New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Did your New Year resolutions make our top list?

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends

Recent polls show that lots of people vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year. Make plans to meet up with friends for an evening at your  favorite restaurant or take the family to one of these popular places for family fun. Work shouldn't always come first!

2. Fit in Fitness

The evidence is in for fitness. Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than anything else known to man. Studies show that it reduces the risk of some cancers, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps you healthy and makes you look and feel better.

3. Tame the Bulge

Over 66 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success for those millions of people who made a New Year's commitment to shed extra pounds.

4. Quitting  Bad Habits

If you have resolved to make this the year that you stamp out your smoking habit, over-the-counter availability of nicotine replacement therapy now provides easier access to proven quit-smoking aids. Even if you've tried to quit before and failed, don't let it get you down. On average, smokers try about four times before they quit for good. Start enjoying the rest of your smoke-free life!

5. Enjoy Life More

Given the hectic, stressful lifestyles of millions of Americans, it is no wonder that "enjoying life more" has become a popular resolution in recent years. It's an important step to a happier and healthier you! Consider one of  healing centers for products designed to bring balance to your body, mind and soul. Or just get out and try something new! Take up a new hobby or try your hand at skiing. Go to a theater performance, or head to the local spa. Pittsburgh offers a wealth of artistic and recreational activities to meet just about anyone's wishes.

6. Learn Something New

Have you vowed to make this year the year to learn something new? Perhaps you are considering a career change, want to learn a new language, or just how to fix your computer? Whether you take a course or read a book, you'll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating New Year's resolutions to keep.

7. Help Others

A popular, non-selfish New Year's resolution, volunteerism can take many forms. Whether you choose to spend time helping out at your local library, mentoring a child, or building a house, there are many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could really use your help. Cares organizations make it easy by connecting volunteers with projects to fit practically any schedule. Or if your time is really in short supply, maybe you can at least find it in you to donate the furniture, clothing and other household items that you no longer need, rather than leaving them out by the curb to fill up our landfills.

8. Get Organized

On just about every New Year resolution top ten list, organization can be a very reasonable goal. Whether you want your home organized enough that you can invite someone over on a whim, or your office organized enough that you can find the stapler when you need it, these tips and resources should get you started on the way to a more organized life.

"Jingle Bells"

James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893) wrote the song "Jingle Bells"  in 1857. The said song was meant for a Thanksgiving program at a church in Savannah, Georgia where Pierpont was organist. The song was so well accepted that it was again sung on Christmas day and since then became one of the most popular Christmas carols.

Lyrics:

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

Quotation of the week

 “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Christmas Reflections

Christmas Reflections

Jesus made the shortest complete sentence in history: “I Am!”

English teachers tell us that when we speak of ourselves, it is in the first person. When we address a person with “you,” it is in the second person. When we speak of “he, she, they or them” it is in the third person. Some say God is a trinity and want to make three separate, distinct persons out of God. OK, let’s do it this way:

First person: Jesus said of Himself, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty”

We speak to Him in the second person: “And Thomas answered and said unto him, [You are] My Lord and my God”.

We speak of Him in the third person: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower”.

Come on, trinitarians, admit it. We can speak of Jesus in the first, second or third person, but they all say the same thing—He is God in flesh!

Цитата недели

Что Вы думаете по этому поводу?
 Teachers open the door but pupils must enter it.

Для членов гимназического клуба английского языка "Собеседник"

Акция "Рождественские открытки" подходит к концу.

13.12.2011 последний день приема ваших материалов.

Learning English as a second language

Learning English as a second language

If we take a look to the past, and we think about our experiences at school, a lot of thoughts flourish in our minds and of course one of these thoughts is related with the role of the teachers into the classroom and how they used to teach the lesson class. There are lots of contradictory researches about this topic but it is something that we have to read about and learn about from our own experiences. Now I will focus on the benefits of learning English as a foreign language.

First of all, we need qualified teachers to impart correct English lessons, I believe that the role of the teacher must be not only as an authority, but also as friendly and reliable educator that teach using different methods always thinking in that every student is different in the way how they learn. The combination teaching-learning is one of the most difficult jobs to accomplish, the reason? Students and teachers have to stay in the same channel; it must to be a connection between them, a relationship full of good communication, respect, trust and of course the teacher has to inspire confidence among his/her students.

Furthermore, I think that English as a second language should be learned in a comfortable place, a place where students can feel the liberty to share their own ideas, expressing emotions, open to the new knowledge and eager to learn every day. On the other hand, teachers have the mission to enrapture the students class by class, because this way the teacher always will count with an important factor: MOTIVATION, the best tool to execute a successful English class.

To sum up, learning and teaching English as a second language is not a simple procedure, it’s a long process in where every step count, every error is a tool to improve the ability to learn English, every students have the right to learn, a process in where the evaluations are constant and individually and of course a process that the teacher is the most important referent about this language, a model for his/her students, a mediator between the students and the  learning knowledge, the teacher is the person who create with love and variety his/her lessons, lesson full of contents, but always through of effective methods and techniques.

Time out for comfort

Time out for comfort

Wash your eyes and ears out with this picture and accompanying scripture. I have no idea who caught this shot, but one thing for sure they were at the right place at the right time.