[Student's Essay] Scholarship at IIA

Hi everybody my name is MARCELA, I’m from Colombia. I have been in Brisbane for 15 months and here at I.I.A for 6 months.

 Last month something great happened to me, I.I.A. awarded me a scholarship. This means I can stay longer and learn more English.

Sometimes I think why me?
I think back to when I first arrived here in Brisbane, when I couldn’t say any words in English. It’s very difficult when you try to express what you like or dislike and you can’t think of the right words.

Now it is better for me at I.I.A. My English has improved. I’ve met many lovely people from different countries.
Every day I learn new things, the teachers correct my English and help me to improve.
I would like to say to every one “ENJOY EVERY DAY OF YOUR STAY HERE IN AUSTRALIA. This experience will change your future for the better if you let it. This is one of the most incredible experiences you can have."

Our first scholarship student Marcela

Halloween Week - Murder Game

Hi guys, Halloween week is coming soon.

Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31st. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration.
Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.(from wikipedia)

We are going to play a fun game for this special week with all IIA students. Here are the rules for our "Murder Game"

Remember!
The game must be played inside the school building (Don't kill your friends outside of school!)
The time is from 8:30am to 5pm
The game will start on Monday the 25th of October and finish on Friday the 29th.
The goal is to obtain more knives than the other students by the last day

Rules
- Each student will receive a knife with another student’s name on it.
- You must “kill” the student whose name is on your knife.
- To “kill” someone you must get that person alone and say, “you’re dead”. (If another student sees you, you cannot kill that person. If a teacher sees you kill someone, this is ok).
- If you successfully kill someone they must give you their knife. The name on their knife is your new target. They must also give you the knives of all the people they have killed.
- Keep the knife of your current target separate from the knives of the dead people.
- You must bring your knives with you every day in case you are killed.

At 12:30pm on Friday take all the knives you have won to the 7th floor

to find out who the winner is and for some activities and snacks.

Wait for it! If you survive, you will get a prize at the end  !!

[Teacher's Story] Life is journey...

When I left high school Australia was in the middle of a very bad economic situation and the only possibility of employment was as a teacher because my parents could not afford to pay my way through university. So, off to teacher’s college I went. I hated it but I managed to graduate and commenced teaching in primary schools , first in Brisbane and then in the far north at Normanton.

 I soon tired of Normanton so I resigned and sailed off to South Africa where I taught primary classes for a year before moving on to London where I taught for fifteen months.The British winter drove me back to South Africa where I stayed for almost three years before returning to Australia.

After five years I was thoroughly sick of teaching so I resigned and enrolled to study Environmental Science at Griffith University. After four years I moved on to Sydney University to study for a Graduate Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The plan was to go to South-east Asia to teach Scientific English. It didn’t happen, did it?

Instead I taught prisoners in Sydney’s biggest prison for six months until once again winter weather drove me to the tropics of North Queensland where I taught Maths, Science and Agriculture or thirteen years.
I returned to Brisbane in 1996 and in 2001 I finally started at an ESL school and have been teaching ESL ever since. I joined the staff of IIA in March 2007 and have been teaching mostly IELTS ever since.

[Places to go in Brisbane] Maritime Museum

Tiffany’s and Elea’s Classes (Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate) went on an excursion to the Maritime Museum at South Bank. We got to see and hear about Australian Naval history.

Anyone for a shower?

First Gunner Juan said he felt like a kid again playing on the ship’s big guns.

The highlight of the tour was going on board the historic HMAS Diamantina. We got to see how and where the sailors lived both above and below deck. The ship was used during the war to hunt enemy submarines and later in 1959 as a Survey and Oceanographic Research vessel.

Leo the guide used to work as a Chief Stoker in the Australian Navy.

Here he shows the students the engine room.

I.I.A. Crew and Captain Leo

Leo was the tour guide and the students were impressed with his passion for the Navy, its ships and history. He had been in the Navy for many years and now he is retired. Leo has been working as a volunteer guide at the museum for over 20 years.

After their visit to the Maritime museum, the students said "It turned out way more interesting than I expected!!", " I was so impressed by Leo and his passion for his work", "I loved going around the ship. It was fun"... so a good day was had by all.

IIA, Crazy for sports!!

IIA students had a fun weekend playing Aussie sports and soccer!!!!

Want to play cricket but don't know how? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Cricket is absolutely fun if you know how to play. It's one of the most popular games in Australia.

                                                            Austin teaching us how to play cricket.
                     If you want to learn how to play cricket  -> visit the website "How to play cricket"

                                       Our teacher Pam and our student Diego - Good form!!!!

                                                               Janice & Doris!!! Run! Run! Run!!

                                    Playing soccer is fun even if you don't know how to play.
                                         JUST keep running, following the ball and shouting!

Cute dog Kneesha! She was with us too :)

Thank you for joinning our IIA sports day!

It was a fantastic experience playing cricket and soccer with new friends.



[Student's Essay] As an international student

Before I arrived in Australia, I had never studied with international students. It is uncommon in Colombia to see multi-cultural classes and people from Asia, India and the Middle East so my first day in Australia was quite unique, I started to see many different cultures in one place.

When I started to study at school in Brisbane I found that all my classmates were from different countries and their lifestyles were completely different than mine. Then I started to ask what was the typical food, major cities of their country and they also asked me about my country too.

While we are studying, we also sharing our manners but the funniest thing for me is that many people didn’t know where Colombia is and I didn’t know where other countries are so we took the map and we looked for them and shared our knowledge.

The way people dress was another thing that got my attention because in my country everyone wears the same style. At the beginning I thought it was a little bit strange but now after one year it has become normal.
For me studying as international student has been the best experience in my life, now I have tried many kinds of food, I have a better sense of location, I have learnt about different ways of life and I have bought some clothes that I never use to wear.

from our student Andres - Upper Intermediate Class