Fri Mar 13

Interestingly enough, today was the second Friday the 13th of the year. And the topic of class ended up being quite macabre, although I hadn't actually planned it that way!!

Objectives:

- Correctly use vocabulary related to mysteries, problems and oddities

- Identify types of strange events with a related situation

- Explain different phenomena and listen for the correct explanation

We began with journal writing of "Have you ever experienced anything supernatural or mysterious? Or do you know of someone who has?" It seemed that almost everyone had no problem writing about this, and a number shared their experiences of ghost-like entities or visitations. I suspect it surprises people to know that they're not the only ones to have experienced something like this. I shared about the miracle of my friend Naomi who broke her neck and walked out of hospital two weeks later. I think next time I give this class, I'll share about Heidi as well!

We then listened to some remaining news articles by sts who hadn't come to the previous class. One st, I suspect, had taken her news article from a Spanish source. I'm not sure, but she had a lot of difficulty with vocabulary which, had it been in English, wouldn't have been a problem.

Then we turned to p. 96 of the book. Sts matched the words and phrases and as we went through the exercise I elicited examples of other similar experiences they may have had. It turns out that one st is an identical twin, and another can do card tricks!

Then we discussed the q's on p. 97 (ticklish, hiccups and sleepwalking were all explained by sts) and in pairs they came up with explanations about natural phenomena. We went through the box of vocabulary and then listened to the explanations. It seems that some of the "official" explanations may be slightly wrong, or at least only half-right. A number of sts, particularly medical sts, were keen to set the records straight.

We then finished with a song - Sympathy for the Devil, filling in gaps and making predictions about each era or period of time the Rolling stones were referring to. It's a very long song and there needs to be sufficient time set aside to listen to this, in future classes.