Helping people

The story with such phrases:

to extricate oneself

to render defenceless

to have a rotten time

to be as hard as nails

to wear pathetic expression

to wring one's heart strings

to swear solemn oath

to be apt to do smth.

to keep one's council

to grow peevish

a fickle woman

to stand between hazards

to get over the blow

a callous man

to trump best card

in possession of sences

limits of endurance

He was driving home one evening, on a lane country road. It was a lonely road. Not very many people had a reason to be on it, unless they were leaving. He was born here and knew the country. He was apt to go down this road blind, and tell you what was on the either side. It was starting to get dark and light snow flurries were coming down. He had a rotten time and it would be better for him to get a move on. You know, he almost didn't see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. He was in possession of senses. So he pulled up in front of her car and got out. The city was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. He realized that it was the city of callous men. He knew how she felt and that the old lady stood between hazards. She wrung his heart – strings.

He could see that she was frightened and rendered defenseless standing out there in the cold. He said, "I'm here to help you ma'am. By the way, my name is Steve." But she was in panic and began to grow peevish.

But the stranger kept his counsel. She met with an accident and couldn’t extricate herself. There was something with her car. As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she began to talk to him. The old lady told him that she was only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid.

That lady got over the blow and asked him how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened. Steve never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past. He swore a solemn oath that nothing would induce him to take her money. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Steve added "...and think of me."

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day. There were limits to human endurance but he felt good as he went home, disappearing into the twilight. He trumped his best card helping such a fickle woman.

HALLOWEEN

Hello, evil spirits! I see everyone is ready-fitted. All your stories stir up sympathy for me. And my story is just like yours. All of us are here tonight just because of the one reason. And that reason is to listen to our problems about our horrible and awful lives.

I’m a ghost of a little girl. I’m such a solitary essence and I’m unhappy. I need to scare and intimidate people at night because I can’t exist without it. It’s my job and it looks like one of my duties.

When I was alive, I was scared to stay alone in my room when it was dark and gloomy. I couldn’t fall asleep because of bad dreams. So one night my cousin decided to have fun and at that moment she suddenly run into my room and frightened me to death. So I began to hate her after it. And I promised myself to revenge upon her for it. But it was so unbelievable that I would be able to do it. So now it’s my turn to scare her and other people being a ghost.

When the night falls I appeared at somebody’s house under the cover of night, when nobody expects to see me. I begin to move some objects from corner to corner, fling everything what falls into my hands. I can break windows, throw chairs, some boxes, and so turn everything upside down. And people are scared so much, they look in such a horrible manner and they don’t know what to do. Frankly speaking, it delights me greatly, and at those moments I feel happiness. But suddenly I realize what a sickening and revolting thing I did. And I’m sorry, I’m really sorry for that. But I can’t cope the desire of frightening people. I can’t take a grip. That’s why I’m still unhappy ghost. I can’t find the peace of my mind…

One of the ways to find the life balance for a perfect English teacher?

I think that no one can decide this problem and find some balance between private life and teaching. Mostly it depends on the character of the person, their skills, experience and hardiness. Some teachers plan their day by the minute and they are able to do everything what they plan without any efforts. In this case the person must choose what is more important and influential for him – career or private life. It is almost impossible to combine these two things together because in any case something of them can suffer a little. I know many cases when people have been teaching in public schools for 10 or even 20 years. But still they have found balancing family and personal life with teaching to be very difficult. It is because there are many activities that require the teachers to be there in the evening. And their planning periods are usually taken by meetings that are required by the principal, district, or parent conference. The only time to do planning is after school or at home.

I inquired after it and many teachers said that they spent most of their Sunday afternoons and evenings grading and planning for the next week. And I was surprised and shocked a little bit. I thought about it and arrived at the conclusion that it is very serious and probably unsolvable problem. But any way there must be a solution and the way out of it.

So in a flat spin I began to search some information and recognized that in some American schools teachers have their own assistants. Sometimes two teachers share one assistant (never more than two classes). And I decided that the only way to manage is to support teachers with assistants. That’s a way to absorb persons who are intelligent and need and want jobs in the education sector as well as keeping teachers from being burnt out and leaving the profession.

To be a perfect teacher and to spend time with your family is almost nonexecutable mission. But still I consider that it depends on the person’s character and his strength of will.

One of the ways of starting working (retelling the text).

When I worked with pupils of the 11^th form, I was faced with the serious problem. I realized that some of them had difficulty comprehending text, and many pupils were unable to retell the stories which they had read or listened to.

It is necessary to help pupils to develop better retelling strategies. As the matter of fact, practice will improve their ability to increase their level of language development, comprehension and to think critically. The retelling the story is the necessary part of studying because it helps pupils to become better readers by teaching them how to construct meaning and infer from texts.

First of all, teacher should determine which pupils need help learning how to retell stories which

they have just read. It can be done with the help of such activity. Teacher should give the text for reading. Then she notes the pupils’ responses and records her observations of their behavior while they read the story. For example, the teacher records whether pupils are able to make sense of the text while reading or if they are reading slowly word-by-word with little expression.

Once pedagogue has this information, she feels better able to plan effective lessons to meet the needs of each pupil in her class. In order for pupils to retell a story, teacher needs to help them how to organize their thoughts and integrate personal knowledge into the retelling. It is obvious that while asking pupils literal questions we can admire that they have value. But questions that need yes or no responses often limit pupils to recalling only fragments of information. Teacher should first observe and then talk with them as they engage in specific retelling activities. She should create various activities in which pupils can demonstrate their ability to retell. The pedagogue may ask them to read and retell the story to her. She can ask the pupils two or three

comprehension questions before they begin retelling. While the students are retelling, teacher notes their use of vocabulary, ability to make inferences.

I think that the best way of starting retelling is to use step by step activity which can make this process more easily and effective. But each teacher has her own strategy of it and can have many other ideas to solve this problem.