子供英会話大津市堅田 MARGIT'S ACADEMY OF CULTURE & COMMUNICATION - Teaching without textbooks

子供英会話大津市堅田 MARGIT'S ACADEMY OF CULTURE & COMMUNICATION

How to Flipgrid

6/16/2019

A week ago I did a Facebook Live on how I started setting up Flipgrid in my EFL classroom.
It sounds like many teachers got inspired and are wanting to try it.

Please let me know how it goes, and what ideas and topics you come up with.

Example Grids

Meanwhile, I finally mixed a tape of several student works, you can check HERE.
I tried to mix a variety of ages, levels, confidences, and topics.
They all did this without my help. I gave them a topic per video, and off they went.
Which of the topics do you like most?
Looking forward to hearing from you.

'hush!' ~Listen! The 'other' movietalk

5/24/2019

I love doing movie talks with my teenage classes.
Actually one of my first blogs on this website was about a class where I used an animation (it is a favorite one so have a look) and all over the years I have been trying to find more fun short clips to use in English class. There is a small list, I will share in another post, if you are interested.

movie Talk without tune

I know, many English teachers use movie clips to practice listening. Definitely one way to do it~
However, for me, that is something students can do on their own, at home.
Instead, I use movie clips to practice SPEAKING, something students won't do at home, because they are on their own~boring to speak if no one is listening, right?!

And, to get the students speaking, I choose movie clips that have NO VOICE.
The procedure usually is simply a 'STOP and GO', with 100s of questions in between of:
Who is there? What is he doing? How is he? What is going to do? Why do you think he is going to ...? What do you think will happen next? etc etc etc
Kids love it and are completely into the scenes.

Now, yesterday I happened (it really 'happened by coincidence') to do it a different way.
AND I want you to try it yourself on your own, before trying it with your students, so read to the end, BEFORE clicking the play button!!!

What I did:
I put the laptop on my desk so the kids could not see the screen.
I pushed 'PLAY' and stopped after 5 seconds, asking
WHERE they think the scene is happening. (I won't tell you any answers here, because I want you to imagine yourself first)
Then I pressed play again, and paused after another 3 sec. asking who they think is there.
Why do they think so, what exactly does this character look like, what color, what size, what emotion is it etc etc etc
Then I went on through the movie, just like this!

Wow! We had a complete story, just from a few sounds.
This was amaaaaaazing.

AFTER

listening, we watched, again with me pausing constantly, again telling the story and predicting, comparing with the story we had 'listened out' just before.

And finally they were happy to watch the entire 3 minutes in a run.

To get their Junior High School energies HAPPY as well, I had written out the story in present tense and handed it to them, with the task to put it into past tense. Their class was after a day of school -and they are just in their midterm test period in school-, so concentration level should have been expected to be low.
However, they were super eager and when I finished class at 10 past 9 pm I noticed we had worked 25 minutes overtime.

Don't hesitate to leave your ideas on what you can 'listen' from this story, in the comments!

April 16th, 2019

4/16/2019

Margit's Teacher training in shiga

3/30/2019

Very excited to announce:
Margit's Master Teacher Training in Shiga 2019

Time: July 20, 21
Location:  Shiga Prefecture, Otsu city, Titti Seminar House
Day 1:  Margit's Academy Show:
Performance of my students , age 4-12.
This year we are using a new space and will have all of my students in one show.
You will experience not only the kids, but also the parents and how I get them involved.

Day 2: Full Day Teacher Training:
You will experience (I'm sure, not for the first time) what 'learning a language' means, and how your students feel in the classroom. I will use German and Bahasa Indonesia to show you techniques and methods that work (and also why others don't). All 100% practical, so you learn 'as a student' and 'as a teacher' at once.
Lots of activities, games, brain breaks you can take as they are and use in your classroom.
Second half I plan to go a bit into more 'advanced' activities and methods including movie talk, storytelling, reading and writing , again all practical.
The number of participants is limited so we will be able to figure out everyones' needs, and work on these.
And of course just being in this great community of same minded teachers! Don't think twice.

Price: 　　　　　
Regular:    29800円
Repeater: 23800円（till May 25th)
Double:      each17800円( Repeaters+someone new )
Bonus 1: All prices include accommodation
Bonus 2: A kitchen with everything needed for dinner, breakfast, lunch
Bonus 3: In case you want to bring your kids, I have a very special deal for you, that is unbeatable, so get in touch.

I am looking forward to seeing you all, please apply via contact form ,
leave a comment or call me.

If you have further questions don't hesitate to contact.

And here are a few testimonials from last year:

language loaded Easter egg hunt

3/26/2019

How do you celebrate spring?
Cherry Blossoms?
School end parties?
Easter Egg hunts?
A little bit of all?

Easter egg hunts are like all hide and seek games a huge favorite for kids.
However in English class we need to be careful that they do not end up in speechless sessions.
Here are two activities we enjoyed a lot this year:

1. A Flipgrid Easter Egg Hunt.
I hid the eggs in my house, and asked the kids via Flipgrid, where they guess the eggs are. They watched this video at home and thought of the answer. Then they took a video with their guesses. Great presentations with lots of language.

A real egg hunt, with a twist:
I made a simple sketch of a landscape with trees, grass, flowers...(all items the kids could read at this stage)
Then I wrote slips of paper with sentences like:

Ten eggs under the tree.
A red egg in the tent.
etc

I put all of these slips into a plastic easter egg each, and hid them outside all over the space. Ready go and in groups the kids were searching for eggs, reading, running back and forth to draw what they had read.

What are your favorite easter egg hunts?

Win-win-win-win　Teachers meeting in Japan

3/25/2019

The other day I talked about 'lonely' teachers.

Recently we really should not need to feel this way, as traveling is getting cheaper and cheaper.
Mila, from Czech Republic took the change to come (more than 7000 km) to stay with teachers from Japan for a week.
Additionally I organized 3 nights of homestay for her, at my student's homes.

Students hosting teachers

What I hadn't imagined is, that it would be such a huge win for these students of mine, even before Mila arrived.
They were excited from the moment they decided to have her come. They asked me every week about Mila's favorite foods, her daughter's name, things she liked or disliked...
They practiced English at home, more than they ever had, and included their families as well.
Now, that she has returned to Czech, these kids come and want to play those games Mila has taught them. They explain them to the other kids.

So, I was thinking: How many 'wins' did we have?
Win for me, win for you (Mila), win for all the teachers involved and win for my students. Not to go into further details, that is 4!

Any plans coming to Japan?😉

'Lonely' teachers

3/24/2019

Do you sometimes feel 'lonely' as a teacher?
You always have students around you and actually there are enough people to talk to, including parents.
Especially teaching at your own school. I have had years and years where I just felt so lonely, not having any exchange as a professional, with other professionals, that I volunteered 10 hours teaching a week for several years in a public school, just to have colleges.

These days it is easier to exchange with other teachers from around the world; a few clicks on the computer or smartphone and we are connected. This is amazing and great, and I absolutely do not want to miss it. It has made my life so much easier and I have met amazing people.

Still it is not the same as to meet another teacher IN PERSON.

Watch out for updates on this topic, coming soon.

The first teacher from outside Japan coming a long way to learn from me.

3/23/2019

HAPPY SPRING!

I actually can't believe I haven't written at all since January. Don't think I was hibernating.
There were actually lots of uncertain things going on , and I kind of felt on hold for a while. Now that almost all have cleared up, I hopefully will be back regularly. There is SOOOO much I want to write about.

Beginning of this month Mila from 'Prima English' in Czech Republic visited me to see me teaching live, exchange with other Genki English teachers, and experience Japan.
Just 3 words:
It was wonderful!

Here is the lovely message I got from her this week, and I really want to say thank you to you Mila again, for coming, joining all my crazy ideas (esp. multiple homestays, Karaoke).
It was lovely to meet your whole family, and I do think very much that we will meet again.

Winter topics student focussed review

1/30/2019

Have you ever felt like this:

You students should know vocabulary and common question and answer patterns. They have spent lessons practicing, and actually when you focus on one certain topic, they can do it.
Reviewing weather: 'It's snowy'
they know 'Today'
In the context they know how to command: 'Put on your coat".
If you ask them: "What's your favorite winter sport" they will answer: " I like snowboarding"...

But then...Tatataaaaa:

They go out of your door. The world is white around them. It is snowing. And suddenly the most coming out of their mouths is:

'Snow' 'Coat' 'Cold'

Where are all those sentences? Hey! Come on. You can do it:

But no
"Teacher, it is snowing today. Look! Come on. Put on your coat. Let's make a snowman."

WHERE did this all go? They can say it. I know it. YES! but No?!

Well, if you never feel like this~please write down YOUR secrets in the comments.

And here is one lesson (well actually it will be 2-3 lessons to complete) to get the kids away from the "lesson box brain" to a more fluent "real life imagination":

I tell them we are going to play a day in winter.

They get in pairs.

They will get rules and TOPICS (not structures) they have to implement.

And FREEDOM within those.

TOPICS:
weather; feeling; wintergames (plays in the snow), getting dressed, building a snowman.

FREEDOM:
choose your roles (siblings, friends, parent and kid...)

choose your feeling for today,

choose 3 wintergames you suggest to play and the reasons to refuse them (eg: snowboard>>I don't have a snowboard" etc)

Choose any clothes you like to get dressed in

Choose items for the snowman to make it a bit funny (eg: a banana for his nose....)

1)Let them write out their script in their native language for 15 minutes
2)Then let them practice the language for 15 -20 minutes
3)Then perform in front of each other!!!

I take this slow and split these 3 sections up and embed them into three classes.

Let me know (and see) how it goes. Enjoy!

Phonics course for English teachers in Japan (2!)

1/21/2019

Have you been waiting for my phonics course to be relaunched again? 　Here you go:
A full course of more than 40 videos, (summing up to more than 7 hours) where I teach YOU all I know about each sound of the English language and how to teach them. The videos are for adult students and teachers IN JAPAN
Here are a few reviews of teachers who participated last time:

To give you an idea of what this all is going to be like, I will add the first videos of the course for free.
You need to have a facebook account to join the group. If you need any assistance, get in touch in the comments or via mail or messenger.

Here is the link to the first video, from tomorrow on, check out my facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/magisensei/videos/1475255509201732/