Ready to Read

From Chennai to Hong Kong - Thank you!

2010-07-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

Another kickstarter backer video with behind the scenes preview of what you'll see and hear on the DVD. Thanks for all your support.

From Chennai to Hong Kong - Thank You! from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

H is for Henry

2010-07-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

As promised, several kickstarter backers receive a video message from India dedicated to the person of their choice. From Ann Anderson, is "H is for Henry". Enjoy Henry!

H is for Henry from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

Blooper Reel from Eureka Child's English DVD Series

2010-06-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last Day of DVD Shoot: June 25th, 2010

2010-06-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

Eureka Child DVD Series Behind the Scenes

2010-06-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

Eureka Child English DVD Shoot Behind the Scenes from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

A quick update from the production. Four more days of shooting...lots of bloopers coming soon! :) Stay tuned.

DVD Update #12 Shooting Begins

2010-06-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

Success with a steep learning curve...

We are two days into our 17 day shoot and still mostly on schedule. We were able to cover a script a day plus deal with all the first time trouble-shooting kinks of setting up sets in poorly lit, echoing rooms, teaching kids lines on the spot and fixing/finding props at the last minute. We're all exhausted but in two days I feel like I personally have just attended film school and have learned an enormous amount about how to make the next few weeks much smoother. When we aren't filming, I'll be spending my time simplifying and organizing the scripts better to make sure the shoot days are smoother. When we are filming I'll prep people better for the entire day so we can move faster as a team.

Day 1 Set: Kids painting props for the school annual day

Day 2: Kids at school talking about the sounds they've learned that day.

Before each scene, the kids practice their lines with a coach.

Shooting in 100-104F weather is exhausting, especially since we are on location and do not have a cool AC studio space to use. This means we can't even have fans on when the camera is rolling. Snacks and lots of water breaks are essential!

A true experiential learning experience for everyone. We all pause to watch and listen to the last take to see what needs to change, mistakes we've made and what worked well. Digital cameras and instant playback are such a blessing when working with kids.

Production Team Meets Chennai Filmmaker R.S. Prasanna

2010-06-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

The production team, a dynamic group of ten volunteers, interns and Aid India staff, met today to confirm roles and responsibilities and discuss the (slightly grueling) schedule. R.S. Prasanna, a Chennai filmmaker, was our chief guest and motivational speaker. He led a very helpful discussion on how to make a movie with little or no budget. That's us! We focused on trouble shooting especially in the areas of lighting, sound, direction and keeping the momentum going for 3 weeks, especially with the kids. So glad to have a resourceful and experienced filmmaker on call for this initiative.

Two of the child actors prepare a bingo game card using opposites vocabulary. The main focus of the 2 week rehearsal preparation has been to build up their confidence of English vocabulary, grammar, writing and reading that they have already learned through games, activities and one on one interaction with multiple teachers.

The phonetic sound letter props are almost finished. These will be used throughout all the segments to help reinforce the sounds being taught in each segment. Do you know what sound 'ie' and 'oo' make? Think 'tie, die, fried and ' and 'moon, spoon, stool, boot'

Today we took the letters outside and filmed the kids dancing around with each sound in various locations. Still lots more to do, but we got about 1/3 through the letters before the sun got too high in the sky and we were attracting too much attention to be productive.

Adam, our camera in charge, is spending his summer holiday volunteering for this production. Lucky us! He arrived less than a week ago and has already bonded with the kids--playing games, introducing kiwi to them for the first time and teaching them how to hackey sack. And has already spent several long hours in the sun filming on the streets of Chennai.
A great addition to the team!

Our Chennai-based interns are hard at work on their laptops checking scripts, sourcing last minute items, location scouting and working on story-boarding. These guys will be assistant directors as well as our main post-production editing crew. This production would not be possible without such a talented technical team!

DVD Update #11 Rehearsals

2010-05-25T10:48:00.001-07:00

Day 1: All the teachers, volunteers and recently arrived interns meet the students

We've completed 1 full week of rehearsals and while we are trying desperately to stay on schedule, the kids are getting a little antsy. They want to get out there and get in front of the camera. But we've also had less than perfect attendance. This is in part due to last week's Cyclone Laila and 1 resulting fever. And this week both boys have had stomach problems and have been out for 1-2 days. Because of the background of the kids, it can be hard to track them down when they don't show up and while the parents have been supportive, they are not always communicative or responsive.

Due to attendance issues we decided to take on 1 more girl from Chennai. We first met her at the annual day of the school both boys attend. Their English teacher wrote a very cute drama for the kids to act out to show off their English talent. Our new actress played a teacher and played it very well. It was extremely hard to track her down considering it is summer holidays. However, it turns out her grandmother and uncle both work for a house (as domestic help and a construction worker) 1 block from our office. We were able to talk with the family and while they didn't seemed disinterested, said she could participate. We gave them a copy of the pilot episode in hopes that they realize what a great opportunity it will be for her.

We start each morning with some light yoga stretching. My goal is to get them to eventually do 5 minutes of meditation. Currently 30 seconds is a struggle. (Note: the boy on the left had to remove all his clothes because he walked in the cyclone to the office for rehearsals and was drenched)

Students spend 45 minutes reviewing vocabulary and practice speaking
English with each other and their teacher.

The students spend one hour reviewing phonics and doing reading related activities.

Before lunch students spend 15-20 minutes writing in their workbooks practicing words and sounds they have learned in reading class.

After lunch students work on their lines with on the volunteer English teachers.

Follow us on twitter: sistaKAA

2010-05-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's official, you can now follow what's happening with the DVD production, rehearsals, and the shoot on twitter. Visit my twitter feed or follow us to get instant updates @sistaKAA

DVD Update #10 Cyclone Hit Chennai

2010-05-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Nothing like an off-season cyclone, flooding, and power outages to delay a project. Luckily, we only lost one day of our intended schedule, but were still able to rehearse and work with the kids. Unfortunately with the temperature drop and being out in the rain, one came down with a fever. Hopefully it is short lived and she'll be back on her feet again soon. We don't exactly have under studies.

One of our students is picked up on her uncle's motorbike after rehearsal.

The road in front of our office was entirely flooded. We all had to walk through it up to mid-calf...don't think about it. Really, it's best not to think about all the micro organisms that thrive in such conditions. It's been almost a week and I'm still standing. Although now we have three kids out.

DVD Update #9 Interns, Rehearsals & Props

2010-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Quick update from the ground:

We have selected 6 talented interns to join our production team. They will be helping with camera direction, editing, lighting, production management, rehearsals and scouting out locations. We are very exciting to have this dynamic group of students and professionals onboard for the next few months. With their permission I'll be posting their bios to the blog in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. They are up and coming film makers!

Rehearsals with the students start tomorrow. I'm putting together the final rehearsal schedule which will include everything from a daily yoga class to spoken English and art projects. Anyone have suggestions or want to be involved, please let me know!

We have finished cutting and paper maching all the letters and sounds for the segments we will be shooting in June. We are in the process of painting them. Hope the 5 litres of paint lasts for all the props, it was almost $100US! Eeks! I'm compiling a list of all the other props we'll be needing to make, collect and buy. I'll post the list to the blog, if you have any of the items, please donate for a few weeks. We promise to take good care of it.

DVD Update #8 Guest Illustrator

2010-05-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

The English team is always looking for talented creative types that are willing to help out a good cause. We are in constant need of illustrators and designers to help us add the fun, creative, and cute touch to the educational materials we develop.

I would like to publicly thank Vaibhav Kumaresh, recipient of India's Best Animator Award 2005, of Vaibhav Studios for being our guest illustrator! He has been working on our 'Simple Instructions' illustrations and they are cute beyond words. I love his cartoon style--mischievous yet naive characters sometimes with overly exaggerated noses and sometimes without noses at all. The kids are going to love these! Stay tuned, you'll be seeing these and more like them in the upcoming DVD modules.

Thanks Vaibhav! If you'd like to contact him regarding your own animation or illustration project please email him: vaibhavkumaresh [at] hotmail [dot] com

Write your name.

Hold your nose.

DVD Update #7 Restructuring

2010-05-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

Staff Script Writing Workshop

Originally we had hoped to do a lot more fund raising to help us secure funds for this project and kickstarter was just one avenue we were using. Sadly, with the economy, our other attempts have been fruitless. However, that isn't stopping us from moving foward, we've just had to rethink our approach and strategy...like good creative development educationists that we are.

So, we have restructured and rethought the project. We will be outsourcing the creative fun bits: songs and animation to our previous directors. The educational bits, we will produce ourselves.

Thanks to the help of volunteers in the US and India, we have 20 scripts that we are editing and finalizing. We will begin rehearsals with the students next week while we finalize the schedules, scout the locations and continue making props. We hope to start shooting the first week of June. It's a lot to get done, but since I'll be on a flight to the US on July 12th, it's gotta get done!

We have also identified a great set of interns that will be helping us put it all together, everything from writing, editing, prop making, filming and post-production editing. It is going to be an exciting team and I am really looking forward to working with everyone on this project.

Teachers making props

Taken on the first day of prop making. Five of the teachers working on our program in Chennai have agreed to help us with prop-making and rehearsals this month. The props will all be cardboard and paper mache. It's a long process and lots of cutting, sticking and painting required but its a cheap option!

'English made easy' in The Hindu

2010-04-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Ready to Read program and the DVD initiative was featured in The Hindu this week. Clink on the link below to read the article.

The Hindu: English Made Easy, April 5th 2010
by Seem Sanghi

An Video Introduction to Ready to Read

2010-03-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

An Introduction to Ready to Read from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

The Ready to Read program is designed to be an innovative intervention by teaching English reading and writing through a phonetic and whole language approach. In addition to introducing basic phonics through Total Physical Response (TPR), it also introduces students to common sight words, writing practice, group play activities and reading time. This dynamic reading program, specifically designed for Tamil-medium students, fits in a bag and can be easily transported. The need for this program is heightened by the fact that there is no comparable alternative, which uses culturally appropriate and relevant content. This balanced program supplements the primary school curriculum, enabling students to read words and simple sentences within a few weeks. In 2009-2010 it was piloted in 36 schools with about 2000 fourth and fifth standard students in eight districts across the state. The results to date have been encouraging and we have received an overwhelming response from teachers and students.

If you want more information regarding the Ready to Read program, please leave a comment, or email: info@aidindia.in.

Wow! Great news!

2010-02-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

We did it, or rather all our kickstarter backers did it. We have reached our $4,000 goal for the next episode of our DVD project. Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged and is backing this project. Your support means a lot all of us on the English team at Aid India. It is encouraging to know that there are so many people out there supporting and encouraging us to continue this work. We met with our directors last week and have begun talks about the next several episodes. Now that we've raised enough money for another episode we are that much closer to our goal of completing the project. We hope to have the next shoot in June.

But we still have 16 days left on kickstarter and each episode is going to cost about $4000, so please pass this onto friends, family or colleagues. We can still use all the help we can get. Additional funds raised beyond our $4000 goal will go towards additional episodes. And the more episodes we can produce in one go, the more we can bring our costs down.

Please pass this on to friends, family and colleauges. We aren't done yet. For information about the reading project and the DVD initiative, please follow the link below to our kickstarter site:

Check out our Kickstarter page and make a pledge

2009-12-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

Wow! What's that sound? - A 5 Minute Teaser

2009-12-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

Wow! What's that sound? - A 5 minute teaser from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

Behind the making of "Wow! What's that sound?"

2009-12-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

In addition to interviews with the child artists, entertaining video snippets, bloopers and behind the scenes outtakes, this short documentary provides context into the reasons behind why we made "Wow! What's that sound?". And why we are hoping to turn it into a 12 episode educational DVD series as soon as we secure additional funding.

You can also view the documentary on vimeo in full screen.

Screening and Release at Madras Terrace House

2009-12-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

Niveditha, Priya, Kirsten and Sumangali enjoy some Bhel Puri
on the terrace before the event

On Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 Aid India released and screened the first pilot episode “Wow! What’s that sound?” of their 12-episode English language DVD series at the Madras Terrace House, Royapettah. The pilot episode demonstrates an innovative approach to teaching English to Tamil-medium students in the primary school age group.

Jon (of Xylopholks) and Vedanth perform melodious magic before the show

The evening commenced with a lively music performance by Vedanth, the music producer and Jonathan Singer, xylophonist. Dr. Balaji Sampath, Director of Aid India delivered an inspirational talk on the role of education in bridging the growing economic divide and the importance of English in bringing about linguistic equality. This was followed by a brief presentation on ‘Between your desire and destiny there are DVDs’ by Mr. Robert Bellarmine, formerly of the British Council and currently Director of English for Empowerment and Enrichment.

A packed house--standing room only!

A documentary on the making of the DVD was then played, followed by a speech by Mr. Ravikumar, MLA, activist and author. Mr. Ravikumar also released the pilot episode and distributed DVDs to the child stars.

Ms. Vasanthi Devi and Mr. Ravikumar release the pilot episode of the DVD

During the screening of the pilot episode, the guests were delighted to watch the children’s lively engagement with the video. Ms. Vasanthi Devi, President of Aid India and former Chairperson, Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women remarked that the storyline was engaging, while also doing the job of an educational English lesson.

In addition to our guest speakers listed below, other participants included the child stars from Chennai and Koovathur and their families, the producers, directors, the cast, and NGOs, foundations & companies involved in education initiatives.

Ranga the Rowdy Rabbit was on display in the lobby.

Some of the caps and the props from the pilot episode were also on display.

DVD Update #6: Pilot Episode Release & Screening

2009-12-02T22:37:00.000-08:00

DVD Update #6 Release & Screening Event

2009-11-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Aid India’s DVD Release and Screening of

“Wow! What’s that sound?”

Please join us for the official release of the first episode of our new educational English DVD series for the children of Tamil Nadu!

Date: Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Time: 7pm-9pm
Place: Madras Terrace House
15, Sri Puram 2nd Street,
Off R.K. Salai, Near Deccan Plaza Hotel,
Royapettah, Chennai 600 014
Ph: 044-4503-8391

Initial Evaluation Results

2009-11-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

Initial evaluation has been completed for methodology-applied classes in almost all 36 schools consisting of approximately 2000 students, however evaluation data has only been received from 27 schools consisting of 1,351 students (10% were absent) and 12 control group schools with 334 students (3% were absent). We are still waiting the evaluation results for approximately 600 students in schools who have recently started the program.

As indicated by the results of the evaluation (see Table below), 87% of children are at least able to read letters whereas only 39% of children are able to read at least words, which appear in the third grade government textbooks. However, only 15% of students were able to read at the sentence level. Even more shocking, only 3% of the control group students could manage at the sentence level. This discrepancy may be because the control group evaluations were completed in different districts in the state. These numbers are much lower than we estimated at the time of writing our grant proposal. Therefore, ensuring 80% of children attending our methodology-applied classes will be able to read sentences may prove challenging, as only 11-39% can read individual words. This goal needs to be re-evaluated. Perhaps achieving 80% at the word level and 65% at the sentence level will be a more realistic intended outcome.

Chennai ELCs Training #2

2009-10-26T03:34:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday and Friday we held a training at the Chennai Block office for all the Chennai BRPs (Block Resource Persons). The Chennai BRPs are all running Spoken + Reading English programs at their schools. Thursday was focused on training them on spoken English content. And on Friday we focused on reading content.

The morning was spent doing a pre-test, learning the new reading jingle and reviewing how to do an evaluation. In the afternoon we split them into beginner and advanced groups. Each group was responsible for teaching one week of content and two activities to the rest of the group.

After lunch we spent the afternoon acting as students in a classroom while groups presented their content and taught us activities. Everyone took their student role very seriously and created a challenging (but very life-like) environment for the teachers. It was a fun and engaging way of covering lots of material and trying out new activities. Nobody was tired even though we had just eaten a big lunch.

We were finally able to give all the Chennai BRPs flashcards, picture cards, para cards and the first draft of the bilingual teacher's manual. The student activity workbooks will be sent to them next week. It's finally starting to feel like a complete program.

DVD Update #5: Filming!

2009-10-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Going to the first day of the shoot
Uma Rani, Kirstne, Sumangali (back row), Swetha, January, Vignesh, Chandru (front row)

Day 1, Audio Recording 2pm-7pm

We picked up the students at noon and brought them to the office. The Koovathur kids had also arrived. I asked Swetha and Chandru to come and help me get lunch from a nearby hotel. Upon leaving the office I realized that Swetha didn’t have chappals. Apparently her chappals broke at the bus stand when she reached Chennai and so she was barefoot. So after putting in our order for lunch we went to a small chappal stall and bought her new chappals for 40Rs. For lunch we ate parrota and meals together in the office with all the staff. For most of the students it is their first time being around computers and in an office. They wanted to see everything and explore, but we had to keep an eye on them so they didn’t disturb the office too much. We finally left for the hall in two cars at about 2pm. The kids and their teacher all piled into the ambassador with Parvathy. Sumangali, Priya, Kalai and I all went in Suman’s car and followed the ambassador to the Goethe Institute, Max Mueller Bhavan. Walking into the studio for the first time was a little exciting for everyone. They had never been in a big studio space before. It is like big concrete hall, that had a a vinyl floor rolled out in the middle. The production crew had put up a backdrop for the set and blacked out the windows. For the first day on the set, the students mostly sat with the music technician and the actors and practiced the jingle and other tunes that will be used in the episode. They recorded their voices for the music--wearing big headphones and talking into a mic. Even though it was their first time performing, they didn't seem to have any stage fright. They all warmed up to it very quickly. Although it did take them some time to get all the tunes down...and the music technician will need to have to edit a lot to make some of their recordings useable, but they were very cute!

On the set waiting for the directors to say "Rolling, Action!"

Day 2, Shoot 7am to 7pm

I was up and at Brinda school by 6:30am to meet the two boys. Vignesh was there right on time and came alone, at least a 15 minute walk requiring crossing a very busy street. Chandru was 30 minutes late but came by his father’s auto. We went to the office and picked up the Koovathur girls, got in the taxi and went to Max Mueller Bhavan.

Today the students got to put on their costumes, make-up and stand on the set in front of the lights for the first time. Very exciting, but they soon realized it was also very exhausting and hot. We were able to run the air conditioning unit for the room when we weren't shooting, but it was too loud to use all the time, so the room got very warm after awhile. We were constantly rushing up on set with water bottles and biscuits to keep the kids energized. Nobody knew what to expect the first day of the shooting, but we all figured out very quickly that this was going to be a slow long process that involved a lot of waiting around. The production crew had to shift and adjust lights. The camera men had to find the right angles and the directors had to set the stage. And then we had to manage the kids and make sure they weren't going to tear down the sets.

A long day on the set in front of the lights. They did an amazing job staying energetic and enthusiastic all the way through.

Day 3, Shoot 7am-10pm

I had another sleepless night singing “A kite cap, a cone cap” and “Tommy is a tall tiger” in my fitfull sleep. These songs and the jingle are going to drive me crazy. I guess its good that they are catchy, but if I can't get them out of my head soon, I might go mad.

Vignesh met me at Brinda at 6:25. The car picked us all up at the office at 6:50. We arrived at MMB by 7am and had tea and biscuits. As soon as Sumangali and Parvathy arrived we started getting the kids ready—makeup and ironing costumes. The kids were on the set by 8am doing some filler shots of them playing near the caravan while the other actors got ready. Chandru had the best part—playing the drum attached to the caravan. Yesterday we only got about 25 minutes on film and needed much more, so today was going to be a LONG day...lots of scenes to cover in a very short time. We had had high hopes of finishing early, but ended up barely dragging the kids out of the studio at 10pm. Lots of lessons learned about time management! We will need to adjust our planning and schedules a lot for the rest of the episodes.

A week after the initial shoot, we went to the Koovathur school and shot some scenes outside.

Some hilarious moments on set:

One student can NOT pronounce tub and it comes out as ‘dub’
When the kids met the creature they were totally freaked out. But even before he put on his costume, they picked out who he was in the room without having any clues. He has long hair and hadn’t shaved. He kinda already looked like a creature.
Watching kids record for the first time—big head phones on listening to the music without being able to hear their own voice. They were mumbling and off tune.
One student kept adding “ing” to every phrase in the song. It took many many tries to get it right. She was saying things like: “Read booking” “Play gamesing”
Street/folk dancing during cap song...the boys love it. This may be a hit song. They went wild when they heard it and couldn't stop dancing to it.
Cultural bathroom issues. The kids had perhaps never been in a bathroom with toilets and no squat toilet before. The girls were squatting on a marble floor bathroom with a toilet. Luckily there was a drain in the floor and they were washing it with water, but still--inappropriate. We found an outside toilet behind the studio that was squat style so that we could avoid the issue.
Chandru saying “cut” “take” and “action” before the directors. We had to remind him many times that it was not his job.
Chandru using friendly verb forms with adults which is actually viewed as being very impolite. We had to have a talk with him about how and when to use polite forms of Tamil.
Chandru needs a minder to sit with him, remind him every 2 minutes to be quiet. We may need to hire an assistant just to monitor him in the future.
“Vignesh is a always a good boy” said by Vignesh after Gilli Gilli Valli said he was a good boy. He only talks in the third person.

The kids have become very serious actors very quickly. They remember their lines, know when and where to be and can change their personalities as soon as they hear the word "Rolling, Action!" But they have also started demaning A/c cars and will need to start wearing sunglasses to hide from the papparazzi. What have we created?

DVD Update #4: Photos on Flickr

2009-10-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

An update regarding the DVD shoot will be posted soon, but in the meantime, you can view lots of pictures on flickr: Eureka Child.

DVD Update #3: Article in The Hindu

2009-10-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

To see the complete article in The Hindu on October 7th, 2009, visit this link:
English fairy tale for students of Tamil-medium primary schools

DVD Update #2: Measurements & Rehearsal

2009-09-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

All of our other pending projects have been pushed to the side this week. The pilot episode for the DVD is full speed ahead and there is lots that needs to be done. Thank goodness for a team of people: producers, costume designers, set designers, musical technicians, content people (us), actors, parents, teachers, and friends willing to give feedback, etc. This would never be possible without everyone enthusiastically working together on this project.

Last week we went to the school with a tailor and had the kids selected for the DVD measured. Cloth was bought and the tailor stitched them new DVD school uniforms. We choose bright fun colours: orange and purple. Sadly the tailor got the top and bottom confused and made the dark purple into shirts and blouses which will totally drown out the kids. We had asked for orange shirts and blouses. There needs to be a bright colour on top to offset their skin tones and hair colour. Deep purple will hide them entirely and we will only be able to see their teeth and the whites of their eyes on camera. Not acceptable! But we paid the tailor anyway. The producers are currently scouring the city for new lighter purple cloth and a tailor that can stitch 6 shirts in 24 hours.

Last week we meet with the parents of the students from the school in Chennai. We discussed the program and the logistics of the shoot. They all agreed and signed off on the permission slip. I am trying to keep in mind what I would be thinking and feeling if I were in their shoes...if I had been selected to act in a DVD in 4th or 5th grade, it might be the biggest thing that had ever happened to me. I wonder how something like this changes your life as a kid. Is it the biggest event to date for them? Considering movies are so popular here, giving kids an opportunity to act in front of a camera on a set is a pretty cool experience. As part of our side video project, the making of the DVD, we are going to do little video bios on each student when we drop them off at home this week.

Yesterday we had a 4 hour rehearsal with all six students and our main actor. She is great with children and they all seem to love her so it is working out perfectly from that perspective. She took them through several excercises and warm-ups to get them playing with their voice and facial expressions. And then she went through the first episode with them line by line. There was a lot of laughing and positive reaction to the script--Thank goodness! The kids seemed excited by the story line and picked up on the English very quickly. Only 3 of the students (all the girls) have been exposed to the program before. The boys haven't had any experience with the program so they are a little slower to pick it up, but tried really hard. Everyone had a good time. We ended the rehearsal with a parrota lunch and then managed to get all the kids home, earlier than expected.

Escorting them home was half the adventure yesterday. While we know that these kids come from disadvantaged backgrounds and live in slums, we never really see or experience the slums. Chennai has a few large slum areas, but most slums areas are hidden throughout the city down narrow lanes, hidden behind corners and blocked by walls or buildings. One turn off the main road and it is a different world. A world one wouldn't know exisited in Chennai unless you make an effort to find and see it for yourself. Yesterday I walked through two slum areas to drop off the kids after rehearsal. Being a foreigner there is obvious curiosity as to why I'm there. It's ok to see foreigners on the main roads, but there isn't any good reason why I should be walking through the slums otherwise. This was very clear in one area when the young men started calling out to me. As soon as we announced we were there with a student for a 'shoot for a school program' the attitude changed entirely. Not only was the student given slaps on the back (in congratulations), but we were shown straight to his house and everyone was instantly super helpful. It's all about relationships and establishing the right connections. We will be dropping him back again the rest of the week. It'll be interesting to see how their reaction to me and the others changes over time. But it'll be more interesting to see how he and the other students change over the days of the shooting. Will it increase their self-confidence? Will they display more pride? Will they step up to the acting role? Will they freeze up in front of the camera?

More after the shoot!

DVD Update #1

2009-09-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

The DVD project is moving along very quickly! Last week we conducted auditions for the childrens parts in the DVD. We spent about 2 hours at a nearby school with about 20 children. Tarun & Anushka brought their camera to record the students for reference later. We played games with the kids. Sang songs. Asked them to play charades. Taught them some of our phonics sounds and actions. And generally encouraged them to be a little wild and crazy and have a good time. There were definitely some dominate characters that stood out.

Students singing in unison for camera close-ups.

Students playing a game in with the actress that will play our main 'teacher' character.

Students volunteering for charades.

We have selected the students, 3 boys and 3 girls. We will have four main speaking parts and two additional roles for activities and games. We are in the process of getting school and parent permission this week. We will hold rehearsals next Monday and shoot Wednesday-Friday and again the following Monday. Lots to be done this week: costumes, sets, and finalize the script and jingle. Fun fun fun!!

Back to Work

2009-09-02T01:35:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from three weeks in the US. The primary justification for my trip was to renew my visa, but seeing family and friends was the real reason I wanted to go. It wasn't a particularly restful or re-energizing trip, but it was a very necessary break.

While I was home I was able to visit the Portland AID Chapter and give a presentation about the Ready 2 Read program. They have helped to fund the pilot episode of the DVD project, so it was fun to be able to meet the members face to face, talk about education in India, and generally share about the project both its successes and challenges.

I'm back in the office and trying to get caught up on emails. We are in the process of editing the script for the episode. We will have auditions with kids next week and have reserved a theater space to do our shoot near the end of the month. It's finally coming together. While there are still many details to sort out, it is an exciting process and I can't wait to see the final product.

Eureka Learning Center Training

2009-08-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday about 30 teachers from 8 districts in Tamil Nadu came to Chennai for Ready to Read program training. They will be each be teaching the program in Eureka Learning Centers in local government schools in their districts. We covered the first three weeks of content, activities, curriculum, and evaluation. While we still don't have all the materials to give to them, they each took a flip and blend book, sentence cards, sight word cards, the plastic polythene hangers fort he cards, copies of the flashcards and picture cards, the 1st week of the activity workbook, a list of activities and the evaluation tool. Many of them had already started the program and were able to give us some feedback. However, because they are all still new to the content, most of the feedback concetrated on classroom management and general teaching strategy. This will be something we need to cover more of in our subsequent training. More pictures from the training to follow.

Solution #2: Revising and Signing the DVD Contract

2009-08-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

Anushka, Parvathy, Balaji and Tarun at the R2R DVD Pilot Contract Signing

Finally! We spent several weeks revising the contract and rethinking the project before making it official. The filmmakers have given us two concept notes to think about for the pilot. We will be meeting with them this week to go over more ideas before they get started on the script. Because the overall budget for this project is much higher than we originally anticipated, we've decided to go ahead and only produce a pilot episode at this stage. We're hopeful that with a pilot in hand we will be able fundraise for the remaining amount. Fingers crossed! Ideas? Suggestions? Any funders out there?

Materials Update #7 Flashcards & Picture Cards

2009-07-29T04:40:00.000-07:00

It's official, we have given a CD of with 72 flashcards and 288 picture cards to the resource team for printing. Now we are waiting for quotes from printers. We will print 500 sets. With the flashcards and picture cards in hand we can actually start the program. The other materials are somewhat supplemental, although completely necessary from our perspective. At least with the flashcards and picture cards the teachers will have most of the raw material with which they can teach and run activities. This has been a VERY long process. Much much longer than we originally anticipated. From coming up with creative ideas for each of the cards, deciding on a list of sounds, blends, alternative spellings and common combinations, contracting out original illustrations for each of the 360 cards, designing the layout, and coming up with appropriate logos, etc. It has been an arduous although exciting process. I am hopeful that once all the materials are finished, this program will be a comprehensive and exciting tool kit for teachers and students. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but each time we send off something for print, we get one step closer.

Materials Update #6: Flip and Blend Chart

2009-07-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of our materials that we've just gotten from the printers.

As students flip each page they can make new words by just changing 1-2 letters. Some of the words will be non-sensical, but the goal is to get them to start sounding out and reading words.

Sumangali is holding up a draft print out of two of our para cards. Parvathy is holding up the flip chart. The para card has a story about a cow on it, hence the reason why the flip chart says "moos".

Materials Update #5: Teacher Pic

2009-07-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

Our revised and much improved 'teacher' picture.

Materials Update #4: Editing

2009-07-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

With over 360 images, it has been a challenge to keep track of all our requests, the changes and the final images, although we have managed to keep it pretty well sorted. And our illustrators have been very patient with us and all our demands. Today I was going through the picture cards for a final edit to make sure there were no glaring errors--spelling, the wrong picture with the wrong word, etc. I thought we had finalized all the images, but for the word "teacher" this is what I found:

Eek! This is exactly the image of a 'teacher' we are trying to avoid. In our instructions to the illustrator we said that the teacher SHOULD NOT have a cane. But perhaps she misread it and thought it said 'should have a cane.' And for some reason this image didn't get sent to us in the initial preview, otherwise I'm sure we would have caught it. The last thing we want to do is promote the image of the teacher as having a cane and looking as if she is ready to beat a child. That may be a reality in many schools, but should not be reflecting in our materials. But it is comical that something like this almost got through. This just means we need to look at everything with a very fine tooth comb!

Materials Update #3: Printing

2009-07-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Good news! We have material. Our blending flip chart just arrived (pictures to be posted soon). The tool itself turned out pretty well. Several people in the office have already sat and started playing with it blending the different sounds together to make sensical and non-sensical words. However, the black ink quality isn't great and there are some smudges in places. We are going to complain to the printer, but now that we have already printed 500 there probably isn't much we can do.

Our sight word cards and sentences cards have also arrived. And while I haven't seen the final product, I'm told they look good.

Brief Hiatus--Back from the Himalayas

2009-07-12T22:24:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a 2 week hiatus in the mountains. The first week I was in Shimla saying good-bye to the 2008-2009 Clinton fellowship class. Soon I'll be welcoming the 2009-2010 class at orientation in September as I have extended my fellowship. The second week I was in Leh, Ladakh celebrating my transition from fellowship to fellowship thanks to the Wall Alumni Grant. It was a fabulous and much needed break from the office, the heat and the daily grind. Plus I got to wear socks and a hat while exploring the absolutely stunning mountain desert scenary. Although it was so dry up there that my skin was aching to get back to the humidity of Chennai. And my stomach was dying for some fresh curd after a possible bout with giardia. I'm back in the swing of things and our materials are starting to come back from the printers. FINALLY!

Materials Update #2: Printing

2009-06-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

With more than a few delays and bumps in the road, we have finally sent 3 things to be printed: 160 sight word cards, 64 sentence cards and the flipchart. We are printing 500 of each, so we are still waiting to get price quotes from different printers, but the materials have been finalized and they are on there way. Hopefully within a week we will be able to see and hold a final product! What an exciting moment that will be when this project finally begins to materialize!

The title page of our "flip and blend" phonetic blending flipchart. Illustrations were done by Luckshmi and the design was done by RJ, an intern from McGill University.

Materials Update #1: Illustrations

2009-06-09T21:53:00.001-07:00

In order to get all our materials ready to be printed we need two things 1) content and 2) illustrations. Most of our content is complete, although it's in constant revision. But the biggest piece has been contracting out illustrations for this project. Not only do the illustrations have to be simple and bold, they have to be culturally relevant and appropriate for rural primary children in India. Currently we are working with five illustrators. We have collected 242 illustrations, but we still need 80+. We are desperately waiting for our illustrators to make corrections, send us sketches for approval and finally send us final images. It has been a really fun process thinking about what images we want to use to teach certain sounds or groups of sounds. And it has been really fun seeing what the illustrators send back to us. We are working with some very creative people. Here are a few examples of what our materials will look like and include:

"This pig has pants." This is the image on the 'p' flashcard.

"A rabbit rides a rocket." This is the image on the 'r' flashcard.

Solution #1: Alternative DVD Production Companies

2009-06-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

With the news that our DVD production company was backing out, we swung into high gear and found two other alternatives. We met with them last week to discuss our concept and have submitted samples of our content. They will each write up a proposal and submit a budget by the end of this week. Let's hope our initial budget is within range of these new proposals. Both have different strengths to offer the project 1) is production focused 2) is education and multi-media focused. I'm secretly hoping that there is a way to bring them both into the project. Hopefully we will be able to make a decision and get a signed contract within a week.

Wall Alumni Service Award

2009-05-31T02:35:00.000-07:00

An Exciting Announcement:

"Ready to Read" has been awarded the Wall Alumni Service Award from Grinnell College, USA.

The award will be used to:

Design and print the Ready to Read Kit for schools. The kit includes: flashcards, picture cards, sight word cards, a graded reading library of 80 sentences, 32 paragraphs, and 32 stories, a blending flipchart, gameboards, a student activity book and a bilingual teacher's manual.
Produce a supplementary DVD.
Train and employ program staff.
Support monitoring and evaluation of the program.

Within a few weeks we will be training local field staff and starting the program in 37 Eureka Learning Centers in 9 districts in Tamil Nadu. The initial reach of the program should extend to approximately 2220 students overall.

The Wall Alumni Award, in addition to AID and AIF fellowship funding will support this project through March of 2010. Please visit this blog often for project updates!

Thank you Grinnell College and the Wall Alumni Award Service Committee!

Challenge #1: DVD Production Post-poned

2009-05-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, this isn't the first challenge the project has faced, but it is very frustrating, hence the blog post. Everyday seems to confront us with one more challenge: the illustrator is busy or wants more money than we can offer, the internet isn't working, the power is cut, our printer changes his initial quotes, our design and layout editor falls sick, etc. etc.

But two days ago I got an SMS from our DVD director/producer saying she would have to push back the time line by 2 months. Apparently, not everything in India works based on personal relationships and contacts....we should have insisted on a signed contract at our last meeting. Now we are scrambling to find a new film production company that can do this project for us and we were supposed to start filming in two weeks.

On the upside, we have a bit more time to finalize our content and go to print with our materials. Although we need a few more illustrators and a logo we can all agree on.

AID India's English Action Research Team

2009-05-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Celebrating our grant award with an afternoon ice cream outing.
(Kirsten, Sumangali, Parvathy, Priya and
Sumangali's daughter front and center)

Stay Tuned!

2009-05-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

New and improved: This blog is being revised and revamped to host the progress and developments of the "Ready to Read" Program. This reading program aims at providing primary-age students in Tamil Nadu's government schools tools to begin reading in English through a time-bound module.

More Coming Soon!

Finished!

2009-05-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Sadly this blog became defunct as I packed my bags and left Japan in 2007 to travel and then finish my MA studies on campus at the University of Birmingham from January-April of 2008. After completing the second half of my coursework on campus I returned to Portland, OR, my hometown to write my dissertation. I submitted my dissertation entitled "Identifying the Socio-Linguistic Gap: A Comparative Analysis of Young Learner English Textbooks from Tamil Nadu, India" at the end of August. One week later I was on a plane to Delhi as an AIF Service Corps Fellow placed to work with the English Action Research Team of Eureka Child an AID India education initiative in the state of Tamil Nadu.

I've been living and working in Chennai since September of 2008 and after an exciting turn of events I'll be staying until March of 2010. There is more to the story....stay tuned.

Lesson Reflection #3

2007-04-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I decided to try a lesson directly out of the Syllabus & Materials module coursebook with my adult eikaiwa. It is a task-based lesson focused on written English. While the aim of the lesson is to get the students to predict the text and then share information about the text in order to create a more complete story, it turned into a different type of lesson because the students didn't really understand what they were doing and why. At the end of the lesson they said they would like to do something like this again because now they understand what the point of all the different steps is. It was a learning process for both of us.

Step 1: I wrote the title of the article up on the board and asked students to predict what the article was about:

'Excuse me, I've just jumped off the Empire State Building'

Step 2: I divided the class into two groups (3 students in each group) and gave each group key words from the article (jig-saw activity). Each group had a different list. With this list students were supposed to create a story based on these facts. Instead of trying to piece it together, they created wild stories that might be related to these hints.

List A Clues:

John Helms, a young artist - took a lift - awoke half an hour later - 85^th floor - gave up the idea - knocked on a window - I poured myself a stiff drink - families offered him a home for the holidays.

List B Clues:

Decided to kill himself - 86th floor - a 1,000 feet below - a two feet ledge - Bill Steckman, who was working there - Christmas was not such a bad time

Step 3: After solidifying their story (adding lots of their own creativity), they sent an ambassador to the other group to exchange stories. The problem with this step was that because their stories had become so wild and off the wall, it wasn't possible to pick out the real tid-bits to improve their own stories. Perhaps the clues just didn't provide enough information to make a coherent story without adding lots of other information. Maybe they should have been given more clues to connect!

Step 4: The ambassadors returned and retold the other stories. But again, this was only useful as a retelling excercise, they couldn't take the information to improve their story because they had all made up so much information that wasn't given in the clues.

Step 5: Each group presented their story and we discussed the liklihood of each. Not very likely considering one group had decided it was Santa's sleigh who had gotten stuck on the top of the Empire State Building.

Step 6: The finally got to read the article. At this point they were curious to read the article and they read it very quickly given they had been exposed to hints and some key words/ideas already. So the steps that came before were useful in getting them to read it quickly, instead of spending a long time trying to get through each word, which they often get caught up in.

Step 7: Discuss the story and compare it to their stories. They realized at this point that their stories were totally off. And it clued into them they each group had been given different clues that might have helped them create a story similar to the original but they had decided to take a creative route instead. So maybe if we try it again it will work differently. After the reading the discussion turned to topics like suicide and the holidays and cultural differences between the US and Japan.

Module 3

2007-03-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. Paper #3 has been submitted; mistakes, typos, and all! Well, hopefully there aren't too many of those, but I'm sure I missed something. But I think it's my best paper yet! Let's see what 'the grader' thinks!

The good news: I'm officially on academic hiatus until January! I'll continue the MA course on campus. Being a distance student has been interesting and challenging, the best part--the people I've met! Thanks guys! I couldn't have made it this far without you!!

Now...time to clean the apartment and start packing!

Birmingham, here I come!! Are you ready??

Kairyudo Publishing

2007-03-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

In preparation for my next paper I've been doing some research on the Sunshine textbook from Kairyudo Publishing. Kairyudo has been publishing English textbooks for over 50 years, since just after WWII. The first English series was called Jack & Betty. I'd love to see a copy of it, to see how English texts have changed in 50 years. I contacted Kairyudo Publishing and they directed me to the Textbook Research Center in Tokyo. I will be in Tokyo next weekend, if it's open on Saturday maybe I'll try to check it out!

Everyone is quick to judge how horrible the textbooks are in JHS, but because I haven't seen anything better in use, and nothing more innovative in approach, I'm really very skeptical that a more innovative (i.e. learner-centered) style text/syllabus would work in a JHS 3phw (3 hours per week) context (Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-based Instruction by M. Swan, 2005 ).

The standard government textbooks are developed to meet the standards of MEXT, the organization responsible for the national educational curriculum. The English curriculum is supposed to Develop Japanese with English Abilities.

Food for Thought

2007-02-26T00:09:00.000-08:00

In an email titled: "TBL: DOA and RIP" my tutor said:

Yes, I do believe that TBL is dead. What we are seeing is the unraveling of the concept as it becomes diffused throughout the field. You will find just about any practice out there begin called “Task Based”, which is the same thing that happened to the “communicative” method. Actually, most of the communicative practices were codified in some form in TBL, IMHO.

This was after I read his 1998 article, Returning Full Circle: A Survey of EFL Syllabus Designs, where he predicts that TBL is on it's way out the door.

I found this particularly interesting considering our little study group has been grappling with this for tha last few months and trying to figure out how much TBL we do, what it really looks like, how we can incorporate it more into our classes and whether or not an ALL TBL syllabus could be effective in our learning contexts.

I think, as with most things, one needs to be cautious of an ANSWER to a problem like "how to teach English most effectively?" Obviously, (or maybe not) there isn't one right learning style for every student. And there isn't one right teaching method for every teacher. Balance people...BALANCE!!

Dissertation Idea #2

2007-02-25T23:50:00.000-08:00

I've just read these two articles:

1) An Interview with Prabhu

2) A Review of his book, Second Language Pedagogy

In the interview he did with Alan Maley, here is what Prabhu had to say:

What I want to do when I get abck to India is keep an open house for any teacher who wants to walk in and talk about teaching. It doesn't matter if it's only two or four teachers. I want to try to get the teachers to state on paper what they've said. Trying to write things down, clarifies things. It straightens one's thinking. It reveals and develops new thoughts. This is the 'process writing' philosophy. So, a small number of teachers trying to state their perceptions, and then other teachers trying to state their perceptions but taking in the perceptions of the first group - this can not only help those teachers immediately but it can also reveal to us some of the processes by which teachers' perceptions work and form. Perhaps there's room for something like a journal - not inthe sense of learned articles - but of teachers' statements circulated to other interested teachers.

So where is Prabhu now?? And does he really have an open door policy? Like I said, it would be fascinating to sit down over a cup of chai and chaat and talk with him about his experiences but I'd also like to hear about what he thinks about "International English." I'm particulary interesed in IE and developing countries and their socially and politically marginalized communities. It seems like what is often lacking in all these discussions of syllabus design is context! Maybe I should read his book!

Lesson Reflection #2

2007-02-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

In the struggle to identify task-based lessons at the lower levels, I'm being mindful of what I do do with my classes in an effort to continually adjust and readjust lessons to move towards a more task-based learning environment. And it is an adjustment, because as I'm learning, I'm also teaching and training my co-teachers as well. Task-based lessons are not always the norm, but they do seem much more popular with the students as well as the teachers if that first step can be taken!

__________________________________________________

6小-3中学校　Typhoon Review Game

I've played this game with students from 6th grade to 9th grade. And everyone has loved it. It's a great review game and can be used with just about anything. But I've found the best way to use it is by requiring the students to answer questions and/or complete mini-tasks in order to score points. Depending how you structure it, it might be considered a mulit-mini-task lesson, if there is such a thing. The junior high students are divided into groups of 4, and each group is given a small white board. They are told to take turns writing their answers on the white board if that's what the task asks of them. But because each group has members of various levels this requires the group to work together if they want to be successful and have a chance at the typhoon score board.

Everytime the group performs/answers the task correctly they can pick points from the typhoon board. For example, "F4." I pull the sticky paper off and announce the points they are awarded for completing their task. The papers are labeled with points from 1-20 (5 points=1 house). And then there are "Typhoon" cards. If a group gets a "typhoon" they can erase the points of any other group--or blow their houses off the map! So sad, I know, but it's popular! And there are a few "Double Typhoons," allowing them to erase the points from two groups.

Here are the types of questions/tasks I've used with this age group:

Simple word translation (good as a warm-up to the game or if time is running out)
Unscramble the sentence
Who am I? quiz (listen and they write the answer)
Geography quiz
Prepare a speech (self-introduction, favorite food, favorite sport, etc.)
Word search (3 fastest teams get points)
Complete a puzzle
Finish a maze (spelling, ABC's, etc.)
Olympic Medals--printed from the internet and I asked questions about the information on the page (i.e. How many gold medals to Australia get?)
Put a Map on the board and ask them how to get from Point A to Point B
Speed Reading Activities
Look at a picture and make a few sentences

The elementary school students haven't practiced writing, so I focus on speaking, listening activities with them. And depending on the class and their confidence, I have done a pure vocab review. But with other classes, I've assigned them to give a speech, answer questions, etc. If the student representative for that round doesn't know the answer, they are supposed to ask their group for help! It's fun to watch them work together and teach each other!

Dissertation Idea #1

2007-02-23T18:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to an article in The Hindu about the 34th English Language Teachers' Association of India (ELTAI) in 2003. N.S. Prabhu, famous for his task-based Bangalore Project, gave the keynote speech. I'd love to sit down and with some chai and chaat with this man. Anyone know where I can find him? Is he still in Bangalore?

Lesson Reflection #1

2007-02-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

I'll be posting reflections and observations on lessons sometimes. I used to keep track of each lesson when I first started teaching, but that became too time consuming. However, I think part of improving is taking time to reflect on what worked and what didn't. I'm also trying to determine how often I use TBL vs. PPP. Before I started teaching in Japan, I took a TEFL course in Prague and they hammered PPP into us. They said there were other styles but PPP was the easiest to master as a teacher and was effective. All our submitted lessons had to have the three P's while teaching a specific skill (i.e. reading, writing, speaking or listening). So, when I first started, my lessons reflected that. Since starting the MA, I've tried to move away from that. I know my lessons have changed significantly but I'm not sure my lessons can be called TBL. I guess I'm striving for a balance of methods because I'm not totally convinced that there is one right way. I think there are many right ways and many good lessons. And that context is everything!

_____________________________________________

小学校　４年生 Shopping Game

We repeated this lesson again because it was such a big hit the first time. But the second time we added money into the equation. Playing with money was VERY popular. The first time the shopping game was set up so that students would be able to practice and use

A: ____please

B: Here you are

A: Thank you

B: You're welcome

There were 6 groups with 6 shopping lists (6 items each: 2 fruits, 2 vegetables, 2 supermarket items). There are 3 shops: Fruit Shop, Vegetable Shop and the Supermarket (the flashcards are the shopping items). The students have practiced and studied all the vocab, so this was a chance to use it in a game. Each group decides on an order (janken works best) and the first person gets to be a shopkeeper. There are two shopkeepers per shop. And of course it's all about speed...the fastest team to finish shopping gets, well, they get the grand prize of being the fastest! This worked great the first time, with both 3rd　& 4th grade.

Second time around, I put prices on all the food items. Now each team was given $20 (www.mes-english.com). The prices were rigged so that each shopping list required $19. If the group got all the items on the list and had $1, they successfully completed the shopping task. Giving a specific dialogue gets more complicated with money involved. So I decided to let them work it out and see what happened. They already knew the basics...now they needed to figure out how to pay for it. We had to practice "four dollars" because they were falling back on "四ドル” but most of them got it. So once they started shopping, the typical conversation went something like this:

A: _____ please

B: $4

A: Here you are (giving money).

B: Here you are (giving the flashcard)

A: Thank you

B: You're Welcome

And there were lots of other variations, especially when kids needed change or didn't get the change they needed. It always cracks me up when, even thought it's a race, the kids refuse to leave the shop until the shopkeeper says "You're welcome". After each group has completed their list, we trade lists and new students get to be shopkeepers until the class ends.

Is this TBL?? I guess there were some pre-task lessons throughout the year...practicing the vocab and learning the dialogue. And now we are building on it with this shopping game. Using the money and letting them come up with their own conversations seemed to work well. Although there wasn't a focus on form or anything like that at the end. The bell rings and well, they keep shopping, but I gotta get to another class. Also, I'm not sure how necessary that step is in the elementary eikaiwa class.

I hadn't really given them the opportunity to discover their own dialogue (I know it's not much, but baby steps) in elementary lessons before because the plans that I work with don't allow for it and many homeroom teachers won't allow it. And the plans I work with have NO TBL type lessons. They are all grammar-translation stuff! It's horrible! So, I've been trying to add in stuff here and there. This is one lesson that I've done with several classes and grades now....and it's a super big hit! In one class students were chanting, "もう一回。” We had to promise them we'd do it again! So, I think the students are ready for more TBL-style lessons and frankly, so am I. But it's the thinking and planning that's the hard part. Oh...and communicating it to the homeroom teacher.

Let's Get Going

2007-02-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

I considered starting this blog when I started the first module last April, but being the shy, timid, independent, feminist woman that I am...I was hesitant. But a colleague of mine has started a similiar blog, Japan Action Research, and has inspired me to get my butt into gear and start reflecting more on what it is that I'm studying and hopefully learning--how to teach english!

Thankfully, I'm not doing the distance study course alone. I have 3.5 fabulous cohorts that meet up every Monday night on Skype to discuss the readings, upcoming essay assignments, and reflect on what it is that we're trying to accomplish. It's been a lifesaver to have this little group to chat with every week. Especially because they are all much more experienced than myself and I'm learning a lot just from talking to them about their teaching experiences and how they intrepret and interact with the materials we are reading.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised I was even accepted to the program. I technically didn't have the two year teaching requirement (short 4 months) and everyone else is a non-JET. In the academic EFL/ESL world, JETs are slim scum, the bottom of the barrel, the slackers that can't teach and are just in Japan to read manga and pay off their student loans. Okay...well, I know that's not really the case, but admitting that I'm a JET to fellow Bham students is a bit embarrassing!

But I'm trying to make the most of my last JET contract year by devoting my off periods (I do in fact work) to studying. I didn't want to stay three years and have nothing to add to my resume except that extra year. I wanted to start making progress toward something else. That and my next destination is the middle east...so that's another reason why I'm doing the MA. I want to be qualified to get a job there! And after that, I want to get another MA in International & Comparative Education. This is all part of a bigger plan and future life goals. I don't plan on teaching forever. But while I'm teaching, I want to be the best I can be! Studying and doing the MA has helped me actively work towards that! I rarely use old lessons because I know there is something better I can and should be doing! Trying new things, learning new approaches, and testing new ideas is one of the greatest benefits of the MA course so far.

So, I better get going....one more unit and I can be "done" with the Module 3 coursebooks. It's time to get going on that next paper. Oh my!