Conversational English Weekly Events!

Conversation Hour, Every Monday 1:00 pm
Informal gathering to practice speaking English led by CE Coordinator Amy. Located in the GUTS office.

CE English Lesson, Every Tuesday at 7:30 pm
Come read and discuss a current article, all the while practicing pronunciation and learning vocabulary and idioms. Meets in the Student Activity Center, ask us for location specifics!

Conversational English Tea and Activity Hour, Every Thursday at 4:00 pm
CE Coordinator Michael will be leading a casual conversation hour at a location called the Satellite from 4pm-5pm. It is located at 717 W Johnson Street. The entrance is under the bridge between Witte Dormitory and Gordon Commons (the cafeteria). If you have any questions about the location, please call the Satellite at 262-6791.

ISS International Conversation and Coffee Hour, Every Friday at 12:00 pm
Relaxing time to meet new people while practicing speaking English! At the Memorial Union.

All Hallow's Eve

Because this year was my last Halloween at the University of Madison, I thought it might be proper for me to reflect upon my experiences with the Holiday. [Random Fact: for those of you who do not know, the culture of Halloween as the modern world knows it today is a North American (US & Canada) invention but the holiday originates from Ireland.]

This year was my first time going to State Street since they began to charge money for entrance. The last time I went was the last time it was free...and believe me, I miss the chaos. It wasn't as exciting this year, but I guess something had to be done to control the out-of-state folks who came just to relish in the mayhem. This year I even got to watch the State Street event from the roof of an apartment on State Street!

Anyways, I thought I'd rate all of my costumes from across my years and show you the best, worst, and simplest ones. I've gone as many things and people...Indiana Jones, a cowboy, a zombie, and so on. I think the simplest costume I ever went as was...

A man getting eaten by a shark. I took the shark costume, threw it on over my body. Costume complete. This was my freshmen year at UW.

But some people on State Street liked it. I, however, was not too proud of myself. My best costume, the pinnacle of my creativity, I think, was...

Kim Jong Il, Glorious Leader of North Korea.This was my costume THIS year.

People love to make fun of that guy. However, a costume they would make fun of even more is my worst costume, which was...

Peter Pan. How manly. If I had gone as Hercules maybe I would have grown up to be over six feet tall.

Now that my last Halloween at UW is over, I think Halloween will only get boring for me unless I have Halloween parties to still go to. From here out in, Halloween will mostly just mean handing out candy to trick-or-treaters until I have kids of my own who I have to lead around to get candy (that part will be fun, I suppose). I also get to look forward to dressing up my children in horrendous cutsie costumes so that they grow up with a grudge against me, haha.

This is Michael of GUTS: Conversational English, signing off once again.

GUTS is Hiring!!

Hi Everyone, Are you looking for more experience working with people with disabilities? The Greater University Tutoring Service, also known as GUTS, has a job opening for the spring semester 2009 as a Study and Learning Skills Specialist at the McBurney Disability Resource Center. It is a paid 15-20 hours/week job which will give you excellent experience working one-on-one with people with disabilities.  If you are interested, look at the full job description at: http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/ForHire/McB%20JOB%20DESCRIPTION-1.pdf To apply, simply e-mail your cover letter and resume to the GUTS e-mail address:  guts@rso.wisc.edu The deadline to apply is Friday November 6!! The interviews will begin in mid-November.  Feel free to email me with any questions about the position at guts-slss@rso.wisc.edu! Abby- Study and Learning Skills Specialist

Kopperton Checks In

Hello everybody-

First, I would like say that I am proud of every one's work already this year. DI is continuing to be solid. AM is rocking. CE's new Give and Take program is inventive and helpful. For the first time ever, we have a commercial, and we are going to be making a another one.

I would like to tell all of you that GUTS is working on a new program. We are not ready to reveal all the details about it yet. But I can tell you that it could greatly benefit all UW undergrads.

Since I cannot share much more information about it with you, I've decided to share some other interesting information with you in the following links:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/opinion/28friedman.html
This is an article by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. I look forward to reading his articles because he has the best connections in the world - no kidding. He knows everybody, from foreign politicians, to domestic CEOs, to top scientists, to influential celebrities. And, they all like him, even those in the Middle East. Although I do not agree with all of his opinions, many of his points are hard to disagree with.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-forbesoverpaid102309&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
This is an article a friend sent me about overpaid NBA players. It points out an imbalance with big (as in tall) players' contracts and their stats. Andrew Bogut is a star of the article. Which provided me with the first piece of hard mathematical evidence to my continuous argument that Bogut was a terrible draft pick (#1 overall in the 2005 draft). Most notables picked behind him: #3 Deron Williams, #4 Chris Paul, #10 Andrew Bynum, #17 Danny Granger, and the list goes on.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0613_050613_sharkfacts.html
This article was sent to me because I was recently made a fool. I believed my friend when she said she was bitten by a shark. Idiot, right.

Enjoy,

Chris Kopp
SAGE Coordinator

GUTS Drop-IN

Hey Everyone,

This is just a post letting everyone know that GUTS Drop-In is in full Swing at College Library and the Student Activity Center (SAC). The College Library Center is located on the first floor, and the SAC center is in room 4413. Full schedules of tutors are found at the GUTS website for both the centers so be sure to check them out, and remember that you can use the Drop-In centers as much as you want. Here's a link to the schedule: http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/dropinschedule.htm. We have tutors in all the most common classes (Chem, Math, Physics, Econ, and more) and the centers are open Sunday through Thursday. If anyone has any questions feel free to email me and let me know,

Lee Jastrow
guts-di@rso.wisc.edu

Adventures in the life of a GUTS Study Skills Specialist

Dzien Dobry to all of you avid followers of the GUTS blog. I write to you today from the brightly decorated walls of the GUTS office in the SAC. If you haven't stopped by, please do. Come critique the highly esteemed artwork or chat with whoever is in the office.

I work within the Study Skills Department. We really like seeing students who want to learn better ways to effectively study. We have great tips and real world experience to enable YOU to be a superstar when it comes to studying. I've been in the office for almost a year and truly utilize the tips I teach. My favorite tip is to use a time management grid to plan your days. It helps to see that you actually have little breaks that you can use to study, instead of studying all at night.

As a Senior about to graduate in December, I encourage all of you to come utilize what GUTS has to offer! We have fabulous programs and are here to help you gain the skills to succeed in college!
-Liz

Academic Match Update

Sign up for Academic Match tutoring will be closing THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30th! If you are still looking for a tutor, please stop by our office and fill out a tutee registration form so that we may try to match you as soon as possible! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

CE Events Week of October 26th!

Monday October 26th

CE Conversation Hour, 1-2 at the GUTS office. Please come to this great opportunity to talk to peers in English! This informal discussion focuses on a varying topic week to week, this time focusing on the general theme of healthcare! Don't know anything about it? Then come and learn! No preparation is necessary!

Tuesday October 27th

NEW! CE English Lesson, 7:30-8:30 pm at the Student Activity Center. Come work with our volunteer tutor who will be teaching this class! The class will be based on a current news article through which students will practice pronunciation, learn vocabulary, and have discussion or debate about! There will also be a fun activity to work on speaking English in real life situations!

Thursday October 29th

Conversational Tea and Activity Hour, 4-5 pm at the Satellite. The conversation is always interesting at this casual event! The relaxed atmosphere makes it a comfortable place to makes it a great place to meet new faces!

Friday October 30th

ISS International Conversation and Coffee Hour, 12-2. Either meet Michael at the GUTS office to walk over together, or directly meet at Memorial Union.

NEW! CE Halloween Party, 6:00pm. Next Friday come to the Student Activity Center to celebrate Halloween with fellow CE participants! There will be a short presentation about Halloween followed by watching the movie E.T. Come enjoy some tasty treats while learning new idioms and vocabulary, and discussion among friends! And please feel free to wear a costume!

GUTS on youtube!

GUTS' staff have put together a commercial for the very first time...
We hope you will enjoy and more importantly, join GUTS!



-- Vivian