The world class performers and spectacular air shows are the really big draws every year at the Canadian National Exhibition. Everyone in Toronto knows when the Canadian International Air Show is on at the "Ex" as the loud, fast and spectacular jets dance over the Toronto sky.
Each summer I go to the CNE with students. This summer 2006, it is to see the "Super Dogs" and shop in the international pavilion. Last summer 2005 it was to see the world record holder "Human Cannon Ball" and the "Fire and Ice" show.
The "CNE or Ex" is a wonderful field trip for international students to learn English and see products, cultural exhibits, foods, performers and people from across Canada and every other country in the world. Every new item triggers questions and learning opportunities as students expand their vocabulary and language fluency.
Every year the CNE features a nice combination of regular performers along with new acts, performers and shows. It is comfortable to see familiar performers do new tricks to excite and wow the crowds.
One of the new shows "Wonders of Dance and Music" presents a fusion of Brazilian Carnival Samba, Flamenco, Tango, Arabic and Gypsy dance masterpieces integrated into one high-energy musical expression.
Another new show is "The Movie Song Show" where singers and dancers perform hit songs and scenes from famous movies like Flashdance, Top Gun, Back to the Future, The Bodyguard, Men in Black, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, and Titanic.
The Toronto Urban Music Festival is a presentation of Urban Music with new performers and regular performers with news songs and new routines. The show presents a wide variety of contemporary urban music including Hip Hop and Rap.
There are many smaller venue stages all over the Exhibition grounds to see performers. Toronto Star Bandshell, Global Food Building Stage, The Green Thumb Garden Theatre, Rogers International Stage, Kids’ World Feature Stage, Labatt Blue Midway Stage, Remember When Pavilion, Renovation Stage, Rock Valley Café, A Taste of the World Gourmet Theatre and TTC Stage. The TTC Stage hosts the TTC Busker Auditions to hundreds of hopefuls that come to the CNE and audition for their chance to entertain you on the TTC.
International students recognize foods, clothes, gift items, collectable's from their countries and have the opportunity to explain in English what they are, their cultural or historical significance to other international students that have never seen them before. In many ways it is like traveling to the most exotic global markets without having to pay airfare.
The best prices for for shopping can occur at the CNE as many outlet shops, importers and clearance jobbers sell products at huge discounts. Students like to buy dictionaries for one dollar, or learn English CD sets for 3 dollars instead of the regular list price of thirty dollars. I like to buy books, software, music cd's, vhs tapes, dvd's and other resource materials for my classes at a 75 to 90 percent discount and so do the students.
The CNE exhibits are everywhere and have something for everyone. Some students love the gardens, gardening, and landscaping. Some students love the agricultural exhibits with all the food products, farm animals, farm equipment and the horse shows. Other students play at the sports pavilion to test their abilities with new sports challenges. Some like to see arts and crafts and art displays others like to participate in the "how to" demonstrations and create their own art piece. Some students just like to play the latest sega video games or sony games "be" pc gamers or x box pros and play on the newest equipment or game platform.
The final day of the CNE is Labour Day. Since it is too late to go again this year you are welcome join us for a day trip to the 2007 CNE.
***********
ESL in Canada Blog URL
http://eslincanada.blogspot.com/
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
TeacherRanking VS. Professional Baseball Player Ranking
It always amazes me to hear about "Teacher Performance Ratings" especially when you consider the criteria used, the questions asked, qualifications and or the agendas of the evaluators.
I like to use professional baseball statistics as a basis for comparisons. Baseball statistics are usually very simple to understand.
The batter goes to the plate and is presented with a number of pitches or opportunities. We can use pitches and students as the base unit.
There is the "wild pitch" that is dangerous to the batter, catcher, umpire, spectators and without proper safety equipment or reflexes can lead to serious injury or even death. We have all read the headlines when the students murder teachers and students.
The lead hitters are placed early in the batting order to take advantage of their established performance rankings. Many of them are baseball's best and yet they fail over 70% of the time they are at bat.
We know that statistics from medical sources, psychology sources, IQ testing and academic potential testing sources show that only 40 to 60% of the population can actually graduate from high school. These can be compared to baseballs "balls" and we know them as the generally "un-hitable" pitches that come our way.
Many unrealistic politicians, new age consultants and self-deluded idealists say that teachers have to bat 100% with all of their students.
Can you imagine any politician trying to make a rule that pro baseball players have to hit 100% of the pitches or successfully hit 100% of the time that they are up at bat. These politicians would be laughed out of the stadium, laughed out of office, made fun of by Stone, Jay, David and Conan.
To properly evaluate teachers we have to use a real criteria that evaluates what the teacher starts with, what the potential of the student is, what learning actually took place.
It would be nice to see teachers properly credited with helping students over achieve and perform at 110% of their potential or even turn students from being chronic underachievers at 20% up to 80% of their potential as students.
Teachers need a new Commissioner, a new league and trained umpires to protect the integrity of their game.
***********
ESL in Canada Blog URL
http://eslincanada.blogspot.com/
I like to use professional baseball statistics as a basis for comparisons. Baseball statistics are usually very simple to understand.
The batter goes to the plate and is presented with a number of pitches or opportunities. We can use pitches and students as the base unit.
There is the "wild pitch" that is dangerous to the batter, catcher, umpire, spectators and without proper safety equipment or reflexes can lead to serious injury or even death. We have all read the headlines when the students murder teachers and students.
The lead hitters are placed early in the batting order to take advantage of their established performance rankings. Many of them are baseball's best and yet they fail over 70% of the time they are at bat.
We know that statistics from medical sources, psychology sources, IQ testing and academic potential testing sources show that only 40 to 60% of the population can actually graduate from high school. These can be compared to baseballs "balls" and we know them as the generally "un-hitable" pitches that come our way.
Many unrealistic politicians, new age consultants and self-deluded idealists say that teachers have to bat 100% with all of their students.
Can you imagine any politician trying to make a rule that pro baseball players have to hit 100% of the pitches or successfully hit 100% of the time that they are up at bat. These politicians would be laughed out of the stadium, laughed out of office, made fun of by Stone, Jay, David and Conan.
To properly evaluate teachers we have to use a real criteria that evaluates what the teacher starts with, what the potential of the student is, what learning actually took place.
It would be nice to see teachers properly credited with helping students over achieve and perform at 110% of their potential or even turn students from being chronic underachievers at 20% up to 80% of their potential as students.
Teachers need a new Commissioner, a new league and trained umpires to protect the integrity of their game.
***********
ESL in Canada Blog URL
http://eslincanada.blogspot.com/
Saturday, August 19, 2006
War between Agents and Schools creates Shrinking Revenue
War between Agents and Schools creates Shrinking Revenue
Once upon a time there was a happy balance between the agents and the language schools. The agents provided admission services and translations and the schools taught the students. The average commission of 10 percent was paid to the agents. Almost all of the students stayed at the university residences. Everyone was happy.
Some schools viewed the benefits of the longer term exchange programs and said "we should offer homestay - live with a Canadian family for the two or three months and enjoy your trip to Canada even more". The schools thought their stealing the exchange program housing was so brilliant that they decided to keep all of the commission. Now the agents had to work twice as hard selling the school and homestay and only got commission on half of the revenue.
The agents decided that they should charge fees for this extra work so created service fees that the students had to pay in advance for forms processing, airline ticket reservations and homestay applications.
The schools realized that the agents were making more money from service fees than commissions so they created direct registration internet forms and hired their own staff of foreign speaking sales reps to compete with the foreign located agents.
The foreign agents then decided that since the schools were competing against them as agents then they should set up their own language schools and compete with the schools.
As the marketing wars heated up between agent-schools and school-agents they drove up the cost of trade fairs, coop advertising, brochures, media advertising and sales commissions and they created some "noise".
There were many observers of this "noise" that decided they should join into the marketplace. There are now ex-agents, ex-students and ex-school reps located locally offering tuition discounts, no service fees, free baseball tickets and other incentives to students.
The foreign agent-schools then decided that they had to increase sales and advertising spending and demanded higher commissions. They then reduced the cost of teachers, books and educational materials to better compete with the local schools and local agents.
The local schools went in two directions some cuts costs and became babysitting schools with no standards no qualifications and no educational value and some attempted to set professional standards and operate with ethics.
The local discount agents unable to distinguish between good or bad schools started to just quote prices stating that all the schools were the same.
The schools decided to fight the local discounters with summer specials and "special walk-in pricing" offered if you buy first time in the school.
The foreign located agencies are fighting the local agents by claiming they will only represent schools if they have exclusive ethnic contracts. The foreign agents are trying to use exclusivity and monopoly contracts to prevent certain ethnic groups from exercising their freedoms and rights while in countries such as Australia, the USA and Canada.
The local agents are now organizing small private schools and language classes disguised as special conversation clubs. To keep costs low they are offering a combination salary and sales commission to the salesman disguised as a teacher.
Wait for our next report to see what happens.
This war between agents and schools is over money. Just like all the other wars that humans engage in. The Agent & School War victims are the students who think they have purchased professional language lessons but instead attend stripped down, gutted useless babysitting sessions with idiots.
ESL in Canada Blog URL
http://eslincanada.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)