FSU-CIES TEFL Fall I, 2017

Conversation Partner #6: Nguyen Date: November 10, 2017 Location: Virtual VoiceThread                                             Topics Discussed: I recently uploaded my who am I video to group 7 in Ramin’s cultural voicethread program. I really enjoyed deciding which photos to upload and what to talk about in the brief amount of time I had for the comment/audio portion.  I received comments back from a few of the students and one of the students was particularly interested in Siesta Key Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the US where I grew up. I created a different video including photos of dolphins, parasailing, and the famous sand castle competition that takes place at Siesta each November. Cultural/Linguistic Topics Learned: ...

(Note: I had skipped #2 in the succession of tutoring sessions, so this I suppose takes the place of that missing entry) Date: November 8th, 2017 Location: Sabal Palm Elementary Student: Jaques Kilozo Did my usual exercise with Jaques, wherein we went to the library, and I read him a book while he repeated after me. Today's book was "The Diggin-est Dog," which he seemed familiar with. As young as Jaques is (I'm not sure his exact age, but he's in first grade, so I assume he's about 6 or so), progress is a bit hard to track, but he seems to be coming along as far as his confidence in speaking. That, or he's simply more comfortable around me. Either way, he's gotten increasingly chatty, frequently diverting from the book to point at pictures, ask questions, and just generally say the silly things that 6 year olds do. I've also been trying to have him repeat longer strings of words; I had originally only read one or two words before having...

Date: October 24 Location: The Internet Topics discussed: About me Set up my Voicethread and began by making my about me video. Surprisingly challenging, both because I had some hiccups getting set up in Voicethread, but also because talking about yourself can be difficult. Also, I do not have many pictures of myself or my life, for whatever reason. Still got it set up, and got to enjoy a ton of comments from the students in Vietnam. A bunch of them complimented my cat, which I love, and a few asked questions of me, which I hope to respond to soon (unfortunately, at the present moment i can only get on Voicethread and actually make any comments by borrowing somebody else's computer). Ramin also had some great tips for me for improving my Voicethreads, noting that I should have more pictures to help give context to vocabulary, such as "oranges" or "saxophone". From there I went to comment on the Voicethreads for my group. As had been mentioned in, I believe,...

Date/Time: November 5 th , 5pm-6pm Location: Black Dog on The Square Topic discussed: Religion, Culture, Language Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Met up with Max/ Mubarak for coffee at Black Dog. As always, I 'm surprised a nd impressed with the level of Max's English skills, and I find it almost hard to beli eve he hasn't been studying it longer. Complimented him on his English skills, which lead to us talking about learning languages, and how hard it can be. This lead to a discussion on regional differences in l anguages, comparing US and Uk English, and Kuwaiti and Mor occan Arabic. He noted that, while he can understand Arabic when spoken by peo ple who are from countries close to Ku wait, such as Saudi Arabia or Qatar, when he speak s to a Moroc can Arabic speaker, he can barely understand them. From there we transitioned to talking about cu lture and differences between American a nd Kuwait. Talked about how family is an ex t r...

<TS Blogs>  Date/Time: November 3rd, 10:30 AM Location: Skype Topic/Skill: Speaking/ Discussion Style  Feedback provided to tutee: Practice, Practice! The  only  way to perfect a skill is to  practice, especially when you are away from school. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: It was very empowering having to create my own activity right on the spot. My tutee  notified me, with 5 minute notice. So having to create an activity quick was challenging but rewarding because my tutee loved the  impronto  acting game. 

<TS Blogs>  Date/Time: October 30th, 4:00 PM Location: Library  Topic/Skill: Capitalization Feedback provided to tutee: Great Job in understanding what needs to be  capitalzed. Soon automaticy will come into play and there will be no need to pause and think whether or not a word needs to be capitalized . Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee was at a beginner level and struggled in capitalizing proper words. I found a worksheet online that help made learning this skill easier and more a visual activity. It also gave her something to take home and review.