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All meetings and classes are scheduled GMT -5
Hello, Friends.
It seems that March came in like a lamb. What beautiful weather we are having! Watch out, though! This means that March is likely to go out like a lion (or maybe a wolf that "huffs and puffs").
We are looking to the future and to the opening of Indiana. Our sponsor, Cornerstone Lutheran Church, is opening space for meetings. As we consider what is next for International Friends, we have to consider what we have accomplished. Zoom has opened many doors for us to meet at a variety of times and beyond the boarders of Hamilton County and Indiana. Let us know what you think! Do you have ideas for our classes? Do you want to Zoom? Do you want to meet in person? What else can we do? Email us with your ideas!
COVID-19: Indiana
Indiana kicked it up on vaccinations this week! Indiana has gone with an age and health driven model with healthcare and emergency services prioritized initially. The age for vaccination dropped from 60+ to 55+ within a week. And then within a two days to 50+. Teachers of all ages were added to the list. Three mass vaccination sites were open offering the "one and done" from Johnson and Johnson or the "two and through" from Pfizer or Moderna. This March 6 Indy Star article breaks it all down for this rapidly moving week.
Little Free Library Go to the park, go to the pool, go for a walk and you may see what looks like a bird house. In actuality it is a library! Different people or organizations can host these libraries, but they are there in the community for people to share their books and love of reading with each other. Do you see a book you would like to read? Take it and read it. Keep it or pass it along to the next reader by putting it in a Little Free Library.
Don Quxiote
Get ready, get set, READ! We will talk about our best time to meet and talk about this classic during our Tuesday and Friday meetings. If you want to join in the discussion and aren't already Zooming with us, please register to get the Zoom links.
Spring Break Fun
Zipper Merges
Indiana Department of Transportation announced that summer construction on our roadways will use a "zipper merge" for construction that narrows to one lane. Cars maintain their lanes until the final merge sign and then each lane takes turns entering the single lane. Learn more INDOT.
Stories and More: Mondays, 10:30-11:30 A.M.
We started our unit on fairy tales. Fairy Tails are stories that teach life skills but they also become part of the cultural fabric of the country and community. The stories are great because they are often repetitive so the audience can participate in the storytelling. The stories often The stories often use animals as the characters to help tell the stories. The stories help to teach children life skills. How many lessons are in this story?
We made a pig "puppet"! We practiced folding to make many different squares. Triangles are important for making squares!
March 8: The Princess and the Pea is our next fairy tale.
American Sign Language: Mondays, 5:30-6:30 P.M.
We practiced our signs and watched some great videos from Tic Toc that demonstrated BASL (Black American Sign Language). We studied sentence formation (ASL does not follow the spoken American English conventions) and watched videos. Thank you for letting me record the class so I could catch up.
March 8: Join us we are still open! Zoom over.
International Bible Study: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30 A.M.
We began with a review of Jesus' teaching in Luke 6. Luke wrote about these lessons in this order to inform us about how
Luke 6:20-26: Jesus teaches the different states people can be in. There are ups and there are downs in life.
Luke 6:27-37: Jesus teaches to love your enemies. An enemy someone who is hostile and intends to harm another person or group of people. Jesus teaches this not to protect the enemy, but to keep people from committing the same crime as the enemy. "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Not do to others as they do to you.
Luke 6: 38-42: These verses are often labeled that Jesus is teaching about judging but there is so much more in this lesson. Jesus teaches that how ever you treat others, that is how you will be treated not only that way but heaped and flowing over. Jesus teaches that "no one is above their teacher, but when they are fully trained they can be like their teacher". He uses the great analogy of the blind leading the blind.
March 9: Luke 6: 43-45 Jesus teaches how to tell what kind of heart someone has.
International Friends: Tuesday, 10:30-12:00
We ended up continuing our conversation from Bible Study and talked about ethics and judging brought us to talking about legal terms like accomplice and accessory: these are when you don't specifically commit a crime, but you aid and abet (help).
March 9: Join us as we plan to talk about home remedies. What do you use for a to cure?
My Big Fat Greek Wedding YouTube Link
Afternoon Conversation: Wednesday, 4:30-6:00
We planned to have our Excel class, but after our opening chit chat one of our friends dropped a bomb: her family is moving back to her home country. Of course, this led to talking about the circumstances that surround the move. That also led to talking about what to do with furniture she won't be taking back! Stay tuned...
March 10: Let's put Excel on the agenda and see what happens.
English Classes: Thursday, 9:30-12:00
Hot topics this week:
- Pronunciation vs. Accent: one of our Friends said, "It's a pronunciation problem if no one understands your word it's an accent if people understand you."
- Irregular Verbs: There is no short cut for this! Basically, you almost have to learn them by listening and memorizing. These are particularly problematic for pronunciation issues because even English speakers don't always know the proper form! This Irregular Verbs song may help you (and you can sing 268 more with this song!). The accent is a bit British, but you get the point!
- "Silent H": This topic is still circulating. The teachers are all on the same page. They can send you some hand outs.
- Homophones: words that sound the same but may be spelled differently and have a different meaning. For example: bear (animal), bear (carry), bare (naked), bare (empty). This can be tricky because when you look them up the definitions have all options for that spelling. Listen for the context to discover which is correct.
I was sorry to miss this week. I was with a college student working out loan paperwork for their business. Youngsters are not that detail oriented so it took a while. We also talked about how to communicate in a way that spoke the best to the accounting and business people so that they would understand what they were doing (and approve the loan!)
Please be sure to send me your teacher stories. People that help you (or your loved ones) grow are amazing additions to our lives. It would be hard for me to pick one particular educator to impact my life.
March 12: Join us for teacher stories (and a lot more, I bet!)
be like: resemble
blind: people who can not see
breaks it all down: explains details
conventions: how something is usually done
cultural fabric: the characteristics of a group of people
dropped a bomb: made a surprising announcement
get the point: understand the basic idea
I bet: shows that you agree with the statement (I bet we aren't done with cold weather.)
initially: at first
on: about
problematic: something that
through: finished
what we have accomplished: what we got done
what kind of: the nature of something; a type of something
spoke: past tense of speak but we were writing...in this case we are talking about the "voice" of the writing
states: conditions people are in at a point in time; state of mind, state of being
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