Month: December 2017

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Where ya been? What ya done?

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So, the last time I spoke to you guys, I was going to do the Hana challenge aka blogging almost every day. I said,

I am going to write 15 posts.

Did I do that?

Nope!!

Why?

Well, life happened. I got a new job, I changed house, I had to get my stuff sorted, I started a new job.

I have a new life and blogging is quite hard for me at the moment. I have loads of new ideas to share, but I do not have the time to share them. I am knackered. Like… so tired. No energy to write. No energy to share.

That makes me wonder though. Should my job be the thing that takes up all my time?

Well at the moment yes. Work is very important. I have new modules to teach. I create materials, I am doing a lot of marking. I am trying to learn how to get around a new campus.

I am also trying to adjust to a 9-5 job and that ain’t easy.

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Life in the UK is different to life in Greece.

My work life is so different as well.

I am not a full time online Business English teacher any more. I am an EAP tutor.

I always wanted to work at a university. Now I am. You may catch me walking around the campus with a smile on my face and wonder if I have gone cray cray. I haven’t. I am just happy and I wish I could share that with you guys, my PLN, but I have no ELT blogging time.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

When I do have time, I talk about makeup because here, this blog, is kind of like an extension of my work. It is not work, but it is my professional blog. My fun beauty blog is my getaway (not doing much of that btw either).

Anyways, I thought I’d just write a little update and let you know how I’ve been.

How are you guys? What are you guys up to? How is teaching treatin ya?

Till next time…

Joanna

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Fish bowl paraphrasing activity

Hi everyone,

Today’s post is going to be about an activity a colleague shared with us and I thought it sounded like a good idea. If you teach paraphrasing and academic writing, this post is for you.

Procedure

Put students in groups of four and then four more around those student. This is something like a circle in a circle.

The students in the inner circle are given a text which hey are asked to paraphrase. Once they are happy with their paraphrase (I suggest you give your students a word and time limit), the teacher takes away the text and asks the student to share their (paraphrased) text. The students in pairs must paraphrase the text again.

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Why do this?

It is a great way to help students avoid plagiarism.

It’s a great collaborative task.

It’s more fun than writing a paraphrase on your own.

Have you tried this activity? Have you tried a different version? Let me know what you think!

Till next time…..

Jo

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Research is like….. Getting creative in the EAP classroom

Hi everyone!

In today’s post I am going to talk about a fun and creative activity I did with my students (not my idea, but really enjoyed it and thought I’d let you in on the task). Teaching in the EAP classroom can be sometimes dry and tiring. It can get boring as well!! Teachers are always trying to find ways to make some of the lessons a bit more enjoyable. This is the case of today’s writing idea. It’s sort of like an EAP picture composition.

What did I do?

Students were introduced to metaphors and were then asked to finish the sentence
research is like……
What this meant was that students had to compare research with something
Research is like a birthday cake……
Now, they also had to discuss the features/elements of research with those that go into the process of let’s say, making a birthday cake. I probably do not make sense…….

Procedure

Students were then asked to think and brainstorm about everything that comes together in order to do research (professor, thesis statement, books, journals, library etc.).
We wrote everything on the board. I then started writing my text. I introduced the task with an example.
I said,
Research is like a day at the beach. The water is my research question and the sand is the data and the sources I need to use. When I combine the water and the sand they become one entity which helps me make a castle. The castle is my research project. The person who helps me create the sand castle is my professor. He tells me ……
I actually drew pictures of some of the items as I was writing this text.

Final thoughts

Most of the students got into it and made picture essays in a Google doc. Others just wrote a text. It was a fun activity and I will definitely be trying it again next term.
Till next time…..
Joanna