It’s really good to know you’re covering for me while I’m away on a training course. Thanks so much. Knowing that you will be teaching the kids has made me relaxed. I’m sure you’ll get on fine with them. I thought I should leave you some notes on a couple of things that are planned for this week and other advice that will hopefully see you through to next Friday.

 Tuesday: The class is going to visit the dinosaur museum, make sure they take their notebooks and remind them on Monday to bring a packed lunch and entrance money.

 Thursday: I’ve promised them they can watch a disney DVD as a special treat. It’s in my locker. There are some worksheets to go with it. By the way, don’t worry about marking them. I’ll do it when I’m back.

You know the head teacher is on the warpath about being late. So be warned. If you get to school even a minute past 8:15, she is likely to give you a really telling off.

Seriously, though you have a great week, the kids are wonderful. Don’t let Mark and Jack sit together and you shouldn’t have any disciplinary (纪律性的) problems! Which reminds me, if you do have any problems, just tell the head. She is very supportive when it comes to discipline. One last thing, could you leave notes on what you do, please?

Best wishes,

Stef

“Today I will give you a special test,” said the English teacher with a smile on his face. All the students sat up straight and waited for the test to begin.

The teacher began to give the test papers to all the students. After he finished handing out the test papers, he asked them to begin.

The students were very surprised to see that there was not a question but a black dot(圆点) in the centre of the paper. The teacher noticed the students' surprise and said, “I want you to write about what you see there.” At the end of the class, the teacher took all the students' answer sheets and read the answers. All of them described the black dot. After reading all the answers, the teacher said, “Here everyone only paid attention to the black dot, but no one wrote about the white paper.” The whole class listened silently, because they were afraid to fail the exam. Then the teacher said, “Don't worry about your marks for this test. I just want you to think about your life. The white paper is like your whole life and the black dot in the centre of the paper represents(代表) problems in your daily life. Our life is a gift given to us by God, with love and care. However, we just pay attention to the problems like illness and poverty, and never see happy things in our life. So we should try to solve our problems and enjoy each moment life gives us.”

Finishing my high school life in Canada, I started classes at the University of Toronto at the beginning of September and soon I found that there are lots of differences between Canadian high schools and universities.

【小题1】 Although high schools in Canada also need students to choose courses by themselves, most of the students have the same compulsory (必修的) classes, and the options (选择) are quite limited. For university students, almost everyone has different classes, as the classes one takes depend on one’s major. 【小题2】 There are hundreds of majors that students can choose from, and each major has at least three or four compulsory classes each year. Do the math and you’ll be surprised by how many options students have.

Each class has a maximum student number, usually between 100 to 300. 【小题3】The university will assign (分派) a certain time for students to select classes on the course-enrolling website. So everything depends on one’s luck and fortune.

Even if a student doesn’t successfully enroll in the classes that he or she wants, they can still be on the waitlist. If someone drops a class, another student will automatically (自动地) be enrolled (注册). 【小题4】

Usually, there are two parts to most classes, the lecture and the tutorial (辅导课). Lectures usually have more than 100 students, and the instructors are the professors. For tutorials, they’re always run by teacher assistants, usually master’s or PhD students. Tutorials contain at most 30 students, and that’s where quizzes and discussions take place.

【小题5】 For instance, my philosophy professor asks us to finish one book every week, which is the hardest thing for me to do right now.