Asking for directions with Sock Puppets

It can be a bit of a struggle to get some older kids/younger teens to look up/at each other when they have a book to hide in!

From this rather static format

Book is safe, and flat on the table = ideal excuse not to establish eye contact...and a great way to continue muttering along in the least interesting tone as possible. How to break into that little comfort zone & get some meaningful production going? First of all, do use the audio available to you from CD or whatever classroom recording you have. It will present a dialogue more naturally than you can (unless you are a trained ventriloquist?) and at the same time expose learners to 'other Englishes'. Read along, figure out the context and get set. One way is to ask your students to do this as a pair. EFL 101, for sure. Nothing wrong with this as a starting point, but come the day when this dialogue might actually happen, chances are the book is not going to be to hand.

I like to change the dynamic of this kind of work and invite the students to self-inflict a challenge; I write up the dialogue on the board (large enough to be read from a distance), colour coding the speakers. Students stand up & pair up, looking at each other. Separation anxiety already from the book (leave open on desks if they need that security blanket!). Using the board, students are already being more natural with body language getting involved (pointing to each other when it's 'their go') & eye contact and moving (remembering which way is left & right!)

...to this board script

Challenge? When groups have navigated though once, invite one to erase 5 words off the board (and replace with a line where the words were). Likely the student erased their partners words more than their own - so of course you ask students to now switch roles and try again. Repeat this process (change partners too) until you run out of words or time; students will not run out of enthusiasm! They realise they are building up a visual memory of the conversation and trying to 'see' it helps...and they also help each other (when usually they wouldn't dare).

Sock Puppets I came across a few years ago now, an iOS app which is great in class, via +Shelly Sanchez Terrell on twitter (@shellterrell). The 30 second limit works in your favour to speed things up even more & have students begging to retry/improve/beat the buzzer! Really recommend trying it out - here are my two 12/13 year olds giving it their best shot...what do you think?

Tales from Longpuddle - new addition! After reading...

Write about a peaceful long journey you made? 

Where were you going, and who with? Why were you travelling, and how did you feel about arriving? 

I went to travel around the world with my husband. We have a lot in common. We are open mind and love free. Since we've married, we were planning to travel around the world to see various things, share each feelings so that we can understand both of us. We started traveling from Japan and final destination is United Kingdom. We bought cheap air ticket and stayed backpacker's hotel to save money. During the traveling, we met a lot of people. We talked them and became friends. We love drinking, so we communicate with people in drinking.

I really want go India because I like doing yoga. I want stay there to practice. My husband was not much like India, but he went together me. In the beginning he wasn't so enthusiastic, however he liked India finally because he liked indian curry. We went Egypt, Spain, Africa, Italia.

At last, we arrived UK!! We excited to stay there. We liked British music, culture, fashion. We could feel British mood. We didn't want go back to Japan. When we were in airplane, we decided to live UK after few years.

Posted for Miyuki

The Jungle Book: after reading - a movie pitch

Which is your favourite character in The Jungle Book? 

Imagine YOU are the character, and write an email to Hollywood and explain why the next movie should be about you (and not Mowgli)!

My favorite character in The Jungle Book is Bagheera – Black Panther. He is very strict about the rules. He got angry at Mowgli’s selfish behavior, but he cared about Mowgli very much. When Mowgli was taken away by the monkeys, Bagheera ran quickly to the crowds of monkeys and started hitting, right and left, as hard as he could. I like him since he has not only strictness but also kindness.

I am writing this e-mail to Hollywood since Baloo – brown bear and I are proper to be main character for the next movie. We are in a position to teach Mowgli about the jungle in Wolf-Pack although we are bear and panther respectively. In the movie, we would like Hollywood to cover the background that we attend the wolf-meetings and have the right to say our opinion there. We also would like Hollywood to cover the future of Mowgli from the point of view of us. We still need to teach him about the jungle and see how he grows up there. We are very interested in his growth as a member of Wolf-Pack in the jungle.

Posted for Chinasa

Enunciate those important plosives, please, publishers!

Thursday is singing day - Jim's class in the afternoon really enjoys belting out a tune, even with almost no practice. Very quick ears and have a knack of coping with lyrics - the artwork in Everybody Up lends itself to this nicely.

For once I will be picky with Everybody Up as a text though, as I realised (the way the children copied) the audio is weak on something I think should be over emphasised - 'more oomph' was something I got laughed at for saying during my CELTA course way back when - that DON'T needs extra weight to convey the negative meaning of the utterance, and that the /t/ sound on the end of it is vital...instead there's a pretty lame "I donelai ........" which is meaningless. It might be construed as elegant ellision, but the message is hidden & therefore counter productive. OUP, you can do better on this one!

You can hear my guys putting a bit more gusto into their final plosives!

We ended up with a class invasion, as the next class arrived early and wanted to see what the fun was all about; we were missing our gate keeper Yukari downstairs (our son Ceilidh is unwell again). I was delighted the younger ones trumped their older mates in a game of I Spy - they started at the age of 2.5 with Luna and have been absorbing vocabulary voraciously ever since! No harm in letting students know that the competition is catching up quickly :)

Canterville Ghost - after reading, noisy boys!

There are two noisy little boys in the story; are they familiar? 

Write about any noisy young children you know, and why you like (or don't like) them.

It's definitely my son. He is four years old now and doesn't stay still as same as all the other boys in the same
age. He likes playing outside even if it i freezy cold. In December, my familiy go to the park to see the beautiful Christmas light in the evening. He got excited and kept running around the park. My husband and I tried to take his picture in the light, but our camera couldn't capture him as he moved too fast. Sometimes he doesn't listen to us, but I like him so much as he always make me happy.

Posted for Tomoko

After reading The Canterville Ghost - cultural comparisons Americans & Japanese

 The Americans in this story are very different to the British. 

How are Americans different to people from your country?

I think there are many difference between Japanese and Americans. For example looks, culture and religion…etc.

I think Americans are franker than Japanese. Many Japanese don’t good at saying their true feeling to others, I think. In Japan, sometimes it is better hiding the true. We have the custom to talk modest. So we are not used to saying true feeling. But this may confused other country people.

I think Japanese are shyer than Americans. In Japan, people don’t talk to next man/woman when they are in the plane or train. But sometimes Americans are talk to next man/woman who haven’t meet before. When I took a train before, the next man who is from America talked to me. And we talked from Matsumoto to Nagoya in English. I couldn’t speak English well, but he had a dictionary, so we used dictionary and talked. It was fun.

I think Americans have more interesting idea for an entertainment. Maybe Japanese think whether it will be dangerous, first. But Americans do the first. Snowboarding, American football… I think many race of people live in America so many culture mixed and new entertainments and sports were appeared.

Posted for Yuri

Canterville Ghost: spooky after reading!

Write about the spookiest place you have ever been to, or the spookiest experience in your life?

This is the story when I went for a drink with my friends last Bon vacation. I went to the bar by train that day because the bar is far from my house. But after drinking with my friends, I missed the last train of the day because I wanted to drink with my friend later. So I came home by taxi after drinking. Since I wanted to save money, I got off at the earlier station than the one near my house. And I walked from there to my house.

But the way was very dark and lonely without houses and car running. On the way, suddenly I was surrounded by the noisy lap sound that we could hear like someone beat the guardrail. Of course, there should not be anyone exactly. I wondered if animals like a bird beat the guardrail. (even if birds, too big noise) Then, I stopped and shouted with loud voice regardless of midnight, and the lap sound stopped.
I got relieved and started to walk again. At just that time, I could see a bunch of flowers offered for someone near my foot. I found what it means and got scare and sober. I ran away at once.

This is my spookiest experience. This might be just accident, but the timing I could hear lap sound and found a bunch of flowers was too good. I was very surprised at this experience.

Blue Hood - story from Ugetsu-monogatari

 Dracula is a famous European folk/horror story. Is there a similar kind of story from your culture? Compare and contrast it to the story you read.

We don’t have same story of the Dracula in Japanese culture, but I found similar story. It is one of the stories in Ugetsu-monogatari called Blue hood.

English: Buddhist monk Genshin (Japan) Русский: Буддийский монах Гэнсин (Япония). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was a Buddhist monk who is a person of virtue. One day, he visited a small village and heard that the people in the village were afraid of devil lived in the temple of the mountain. The devil was a virtues Buddhist monk before, but he changed because of his servant who was very beautiful boy. The servant got ill and died soon after he lived with the monk. The monk refused to let go of the boy’s body and got crazy, then ate his body finally.

After changed to devil, he went down to the village and dug up the graves. A Buddhist monk was trying to get him stop dug the graves. He visited the temple and stayed there one night. The devil was trying to eat him but couldn’t because of his power was strong. Finally, he was dead while chanting a Buddhist sutra which gave from the Buddhist monk.

I thought the devil didn’t drink someone’s blood, but some points were similar as the story of Dracula such like dug the graves.

Posted for Reiko

Interview with a Vampire - after reading Dracula

Imagine you are a reporter for a popular women's magazine. Think of six interesting questions your readers would ask "Drac" - and the answers he might give.

Question 1
Which blood do you like man’s or woman’s ? And which do you like older or younger ?
: I like man’s blood because woman’s blood is weak for me.
And I like both old and young healthy man’s not too old or too young.

Question 2
How do you choose the person who you will drink his/her blood ?
: I choose by good looking and good smell. If he/she has plenty of muscle, his/her blood is very good.

Question 3
How much blood do you need a day ?
: I don’t need blood to live every day.
I need the blood once or twice a month.

Question 4
Do you eat any food without blood ?
: No, I don’t .I need only blood .

Question 5
How many vampires live in near here ?
: I think many vampires live in near here.
So if someone died and people doesn’t know why he/she was ill, he/she killed by vampire.

Question 6
If you can live under the daylight, what would you like to do?
: If I can live under the daylight, I would like to swim in the sea.

Trying to talk about ourselves - very uncertain teens with app anxiety

I think it has been over a decade since I taught at one of the schools we regularly dispatch our teachers to; somehow my schedule has never worked out that way. So this current crop of students would have been in primary school when I last stood in front of the classroom.

Don't get too close to the board - infected with English!

Thing is, same reaction! Ultra quiet and uninteractive...is it me?!

The first thing I asked the class to do was to access whichever app store was appropriate for their personal smartphones & see if they could find ChatterKid by Duck Duck Moose (all of their apps are super, by the way!). Thought it make take a while to download (it did...why on earth is Japan a wifi desert?!). A murmur of shock that they were being asked to use their phones, I think. Of course, one started playing a game and another one wanted to know how to get apps on her non-smart phone!

Knowing this was a quiet group, I figured starting with drawing a simple self-portrait of themselves might help overcome the anxiety of having a new teacher in front of them...but then there's the anxiety of being a crap artist to overcome! Anyone who has taught Japanese students will understand that the most important classroom tool for them is actually an eraser.

The exercise then is for students to add some not too personal information - birthday & name notwithstanding - such as things they love/hate/don't mind doing, a hobby (sleeping is not a hobby, is it?), faves (music, films, etc)...I can imagine European students complaining they don't have enough space to put everything down on this A3 print. Despite endless suggestions, hints, ideas (all translated by my co-teacher) some efforts were still rather bereft of, well, effort.

Girls get the sociable aspect of this

Now let's open those apps. "Oh, we had to download it?" Seems they just looked at it & admired the bright colours. One bright spark had actually managed to do as asked. Others hiding behind daft fringes or their scarves. Instructions repeated, reassured the thing is free...and shocked when asked to share devices with unsmart phone owners.

Now, I reckon if my four year old son can figure out the dotted line action is a prompt to draw a line with your finger, and that the red microphone button needs a push, and that the audible 3-2-1 countdown invites the user to start talking...surely an 18 year old ought to be able to do so and have something intelligent to say; ideally the info you just spent 30 minutes sweating bullets to write down?

Chatterkid app in action: non-starting learner.

I do wonder what it is about the Japanese education system that knocks the stuffing out of some kids' confidence, removes gumption and installs a default "don't do anything first" setting.

The problem with the minimalist production most students opted for is that the next stage, adding comments to each of their classmates' posters somewhat hamstrings variety. The posters were put up on the board for easy access - but you can see from the photo above nobody dared get within reading range! Somewhat predictably, the "I am sleepy" or "I am cold" statuses got "Me too" responses...so replica comments were banned = hurry up & be boring first!

I like this activity because it does focus on the students, and not the teacher. However, with a reticent group you really do need a lot of L1 help to get the job done. If I thought the effort would be appreciated, the next thing I'd do would be to upload all the videos and create QR codes OR try to use Aurasma & chuck in some augmented reality. However, one class a month kind of tells you the degree of ambition we are looking at here. I think I'll save my energy and do this with a group that is a bit more engaging & ambitious. Fair?

Self-portraits & self-awareness

As I was trying to explain the personalities in our classes last week, I realised we don't have much to go on in the school! We do a lot of stuff with the children but don't display enough of the their work in the classrooms.

I saw a blog post by a new twitterer & frog collector I like called Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe @jaluribe
on this topic recently, and it made me decide we need to do a bit better this year. I strongly recommend following Juan on twitter, and giving his blog a good read.

So today in classes we made a nice poster of ourselves, and the things we like - favourite animals, food, our height etc. I am also going to print a small picture of each of the kids so we can compare our artwork! I think this is a very nice way to get back into the English mood without being too much of a shock to the system :) It will be cool to compare self-impressions too, as students get older! I was glad we did not get any stylised pictures - often very 'manga' images become prevailant in Japanese kids' drawings.

I have recently started using Class Dojo on my phone to try & keep track of students at the kindy I go to, but the problem I have with the app is that I cannot add personalised icons or avatars for each child. As there are about 200 there, I can never remember more than a few names (but I do recognise all faces!) I would like to exploit this app more, as there are cool parental functions as well...for now we stick with Edmodo (which I wish parents would engage with more!)

Grumble over - come & see our new wall art!

Singing in colour!

 Nice to meet some classes I don't usually get to teach this week! Really enjoying finding out what you can do and how well you can sing! Who knew!

Good show kids, looking forward to a magnificent 2014 with you!

Teacher looks up sleeve & finds trusted old chestnut!

"Janken" race (rock/scissors/paper)

 It has been a few months since I taught my slightly noisy & easily distracted crew on Tuesdays! We never have a problem together, as I simply refuse to let them have the 'independent' time they invariably spend nattering away in L1 with each other - suggesting they are either bored or not working hard enough..."finished yet?" or a cough & a glare usually does the trick for me!

To burn off some New Year energy & have a chance to discard coats we needed warming up; asking a partner "How many ....s?" & being unable to move until they answer with a full phrase = motivation aplenty to get steamed up & jumping around (then afer we can calm down & do some book work!). Teacher sits back and lets peer pressure ramp up the speed limit!

Commuters

At Luna we don't usually push classes in with each other, but a little bit of a necessity this week. Can't really use text books as that would be too hard or too easy, but with a bigger group an ample chance to do something completely different (but review & recycle something not different at all!). Break out the teacher's favourite old photocopiable resource (which I bought just after I did my CELTA - my trusty Jill Hadfield communication games) and relax in the firm knowledge that this exercise works just fine without much need for complicated explanations or theatrics. As with the younger kids, tonight's teens were keen to fill in their 'road map of London' with impersonal info (not too interested in talking to each other 'for real' - various reasons, age/gender/school difference among them). Oh, we finished early...let's use the other side and find out about each other after all then!

What's your favourite old chestnut of an activity, up your sleeve for a rainy evening in January?

Can you cha-cha-cha in English?!

Great way to start the New Year with our first class showing off tonight!

I haven't taught these guys for a couple of years, and very nice to catch up with them again and see how much progress they are making...why don't you prove it, by the way, and do really well in YLE Starters this year? Think you'd do very well...



What is your favourite song/chant with YLEs? This is from English Time 2 (OUP), by the way...

What do you want for Christmas?!

Can you remember what we did this Christmas?

Let this audioslideshow jog you memory!



Please follow this link & download or go to Luna's Youtube page...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAvevkcMAJ0&feature=share&list=UUfKHk9pHVIpNqvHhu-q5ufA

Don't burn that turkey - and have a wonderful Christmas xxx

Luna's Christmas Party 2013

Luna's Christmas Party 2013, a set on Flickr.

What a tremendous afternoon!

So many excited Luna faces with little brothers and sisters arriving just before 1pm (sorry, our landlord is The Original Grinch - we are on Matsumoto's equivalent of Oxford Circus afterall so stopping outside is very difficult) and no staff here...

Thank you SO much Yukari & Mayumi for sorting out all the food & drinks - yellow card MosBurger for putting spicey mustard on all the kids' burgers though. What were you thinking - some fat git wants 60 chicken burgers all in one go?

We learned some new Christmas songs to sing & dance, and then had to make our own Christmas Bingo sets. Share crayons? Share glue? Not hoard all the pieces? Designed to be a calming event - share, y'all...Jim applied Nissan "just enough" philosophy to this exercise...so the greedy kids lost out BIG TIME when they had to wait for all their pictures to be called! Ha!

A new S-A-N-T-A song tired everybody out:

• Red hat
• White beard
• Twinkly eyes

...and the balloon race got off to several false starts because no one was listening. Eventually, Kotone's team won.
Naomi's Xmas ABC colourthon was a mad rush of enthusiasm minus a clear plan (need to turn up before the party starts & prime the DJ with soundtrack requests, think through how you are going to display the end result....) but everyone had fun before drifting off...

Michael sensei turned up an hour and a half late (thanks Ceilidh for vacuuming all the carpets downstairs + the stairs) just in time to put on a suit & pose for pictures. We are very grateful he managed to write his class notes for 2013 yesterday while visiting 2nd hand car dealerships; the effort really shows.

Fortunately, Jim managed not to explode and instead the children enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the Christmas mood - all original activities this year (thank you Super Simple Songs).

We are really excited about 2014 - classes start on Jan 6th. Lot's of exciting new things to report, starting with Tim being spotted over the North Pole Dec 30th...