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In this episode, your hosts: Emily and Roger, talk about how language learners need chances to talk with each other to negotiate meaning. International English Language Learners have very little opportunity to do this in their home countries. Teachers need to gradually integrate features of Cooperative Language Learners in their classrooms (Runtime 10 minutes).
What's In My Bag?
Emily: a HUGE calculator
Roger: a Bag within a bag.
Main Content
Some international students do not want to listen to students who have strange accents. What about non-native English teachers?
"Emily's Walkabout" (interviewing other teachers)
Teacher #1: For Arabs and Chinese students- Remind students of the business aspect. Business students need to learn to accept other accents especially if they have to do international business.
Teacher #2: Practice how to not hurt other people’s feelings which is an important people skill. We need to teach how to be polite.
Teacher #3: Teacher should walk around and sit in the group discussions. Ask one student what they think about another student’s comment. Encourage students to reflect on each other’s thoughts.
Teachers need to develop good rapport with the students. Students need to have trust in the teacher.
What's In My Bag?
Emily: Shoe insoles for your tired feet, but don't keep them in your bag.
Roger: “You can draw in 30 days” book, by Mark Kistler, sketchpad, pencils
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Benefits of video: breaks up a dry lesson, provides visual and sound stimulation
Cons of video: hard to find a great video, it takes time to set up video, sound, projector
Roger’s 3 Ss to help you remember:
S-search: searching for good video
S-setup: setup the video before
S-sustain: can the video be used again
Emily’s advice
Search: decide the goal of the lesson and how the video should fit in the lesson. She looks for videos made by other students on YouTube because of simplistic language, TED.org, NPR.org (Roger suggests teachertube.com, academicearth.org, Open Courseware: ocw.uci.edu), don’t need to show the entire video (Roger: can just show 1 minute and show it multiple times)
Setup: Create a document that provides links of videos that can be continuously updated and accessible, give the video links to students
Sustain: Have a video archive (continue to next podcast for Part 2)
What's In My Bag?
Emily: Ginger candy from Trader Joe's 'Ginger People' brand at traderjoes.com
Roger: Business Cards from Moo.com
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Benefits of video: breaks up a dry lesson, provides visual and sound stimulation
Cons of video: Hard to find a great video, it takes time to set up video, sound, projector
Roger’s 3 Ss to help you remember:
S-search: searching for good video
S-setup: setup the video before
S-sustain: can the video be used again
Emily’s advice
Search: decide the goal of the lesson and how the video should fit in the lesson. She looks for videos made by other students on YouTube because of simplistic language, TED.org, NPR.org (Roger suggests teachertube.com, academicearth.org, Open Courseware: ocw.uci.edu), don’t need to show the entire video (Roger: can just show 1 minute and show it multiple times)
Setup: Create a document that provides links of videos that can be continuously updated and accessible, give the video links to students
Sustain: Have a video archive (continue to next podcast for Part 2)
What's In My Bag?
Emily: Ginger candy from Trader Joe's 'Ginger People' brand at traderjoes.com
Roger: Business Cards from Moo.com
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What is blogging?
3 sizes:
Small: "Microblog" Twitter, Tumblr
Medium: "a page or so"
Large: "'long form" for magazines (for writers who have skills)
Types: images, texts, links
Purpose: Diary/Journal, CMS (course management system, publications (talk about something you’re good at)
How can teachers use blogs?
Emily’s walkabout:
1) Teacher #1: Digital Portfolio - includes teacher resume, sample lesson plans, projects + results, pictures (great for job interviews)
2) Teacher #2: CMS (Course Management System) - Moodle.com, Coursera.org, etc. Emily uses blogs to post her lesson agenda to save time instead of writing the agenda at the beginning of class every day. It can also serve as a reference for students who don’t come to class or for Emily when she wants to look back to what she did.
List of possible blog creation sites to check out:
FREE: Pinterest.com, Blogger.com, Learnist.com, Wordpress.com, Tumblr.com, Weebly.com
PAID: Squarespace.com, Posthaven.com
What's In My Bag?
Emily: Thin Addictives (http://nonnis.com/products/thinaddictives/)
Roger: Frixion Pen from Pilot (http://pilotpen.us/brands/frixion/)
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Emily uses the novel: “Holes” by Louis Sachar as the example.
She suggests that the T should try their best to read the entire book before teaching so that T can plan ahead on activities and adjusting how much to read for each week, etc.
Emily also gives an overview about the premise of the story.
She tells students to read it at home instead of in class and gives a reading schedule to Ss.
Vocabulary: T should focus on trying to get the overall meaning of the general story instead of getting stuck on all the vocabulary words.
She has her students fill out a front/back worksheet about the certain chapter they have to read at home before class.
Then for class, she reviews the answers to the worksheet in class, does a fun review activity, and a 10 minute quiz.What's in My Bag?
Emily: a Yoga mat. It's yellow.
Summary of Main Content:
Emily’s first experience: 2012 pair presentation: “Teaching students when you look like one” with Cara Gallardo. She was very nervous because she’s teaching peers, not students.
Roger’s first experience: 1995 group presentation and he spoke for 10 minutes. Felt very scared.
Tips:1) Preparation
Technology: be prepared for any tech issues especially if you plan to use PPT or video. Have copies of it: put on USB stick, email it to yourself, upload to a website. Print out the PPT for yourself and for the audience. Number the slides and put the approximate timing so that you can keep track where you should be during the presentation.
Practice Practice! You can take notes of how to improve and keep yourself on schedule. This leaves a great impression on the audience and makes you memorable.
Business cards: Bring and share.
Sound: Prepare some light music to play at the beginning or end of presentation. Bring small speakers and extra cables.
2) During your talk -
Right Before:
Ask questions at the beginning to gauge your audience’s interest and also reflect on whether some slides of your presentation need more or less time.
Scan the audience to see what kind of people are around.
Breathe and calm down.
During:
If audience has questions, repeat their questions loudly so the rest of the audience can hear.
Handout: don’t pass out while talking. (too distracting!) Don’t make it too long and not explain what’s in it. Choose specific activities and main points to highlight during presentation. Audience may never look at it again if they don’t find the handout meaningful.
Right at the End:
End presentation with a “homework assignment” by asking them to reflect on or try something.
Ask audience to share their input.
What's In My Bag?
Emily: “Shadow of the Hegemon” by Orson Scott Card (http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Hegemon-The-Series/dp/0812565959)
Roger: Acoustic Earplugs. "Dubs" (acoustic filter) http://www.getdubs.com/
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Prepare:
Bring anything that makes you feel comfortable: breath mints, snacks (fruits), business cards, water bottles, comfortable shoes, a backpack, a roller suitcase:
At the conference:
Know the type of presentation that you are attending at the conference: is it a publisher session? (they are trying to sell something) a paper session? (academic-focused research)
Don’t always stick with your co-workers and attend every session together. You and co-workers can swap session notes if you go to different sessions.
When you enter a session, introduce yourself to the presenter.
Where to sit - Roger likes to sit in the front to see the speaker and easily talk to him/her after. Remember to sit in the back if you plan to leave early.
Cell phones and Tablets - Ok to take pictures of the PPT, but don’t raise your device too high or too often. Turn off camera shutter sound. Flash only works if you are within 5 feet.
Publishers: Free books! Meet publishers and try to get a desk copy.
Poster session: Great to visit because presentations are short and you can talk to the presenter one-on-one easily.
Recharge yourself: find the rest or snack rooms and take a break. Sit down and rest your feet. Take a nap. Find good food places in the area.
After:
What to do with contacts and business cards: try to contact them within a few days after the conference or else you won’t do it or the person won’t remember you.
What's In My Bag?
Emily: eyelash curler
(http://cdn-img.instyle.com/sites/default/files/images/2010/bbb09/shu-uemura-eyelash-curler-300_3.jpg)
Roger: Notebook from Zequenz (pronunciation: z-kwenz) (http://www.zequenz.com/)
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What is it and how is it different from essays?
It's an informal piece of writing on any topic. Students can say how they feel about the topic and the teacher need not be as strict on grading. This assignment is great for intermediate levels and up.
The first journal topic can be related to self-introduction such as a favorite thing. It should not be a scary topic for students.
In the directions, include extension questions on the topic to provide a scaffold on how students can add more to their writing. Also, provide guidelines on length of assignment.
When giving feedback, the teacher can respond to parts of the journal like a dialogue with the student. This helps build teacher-student rapport.
Some questions to consider for the teacher:
How many comments to put on each journal? Consider 3-5 comments per student.
How to manage collecting journals for big classes? Stagger the due dates (part of the class turns in one day, the other part turns in another day). Also, use a rubric that assigns points to reflect what is in your instructions.
How to make journal writing more meaningful? Have students submit to a Learning Management System (LMS) like Schoology and have other students read and provide comments to their peers.
WIMB
Emily: “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell (http://gladwell.com/david-and-goliath/)
Roger: “The Sketchnote Handbook” by Mike Rohde (http://rohdesign.com/handbook)
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Emily and Roger discuss about speaking warm-ups: the purpose, the problem, and possible solutions. Such warm-ups are effective in helping students get into the English mindset and be excited for class. The problem is that students are disinterested or the questions lack a meaningful context. As a result, students may know how to answer them but they have no idea when to practically use them outside of the classroom. Emily and Roger each provide a simple idea that can be easily applied into your classroom.
WIMB
Emily: Isojin Gargle
Roger: Uniqlo Down Sweater
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Emily and Roger continue to talk about speaking warm-ups with an added focus on higher level learners. Ideas include planning a series of questions related to the textbook topic, editing sentences, and using post-its to collect student-generated questions.
WIMB
Emily: Blue Tape
Roger: Jansport Burrito Shaped Canvas Bag (outside) (inside)
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Emily and Roger discuss about the purpose of homework and the difference between knowledge-focused homework versus skills-focused homework. They give examples of what zombie teachers do and how to avoid that lifestyle.
Goal: Avoid being a zombie teacher! (Teachers who don’t really give that much thought into teaching because they have done it for so long)
Q: Why do we assign homework?
A: There is a concept that when you work hard and get good feedback, you’ll do better next time. If this process is repeated over and over again, you’ll master understanding that knowledge or skill.
"Homework is so ingrained in classroom culture both in the teacher’s mind and the students’ mind."
2 types of homework: knowledge or skills?
Knowledge homework: learning definition of concepts, how concepts are related to each other, parts of grammar, meaning of vocabulary words, paragraphs. etc. It is basically expository. There is a focus on what students know, not what they can do.
Skills homework: any homework where students practice something: interview someone, create a dialogue using the grammar they have learned, make sentences using specific vocabulary words, etc. There is a focus on what students can actually produce.
Questions to consider: Is it possible to do a skill without the knowledge? Should we care about the order of what kind of homework to give first: knowledge? skills? Should we give homework that focuses on both?
"What are zombie teachers doing?"
Easy in grammar because teachers can just look for worksheets and have students do it. It’s not bad to do worksheets since students are practicing their knowledge, but it shouldn’t be the only kind of work students are expected to do.
Teachers should consider checking homework but be practical about going over answers.
WIMB
Emily: Mentholatum Inhaler (
Roger: Thermal mug (http://wwwhydroflask.com/)
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MAIN CONTENT
Emily and Roger continue to discuss about homework. They highlight extreme situations for teachers to be careful of and how to be more practical with assigning and correcting homework.
When do teachers give homework?
After teaching a new point. Students can practice it at home.
Before teachers go over a new point, the teacher wants students to review something at home first before coming to class so that they are prepared to learn the new point.
Extreme situations that you should be cautious of:
An energetic teacher who spends too much time grading the homework (providing comments, stickers, etc.)
A teacher who has taught for a while and mainly assigns homework just as busy work but doesn’t spend time providing feedback because it is too much work or students don’t look at it.
Practicality Tips:
Teacher needs to teach students how to read and use the feedback.
Incentivize the process of receiving feedback by giving points. If students are lazy with homework, don’t be scared to score lower.
Use a rubric to save time in grading and show your expectations.
For personalized homework like writing or speaking journals, make sure that students understand who the audience is. Audience refers to people who will read their homework. Students shouldn’t just write for a teacher to read. The teacher should explain what other kinds of potential people would be reading this so that students are aware of the type of register to use)
It’s meaningful to give feedback, but set a number on how many comments to give.
For extreme teachers:
1) If you work too hard, take a step back. Find a hobby. Rest. Don’t make work your life.
2) If you don’t put that much effort in, try to put more effort.
WIMB
Emily: Fresh’s Sugar Lip Balm (http://www.sephora.com/sugar-lip-treatment-spf-15-P57002)
Roger: Bandaid (http://c3.q-assets.com/images/products/p/jj/jj-1288_1z.jpg)
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Main Content: In this first part of a two-part series, Emily and Roger talk about corrective feedback for students.
Here are Emily's Correction Symbols:
CORRECTION SYMBOLS
Symbol: A
Meaning and Explanation: article
You are missing an article (a/an/the)
ex) I lived with host family and their dog. WRONG
ex) I lived with a host family and their dog. RIGHT
Symbol: AWK
Meaning and Explanation: awkward meaning
Your sentence is confusing. Rewrite it and clarify what you mean.
ex) Another difference is the amount of traffic the caused on the road. WRONG
ex) Another difference is the amount of traffic that is caused on the road. RIGHT
Symbol: CAP/LC
Meaning and Explanation: capitalize/lower case
You made a capitalization/lower case error.
ex) My name is emily. WRONG
ex) My name is Emily. CORRECT
Symbol: FRA
Meaning and Explanation: Your sentence is missing a subject, a verb, or both.
ex) _______ Are hungry in the morning. WRONG
ex) They____ hungry in the morning. WRONG
ex) They are hungry in the morning. RIGHT
Symbol: P
Meaning and Explanation: punctuation
You made a punctuation (, . ! ? ’)mistake or your need to add a punctuation.
ex) Are you happy. WRONG
ex) Are you happy? RIGHT
Symbol: PAR
Meaning and Explanation: parallel structure
You made a parallel structure mistake
ex) Public transportation and using a private car are different. WRONG
ex) Using public transportation and using a private car are different. RIGHT
Symbol: PL/SING
Meaning and Explanation: plural/singular
You made a plural/singular noun mistake.
ex) I have a lot of cat. WRONG
ex) I have a lot of cats. RIGHT
ex) Every students need to do their homework. WRONG
ex) Every student needs to do their homework. RIGHT
Symbol: RO
Meaning and Explanation: run-on
Your sentence is too long: has too many ideas or uses commas incorrectly.
ex) I am tired, and I miss home, and I miss my friends, I dislike homework. WRONG
ex) I am tired, and I miss home. I miss my friends. I dislike homework. RIGHT
Symbol: SP
Meaning and Explanation: spelling
You have the wrong spelling.
ex) I like to drink jous. WRONG
ex) I like to drink juice. RIGHT
Symbol: SS
Meaning and Explanation: sentence structure error
You made a
ex) I want to play. But I am tired. WRONG (compound sentence error)
ex) I want to play, but I am tired. RIGHT
ex) Even though I am busy. I will go to the gym. WRONG (complex sentence error)
ex) Even though I am busy, I will go to the gym. RIGHT
Symbol: SV
Meaning and Explanation: subject verb agreement
Your subject and verb do not match.
ex) She eat breakfast. WRONG
ex) She eats breakfast. RIGHT
Symbol: VF
Meaning and Explanation: verb form
Your verb form has some kind of mistake.
ex) I didn’t used the car. WRONG
ex) I didn’t use the car. RIGHT
Symbol: VT
Meaning and Explanation: verb tense
You have the wrong verb tense.
ex) Yesterday, I eat breakfast early. WRONG
ex) Yesterday, I ate breakfast. RIGHT
Symbol: WC
Meaning and Explanation: wrong word choice
Your choice of words is incorrect
ex) Due to Tokyo is the most population country, more people buy phones. WRONG
ex) Since Tokyo is the most populous country, more people buy phones. RIGHT
Emily: "Egg"
Roger: "Bose Bluetooth/Wired Speakers"
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Main Content: Emily and Roger continue to discuss about providing feedback. They highlight tips and benefits with conferencing 1-on-1 with students and peer feedback.
WAYLT: (What are you listening to?)
Emily: Prince Royce "Darte Un Beso" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr03_tItXno)
Roger: Coldplay "Fix You" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUJ-B6oVDQ)
WAYLT: (What are you listening to?)
Emily: Disney Piano Collection by Hirohashi Makiko (https://youtu.be/D7gx-NdYEu4)
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Roger: Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe (
 | Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words~ Randall Munroe (author) More about this product
| ||||||
WAYLT: (What are you listening to?)
Emily: Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros ()
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Roger: The Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown (http://amzn.com/1591847036)
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Helen: Tide ToGo Pen (http://tide.com/en-us/shop/type/stain-removers/tide-to-go) and Viva la Juicy (https://www.amazon.com/Juicy-Couture-Viva-Parfum-Spray/dp/B002XQ1YTK)
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Emily: A ripped calendar - For really busy quarters, I use free calendars sent by various charity organizations.
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Shuhei: Shuhei shared a very unique journal book. It is a 3-year parallel journal that is keyed by date. This means that when he writes a journal entry for a particular day, he can look back on his journal entry for the exact day a year ago. He says it is a great way to look at how his viewpoint has changed (or stayed the same) over the past three years.
Main Content: Emily and Roger reflect on how they conduct the last class of the term, encourage students who are going onto other paths, and leave a long-lasting impression.
WIMB: (What's in my bag?)
Emily:
Main Content: Emily and Roger talk about vacations and the need for teachers to take them...even if they do not go far, REST is important.
WAYLT: (What Are You Listening To?)
Emily:
WIMB: (What's in My Bag?)
Emily:
"Something yellow, something lethal." -rd
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There are specific songs with lyrics for teaching grammar-website (tefltunes.com)
We have a few activities:
Emily: "instrumental journaling"
Roger:"cut up the lyrics"
Tom's Diner plus homework
WAYLT
Emily: DJ Okawari (https://youtu.be/Bm-Ijm5X84w)
Roger: KUSC Classical Music Commercial Free (http://kusc.org/)
Main Content
Emily and Roger discuss the challenges of sharing their lessons, activities, and resources with other teachers. Roger thinks it depends on who you share your hard work with. There are 'moochers' out there. They are the ones that make it harder for people who want to share, but feel angry that some teachers take advantage of it. When there is mutual sharing, magic happens.
WIMB (What's In My Bag?)
Roger: Music Memo App (iOS only)
Emily: Key Card Stretchy thingy.
Main Content
Emily and Roger discuss the benefits of going on and organizing field trips. They also offer tips on pre- and post-field trip activities to make sure that the trip is more than just a trip.
WOMD? (What's On My Desk?)
Roger:
A giant sketch pad for preparing talks. (Strathmore 14"x17" Sketch link: http://www.michaels.com/strathmore-400-series-sketch-pad/M10012254.html#start=4)
Emily:
A birthday gift of an art piece from a dear friend. (Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MysteryBarnTradingCo )
Main Content:
Emily and Roger discuss about how they prepare and pack for work trips. They invite listeners who are nervous about traveling to e-mail them with questions at askingtatl@gmail.com.
WOMD? (What's On My Desk?)
Roger:
Main Content:
Emily and Roger discuss the challenge of making our created content "infinitely accessible". Teachers create great content, we want access to this and we want to keep sharing it with our former, current and future students. There are social media tools available to keep in touch with students, but what about tools that help us share and distribute content to our expanding student audience?
Emily mentions that using LMS's (learning management tools), and specifically Schoology, can be effective 'after' a course is finished. After she finishes a course, she leaves the course open, and so anyone with a link and a code could access some or all of her content.
Roger mentions that 'tagging' is super important. Just as instagram and twitter use hashtags # to categorize posts, we teachers can 'tag' our content with useful descriptors to help others find content. He also mentions that we need to reduce 'look-up fatigue' in our students. That is to say, make it easier for outsiders, former students, anyone, to find the content they need for their learning.
Other useful blogging/information platforms:
Tools to help send big files:
WAWLT (What Are We Listening Too?):
Emily: When I need inspiration, or when I want to imagine that I am a Benedictine monk about to be killed for just saying 'Hi', I play this tune. Very evocative, somber piece played perfectly by the cello master himself Yo Yo Ma.
Ennio Morricone "The Mission" played by Yo Yo Ma. Link
Roger: I like rhythm, especially rhythm that is syncopated and surprising. This song has this and the lyrics are chilling, honest and desperate.
Twenty-One Pilots "Addict With a Pen" Link
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