PIXAR Lesson

I'm away at the Fulbright spring conference, so this is my lesson that I'm leaving for my students. The teachers at SGJA are accessing the videos and my powerpoint from this post. If you want to partake in the lesson yourself, feel free!

Dear Korean English teachers,

Just click the links below! I hope the works!

Dear students, Enjoy!! These movies are amazing!

Alicia talking

PIXAR

Geri's Game

For the Birds

Partly Cloudy

BURN-E

Exit Ticket: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-5, 2-2

Mystery of Haggis Magic Panties

Anytime I've allowed the students to freely draw, Haggis Magic Panties have appeared. For the Carmen Sandiego detective applications, the first occurrence, a student drew Haggis Magic Panties. For my polite language gift giving lesson, the Haggis Magic Panties appeared again. And twice again as a Halloween costumes: Haggis Woman and Haggis mask. What are Haggis Magic Panties?

"Teacher, for babies. Very famous."
Oh.......diapers?
"Yes, Teacher!"
So if I go to Homeplus (a Korean super-super-super store), I'll find Haggis Magic Panties?
"YES!"

I was excited to find out what Haggis was all about. What crazy anime character would be the poster face for Haggis Magic Panties? My students' drawings had let my imagination run wild. But, I was let down at Homeplus when all I saw were tamely-advertised Huggies...

...till I looked at the Hangul. Huggies was Hangulized 하기스=ha-gi-seu=Haggis. And 매직 팬티 = meh-jik phan-tee = magic panty. So much for the crazy Haggis Woman.

Attack of the Swine Flu

Swine flu is visibly among us here at SGJA Girls' Middle School (more about swine flu at SGJA). It's what you see (face masks!) and what you don't see (students absent). The phenomenon of face masks is what I find curious. These aren't just simple paper and string. Most are cloth, and other with design. With some convincing, I got some students to model.

I've started a lot of classes by asking "Who's sick?", then going over the vocabulary for headache, fever, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose, stomach ache, etc. The only consistent smiling faces are the stickers I give to students. You can see the timeline of smiley faces, happy smiley people to smiley nurse and doctor...

Happy Halloween

I'm not my students first or only foreigner teacher. My school has had at least 3 or 4 past ETAs, plus they have foreign teachers at hagwon. Consequently, American culture is nothing new to them. And they're no dummies; they know Halloween means candy and fun. Some ETAs are really into Halloween: they went all out on candy, decorations, and lesson planning. I'm very low-key when it comes to Halloween, but I did give the kids a Halloween lesson. I told them there were three things for Halloween: Jack o'Lanterns, Costumes, and Trick or Treat... I inspired some kids to think outside the box....

Best drawn pumpkin and costume!

Victory (aka V.I., Big Bang member) is apparently known for bags under his eyes,
which makes him look like a panda...

(1) Jack o'Lanterns are pumpkins with faces.
I debated about teaching this word, as it will be near useless to them for vocabulary. However, it was a good pronunciation lesson, as there's no phonetic tricks to pronouncing it. I showed a powerpoint of the parts of a jack o'lantern face and then different types of faces. The students then drew their own pumpkins and wrote (helper vocab):
My jack o'lantern is ________ (smiling, happy, sad, spooky, scary, hungry).
My jack o'lantern has _____ __________. (big, small, triangle, circle) (eyes, nose, mouth).

pumpkin with glasses, bling bling pretty pumpkin, pirate pumpkin, rabbit pumpkin

2 of my favorite pumpkins: 'Sick Pumpkin' drawn by a student wearing a
face mask and 'Sunflower Pumpkin' drawn by student who I always
call Sunflower(for the sunflower design on her glasses)

(2) Costumes. Children wear cute costumes; adults wear scary costumes.
This was better explained by showing them different types of costumes, from a simple witch costume to Wonder Woman. Like the pumpkins, they drew a costume, then wrote:
For Halloween, I want to be ________ because ___________________.

An egg ghost, Haggis (Magic Pantie) Woman, kimchi fridge, vampire

(3) Trick or Treat
Treat simply means candy, but trick was harder to explain. Until ABC removed the Scarecrow Smackdown video, I used the video to explain. A man dressed a scarecrow lies still with the candy bowl waiting to scare trick or treaters, until the trick's on him.... the kids thought the video was hilarious!



Baskin Robbins celebrates Halloween too...

Let's Save the Earth!

Naturally, as the resident native English speaker at SGJA, I dedicated some time to helping the school's English skit performance. My co-teacher had written the script just before I had arrived; editing it was the first thing I did as an official English teacher. Last month, I stayed a couple nights after school to help with pronunciation, enunciation, and intonation. The girls have worked hard--they practiced after school for about 4 hours and sometimes 8 hours on the weekend. The teacher had other students make decorations and an additional two students in charge of the sound effects. I've been quite impressed.

Pose for picture, practice, snacks, practice more...

The skit is environmentally themed, which seems to align with Jeju's nature-friendly attitude (separating trash, natural attractions, the cafeteria's green food cooking..). Here it goes:

Mr. and Mrs. Kim, a newly wedded couple, go shopping for things they need. At the store, the products (dish and disposable dish, cup and paper cup, tissue--all played by students) compete for the couple's attention. Convinced by the convenience of the disposable products, Mr. and Mrs. Kim purchase them. Later at their new home, Mr. and Mrs. Kim are visited by Susan and Amanda of the Wives' Community. Susan and Amanda give them reformed-soap (previously used oil), which is good for the environment. The disposable products gang-up on the reformed soap. Later at the house-warming party, Susan and Amanda, joined by environmental activist Mr. Smith, discover the Kim's use of disposable products, which is "Evil! Evil! Evil!" After the party, the Kims realize that disposable products aren't good for the environment and decide to use greener products instead. Everyone else comes on stage to dance to "Let's Save the Er-Er-Er-Er-Er-Earth" (melody from pop song "I don't Care-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah").

Watch!

The skit was well-rounded for the competition: all the students had good speaking roles, the skit had some slight sarcasm and humor, the script was well-written, and the delivery was creative. Out of the 15 competing Seogwipo middle schools, it won. While this was good news, it meant another month of practicing and perfecting for the provincial competition, which was last Thursday.

I asked and was allowed to attend. The 12 girls, my co-teacher, and I took the day off from classes to go to Jeju's Foreign Language Center. It was an interesting experience. When we arrived, 5 other middle school groups were also preparing costumes, props, and make-up. The brief introduction reminded the students that they were already winners for making it this far (I liked this) and encouraged students to continue to study English, as it is a universal languag-ee and you should know English (I didn't like this). The 6 skits:

1. "Let's Save the Earth!"
My girls went first; I thought this was good as it didn't give them time to be nervous. There delivery was good, but I had seen the skit so many times that I couldn't really be impressed. I thought it was missing some energy, but overall still good: no stumbling, voice projection, and no slip-ups.

2. Animals, Tree, Businessmen, & Naturalists (I didn't hear the actual title)
Animals in the forest are in danger of losing habitat when greedy businessmen arrive to landscape. Naturalists to the rescue. Good, but unremarkable.

3. "We Believe in Ourselves"
After I saw this skit, I was sure it'd be the winner. The pronunciation was clear, intonation and enunciation was good, even the acting was good. The skit was about a girl who is accused of copying homework (the bully is actually copying her homework) then goes home where she is yelled at by her parents for a B on a test. Her friend encourages her that she should believe in herself. When gangsters attack the girls after school, she holds her ground to save the day. The bully becomes her friend, her parents are glad she's safe, she regains confidence. An interesting moral as well as good delivery, including some jokes.

4. "A Good Lesson"
This skit was by far the funniest. A group of middle school boys performing a skit about recycling. One boy cross-dressed as a girl (that IS a boy in the pink) and was quite fabulous. They ended their performance with ABBA's Dancing Queen. Reasons for this skit not winning were an unequal distribution of lines, slightly unprofessional, and an overly long script. However, I was impressed.

5. "Real Beauty"
A school girl, caught by her teacher for wearing jewelry, is taught a lesson about inner beauty. The ending was weak, the English not as impressive as other skits.

6. "Jeju-a place where you can enjoy nature"
This was the other Seogwipo middle school in attendance. Even though I had not seen the skit before, I could tell they had some additions, especially in the way of copying my school's skit; many of the gestures were similar and they had added a lot of songs to their soundtrack unnecessarily. The skit was so long, it can't really recall the plot...

Results: The organizers were creative with the awards. Instead of first through sixth, they were 3 third places, 2 second places, and 1 first place. I think this was a good idea when considering the students' morale.
3rd: #4, #5, #2
2nd: #3, #6 (surprised at both)

1st: #1!!

The girls were crying they were so emotional; it was awhile before they were smiling. I was especially happy that my co-teacher received some recognition for her hard work. She has spent so much time on the skit in addition to her other responsibilities. (she the youngest English teacher, so she sort of gets dumped with miscellaneous work). However, first place means that the girls will perform one more time at this Saturday at the Jeju Foreign Language Festival....not over yet!

Speaking Test

The last two weeks, I administered a speaking test to my middle school third graders (9th grade equivalent). When one of my co-teachers informed me of the test (he handed me the questions), I thought this would be a dull, boring, very uninteresting experience. Instead, I liked it. I didn't have to lesson plan, I got to talk to students one-on-one, and I heard some very interesting answers. After asking all the students (almost 200), I saw some trends. Some answers were serious and thoughtful, others were funny and/or fake. All that mattered was that the English was good. Most girls had a prepared answer ready to spit out, so it wasn't necessarily conversational..

My grading scale:
A=good grammar, good vocabulary, can converse about answer
B=sentences with mostly good grammar, but short answer
C=sentences with bad grammar
D=words no sentences
F=no English at all

1. What is the most important thing in your life?
Typical: My family, they give me energy/love/power. My health. Money.
Scripted answer: Health, because health can't be bought by money.

2. What type of man do you want to marry?
Typical:Tall handsome man with many moneys.
Thoughtful: A many that really loves me.
Amusing: I want to marry [insert TVXQ, Big Bang, 2PM, Shinee popstar name here]! For example...(look at picture teacher!).
Ambitious: Shinee. (Which one?) All.

3. I want to be healthy. What should I do?
Typical: Exercise everyday.
Questionable: Go to hospital and eat medicine. Hula hoop.

4. Please tell me about the President of Korea.
Typical: Bad.
Thoughtful: He has made bad decisions, but we elected him....
Scripted answer: His name is 이명박. He was a mayor of Seoul before he was elected. He make students tired. He made so many tests. He is interested in English.
Scripted answer 2: Korea president is 이명박, and he is bad for students because he made bad rules about education.

5. Please tell me about your homeroom teacher.
Amusing: Ancient like grandmother. Number 1 math teacher by Naver newspaper.
Scripted answer: He is tall, a little fat. but humorous. Whenever we doesn't clean te classroom. He is angry to us. But, definitely he is a good teacher.

6. What is the book which moved you the most? Please tell me about the story.
Thoughtful: Anna's Diary. Midnight Summer's Dream. Obama's Story.
Interesting: Cinderella. Twilight--Edward is vampire, Bella is human, they are love. Harry Potter.
A+: student talked about symbolism and sacrifice

7. Which country do you want to visit the most? Why?
Typical: China for Chinese food. Japan for anime.
Thoughtful: Kenya to see animals.
Amusing: USA to see Statue of Liberty and Las Vegas "bling bling".
Scripted answer: I want to go to England. Because I love Harry Potter, I really want to see a train station. I heard there is a board on the wall "Don't run into the wall." Because in the book and movie, Harry run into the wall. That is so funny.

8. Who do you respect the most?
Thoughtful: My father. My mother; she is good at cooking. Han BiYa of World Vision organization.
Suck-up: Foreign teachers.
Self-centered: Me.
Scripted answer: I respect my science academy teacher. He is very clever. I want to get his knowledge, but I don't want to resemble his personality. I envy his brain.

9. What do you think of wearing school uniforms?
Typical: Good, saves money. Bad, ugly colors. Good, pretty colors.
Interesting: Harmonious. Looks like sweet potatoes.
Very interesting: (story, told by different students) Ugly colors, looks like fire ants. At picnic (last year), a fat student (different school) called us fire ants. Almost fought, but not me.

10. What do you want to be when you grow up?
(all) Interesting: Teacher. Interior design. President's body guard, it's meaningful. Architect. Diplomat. Fashion CEO. CEO assistant (me: not CEO? student: too hard). Doctor, want to work with doctors without borders. CSI agent.
If a student answered teacher, I asked what school. If the student said middle school, I said "Really? Middle school students are difficult....". Some students caught the joke...

11. What do you do with your free time?
Typical: Listen to music. Play computer games. Watch TV.
Interesting: Study math. Read the newspaper. Walking. Eye shopping.

Please give me a gift

I wanted to make sure that my students were using "please" and "thank you" all the time, not just when if fit the dialogue in the book (i.e. "How are you?" is always answered by "I am fine thank you and you.") They know the words, but I wanted to put it into practice. To practice, we had a gift exchange. Every student "made" a gift: on a folded piece of paper, they decorated the front and inside wrote the gift. This was an extremely amusing lesson, both in decoration design and gift selection. Look at what I got!

Typical: MP3-player, Big Bang CD, cake, snack, cookies, candy, money, Big Bang photo book, chocolate, book, pencil, clothes, teddy bear, doll, phone, notebook (these are what we brainstormed on the board together)

Exciting (and unusual) gifts: manicure, Earth, Korea, handsome boy, boy friend, airplane, mansion, dung, my heart, world, beauty, guinea pig, Big Bang (the whole band), SHINee, T.O.P., GDragon, the USA and D-Lite, TVXQ, cheese cake, backpack, touch phone, Korean flag, kiss, Simpsons, piano

Quote Unquote: Delicious Food, Hundreds of MP3 files, apartment in Kang-Nam, I give my heart to you, my lips, big tree, book and boyfriend, Big Bang money, bad luck, I give u NATURE! & HJung JinOWoon

Broken English: Hello cat! (Hello Kitty), snake (snack), puppy dall (puppy dog or puppy doll...?), iPOT (iPod), close cake poppy (clothes, a cake, and a puppy)

Most exciting was a return of the Haptic Magic Diaper, but I lost it or the student took it. And the 'dung' caught me by surprise. I had gotten a couple of dung as gifts, and then at the beginning of class, I asked a student why she was late. Her friend struggled and first said "dung" (me) "bathroom?" (student) "yes, bathroom". How do they know the word for dung before the word for bathroom?

Overall, this was a good lesson. Most of the students were involved and I could get the lower level English students to speak. Also, entertaining! Click the pictures below to see the actual size image.








Hey! This reminds me of a vocab set in my Korean book...