Lauren TP#6

For this meeting I met Toshie again. During our last meeting she had told me that she was having a bit of trouble with listening so I researched some listening practices for the TOEFL. Our plan was to meet up in the CIES lounge but as soon as we got there we realized that it was too loud to do our listening exercise. We ended up going to the class I take my TEFL class in. It was pretty quiet for the time being that the listening practice played.

The listening clip was about the electoral college and explained how it works. It was practice designed for the TOEFL and seemed pretty level-appropriate. The clip was about the electoral college and explained how it works. The clip was followed with questions about the lecture. Toshie answered these questions aloud to me rather than writing them down, so it was good speaking practice as well.

Toshie pretty much answered all of the questions right. We spoke about the lecture a little and I tried clarifying a couple points. After answering questions we listened to the lecture again but this time we followed along by reading the script. After every three questions or so Toshie would point out a word or phrase she needed clarification on. In most instances, Toshie understands my explanations almost immediately. Often times the questions she had were about words she was able to understand in reading and writing but was confused by when listening.

After finishing up the listening practice Toshie confessed to me that she had already studied the electoral college so she already had a lot of background knowledge about it. I'm sure that this had helped her answer the questions, but she still listened very attentively.

For the last part of our meeting Toshie brought out some homework that she had questions about. The questions were pretty tricky but after a bit of explanation they seemed clearer.

Lauren TP#5

For this meeting with Toshie I brought more practice for the TOEFL test. Because I know that this is her main concern I'm more than happy to focus on this. The reading I brought for last week seemed a little two easy, she only got one question wrong. This time I brought practice that was a little bit harder. I worry that this practice may have been too hard because rather than getting only one wrong as she had last time, she only got one right.

This practice was particularly difficult because it was about paleontology and dinosaurs. I'm not sure if it was the vocabulary or the topic, but this article went over much differently than the first. This was practice for the reading portion of the TOEFL. I brought more reading practice because last time Toshie and I had met she expressed that she thought that the reading practice was very helpful because she came across new vocabulary and phrases.

I'm afraid that this reading was a little too off base. In the last reading (which was about trains), Toshie learned a lot of useful vocabulary but in this reading most of the words were science terms she will likely never see again. When tutoring her I wonder if it is a waste of time to read things like this. I have heard that the TOEFL is pretty academic so this reading was my attempt at introducing that type of language.

After completing the questions, Toshie highlighted any words she did not understand and we went over the reading word-for-word. There were some sentences she did not understand but by slowly going over each individual sentence she was able to completely understand this article and acquire a lot of new vocabulary. At the end of the reading she told me that her weakness has been listening. For our future sessions I hope to bring a combination of both. We finished our session by going over some of her old tests that she felt she had done poorly on and I had helped explain her mistakes.

Lauren CP#4

After our meeting earlier in the day, Maria and I met up again last night for dinner. Hayley was Maria's other conversation partner so she joined up as well with her mom. Our original plan was to go to Chilli's but unfortunately it closed really early. We ended up deciding to eat at Pitaria.

For our meeting the week before Maria and I had gone to Pitaria, so she was already familiar with the place. I asked her how she liked the food from last time since she ended up taking almost all of it home. She told me that the proportions were way too big and that there was no way one person could eat that much food. I helped Maria order her food and for this meeting she only chose the pita fries as a side item. Hayley and her mom got some really traditional Greek plates and Hayley explained hers to us since it was something we had never seen. She also told us about how Muslims categorize their meets since she saw a sign indicating the type.

As soon as we sat down Maria started asking some questions that Hayley and I didn't really have answers to. Maria had a lot of questions about healthcare and how people who don't have money can receive services from the hospital. Fortunately, Hayley's mom is a nurse and had a lot of information on the subject. Maria also explained to us how the healthcare system works in Brazil, and was shocked by how little the government is concerned about the very poor.

I thought that a subject like healthcare was a great one to touch upon. This is such an important topic that it is important to ask questions and hear about how other cultures deal with this issue. She also asked many questions about the Zimmerman trial and the protesters. She explained that there is often protesting in Brazil as well. All in all, Maria had just as much information to share as she had absorbed.

Lauren TP#4

This meeting was with my soon-to-be 3^rd grader, Jason and his cousin, Jenny. After out last tutoring session Jason’s dad came up to me and explained that his niece, Jenny was staying with them for the summer and was visiting form Korea. He told me that she had an interest in learning English. I saw her sitting alone last time I met with Jason and ended up acquiring her as an additional tutee. Her English was good enough to join us in apples to apples but Jason was constantly whispering in her ear and having to translate for her.

The fluency difference between Jason and Jenny is very apparent. Jason attends school here in Tallahassee and is very chatty. Until this tutoring session I was very unclear of where Jenny’s English skills were. I often felt as though she understood what I was saying to her but she was so meek and quiet that I could not be sure.

For this meeting I printed out some worksheets designed for 3^rd graders because I knew it would only be slightly above grade level for Jason. I was shocked to see Jenny light up at the sight of worksheets. To my surprise, Jenny’s grammar and writing was great, she was just too shy to talk. We played word games after filling out two worksheets. After filling out the worksheets I saw that Jenny and Jason are about on the same level, this was a relief. I was originally really worried about having a multi-level tutoring group but after seeing the worksheets my worries were calmed.

Before we said goodbye I talked to Jenny and asked how she liked the worksheets. She told me that she really liked them and wanted me to bring more next week. I know that Jason is a little more adventurous and playful, he would much rather learn through games. In order to please them both, we will play a word game for 30 mins and do worksheets and reading for the other 30 minutes for our next lesson. I think that I am very lucky that my tutees have such different learning styles because that allows me to explore different teaching options.

Lauren CP#3

Yesterday I met Maria in the lounge of the CIES building to catch up a little. She brought her tablet and brought up many pictures of her hometown and their traditional dances and clothing style. We talked about the approaching finals week and she explained to me that she is pretty worried about all of her upcoming exams. In addition to the exams she has to take here at FSU with CIES she will also have a set of exams to study for as soon as she returns home.

She also told me quite a bit about a presentation she had coming up. I’m pretty sure that it is in a speaking class and is a debate done in groups. Her group has three people and they have three main points to argue. Maria told me that although she believes smoking should be banned everywhere, she has to argue the exact opposite. I explained to her that as far as debating goes, I thought that she had the easier position to argue. Her points were pretty interesting. Her first point was that public places should be public. Her second point explained that there is not, in fact, that much research done about second hand smoke inhaled from public places (most research is only done on people who live with smokers and are around it every day). Maria’s last point explained that there are other things that can be harmful to one’s health and we do not do anything to fight this (for example, the chemicals and smoke released from cars).

I was really impressed with her group’s arguments. I thought that the arguments were really well supported and even seemed like something a native speaker would come up with. Also, even though didn’t agree with the point she had to argue, she seemed very impressed to do so. Because of the fact that we had not been able to get together that much because of conflicting schedules, I persuaded her to meet me again that afternoon for dinner.

DJ TP#8

Monday, I met up with Kwang. He was assigned to me as a tutee, but told me that he wanted to focus on speaking, so our meeting have been CP meetings instead. This time, however, I wanted to mix things up a bit. We started off by just talking about the news and the weather, and I asked him what kind of restaurants around town he liked. he told me that he liked subway, and I told him that was one of my favorites too, but that it didn't really reflect local culture too well. I asked him if he would like to go to a barbecue joint sometime, and he said maybe(he has been very hesitant about meeting outside of the library). Then I figured I could do some tutoring by making him dictate for a while. I found a random book about native Americans and read a paragraph. His writing skills are flawless, and his listening skills seem to be about 98% accurate. He only ever messed up when he would mishear a word that still made sense(like "in" and "on"). However, if he misheard a word and it didn't make sense, he would be able to back at the end of the sentence and replace it with the correct word by using context. Next time I think we will do dictocomp, since he seems to be advanced enough that dictation is too easy.

DJ CP#8

Today I met up with Wayo again. She hadn't been able to see me in a while because things kept coming up. The last time she came over to my house, she noted I had a longboard, so I figured we would talk about that. She asked me about skating culture in the U.S. and I explained that there is sort of a stigma surrounding it, and that most places in public don't allow people to skateboard there. i explained that there are usually signs prohibiting it, but even when there aren't, people will call the cops on you for destruction of property or disturbing the peace. She told me that the situation was pretty much the same in Korea. She said that they had some skate parks, and that there wasn't as much of a stigma, but you can still get in trouble for it. I explained to her that the stigma comes from the culture that skaters have, which usually involves some sort of lawbreaking along the lines of graffiti or fighting. I also mentioned to her that it was kind of weird that she was into skating, because she is a girl, and girl skaters are pretty rare in America. then we talked a little bit about trick skating versus longboarding, and found out that we both prefer the smooth, relaxing ride of a longboard.

Matthew CP #9

I met with Sung on Tuesday after class at the Chipotle's on Tennessee. He had said he wanted to try Mexican food, but I couldn't remember any good Mexican restaurants in the area so I decided Chipotles was close enough. As we ate, we spent most of our time on the subject of food, our favorite and least favorite kinds, how Korean and American food was different etc. This naturally led into descriptions of the different foods we had eaten over the course of our travels and then to the trips themselves. He said that he had always wanted to visit Paris and I had spent a few days there so we talked about the things to see and do int hat beautiful city. We ended our discussion by planning what we would do next. Sung said that he really wanted to see what American nightclubs were like, so I guess that is where I will take him next. Any recommendations?

Matthew CO# 3

For my final Classroom observation I chose Mrs. Ah Young Kim's Listening class. The first thing Mrs.Kim did, after having me explain why I was there, was write a very detailed lesson plan on the board so that the students knew exactly what to expect from the lesson that day. Most of the first half of the class was schema building such as answering questions, looking at graphs and going over new vocabulary. Mrs.Kim had a good strategy of calling out students to answer questions instead of asking for volunteers so that even students who were nervous or less confident had a chance to speak and practice. Mrs. Kim also had me read a report to the class out loud. This made me a little nervous at first, but was good because the students were able to hear a native speaker and helped me gain just a little bit of confidence. After about half of the class time was taken up, Mrs.Kim showed a 15 minutes video of another native English speaker giving a lecture to her students. Here, the schema building paid off as the theme of the whole class was tied together and all of the vocabulary that they had learned was used in the lecture. I was at first surprised about how much schema building there was, but the benefit was obvious when the listening activity began and the students were eagerly taking notes.

Matthew CO #2

For my second Classroom Observation I chose Olga Garmash's Speaking class on the recommendation of one of my tutees. Mrs.Garmash first had me explain why I was sitting in the back of the class, and then wrote the subject of that days class on the board. On that day, the students would be preparing for a large job interview activity that they would be conducting later on that week. They did this by doing different group activities that had them taking on both the role of interviewer and applicant as well as exposing them to many common questions and situations that arise in a job interview. Mrs. Garmash always began each activity by going over any pertinent vocabulary so that the students could keep up. This lesson was very good because it was so practical and required a high degree if interactivity with both other students and the teacher. The interactivity was particularly good because working with other students is often more fun and informal and this class was right after lunch,  a time when many students can feel like they are about to take a nap. Mrs. Garmash also spoke more quickly and naturally than other teachers, modeling the kind of speech that could be expected of her higher level students.

Matthew CO #1

For my first Classroom Observation, I observed Ryan Flemming's early morning grammar class. This particular day ended up being special because Lacey, a TEFL 170 hour student, was going to be teaching a class for the first time. This gave me an excellent opportunity to observe and learn from both Lacey and Mr. Flemming. The first thing Mr.Flemming did was explain to the class very clearly why I was there as well as why Lacey was teaching the class that day. This was very good, it lowered the students Affective Filters and made them feel more comfortable, as the presence of new people can make some students apprehensive. After this, Mr. Flemming allowed Lacey to take the stage, but still played an active role by taking notes and walking around while the students did their work. Lacey did a very good job of explaining the grammar and speaking slowly and clearly, although I think she could have benefited more from writing on the board instead of relying on the computer and typing things in. The lesson was very tightly structured, with time limits set on everything, as well as very fluid; there was a variety of different kinds of activities so that students didn't get bored. One thing I really liked was that Lacey ended her lesson by going over an correcting grammar mistakes that she had heard over the course of the class. Overall, I learned a large number of good teaching strategies from watching Mr.Flemming and Lacey teach, strategies that will greatly benefit me when I eventually begin to teach.

Matthew TP #4

This was my first meeting with Yosuka so we spent most of our time figuring out a schedule as well working out what kinds of things she wanted to study. For Yosuka this was fairly easy, she has her TOEFL test coming up in August so we will spend most of our time practicing Listening, Speaking and Reading questions for this test. She also expressed interest in learning vocabulary and working on pronunciation, so I will work in some exercises on that in between all of our TOEFL work. She seems nervous about the test, so my goal is to make her feel more confident when she takes the test this time. We will most likely be meeting close to every day leading up to her test on the 10th of August.

Matthew CP# 8

I met with Sultan on Tuesday for, what I soon found out, would be our last meeting. The last week of class, Sultan and many of his friends are driving to Tampa to take the IELTS test. We discussed what exactly the IELTS test was, because I didn't know and the best analogy we came up with was that that TOEFL test was like the SAT and the IELTS was like ACT. Close, but not exactly the same. Because we were on the subject, he asked me many questions about what the SAT and ACT were like because there is a good chance that he will be taking those some time soon so that he can begin college in the US. I explained the tests as best as I could, but the main point that I made was that because the tests are so unique, it's as important to learn how to take the test as it is to just know the information. I then pointed him in the direction of some books and practice tests that I had found useful. After that, I wished him safe travels back to Kuwait.

Hayley CP #9

Maria

I with Maria for the last time this week.  She is leaving on Monday and I will be out of town all weekend so we will not get to meet again. It was such a pleasure getting to know her over these last few weeks. At first she was really shy but by this meeting she was much more comfortable and her English has improved so much! Lauren is her other conversation partner so she came along too. We met up with my mom and intended to go to Chili’s but because they close early for summer, we walked to the Pitaria instead.

She was so happy to see my mom again. She really liked talking to her because they are closer in age and such. I asked some questions Maria had previously asked me about the healthcare system in the US. My mom is a nurse who works at the Department of Health so I knew she could provide better answers than I could. My mom was also talking about the protests currently happening in the Capitol over the Hold Your Ground Law. Maria was familiar with the Zimmerman case. I think they have been talking about it in her classes or something.  She told us about the recent protests in Brazil. She thinks that even though the protests are about things that are good (getting more social services, fighting corruption, ect.) that if they continue to elect the same corrupt leaders; no real change will be made.

We walked back to our cars and I said bye to Maria. She said she will keep in touch with me through e-mail and I hope that she does. I also told her to send me all of the pictures she has of us together. All in all, I enjoyed having Maria as a conversation partner and I think the experience has taught me a lot.

Erika CP#7

Today my conversation and I talked about what he was going to do after the CIES session is over. He told me he plans to travel to a couple of different places. He wants to go do New York, Michigan, Arizona, Jacksonville, and Miami. He was telling me about the different flights he booked and their prices and how happy he was to be able to go visit his friends. Then he told me a story of when he first came to the United States. He was amazed at the size of the Miami International Airport. He compared it to a couple of other airports like O’Hare and Tallahassee. He said he didn’t think Tallahassee was big and found it a little strange. I told him I thought it was strange since this is a capital city, but it is not a big airport because it is only a regional airport.

Erika TP#9

I met with my partner today and we talked about gerunds and infinitives. I observed a class earlier in the day and the topic was gerunds and infinitives, so the information was fresh in my mind. He seemed to have a pretty good understanding of it. However, he was not very cooperative and quite cranky. I completely understand considering he is fasting, so our tutoring session did not last very long.

Erika CO#3

I observed a speaking class for group 3B. The class was very animated, the students got along very well with each other and the teacher. Everyone was joking with each other. The teacher talked about group discussions. She asked if anyone had ever been in a situation that required a group discussion. A student spoke up and explained that his job has group meetings every morning. The teacher then went on to explain other reasons group discussions could be useful. She then asked if group discussions were hard for her students to be a part of. She asked if anyone had trouble voicing their opinion in a group discussion. Some students said that sometimes it is hard because some people talk a lot. This line of questioning brought her active lesson. The active lesson was all about techniques to help students deal with group discussions. There were tips to help students get other people to be more vocal in group discussions, to help students find ways to stop other people from dominating and tips for agreeing and disagreeing with other people. After they went through these tips she broke them up into four groups and asked them to make a dialogue using one of the tips in the dialogue. The students then had to preform it in front of the class. The students seemed to love the disagreeing and dominating options, they joked about saying “shut up” to someone that is dominating the discussion and “I don’t like your opinion” or “I think you are wrong” to someone they disagree with. Overall, the class was a very upbeat and relaxed environment.

Lindsey CP#6

          Yesterday I met up with Karoline again for dinner. We talked more about her family and students back home (she's always eager to say more about them). She doesn't have any children yet, but definitely wants some. She misses her husband a lot. She says that she wants to get her Master's Degree in education. I asked if she planned on doing that in the U.S. She said that she would like to, but that she would miss her family too much. She talks often about how much she would like to live here, so I asked her if she has ever considered moving with her husband. She explained that unfortunately she couldn't; her immediate family is small, but Brazilians are very close to their extended family, and she would not be able to leave them behind. She showed me pictures of her nieces and talked about the Disney souvenirs she got them.
          Although Karoline is very homesick, she also wants to make the most of the time she has left here. She showed me her schedule of events (mostly through CIES), and she will definitely be busy. I noticed that the CIES students are going to Wakulla Springs and Panama City Beach, which should be fun. She also mentioned a "traditional American dinner", which I forgot to ask more about. I hope she has a good time, and I also hope we find time to meet a few more times before she leaves!

Lindsey CP#7

          Today I met with Eugene for tea in the lounge. We've both been having busy weeks, but I'm glad we found a time that worked for both of us. Eugene explained to me that he has been having trouble getting a driver's license here (I guess his Korean license is okay for now, but he has to get a Florida one eventually). He said that he had a bad time at the DMV office the other day, and I explained to him that complaints about them are pretty common. When criticizing government bureaucracy, or just complaining about lines, Americans often bring up the DMV. I suggested he try to find one farther away from downtown that will be less busy (since there must be several in Tallahassee). We talked a bit about transportation in Tallahassee versus his city in S. Korea. Back home Eugene does not need a car (he bikes or takes the subway) since traffic is so bad and gas is expensive. He said that gas is several times more expensive over there. I hadn't thought to look up gas prices outside of the US and Europe before, so that was interesting. He mentioned that the high price was largely because of taxes, which was also interesting.
          Eugene seemed very interested to know about where I used to work (Publix). He said that he likes going there because the staff are friendly and often give him advice and directions, but is suspicious that the employees are required to act that way. I thought it was funny that he would notice that, since Americans never seem to think twice about the fact that retail workers are always very friendly. Of course retail workers are essentially required to be friendly, and I told Eugene that. He said that he didn't like that situation, and that fakeness was just as bad as the DMV worker's rudeness. I guess retail workers in Korea are more likely to act genuinely (I've noticed that in my travels as well).
          We're planning on meeting again next week for tea time!

Lindsey CO#1

          Today I observed Felicia's level 2A grammar class. The lesson was on adverbs, and focused on how to use the different types as well as how to distinguish between them and adjectives. I got there about 5 minutes early, as did a few students. Felicia spent that time setting up her lesson and talking to students about their weekends.
          When class started Felicia spent a minute writing the agenda and a "Bell Ringer" on the board. The Bell Ringer was a short partner exercise - they would explain to each other what an adverb is and use it in a few sentences.
          Next they went over a handout on adverbs that they already had. Felicia read sentences aloud and made sure everybody understood. Then, in pairs, they answered some questions about identifying adverbs and adjectives. There were an odd number of students and so I was paired up with one. We had to identify adverbs and adjectives in sentences and explain why there were what they were. There was one difficult sentence ("Take it easy!") that I was given to explain. That was difficult because this is an expression that doesn't make too much sense when analyzed; "easy" modifies "take", but you have to know the expression in order to know what modifies what.
          One of the last things they did was to break off into groups and come up with simple sentences; when they were done they had the other group use adverbs to improve the sentences. I was assigned to correct one of the group's sentences. I had trouble giving feedback on one of the sentences - something like "Anna is *sometimes* good at swimming" (the second group added the adverb) - because although it is grammatically correct, it's odd to say that someone is sometimes good at swimming. I explained my thought to the students, who understood, laughed, and said that maybe she is often sick.
            The class seemed to go very quickly, which is definitely good for a grammar class. Felicia spoke very clearly, although she only reduced the speed of her speech a little bit.

Lindsey TP#6

          Yesterday I met with Kwangsoo, who is in a CIES program in order to improve his English before he starts research in the fall. He works for the South Korean department of education, and will be doing research on early childhood education.
          Kwangsoo's English is very good, but his speaking level is very far behind his reading and writing levels. He doesn't need to take the TOEFL, so there would be no use practicing TOEFL speaking prompts. We agreed that it would be most helpful to spend our time talking as if we were conversation partners, except with me correcting all of his grammatical errors and helping with pronunciation. He seemed to enjoy talking about himself and his field of study, but also explained that he is often frustrated with how little he can express in English (compared to in Korean).
          While I could usually understand him, he did make grammar mistakes often. It took me a while to get used to correcting him. I know he won't be offended when I correct him, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be to catch grammatical errors and correct them while we were having a conversation, especially since he would pause often to collect his thoughts. Because of the pauses, I would often forget which tense he should be using, or if his sentences were constructed correctly. It definitely became easier as time went on. I also had a difficult time correcting his pronunciation, because he finds some sounds indistinguishable ("r" and "l" for example). Next time I will be more prepared to use minimal pairs to help.
          Overall the meeting went well, and I think our meetings will continue the same way in the future. I will try to come prepared with minimal pairs and maybe audio samples, though.

Pak CP#2

This past Thursday my conversation partner and I had dinner at Tijuana Flats on Pensacola Street.  It was his first "Mexican" restaurant he went to in the United States.  I helped him order his food.  Also, in respects to Ramadan, we scheduled the dinner at a rather late time and met around 9:30 pm. The dinner was with two other friends so my conversation partner could listen to how other people spoke English, one was another international student and the other was a native speaker.  As we arrived at the restaurant, I assisted in finding the right dish for my conversation partner and asked if he had ever had this kind of food before.  This was his first time.  Through multiple exchanges in opinions, he decided that he would have the Chimichanga.

As the food came out, I directed his attention the vast variety of hot sauces that were in the "sauce bar." He was amazed and amused at the assortment and the pictures that went with their description.  He asked me a lot on what the implications of having a "hot/burning butt," but I assured him that I will explain it to him after we finished dinner.

Throughout the dinner we caught up on each others' weekends.  Then y partner tol me that he was going to take his IELTs Exam in Tampa the day after we met.  I asked him if he was cofident and which part he was most concerned with.  He was very confident and told me that he was good to go.

After the meal I wished him the very best in his examination, we talked for a bit longer and left.

Hayley TP #9

Abdul

Abdul and I continued working on phrasal verbs. We have now gotten to the list of transitive phrasal verbs with three parts. This was important because for some of the verbs he was trying to leave off the last preposition which would change the entire meaning of the phrase for example to look up vs to look up to. We continued through the list. The biggest challenge is coming up with good examples and knowing the rule when something he says sounds awkward but I don’t know why it is incorrect. For one of the phrases break in on I described that you can say “Sorry to break in” meaning the verb to break in or to interrupt but if you wanted to put the object in, “Sorry to break in on your conversation” you would need the preposition on in there.

Next week I am planning to make a review test because it will be our next to last meeting. It will be fill-in-the-blank phrasal verbs. I think this will be good for him because I am sure he will do well on it and it will make him feel confident because he has learned so much.

Chan-CP#7

     This weekend Meagan and I drove Wakulla Springs to meet the CIES group for the outing.  I was happy to see Hayley there as well.  Upon arrival Meagan and I saw the group gathered around the boat tour house.  They were all standing in clumps chatting or just standing.  I saw my conversation partner, Chris, with her Brazilian girlfriends and we greeted each other and conversed, mostly small talk.  Being an entertainer, I decided to play my ukulele, which seemed popular with the CIES group.  A lot of the young women smiled and asked what instrument I was playing.  The Japanese women seemed most interested in the instrument.  Another friendly Japanese student named Takya (spelling questionable) greeted me and Hayley while standing in the sun on the high dive.  We talked about CIES and the coolness of the water.  Then, I decided it was time to jump in!  I like to get everybody to count “1-2-3,” to motivate the more timid jumpers, like myself. 

     The group went out on the boat tour, and upon returning, some of the Brazilian women were swimming near where Hayley and I had set up “camp”.  I played my banjo and sang some folk music.  Then Meagan, Hayley, and I swam out to them and the six of us stood in a circle and talked about their home-region in Brazil, the indigenous people, and the folk music of Brazil.  The ladies sang us a song from their childhood, and then we showed them “ring-around-the-rosie”.  I was happy to know a famous bossanova tune called “Agua de Beber” (translated: Water to Drink).  Maria and Maria explained the meaning of the song, which is one of companionship or camaraderie.

Chan-CO#1

     Upon entering Victoria Davis’ 1pm speaking class, I was welcomed and greeted in a warm and friendly manner.  Although Ms. Davis spoke incredibly fast, she was focused on her class as they were briefly discussing the fact that they would not be going to the Capitol Building-- due to the current protests happening.  Some students voiced their disappointment and stated that it would be an All-American experience to see a protest at the Capitol.  Instead, Ms. Davis’ class merged with another class and we trekked to Strozier Library to do research on the buildings of FSU.  The purpose of the research was to discover interesting things about the buildings in order to conduct a campus tour while sharing the information with their peers on the following day. 

     The activity seemed to be very beneficial in more than one way.  First, each student worked with an assigned partner from the other class, which forced him or her to interact with a person outside of their own culture.  Secondly, the teachers were guiding the students individually through their research, which is very practical, considering most of the students want to attend college in the U.S., and may need guidance in how to conduct research in English.  The activity was engaging and purposeful.    

Chan-CP#6

     Chris and I met at the student Union Friday afternoon.  She needed to ship a couple packages, so we went together to the UPS store.  We ended up having a nice conversation with the young man behind the counter, and were both surprised to learn that he was from Columbia.  His accent and demeanor were very “American”.  He told us that he attended an American school in Columbia.  I was happy to share with him information about the TEFL course, as he seemed bored with his job at the UPS store.  Chris is also interested in getting her TEFL certificate, so she enjoys hearing the information.  After she shipped her packages, she and I drove to the mall.  We talked about going out that night, and discussed Arab men and their relationship to Arab women.  Also, we discussed the clothing restrictions on Arab women, and she said she would find out more from her Arab friend about the extremity of the restrictions.  In other words, in one’s private home are the women confined to a dress code?  

     I dropped Chris off at the mall, and she happily galloped to meet her Brazilian friend, who was getting off the bus the moment we pulled up. 

Chan-TP#8

           On Friday, July 26 I met with the Hong twins for tutoring.  They were enthusiastic about their English lesson.  I was actually surprised by how excited they were to get started, because when we first got together-- weeks ago-- they were both detached and disinterested.  However, using tactile learning for children seems the most efficient and successful way to engage them. 

            We began with the “top hat” activity, working on using the objects pulled from the hat as prompts for writing sentences.  This lesson, I asked the boys to use specific verb tenses in their sentences.  Matthew is more advanced than David and often knew the correct form, when David needed more help.  The “token economy” I have set up, gives the boys an opportunity to feel like they are gaining something each time they focus on writing neatly, with correct form, and correct spelling.  I find the point system to be motivating for the boys by giving them the chance to earn extra points for writing neatly.  Again, we played the “homemade board game” with tasks specific to practicing writing and brainstorming skills.  Next week, I feel the need to bring a new game for the twins.  Looking forward to creating something fun to engage the boys in learning.

DJ CP#7

Yesterday I met with my conversation partner, Kwang. He told me that he had a headache so I tried to talk quietly. We started off by talking about the videogame excursion I had with Wayo. I told him I wished he could have come to play with us, and he reminded that "the last guy [he] played was pacman." in the end, maybe it was best that he didn't come over because my house was a mess. Next we talked about differences between eastern and western medicine. He told me that where he lives, medicine was basically the same as here in the U.S., but that there are just as many "traditional" medicine vendors as there are western. He said that he prefers to use western medicine(as I would expect a man who work sin education to), but he still uses some home remedies. I told him that things are similar here in the U.S., most people will use over the counter medicines, as well as home remedies when trying to get rid of something like a cold or headache. Next we talked about the NSA scandal. It is one of my favorite things to talk to them about, because most of the students consider America to have "much more freedom" than where they came from. So far, none of them have been aware of the story, and they are all surprised by it when I tell them. Still, though, they all consider America to be a better place to live than where they come from(and I tend to agree).

Erika CO#2

I observed a group 2B grammar class this morning. The class was great. The teacher made several jokes that the class enjoyed. I am used to seeing the videos in class of the teachers speaking slowly, so when I heard him I was surprised. I thought he was speaking very fast, but the students seemed to follow and he was always writing on the board. He used the entire whiteboard. To start off the class, I guess as a warm up, he asked the students about their weekend. That conversation went on for a couple of minutes and then he told them how today was going to work. He explained that he was going to teach differently today. Instead of using the notes in the textbook he was going to write notes on the board and have the students copy them. He also told them that they were going to do activities out of the book. Today, he taught infinitives and gerunds using a Venn diagram. Before he wrote the Venn diagram he asked the students to give a definition for each verb tense. Then, he gave three important rules for each verb tense and gave two example sentences for each rule. After, he had the students write their own original sentences. While they were writing he walked around and answered questions. He asked a couple of students to write one of their sentences on the board. When everyone was finished he went over the sentences as a class. He asked them to tell analyze the sentences, to tell him which words were the infinitives, gerunds, verbs or pronouns. Then he also asked them if there was anything that could be fixed. Many of the students made simple mistakes, such as, not putting a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, forgetting to put a period or forgetting that certain nouns are always capitalized (languages). The teacher did not fix any of the mistakes; he had the students point them out. At the end of the class, he explained how the week was going to go, he explained that he was going to give them a worksheet, but they would fill it out together as the week went on. 

Erika TP#8

In this tutoring session my partner and I talked about our friends and family. We talked about what we used to do, our hobbies, and what we like to do for fun with our friends. We also talked a lot about animals. We both like animals and both of us had nicknames that were animals at one point. We also talked about what her plans were for the weekend, if she was going on the cies trip and her plans for after the semester. She wants to come back to Tallahassee to study after she graduates. She speaks English very well; the only thing I corrected her on was pronunciation or a misused preposition her and there.

Adam CP # 7

Today I met with Yen Yin Chen at Atomic Coffee at 5:00. We talked briefly about the university system in the United States and the university system in Taiwan. We agreed that there were a lot of similarities, although he said that student loan debt was not such a problem in Taiwan. He also mentioned that when he was looking into universities in the United States he preferred the ones on the east coast because they used a semester system, instead of the intensive quarter system used by most public universities on the west coast. He mentioned that he was trying to obtain a driver's license in the United States, and I told him about good places to go in Tallahassee that are not in walking distance (but definitely in driving distance) relative to campus. Yen Yin Chen had a free coupon for McDonald's so we went there later before walking to the Askew Student Life Center on campus. We had a conversation about the Chinese Zodiac and the differences between the Chinese and Greek Zodiac, as well as the story of the Chinese Zodiac. We also had a conversation about how identifying a person's personality based on their blood type is very popular in a lot of East Asian countries, and actually pretty similar to the zodiac in terms of how people use it to talk about their personalities.

Pak CP#1

A few weeks ago I met with my conversation partner.  He is an 18 year old guy from Kuwait.  He really misses his family especially his older brother.  I met him at Lake Ella and we talked about his field of study.  He will be pursuing a degree in engineering and plans on going out of state for his degree.  We talked a great deal about how he liked Tallahassee and he liked the freedom in everyday life.  If you wanted to go anywhere you could drive your car, in addition, he really likes the people here.  He says that people in Tallahassee are nice and are always smiling.  After we finished out discussion, I asked him what he wanted to do and he asked if I could go help him buy some cologne at Governor's Square Mall.

After we went to the mall, he had me give my opinion on which cologne smelled the best and after that he smelled some other one and bought it.  After that we chilled out at the food court and discussed the different varieties of foods America has and we compared it to the food in Kuwait.  This was another thing that he enjoyed in America: the food.  Shortly after that, we decided to get a massage at the Chinese Pressure Point Massage booth. It was a nice way to wind down the week.  After the massage, we both wanted to go home and just relax and sleep.  We departed and scheduled our next meeting through text messaging.

Pak TP#4

In this meeting, my tutee and I discussed how to effectively write body paragraphs in an essay and we also held a mock TEFL speaking session as well.

That day wet met at his apartment and we used a study room that was there.  I utilized the white board that was in the room to better illustrate and explain the components of the body paragraphs.  He was very familiar with the proccess of writing, but he asked me to review and help him better understand it.

To have him understand the stucture of the body paragraphs, I told him that it was like a miniature essay in itself.  The first line starts with the main idea, then a couple of supporting sentences, then finish with a closing sentence that will smoothly transition into the next paragraph.  For this, I drew the the Greek Pillars model and then erased the top and the base part so that the pillars were the only things left.

Underneath each of the pillars I drew two lines that stemmed out and below, these would serve as places to write down the supporting statements.  Since the topic that we were working on was in a persuasive nature, I had him think of three reasons.  As mentioned in one our previous meetings, the reasons why someone should visit Kuwait would be because of the nice weather, the modern architecture and attraactions, and because he lives there.

For weather, he stated that the nights were really cool and you could see the stars, and that there were not a lot of hurricanes and the like.
For the architecture and attractions, he talked about the gigantic malls and the Kuwait Towers.
Lastly, for his support in living there, he stated that if anyone wanted to go to Kuwait, he could take them sightseeing and that the visitors could stay at his home.

Along with the transition words that I gave him, he beautifully constructed the paragraphs.

This past weekend he went to Tampa to take the IELS and once he comes back, we will schedule another meeting.

Pak TP#3

After my last meeting with my tutee, we furthered discussed the elements of essay writing.  In our previous meeting, we discussed elements of writing a strong introduction for an essay.  In this meeting, we discussed and brainstormed about how to write a strong conclusion.

I shared with him that the conclusion is basically a restatement of the introduction on a more proactive notion with a sense of closure.  The mock topic that I gave him was, "Why would someone travel to Kuwait?"  He came up with three reasons and then from we worked on developing a good conclusion.

Along with this, I gave him some useful links for transition words to use throughout his essay and to start off his body paragraphs.  We also viewed sample essays and articles online in order to give him stylistic options in writing.

Although it seemed as though we did not cover much material, we talked about many things and I helped him with his speech and pronunciation.  He had trouble with pronouncing and differentiating with words that had "ee" and "i" for example, a sheet of paper as opposed to a sh...t of paper.  I had him emphasize the double e's which helped a lot.

Pak TP#2

Through many rounds of text messaging and calls, my tutee and I finally agreed on a good meeting time.  We covered essay writing.  I first discussed with him of what he wanted to focus on and after a short period of planning and organizing, I started with the pillars of writing an essay.

I used Adam's Sandwich Model along with the Greek Pillars model on how to write an essay.  I drew on a white board that came equipped with the room.  I drew visuals aids to better articulate and visualize the Sandwich and Greek Pillars models.  By drawing these aids, my tutee became very enthusiastic and began to tentatively take notes and drew those said models.

After I discussed the paragraphs in an essay I asked him what he wanted me to focus on.  "Everything," he replied.  That day we started with writing the introduction.

I asked him what he knew about writing an intro and he stated that its purpose was to state the main idea.  I enforced his answer by adding that the intro should have exposition along with the thesis.  I explained to him that the exposition was the general information and background of the topic that he will be writing about.  I gave him a practice writing topic, "Why should someone travel to Kuwait?"

Once I gave him the question, I transitioned into discussing the thesis statement.  I shared with him that the thesis statement was the answer to the question or topic that was presented.  I gave him a couple of minutes to brainstorm and we came up with his reasons for why someone should travel to Kuwait.
1. The nice weather 2. The modern architecture and attrations 3. He lives there.

I then had him verbalize his introduction and then had him practice and write it down.  Through experience, I have found out that when students verbalize what they say, it will help them better understand what they were trying to say and would help facilitate in their writing proccess as well.

After that, we scheduled to meet the following day.

Pak TP#1

A few weeks ago I met with my tutee and we had dinner at his friend's apartment.  He was under the practices of Ramadan and he invited me to have dinner.  During the dinner, we introduced ourselves and I discovered that he was from Kuwait.  Apparently everyone, except for me, was from Kuwait.  I found that his speaking skills were quite advanced and we talked about our families.  We also talked about Ramadan as well.  He told me that Ramadan served to make people humble and appreciative with the food that they can eat along with the things in life that they have.  He also stated that it also made them understand how beggars feel in order to have self humility.  I learned a great deal of culture, religion, and better understood my tutee's level of English speaking and listening comprehension.  We scheduled our next meeting the following Sunday, but we had to cancel it.

Hayley CP #8

Today I went on the CIES trip to Wakulla Springs. I drove some of the Brazilian teachers so we were all chatting during the drive. When we got there I saw my conversation partner Maria along with some other CIES students I have met including my tutoring partner, Abdul. They all went on the boat tour so Chan and I swam around for a while. We went over to the high dive where I met Leo and another student from Japan whose name I forget. They are both finishing their last session at CIES. We swam around a bit and jumped off the high dive with them.

After the group got out of the boat tour, Meagan joined us. My conversation partner, Maria, swam with us and some of her friends. Chan asked them what songs they sing as little kids and we played ring-around-the-rosie. It was just really silly. I was also surprised they were swimming because they said they wouldn’t if it was too cold. Around 2 the weather starting getting cloudy and we knew it would rain soon. So I drove the ladies back to their dorm. I had a really great time and I know they all enjoyed the trip.