This year the leaves aren't nearly as pretty as they were last year. It has been warm, and then it suddenly got cooler and windy so that the leaves are mostly just blowing away without going all shades of beautiful first.
There are not so many beautiful yellows yet, but I'm hoping it isn't over. My students assure me that there's a couple of weeks yet, and the colours will improve.
One type of tree, though, is lovely, and I took some pictures of it today in the little park near the place I work. The leaves are going a strange purple colour as well as the usual reds and oranges, which gives an interesting effect.
Here they are closer up. I'm not sure what this tree is called, but it has an amazing variety of colours. 
On this part of the tree there were none of the purple leaves, but I like the shadows in this picture.
This is the more common maple tree, but the real reason I like this picture is the sky behind it. It was a gorgeous day today, sunny and clear.
You can see that not all the leaves have turned yet, so maybe my students are right. Maybe next week I will get better pictures.
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- Badaunt
- I'm from NZ, and now live in Japan, teaching English to reluctant university students. Email me: badaunt at gmail.com
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Links for language teachers
I have noticed that I get a lot of hits from people searching "present simple" and "ESL," and assume that this is language teachers looking for ideas or lesson plans. The following links are good places to start.
ESL Lounge Here you will find lesson plans organised by level. A fantastically useful site for busy teachers, and easy to navigate.
British Council Here lesson plans are organized by topic. There are more teaching activities in the 'downloads' section.
The Internet TESL Journal
They have not updated this page for a while, but there is still a lot you might find useful.
Humanising Language Teaching
This is an online journal, good for ideas, inspiration, and especially good towards the end of semester when you're feeling not quite human.
Dave's ESL Cafe
Almost too much to wade through, but a very useful resource. Lots of links to other sources.
Karin's ESL PartyLand
This is a page specifically dealing with teaching simple present and present progressive. I have not tried any of these, but there are a lot of ideas here, and they look good. At the very least you will be inspired.
Good luck!
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7 comments:
The purplish leaves are really wonderful; I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it is beautiful.
Thanks for the reminder of how great the fall colors can be. Here in Wisconsin the colors were drab and unexciting this year for some reason. We feel cheated.
The tree in question looks a lot like what we call a Chinaberry Tree here. It is generally weak-limbed and messy (practically a weed), but one of the few to display any color in the fall/winter in the South.
I asked a Japanese friend, who tells me the tree is in fact nankin-haze (Chinese tallow). Wikipedia says it is invasive in the southern U.S., commonly grows all over Japan, and that the leaves become a multitude of colours rivalling maples in the autumn. It certainly seems to be producing better colours than the maples this year.
I haven't actually seen the golden colours of an autumn season yet, but here down at the equator, we get a knack for knowing that the season has changed when the subtle breeze of the prevailing winds change direction, and the rains come more often than usual. Not only does it feel like a welcome change of direction, it cheers me up whenever I see sheets of mist falling to the ground. Accompany that with the cool breeze that comes in through the window, November to December is one of my favourite periods of the year.
Yes, the Chinese tallow is also very common in Houston and the south. To tell the truth, I have trouble distinguishing them apart and remembering which is which.
lovely.
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