About

   HOW TO CONTACT ME: 

 Email:  
1)  englishwithmichelle@gmail.com   
2)   atomick1@gmail.com 


Hi, my name is Michelle Morissette and I am an ESL instructor at Vancouver Community College in Vancouver Canada. One of the big problems with teaching language is that students never seem to have enough time to practice what they are learning in the classroom.

My students often complain that they would like more time, especially for listening, reading and writing.  Although no one is particularly crazy about grammar, most of them have clearly gotten the message that grammar is simply a tool to help them do everything else better in English. 

We are living in an era where the world is at our fingertips with a simple stroke of a keyboard and an Internet connection. Every single one of my students is wired to the Internet, so last winter I decided to set up a blog as one more tool to help my students achieve their own personal goals in their own time.  The aim was to provide independent study practice material in all skills that students could access at any time. Some of the material would be my own. Other material would come from a variety of sources. The  blog has since become a website used by students from all over the world.  It is still a work in progress, so hopefully each time you come back, you should see an increasing number of activities in all of the separate pages above.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBSITE

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Postings:  
The largest and most visible part of the blog is the post page. Here I write about a wide range of topics. Some are specifically aimed at ESL students or  instructors. Others are aimed at anyone interested in Canadian and world culture, relevant social issues and a host of other hot  topics. Needless to say,  am not excluding students from readers of these topics. Many of them are already enjoying them Posts will continue to evolve and to be somewhat eclectic.For example, a few weeks ago, my class was studying a unit on overpopulation in which they were reading, listening to, discussing, and writing about the the causes and effects, as well as potential solutions to world population hitting 7 billion around October 31st. This is an important topic for everyone, but my students certainly benefited from it enormously  Very recently this very topic has been all over the media. Many of my students who went to the effort of writing 3rd or 4th drafts of their essays on the topic, were ecstatic, and quite justifiably proud of  themselves because here was  something  they completely understood and had even worked on ahead of the media pack. 


Suggestions and Guest Bloggers are Welcome
If anyone wants  to suggest topics, issues or even grammar, reading, writing, speaking, or listening topics you think I should address, please let me know either by email,or in  the comment box below. Also, if anyone is interested in posting a guest post, please contact me, I am always interested in guest bloggers. 


Links: 
If you look on the right hand side, you will see a long series of links organized into categories. 

• Online dictionaries
• Vancouver Resources for students and families
• Reading
• News
• Listening
• Video listening 
• Podcasts
• Grammar
• Medical English
• Vocabulary
• Writing
• Spelling 
• Pronunciation 
• Speaking 
• Recent Posts 
• Archives 

Stand alone Pages: 

At the top of the page, under the page title you will see a group of pages.  

The current pages include: 

Home ( which takes you to the main blog) 

Reading, 

Writing, 

Vocabulary,

Listening and Speaking, 

Proofreading and Editing, 

Music, 

About me 

Homework. The homework page is designed for my students, but any upper level students would benefit from it if they have some of the materials. I post the listening homework directly into the homework page. Occasionally the reading homework is in the reading page.

 

I am relatively new to blogging, so some things such as some of the speaking and listening activities I have planned will take a little longer than I would  like, so bear with me. . 

Comments:

I would appreciate your feedback, and comments on all aspects of the blog.If you you wish to leave comments on anything, or wish to make suggestions about future contents, or improvements,  please leave a comment below, or email me.  I will try to respond as quickly as I can.