Quick update

The busy Summer is upon us at this stage and I am happy to repost that the school is nice and full... Classes are still at a nice number of students, but we're using all the rooms now and there is a really nice buzz of activity around the place...

Diane is organising her usual activities but some of our long term students have also taken on the role as social coordinators! For some reason they are not quite as cultural as Dianes outings, and seem to be centred around house parties, pub outings etc... :-) BUT...as a result, we've had to change the school rules slightly this week and now students are not allowed be more than 5 minutes late for class (it used to be 15 minutes).

Anyone know the expression "to burn the candle at both ends"? http://esl.about.com/library/glossary/bldef_100.htm It was interesting, I went around the class rooms announcing the new (stricter) rule to the students and there was almost a sigh of relief from students. It was as though they now have an excuse to go out LESS often now that they have to be in class at 9am and I think they are happier as a result!

Kevin

What a week!

This was a funny week... We had roasting hot weather, then really cold windy and wet days - it's completely unpredictable...

So, this week what's been happening;

We had an intersting incident on Tuesday morning with our fire alarm deciding to ring throughout the school. It was being childish and stubborn and wouldn't let anyone reset it! Luckily, Tuesday morning was one of the warmer morning and so the students and teachers all went across the road to "English in the Park". Acutually, we had the alarm silenced by 09H00 but I tink the students were more than happy to be in the park for a few hours.

Nothing to do with the school, but our Taoiseacht (the Irish Prime Minister) was re-elected yesterday for the 3rd time and starts running the country again today. He has been our Taoiseacht for the past 10 years and will quite possibly be here for another 5 years. I'm not going say anything more about that other than there are more important things to be worrying aboout like for example the big nexs of the week which is that

Hari's Leaving! Hari Gupta, our favorite Australian Teacher is leaving us to go to like with his lovely little family in Mexico! Hari has been an absolutely great addition to the Annalivia Family and everyone will be sad to see him leave. Today is his last official day but he'll be in and out of the school for the next few weeks. We took a few pictures of him today which you can check out on http://www.annaliviaschool.com/annaliviaschool/Main/photo.htm (The t-shirt was a present for him)

Last thing that might be of interest is that tomorrow is Blooms Day. which is an annual celebration among Joyce fans throughout the world. It is celebrated in at least sixty countries worldwide, but nowhere so imaginatively, of course, as in Dublin and specifically in Sandycove and Dun laoghaire. There the events of Leopold Bloom's day are reenacted by anyone who cares to participate, and his itinerary is followed all across Dublin. Diane has arranged a social outing to participate in the events and has a BBQ arranged afterways in the beach...

Let's see what the weather has in store for us...

Summer is here!

The sun is shinning in Dublin and the weather is hot! (well for Dublin anyway...)

The school is nice and full with a really good mix of students at the moment and as I type the students are out with Diane (our social coordinator) visiting an old Georgian house ( http://www.esb.ie/main/about_esb/numbertwentynine/default.htm ) followed by a walking tour of Dublin and (probably) finishing up with a pint or two of Guinness, and practising their English of course ;-)

It was a busy week this week as we said goodbye (for a week or so anyway) to most of all our Cambridge Exam classes who, at this stage have sat the Speaking and listening papers and will be getting ready for the reading, writing and english in use sections. So good luck to you all!

By the by, I found a nice website for anyone interested in a few new words... http://www.word-detective.com the URL is self explanatory but there are some intersting articles, particularly for English students.

I've been keeping an eye on the statistics and there are quite a few people checking out the blog, which is great to see, but please DON'T BE SHY, leave me a little comment, question or suggestion!

All the best,

Kevin