Christmas surfing

Hey ClimaDesigners,
There's nothing like a little surf music to get your spirits up. When you're done eating all those Lebkuchen and digging into your mother's Christmas goose (or whatever else you are sinning on these days), tune in to this great music podcast and dance away the Christmas blues.
Wishing you a stomping 2008!
Anne

White Christmas

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming year.
Here are musical greetings for you. And here is the original scene from the movie.

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Anne

P.S. In case you are still looking for phrases for your Christmas mail, here are some suggestions:

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a very happy New Year.

Thank you very much for being such a good business partner/such good customers and for placing your trust in us.

For the holidays we wish you and your dear ones/your family happiness and peace and a fresh start in the New Year.

Alternatives:

Happy holidays!
Season’s greetings!
May this be the best year ever!
Wishing you a New Year of happiness.
We wish you all the best in the coming year.
Best wishes for a bright and beautiful season.
Holiday greetings and best wishes for the New Year.
May you and your family have a joyous holiday season.
Warm wishes to you and your dear ones this holiday season.
We send our warmest wishes for a joy-filled and bountiful season.
I hope that 2007 was a good year for you and that 2008 will be even better.
I wish you a world of peace during this season and always.

Global Warming

We are used to hearing how global warming endangers animals in northern regions. But do you know it is already affecting people there as well? On an Island in Alaska, villages are falling into the ocean as the permafrost melts and the intensity of the storms increases. Listen to an Innuit housewife talk about her hopes and fears.

Anne

Do and make stories

Early in the morning at 5 o'clock I got up and first I made some coffee. My neighbour was making a lot of noise, because he was making a call - he was calling his uncle in America.

Afterwards I called him to make an appointment to speak about his early morning calls. He made a suggestion that we should meet in two months, because he was going on holiday. Therefore I got angry and made a fuss, spoke louder and louder - but it made no difference to him.

Anita, Gabi & Petra

Those who weren't there, try this quiz!

Anne

ClimateDesign needs teaching vocabulary

Here are some links for didactics at the college level: Learning theory; Project-based instruction; Teaching tips

Here are nice links I found for teaching architecture to school children. You might find inspiration for your postgrad students.

1. This website features “a weekly dose” (eine wöchentliche Dosis) of architecture http://www.archidose.org/past.html.

2. Didactics at school – The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
http://www.edutopia.org/index.php

3. There was a series on skyscrapers on PBS (public TV) that includes some great materials (including a glossary): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/sitemap.html

Anne

Picture Quiz 4

This one is really hard - who can guess what it is?
Anne














Here comes the solution - can you find the thing we are looking for on this tractor ;-) ?

The wind and the sun

The wind says to the sun: “I am stronger than you!” “No,” says the sun to the wind. “I am stronger than you!” The wind says: “Look at that man with his coat. If I can make him take off his coat, I am the strongest.” “OK,” says the sun. “And if I can make the man take off his coat, I am the strongest.” And so the wind blows and blows. But the wind makes the man feel cold. He pulls his coat around him. And then the sun shines on the man. It makes him feel hot. He takes off his coat. “See!” says the sun to the wind, “I am the strongest.”

Quiz 3

Now: Who can guess what this is? :-) Anne

One Laptop per Child

Last lesson we had a discussion about Negroponte's project to make a laptop for children in developing countries - laptops that cost only $100. Some of you thought it was a very good idea, but others thought it was not such a great project. You can listen to the text we read here.
If you want to find out more about the project, you can watch Negroponte describe it in a talk he gave in 2006.

Anne

Picture Quiz 2

Great guesses! Now: can you tell what this is?
Tip: It's not man-made.
CU L8R (= See you later)
Anne







PS: Here's the solution picture to this quiz!

Picture Quiz

Let's have some fun and guess a picture: Who can tell what this is?
Post your comment below (click on the word "comments" below).

See you Thursday,

Anne

Posting a comment

Dear all,

To post a comment, please click on the word "comments" below, write in your message and send. If you click on the picture of the envelope, you send an email to a colleague. I'm sorry, I mixed up these two buttons in my email last week - maybe because of Friday 13th!

You don't have to sign in (anmelden) to send a comment. If you don't sign in your message will be posted from "anonymous", so please type in your name after your message. When I know that all of you can use this communication platform that will make my day = mir den Tag versüßen ;-) !

Question: Would you like to take a summer break? The Climate Design group is thinking of taking all of August off, but this has not been finalized. I cannot teach the last week in August. Please discuss your summer plans with your course mates and post a short comment.

Have a lovely week, and see you on 19 July.

Best regards,
Anne

New reference material

Dear Climate Designers,

Many of you have said you would like reference material – something in your hand! In your wiki, you can now find reference material for telephoning and letters/email. Just download these materials and print them out. You will also find some questions to think about.

I look forward to seeing you on 12 July!

Anne

Interesting links

Hi everybody,

Have a look at the links at the right. Do you find any of them interesting or helpful? Have you found anything on them that you would like to share with your colleagues? Would you like a different sort of link for a special purpose? Post your message for everyone to read, please, by signing in and then clicking on the "comments" button below.

Note the new page in our Wiki for your telephoning exercises. You'll also find the new words from the last lesson on our vocabulary page ... waiting to be "sorted out".

On 21 and 28 June your trainer will be Cameron Paul. I hope you enjoy your lessons together :-)!

Best wishes,
Anne

Lesson on 14 June

Dear ClimateDesign and IB Hausladen,

Since 7 June is "Fronleichnam" (sorry, that's a holiday not known in the USA!) , we won't see each other for two weeks.

In the meantime, please use our Wiki to remember the words and structures we discussed last lesson. IB Hausladen, you'll find a new page to list and discuss vocabulary connected to the presentation you gave of your new building. Climate Design, your group set up your own new page last lesson, so I suggest that you present some things about yourself there.

Also note the two new additions to our list of links: Life explained on film and the BBC Skillswise site.

If you have any technical trouble, just write to me at anne.hodgson@t-online.de.

Have a nice day off work next week, everybody! :-)

Anne

Lesson 31 May

Dear ClimateDesign, dear IB Hausladen,

From now on we will be sharing this blog to keep you up to date on our tandem courses.

To prepare for our next lesson, please go to the ClimateDesign wiki (see link at right) and contribute to our collaborative project 1.

In our next lesson, several of you at ClimateDesign should present your organisation. At IB Hausladen, Martina and colleagues will present your new building. I'm looking forward to it!

If you have any comments or questions, please post by clicking "Comments" below.

Next lesson: Thursday 24 May

Dear all,

This is to remind you of the assignment for next lesson:

Everyone: Masterclass book p. 8/9 pairwork reading & putting the two articles in order.

One or two of you: please give a short presentation of what ClimateDesign is and does.
A short list of words in connection with ClimateDesign that we can put into a web would be helpful.

I'm looking forward to it!

Anne

Our ClimateDesign blog

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the ClimateDesign English course blog !
We'll be posting news and reviews, projects and upcoming events, links and fun stuff. This is where you will find reminders of what we have done and what you need to do.

This is your space - enjoy it :-) !

Anne