The Walls Of Jericho.
A school inspector is sent to assess a Year 4 class in a local Brisbane State School.
He is introduced to the class by the teacher.
She says to the class, "Let's show the inspector just how clever you are by allowing him to ask you a question".
The inspector reasons that normally class starts with religious instruction, so he will ask a biblical question.
He asks: "Class, who broke down the walls of Jericho ?"
For a full minute there is absolute silence. Eventually, little Billy raises his hand.
Billy stands up and replies: "Sir, I do not know who broke down the walls of Jericho, but I can assure you it wasn't me".
Of course the inspector is shocked by the answer and the lack of knowledge of the famous bible story and he looks at the teacher for an explanation.
Realizing that he is perturbed, the teacher says: "Well, I've known Billy since the start of the year, and I believe that if he says that he didn't do it then he didn't do it".
The inspector is even more shocked at this and storms down to the principal's office and tells him what happened, to which the principal replies: "I don't know the boy, but I believe his teacher.
If she feels that the boy is innocent, then he must be innocent".
The inspector can't believe what he is hearing. He grabs the phone on the principal's desk and in a rage, dials Julia Gillard and rattles off the entire occurrence to her and asks her what she thinks of the education standard in the State.
The PM sighs heavily and replies:The PM sighs heavily and replies:
"I don't know the boy, the teacher or the principal, but just get three quotes and have the bloody wall fixed!!"
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
How I teach ESL (English as a Second Language)
Every day I begin with journal writing and some discussion on the vocabulary and grammar around this. This helps get the lesson started with discussion and reflection.
During my last contract teaching mostly Columbian high school students at Ottawa International Projects and Exchanges in Canada, I taught the following units.
1. A winter unit.
Students studied the B1 level winter assignments, ie how dress appropriately for winter, winter sports, and activities, winter foods and beverages,
2. The geography and industries of Canada (research completed in the computer lab and presentations conducted in the classroom.)
3. Idioms,
As a class we studied two stories containing idioms, including the story of a man who climbed mount everest with a disability and the story of a man who performed surgery on himself while lost at sea.
3.
Talking Canadian film study.
The class watched this fascinating documentary and discussed the ideas it presented, noting the differences between European English, Canadian English and American English.
4. Superstition Unit.
This unit contains fascinating information on superstition. Lessons involved categorizing, and determining whether a superstition was true or false...
There was also a fun speaking activity I made up based on asking the students (groups of two) to imagine that they were in the Friday the 13th picture and describing the events taking place around them (min of 2 mins speaking time for each group)
5. Information Gap / Listening and singing along to songs.
Some of the songs I have done using information gap hand outs are Waka Waka or Waving Flag, Billy Joel - the Piano Man, Coldplay - Viva lavida, Paradise, Cat Stevens - Where do the Children Play, Crowded House - Always take the weather with you
The students enjoyed all these songs but especially Coldplay.
6 .
Some of the games we played include. Scrabble, Pictionary (using the chalk board) , the never ending story game (using a timer, students present a picture card and use it to start or continue a story. The student still speaking when the time runs out must collect all the cards. The first student with no remaining picture cards wins.) We also played word-serpent on the chalk board and word serpent catch. Basically, students have to make up a new word starting with the last letter of the previous word.
7. There were also two lessons based on Mr Bean episodes which I watched on the smart board.
8. There was also a combined class with Sando's (a legendary teacher who has just returned to Ottawa after working for several years in Columbia teaching ESL) group where we watched a documentary about Various Famous Graffiti Artists. Students were asked to analyze the images and discuss their meanings.
9. Types of jobs Guessing Game (ie from reading the idioms used in a particular job students had to guess the name of the job. Students then did role plays from various occupations.)
Some other things I covered were lessons like; How to cook pan cakes and read an English pan cake recipe. How to go Ziplining and the vocabulary involved.
I have had a brilliant time teaching ESL on the whole; my Columbian and Chinese classes have been especially enjoyable.
Cheers
Ben
During my last contract teaching mostly Columbian high school students at Ottawa International Projects and Exchanges in Canada, I taught the following units.
1. A winter unit.
Students studied the B1 level winter assignments, ie how dress appropriately for winter, winter sports, and activities, winter foods and beverages,
2. The geography and industries of Canada (research completed in the computer lab and presentations conducted in the classroom.)
3. Idioms,
As a class we studied two stories containing idioms, including the story of a man who climbed mount everest with a disability and the story of a man who performed surgery on himself while lost at sea.
3.
Talking Canadian film study.
The class watched this fascinating documentary and discussed the ideas it presented, noting the differences between European English, Canadian English and American English.
4. Superstition Unit.
This unit contains fascinating information on superstition. Lessons involved categorizing, and determining whether a superstition was true or false...
There was also a fun speaking activity I made up based on asking the students (groups of two) to imagine that they were in the Friday the 13th picture and describing the events taking place around them (min of 2 mins speaking time for each group)
5. Information Gap / Listening and singing along to songs.
Some of the songs I have done using information gap hand outs are Waka Waka or Waving Flag, Billy Joel - the Piano Man, Coldplay - Viva lavida, Paradise, Cat Stevens - Where do the Children Play, Crowded House - Always take the weather with you
The students enjoyed all these songs but especially Coldplay.
6 .
Some of the games we played include. Scrabble, Pictionary (using the chalk board) , the never ending story game (using a timer, students present a picture card and use it to start or continue a story. The student still speaking when the time runs out must collect all the cards. The first student with no remaining picture cards wins.) We also played word-serpent on the chalk board and word serpent catch. Basically, students have to make up a new word starting with the last letter of the previous word.
7. There were also two lessons based on Mr Bean episodes which I watched on the smart board.
8. There was also a combined class with Sando's (a legendary teacher who has just returned to Ottawa after working for several years in Columbia teaching ESL) group where we watched a documentary about Various Famous Graffiti Artists. Students were asked to analyze the images and discuss their meanings.
9. Types of jobs Guessing Game (ie from reading the idioms used in a particular job students had to guess the name of the job. Students then did role plays from various occupations.)
Some other things I covered were lessons like; How to cook pan cakes and read an English pan cake recipe. How to go Ziplining and the vocabulary involved.
I have had a brilliant time teaching ESL on the whole; my Columbian and Chinese classes have been especially enjoyable.
Cheers
Ben
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