Global Teacher Connect

Who’s writing this blog? Lots of people – each from a different place and with a different story.

Who’s reading this blog? Lots of people from all around the world.

So, each week, there will be a Getting to Know You question posted so that we can all come together as a Global Community and get to know each other better.

Do you have a question about us you would like answered? Feel free to email you question to us at heidiraki @ gmail . com.

Although I have taught ESL for over 20 years as a classroom teacher I have also taught English On-Line for 4 years for a Korean E-Learning Company. After my first year I started writing my own Speaking Lessons which I could upload into the virtual classroom. Since there is a limited amount of time and number of times a week that students study I wanted to insure that students were speaking for at least 70% of the class time. I incorporated Sheltered Instruction Strategies which were very successful in the regular elementary classroom and saw wonderful improvement in student's speaking proficiency with my on-line lessons. Here is a free Beginner Speaking Lesson which is part of a 3 Beginner Speaking Lesson packet. I would love for you to download your free lesson and give me feedback. I haven't added a lot more lessons as there hasn't been a great market for them and hope this Global Teacher community will help all of us demonstrate that good teaching is good teaching. I found that using Sheltered Instruction strategies benefited all my students.
If you like this lesson I hope you will let me know.
Thank,
Arlene at LMN Tree
                                            
 How many of you teach English on-line? What are your greatest challenges?                                        

Each year, my school puts on an International Day.  Each of the elementary classrooms choose a country to study.  The students and/or teacher (depending on the age group) gather information about that country: the language, the religion, the food, the animals, the clothes, the flag, the plants etc.  During the week leading up to International Day, the students visit the other classrooms to learn about the countries.  Then, on International Day, parents come in for the big finale.  Students get dressed up in traditional clothes of their country.  There is food to taste from each country, and the students present what they have learned to their parents.  After all of the presentations, the entire school gathers together for songs, skits and dances from the different countries.  Finally, we end it all by singing We are the World.

This year, my class chose the Democratic Republic of Congo for International Day.  One of my students is from this country, and her mom came in to help us out – she let the students interview her, as well as making the costumes and the food!  My students learned about the rainforest, two animals that can’t be found anywhere else, a volcano eruption, and fufu – the national dish of the DRC.  They painted the flag of Congo and made traditional Congolese masks in Art.  They also learned a play called Never Cry Croc – the Congolese version of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.  It was a great learning experience for them!

Does your school do anything to celebrate other countries?

 

I recently wrote a post on my blog about one of the ways my students practice their handwriting.  You can read it and grab a freebie page here.

When you live in a country where you don’t speak the language on the street – you get excited to hear English – in any form.  When we first got here, my kids would get so excited over everyone who knew even a few words of English.  Now, they have enough Arabic to play with friends, so English isn’t as exciting, but they still look forward to having over friends who speak English – in whatever form.

One of the things I have learned in this move is that there are lots and lots of different versions of English.  I work with a few wonderful ladies from England who have helped me learn about the differences between British English and American English – starting with the word rubber, which means eraser in American English.  I have also come in contact with teachers, parents and other ex-pats from: Ireland, the Phillipeans, India, Belgium and Canada.  Each of these people have had different ways of saying words that are very familiar to me.  I kept telling myself that “my” English was the “correct” English.  Then, I sat down with a parent from India who had spoken English his entire life.  During this conference, the parent told me how hard of a time he head understanding me, and let me know that his child may also be having a hard time understanding my English.  This conversation reminded me that my English was only one form of this language.  Many people around the world speak English with their own accent and dialect.  Each form of English is the “correct” form of English for that particular community. 

Being a part of the global English speaking community means knowing and understanding English in all of it’s forms.  What “English” words or phrases have ever made you pause and say in your head – “Are you sure you’re speaking English?”

I wonder if anyone else has stumbled upon StumbleUpon? I supposed it is like Pinterest, except we are looking at the actual website rather than a picture from it. It does look like a promising way to get the word out on GTC and our personal blogs.

I signed up yesterday, added their badge to my blog and have already found heaps of fantastic resources like this one: Fun Family Crafts.

The only thing I found a bit odd about is that on their "Interest" tool, they don't have anything like Kindergarten, Preschool, Teaching, Elementary Education, etc. so I have had to categorize my interests under "Kids" or "For Kids".

Any thoughts on this? Is anyone using this site and do you find it worthwhile? I would love to hear your comments.