Yesterday, Flat Stanley went to Glendale! 
It was fun and relaxing trip for Flat Stanley.  It's his first time to go to northern LA and I took him to Americana at Brand in Glendale.  We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory and after wards we walked around in the mall.  The Barnes and Noble at this location is very big and Flat Stanley had a great time looking at all the books.  Since Flat Stanley can't swim, he was extremely careful as he posed for his picture in front of the fountain :)

Flat Stanley rode on the airplane for the very first time!
Last Friday Flat Stanley rode on the plane for the first time and I took him back to Vancouver just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympic games.  On Saturday Flat Stanley had dim sum with my grandma and after lunch we took the new sky train to go to downtown to see some of the Olympic landmarks.  It was pretty crowded and since Flat Stanley is a short person, he could not get up close to the Olympic clock tower.  We wanted to go look at the Olympic Village but because of security, we were only allowed to view the village from afar on Cambie Bridge.  It's too bad that we didn't get tickets to see the event or Stanley could have met his favorite athlete.

(download)

Click here to download:

Flat_Stanley_Outing_2_-_Vancou.zip (6.58 MB)

On Thursday, I took Flat Stanley to Westpark Elementary School in Irvine.  It was a special day for our TEFL class because we were given a special opportunity to teach at the elementary school.  Jihye and I taught about how our cultures celebrate Lunar New Year and our grade 3 class was a good group of students.  Flat Stanley enjoyed posing in front of the school's mosaic painting as well :)

The Flat Stanley Project is a creative way for teachers to implement in their classroms.  This activity is especially effective for young learners as it helps them to develop their writing skills.  Flat Stanley is a character who is flat, which in turn enables him to be able to travel in an envelope and go to different places.

Students can create their own Flat Stanley and they can make it a girl/boy and decorate the character however they want.  The teachers should have their students take a picture of Flat Stanley and the place they went to and then write up a report of what happened.  The report can be based from Stanley's point of view or from the student's point of view.

(Click here for more information on the Flat Stanley project)

I just want to wish all my TEFL classmates a wonderful holiday season!
I posted some pictures of the beautiful holiday decorations from my hometown and even though it's a city without snow, I can't find a city that has a better Christmas ambiance and everyone is in a festive mood.

The pictures above include decorations from the malls I have visited so far and my picture size is too big and I haven't figured out a way to add pictures to an exisiting post on Posterous yet.
I tried taking pictures of the light decorations on buildings at night but my camera is getting old so the pictures didn't turn out nice :P

I'll post more pictures if I have a chance to visit other malls.

Merry Christmas everyone!

(download)

Click here to download:

Happy_Holidays.zip (9.38 MB)

Prep

(download)

Click here to download:

PREP.mp3 (1.55 MB)

PREP is a good guideline to be used for impromptu speeches and stands for:

Point
Reason
Example
Point

For example, if a student was given this quote, one can do the following with PREP:
"If your child were intellectually gifted, would you prefer to have your child placed only with students of the same high intelligence?"

P - I will send my child to a regular school.
R - I want my child to enjoy his or her childhood as a child and not enter the "adult" world in a shortened time period.
E - Please listen to the audio clip for my example.
P - I will send my child to a regular school.

In my opinion, PREP helps a learner break down what he/she wants to talk about and a learner can view it as a mini outline to help them with the though process.

As a teacher, it is important to make use of our resources and in a TEFL classroom there are different 'technological' resources that teachers can consider using in the classroom:

1) Twitter - this is a good tool to stay in touch with your students and this tool also helps students to write in shorter and more concise sentences.

2) Posterous - having posterous is a good way to keep your students informed on what is going on and is a good place to post announcements and important information for the class.  Students can also comment and read other comments from their classmates.

3) YouTube - There are a variety of clips that teachers can find on YouTube to help students with learning English.  A classic example that is used in most classes is the clip from My Fair Lady.  YouTube is also a good way to show snippets from American movies or dramas.

4) Song/Podcasts - Using music is a great way for students to learn English.  Students can choose songs from singers that they like and teachers can teach English through the lyrics.  Podcasts are also a good tool for students to hear American radio shows.

All of the resources mentioned above, are free as long as you have access to the internet.  I think all these resources are good ways to help students become more engaged in the class.

In class we learned that a good story should include the following:
1) A Hook
2) A Twist
3) 5 senses
4) Realization
5) Dialogue

Storytelling is a powerful tool for a teacher and even though sometimes we might not have a good story to tell, a good storybook is also very important.

Growing up some of my favorite Children's Books came from the author Robert Munsch.  He is very famous in Canada and he has crazy stories and they are always very funny.  In my memory, all his stories included the five elements mentioned above to make a good story. 

Here is a link of Robert Munsch telling a story of one of my favorite books - Moria's Birthday.
(Click here to download the mp3 of Robert Munsch telling this story)

Some other books I like from Mr.Munsch includes Show and Tell, Something Good, and Thomas' Snowsuit.

How it works:
1) Choose about one or two people from the students and give them a topic outside the classroom.  Do not let the students think for a long time so that it will create a impromptu effect when they are presenting.
2) Get the remainder of the class to clap for the students when they come in so they will feel comfortable in the setting.
3) The chosen students will present the situation in front of the class.
4) Both the teacher and students will make note of the phrases that the students used.
5) The teacher will then go over the correct/incorrect phrases that were used.

Topics that can be used for AD should be topics that happen in everyday life like talking to your friend about fashion or going to a baseball game.