tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post7990575218580561568..comments2023-11-03T22:34:56.656+09:00Comments on I'm no Picasso: A quick suggestion.I'm no Picassohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06516337555349888808noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-69432146584855844682011-09-01T21:21:32.743+09:002011-09-01T21:21:32.743+09:00I teach kindergarten and they go ape-shit for bing...I teach kindergarten and they go ape-shit for bingo, all day, every day. Simple call-out-the-number bingo. I definitely feel lucky to deal with what I deal with when I imagine trying to teach older kids who aren't hard-wired to adore every thing that I do.Previouslyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16241868651009665796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-4932632654119369662011-07-10T15:15:32.140+09:002011-07-10T15:15:32.140+09:00To my newer co-teachers (my last semester of worki...To my newer co-teachers (my last semester of working at a public school), I would often explain, "Games are ways to trick the students into practicing their English." Korean teachers (and some old-school teachers in the US) think that learning should look like worksheets and drills. Games, on the other hand, look unstructured and therefore not productive, so there was always a little poo-pooing about how loud English classes were. It is easier to manage students when you're using worksheets or drills, but well structured/designed games are awesome. Hey, the kids having fun, they're using English with each other (aka interactively, which is how language is generally used, rather than listening and repeating), and they're behaving well in order to "play" at the end of the class. It's a pretty win-win(-win-win-win-win) situation. <br /><br />I do admit that some of the games were ill designed, and I spent most of my prep time designing some other sort of game for them.<br /><br />Good postings, as usual. I look forward to reading more. :)Gloriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17368295111162744300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-76403698359932670262011-07-01T21:13:23.679+09:002011-07-01T21:13:23.679+09:00Well done. Unfortunately I don't have much say...Well done. Unfortunately I don't have much say in the games we can do, but I think I'll give my boss the children's version of Taboo before I ship out, see how he likes it.Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10372867185647178937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-63836548378255879572011-07-01T18:17:43.919+09:002011-07-01T18:17:43.919+09:00Excellent Bingo variant - will store that one away...Excellent Bingo variant - will store that one away for camp.<br /><br />I had an open class today so the grade five teachers could see what we get up to, and it was a bog-standard reading lesson with a couple of activities. The overwhelming response was WOW YOUR CLASSES ARE FUN!!! and most of the meeting afterwards was about how back in their day, English was taught by burning it into their arms with lye. Well, not really, but you would think so from how much they hated their elementary school lessons, and I got the impression that most of their classes now are pretty much drudgery too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-70397787743070479202011-07-01T13:51:19.092+09:002011-07-01T13:51:19.092+09:00Exactly. After two years, I just gave up. Today we...Exactly. After two years, I just gave up. Today we are going to play a game! Totally not a game. Just a speaking activity. But fuck it, we'll call it a game. Everything's a game. Whatever. You're happy, I'm happy. I give up.I'm no Picassohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06516337555349888808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-62228060655087808412011-07-01T13:47:59.204+09:002011-07-01T13:47:59.204+09:00Part of the problem is that students are so used t...Part of the problem is that students are so used to sitting there and listening to lectures or doing something mind-numbingly repetetive and passive and inactive, that they percieve *anything* that does not cause immediate harm and boredom as a game. Which means, of course, that practically everything native English teachers do becomes a game. <br />My kids once completely rebelled when I asked them to do a worksheet at the request of another teacher. "But 쌤! Your class is always game! Game! We want game!" they chanted, and a I roared back that we rarely ever played games, that my class was serious and that I had no idea what they were talking about. I demanded that they name one of these supposed games - and then they rattled off every single classroom activity we'd done for the past month. None of them were games. I had very carefully planned all my lessons, however, to get my high school boys out of their seats and moving and actively practicing the skills we were learning. Essentially, their standards for fun had been set so low, anything that wasn't sitting at their desk memorizing vocab and grammar instantly qualified as a game.Gomushin Girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06480861544911964833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-37006431837733655392011-07-01T12:47:00.368+09:002011-07-01T12:47:00.368+09:00I've done Bingo with the kids, but instead of ...I've done Bingo with the kids, but instead of calling out the words from the vocabulary list, I only give the definition of each word and they have to match the definition with the correct word. It's slow going for the beginners, but the intermediates and advanced kids really get into it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-84368990603795580892011-07-01T12:17:34.046+09:002011-07-01T12:17:34.046+09:00That's a cool version of bingo, I'm going ...That's a cool version of bingo, I'm going to steal it. Thanks3gyupsalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05221321128938672113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21444271.post-20937500353845159302011-07-01T11:25:44.442+09:002011-07-01T11:25:44.442+09:00Bingo, I remember classroom Bingo... I fondly reca...Bingo, I remember classroom Bingo... I fondly recall taking out an English novel and reading while the poor French teacher tried to discreetly feed language into the minds of my rebellious classmates...<br /><br />or math class multiplication bingo, where I doodled on the back of the page until it was over.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com