The Celta is done!

...and with a strong finish.  An above standard on my last lesson and my tutor said it was one of the best he'd seen at the Celta level.  Nice!  It was a listening lesson, with speaking/writing as a secondary focus.  Here is what I did:

1. Set the context.  I had students talk for a few minutes about what types of media are becoming more and less popular these days and why.

2. Pre-task (prediction). The listening was 5 people answering specific questions about their media usage.  So, I had the students predict answers to the 5 questions, such as: "Do people prefer watching movies in the theater or at home?" 

3. Gist-listening task.  Then the students had to listen and see if their predictions were true.

4. Detailed listening task.  I had some questions for the students to answer, and I gave them time to read the questions before playing the listening again. 

5. Post-task.  I had a few discussion questions, based on the listening.

6. Survey.  The students had to choose a media-related topic (from a list), make up some questions, survey their classmates and then report the results back to the group.  It ended up being a very interesting activity, and covered speaking/listening/writing, which is always ideal. 

Anyway, the course is done and I'm back to my normal life activities of having friends (besides those on the Celta course) and exercising, and stuff like that.  I got a "Pass B," which is slightly higher than most people who take the course. 

Celta Teaching Practice 7

It's done!  To standard.  I tried to combine a reading lesson and a listening lesson (+ some speaking at the end) to challenge myself and in retrospect, I should have just chosen one focus and taken the easy way out.  And actually, that's a bit of a frustration for me.  You don't actually have to be creative, or interesting, or keep the students motivated and focused, and actually learning to get an above standard.  As long as you don't screw up and you have all the stages down, with a good context, it seems like you can get it.  If I went into my uni classes with these Celta lessons (that get standard or above standard), it would be crash and burn for the most part.           

Anyway,  only one more hour-long lesson to go, and it's a listening, which is quite hard to fail since the necessary stages of that type of lesson are pretty straightforward and clear.  Grammar or Vocab lessons are a bit trickier because there are more steps to them and with higher levels of students, it might be possible to get caught up on some difficult question or get confused about something.  The students I'm teaching now are smart, and really good at English!

Top 5 Reason to NOT Teach ESL in South Korea

Although I'm generally happy here in Korea (due mostly to my job situation being such a good one.  Ie: getting paid in full/on-time, nice housing, respect from my bosses, no micro-managing, health insurance/pension being legit), it can be a tough place for newbies working at sketchy hagwons or dealing with public school co-teachers and sometimes shoddy housing.  I had a rough time in my first year in Korea for sure.  Anyway, if you need a dose of reality as to why Korea is not necessarily a land overflowing with kimchi and dwenjang, check out this site:

Top 5 Reasons to NOT Teach ESL in Korea

Celta Update

The end is coming, with only 2 more weeks left of the course.  And 2 more teaching practices (and all the stress that comes along with it).  The transformation of the teachers in my group is pretty amazing (myself included perhaps?).  We were all generally clueless (in the Celta way) as to how to go about teaching a reading lesson or a grammar lesson.  And now, we can do it on our sleep and pick out the finer details of all the stages when observing our peers. 

The best thing about the course is definitely the small size of it.  There are 12 of us that get together for the "input" sessions, but then we're broken up into groups of 6 for the teaching practice.  It's kind of an ideal size to get to know each other really well and help each other out.

The worst thing for sure is the early mornings and commuting to Seoul.  But, of course, that's not the fault of the course and I signed up for it!  Thank god for the KTX, which at least makes it fast (albeit outrageously expensive).  I'm not sure the 1 month intensive option is really a better choice though.  I can't even imagine how exhausting that would be. 

Peer-Graded Presentations

In my social issues class, I'm having students do a big group presentation, where I assign 50% of the grade and their classmates assign the other 50%.  We use the same grading criteria (interesting/good information/visuals/handout).  It's the first time I've done presentations this way and the results so far have been quite interesting.

The students assign grades an average of 4 points lower (out of 35).  I think it might have something (A LOT!) to do with only 30% of the class being able to get "A's."  Or, they might have higher expectations.  One thing I have noticed is that they seem to like the presentations that I thought weren't great, and not be so impressed with ones that I liked.  For example, one group had an excellent presentation, but they had some technical issues with their Powerpoint.  I would never grade a group lower due to technical difficulties, but most of the class did, and commented on it being an issue.  And, the students seem to be a lot more forgiving than I am about students reading their presentations (even though I told everyone it was a big no-no).  Maybe they feel some empathy! 

An interesting experiment and one that I'd probably do again in the future.  It definitely prevents people from sleeping!

Just a small early-morning rant

So today in my Social Issues Class, 1/2 of the students have a big group project that is worth 35% of their final mark.  Last week in class, I randomly picked which students would go this week and which students would go next week (it's a big class, and there is only time for 1/2 the class in one period).  One student told me he had MT (membership training) this week, so I made sure his group could go next week.  No other students mentioned any issues with dates.

Today (Wednesday) at 8am (the day of the project, which is at 2:10), I was out jogging around campus and I saw one of the students in that class.  He told me he had a problem, since one of his group members has a physical test for ROTC (army officer training).

My response: why didn't you tell me in class last week?

His response: we found out Monday morning.

And why didn't you tell me then?

We tried!

How exactly?  You have my Twitter, email, phone number, all of which I check multiple times each day.  And, I was in my office almost all of Monday morning.

Soooo...what can we do?!

(big sigh), you can go today.  It's far too late.

(back to Jackie again): Anyway, what if he randomly didn't see me out jogging?  Were they just going to tell me at the beginning of class? I like group projects and presentations, I just don't like the stress that goes along with them.  How do other people deal with it?

Reader Questions...Getting a Uni job

These ones from Kathleen:

"I have been in Korea since August and it's my first year here. I'm an elementary public school teacher.   I was wondering if it's an easy process to apply to work at a uni? I don't have a master's degree, but I do have my TESOL certificate.  So do you need : criminal record check (from this year?), resume, cover ltter, copy of apostilled university degree, and university transcript? Is there anything else you need to apply?

Do you basically try to email/visit the hiring person at the university to get an interview? I was told if you know someone who works at a uni, they can recommend you to their supervisor. I'd really like to try for a uni job for next year, but not in a town that is very deserted and hidden away!"

Those are a lot of questions.  I'll try my best to answer them in an organized kind of way:

1. With no Masters, and only one year of experience teaching at an elementary school, I'd say to hope for the best, but make alternative plans for employment that doesn't involve working at a uni.  Things are competitive these days.  And as for being choosy about what town to work in?  You'll have to take what you can get in your first year.

2. Tesol certificates are basically worthless in Korea.  The only one that might put you in good stead with a potential employer is the Celta.  

3.All potential uni jobs want different things.  I assume you've looked on the job board at ESL Cafe?  Just follow the directions precisely for each application.  Reference letters are the one glaring thing you've omitted.  

4. Yes, knowing people helps.  That's how I got my job, and especially how you can get your foot in the door with only a BA.  But, apply on ESL Cafe as well and see what you can get.  My feeling is that you might be able to pick up a "unigwon" job and then try to work your way up in the world.

Good luck!

Some Solid Advice about Teaching ESL Abroad

Don't make these 7 mistakes teaching English Abroad.

I generally agree with most of them, especially the "lifestyle" kind of ones.  But, not focusing on pronunciation?  That is exactly why most schools hire Native Speakers.  And, while you don't have to stress, you really can help students a lot, especially by teaching them the correct way to use their tongue and lips to form the sounds.  And it's easy enough to focus on grammar, and even build a  lesson around it, without overdoing it.  You just have to be sneaky about it!

Celta Teaching Practice #4

Is done!  And with a pass, but just barely.  Anyway, 4 down, and 4 more to go.  It's hard not to become a little jaded.  My lesson on prepositions of place was quite fabulous I think, at least that was the feedback from the other trainees.  And the students seemed to love it and get a lot out of it.  After the break, they were still talking about it, and asking me questions and discussing amongst themselves the finer details.  The feedback I got from the trainer was nit-picky crap like:

1. You shouldn't use the recycled paper, use nice white paper for handouts.  My uni uses the recycled paper for lots of stuff and it's kind of the only machine we're allowed to use for more than a very small numbers of copies.  I was copying stuff for my uni classes, so I just did it all at the same time.

2. It was too teacher-centered.  I did do a little talking about stuff for about 5 minutes out of the 40 minute lesson.  Things like, "between" has 3 items, "next to" has 2, and "across from" must have something after it.  I think actually I could have been on a training video or something for what a student-centered lesson on prepositions of place should look like.

3. An information gap activity was "controlled-practice" and not "freer-practice."  I totally disagreed.  The students were asking and giving directions, but they were able to use any of the vocab we talked about (or any other stuff they knew) to describe where the place was to their partner.  To me, this is about as freer practice as prepositions of place can get. 

4. Using "across from" instead of "opposite."  I'm Canadian, not British, so how can I teach the British way?  And most students in Korea want to learn "American-English" anyway.

Ridiculous.  I have no more to say and am moving on.  I can't wait to be done.

Celta and Technology in Teaching

One of the major frustrations I have for the Celta course is that I'm not allowed to use any technology in teaching, even though the center has a fabulous Interactive Whiteboard system that is more fabulous than the computer console I normally use at my Uni.  For example, this week the lesson that I have to teach is "prepositions of place."  I think it's very necessary vocab for students to have, but it also has a high potential to be dead-boring.  Which is why, when I teach it in  my real-life, I'll always get a little video or pictures of a real city or some sort of fun PPT game to make it more exciting.  Sometimes even all 3.  It helps to make the lesson fun and memorable.  And not boring.  But, for this Celta lesson, I feel like I've been put into a box that I don't like.  Kind of like being a boxer with only 1 arm.

And these days, doesn't everyone use technology to teach?  I just assume that any University (or adult-teaching) situation that I walk into will have a computer console, or an Interactive Whiteboard, or at the very least a projector of some sort so I can hook up my own computer or Ipad.  It seems to me that the Celta course is a bit behind the times and although they might have some good rationale behind not getting on-board the technology bandwagon, I don't like it!

Celta Teaching Practice #3

Another pass!  Only 5 more to go.  I didn't get an above standard due mostly to laziness on my part.  We're given a textbook to "teach from" but often, it's not really that great and if you follow the activities/practice precisely, it can cause you to fail since it doesn't have all the steps you need for each kind of lesson.  Anyway, the page I was given wasn't that fabulous, so I combined some stuff from the workbook with some stuff from the student book, and made my own freer-practice activity, but as it turns out, I should have just forgotten the book altogether and made my own thing.  Which I knew as I was writing my lesson plan.  But, I didn't want to believe that I really couldn't use anything and that not only did I have to make a 6-page lesson plan, but that I had to re-do an entire textbook page. 


Anyway, it wasn't close to a fail, just not fabulous.  Lesson learned for next time!

Celta Teaching Practice #2

Teaching practice #2 (out of 8) is done!   And another above standard :)  I hope the trend continues.  Anyway, I had to do a reading lesson and found the "Celta way" quite helpful in making an interesting kind of lesson.  Here's what I did:

1. Context.  My article was about waiting in airports, so I introduced the lesson by talking about Incheon and how, although I'm usually impatient I like waiting at Incheon because it's so nice.  Then, the students talked for a couple minutes and thought of 5 things people do in airports while waiting.

2. Pre-Reading Task.  The article was about this guy who stayed in Charles De Gaulle airport for 17 years because he initially had visa/refugee issues but then he liked it so he just stayed.  I gave the students very minimal information (a guy stayed in Paris' airport for 17 years) and asked them to think about some possible reasons why.

3. Skim-Reading Task.  They had a very short time and had to figure out which of their predictions was correct.

4. Main-Reading Task.  They read the article carefully and answered some T/F questions, as well as talked with their partner about 3 good and 3 bad things about this guy's life.

5. Post-Reading Task.  They had to pretend that they could meet the guy in person and come up with some interesting questions they could ask him.  Then, one person pretended to be the guy in the airport and the other one was a newspaper reporter who had to interview him. 

Overall, it went really well and I think I'll definitely use this style of lesson plan for any reading/listening lessons that I do.

Blog of the week

I'm currently featured as "Blog of the Week" in one of the expat online magazines.  Check out Chincha (really!?) here.

My first Celta Lesson

So the first teaching practice out of the 8 is done and I got an "Above Standard."  I had to do a grammar lesson on the Simple Past, which is very similar to what I do for my actual job.  Present a grammar lesson in an organized kind of way, and plan some interactive, interesting kind of activities that get the students involved.  And keep things moving along at a good pace so the students are on-task and not bored.  And give clear instructions, which I can do in my sleep at this point, since the students at my uni are often extremely low-level.  It was actually a refreshing change to have the students for the Celta Course who are actually interested in learning English, and participate in class, and are generally higher-level than the people that I teach.

Anyway, the Celta is actually kind of ridiculously easy for someone who's been teaching for a few years, since the course is geared to the person who has never set foot in a classroom before.  If only I had taken this course years ago, it could have actually really helped me with my teaching skills!  But, expectations do get higher as the course goes on, so I'll have to keep on my toes and make sure I hit all the points expected for each type of lesson.

Lesson Planning for my first Celta Teaching Practice

There has been lots of stuff that I've found not so helpful on the Celta Course, but one thing I've liked is the focus on how to plan a lesson.

For grammar lessons (I'm teaching the Simple Past on Thursday), there are a few points to consider:

1. Context.  If you give no context, students won't care what you have to say, or remember it.

2. Meaning.  What is the grammar point used for specifically.

3. Forms.  Including negatives and questions.  Many teachers forget these last 2 points.

4. Pronunciation.

5. Practice.  Controlled and Free.

I have to admit, I've been a little weak on context in many of my previous grammar lessons and didn't really say much about pronunciation.  If I take only one thing from the course, this will be it!

Reader Question: Using Twitter in my Classes

This one from Bethany:

"I was just curious how you use twitter in your class. You mentioned that its a requirement for your students and I'm curious about it! Sounds cool."


I've only started using Twitter this semester as a way to communicate more effectively with my students outside of class.  I used to get their email addresses/phone numbers, but I found that students often don't check their email for weeks and that me sending text messages to an entire class was way too time consuming and expensive.  Now, I just use Twitter.


How to set it up:


Make a Twitter account.  I use: (uni name)jackie.  Then, students can download the app onto their Smartphones or Ipads.  If they don't have one of those (usually one 1 or 2 students out of a class), they can do it at home on www.twitter.com.  Then, get the students to "follow" you.  I give my students a number.  For example, my first class of the week is "1" and my last class on Friday ends up being "8."  They have to use this number as part of their username.  For example, KimSuJi8 would be in my last class.  Then, I use these numbers to put them into lists by class so I can keep track of who has signed up and who is in what class.  Plus, if they ask me a question like what their homework access code is, I can keep them straight without having to go through all my attendance sheets.


How to use it:


I send lots of messages.  The good thing about Twitter is that they just pop up onto their phones through push notifications and they don't have to login.  Some examples of messages I send are things like,


"Remember your homework for tomorrow."
"If you have problems registering for Internet Homework, use the computer lab in the library."
"Hi!  Welcome to the class." 
"Remember: no class tomorrow!" 


Students often ask me questions as well.  Like what score they got on their homework.  Or what the access code for the homework site is.  Or just say hello.  


And I have one special class that I teach on social issues.  They have a book where they have to do weekly readings for homework and take a quiz in class.  I use Twitter to give them hints about what's on their quiz.  And I also ask them some discussion questions about social issues and if they respond, they'll get bonus points at the end of the semester.