Damil_TP_#14

Child TP-#7
2/16/2015
7pm
PJ Chang House
Topic/ Skill:
-Reading Comprehension
-Vocabulary

Today I went to PJ’s house for his tutoring session this evening. I went a little bit earlier to before our session to prepare and preview the material that we were going to study. His mother handed me a reading comprehension assignment and some of his assignments he had completed in class as usually. The reading comprehension assignment was about a little girl staying with her grandmother for a month during her summer vacation. I remembered that in our first tutoring session together, PJ had told me that he had visited his grandmother in Hawaii in the past. So when began our session together, we began sharing our experiences of visiting our grandmothers as small children as a schema building activity. Once we read the essay and began the questions and answer section, we drew upon our prior conversation and the included illustrations to evaluate the answers to the questions.

As he has in the past 2 weeks, PJ has demonstrated that he understands what he reads and was able to answer most of the questions with little guidance. I have taught PJ that if he cannot fully understand a question on his own, he should try to draw the context meaning of the question thou the answers by process of elimination. This means that every time PJ did not understand a question, he should look at the multiple answers given to him to guess what it is asking and eliminate wrong answers as he discovers them to end up with only the correct one. After we completed the reading comprehension assignment together, we reviewed a short reading comprehension assignment he had had in class. It was a bibliography about Wilson A. Bently, also known as the Snowflake man. Once we completed this activity, we played a few games of Hang Mouse hang man game.

Lindsey_TP_#15

On Friday I had met with Youngseo. We went over her spelling words, like we often do for her quizzes on Thursday. Her mom told me that last week she got a 100 on her quiz which made me really happy! She was able to spell almost all of the words correctly but she had a little confusion with vet and van. I could tell that her teacher had explained these words to her before because when I asked her what a vet was she said “it’s bigger than a car”. I was confused and then realized that van was also on her list. We spent a lot of time going over the difference between these two, because I didn’t want her to get confused on her quiz.

After her spelling words, we did some writing and speaking. We used the die that I have with a different word on every side. She really likes the die because it’s fun for her to throw it or sometimes make me pick a word. She wrote down some sentence with these words and then I had her just speak them to me because it sometimes takes a while for her to write, even though she’s pretty good at it.

After this, we did a little reading and then reviewed her spelling words again, especially vet and van. Her family is so sweet and got me a thank you card for tutoring her. I have really enjoyed working with Youngseo. Even though this is the last time that I have to do it for TEFL, I have already arranged with her parents to keep tutoring her for the rest of the semester. She is so cute and really smart. I am excited to keep working with her!

Lindsey_TP_#14

I met Maria on Thursday for our tutoring session at Starbucks. We didn’t have much to go over because she had just started her new session at CIES. So, we had a conversation for most of the time and I corrected her grammar and vocabulary as we went along. We talked a lot about drinking in the US vs. Colombia. We both had some pretty funny stories to share haha but we both came to the conclusion that Colombians, in general, drink more than Americans. 

I was glad that we were able to have a conversation because I think grammar and vocabulary in context are much more meaningful to learn, rather than just memorizing lists of things. Obviously a lot of memorization goes into learning a language. However, for me personally, and hopefully Maria as well, it’s easier to learn something new when you are using it. For example, I taught her the word “icky” when we were talking about the strip. I’m sure she will remember that word now! 

Milton_TP_#12

Milton_TP_#12

Student Name: Matthew Wong                                                                                              Date: Wednesday, February 25-2015                                                                               Location: Leon County Library, 4:30pm.

Skill – Reading

I showed up with hopes of convincing Matthew about reading a different type of book for his daily reading and summary. To my surprise he selected four books from the library about military airplanes and other equipment. The books were level appropriate with many illustrations and short explanations, easy to understand. He told me that he was going to read one chapter of one of the books and write a summary. What a sweet surprise, I was ready for the same routine. He read the book and did the summary. I encourage him to keep on doing that and we keep on talking about his social studies homework on geography.

 This time his math exercise was about volumes and measuring perimeters, not the boring fractions. We played a game of who can solve the math problem the fastest and he win.

 Lesson Learned: Not to give up and I will keep trying to convince Matthew about the importance of reading material from different writers with different topics. He and his brother are amazing kids enjoyed working with them.

 

 

 

Milton_TP_#11

Milton_TP_#11

Student Name: Matthew Wong                                                                              

Date: Wednesday, February 18-2015                                                                     

Location: Leon County Library, 4:30pm.

Skill – Reading

After consulting with Matthew’s mom the week before, I decided to bring a story about Roly-Poly Pill Bugs for Matthew to read instead of Mary Pope routine reading. He is so familiar with the Mary Pope series of books about that he can write a summary just by looking at the title of a chapter. Sadly he did not want to read the level appropriate reading that I search for him, I was very disappointed. He read and summarized, Polar Bear past Bed time by Mary Pope. I did some word correction and sentence review.

I did help him with his homework, he had a very interesting set of vocabulary words to review, (assigned, generosity, gingerly, mature, organization, residents, scattered and selective). He was able to define each one of the words.

I asked him which books he likes tom read the most and he mentioned Fiction type of books, Lego Books and Geology books about gem rocks.

Lesson Learned: Not to give up and I will keep trying to convince Matthew about the importance of reading material from different writers with different topics and vocabulary that will enrich him.

 

Milton_TP_#10

Milton_TP_#10

Student Name: Ramon Matos                                                                               

Date: Friday, Tuesday, February 17-2015                                                                               Location: CIES, 6:00pm.

Skill – Speaking and Pronunciation

Ramon developed a presentation on the subject of the Barranquilla Colombia carnival and I helped him with spelling and word selection. We talked about the subject and I suggested a few changes to some of the adjectives that he used. He practiced reading the presentation and I corrected his pronunciation and some of his sentence construction. Even though he is aware of the pronunciation issue he keeps making the same mistakes like adding an e in front of a word starting with s like Spanish (Espanish). I think he needs to keep on practicing reading out loud and receiving feedback on the spot that way his schema will eventually modify the mispronunciation. He is not shy and he is motivated to learn and we will keep on practicing speaking and reading.

He appreciates my feedback and is looking forward for suggestions and recommendations on his speaking development.
 

Lesson Learned: I may need to explore and research for other method on pronunciation improvement. Pronunciation and intonation are two key problems for Ramon and I would like to help him the most I can.

Burns_ TP#s 15+16 + CP

David and I met at 5:30 on Tuesday, Feb 24 and at 4:30 on Wednesday, February 25th.  The pattern with David is always closer to 90 minutes than one hour.  Often we are a bit longer, depending upon conversations with his mom.  David has fallen into a good pattern or rhythm.  School homework takes priority.  In recent weeks, Mrs. Hong has brought in special work that she would like David to work on.  This is significant, because she is now absolutely confident that David can read one, two or three chapters in a book and meet the writing requirements of his 4th grade teacher.  Her expectations for David are quite a bit higher than when we first started, but it has been a gradual process of bringing David along and giving him some measure of control over the order of the work to be done.  It is always a playful negotiating process with David at the beginning.  We both know that he is going to protest the work - and then he is going to do it.  His classic attempts to divert attention away from the work are met with smiles, playful teasing and my physically touching what must be done and what remains after that.  As long as he is making progress,  he is allowed to talk about something interesting that is outside the immediate task.  This starts at the beginning of our sessions and happens three or four times.  Each time, he is increasing his expression, testing new words, asking questions about monsters that he knows I do not know.  So he explains them and then returns to his work.

Flexibility combined with keeping focus on the task at hand works well with David.  Encouraging his curiosity keeps him reading and also leads to some interesting expansions of word definitions.  A classic was his definition of scattering and using it in a sentence.  I was not ready for this on.  "The mice scattered as the cats entered the room.  The cats scattered as the dogs entered the room.  The dogs scattered when people entered the room.  The people scattered as the earth moved.  The earth was created among the stars.  The stars in the universe have been scattering away from each other since creation."  Okay!!  I surely was not going to stop him as he experimented with levels of scatter.

I think he hopes that really creative work in one area will buy him some slack when it gets to a word he is less familiar with.  A good example is "organization" - which another tutor defined as a body of people joined together ....  So his sentence for me was, "My body is an organization."  I agreed that on some level of biology and chemistry that is true, but for this examination it means something different.  We spent some time on that one.

I also note for his mom, which of her exercises he wants to do at home and which of these might require someone sitting with him.  On the exercises that he did for me, I note which ones he quickly solved correctly; which ones took a little help; and which ones took a lot of help.  I was pleasantly surprised this week that he chose to do some of the more difficult exercises with me and save the easier ones for home.

Finally we turn to his reading and writing.  On Tuesday night, he worked so very hard with more difficult passages, fought hard for comprehension and productive use of new vocabulary.  I was very proud of all the work that he did on Tuesday night.  So on Wednesday, when he picked an easier reading passage, I just smiled, said "Okay, you get an easy one today because of last night, but next week, no more tree house series books."  He smiled, nodded and he knows that will be true.

While David played on the computer, I met with his mom to review what things David handles with ease, where he needs just a little help and where he needs to be pushed because he required too much help.  We always agree to an approach to the days in between and share "war stories" about how David will try to game the system.  I am not his parent, so I have the luxury of inviting him to give it his best shot - and then get back to work.

Give David a little space to play his games and then bring it right back to the job at hand seems to work.  He is playful and respectful.  I think he reads giving him room try to game the system as a sign of friendship and respect, backed by the inevitability of accomplishing the work.  Encouraging his curiosity about what comes next is, I think, a key to working productively with David.  Most of all, to sincerely like him and learn his intrinsic motivations are key.  The best way to motivate others is not to try too hard.  Find out what already motivates them and tie a piece of the task to that motivation.  He does the rest as something like the price of admission to get to what he really likes; so finding the hook between task and existing motivation structure is key to working with him.  He is also a bundle of energy - physical and mental - so occasional flights of fancy in the midst of a lesson just burn some of that off and he comes right back to task.

Burns CO 1-3

My first classroom observation was Ramin's multicultural workshop.  The room was full of CIES students and several TEFL students.  Ramin took charge simply by speaking to the people in the room.  He defined the goal as intercultural exchange between one American TEFL student and two or three CIES students.  Groups formed quickly.  The Ramin instructed each group to answer questions of each other about the home country of CIES students and the United States.  In most groups, the first questions were directed to the American studdent.  Then each group slipped into similar patterns.  Students from Northeast Asia had questions about the Middle Eastern countries and Latin America and Chad in addition to questions about the United States.  This is what made it work so well.  No single country was getting peppered with questions.  Answers would increase curiosity and that would drive follow-up questions.  People listened carefully and politely before asking a follow-up question.  Women from the Middle East often seemed just as curious about South Korea and China as they were of the United States.  The groups were self-disciplined and easily monitored by Ramin by simply moving around the room to engage a group about this or that.  Along the way, he was able to monitor the conversation of each group in a very unobtrusive way.  From what I could see and hear, no one took offense at innocent questions that addressed core beliefs.  Answers were never defensive, even when core beliefs were innocently and genuinely questioned.  That observation convinced me to return to this workshop as a participating member.  At that point, the CIES students became a gold mine of conversation partners.

My second observation was a speaking laboratory taught by Angel.  It was in the computer room where students could listen to questions or statements in English at the same time through headphones.  Then the students would respond through the microphone attached to the headphones.  Then the students would record their actual replies in English.  This is a really effective process and it requires a great deal of attention and tending to by the teacher.  Angel introduced every exercise  and explained his expectation is terms of speaking replies.  He drew clear distinctions between practice and replies that would be reviewed.   Angel remained vigilant and alert in order to spot difficulties as soon as they occurred.  He was always right there to troubleshoot an equipment problem, a comprehension problem and even an unasked question that he could read in a students face and/or demeanor.  He worked as hard during each exercise as his students did.  He moved around the room to make himself easily available to his students. 

My third observation was listening with Vicky on the final day.  Since it was the last day, she made it clear that this day was game day and fun day based upon listening.  She had listed 9 games on the board and gave clear instructions regarding each game as its number came up.  The games were fast moving and often required physical responses to a verbal stimulus. Her energy, enthusiasm and good nature kept things moving and kept students involved.  Vicky would give short modeling of how the game would go and what was expected.  Potentially jaded students found themselves quite engaged in each game.  That itself is a great accomplishment in the afternoon on the last day of class.  Though she was able to tease and be playful with her students, the respect for her and attentiveness to her was shown by all students.  Two games stand out for me.  One was placing a student in a chair facing the class.  Vicky would write a word on the board behind the student and the job of the class was to give clues until the student figured out the word.  The one I will never forget is how she managed to get every student to do the Hokey-Pokey.  First she demonstrated the various commands about body parts going into and out of the circle; then what it looked like to "shake it all about" and finally demonstrated the Hokey-Pokey.  A couple of guys seemed reluctant, but by the second command, she had the entire class listening, obeying the action to be taken and then "do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around; that's what its all about."  Great fun and every game required good listening skills.  To say Vicky was deeply involved with her students and interacting would be a real understatement.  The entire room interacted all of the time - always based on listening 

Celina_TP #8

For this week's tutoring session with my child tutee Yunseo, we worked again on writing skills and reading comprehension. This week she had started another Magic Treehouse book about an adventure in ancient Mesopotamia so it was packed with a good balance of cultural context that kept her interested and helped her learn some new things. Her reading is really improving, and she is able to pronounce tougher words better. I always explain to her the importance of breaking down words she is having a hard time with. This skill lets her sound things out more accurately and then I tell her to look at the surrounding words in the sentence to find some context for a definition.
After we read a fair amount of the novel, Yunseo insisted that we continue working on her story about her monster character, and I agreed we could continue writing if we could use some new vocab words from our readings. She has started to get the hang of things and actually scrolled through the reading herself to find words she was previously unsure of. Before she writes down the words on the slips of paper we use, I have her give me a definition so that I do not have to explain the words to her again. She then gives me a definition and uses it in some context. This is just an easy way for me to check her comprehension and make sure that we don't need to focus more on reading.
Her writing skills are definitely starting to improve more. I noticed that she has been spending much less time carefully making her letters perfect and spacing things out perfectly. This is really important since one of the first things her mother asked me to work on with her was writing more quickly.

Colin_TP_#11

Today I met with Claire and we read a book about the history of ice cream! During our last 2 sessions, Claire's mother has asked that we work on summarizing the story. While reading the book about ice cream, Claire and I would work on summarizing every few pages to make sure she was comprehending what we were reading. To help Claire summarize, I would ask her questions about the previous pages. The questions were about characters, setting, and plot. Claire seemed a little uninterested in our session at first, but as the book got more interesting she began to respond better. Claire seemed to have more trouble reading this book than any other we have read so far. But, I did notice that book was much harder than the rest of the books we have read. This book had much larger words and more difficult sentences to read. I think our biggest breakthrough of the day was teaching Claire how to read dates. Pronouncing 1900 like nineteen hundred instead of one thousand nine hundred. Claire was able to answer all of the comprehension question I provided for her at the end of the story, as well as the ones provided by the book.

Meredith TP #12

I met with Yujeong again at Dunkin Donuts, and I gave her the book The Fault In Our Stars. I think it is about at her level. Possibly a bit challenging, but in a level appropriate way. I owned the book already, and I thought it was a good choice because she is into romance books. It also has a movie that came out recently and was very popular, so I thought have the movie as a supplement would help a lot.
We discussed the book for a little while and discussed the major themes of it. I made sure she understand basic terms for the book, words like- cancer, Amsterdam, blind, etc. There are major themes in the book that do not use daily words, so we talked about that. We read a little bit into the book just so I could be sure that it was level appropriate. Yujeong is only at Level 1, but is very advanced for a Level 1. She told me it was because she chose to stay back in Level 1 instead of advancing. She is nervous about the workload and difficulty level of going up a level, and I tried to talk her through it. She is way too advanced for Level 1, so I was trying to convince her to move up levels. She is learning Japanese as well right now, and I think is discouraged a little because Japanese is so similar to Korean. So, learning English is naturally much more difficult. I hope she takes my advice and moves up, because her brain is definitely language-oriented, and she has a lot more to improve. I am hoping that The Fault In Our Stars will help to facilitate that.

Meredith CO #2

I observed one of Sana's Level 1 grammar classes. It was a basic class on using past tenses. I sat in the back with a few students and helped them on the in-class assignment.
During the overview and explanation of the topic, past tenses, she allowed the students to take pictures of the board with their phone, which I thought was a great idea. She often had to call on students that did not want to speak, because often there were a couple Middle Eastern boys who were more apt to speak than anyone else. This is a definite trend I have noticed.
The class was pretty split between students who really understood the lesson and those that struggled a lot. I noticed that the students who had a better spoken grasp on the language were better in this grammar class. There seemed to be a wide variance between a few of the students; there was clearly an advanced section of the class.
I sat next to a Kuwaiti girl who definitely had trouble understanding the lesson. Her friend was catching on quickly, but she definitely struggled. She was one of the more silent people in the class- and that seemed like a definite correlation. Many of the more advanced people were the ones who spoke frequently and often.
That made me really understand the point of interaction and group activities- simply speaking as much as possible allows students to make errors and learn from them at a more rapid pace.

Meredith TP #11

I met with Yujeong at Dunkin Donuts, and we discussed her homework. She had a show and tell presentation to complete, and was not sure about what to do it on. She did not bring many valuables from Korea, so we brainstormed for a little while. She decided to do it on a purse she had bought on Black Friday, so I helped her plan out her presentation. She was unclear of the distinction between Black Friday and Thanksgiving so we talked about that a little bit. I helped her elaborate on Why she specifically chose this purse. She was having trouble putting it into words.
After that, Yujeong wanted to talk to me about her friendship problems. I was there as a considerate listener, but it also worked out well. She had been saying that she really wants to work on her speaking, because she is not as fluent as she would like to be. So, letting her open up to me about her friendship problems was the perfect vehicle for her to get some quality time in speaking English.

Meredith TP #10

On Saturday morning, February 21, I tutored PJ. We had a small worksheet that he was able to do really quickly. He was to choose one word for two different sentences- where the word he chose would be used differently in each sentence. He completed it really quickly; there was one or two he couldn't get at first, but I have noticed over the past month or two he has become a lot better at correcting his own errors.
After that, we had a big book of short superhero stories. I asked him what his favorite superhero was, and it is by far Spiderman. I got him interested by watching about five minutes of The Amazing Spiderman. He was so intrigued, and by the time we got to the story he was genuinely excited. I had never seen him more excited to read since I started tutoring him. We read a couple of the short Spiderman stories and he was enthralled. He was able to relate some of it back to the Spiderman movies he had seen as well, which really helped.
Overall, I think that this was by far the most success I had had with reading materials.

Meredith CP IE #6

For the last Intercultural Exchange class, we presented our trifold boards to the other members of the class. Our project group was- me, Shahd, Shuo and Kayla. For the project we had discussed a few specific differences in culture between our three home countries: America, Saudi Arabia, and China. We compiled all of these and displayed it on a trifold board. So, for the last class, we took turns describing each of our experiences.
I think it went really well with us! I had a lot of fun working with Shuo and Shahd. I can tell Shahd is really dedicated to improving her English, because she sent me her section of the board for feedback before printing it out. Her spoken English is already really great. I think it was a good opportunity for Shuo too, because unlike Shahd her speaking is a little less strong. Part of this is because she is shy and definitely nervous about making mistakes.
Presenting our project was really fun, though. We were each able to explain the one section we typed out and go into detail and the nuances of each of our cultures. It was both fun and really interesting. I had a fun time working with Shuo and Shahd and I was sad to say goodbye. We acted out some of the differences we had in our culture- specifically greeting older people- and how not knowing these differences could affect your time in each country.
Overall, going to these classes was a really fun experience. I really liked working more closely with CIES students and I really learned a lot through it.

Catherine_CP_#5

Today I met with Ahmad (Jack). We met at CIES and he actually filmed me for a video for the Conversation Partner program! It was really exciting because he talks a lot about filming and it is clearly something he loves, and watching him actually work on something was really interesting to see. It was also way more official than I thought it would be, even though I had some experience with cameras and tv production myself in high school. For example he used a microphone with a kickstand and an actual clapperboard to say "action" for me to start talking. He was really good at making me feel more comfortable talking on camera and helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to say. I was nervous because I knew it would be seen by many future CIES students when they start to be introduced to the program. He also showed me the final product of the class short documentary that I had seen many students working on. I even helped a couple of them with what they were going to say and pronunciation of there words the day before they started filming, so seeing the final product was really awesome. I was very impressed with how it turned out. I told him he should definitely see if the FSU film school was having any upcoming film competitions because he should enter it! It would be a waste for people to not see it, especially with how hard all the students involved worked. Even though I was nervous to be on camera, I'm really glad I agreed to be filmed today. It was a really cool experience and I always have fun at our conversation partner meetings!

Lindsey_CP_#6

Today Mohammed and I went to Sweet Pea cafe for our conversation session. He was sort of knew to vegan food, and this led to lots of good discussion about food, food ethics, etc. I explained to him that I was vegetarian, and the difference between vegetarian and vegan. He told me that his family does not eat any vegetables haha. He made sure before we ordered that there was no pork in the food and I told him there was none. During the meal I also asked him why he doesn’t eat pork. I know that Muslims generally don’t eat pork, but I wanted to know why. When I asked him he couldn’t really give that much of a reason, other than the fact that they just don’t. 

We also talked about sports. I tried to convince him that he should go to a basketball game. He didn’t seem to interested though. I also taught him the basics of American football and tried to convince him to go to a football game when they happen in the fall. He seemed pretty confused by football, and told me that soccer is more popular in his country (as it is in the rest of the world). I can tell that Mohammed’s speech is continuing to improve and we are having more complex conversations (for example, food ethics) than when I first met him. I’m really glad that I had him as a conversation partner. He is definitely super eager to learn! I’m excited for him to start the new session and continue to develop his speech, grammar, and vocabulary. Overall, this has been a great experience. 

Damil_TP_#13

Adult TP- 7

2/16/2015

5 PM

Starbucks
Tennessee St.

Topic/Skill: 
-Vocabulary
-Speaking
-Verb tenses: Simple past/ present, present continuous. 

Today I meet with my tutee, Mutaz Barki, at the Starbucks we usually meet at on  Tennessee St. Mutaz mentioned gain that he needed help finding a room mate to help him practice his English. Preferably a non-Arabic speaker that could tutor him at times. I promised that I would ask the teachers at CIES to help him out since they knew more people than me. I commended him for using all the vocabulary that we had learned last week to help him find a room mate and communicating this desire so well in English. 

Afterwards, he told me that he would like to practice using the simple past, simple present, and present continuous verb tense. We reviewed his class work sheet exercises and practice a few of them together. I observed that Mutaz had the most difficulty applying these verb tenses when describing real life, everyday situations like the ones he expected to be quizzed on during his final verbal exam in his speaking class. So I grabbed pen and paper and began writing phrases based off everyday actions like "I shave" and asked him to write them in each verb tense form. After he had correctly written several example, I repeated the same exercise verbally this time. I really started to make sense to him after this point. For example, I asked him "Mutaz are you shaving now?" and to use the present continuous verb tense in his answer. The answer became very obvious to him and he confidently replied "I am not shaving now." I feel that this was a very good exercise for Mutaz and I will use it again next time we meet. It seems that Mutaz really enjoys learning how to apply his English knowledge in real life situations. 

Kayla_TP_#16

Date/Time: Feb 19th, 8:00 pm
Location: Victoria Grand Clubhouse

I had to leave the potluck to go Khawlah's place to tutor her. >.< Anyway, we finished the article review! AHHH. We corrected a few word placement issues and spelling. And the article summary needed to be in APA format. We went on the owl.purdue website to learn how to correctly cite quotations and information. (I've always used MLA.) She insisted that I do this part for her, but I explained that I couldn't and she needed to learn this for her degree. She was really upset with me and felt like I wasn't wanting to help! A little frustrating, but we powered through and got it done.

(Being a private tutor is rough.)

Kayla_TP_#15

Date/Time: Feb 19th, 12:00 pm
Location: CIES

At this point, I was dying. I had met Khawlah about four or five times by now. We were really close to being finished with the article review, but still had some polishing-up to do. We had the first two paragraphs finished, but when it came to the article critique/Khawlah's ideas, it was difficult. She kept asking me to tell her what she should write, but this portion of the article review needed to be all about her and what she thought. I asked her several questions to give her ideas, like "was this easy to read, were there some phrases you didn't understand, what were some vocabulary words that you learned, could you apply this to your future major/degree?" This helped a little, but she wanted me to give her the answers. I told her that there really wasn't a right/wrong opinion on this part of the article review.
I think Khawlah needs help with figuring out what she wants to say. I find she has some issues explaining her point of view and may be afraid to offend me with her ideas?

Kayla_CO_#3

Date/Time: Feb 19th, 2:00 pm
Location: Matthew Cohen's Listening Class

Matthew was awesome and let me sit in on his class. Two students gave presentations for the class. The first one used a TED Talk video about Palestinian and Israeli intercultural tourism. It was a great idea and facilitated a good conversation. This was a level two group, but they were able to communicate most of their ideas efficiently.
The second presentation was about animal testing and the male student was very against animal testing. However, he was so aggressive about the topic that he seemed to be for testing. Matthew asked him a few times "so are you for or against animal testing?" One of the girls in the class was just presenting the idea that maybe animal testing for cosmetic purposes is useless, but maybe testing for medical use is important. The boy got mad and said "well it's your fault that they test on animals for makeup anyway!" I was sitting in the back of the class fuming. >.<
I think Matthew could see what I was feeling, and asked me to chime in on the conversation. Rather than freaking out and calling the student sexist or anything else, I suggested that maybe we don't need to test on animals and that there are other methods, like using natural products for cosmetics and practicing natural/holistic medicine. That way, we wouldn't have to test on animals for our benefit and we would have better quality (maybe) products.
The entire class carried on smoothly, but anytime a girl would suggest an idea the boy would argue and would ignore the girls. It took a LOT of effort not to get verbally angry, and I think I learned a lot about classroom dynamics. I'm glad I finally got to sit-in on a lower level class and got to have my patience super tested, haha.

Kayla_CP_#5

Date/Time: Feb 18th, 8:00 pm
Location: Parlay Sports Bar

Kaori said that she didn't have any homework to do since it was the last week of classes, but she wanted to hang out and talk with me! :) We went to Parlay and had some dinner. To encourage reading and discussion, we played BuzzTime Trivia on the tablets that they had at the restaurant. It's so strange to me that she didn't know who Abraham Lincoln was, but in the same sense I have no idea if there are presidents/prime ministers in Japan so I should have known better. Kaori actually beat me in trivia because I wasn't paying attention to the game. -_______- Lol. My main focus was food!
We actually stayed at Parlay for about an hour and a half, and Kaori's boyfriend eventually joined us too. I'm not sure if this was our last time meeting, but I hope it's not! Kaori was an awesome tutee and I hope I helped her learn and improved her speaking skills.

Kayla_TP_#13 and #14

Date/Time: Feb 18th, 7:00 pm
Location: Victoria Grand Clubhouse

It was pretty clear that Khawlah was using me as a crutch to do her article review, so I had to be pretty hard with her about her coming up with her own ideas and figuring out what mistakes she was making on her own. I didn't want to give her explicit answers (although this would have been way easier), so I just guided her in a way where she could figure out what she was doing. Interesting thing: we were using an Arabic edition of Microsoft Word, so her formatting was all over the place. >.< I told her that maybe she should look into getting the English edition or using the CIES computer to format her article review. This all took about two hours, so I'm going to count the meeting as two sessions because she wouldn't let me leave! Haha.

Kayla_TP_#12

Date/Time: Feb 18th, 12:00 pm
Location: CIES

During this lunch hour, we really got into figuring out what we were going to put in Khawlah's article review. The first paragraph needed to talk about the main ideas of the article, the second had to get into more detail about the main ideas, and the last paragraph needed to be a critique/opinion from Khawlah. So we mapped out a lot of ideas and figured out where we were going to place them in her article review.
(I was getting super tired of talking about one article for so long. Tutoring is a lot of hard work and requires patience!)

Kayla_TP_#11

Date/Time: Feb 16th, 7:00 pm
Location: Victoria Grand Clubhouse

Again, I worked with Khawlah on her article. The article needed to be 5+ pages, and her summary/review needed to be about 1-2 pages long. We started off the session with finishing up the decoding/reading of the article, and then began highlighting/underlining what we were going to put into the article.
I had plans with Kaori at 8, so I needed to be out of there within an hour. Khawlah is so funny and was begging me to just stay with her so we could finish the article. We were on track to finish the article by the end of the week, but it kind of showed me how much she wants to learn English and do well in her classes at CIES.

Kayla_TP_#10

Date/Time: Feb 16th, 12:00 pm
Location: CIES

This week, Khawlah is using her resources (me) as much as possible! :P We met at CIES to start reading through her article and decoding some of the more difficult phrases. She has lunch during this hour, so I made sure that she had time to eat too. (We were meeting that night too anyway.)
Khawlah is eventually going into Public Health, so we decided to work on an article that discussed fast food marketing towards children. This portion of the tutoring week was specifically for Khawlah's final article.

Elyce TP#6

On Wednesday, February 4th, I had my third tutoring session with Zoe and Rina. The girls were very sweet as usual, and were very excited to show me what they had done in school.
The girls had each checked out a short book from the library, and we began our tutoring session by reading them. They took turns reading each page, and i corrected their pronunciation as we went, and explained words that they didn't know. After this, we worked on their reading comprehension books that their mother had left out. Zoe worked at a normal pace, but I feel like the workbook was too easy for Rina. She sped through it and got them all correct. After the girls completed three workbook pages we read a short story that they had picked out from their shelf.
As usual, the girls were very eager to learn, and very well behaved. Though she is younger, I feel that Rina reads at a slightly higher level than Zoe.

Elyce TP #5

On Monday, February 2nd, I had my first Tutoring session with an Advanced foundations student, Saaja. We met at Strozier library, and she was very pleasant. I had been previously informed by her teacher that she had been through foundations three times already, so I was very curious about her level of English.
Like I had expected, Saaja spoke very little English. It was hard for me to communicate with her, and this was a new challenge that I had experienced. During our tutoring session, we reviewed her homework and a quiz that she had taken that day. She had done poorly on the quiz, but it was surprising to me that she seemed to grasp the concept when we were reviewing it. We concluded our tutoring sessions by going over a worksheet that she had gotten in class.
Though they are in the same class, Saaja was more difficult to tutor than Angelica because she spoke less English. I am going to contact her teachers to see if they can give me any material for her further tutoring sessions.

Kennell_CO_#3

Damil_TP_#12

Adult TP- 6
2/13/2015

5 PM

Starbucks
Tennessee St. 

Topic/Skill:
-Vocabulary
-Speaking

-Everyday Items

This evening I meet up with my student Mutaz Barki at a Starbucks in Tennessee St. We usually study new vocabulary and practice his reading skills that he has been working on in class. Yet, today’s session was quite different from everything else that we have done. He asked me to help him to learn how to ask for a roommate in English. So we first went over new related vocabulary words like “roommate, rent, bill, etc”. We also went over a few expressions like “I need a roommate who can practice speaking English with me”.

During our session together, we also practiced for his final speaking class exam Friday next week. The oral exam will be about describing everyday items and activities in Mutaz’s life. We created a list of key words of everyday items that we felt that he needed to be able to describe. Afterwards, I verbally quizzed Mutaz about how he used the item or performed the activity. For example, I asked Mutaz “What do you, Mutaz, do every morning?” I wake up in the morning and the wash teeth and shave. Then I go eat breakfast and drink coffee.” He practiced explain to me in the simple present and simple continuous tense how his typical day is. At times I had to ask him to pause, listen to how I expressed myself using the same exact words that he was trying to say, and emulate how I applied syllable stress and word emphasis when he repeated it. I firmly believe Mutaz is going to do very well in his final exams next week. He is very dedicated. I feel that I really need to continue helping him acquire new vocabulary and English expressions. 

Kennell_TP_#12

TP Session 12 – 2/18/2015

I met Young-Seo again on Saturday, and had a rather productive lesson, despite her being a bit distracted. We talked for a little while about her day, and about school. We then started writing practice with the usual vocabulary review, and, as usual, she did fine. We talked a bit about Korea and America, and how she was getting used to The U.S. We made a list of things that people eat for lunch in Korea, and then I had her write a similar list for America by herself.

I had decided that we should learn about the continents and countries that day, and we found a children’s atlas that we could use. We learned about all of the different continents and some of the countries inside of them. There was an index in the back of the book, and she became very interested in comparing the sizes and populations of different countries. The countries were ordered by continent, so it was great practice for the next activity. I wrote down the names of all of the continents, and then had her write the name of one country from each continent under each heading. She was pretty tired by this point, so I was kind of pulling teeth, but by the end of it we had a country under each continent. I counted the day as a success, but feel like I should probably make sure next time to make it a more language-centered lesson.

Katelyn_CP_IE_#4

On February 5th,  we had our fourth cultural workshop. I met my group, Shazia and Analy, and we started by quickly reviewing the topics from the last class, when we discussed if it was ok or not ok to do certain things in their home cultures. We talked about handling gifts, if it was acceptable to open it immediately or how to decline it, greeting a male stranger, and how to disagree politely with someone's points. We actually agreed on more things than I expected: in Pakistani, Puerto Rican and my own culture, we all give gifts in the same fashion, and we all look (but don't stare) at someone when we pay attention. However, there were a few differences: Shazia seems more about "group harmony," because she doesn't outwardly tell anyone that she disagrees with them, nor would she ever decline a gift. Even in the case of coffee (which she doesn't drink!) she said she would suffer politely and sip the coffee very very slowly, rather than saying "no thank you," as Amaly and I might. I thought this was very interesting, and made me evaluate if I'm being rude in some cases. Perhaps Americans are more selfish--we are a self-centered culture, I think--so I might take my comfort (not drinking something I don't want) above the giver's personal feelings (they're just trying to be nice). Obviously, though, none of us would turn down a present--we all agreed that was too much. The one main difference between Puetro Rican culture and Pakistani and American is opening gifts--Amaly would open it immediately, while Shazia and I would set it to the side to open alone later. In Puerto Rico, you want to make the person feel good; Shazia and I wouldn't want to offend someone through our tones or facial expressions of we didn't like something. I later found out this is not an "American" culture, but it's just something I do. Not all Americans think alike, which is a great thing about our nation, but it can be difficult to explain.
After, we watched a few other groups show their own examples. I learned Saudi women "check" their hands instead of shaking a man's hand, which still shows respect, and in China, you keep the older person's hand above your own when greeting.
Although there was a lot to talk about, I thought this lesson was very enlightening, and it made me think about my own beliefs and culture more, while learning about other countries.

Katelyn_TP_#12

On February 12th, I went to Zoe's house for tutoring, and I brought Tim along with me to observe. We went right into her reading comprehension book--I asked if she wanted to do the owl page like we had talked about the previous week, but she settled on "going to the zoo" instead. I had her read the story to me and then answer the questions. Zoe didn't think the dialog was realistic--I asked her why she thought it wasn't, and she said that if it were her family, she'd either be sleeping or watching a movie, which we thought was pretty funny.
After the exercise, I asked if the reading made her want to go to a zoo--she said she doesn't like the zoos, and loves national parks. This lead to her getting out every single national park Junior Ranger book, pin and badge that she has collected over her travels. Tim and I were very impressed, and Zoe read us some instructions and her work in the Junior Ranger books. It wasn't a very concrete lesson, but she was speaking quite a bit during this session.
Overall it was a very fun lesson, because she was so animated and motivated to talk about her passion--a reminder that using student's own interests as a topic is a great plan.

Lindsey_TP_#13

On Friday Youngseo and I worked on the spelling words that will be on her quiz next week. Some of these words were a bit harder to explain that the previous ones. I really focused on keeping her entertained and excited. One of the words was “gap”. She told me she didn’t know what this meant so I drew a picture of someone with a gap in between her teeth. I pointed to the spot and told her “this is a gap. It’s when there is a space in between two things.” She seemed to get this and thought the drawing was funny. After her spelling words, we practiced sounds. She even wanted to give me a word that started with each letter of the sounds. I love her enthusiasm and it seems that she wants to learn.

After her spelling words, I let her pick out a book from the children’s section of the library and I also picked one out. I’ve realized that doing this is good because it allows her to choose one that she wants but it also lets me pick one that I know is definitely the right level for her. She picked “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. It’s so cute when little kids talk about other little animals! She thought the lamb was super cute. After she read that book to me, I read her a book about a dog. I think it’s good for her to read to me and for me to read to her because it improves both her speech and her listening. I also told her to watch my mouth when I was reading from my book, so she could pick up on how to pronounce words. I really hope that Youngseo is improving her English. Next session I will focus even more on her speaking skills.

Lindsey_CP_#5

In my last conversation partner with Mohammed my friend Mido came and did a little translating for us. It was also good to have a third person just to stimulate the conversation some more. We talked about the Camaro Mohammed is going to buy, spring break and places to vacation in Florida (like Disney world and the Keys). I also asked Mohammed about any critical incident he may have had since he got to Tallahassee. This is his first time in the states so I thought there would have been at least one thing that had happened to him or surprised him. However, he told me that nothing had surprised him. He said this is basically because he already knew a lot about American culture and way of life from movies and TV shows. This shows just how far American culture has spread through mass media. Even though these movies may not be completely accurate representations of our culture, they clearly showed him enough. He even told us that things were going better than he thought they would. He thought it would be sort of boring, but it’s been more exciting. I really hope that Mohammed is enjoying his time here. He has definitely improved his English since I started working with him and I hope that he’s making a lot of friends as well.

Burns _ CP Compsite with Ramin's Multicultural and Intracultural Thursday sessions

This is such a great experience for TEFL students, because Ramin provides a broad structure for conversation topics and small, informal groups share:

1.  How that relationship or social convention works in their home countries.

2.  Many, many questions regarding how and why Americans handle the same relationships and social conventions.

3.  Genuine questions and comparisons across cultures, but there is a special focus on how and why Americans do certain things. 

That is the added value that these classes bring to TEFL students.  We have to become consciously aware of things we usually do without giving it a thought.

With each passing week, Ramin took the conversations to a deeper level.  (The base of the iceberg was a significant shift to subjects with deeper meaning.)  The CIES students were eager to teach TEFLers the customs, traditions, deeply felt assumptions and they were never shy about pressing the American students for a similar openness.  This caused me to really examine why my generation still does things a certain way and how much it has changed.

A recurring question was the nature of the American family.  American families are scattered all over the country.  When did this start?  Why?  How do American families sustain the close ties exhibited in other cultures?  Do we miss family that is hundreds of miles away? 

When I was a child, big families tended to stay close together and gather frequently.  That all changed for my family in the 1950's and I do not believe our family was an exception to the norm.  The impact of the Depression, the Dust Bowl and WW2 created increased mobility with a purpose - leave my family to feed it; or to fight for my country was a great impetus to scattering families.  The automobile and cheap oil made it easier to scatter.  The "cowboy" sense of independence became a national trait and not just a "wide open spaces" trait of the West.  The CIES students taught me so much and, even more, really made me think about matters that we take for granted as "universal," when in fact they are not.

I believe that I was partnered up with students from most of the world - Africa, Latin America and East Asia.  I would encourage Ramin's Thursday sessions as a great place to have a variety of conversation partners who discuss deeply held customs and values.

Burns _ CP Composite with Mrs. Hong

Mrs. Hong and I have spent a combined few hours over the last several weeks discussing David's growth and development that has evolved through a combination of work at the library and at home. 

Although these discussions always center around David, we have become a team in our approach to David.  We are consistently and genuinely considerate of each other and at times our conversations center on each others lives and the special challenges she faces as  a Mother and I face as a tutor.  There is a real trust between us.

 We begin with which homework is critical for David to complete and why.  As time has passed, we have often discussed David's intrinsic motivation and why some approaches create a breakthrough and others create resistance and evasion.  Identifying and working with David's strengths has been key to our progress with David.  Along the way, we have reached an unspoken agreement to accept a certain amount of evasive behavior from David as long as it continues to diminish and is replaced by hard work. 

We have learned together that as nonchalant as David may behave, he really values the approval of the two of us - especially if our reasons are the same.  Our post lesson discussions in the early days centered on work that remained to be done at home.  Following the early February breakthrough we have been able to cover in detail the good work that David had completed and things that I had called to his attention as great work.  Mrs. Hong would reinforce that with how proud she was of him.  We discussed his specific reaction to deserved praise from the two of us and the eagerness he started to show regarding our work together and the ride home with Mom after a good night. 

Lately, Mrs. Hong has made special requests to help David prepare for the statewide testing and has asked me to join her in emphasizing the importance of these tests and the additional prep work we do over the last several sessions.  This is made easier because Mrs. Hong now knows for sure that David can read multiple chapters in grade appropriate books and write effectively about what he has read.  That was her very first objective and she seems satisfied that he an do that now.  This has given her greater freedom to expand her requests for additional work for David to do based upon circumstances regarding statewide testing. 

She feels comfortable telling me that, "Tonight there is no need to check on anything with me, so stay strict when he tries that "trick" - that "trick" has been his last semi-effective evasive maneuver.  We just seem to know the right thing to say and do with each other to make each other comfortable and to work in tandem to keep David improving every week.  Even as he begins to plateau a little now, he has made truly significant progress.  Sustaining what has been done is a good thing, but we still try to take conscious steps to sustain it and add strength whenever possible. 

Mrs. Hong has been my most genuine conversation partner as we have worked closely together to find a few of the keys to a complex young man.  We have learned that at his core, he is a "pleaser" who responds extremely well to challenge that is followed by positive reinforcement.  First the challenge and then specific reinforcement of what he did and why it is important.  We just seem to have found this approach together as the weeks have passed. 

For sure, the most productive conversations I have had with a "conversation partner" have been with Mrs. Hong.  I will miss her as well.

Damil_TP_#10

Child TP- #6

2/10/2015

6:30 pm

CIES Classroom

Topic/Skill:

-Reading Comprehension

-Vocabulary

Today I tutored PJ Chang at the CIES building after class. One of my fellow classmates, Meredith, joined us for the session. While preparing for his tutoring session I reviewed his main homework assignment, which was a reading comprehension essay about school children requesting and receiving from their teacher a list of steps that had to be completed in order to have a successful school play. I knew that PJ was a third grader, so when he told me that he didn’t know what a school play was, it was no surprise. So we began our tutoring session by watching a short comical video about theatrical plays that I had had in mind. This helped PJ understand the story very well and the comprehension questions that followed.

During our tutoring session Meredith helped me a lot to explain words that I could not have otherwise done on my own. I learned that having someone to observe and give feedback during a tutoring session really helps one see things that one cannot on their own. Towards the end of our session I had Meredith and PJ play an alternate version of the game “Hangman” called “Hang Mouse” from an educational website. PJ really enjoyed the game and was able to learn new vocabulary about Basketball. 

Damil_CP_IE_#4

2/12/2015

1pm

CIES Student Lounge

Ramin's Intercultural Exchange class

Today in Ramin's Intercultural Exchange class we were given worksheets and asked to pair up with the same students we spoke to in our last class session. Hammed was present, but Abdullah was not, so we participated alone in the class discussion untill Zadid showed up and join our group. Today our class discussion was about cultural synergy. We looked at our worksheets and aspects of our cultural. An aspect that had interested Ahmmed and I in the previous week was how Arabs from the Persian Gulf greet very differently from Americans. 

I thought both my partners that in the USA it is vitally important to shake a person's hand when they greet you. Its the most common way of greeting people and not shaking their hand after they have extended it in greeting is highly disrespectful. On the other hand, both Zaid and Hammed told me that men commonly greet each other with a hug and kiss on the cheek. Sometimes, they profess blessings upon each other as they greet. I asked them if I would be greeted that way if I were to visit their country. I was told that this was hard to predict since it depends on the relationship and individual personality of an individual in their country. It was likely that upon my first greeting with a male in their country, I would like be greeted with a hand shake until I established the person's trust and friendship. 

Burns _ TP #12

Meeting with Dae for final discussion of his journal article.  That article has now been submitted for faculty review prior to submission to a journal.  Dae is quite comfortable with the status of his writing, to include the introduction that was his only real problem at the beginning.  So we continued to discuss significant cultural events in America since JFK election.  Today we discussed the Kennedy Inaugural and the impact that it had upon teens and college students at the time.  It was the Cuban Missile Crisis that riveted young people to the young President.  Our discussion continued through the JFK assassination and the MLK "I Have a Dream" speech as watershed events that roused a generation from complacency to activism.  We compared that activism to student activism in South Korea.  We compared young America's attitude toward Havana to young South Korea's attitude toward Pyongyang.  We agreed to focus on 1968 as a key year in forming the worldview of the generation that now governs much of the United States, leads its churches and leads American business.

Burns - TP #14

David's brother, Mathew, was quite sick this evening and David did work that situation to send me off for cough drops from his mom, but she gave me several to gradually give to him to end that diversion.  David has become much more than capable, but attempts to evade are just part of who he is at age 9. 

He knows we stay until the work is done, so sending me off for 5 minutes and then disappearing for 3 minutes will just add 8 minutes to the session or he will have to step it up.  This has become a mutual understanding and expectation, so there is no more debate.  In addition, he likes to earn approval from Mr. Mixon and his mom.

More time was spent on math due to the 4th grade version of FCAT.  He is very good at math when he takes the time t read the entire problem.  He is figuring out that there is a "correct" answer that matches failure to read the entire problem.  Jumping the gun is hazardous and he is coming to see that.  He is also learning to use the process of elimination to narrow his choices.  Mrs. Hong wanted me to help him with test taking strategies when he ran into surprises.  So we spent some time on that.

He was then given a choice of page one or page two of a social studies assignment that required comprehension (page one) and very short writing on page two.  He opted for the more difficult first page and slowed down enough to thoroughly read the passage.  He then dispatched the comprehension questions with no trouble at all.

For the first time, he showed comprehension of every new vocabulary word when used in context.  He had no trouble with a four paragraph fill in the blank exercise using that vocabulary.  He knew he would have to get ready to give definitions to me at our next session and to write questions or statements using each word. 

He then read a chapter of his grade appropriate book and wrote about an unusual reptile.  Then he read about a viper and wrote that up.  He then tested my knowledge of these two animals compared to his.  He, of course, won that contest with no trouble.

Then he compared and contrasted the two animals in a third entry into his journal.  Once he wrote just two sentences and acted as if he was finished.  He looked at me with a smile and I smiled back, nodding at his journal.  He wrote several more sentences as he hit his writing rhythm. 

I am going to miss David.

Burns _ TP#13

Another long session with David that was very productive.  My sessions with David typically run from 90 to 120 minutes, so they have already exceeded the anticipated hours by at least four.  At first, the extra time was finding ways to encourage David to complete all the work he should accomplish.  He would typically do his math homework, followed by language arts homework, followed by grade appropriate reading of several pages and chapters.   Then he would make entries into his reading journal.  At first, this was a challenging process, but David's evasions revealed a great deal regarding his intrinsic motivation.  His evasions were things to study and understand in order to help him. He is a complex young man.

After the "wonder what happens next?" and making predictions have become internalized, David now reads so much more than he  did at the beginning.  In this session, he made a prediction when he was just two pages from the end of the expectation for this session.  David read six pages to make certain that his prediction was correct.  The session ran well past 90 minutes, but David was working hard throughout the entire time. 

When I showed him an appropriate grade level book that I had checked out for him, his first reaction was, "You joined the library just to check out a book for me?"  He thrives on extra encouragement and special steps taken to assist him; and every time his mom tells him how proud she is of him, he asks, "You are proud of me?"  He took the book I had checked out, looked through it  and then found another book at the same level.  He read the first chapter of that book.  This is the first time that David has picked a spot on grade appropriate book to read.  Until now, he tended to pick books he already knew or at a level too low. 

Many things are going on here as Mrs. Hong and I work together to unlock the keys to David's existing patterns of self-motivation.  See conversation partner summary of conversations with David's mom.  They have changed markedly over the last two weeks  More smiles.  Less frustration.

Zoe TP #10

Since Katelyn observed my session with Rina on Tuesday, I thought that it would make since for me to observe Katelyn's session with her sister, Zoe! I gotta admit, the names did get a little confusing during the session, but eventually we differentiated between "little Zoe" and "big Zoe." Zoe started out the session by showing us some of her traditional Korean dresses, which were absolutely gorgeous! Then, we had a short discussion on some of our favorite movies. The remainder of the lesson was spent on reading comprehension. I could tell that Zoe was really distracted by my presence, even though I was just quietly sitting there! I was really impressed with Katelyn, though, because she did a superb job of keeping Zoe on task! After we were done, Zoe and Rina's mom gave us both little trinkets with the Korean flag on them. It was such an adorable gift!

Colin_TP_#10

This week I met with Mohammed to help him study for his finals. Mohammed wanted help with writing. To help both him, and gain practice using a lesson plan, I used my writing lesson plan. For the beginning of the lesson I had Mohammed answer my prompt.  What is your favorite type of entertainment: movies, TV shows, books, or magazines? Why? Explain why you chose movies, TV shows, books, or magazines, give examples of your favorites and which ones you don’t like. I gave him an example and then let him write for 5 minutes. We went over what he wrote which was almost perfect! 

I then showed Mohammed the 10 questions I had made up about expressing opinions. Since the activity was for pairs, we just did it together. After answering all the questions we read our answers aloud to each other, stopping anytime there was an error in his writing. To help him correct the errors, I asked him if he though what he wrote was correct, and if he thought there was a better way to write it. This forced him to help himself. 

At the end of the session I asked him what he thought of the lesson. He gave me some feedback and thought it was good and level appropriate.  

Zoe TP #9

My classmate Katelyn observed my last session with Rina, and we had a lot of fun! As usual, we began the lesson by finishing up her homework. She's extremely smart and finishes her work very quickly! We spent the remainder of the lesson focusing on reading comprehension, with a small break in the middle to play the money game that we had made last week. The game is actually pretty fun! We take turns rolling dice, and whatever we roll determines how much money we get. For example, a one is a penny, a two is a nickle, etc. After about twenty turns, we add up how much money we each have to see who won and by how much. After the game, we did some reading comprehension out of one of her workbooks. The story that we read was about this little girl who got a cat and decided to name the cat "Promise Jones," which we both agreed was probably the worst name for a cat that we had ever heard. With only ten minutes left, Rina read TWO books out-loud to me and Katelyn! I was really impressed!

Colin_TP_#9

Last week I met with Hesham because he wanted to work on his reading skills. We started out by reading a short article on the new professional soccer team in Orlando, since Hesham plays soccer. Hesham had almost no trouble reading this article besides a few larger, more difficult words. Other than that, his pronunciation was very good. We worked on sounding out a few words he had not seen before, like “inaugural”. We worked a little more on pronunciation and then summarized the article. Hesham’s accent is not as heavy as a lot of other students in CIES, which makes his pronunciation of words easier to understand. For the remainder of our time we talked about fun things to do in Tallahassee. I told him about some of my favorite bars and places to go. He said he has had no trouble making friends in Tallahassee so far and is enjoying his time here. 

Colin_CP_#4

Hesham and I met to get dinner at Moes. We chatted about what we did the previous weekend and what was going on in school. He told me that classes were going well and that he was making a lot of friends. Hesham again stressed how he likes to meet people who do not speak Arabic because he gets to practice English more when they do not share a common language other than English. I told Hesham that I met a few students during a classroom observation that told me to teach in Dubai. I recalled that Hesham had visited Dubai before, so we discussed the reality of actually teaching there. He told me a lot about Dubai and how much he liked, but wasn't sure that it was a good fit for me. We discussed more about our travels and places that we thought would be a good fit for me to teach in. Hesham really likes Spanish culture and wants to go back to Colombia.

Colin_TP_#8

For this tutoring session I observed Catherine tutoring her CIES partner, Dalal. This was the 2nd time I had met Dalal, but this time I did not make the mistake of trying to shake her hand!
During this tutoring session Catherine and Dalal practiced pronunciation and speaking, as Dalal's Speaking Final was coming up. Catherine had Dalal read and practice pronunciation in a relaxed context. Catherine noticed that when Dalal doesn't focus so much on pronunciation, but just speaks, she is much more fluent. I think this is idea of just responding, and not focusing and overthinking, about pronunciation is a very efficient way to teach. Many students seem to speak better when their effective filters are lowered. Overall, their tutoring session was very relaxed, as the two have become comfortable with each other throughout their tutoring sessions.

Catherine_TP_#11

I met with Dalal on Tuesday, and Colin came and observed. It was funny because the very first time I met Dalal, Colin came to say hi to me really quickly, because he had been tutoring next door. He said hello to Dalal and tried to shake her hand, but she kind of looked at him like he was crazy and didn't shake back. This was definitely because of her religion and a misunderstanding, but also pretty funny. This time she recognized him and seemed much more comfortable, even though he just was watching our tutoring session. She had upcoming final exams, so I helped her go over a lot of different material to help her prepare. She said she was most nervous for her Speaking final on thursday. I had her read out loud a few things, and we also talked about them after, to help her feel comfortable talking out loud, not just reading out loud. I wanted her to realize how much better of a speaker she is when she just thinks and talks as a reaction, instead of when she reads and is focusing a lot on the pronunciation of words and saying every part right. She also repeats a lot of the syllables in a single word so I had her practice those words a few more times to help her not mess up on those ones later. I think she was pretty prepared for her exams and hopefully she did a good job on them all! She told me she is taking the next session of CIES, so I will meet with her again next week.

Benjamin_CO_#3

Date: 2/20/15 11:00-11:50
Location: Room 311 CIES
Skill: Reading, 3A
Teacher Presentation: Congenial, Adaptive, Impromptu
Classroom Management: Teacher seemed in control most of the time, the students mostly read
Materials:,  Board, Marker, Book, Audio CD
Student Participation: High, all students read diligently, all paid attention

The regular teacher was sick for this session, so a substitute ran the class. I think this was a good session to watch in order to see how to handle a classroom on the spur of the moment. 
This was a reading class and today the students were finishing the book "Frindle". I had never heard of this book, but I think it is excellent reading material for this level of students. I like that the book makes reference to real life American cultural examples, such as the David Letterman show. 

The instructor played the CD and the student read along. While they read, she occasionally wrote words on the board. After the reading, the instructor went over these vocabulary words and made sure all the students understood them. I like how she used examples from her own life to relate to the vocabulary words. 

The teacher was nice and took charge of the classroom even though it was not her usual class.

Rebecca_CP#1

Conversation Partner Meeting #1 (15.01.19)

19:45-21:00

I met with Abdullah for the first time today. We decided to meet at Starbucks as it is very close to campus and halfway between where each of us live. He got stuck in traffic on the way over, and was a little late.

I learned that Abdullah studies civil engineering, but wants to change to mechanical engineering. He is studying to take the TOEFL, and asked me the differences between the TOEFL and the IELTS, so I told him; however, I also noted that I have never seen any sample IELTS questions before, so I couldn’t be very specific in how the questions are structured.

A large part of our conversation was spent on Tallahassee itself. Abdullah asked me what there was to do for fun in Tallahassee, and that the city seems rather boring. I agreed. It took a while for me to come up with anything particularly fun to do. There’s a museum; you can go zip lining; we have many hiking and biking trails. He did not seem supremely impressed about this, and asked what I do on the weekends if I don’t do these things. I told him that I study or practice trombone and that these seem to be my greatest past times. He was also concerned about my sleeping habits, which I was rather touched by (“Sleep more! You need to sleep more. Living like that is unhealthy!”)

At one point, a girl wearing pajamas sat at our table and asked if we had any cash. I immediately told her that I had none and that Abdullah had none, and she went on her way. It was very awkward, and I decided to tell the truth to Abdullah and say that things like that happen pretty often on the area of Tennessee Street closest to the school. He was very confused about it (“I’m not saying it’s good. It’s actually really annoying, but we get used to it. It’s not normal everywhere.”)