2 Free Software programs to use in place of MS Word

Photo: Jeremy Brooks

These days, computer software costs a lot. Why buy them if you can find free alternatives online?

Differences between Personal Information & Forms in U.S. vs Korea

Somewhere in mid September I posted some lesson plans on Introductions. This lesson is for Personal Profiles/Information but it's also relative to Introductions.

Personal Profile:

Name:   ____________________________________

Nickname: ___________________________________

Address: ____________________________________

______________________________________________

Country:  ___________________________________

Email Address: _______________________________

Phone Number: _______________________________

Birthdate:   __________________________________

I never realized the importance of learning how to fill out forms or mailing addresses until I got to Korea and had to fill out applications for various things-- opening a bank, point cards and discount

Giving your ESL class Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is often likened to the Korean Chuseok

Chuseok is a day when Korean families gather to eat lots of foods specific to the holiday and visit the graves of passed relatives in memorium. For my classes, I couldn't have them do or make anything, so instead I shared this Thanksgiving powerpoint that I got off of waygook.org and modified.

 Download Powerpoint here

My presentation took about 8 minutes as I went through the vocabulary and explained some of the

Just Show Me Pictures: An Expat's Frustrations in Learning a New Language & Culture

So when I first arrived in Korea, I started an expat series on my GRRRLTRAVELER blogsite called, Just Show Me Pictures, dealing with the frustrations a newly arrived expat has with learning a new language in a foreign culture.

I actually derived the series from this ppt presentation I did for my Teacher & Adult English classes. There's no sound-- it's really a powerpoint presentation which I walk through and
elaborate on with personal stories, such as the fact I washed my hair with Korean conditioner for 2 weeks thinking it was shampoo!~ This is a very short presentation but it's definitely one of my favorites.

Here's a pdf version download (roughly 40MB) of my ppt  in the case anyone wants to use it.

Teaching English to Teachers (Lesson Plan: Teaching Classroom English)...sorta

A video sample of my Powerpoint presentation (I did this a while back)

I love learning languages and nothing is more painful to me than watching a language teacher, who has no facial expression, speaks with flat delivery and no vocal intonation. Painful.

 Learning a language is learning about cultural expressions, intonation, vocal pitch, gestures, facial

Ice Breaker Games for Adult Introductions (and my first Adult English class!)

First day of my Parent's English class. I was nervous and upset--

a. My co-teacher had given me the class textbook (I ordered) that very morning, which meant...

b. I only had a small window of time after lunch to prepare a 1st Day of Class lesson plan for a 100 minute class! Yup. Unfortunately, my recycled About Me Introduction ppt presentation was not going to take a full 100 minutes.

c. I discovered during lunch that the textbooks hadn't arrived and that the parents would be without them, so...

d. I had to make handout copies of the pages I would teach and ...

c. It was at 2PM when I came to that realization (that, not having textbooks stuff) after it

Lessons from the Monster Factory (teaching Feelings)

MY PET MONSTER LESSONS:

Advanced class.ppt
Basic class.ppt

For more about the results and pictures of this lesson plan go here

PET MONSTER GAMES:
A. Warmup Game-- DRAWING MONSTERS
I love that I thought up this game! It's brilliant at getting a point silently across and the kids are entertained by it. I write the name of an emotion on the white board and then draw a circle. I ask for a volunteer as to who can fill in the circle and draw the emotion. I pick easy emotions they know like Happy, Sad, Angry.

Ss1 comes up, I give them a red pen and they draw a simple face. Say it's the emotion, Happy and they draw a Smiley. Then I ask for another volunteer, Ss2, to ADD to that drawing; make it MORE HAPPY. I give them a black or blue pen to do it in.  Main Rule: they can only ADD to the drawing, not subtract or erase.  I keep asking for students to come up and add  to the picture until it transforms into something intense.  When I'm done with the drawing, I point out the difference of what they started with in the RED pen to what the emotion transformed into.. with the BLUE or BLACK pen.  Usually it's a drastic difference.  I show them how at first the emotion was simple; now, it's a MONSTER! Then I'll perform the difference and really exaggerate it. Sad and Angry tend to draw the best results and the kids have fun. But it drives home the idea of how emotions can become monsters.

  An example of my 3rd grade class's board. Each single drawing is a compilation of at least 4-5 students' efforts.

B. Act or Draw Game:
-Emoticon Printouts.doc
- ACT DRAW.doc
Group game.  Ss send up a leader (everyone will get to have a turn). The game is similar to Charades. Ss play Ki-Bi-Bo and winner gets to pick from the bag. There are two bags that the Ss must pull from-- 1) holds ACT or DRAW pieces of paper; 2) holds Emoticons/Emotions. 

Winning Ss will pick one Emotion and one ACTION. The leaders must look at the emotion and either ACT it out or DRAW it on a piece of paper for their teams. When their team guesses, they must send up another Ss to write the name of the emotion on the whiteboard. The first correct answer (I count spelling too) wins the point.

C. Scavenger Hunt Game:Download Tools-
-Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
- Scavenger Hunt Emoticon Printout
Teams get a scavenger hunt worksheet listing clues to places where they must collect the answer. In each location, I placed an Emoticon marker (i.e. X marks the spot) to signal they have found the area and the Emoticon feeling is the one they must write in the blank. When they fill in the entire worksheet and get it correct, I give them a prize.

D. Make your own My Pet Monster Mini-Book

My accordian book sample.

Why I think Speed Games are great for my slow students

I'm a big fan of speed games, especially when it comes to using them as class warmups on a Monday morning.

For me, there's nothing better than a surprise attack that will pop open my elementary students' crusty eyes and get their little hearts and adrenaline racing with a game, which forces them to think on their toes. 

ESL Games: Spelling Board Games

(Gr 6, Ln 8: What will you do this summer?)

What will you do this summer? Video choreography

 So an EPIK friend, Diane, posted a video on her Facebook profile of her kids rocking out to this song. Hell, I didn't know the guy and the lesson videos existed-- would have saved me some choreography time for some of my other classes!

This is the video for this lesson. The guy is kinda silly but fun. My kids were reluctant to rock out to it

Lesson Plans & Games: Teaching Jobs and Occupations

(My Father is a Pilot:   6th gr Lesson 7)

1. People Song (video) by Peter Weatherall

I play this for the first time then hand out a piece of paper to each team. I ask them to list all the

Games & Lesson Plans: Learning Descriptions by playing Detective

(Gr 5, Lesson Plans | Games)

Sorry I've been slacking on the lesson uploads. Due to the fact my co-teacher and I have just performed an open class with this lesson has jogged my "must upload lesson plans" memory.

This lesson download on 'Descriptions' should be fun.

There are many ways you have fun playing party games which get students to learn and create

The Price is Right Lesson Plan: How Much Is It? (Gr 6: Ln 5.1)

Attached is the files for this lesson in a stuffit folder here.

1. YouTube "12 Months in a Year" video from Birthday/Months lesson.
2. Speed Drill Game: Review months & ordinal numbers  (3 teams. Each team must make it successfully through all the months and to the end of their line in order to get a point. If a student pauses or stumbles, I immediately go to the next team)
3. Guess what the topic of today's lesson will be (ppt image download)
4. Kids learn 1;10; 100; 1,000; 10,000; 100,000 via blackboard and this prepares them for the game
5. Price is Right Game.  
I initially downloaded this game from Complex303 (here) on Waygook.org for this lesson. I totally changed the products/sale objects with things the kids might be more familiar with.  They loved this game.

Aside from the boring textbook/CD-Rom stuff we had to do, the kids loved the games and it woke them up.

(if you cannot download, please email me and I will send the documents to you)

Teaching Teacher's English: Introductory Rules, Gossip & Cosmo Glamour

Class 3: Rules & Followup lesson & Vocab for subjects in Class 1 & 2 (Carla Bruni & Cosmo).


English Class Rules & some Informal introductions (thanks to Epiker Anika for the latter)
Class 2 Material Followup: Cosmo Vocabulary
Includes:
"Cosmopolitan"/Cosmo Vocab
Description of a Sweet 16 Celebration
- with link to an MTV show I shot & produced
- I thought a dynamic bridge between Cosmopolitan/Cosmo lifestyles & Gossip/Rumor Lifestyles
- I showed the first 5 minutes to give them an idea of the Cosmo vocab words like glamorous, etc..
Carla Bruni Vocabulary Worksheet
(got some of this from Breaking News English site & revised some)
-Didn't get to do the exercise cause I was already running overtime.  The exercise we can do next class.

My first class teaching Teaching Teacher's English ( Introductions, Gossip & Glamour)

Name - ___________________________

Level - Beginner / Intermediate

Topics for Learning English:

1.      Holidays

2.      Classroom English Terms and Phrases

3.      Birthdays

4.      Celebrities  

5.      Tipping

6.      Children and Family  

7.      Dating  

8.      Telling Time

9.      Days of the week

10.  Months in a year

11.  Western Slang

12.  Free time and Hobbies   

13.  Gender Roles

14.  Travel

15.  Music

16.  The Weather

17.  Movies

18.  Transportation

19.  Restaurants and Eating Out

20.  Money and Shopping

21.  Giving / Asking - Directions in English

22.  Introducing yourself

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

 The above checklist worksheet is something I passed out to my teachers at the beginning of class. It's a list of subjects they might want to learn and I have my teachers mark or rate what their preference for topics.

First Class teaching Teacher's English

I really didn't know what to prepare or what to expect.

I spoke to other EPIKers as to how they were handling their Teaching Teacher's English class. EPIKer Anika had some great tips as she was excited about teaching her teachers and
had several lessons worked out. Her checklist above is what I thought was brilliant.

Extracting answers from my Koreans teachers

A class needs a curriculum for structure and when you can't teach from a textbook, this can be hard--

I will be the one creating the textbook, the Powerpoint presentations and possibly worksheets. Getting teachers' interest is a way to form a curriculum.

But if you ask adults for their ideas or interests, it's like asking to be frustrated by the response of silence. Getting my teachers to speak about their personal goals or expectations for the class wasn't easy. Many of them were either, too shy to express what they want; and  some, I suspect didn't quite know what they wanted out of the class either.

Asking for ideas from your students? No.

Bad idea.

It was a god-send that I printed out the above questionnaire in advance as a safety solution. I had the students fill them out in class and voila! I have a direction to shape my class curriculum.

Class #1: Activity :  Give students an article and generate a  class discussion from it

Didn't quite have faith in this activity but it was recommended by another EPIKER. I hear some EPIKers will pass out articles for students to read and generate class discussions from. I find this a bit droll but it was my first class and I didn't have a safe springboard.

I passed out an article from BreakingNewsEnglish.com about Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy (my document) rumors & did a discussion about gossip and rumors.What they thought of gossip & who they would want to hear gossip about , etc...

I didn't get to do my ppt Intro, so...

Class 2: Introductions

The Non-traditional approach to Introductions:

Introduce yourself via Cosmo Questionnaires

In the U.S. many of us women have at least done one in our lifetime. This is a more extended answer of a questionnaire (no spicy content or choices to choose from. I have students choose from the list of questions to Ask/Answer  Are you a Cosmo Girl/Guy?  to other students when they do this. They do it for 3 minutes and rotate partners. 

- I got this from some teacher's idea site (I wish I could remember so that I could give them credit; I think he was an EPIKer). The questionnaire was named something else, but seeing as I was starting my class on the subject of Gossip & Glamour, this was a nice continuation.

Finally, time for my introduction

My extended version of my Powerpoint Introduction to the Teachers, spoke a bit about my challenges in learning the Korean language.

My PPT Introduction of my stats, my former job, my birthdate year + the following inserts which I made:

.

.

.

Teaching "Months of the Year" (6th gr: Lesson 4.3)

We had our open/DMOE class evaluation today.  There were two NETs with two DMOE evaluators sitting in our class. I love evaluations. Yes, they're nerve wracking and my co-teacher gets so stressed out with them... But I love them. 

I love performing.

 

Here's a summary of our lesson plan on "Months of the Year":

We played  "12 Months (are in a year) Song" youTube video as the class entered and got seated.

Then we sang "The Month Song" along with the CD-Rom disk (* this song is kind of soggy, but hey...)

 

Class activity: 3 games

 

Ball Toss- When is your birthday?

Student 1: When is your birthday? (chooses someone to toss it to & that person must answer the question)
Student 2: It's June...  When is your birthday? (chooses someone to toss it to & that person must answer

Teaching Cultural Holidays (Gr 6: Ln 4.2 When is your Birthday?)

I  run-through of the months and the special holidays that they're known for. I explain each holiday and tried to tie in Korean ones just to help them relate to the months in a more personal way. They do know

Teaching English to Koreans if you don't know Korean? Psst- there's a formula!

How are you going to teach English to Koreans if you don't know the language?
This was the question I got from many friends and family just before leaving for Korea.

"I dunno?" was my answer.

Somehow, I had faith there'd be something in the EPIK process, allowing me to teach English in a way my Korean students to understand. New to teaching and teaching abroad in a country where I didn't know the language, the obvious question to ask is-- how you will communicate with your Korean students? It's not terribly difficult. The good news: 

There's a Formula to Teaching in a Korean public school:



1) There's a national curriculum and many (but not all) public schools teach from the same or similar textbook.

The video below is from a Listen and Repeat section for Grade 3: Lesson: Happy Birthday.  It's not the same "actors" as in my school's textbook but its the same lesson, character names and dialogue.

2) Every school seemingly teaches the same lesson at the same pace.
  Most of Korea is now probably on a Lesson 12 in their textbooks, for 3rd grade, 4th, 5th & 6th as I type.


3) Textbook Format: There are 4 sections to one lesson.
As a general guideline, this is the structure I've broken down so you can easily follow:

Section a) Introduction NEW VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS of the lesson.

Section b) PRACTICE & LISTEN

Section c) Learn to READ & WRITE the words and expressions

Section d) Review

(a- Look & Listen, Listen & Repeat, b- Chant/Song,  c-Read & Write/Roleplay,  d-Review)

Resources for Lesson Plans:

• Korean-school.blogspot.com is a great site that has the textbook flashcard (covering lessons #1-8 for grades 3rd-6th.

• Waygook.org is my most favorite site for lesson plans and ideas for many grade levels. It usually also has a rolling list of lessons as they come out in the classroom, as every school teaches the same lesson at the same pace.

Seasons & Weather with Korean Drama, "Boys Over Flowers"

A Popular K-drama series, Boys over flowers

For this class I'm trying a slightly different approach.

Learning your students' MTV language, so I can teach English.

 MTV  hires producers who can relate to teens and their current interest in music and pop culture. It's simple logic-- if you can understand your target viewers' language and the issues of their world, then you will relate better to the teens you work with to film. You'll know what captures your target audience's attention and sucks them in.

I'm slowly getting to learn about Korean culture and what's students find fun and popular in Korean sports stars, comedians, favorite game shows and K-pop celebs. So I've been trying to integrate it a bit more. Still, it's not easy to learn if you don't have co-teachers who are into Korean pop culture.

Warmup: Play the Pete Weatherall Weather Song

 Review: Show Seasons.ppt.

My 4 Seasons ppt is a bit more than the textbook demands.

I'm testing out different ways to teach through either pop culture or things the children might relate to in

Teaching Seasons & Weather (3 great videos for Gr 6: Ln 3.2:)

If you are unable to view the video in full, you can click on the title link in order to get redirected to the video on YouTube

Weather and Clothes

Ranting Frustrations and Teaching Seasons & Weather (Gr 6: Ln 3.1:)

I felt like my co-teacher was doing a last-minute lesson plan "ditch" today; she had grand and creative schemes for lesson plans, but is now just concerned with following the textbook simply, so that she can get to her other more pressing work outside of class. Sometimes this annoys- I only have my 9 day EPIK orientation and when I contribute, I come up w/ Powerpoint presentations, innovative teaching methods and last-minute, on-the-spot modifications to sculpting lessons in a way I feel students can relate to. She, on the other hand, has more experience, government funded workshops abroad and a book full of "innovative" exercises she's learned, etc... that she's not implementing.  Still, when we get together to plan a lesson and she wants to hear my ideas, there are moments when my ideas get shot