Advice for 1st Year Students

You have almost completed your first year at Kobe University. You have had a lot of new experiences, made new friends, struggled with challenging classes, and learned a lot about yourself. Think about the students who will enter this school next year and give some advice to the new students. What should they do? What shouldn't they do? What is the best way to survive the first year of university?

Blog Assignment #5: Accomplishments

It is almost the end of the year (Yeaaahhhhh!). The end of the year is usually a time to reflect about our lives during the past year and what we hope for and expect in the coming year.

For this blog, I would like you to write about two important things you accomplished this year and two important things you want to accomplish in the next year. Please explain why these things are important for you.


Be sure you to make at least three comments on your classmates blogs.

See you in 2014!

Blog Assignment #4: Leadership

I apologize that this assignment is a few days late. However, I still want you to continue writing this week...because good writers need LOTS of practice!

For this week, please make 3 comments on three different classmates' blogs about life without the internet.

Second, please think about and answer the following questions: 1) What qualities or characteristics make a good leader? 2) Are leaders born or made?

Blog Writing Assignment #3: How would your life be different without the Internet?

The internet is a valuable tool and a source of entertainment for many of us. Recently, with smartphones, people have access to the internet almost anywhere and anytime. I am old enough to remember what life was like before the internet, but many of you may not know. Therefore, for this week's blog assignment, I would like you to thing about the following question:

How would your life be different without the Internet?




Please complete this assignment by December 6th. Remember, you need to make at least 3 comments each week on 3 different classmate's blogs.

Please check back here for a new assignment on December 6th.

Blog Writing Assignment #2: How is English important for your job or future?

For your next blog due next week Friday, write a paragraph using paragraph form and organization to discuss the importance of English for your job or future. When and where do you think you will need or use English? Will you continue to study English after university? What is your goal for English?

Be sure to follow paragraph form we studied in class:

1) Paragraph has several ideas related to ONE topic.

2) First sentence is ALWAYS indented (further to the right of the paper)

3) Sentences follow each other with one space between them

4) Structure: Topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence

Blog Writing Assignment #1: Changing your hometown

For your 1-minute presentations, you talked about your hometown and what is good or bad about living there. Now, I would like you to think about what changes you would make to your hometown to make it more appealing for visitors. Please write a paragraph of at least 200 words about the changes you would like to make.  You may even include pictures of your hometown if you want to.

This is due next week on Friday!

Lansing at night

Setting Sail...

Today we are going to learn how to set up a blog and begin blog writing. Blogs are a fun way to communicate through multimedia writing. You can add photos, videos, .gif files, etc. to make your writing more dynamic and interesting for readers. Although there are several features of blog writing that are fun and interesting, the main idea is to communicate through writing!

Let's practice communicating in English through blog writing!