Happy Friday everyone! This week we read a story called Painting the Stars about the Nazi occupation of Denmark. We talked a bit about Nazi Germany and discussed our thoughts on what happened. I was impressed with the maturity of the conversation. For our writing topic I asked the students about the nature of good and evil and had them write down their thoughts on the subject. I was particularly impressed with Teddy's response. He gave some well thought out points and I enjoyed reading his work. In Science class we finished the unit on cells and we discussed the chapter as a class.

Teddy has been writing a lot more during our writing time and as a result he is making fewer mistakes. There were several times this week where I was very impressed with his overall work. Keep it up Teddy!

I am often surprised by Howard's intelligence. When he applies himself the result is extremely good. Sometimes I feel like he gets lazy and tries to find the fastest way to finish his work, and as a result the ideas behind his writing aren't always thought through, however his grammar is very impressive and he has a very good grasp of English tenses. He also has a thorough grasp of metaphor and he is quite witty at times.

MJ had intelligent things to say this week during our discussion of cells. I was happy to see him engaged in a classroom discussion about human cells and how they are affected by the things we eat, and the things we absorb into our bodies. I always enjoy hearing MJ's commentary (when he is being serious).

Irisa excels in writing and speaking. My only comment to her is to pay more attention to what she is reading when she is completing independent work in her workbook. As I was correcting her book the other day, I noticed that there were many times Irisa misunderstood the question in the book. This week Irisa brought me a page of her writing to correct, please let her know that I am available to correct her writing anytime.

The other day we were looking at pictures of bacteria in class and Anne said: "oh, so cute!" This made me laugh. I always enjoy hearing from Anne, even when she is tired and in a bad mood. Anne has very good concentration and she is always ready to work even when others around her become noisy and distracting. Good job Anne.

Even though Betty comes late to class I always see her reading or writing to catch up on what she missed. She is a very keen student and I think she handles her work load in a very mature manner. She takes responsibility for the work she misses and is often the first one to hand in writing assignments even though she is only in class for the second hour. I am very proud of you Betty!

I would like to thank my class for all their help at the barbecue last Friday. They all worked very hard and I was proud to see how eager and willing they were to lend a hand. They are very considerate young boys and girls.

Hi everyone.

This week the Stormtroopers had their first unit test. Although they did alright, I was hoping for a higher class average since all of my students assured me that they didn't need any more review! I was so impressed with their vocabulary tests the week before that I was hoping for that kind of performance on the unit tests. I will go over the answers next week with the students so we all know what I expect on the next test. awesome work on the science charts we did in class on Thursday. They were very well done. I would also like to congratulate the class on the improvement in their behavior. I seem to be teaching a more mature crowd these days. The song for this week was "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash. We discussed the plot of the song in class and talked a little bit about Johnny Cash. The class found the song entertaining and thought it was quite funny at times.

MJ set an example this week and refrained from any inappropriate conversations in class. It was nice to see a less sarcastic side of him. I was impressed with the written portion of his English test. He really payed attention to the grammatical details. He just needs to pay a bit more attention to his punctuation. Keep up the good work MJ, I hope your head is feeling better!

Teddy seems to be experiencing the same problems with past tense. Perhaps it would be helpful for him to memorize some phrases, often this can help non-native speakers create a sort of language template in their minds. I will be sending home a CD on Monday, please encourage Teddy to listen to it when he has some free time.

Howard has been behaving in a more mature manner this week at school. I was very impressed with his tests. He studied and it showed.

Irisa made very few grammatical mistakes on her test last week. Sometimes she confuses English expressions but this is a very minor problem. I am looking forward to seeing more of her written work this semester.

Betty Still has to finish her testing. I was very impressed by the care and effort Betty and Anne put into their in-class science project on Thursday. Good job girls!!

Anne's English test was a little bit weak. Her reading was good, but she made some mistakes in her written work. I have pointed out the grammatical errors in her test booklet, so please remind her to review her mistakes. I am confident that she can overcome these small grammatical obstacles.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you all on Monday. Don't forget we have a vocabulary test on Tuesday and we will be reviewing the words on Monday!

We've been reviewing for the test this week so I hope you guys are all ready for Monday!

The vocabulary test on Tuesday went well. The class average was 95, and as promised, this means that I will be bringing the best pizza in Taipei for my class on Tuesday AFTER we write the test. My students have worked very hard this week studying for the test and I am very proud of them.

Teddy has been practicing his written grammar during our 20 minutes free topic time. It is taking a while for him to remember the present and past tense rules and I think this is his major problem when it comes to writing. We will continue to work on it and I will continue to make him revise his work with the corrections. I know he can do it!

Irisa's writing is quite impressive. She has quite a good grasp on grammar and her speaking accent sounds almost native. I would like to focus on essay writing with Irisa in the future. Keep up the good work!

Howard is very good when it comes to science. He has an incredible memory for details of our science lessons. I am impressed with his level of knowledge. He needs to pay attention to his grammar a bit more in his written work, particularly tense agreement.

Anne got a very high score on her vocabulary test and the sentences she wrote showed me that she had a very good grasp of the meanings of the words. There is some tense confusion in her written work but I will continue to help her in this area.

MJ has a flair for creative writing. He sometimes makes mistakes in punctuation, such as using run-on sentences or forgetting a comma but his vocabulary and grammar (for the most part) are very impressive. Keep it up MJ!

Betty has been working very hard over the past few weeks and she's been doing a great job. Her test score for vocabulary was very high, and quite impressive since she often had to catch up on work she missed because she came to class late. Keep it up Betty, you're doing great!

Have a good weekend and study hard! See you on Monday!

This week in we started our new novel "Life of Pi." Please read as much as you can for next week. Every Monday and Tuesday the class has 20 minutes at the beginning of class to write about whatever they want. This gives me a chance to assess each students weaknesses and strengths in writing. In science we finished chapter 2 and we got a chance to discuss ecosystems and different biomes. Next week we start review for the unit test, and there is a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday. Please study!

Howard's concentration is improving. I did not have to remind him so many times to pay attention and stop talking. I am pleased with his progress. Howard needs to work on his tense agreement when he is writing. He often changes back and forth from present tense to past tense in the same sentence.

Teddy's concentration is improving also. I have isolated a few problems in Teddy's writing and I hope to help him overcome these obstacles in his written work. He needs to pay attention to his tenses and make sure he is consistent with past and present tense. Also he needs to watch for spelling errors that occur because he is rushing through his work. He often leaves out letters in words. Finally, he must make sure that there is a subject in each sentence. He sometimes leaves out the subject of his sentences completely, such as "because walking the dog and then the dog got lost" instead of "because HE was walking the dog and then the dog got lost."

I always enjoy reading MJ's free topic writing. I admire his attempt to use English turn of phrase and expressions. He experiments with metaphors in his writing and I think this is very good practice. My only suggestion is that MJ take class a bit more seriously.

Irisa has a good grasp of paragraph structure and grammar. She makes some mistakes in tenses sometimes but we can work on that. Keep up the good work.

Anne has been more focused this week and she has worked very hard during class time. She has the common problem of confusing her tenses sometimes but I think she can improve with some practice and more attention to detail.

I only see Betty for half the class and I feel this hinders her from finishing her work. I am trying to find a way to maximize her learning in the short amount of time we have. Often by the time she arrives to class, we are already working in our workbooks and she has missed the whole lesson. Perhaps she can find time while she is at Tree House to read her science book independently.

I look forward to reading more written work and seeing how the class does on their unit test. See you next week.