We prepare, we teach, we hope

Attending the 20th annual IATEFL-H Conference

2010-10-09T09:35:00.003+02:00

Everything has been great so far, apart from the usual small technological problems, the conference goes smoothly :) More info coming soon

A fabulous conference in October

2010-03-08T00:14:00.002+01:00

STANDING OUT OR BEING OUTSTANDING

Exploring new normalities in the classroom

IATEFL Hungary is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. We all recognise the dramatic changes that have happened in almost every segment of society during these decades. What once seemed rare and unusual, went unnoticed or did not even exist are today everyday realities. How are these changes being realised in our classrooms? We invite you to discuss with us your strategies on how to handle new normalities.

Have a look at the IATEFL Hungary website for more information on this year`s conference, visit our website and join our event on Facebook.

More information coming soon, so keep coming back if interested :)

Hope to see you there!

Snowy ideas

2010-01-07T12:10:00.004+01:00

I don't know how it is elsewhere but here in Budapest it has been snowing massively for days now :)

My school doesn't allow us to go out to the nearby park for a good old snowball fight - of course instead of teaching very important stuff... - so I thought of a few ideas how to 'incorporate' snow into our lessons.

1. Lesson idea no 1 can be used as a warmer at the beginning of either a regular lesson or an ICT lesson. If it's a regular lesson, you might want to bring in some dictionaries, monolinguals are the best in this case. If it's an ICT lesson, you need the internet and maybe some online dictionaries.

Write the word "SNOW" on the board and ask them to collect as many words that collocate with it as possible, then put those on the board as well. Now you organise groups and decide if you want to use the internet, or dictionaries. Tell them to find more words in connection with 'SNOW' in a limited time, let's say, 5-8 minutes. If you decided to use the net, you can do two things: you either let them explore and use google, or give them a wee help with leading them to online dictionaries. If you choose the latter you save some time, I believe.

Here's a list of dictionaries:

The Free Dictionary by Farlex

Yourdictionary.com

Merriam Webster Dicionary

My find:

snowball, snowboard, snowbound, snow-capped, snowdrift, snowfall, snowflake, snowman, snowstorm, snow-white, snow chains, snowline, snowplough, snowblower, snowdrop, snowfield, snow mobile, snow globe

Idioms:

a snow job, not have a snowball's chance in hell (of doing something), be snowed under (with something), as clean/pure as the driven snow, be snowed up, white as snow, snow bunny, snowball effect

Collocations:

heavy/fresh/crisp/thick/driving snow, snow melts or thraws

2. Lesson idea no 2 isn't exactly a lesson idea but some arts and crafts/handouts/activites sites in connection with winter and snow :)

Apples4theteacher

Teacherplanet

The teacher's corner

I hope you'll like these because unfortunately, I'm at home sick (yes, again....) so I can't try them, unless there'll still be snow next Monday when I go back to work :)

Caroling differently

2009-12-20T17:19:00.008+01:00

This year I wasn't really equipped with fancy Christmas lesson plans due to very unfortunate events... We had a school trip to Vienna which ended pretty badly for some students thanks to mulled wine. :) So I had a lot of non-teaching related things to sort out at school.

Hence, I simply asked my students what they wanted to do, what they most favoured for 'pre-Christmas school-time'. Much to my surprise, even the older ones wanted to listen to and sing Christmas songs. I gathered up some songs suitable for younger-beginner(ish) Ss and some for older-pre intermediate (or above).

Christmas songs for the wee ones:

Number one is of course Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Ella Fitzgerald version. I also tried this KARAOKE version and it went pretty well!

Next one is of course Jingle bells, the Frank Sinatra version followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks's Christmas Don't Be Late. They seem to enjoy the latter one the most, yet it is so very annoying :)

Christmas songs for the more mature ones:

12 Days of Christmas by Relient K, it's a pop-rock version of the original with a very funny (and very true) extra verse in it - I'm not going to tell you what, I'll just let you explore ;)

Or: I've recently came across with Straight No Chaser and I'm absolutely fond of this jam version of several Christmas songs, actually.

Next one is Santa Baby, Pussycat Dolls version.

Tomorrow and Tuesday: New Year's Resolutions :) I'm planning to make a list of the best ones and post it before Christmas. Stay tuned!

My favourite printables on CLOTHES

2009-12-14T23:02:00.004+01:00

Okay, so this post is going to be a a wee bit like Lindsey's Six Things, although I have no idea how many I'm going to end up with :)

Even though it's almost Christmas, I had to teach the wee ones (5th graders) some items of clothing, they probably would have enjoyed some carol singing more, but I wanted to get this over with before we go completely crazy and Christmasy :)

So here are my top favourite websites with DOWNLOADABLE & PRINTABLE material, all about clothing!

eslflow is a very nice-looking site (maybe I'm childish but I prefer warm and bright colours and playful fonts :) with tons of links. These concern vocabulary (describing people, housing, environment, etc.) and some other things like icebreakers, debates, grammar.

eslprintables is a tricky site but it's totally worth the trouble! So here you don't exactly get the goodies for free, but you also have to contribute with some of your own handouts. First you have to register (with this unfortunately you have to download an eslprintables toolbar, but I got rid of it in seconds, so no big deal..you just have to uninstall it) and upload some handouts done by you. If somebody else downloads them, you get points for which you can also download other teachers' stuff. You probably need to visit this site long before you need something because you have to wait for your points :) But some of the uploaded handouts are just gorgeous! You can preview them before you download.

teachchildrenesl is a site with loads of flashcards. Maybe that's why I like it so-so much :) With the little ones you definitely want to use a lot of these things. In my experience they enjoy the pictures, the coulours, the games we play with flashcards. But be careful, they can go seriously mad :)

freeeslflashcards is another flashcard site with dozens of topics including clothing and holidays as well

esltower doesn't have too many printables about a topic (maybe 2-3) but those are very nicely done. Check their grammar and pronunciation sections too!

eslkidsworld is designed for teachers of young learners. They have very usable and free handouts, my only problem is that sometimes the level required for completing the tasks is far too high for such young kids...

anglomaniacy is a site with both online and printable material !for kids only! :)

So, this is my list of favourite websites with printables, I hope you can make use of it! :)

Next time I promise, I'll go Christmasy! :P

After Halloween and Thanksgiving but long before Christmas :)

2009-12-01T23:39:00.002+01:00

I've been quiet for a good while now, no particular reason really, just lack of time and laziness :) So, I haven't seen any of those Halloween Party pictures yet, but note to self: contact the colleague responsible 1st thing in the morning. On the whole, the party was good, not too many kiddos came, but it hadn't been advertised early enough, so maybe next year...We had fun, I had my witch costume and make-up too :D

We also had some activities about Thanksgiving, which I'll share with you when I'm less tired and have more time, plus, I still have to figure it out if it's possible to upload files here (to share handouts)...

But the next post is going to be about IATEFL-H and a very memorable Vienna trip, so stay tuned! :)

Ideas for a terrific Halloween party :)

2009-10-26T10:35:00.013+01:00

It's a pity that at our schools the autumn break makes it impossible to celebrate Halloween at Halloween, but never mind!

At many schools it's before the the holiday breaks out but we couldn't start the arrangements in time (due to my illness and my boss's absence), so it's going to be after the autumn break.

The obvious: Jack-o-Lantern carving competition. Here you have to consider who's going to bring what... I'm not quite comfortable bringing all the knives and carving tools, so I'm going to ask one of my colleagues who is responsible for the students' kitchen ('tankonyha') if she has any.
Costume competition: in Hungary we dress up in fancy dresses at 'farsang' so it is possible that the students will not understand why they should wear a costume; therefore, I'm not sure anybody will wear one. If yes, definitely must be rewarded :)
Quizzes and other round games: these are good if the students had already learnt something about Halloween so I like to deal with Halloween traditions and customs preceding the actual party. In our school the whole thing must be held in Hungarian because not everybody learns English :( So make up a quiz plus/or word-search puzzle, maybe some arts and crafts and games and there you have it! We'll see how many of them turn up but I'd like 3-5 groups and they could compete at the different games.

Some material I found quite handy can be found on...

Larry Ferlazzo's collection

Family Fun Halloween Ideas

Happy Halloween everyone and

Stay tuned for pics and other goodies of our Halloween Party! ;)

Btw! What do you think about my perfect pumpkin? :)

Halloween makup look :)

2009-10-18T22:28:00.002+02:00

I'm definitely going to use this one on the Halloween Event at my school, so spooky! :)

The desk of the sick teacher

2009-10-11T17:11:00.003+02:00

No comments, really... speaks for itself...

My top ten list of the 'worst songs ever'

2009-10-11T10:49:00.002+02:00

In my previous post I wrote about these really obnoxious songs that became big hits and were on charts for weeks or more. What's worse, they were on radio and TV for weeks or more :)

So I thought it would be nice to collect the ones that really bugged me. Here is my list of 'all time annoying songs' in completely random order:

Hit me baby one more time - by Britney Spears
MMMBop - by Hanson
I want it that way - by Backstreet Boys (I could probably list almost all of their tracks)
Cheeky song - by Cheeky Girls (seriously... how could this be a hit??)
Lonely - by Akon
Dragostea Din Tei - by O-Zone
Tell 'em-Crank That - by Soulja Boy (the dance is quite funny, though)
Summer Jam - by Underdog Project
King of My Castle - by Wamdue Project
Napolaj - by UFO (a Hungarian one about suntan oil :D)

So, what's yours?

Worst songs ever

2009-10-08T19:40:00.003+02:00

Has it ever happened to you that you just hated a song that was on radio/MTV for months? Well, to me it has (I don't even start to list these songs but 'Hit me baby one more time' would definitely be on the list!). And I also think it could be a brilliant lesson idea! Making a compilation of these horrible but very catchy songs could be fun, entertaining and if you have some students who can play a musical instrument, they may as well want to perform at the next school event :) For less musically but more technologically talented students/teachers like my humble self: making a video compilation could be a project. If I continue to be sick for long I might as well do one myself...

New teaching material arrived

2009-10-07T21:04:00.007+02:00

Not so long ago I ordered this book from amazon. I did it so, because I like spending my freetime doing creative things such as different makeup looks :) Lucky me, the book arrived during my sick leave, so I started making friends with it instantly. Then the part of my brain, which I call 'teacherly brain', realised how nicely some bits of this book could be used during lessons. Take the 'This is who I am' chapter, for instance. It's the story of this 27-year-old girl who became a youtube sensation in a fortnight with her makeup tutorials. A real fairy tale in the 21st century. It may even be possible that many of the students know about her. And I believe using this text for practicing past simple could be much much realistic and closer to my students' (and my...) world than the stories about George Washington and Margaret Thatcher in the book. Even though I find those stories really fascinating to read. If I can make a bargain with the history/geography teachers, I might as well be able to get hold of the interactive white board and do some more fun stuff - including watching youtube videos - with the material. So I'll definitely give it a go and will share the outcome with you! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment! :)

Introducing Quizlet.com

2009-10-06T11:07:00.006+02:00

This site has been around for quite a while and there's a buzz about it, so let's give it a go!

First I heard about this site about a year ago and I've been using it ever since. It is perfect for vocab. learning, practicing and testing as well (!). It takes about 2 minutes to register and another 2 to create a group:)

First you have to register and have to tell your students to do likewise. Last year some of my 7th graders experienced a problem: quizlet.com kicked them out because they were underaged...I don't know how it could be a problem, but from then I tell my students to cheat a little and pretend to be over 18.
You have to create a group. I normally give names like 11b_2009 so that I will remember which group is which, but of course you can come up with more creative ones :)
I like to set up private groups so only my students can join them. In order to do that you have to create a group with a password. You tell your students to join the group with the password and that's all; you have your virtual vocab learning class :)
Then all you have to do is make different sets of words. You do that with the 'Make Flashcards' button (you cannot miss it, it's in bold). You type in the English word and the Hungarian equivalent, or with more advanced groups: a definition or a synonym. I like to make all my sets editable by the whole group, this way the students can also add items to the list and they can do that as HW (=less work for me).
Now about how it works: there are 6 phases of learning, out of which only one is learning:) Firstly, you familiarise with the words, the you actually learn them, test what you have learnt and at the end you play 3 different games (scatter, space race and voice race - if you have a microphone). This is what students seem to enjoy the best :)

You see, only 5 easy and quick steps and you have a lot more exciting way of practicing vocabulary. If all this didn't make sense, there is a video tutorial thanks to tanarblog. I hope you'll enjoy using this site!

Quick side-note: I'm still sick and it doesn't seem to go away soon...I may have to stay at home all week long, which would be a pity...

Technological problem, need help asap

2009-10-05T16:59:00.004+02:00

I wanted to run 'Second Life' on my laptop and I got this error message, what do I do with it? :)

Tea, tea and some more tea

2009-10-05T09:15:00.005+02:00

I caught a cold quite recently which inevitably let to my staying at home...well not inevitably, just after I realised that my throat sores 16 hours a day (the number of hours I spend awake).

It's funny how you have to protect your vocal cords when you are a teacher. And when autumn and winter come, the risk of catching some really nasty viruses and/or bacteria increases exponentially :) Of course, unlike others (=not teachers), we are in big trouble if we try to speak 4-5 hours a day when we have a cold. We naturally speak louder in bigger areas, like classrooms. Not to mention the possibility of occasional shouting, such as: 'Peti do not throw that apple out of the window!!'. Teaching 11-year-olds the latter happens to me quite often, by the way. So it's better for everybody's sake to stay at home for a couple of days (I'm planning just 2).

Here are my strategies of survival:

Think of a reasonable amount of tea and drink at least twice more (it's best when you have your jug around all day, it'll remind you of drinking)
It's always good to add some honey as well, and/or honey by itself if you have a really sweet tooth
Some pain killers always come handy (I'd prefer 'algopyrin' which is quite effective)
Whatever happens do NOT answer the phone. Try to talk as little as possible (plus, your school may call because they couldn't find a substitute and want you to go in anyways)
Open your window 2-3 times a day to let some fresh air in and let the nasty bacteria-full air out (you may want to leave the room during this time unless you want to get worse)
Chicken soup is always the best to eat when you're sick - try to evoke empathy in your flat-mates so they will make you some (sidenote: I've just called my mum that I'm really-really-unimaginably sick and also faked some coughs)
Put on warm and cosy PJs and rest in bed (it might be the perfect time to catch up with your TV shows you've been wanting to watch for ages)
After a while you'll be pretty bored with all the above, so you may start thinking about what you'll be teaching after your sick-leave (since you wasn't planning to get sick, most of your books might be left in school - no worries: perfect time for finding online material)
Last, but not least: DO NOT forget to visit/call your family doctor, he is the only person who can make sure you'll get salary while you're trying to cure your cold :)

A long long time ago...

2009-10-04T23:43:00.008+02:00

A long time ago I stopped blogging, now I'm planning to 'reload' the project :) Anyway, I deleted some of my previous posts, I realized that I was a wee bit ruder than I normally am ;)

Quick catch-up: I started teaching at this secondary school (no institute name for purpose!:) last September, then I quit in August because I hated it and started working at this another school (no institute name for purpose again!:) which seems to be a lot better environment for my little self. Just yesterday I was accepted to become an IATEFL Hungary Committee Member at the annual conference. Life has been busy for me, has it not?

Graduation day

2008-07-08T17:19:00.003+02:00

This day has finally come...

Mr A-Z

2008-06-19T19:52:00.002+02:00

Scottish square sausage

2008-06-14T15:16:00.000+02:00

This is what I'm going to eat late July! Soo looking forward to it ;)

A hard day's something...

2008-05-27T16:24:00.000+02:00

Sooo. This morning I was interviewing for a position at József Attila gimnázium. It took 5 minutes... Seriously... The head of the school has forgotten that we had an appointment. But I found out that she is willing to give me a full-time job as both an English and a Hungarian teacher form September. She also asked if I had sent my CV anywhere else. I said yes. She told me that she gives me 2 weeks to decide whether I want the job... Two more interviews to go: Radnóti and Móricz. We shall see!
To be contintubed...

"It's OK with me, I'm unemployed."

2008-05-26T21:40:00.000+02:00

This line seems to be my motto this week.
Head of department: "Are you sure you want to teach here next semester (for free) too?"
My esteemed colleague: "Are you sure you don't have anything better to do than stapling exam-papers together?"
My esteemed colleague again: "Are you sure you want to invigilate at the Proficiency exam?"
My esteemed boyfriend: "Is Wednesday fine for Indy?"

Guess what the answers were...

Down Under

2008-05-15T09:43:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I met an Australian lad for the very first time :) I had him visit one of my classes in the evening. In fact, he's going to lead that group from now on. He's a nice litte chap, eats kangaroo-steak, though...

Little something on group-dynamics

2008-05-14T12:29:00.000+02:00

So I was thinkng... what do you do with a group of youngsters who absulutely hate another member, who is older, who is a manager (probably the only IT person with whom I don't get on well...) and who is simply annoying... This is my second semester with this group, the guy is a newcomer. The main problem, I reckon, is that we had agreed to start at 5 pm. He didn't turn up for at least 2 weeks and when he eventually did, he started a big fuss about it: he wanted to start at 5.15 because this was the advertised time slot... (btw. I don't really understand why I was not informed about it, but that's on my boss...). So, anyway, the whole group seemed to develop this angry attitude towards him. On top of all, he's always late ... (they hate him even more :). Kind of a big issue now: the other members of the group refuse to work with him in pairs on in groups, they laugh at him when he arrives and starts to pack his things, fidding with this cell, etc.
My first idea: use the 15 minutes when he's not yet there for having a small-talk with the group.
My second idea: start 5 min earlier so that everybody will be satisfied (maybe...).
My third idea: ignore the whole issue (that would be neary imopssible).
My fourth idea: the combination of the 1st and 2nd ...
It's impressive how fast learners can improve such a massive, innate negative feeling towards another group-member. And it's spreading like a virus :) totally contagious. I think the dynamo is a very nice young 16 year-old lad ...
Any suggestions are welcome :)

When the English teacher goes shoe-shopping...

2008-05-13T19:31:00.000+02:00

Sorry guys out there, but this is a MUST...

Shoes = my 2nd major thesis has been graded 5.

There's nothing else to say, really....

(Not so) little catch up

2008-05-13T09:15:00.001+02:00

Since my last entry: I got hired, I had my second msn class, I got unhired...
Apparently, the teacher wanted to get salary for the summer as well, so he returned to the school and that meant my grand exit. But it's ok, I have shiny new namecards and a shiny new CV and some fancy (not shiny but new) envelopes. Did you know that there are 320 secondary schools in Budapest? I really hope that at least one needs a very well experienced English teacher :)
The other thing, (probably the biggest succes of mine ever :) the msn lesson 2.0 was even better than the first one. New and improved. Just for the record, I'm still dealing with 3-4 people at a time...never managed to have all 6 of them in front of ther PCs/Macs... I doubt that it would work as nice and smooth as it worked with this little number of people. Note to self: solve the probs:)
Linktime: these were the things I found to be serious stuffz out there on the net...
http://szotar.mokk.bme.hu/hunglish/search/corpus - this is funny like hell. You enter a word and it'll give you dozens of variations (lierature, subtitles etc.) of the required language (Ok, English and Hungarian). Check out! God bless you Nyelvtudományi Intézet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/docarchive/ - everybody fancy BBC. BBC related any materials are nice and highly recommended to use in-class :) That was what I did. You can listen to the programmes online, download them on your PCs/Macs or on your iPods/iAnythings as podcasts! Niiice.....
Later on I'll share some of my doubts concerning group-dynamics in one of my language school groups but it's time for me to get prepared for my next advernture, namely finding out my thesis grade! :)

Strange as it may sound...

2008-04-24T16:03:00.000+02:00

So, about my "job interview" earlier today... Firstly, I could manage to get lost in Budaörs (got on the wrong bus). Then I met my colleague(s) to be. And then a chain of funny, unexpected things happened :) I visited two classes in the moring. Then I was basically introduced to the majority of the staff. In the meanitime, I got many really tasty snacks couse in this school the teachers celebrate namedays and birthdays. So, what I got in a 15-minute long break were loads of names, apple juice, bread with some topping, tiramisu and some kind of cherry-cake. Normally I don't eat that amount of food till about 2 pm :) Then I was asked if I could go and teach in two classes :):) Ok, this was the weirdest:) A very nice German teacher came with me, introduced me to both classes and left:) Funnily enough, at the end of my second class a bunch of girls came up to me askinging whether I was their new teacher. If I was not, they want me, couse I was by far the best substitute teacher they've got:) Wow, that's a complement, is it not? I told them to write a wishlist and forward it to the head teacher. So, this is how it happened. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also met the dean! Just a quick handshake, nothing else, he seemed nice though. It seems, I'll start on Saturday (working day) and from next week on (after Wed) I have 3 groups :) Funny. Let's do some math... I entered the school in order to visit one group in the morning. I left the school at 1 pm having tought 2 classes and will have 2 groups in the future :) Greater than ever! And as I had predicted, no interview:)
I might even dare quote from one of my favourites (How I met your mother)
"I've just awsomed all over the place. True story...."
Stay tuned for the upcoming events of my saga!
Cheers

What would the teacher do?

2008-04-22T21:59:00.000+02:00

Today is another big step for Orsi - probably a rather small step for the World. I'm kind of interviewing for a job in I. Gy. Gimnázium on Thursday. Kind of... I don't exactly know what will happen. OK, I go there to see 'my future' students in action in the morning and then in the 'nagyszünet' I'll get forwarded to the dean (???) and then somebody gets to decide something. :) Weird. As a matter of fact, I've never ever had a real job interview. Probably this thingy 'Job Interview' doesn't exest in the world of teaching. I got my very first job in a language school ON THE PHONE without saying a word in English. No probs, I was teaching the week after. As for my second job... I think I've asked for getting the job, but no, I clearly don't remeber any interviews. But I had an interview at ELTE DELP indeed. On the other hand, it turned out I was presumably the only person who took all the requirements (i.e. CV, cover letter, copy of my index-book, tutors who might recommend you, etc.) seriously. I still have a day to figure something out about this 'undefineble mystery', namely a teacher's job interview.

First entry

2008-04-21T13:11:00.000+02:00

Hi, and welcome to my world :)
So, here I am 24, teaching English as a foreign language mostly in a language school, 'lessly' at ELTE University, Department of English Language Pedagogy. Last week I made a new invention - at least I thought it was my invention - the unexplored opportunities in online language teaching. About the 'not my invention' later...
There I was with 6 very devoted university students in the middle of the strike when the public transport died in our beloved hometown. Here's what I thought we might be able to do! Why don't we gather up on msn messenger and have an online session in a chatroom? Wow, how cool is that - did I think. So on Friday morning I woke up with great expectations. I started to figure out what to do. After like 10 minutes or so, ideas started to come up (stream of consciouseness as you might now) and I had a good collection of online activites in 30 minutes. Nice. So, vocabulary-wise these websites cought my attention: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ and http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html . Very impressive, very handy. Listening-wise, obviously youtube... Let me present the tasks:
1. How many accents does he mime? Name some interesting characteristics about the different accents (vocabulary, pronunciation, whatever you find interesting).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xq9Iy1k9yRc&feature=related
2. Write down as many conditional sentences as possible that you hear in this song. (Please don’t search the lyrics on the web :)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x25F3-sR2Yo&feature=related
3. How does Jason Mraz describe his new album? Note down as many details as possible.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=S1nd0HmXouk

So, this was it. Hope you guys out there find these useful.
About my magnifiscent plans later on, unfortunately I have to go and make actual money, not just deaming of it. This was more than enough for a very first entry.
Cheers,
Orsi