a culture, too. That is the reason why we consider it was such a wonderful idea to be part of the celebrations of the American Independence Day here at the Campus.

We are sure students will keep in mind the importance of these foreign customes as well as all the teachers from the UAEM.