MAC&COMMUNICATION - Teaching without textbooks

Big News: I Got accepted as a presenter at Comprehended! The Online CI Conference

11/23/2020

accepted ! wow.

For several years I have participated as a listener in this conference, and have learned sooooo much.

The teachers presenting here are so inspiring, so creative, so passionate, so transparent, and so out of the box!

When I read the announcement of next year's conference I wanted to sign up right away, but I pressed a different tab and ended in a 'proposal section'.
Uh, wow! I figured that I fulfill all the needs to get my proposal out, and thanks to this very challenging yet amazing teaching year or 2020, I also felt that I have a few new ideas that would inspire other teachers.
So, I did it~and ....Congratulations to me, I got in.

So humble and grateful

This feels so weird to say, because really, all the presenters are sooooo amazing and huge. How can my name be amongst everyone else.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I will do my very best.

Now, to all the language teachers who have been following me, supporting me, taking my courses, learning with me or from me: If you want to give yourself a Christmas present, you want to enjoy for all over 2021 or even far beyond, don't hesitate to register. This is such an amazing chance. Don't miss all those great presenters.
I just checked the long list: HERE. and also the program: HERE
This year there will also be quite a lot ideas for Online learning.

Go and check the program. Do not miss it.

And of course I will be honored and encouraged if you also log in and check my completely new presentation, no one has seen yet ~and it will only be viewable on Comprehended. My presentation will be about what I call 'Soundstories'. I wrote a blog about how it started, but this year it developed into more.

Joy and fullfillment B.C. and A.C.

6/5/2020

B.C. and A.C. is getting a new meaning~obviously.

Though we don't know wether we have reached the A.C. era already, what are the changes so far?

Total change of live style

Unrelated to COVID19, my sons moved out beginning of April, and as my Japanese husband is living in Germany right now, I am alone with my daughter. Washing, cleaning and cooking for 2 instead of 4 or 5 adults is a tremendous change.

　My school transferred to remote classes, and I have been talking about the ups and downs of this in other threads.

Requests from teachers for ideas and inspiration, in the beginning of the transition came in bulks, but then almost disappeared ...My guess is, that
everyone has been really so busy with this new way of teaching, while at the same time, I have just been so busy that my posts became irregular as well. And there have been lots of teachers around the globe who have started to share, while I was silent.

New and a bit crazy

This week school started, and I chose a very new and little crazy live style:

First, I canceled my daughter's school bus.  I would have had to pay 1800 Dollar for the year, no matter how often school will have to close down.
On top of that it is pretty impossible to seat students apart enough, or to make sure the air circulates.

So, instead I decided to drive her to school, and pick her up.
One way is 25 km, so every day I am driving 100 km now.  As I had only one occasion where I commuted to work by car (2 km), this is really rare and special for me.  And, yes, a bit crazy.

BTW, 25 km in Japan means 35-40 minutes drive, because we are only allowed to drive 50km/h, and the roads are quite narrow.  In Germany it would be 15, 20 minutes...

Now, probably many of you know, if I decide to do something, I will do all I can to enjoy what I am doing.  If I feel bad about the things I am doing or have to complain about them, I quit doing them.  Period!  No matter wether it is leisure or work.

Make it joyful

So, what is my JOY of driving 100 km per day?

Close to my daughter's school is a beautiful mountain with an amazing beauty of a temple on top.
I went up the 808 stairs twice last month, and figured how relaxing and healing it is.

No people, lots of green and the only sound are birds tweeting.
It gave me such a muscle pain that I hardly was able to walk my own stairs at home, but it felt good.

So, I have decided to take the climb every day (except for days with rain, as that would be a bit dangerous).

I am not doing this to get enlightened (I believe it takes more than walking to a temple once a day)
not for diet (I think I don't need to lose any weight)
not for health (I don't like 'healthy live movements")

My live recipe

Do it for joy.  Because it is fun.  And you know what:

I think this is my life recipe.

Does this mean, that I am leading an egoistic selfish life?
It is up to you to judge but I do not think so:

I am not ignoring society and its needs.

For example I was one of the first to close down my school end of February and move on line.  I was also very serious about wearing my mask, disinfecting my hands, keeping away from people, including friends and at times even family and just staying at home.

2 teachings that have shaped me:

From 5th -10th grade I had a homeroom teacher who told us every single day
'The own freedom ends where it interferes with someone else's freedom'
(I think this is Confucian). It is the most important wisdom I got from my teacher.

And what I learned from my next teacher who influenced who I am today:
You have the freedom to 'love what you do, where you do it, how you do it and who you do it with.'

Sorry for side tracking, back to A.C changes:

Involuntarily I HAVE to get a better work schedule.  I used to sit down in front of my computer at 7 (B.C.) and work and work and work, plan lessons, advise teachers, coach parents, create seminars., admin work, accountings...in between quickly get some lunch or do housework in bits, here and there.
Then teach get finally ready for class from 3 and teach till night, after class again sit down in front of my computer to write class reports.

NOW:  I have only 4 hours for housework AND desk work.

So, I need a plan.

One thing I am thinking right now is, that on Fridays I am going to take the time to write blogs, do FB or IG lives OUTSIDE my home. (today I did both; IG in Japanese, and FB in English)
As you can see, there are some beautiful places around my girl's school, and one day a week, just staying here, enjoying work in a beautiful scenery, and maybe even having the time to read a book on the beach.  YEAH!  Sounds like a deal.

If you have teaching questions or 'learning language questions', I'd be very happy to hear about them so I have some more topics for my FB lives. 　
Looking forward hearing from you.

Till then, stay healthy. Love and Peace!

Challenges and solutions

5/15/2020

Challenge~Herausforderung

I didn't check the roots of the English word 'Challenge'.

However let's look at the German word: 'Herausforderung', because it is such an obvious and clear meaning:
'Heraus' means 'coming/getting out of something/somewhere'
'Forderung' means 'demand' 'call'.

So a 'Herausforderung' or 'Challenge' is literally
'a call to get out'.

Similarly the Japanese word: 挑戦　（Cho sen)；
these characters together also have the similar meaning as 'A call to be active'.

If you have read the last posts:
Here,
Here,
and Here
you probably have noticed that my first 'action' is to look at the whole situation from a completely new perspective.

What does this mean practically?

First I try to figure out and imagine: what can I do now, that I wasn't able to do before. If we talk about classes in my classroom via virtual (zoom) classes:

Things we can do Virtually

Using virtual backgrounds.
Using the camera and 'playing' with it.
Using individual space.
Using private space.
Including family members.
...and more!

Second I try to think of things everyone has at home and implement it in my classes:

Materials everyone has at home

paper or plastic cups
spoons, bottle caps, and other kitchen tools
towels, sponges...
playing cards
some kind of blocks (wooden or lego...)
...and more

Third I think of fun, interactive things to do with the tool I have chosen, while reviewing and previewing the language I want to work with.

How interested are you in these activities? Let me know in the comments here or on FB if you'd like me to share more.

Time is rare even though we still have 24 hours a day, I know. But it is so rare I don't want to steal your time with articles, which are not improving your teaching or are not of any value for you.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHALLENGES WHEN TEACHING ONLINE? PART 3

5/9/2020

How can I teach Writing on lIne?

this was another question/challenge lined up.

One thing may be, that my idea of 'learning writing' is pretty unique. I don't believe in tracing or copying. It has never worked for me, and my own children suffered the conservative style of cramming writing to an extend, effecting health.

So, I believe with all my heart that learning to write must be joy. 'Joyful' means something different to each student, so teaching writing is pretty individual and one-on-one.

In a normal classroom environment, with 8 students (in my case) and 60 minutes teaching time, (10 minutes for reading and writing, because speaking comes and has to come first!) there is just no way to give each kid the time it needs to write. Even if it is just a little tiny bit or word. What takes one kid 10 seconds can take another one 5 minutes or more. Checking each one and giving thumbs ups takes another 5 minutes, and nothing new has been learned yet.

These days though, I find it really easy and fun. We can cover the content they will need to write in class (on line/zoom) and then they can go ahead and write after that.

Mostly I close our zoom lesson a bit early and tell them to do their writing practice right there, and then send it in.

Then I can take my time to look at it and write encouraging comments.

Actually I have 2 classes who had not done any phonics at all when we started learning via zoom class. I decided to give it a try and since March I am doing 5-10 minutes of phonics instructions per week. They are amazing. I have never progressed this quickly and to this extend in such a short time.
So, I actually think that even if hopefully at some point we get back to normal classes, I would start a system where I can teach writing the way I do now. I just love it.

As always, let me know if you have questions.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHALLENGES WHEN TEACHING ONLINE? Part 2

5/8/2020

Another challenge I was asked about:

Class Management.

It really surprised me to an extend, that I kept wondering!

It is NOT that I don't have students whose siblings are there, or who are swinging their pet on the lap. Again, the conclusion I got to is like in yesterday's blog:

CHANGE YOUR LENS AND VIEWPOINT!

I am happy about every family face I see, and every voice I hear in the background of class.

At one point there were parents who started talking about their taxes, so I muted the girl for a bit.

I also had a boy whose baby brother got hungry and was crying, so I muted him for a bit.
But else, every sibling, jumping around or wanting to get in front of the camera, or what so ever: I see it as a chance for communication.

I pick up on every pet, or brother or sister and ask about them. So much engaging REAL WORLD LANGUAGE.
And siblings and pets can be used to teach any pattern of grammar or structure of language we want.

Do you like your dog, brother, sister.
How old is?
What is ...name?
When is his birthday.
Does he like bananas?
What does he want to be?
Can she play the piano.

You get it, I can go on endlessly. You can review and Pre view any kind of language you want right on the spot as soon as a sibling or pet or anything else pops up on the screen.

kids who seem to have a hard time concentrating on the screen.

Let's try NOT to have them concentrate on the screen.

Please, the younger the kids, the less we should use the whiteboard (although I LOVE this feature)
the less we even should screenshare; I know, there is so much great stuff, powerpoints, etc etc. but no! Let's get the kids away from the screen.

No lie here, but every week I start getting sore muscles on Thursday night (my first day of teaching is Tuesday by the way). On Friday my body hurts so badly that I find it hard to walk up the stairs.
WHY?
We are moving, and having so many amazing brainbreaks in our lessons.

These are mostly things I could not do in our normal classes, because there is not enough space to move in my room here.

Also the introduction of language and review should be combined with lots of movement.

What are your challenges when teaching online?

5/7/2020

When writing the question I have been thinking how to phrase it:
"What are your challenges with online teaching?"

NO!

I try to avoid using this expression, because I don't think I am 'Online teaching'.

I also do 'Online Teaching', and I think there is a huge difference between this and 'Teaching Online'.

If you are not sure what I am talking about here, let me know and I will maybe write another article on this.

However - time is sooo limited- I try to keep it as relevant as possible.

And I do apologize that I have been making myself so rare! It indeed is a busy time, and I am grateful for it while at the same time I am sad, that I just cannot share more.

Before going into strategies, I have been asking about

Challenges

Some of the answers I got, expressed just what I am facing, too.

'It is harder to make it funny and get everyone laughing.'

'It is hard to know what the kids see or hear'

Interestingly many of the challenges shared were things that surprised me and I have been wondering why.

For example:

'Making sure parents don't tell kids the answer'

'Class Management>>siblings intruding, playing with pets, no concentration focus on the camera'

'Teaching writing virtually'

Why am I so surprised? Because these three are the things I am enjoying most of these virtual classes.

Change your lens and viewpoint!

Tip for No.1:

1.1.Change your viewpoint! What are the good points of this?

Parents are finally involved. Isn't this what we always wanted? Parents experience first hand HOW our lessons are and what is important. They become learners, too.
Kids feel secure and save. This is another way to become confident. Learning to swim is not always and only about jumping into the zone where your feet don't have any ground.

1.2. Make the questions interesting, engaging and out-of-the box.

If we ask 'textbook style questions' parents and students of course will get the impression that it needs to be a textbook style answer:

How are you>I am ....
When is your birthday?>>It is ...
Where are you from? >>>I'm from ...

These are drills, and I avoid them all together to teach content. As a drill, I use them ONLY in time raced warm ups. The stop watch (or what so ever to race against) will not give the time to whisper answers.

Instead of drilled Q and As I create questions that are relevant, and can be answered in different ways.

1.3 Don't ask too many questions at all!
I really do not ask questions most of the time. I find this time of teaching online ideal to give input input input, in so many engaging and fun ways.

Where do I get the output?

Assignments!

In these two months, my students have grown and improved amazingly. Pronunciation, reading ability, writings.

With most of my classes I would say, they learned as much in two month as it would usually have taken us half a year.

What I enjoy Most: SEeing (and hearing) the Dads

In Japan it was Golden Week, meaning everyone was off, unrelated to the 'Stay Home Call'.
I decided to do lessons as normally, because I saw it as a good chance for everyone involved.

I am happy I did:
I had dads instead of moms next to their kids, I had dads dancing and jumping, I had dads running around the house to find things for a 'out of the blue treasure hunt', I had dads screaming 'WELL DONE' and 'AMAZING' in the back of the room, cheering their kids.

Sorry, I will need to write another post for the other points, as this one got so long~anyway, I really believe it will help you a lot if you just change your point of view.

If you still have questions on this let me know; I will try to find the time to answer.

Mine Craft Easter Egg hunt

4/16/2020

How is your learning (and teaching) virtually going?

I hope you are enjoying it as much as I do.

I love the fact that there are so many new things to learn and I am a 'freshman' every day. While I am thrilled to experience things that are possible BECAUSE it is ONLINE, I am also very happy that this experience now shows me the LIMITS of ONLINE classes.

With all I know now, I am confident to be a much much better teacher than I ever was.

Now, today I have a special treat. My student made an easter egg hunt with Mine Craft for us. Join Itsuki on the adventure!

Working at home with Flipgrid

3/25/2020

Flipgrid full score!

Responses and videos flying in from any age. Looking forward to my spring break to create some new topics.

Sorry, no time for lots of writing and chatting now, but here is another mixtape link from my grids.
Hope it gives you some ideas.

Digital Apps for language learning

1/29/2020

What, when and how to use digital apps

On my Patreon group 'Giraffes and Sunflowers' I got the request to make a list of digital apps and how or when to use them.

I care to have no request without answering.
So here you go:
The apps ALL of my students (parents) have on their gadgets:

a-z reading (raz plus)
Kahoot
flipgrid

Age wise, Flipgrid is the one we use no matter how young.
I have close to 500 videos on my grids so far, the youngest presenter being 3.
Also have a look at my blog and live on this topic here!

Next in line is 'Kahoot'.
I introduce it to my students after they have learned the first 26 sounds of their phonics. I create all the Quizzes on my own, so I can be sure it suits there level and there is nothing they don't understand.

There is no audio function on Kahoot, so if they cannot read yet, it can be a killer of motivation. Of course, in class you can avoid this by just reading the questions out loud, but for me these apps are not 'teaching tools' but tools to use at home.

Last in sequence (age wise) is a-z reading.
Frequency wise, a-z is the app they use most of the three, because we embrace reading and have seen that proficiency comes through reading regularly. So it is a thing they work with regularly.

But obviously, they need to have learned all the phonics sounds, and have a little confidence in reading.
So, I usually create an account for them half a year AFTER they have finished the Phonics program.

All of the apps are free to download and use on multiple gadgets, and easy to use for kids, except for maybe flipgrid. It takes a while to get used to the system.

I hope this all helps, and please do comment for follow up questions.

Happy New Year

1/4/2020

A new year!

A new decade!

New challenges!

Yes, Yes, Yes!