Here’s The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth

Which fact about my life goes where? (photo by xtrarant on Flickr- CC license)

 

One of my last posts here was my contribution to Dave Dodgson’s PLN Challenge, where we had to tell 5 things about our lives – 2 of them being lies. We should then invite the PLN to guess which things were the truth, which were the lies. If you haven’t seen my post on it, you can check it here.

I have been overwhelmed with work – hence my absence from Twitter and blogging – but I thought I had to “let the cat out of the bag”.

#1 – Taking up a Touch Typing Course – LIE!!!

It is true that I’ve always envied people who can touch type… I can type fairly fast, but I still have to look at the keys as I do it. I have tried a few websites (such as Touch Typing ) that help you improve your typing – and hopefully teach you how to touch type. But I have to admit to never being resilient enough to get through any of them.

#2 – Teaching at a University – TRUE!!!

Despite what many people from the PLN thought (and said as much in their comments) about the timing not being right (I’ve been teaching English for 18 years – it just wouldn’t add up), it is true. Right after I got my BA in Graphic Design, there was a selection for teachers at the same university where I had studied (and the only one with a graphic design course at the time), because so many teachers were abroad getting their post-graduate studies done. I got the job (I have to admit that I believe what got me the job was the “class” I had to teach to the team of professors who were in the selection committee - I was fresh out of college, but had been teaching – English – for a few years, so I think it gave me an upperhand). I taught the history classes: art history (focusing on design), Design History, Typography History (1 and 2) and Science and Technology History. I had that job for 2 years, before I got fed up with politics and people pressuring me to teach in a more traditional way. Then I quit. but my love for art never changed :-)

But during those two years I still kept my job as an English teacher at a private language course. I only taught English on Saturdays. That is how I was able to do both things, and that’s what makes the timing work.

#3 – At my Wedding, the Groom Fainted – TRUE!!!

Yes, my (now ex) husband fainted, twice, during our wedding. It was a combination of nerves, heat – we got married in January, which is high summer here – not having eaten well during the day… He fainted twice. After the second time, I said I’d only go on if we were given chairs and they found fans to place right next to us. My requests were met and the ceremony went on… for another hour!!!! It was truly an unforgettable wedding, and an experience I have no desire to live again. Later that night he even asked me to tell him about the wedding – he had no recollection :-P

#4 – I am as Fluent in Spanish as I am in English – LIE!!!

I have formally studied both French and Spanish, but have not mastered any of them. Although I can get around on my Spanish – I got to the advanced level and the similarity between Portuguese and Spanish helps – I am (by far) not fluent on it. I won’t even comment about my French!

#5 – I Was a Successful Javelin Athlete – TRUE!!!

While I went to high school in the US, I had the chance of being more active and practicing many sports. When track season came, the school’s coach made me try all sports, since I had no idea if I was any good at anything. Surprisingly enough, I was really good at javelin throw. I won a few medals in competitions among schools – even a few big meetings! And if I have failed to remember what was my best mark, it’s only because it has been so long (20 years!!!). I guess I had a good arm ;-)

 

So, there you have it. The truth. And if I learned something with this challenge it is that I am a good liar (thankfully I don’t do it often enough to have realized that before!) and that my PLN has sooooo little faith in my physical abilities! ;-) Shame on you!!!

So Alfonso, you were the only one who caught my lies!!! Good one!

 

Hot off the Press!!! An Activity about Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs before Apple became THE Apple

I have an adult conversation class every Tuesday and Thursday. They’re very advanced speakers, most having had lived abroad in English-speaking countries, many already have proficiency certificates. We meet these two times a week to chat in English, about various topics so that they can maintain their English fluency. There isn’t a syllabus. They prefer not to have homework, no writing tasks. So we mostly focus on actual conversation, with the eventual work with vocabulary and student-emergent language work (meaning me going unplugged whenever I see a teaching moment, prompted by a sentence or comment by one of the students). When that happens, sometimes I bring the language in a more structured way the following class, sometimes I work with it immediately, using the board or coming up with ideas on the spot.

With this group I very often use a text (taken – and sometimes adapted) from a newspaper or news website from an English-speaking country, and I love to use things that are hot off the press. So after hearing the sad news about Steve Jobs passing away, I came up with this worksheet. It’s very basic: some vocabulary work, the reading and some discussion questions. I will probably not limit myself to the questions I wrote on the worksheet. I usually guide the discussions on a student/conversation-emergent basis – depending on how and where the discussion goes.

To begin the class I will have the image of an apple projected on the board, and ask learners to say the first thing that comes to mind. I expect at least one of them will mention the company and Steve Jobs. I’ll see how much conversation I can draw from there (let them share what they know/think about the company and its founder). then I’ll give them the worksheet and go with the flow ;-)

It’s nothing special. But I thought it was worth sharing, so here it is.

TALKAEN Steve Jobs SHARE

If you have any other ideas, use this activity in any way, I’d love to hear how it went and which adaptations/changes/extra activities you did :-)

How good a liar am I? Taking up a PLN challenge

No, I can’t resist a challenge. And even though I am completely overwhelmed with the arrival of midterm, with grading, assessing efolios and report card writing, I made time to take up Dave Dodgson’s Challenge. On his post, he talks about an acitivity many of us have done in the first day of class, which is saying things about ourselves and slipping a lie in the middle, to have students speculate which one is a lie. Dave recorded himself doing it and invited readers of his blog to guess among the five things he said which two were lies, which were true. Here’s the challenge:

  • Post a video, audio recording or just a regular post on your blog in which you state 5 facts about yourself – 3 truths and 2 lies.
  • Invite your PLN to quiz you and speculate on what the lies are!

So here’s my recording, and I invite you to guess which 2 things are lies. I have always wondered how good a liar I am.;-)

Can you tell which two things are not true???

Using the Web to Motivate & Improve Students’ Writing – Last Friday’s Webinar

Last Friday I had the pleasure of being invited to fill in for Shelly Terrell in presenting the American Tesol Institute Free Friday Webinar. Shelly was busy being a keynote speaker at a special event promoted by TESL Toronto.

As many might know, something I have struggled with while teaching – especially more advanced students – is writing. The issue has been the topic of sessions I have presented at conferences and online, of many discussions and some posts. I see the quality of the students’ writing declining over the years. I see students more and more reluctant to me doing or assigning writing tasks, teaching writing classes. Some of them cringe at the mere mention of the word. So you can say writing is something that ranks high in my list of interests. So when Shelly asked me to fill in for her and do last Friday (September 23rd), I thought it would be a nice chance to follow-up on my first webinar – which was about writing – with a session sharing some tools (websites)  I have been using in class with my students in an attempt to motivate them to write, to find activities and ways of doing things so that they actually enjoy it. If I can engage them, they will hopefully write more – and more often – and with practice comes progress (or so we hope!).

Who knows, one of these ideas might even make one or two students start writing for pleasure! (A teacher is allowed to dream, isn’t she?

Of course there are students who write well and enjoy it – the exception exists to prove the rule, right? But at least where I teach – and from what I could see during the webinar, in many other corners of the world – the great majority of students don’t enjoy writing or do it well.

The webinar was great, with lots of chatting going on, sharing of resources and ideas. I’d like to thank everyone who joined me for it :-) It’s always a pleasure to share and learn with my PLN.

Here’s the recording for it (warning: I have a certain difficulty with limiting myself to the 30 minutes, so the recording is a little longer. It’s just hard to not get carried away with the chat and the sharing!)

And here are the slides for my presentation: Using the Web to Motivate & Improve Students Writing

Note: Thanks @sylviaduckworth and @sandymillin for helping me with embeding the video. I always forget how! Power to the PLN! ;-)

PLN Blog Challenge – Compare and Contrast

A new PLN-proposed blog challenge…. by Anne Hodgson and turned into a challenge by Brad Patterson.

Choose two photos to “compare and contrast”.

Now, if you have read some of my posts – or have known me for some time – you know I have a problem with challenges – or rather my inability to decline them. It’s a weakness, one that has been very linguistically fruitful :-)

But as I was looking through photos to choose a couple for the challenge, I caught myself looking at it a little differently. I have always focused on ELT here, but this challenge will take a more… personal.

So here are my 2 photos:

One little ballerina...

And…

... and another ballerina - and a fan ;-)

  • Who are the people in the pictures and how are they related?
  • How do the clothes indicate different situations, despite the obvious similarity (ballet dancers)?
  • What are the similarities – other than the subject being ballerinas?
  • How could you use this in class? What else could you focus on despite comparatives (and superlatives?)

It’d be great to see a lot of people taking up the challenge, so why don’t you???

Others who have taken up the challenge:

Baiba Svenca

Ceri Jones

Chiew Pang

Janet Bianchini

Michael Harrison

My Box of Chocolates is a year old today – hope there’s no expiration date !!!!

Happy 1st Blogaversary!!!

A year has passed… wow. My first post (after some incentive from Jason Renshaw and Ceri Jones, for which I’ll be forever grateful) was written on September 25th, 2010.

In that year I wrote 51 posts (this is the 52nd), had over 30,000 visitors, over 1,000 comments, an eduBlog award for runner-up best new blog and have 70 active subscribers. But this anniversary is so much more than numbers…

It’s about connectedness…about finding like-minded teachers all over the world, most of them I would never have the chance to interact with / even meet face-to-face had it not been for Twitter and the blogosphere. I have learned from reading their blog posts, comments to blog posts and tweets. I have learned from them by taking part in webinars they presented. I have learned. I have changed the way I teach in some aspects, I have incorporated new practices in my lessons, I have experimented much, trying to find better ways to do the same things or only validate the way I was doing things.

I found a place where I feel okay and safe to vent, to share what I feel and think about my teaching… a place to share activities I create, activities I adapt; what worked – and perhaps more importantly, didn’t – in the classroom with my students. I found a place to share my insecurities and shortcomings, and not feel bad about them. Instead, after sharing, all I got was support and people who have/had been through the same experiences. I felt less alone. And other teachers felt less alone as well. It’s a great thing to realize many of us go through the same challenges and doubts, we all feel down and insecure now and then, we all feel a bit lost once in a while.

And for all that I have said, the friends I’ve made because of it, the new-found confidence my readers have given me… I am thankful. May the next year be even more fruitful, hopefully being able to blog more often and continue connecting through here. I wish I could send a box of chocolate as a thank you to each of you. :-) You make a difference.

And I need to go Public… ;-) Some ideas for Listening Activities

Listen to it!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I taught a class to a very special group of teachers. At the school where I work we have a project (along with the US Department of State)  where school teachers have classes there. The intention of such classes is not only teach / review methodology but also improve the teachers’ English fluency through it. They are a wonderful group of teachers, super motivated, hardworking….

The lesson I taught focused on listening skills. How to teach, why to teach, pre-listening activities, authenticity… I had some technical problems, but we had a great class nonetheless. Towards the end of the class, the activity involved splitting the students into smaller groups and assigning them types of activities and have them come up with a listening activity. I was amazed at the results – so many fantastic ideas! So I asked them if I could post them on the blog, and they kindly agreed. So here it is, their ideas (ideas are about what they had at hand, but they can be easily adapted):

• Show & Tell – Listen to a fashion show, learners identify vocabulary related to clothes they hear. Do a general accountability using the board. Then show images of famous people with different kinds of clothes. There should be at least more than 9 images – 20 or more. Then teacher asks SS to draw a grid with the numbers of the images, and the teacher does a bingo (SS draw a bingo grid and choose 9 of the images.) Teacher reads the description of the clothes, students mark them.

• TPR – Teacher chooses a story suitable to the levels of the class in question. Split the students into 2 groups. Assign a part of the story to each group. SS listen to the story. The students have to re-enact the part that was assigned to them.

One of the students is (privately) told to do things wrong. each group acts one part. The other students have to guess/ say  who is playing it wrong.

• Another TPR – Have learners listen to the audio. The have them stand in a line. Teacher reads true/false questions about the text. Read the questions out loud – I love it! – and students have to give a step forward if the sentence is true. Possible variation for large classrooms is to have them stand up / sit down as you read the sentences.

• Dictation – Choose a movie – well known to the student – maybe it makes a difference?) elicit things about the movie, what happens, the plot, etc… Think (to yourself!!!) questions about the text…. dictate them. The students should write the questions down. Play the video of the part, have students check their own answers.

• Dictocomp – Read the same text 2 or 3 times. Do it very slowly – do it very slowly the first time, Then read it naturally the next time. The teacher can use images, pictures, anything that might help the students. Then the students are instructed to jolt down the key words of what they listen. Have they write down the story – as close to the original as possible.

I was amazed at the activities they came up with, not only for the activities themselves, but especially for considering the setting they are in. They have huge classrooms – 50, 60 students – many of which barely know how to read and write in their L1 properly. And still, they are willing…they are creative. I bow to them.

I hope you guys find their wonderful ideas useful :-)