Awards Ceremony and Potluck

The food at the awards ceremony was fabulous. (I should've taken a picture of it all) I tried to sample it all and my plate was very full. I tried tacos al vapor, cerviche, homemade tortillas, tangine made with beef, chicken with green chilies, tinga and more! Thank you everyone!

I also want to say thank you to all of the students. You guys are great, awesome, fabulous, excellent, stupendous, the best! Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to class. Thank you for coming and putting forth so much time and effort. Thank you for sacrificing time you could be spending with your children, making money or sleeping to be at school. You are investing in your future and the payoff will be huge. You have all grown incredibly in the last four months. I am proud of each of you and I brad about you all the time to whoever will listen. Thanks for putting up with me and my sometimes crazy teaching style, the "Heidi Method". :-)

Seven Students Graduate to Intermediate!

Seven students will be entering the intermediate class when they return to school in January. These students are Abdellah, Alejandra, Judith, Roberto, Zarina, Itzel and Luz R. Some of these students have been here only 4 months. Others hold down jobs and work many hours. Some have children. All of them are dedicated, responsible and hard working and should be proud of themselves and what they have accomplished. They all sacrifice something to be here- whether it is time with a loved one or sleep. They have big plans for their futures and I am confidant of their success. I consider myself lucky to have known them and to have been their teacher. I will miss their questions, their energy and their friendship in class next semester and I hope they stay in touch.

Our Weekend

What We Did Over the Weekend

Ester went to Walmart. In Walmart she bought some ornaments for the tree. She went to church and in the church she prayed for her family. After, she cleaned the apartment and went to work. Zarina went to Walmart on Friday and bought pencils, folder paper and napkins. Sunday, her daughter decorated the tree. Zarina went to Foods4Less and bought groceries. Afterwards, she went to the laundromat and washed the clothes. Roberto talked with his friend yesterday about taking the high school class. Last Wednesday, he sent a message to his friend. His car didn’t work and he needed to pay a mechanic to fix it. Carmen went to church Saturday night and the next day she went to buy presents for Christmas. After she bought a dollhouse for one of the presents and she made dinner for her family. On Friday , Itzel went with Judith to eat pizza. On Saturday, she went to Sacramento to go to a party. Yesterday she went to the mall in Fairfield but she didn’t buy anything. Karol went to Foods4Less on Friday and bought groceries at night. On Saturday in the morning she worked cutting hair. At night she went to her friends. She saw Oscar de la Hoya’s fight. She won $40 because she bet that he would get a knock-out in round 8. Sunday she stayed home all day with her husband, watching TV, sleeping – in, and eating. Maria Guadalupe on Saturday cooked food and went to Sacramento and watched the Oscar de la Hoya. When the fight ended she went dancing at La Tropicana and she returned at 6:00 a.m. (Itzel babysat). Sunday, she slept all day. Maria D. did chores. Alejandra slept all morning both mornings and stayed in the house. She went to church Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She got her hair cut and dyed it herself. She made a really bad cake because she used to boxes and it didn’t rise. It was flat. They didn’t eat it, only the cherries.

Our Holiday Traditions

Here is what students wrote about their different holiday traditions.

Christmas Parade

Don't forget to attend the Christmas parade on December 13th on Main St. It starts at 10:00 a.m. so get there early for a good seat!

Office Workers

"UH-OH, here comes the boss!"
Here you see the class after they have acted an "office worker" skit.

More Pilgrims and Indians

We Are Thankful....

“I’m Thankful for”-Judith Medeles
 God for giving me opportunities and I can enjoy everything of my life, also I’m thankful for giving me special person to help me in my personal development. Thank you for giving me health and love.

 My mother for teaching personal values, to love my life and be better person. My Mother is an excellent example in my life, because she is very intelligent to overcome the troubles. She ever be looking out for me. I love my mom and I miss you.

 My family for supplementing my life and being important part for me. Thank you for being one united family.

I am thankful for. _Roberto Torres My Life and teacher’s and the beautiful time. It Is my second thanksgiving. I don’t know a lot about thanks giving but I think that IT is great because many American people visit their families. I am thankful again for my family, my classmates, my friends and my car too. Thankful For god in the name of jesus.

Pilgrims and Indians

At our Thanksgiving celebration we ate and ate and ate some more. We also listened to music and played cards. The students all had to make and wear hats as their meal tickets. It was a fun and lively celebration. Enjoy these pictures!

More English Outside of Class!

Here is the information for the International House of Davis and the programs that they offer. If you have any other activities or events to share, please comment about them!
http://www.internationalhousedavis.org/prog

Our Thanksgiving Feast

We celebrated Thanksgiving a week early. The students made and contributed traditional foods and desserts. What do you see in the pictures? What was your favorite? What was your least favorite? What was something new that you tried?

OUR WEEKEND- Future Tense Practice

The Future- Judith is going to go to Davis tomorrow for her friend’s birthday. On Sunday, she is going to go to church. She going to do housework. Tomorrow, Silvia is going to a party of her friend’s daughter. Maybe she is going to buy a present for her. Carmen is going to go to a soccer game at the Community Center for her daughter on Saturday. She is going to go to a party for her husband’s work. Then, she is going to go to a baptismal party. Roberto will not come to school on the weekend. Karol will not go to a party this weekend. Maybe she will go to Reno and win lots of money. Luz will go to Foods for Less to buy food. Luz will not buy fruit. She will go to her sister’s house tonight.

We Can Do Chores

For the next three weeks we are going to be studying jobs and occupations. One of the grammatical components of this will be the use of "can" and "can't" in conjunction with job skills. Here you see what some of the students can and can't do.
Abdellah can sweep our classroom floor.
Judith can wash the car.
Roberto can mop the floor.
Judith can do the cooking.
Judith can dust the T.V.
Add some sentences and ideas of your own!

Our Favorite ESL Web Sites

Here are some of our favorite web sites that we use in the computer lab.Feel free to say what you like or dislike about the site. If you have any more sites to add or any suggestions, please comment.
GRAMMAR
http://a4esl.org
CASAS PRACTICE AND MORE
http://abeonline.mpls.k12.mn.us
VOCABULARY
http://www.languageguide.org/english
LISTENING
http://www.elllo.org
http://www.esl-lab.com

Roberto's Picture

Roberto selected this picture to represent his friendship that he had with his best friend. He was unable to post it in his comments so here it is.

Remembering Our Loved Ones

From the teacher: We have been studying the past tense form of verbs in class. I asked students to write about someone that they loved who passed away. In conjunction with this writing exercise and the holidays of Halloween and Day of the Dead some of the students put together a beautiful rememberance table. This table follows the tradition of Catholic Spanish speaking countries.

Someone I Remember

A special person to me.

This is my friend. His name was Jose. He lived in Mexico, but one day he moved to Los Angeles, CA.
He worked for 9 months. He was trying for a better future with his family. But unfortunately he died in Los Angeles.

Antonio Andres

A special person to me


This is my father. His name was Enrique Gonzalez. He died 6 years ago. He worker in different place selling food. He was a hard worker. He had big and brown eyes. My other person is my mother. Her name was Maria Lazalde. She was a beautiful mom. She died 12 years ago. I miss my parents a lot, but I know they are now in a better place.




Maria Dera

Special person to me

I will talk to you about my grandfather Abdellah. He died 13 years ago at about 70 years of age, in Taroudant, Morocco. He had brown eyes and a little white beard. He usually wore traditional clothing like ‘Jellaba’ and ‘Belgha’. He worked as an Arabic language teacher. He taught children. He was serious and a hard worker. He liked children and he was happy.
I liked him very much because I was named after him.

Our Weekend

What We Did Over the Weekend - written by the students and dictated to the teacher in class.
Silvia went to the supermarket to buy food. Then, she went to the car wash to clean her car. She went to church to pray. She went to the laundromat to wash her clothes. Saturday, Karol woke up at 9:00 a.m. and stayed home all afternoon. In the evening, she went to a party with her husband and her baby. Sunday morning they went to Denny’s restaurant for breakfast. Karol went to the supermarket and Walmart to buy food and diapers on Sunday afternoon. Ester went to visit her mother and her sister for two hours. She went to the park. She rode her bicycle with her husband and her sons. They went to Foods For Less together and then to church at 1:00 pm. Ester went to the gas station. At 5:00 she started work and stayed until 1:00 in the morning. Itzel went to the ranch on Friday with her brother and his wife. She ate meat and afterwards she played with her nephew. At night she went to a club. She danced very much but she didn’t drink anything. On Saturday she slept all day. Ileana washed and dried her family’s clothes. She made a cake for her grandson’s birthday. They visited bowling for the birthday. On Sunday they went shopping and to the supermarket. At night they visited church. Afterwards, they watched TV. Roberto had a so-so weekend. Saturday morning he watched El Salvadorian news. At night he worked. Sunday morning, he met with his friends from El Salvador. Irslan had a very bad weekend. His work closed. He doesn’t have a job now. He went to the mosque and prayed.

At the Computer Lab

Here is our class in the computer lab. We are practicing English using Randall's Cyber Listening Lab.

Our Class

This blog has been created for the students and by the students. The postings are student generated and also written by the teacher.

About us
Our class is currently made up of students from 6 different countries. The students hold down jobs and raise families all while attending classes to learn English. Some students want better jobs while others say they just love to learn English and come for the fun of it. They are a kind, generous, smart, dedicated and hard-working group of people. Being their teacher is a blessing- and I love my job! I learn as much as they do, probably more! :)-Heidi Weins

My Teacher
Heidi is the best teacher in our class she has excellent experience. She always is funny and is a very good teacher. She has good ideas when she teaches the class. In my home my son asks me how is your teacher? My teacher is tall, thin, and young. She has blue eyes and brown short hair. She is a fantastic, friendly, pretty, and beautiful teacher.- Ester Duran