An Important Accomplishment

Tell us about a challenge that you worked hard to overcome.

Thanksgiving

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Please share one thing that you are very thankful for in your life. Explain why you are thankful for that thing

Cesar Chavez Day

Welcome back to the DEP blog. We haven't been to the blog for awhile and I am excited to see how much everybody's writing has improved!

Last week we celebrated Cesar Chavez Day by studying his life, exploring the issue of workers' rights and justice, and watching the documentary Viva La Causa. I would like you to post your thoughts about the movie. You may choose to write about one of the list of questions I have provided you with.

Glemwood Springs is a special place

The good place for me is Glenwood because is surrounded by mountains. The view is really beautiful. It is a small town but it has its own attractive. Also, my family is there, and I have a lot of friends.

There are so many places to go out like rivers, parks, waterfall, lakes, and the most attractive place is the hot spring pool. That is good for relaxation and fun. People came from different places to visit it. In the summer the view is excellent. Summer time is good for camping and rafting. People can have parties in the parks. In the winter the ski area is really beautiful. Another good thing is that there are some places that people can go to dance and enjoy the weekends with their families and friends.

Rio Grande Zoo

The zoo is a beautiful place for my family and me. We went to the zoo on Columbus Day weekend. It’s the best place I’ve ever been. I enjoyed seeing the different animals.
Two years ago my oldest daughter went to the zoo with her class. She told me, she told me she had a great time and she wanted us to go for a family vacation. One of my favorite animals in the zoo was the turtles, because they were big animals, It was my first time seeing the flamingos, giraffes, zebras, polar bears, and apes. I enjoyed the noise of the different animals. All the animals were organized by where they came from; there were Australia, Africa, and Asia. I liked to take pictures of the animals to show my family in Mexico that can’t see some of the animals. Once I went to the Rio Grande Zoo, I noticed it’s a special place for a vacation. Spending time at the zoo I learned more about animals. I felt peaceful, and connected with nature. If you want to spend time with your family, the zoo is a great place.

A Special Place: The Mountains

The mountains are a special place for me.  I moved to Colorado 12 years ago because I wanted to have mountains in my backyard.  I love going into the mountains because it is very peaceful, I enjoy nature, and it's my favorite place to get exercise.

One of my favorite things about taking a trip to the mountains is the peaceful feeling I experience. I forget about my problems and just enjoy the scenery.  It's usually a lot quieter than the city because there are no cars, trucks, people, or cell phones, just the sound of the wind, the rustle of trees, and maybe the babble of  a stream.  I find it easy to relax away from all of the distractions and stresses of everyday life.  Another aspect of the mountains that I appreciate is being surrounded by nature.  I like to touch the trees, pick up rocks, smell the flowers.  When I take my 3 year old son hiking, he wants to know the names of the plants and animals that we see and I enjoy teaching him.  Finally, the mountains are my favorite place to exercise.  Whether it's skiing or snowshoeing in the winter, or hiking or biking in the summer, I always feel great after a day of physical exertion in the mountains.  

Ever since I moved to Colorado, the mountains have been a special place and an important part of my life.  Spending time in the mountains makes me a happier and healthier person because I feel peaceful, connect with nature, and exercise.  In fact, I love the mountains so much that my son's middle name is Mountain.

Who do you look up to?

In our last class we learned that "to look up to" someone means to admire that person or respect him or her greatly.  Please write about a person who you look up to.  When describing the person, try to use the adverbs of frequency that we have been studying.

A New Power Plant?

We have read articles supporting and criticizing the Desert Rock Energy Project. The plan is to build a new coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation in Northwest New Mexico. Do you think the project should be carried out? Please write an opinion statement and support your opinion with details, reasons, and examples.

Tell us about your country

There were six students in class on Monday, and each student was from a different country. Including myself, we represented 7 countries. That evening, I was thinking about how amazing it is to work with people from so many far away places, each place with its own sights, smells, tastes, customs, traditions, memories, etc. I would love to visit each of those countries and see what life is like there.

I wonder what each of you misses most about the country where you are from. I also wonder what you like most about your current home in the United States. Please post a comment explaining one thing you miss about your native country and one thing you like about the US. Try to include a lot of details so that we can understand your experiences better.

Spellabration!

Students gathered at the Henry Strater Theater for the Spellabration spelling bee, part of the annual Snowdown festival in Durango.  This year's theme was "In Da Nile" (Egyptian).  I don't know if we look Egyptian, but we had fun putting on ridiculous costumes and trying to spell ridiculously hard words.  

Class trip photos

Thanks to Taka, Edna, and Benja for taking such great pictures!

Snowshoeing

On Sunday, most of Charlie's English class, plus Pedro, got together for an afternoon of snowshoeing in La Plata Canyon, just outside of Durango. We were inspired by the skiing and snowshoeing trip that Libby organized the week before. Please post some photos, Libby.

It was really a perfect adventure. Once we had rounded up enough snowshoes, we had to find a pair of boots that Raul would fit into. Fortunately, Nicolas brought a few pairs of boots along and one of them worked. With all the right gear (I'm glad it was 50 degrees and sunny, not 10 degrees and windy) we sqeezed into 2 vehicles and headed for the mountains.

It was amazing to walk up the canyon because we were actually walking in the riverbed but there was so much snow we couldn't see or hear the water below the snow. After going a couple of miles, we finally got to a spot where we could see the river, which looked like a big turquois slush puddle. We decided to stop there and hang out for a while.

Except for Benja and myself, it was everybody's first time snowshoeing. Everyone snowshoed well and seemed to have a lot of fun. There was great conversation, wonderful views, a little bit of tackling and wrestling in the snow, long jump contests and even a bonfire. Oh, and dirty jokes compliments of Benja. I think my favorite part was sitting around the fire and sharing all of the different snacks and drinks that people brought.

Thanks to everyone who was there for making it such an enjoyable trip; you're a wonderful group of people. It was great to spend time with you outside of the classroom and to be a part of your first trip to the La Platas.

I look forward to reading comments from others who were on the trip.

Charlie's English Class

Here is a class photo from a couple of months ago.

Free write

Choose from the list of topics that I have provided or write about anything that you want. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Day

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day.  In this country, the Thanksgiving tradition is to get together with family and friends for a special feast of certain foods.  You probably already know what some of those foods are.  The idea is to give thanks for the good things in our lives.

Go to a dictionary website, like dictionary.com, or wikipedia.com to learn more about Thanksgiving Day traditions and history.

After learning more about Thanksgiving, please write a comment to this post explaining what you are thankful for right now.

By the way,  in observance of Thanksgiving Day, we do not have classes on Wednesday.

Happy Thanksgiving and see you next week!

What are your goals?

I loved all of your postings about your favorite English word. You all had such different and interesting reasons for choosing your favorite word.

For your next posting, please explain an important goal or goals that you have. Your goals might be related to education, family, work, community, life skills, etc.

Try to use specific examples and details and the organizational strategies that we have discussed and practiced in class.

I look forward to reading about your goals and seeing you achieve those goals!

What's your favorite English word?

I think that when most people learn a language, certain words have special significance.  You might like a word because of the way it sounds, its meaning, a memory related to the word, or some other reason.

The Spanish word "rompope" has special meaning to me.  Several years ago, I spent a few months living in Costa Rica.  While I was there I helped to build a house for Habit for Humanity.  The construction foreman was a wonderful man from Nicaragua named Eduardo.  He was one of the craziest, happiest people I have ever known and was a lot of fun to work with.  He love rompope (egg nog).  

In the United States, I only drink egg nog at Christmas parties when it is cold and dark and everyone is in the holiday spirit.  It was really strange for me to drink egg nog in the tropics in the middle of the day while mixing concrete.  When Eduardo saw me in the morning he would yell, "Charlie . . . tienes r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-rompope hoy?"  I will always remember this word and I will always have wonderful memories of Eduardo.

Please leave a comment explaining what your favorite English word is and why you like it so much.

I used to.........

Write about some interesting things you used to do in your hometown.

Yesterday

Yesterday In the morning I was with my family on the tennis court. And in the evning we were on the Havaland trail.

We had good time and a lot of fun.

In the evning I maked a good dinner and desert.

After dinner we watched for interesting movie about dangerous animals.

yesterday

Even yesterday is weekend,my day same as every,a day for work.
I woke up at nine o'clock,wash my face quickly first,then took my labtop outdoor,because I don't have connect for internet,outdoor had good signal for computer,I downloaded a software for chinese transcribe as soon as possable,finally I finished it at 9:50,I arrived my work place on time.
Began my job again, it was busy day yesterday. I went home at 9:30PM.