Home or office which is a better work place?

http://www.theguardian.com/careers/2015/dec/08/home-or-office-which-is-a-better-workplace

 .Just imagine,working in your slippers lounging on the sofa and avoiding annoying workmates 
?What is not to love about working from home
But on the flip side , if your home is also your place of work you can never fully relax -your week end and week days blur into one .
While some people find working from home blissful , others much prefer an office environment , where they can share thoughts , ideas and enjoying the team work.
Whether you like to work from home or in the office it is all about balance.

                                              ONE SIZE FITS NO ONE     

Preintermediate progress until Saturday 12/12/2015

Dear Trainees,

Peace

It has been a hot minute since my last post. I am glad to see that you are posting your article points and letting us know what you have been reading thus far.

Since my last pot we pushed through quite a few Units.

For my Morning preintermediate session we have looked at Units 4 through 9. The most important items that we saw, grammar wise, were:

-Count and uncount names. The respective use of many and much..

-Some verb patterns. Such as the What do you like doing/what would you like to do formulas. I hope by the end of the sessions we will all be able to pronounce “patterns” like it’s supposed to be pronounced. Otherwise, I am having quite a bit of fun listening to you twist it out nonchalantly :)

-Comparative and Superlative. (Remember, there is no “gooder” in the english language!!!! the comparative is better and the superlative form is best…)

Both my morning and night sessions touched on the present perfect. This is a new tense. Please read up on it (Unit 7) so that you do not confuse it with our other tenses.

Remember, the question isn’t about which tense to exclusively use to express which meaning/situation, it is a rather softer choice of which one is more suitable while many are correct.

Only during my 9-11 did I speak about first conditional (if+V_present_+, will…).

Let’s remember to show appreciation for the presenters. Let’s keep it light for now. Maybe next month I will give a debate training session and we can all go hard arguing :)

Respect,

MFA

this is the Guardian's article that I read

Economics may be dismal,

but is it a science?

The problem with the dominant paradigm within economics is not that it
uses modelling or that it rarely uses qualitative methodologies. (Increasingly,
non-exact sciences, including cognitive psychology and meteorology, use
modelling.) Instead, it is that economists’ models are based on assumptions
that are not psychologically realistic and that those assumptions are accepted
without being rigorously tested using both quantitative and qualitative
methodologies. Researchers in behavioural economics and behavioural finance are
working to rectify this situation. However, some of their conclusions remain
tentative and economists have not yet been able to incorporate them into the
sorts of models needed for producing the forecasts that the modern world
requires.

economics should become social sciences. However, the argument is based
on relationship between exact sciences and social sciences. Are meteorology,
volcanology, neuroscience and cognitive psychology exact sciences.

The problem with the dominant paradigm within economics is not that it
uses modelling or that it rarely uses qualitative methodologies. (Increasingly,
non-exact sciences, including cognitive psychology and meteorology, use
modelling.) Instead, it is that economists’ models are based on assumptions
that are not psychologically realistic and that those assumptions are accepted
without being rigorously tested using both quantitative and qualitative
methodologies. However, some conclusions remain tentative.

The main ideas raised by this article are:

1. Economists’ models are based on assumptions that are not
   psychologically realistic and that those assumptions are accepted without being
   rigorously tested using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies
2. 
   
   Some of the economics conclusions and behaviours remain provisional
3. 
   
   Economists have not yet been able to incorporate their
   conclusions  into the sorts of models
   needed for producing the forecasts that the modern world requires

For these purposes economics should become social
sciences. However, the argument is based on relationship between exact sciences
and social sciences.

preintermediate session5 december9/2015 preperation

Now let us get a little ready for tomorrow:

-Choose an article, read it and come prepared to make a presentation about it. The link of the guardian is below:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

We will be studying Units 4,5 and 6. These three Units are quite easy. They are about count/uncount nouns, some common verb patterns (would like to do…) and lastly about expressing comparative and superlative.

-Read the Grammar references about Units 4, 5 and 6. We will be practicing the following exercises:

Hopefully we will be left with some time for some more exam prep and writing.

See you tomorrow for another productive session.

Firas.

PS* exercises courtesy of the Headway pre intermediate workbook.

preintermediate session4 december7/2015 overview

Dear trainees,

salam

After our last session we effectively covered a significant part of the English grammar. Previously we looked at the present simple/contenuous. Now we have studied the Past tenses (simple and continuous). This means we have covered Unit one through Unit 3 in your student book.

Please review the grammar references at the end of your book and do not hesitate to read the entire Units on your own. I will gladly answer any question. For the past tense cases of use and choice between simple and continuous I refer you to page 132.

Just to solidify our lesson plans that you are probably getting accustomed to by now:

We Spent the beginning of class hearing and discussing your fellow trainees’ Guardian articles’ presentations.

Then who moved on to presenting the rules and manner in which to conjugate verbs in the simple past tense. Remember, there are regular verbs that assume an -ed form in the past and irregular verbs that change otherwise when conjugated (Exmpl: To be in the past is either was or were, review the list I printed for you for the most common irregular verbs).

Do not feel too pressured to learn the whole list. In reality reading and listening to native speakers will help you know how to conjugate irregular verbs in the past “by ear”. If it were hard to learn them naturally then we would have been handing out irregular verbs lists to babies.

Don’t forget to finish your past tense exercises. I would gladly go over them for you outside of session time.

Finally we did some exam preparation through Questions 26 and 27. I will post the exam on a separate post soon when we progress through enough units so you can also prep on your own time.

We did not manage to find time to make our own written productions so I hope we manage to do that tomorrow.

Wishing you a healthy night of sleep,

Your trainer

Firas  

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/14/climate-change-evolution-species-adapt
Global warming heat is effecting in many sides in our life, and we need to put in our consideration  .that all these effects will threaten the life of plants , animals.as well as  human

preintermediate session4 december7/2015 preperation

Dear trainees,

Let us now look at the desired goals from next session and what you should prepare:

In terms of grammar we will be studying the past tense (unit3).

-Like in the last session, prepare your notes and presentation about your chosen Guardian piece.

-Review the rules and uses of the past tense from the back of th3e headway student book. I posted them at an earlier post. You can also find the relevant pages attached to this post below. I will also print them for the sake of convenience.  

-Bring the Exercise packet that I handed out last session. We will be using it and solving the questions together in class.

-Bring/review the list of irregular verbs with you as it will be very practical when conjugating verbs that don’t just take an -ed but have special forms.  

We will go through the patterns and ways to build the simple and continuous forms of the past tense.

We shall use the exercise packet for the practice and discussion. I have also picked two questions from the exam to continue our exam prep.

I am also hoping that we manage to leave 15 minutes at the end of class to work on our writing/production skills together.

Peace and see you tomorrow inshalla,

Your trainer

Firas