Foosball and Teaching

How are the two related?

Well seeing that I'm horrible at foosball (table football), they shouldn't be related at all. But for one of my private classes I handed over the creative liberties to my two thirteen-year-old students. Their parents only want me to focus on conversation, so I decided we were going to practice using computer technology terms in English by filming and creating a movie. They chose to make a trailer for a sports movie.

After spending two consecutive lessons, this was the final product. At first I was considering posting this video on my blog but decided against it. Even though this is my most informal class, I still feel a need for confidentiality (or maybe that's just my conscience molded by a lawsuit-happy society). But having already seen my blog for a lesson on Pancake Day, the students begged for me to post it. I agreed to appease them. Plus I thought it would be fun to give my readers a bit of insight on a private class.

So get ready for a sneak peak into the non-awaited, non-existent film, The Impossible Match.

Smack that (vocab).

This week at the university, the lessons had a theme: dream houses.  We covered house vocabulary and the second conditional verb tense (i.e. If I were you...).  (Not a lesson went by without someone breaking out in Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy.")  Then we moved into, "If I could build my dream house it would have..."

And of course we couldn't discuss dream houses without showing an episode of MTV Cribs, a TV show that tours celebrity estates.  Unfortunately, the only high quality clip I could find with a celebrity that the Spanish would recognize was the following video with the enlightened musical artist, Akon.

Strip poles in his bedroom.  Mirrors in his shower. Gas pumps in his driveway.  Helicopters in his backyard.  What a fine representation of American culture he is.

But don't worry.  Before each viewing, I made sure to emphasize that this is not the standard American home and that even Americans think it's a bit extravagant.

Most Spanish reactions were either expressions of amazement like, "¡Qué guay!" and "¡Muy chulo!" or expletives like, "¡Qué cabrón!" or "¡Hijo de puta!"  Either way, they were overall interested, and the vocab came pouring out when I asked them to list what they saw in the show.

Though I appreciated the student engagement and discussion at the end of the clip, I despised the video by the eleventh class.  Now such eloquent lyrics like "I see you winding and grinding up on that pole" and "Watch me smack that" are playing in my sleep.  Thank you, Akon.

The Horrors of Teaching Grammar

In the university English classes this week Craig and I had to teach grammatical verb tenses to our poor, unsuspecting students.  They showed up for conversation class--in which we normally play games or facilitate group activities to promote speaking English to one another--to learn about grammar.   If you can dig your way back through your primary school memories or if you have ever taught grammar, you know that it can be a dry subject.

This past week we covered the "present perfect continuous" verb tense (i.e. I have been living in Spain; I have been teaching English; I have been boring the heck out of my students).  To make things more interesting and to wipe away the glazed look over our students eyes, we played a song that uses the present perfect continuous tense repetitively.  And posted below is the song that we selected...

Before I can lovingly complain about this song and shift the blame over to Craig, I have to say that this song did achieve our goal and (most) classes got into the song, and I even had some dancers in mine.  It added much needed comic relief to the class.  I also genuinely believe the repetition of the verb tense helped them see how it is used.

With that said: this is Craig's song.  Not mine.


London Beat - I've Been Thinking About Y
Cargado por Hakunamatata67. - Videos de música, entrevistas a los artistas, conciertos y más.



And bear in mind that I had to listen to this literally ten times.  Unfortunately I can sing along to every word.  But at least it ended class with a smile.  A bit of a disturbed smile.  But a smile.

The Allen Hall of Spain

For those of you who are fortunate not to know what Allen Hall is, it is the education building on the Evansdale Campus of WVU.

The building in which teach is similar to Allen Hall in some ways. It is located miles from the main campus, so students have to drive or utilize public tranportation to get there. Also, it´s the building for all UMU education majors (I´ve learned that the Universidad de Murcia´s proper abbreviation is UMU--though I have no idead where the extra "U" comes from).

Then again this building is a bit different than good ole Allen. I think Allen Hall could actually take notes.

The other day there was an unofficial fiesta (another fiesta in Spain...go figure) during which the freshman are initiated by the seniors. Basically, the freshman pay €10 to attend, skip class, drink beer, and have eggs thrown at them. One of my classes found this way more appealing that the "debate" lesson I had planned, and every one of my students skipped. So I walked around¨"el Allen Hallo" and took pictures of sights that I thought were interesting.

First we´ll start with my classroom...






View from my classroom window (2nd floor)


The "rubbish bin" that´s found in all classrooms (blue is for trash and yellow is for recycling)

This is where I check in to get my key for the classroom, computer, projector remote, and chalk


A vending machine on the firt floor--notice the materials...school supplies




Lounge


Exit sign--these are found all over Europe. I just find them amusing.


No smoking--the ironic thing about this is my hallway always wreaks of smoke


"Notice the beer in class"

Maybe I´ll come back and help Allen Hall make rennovations.