American English Live: Teacher Development Series 3 (Reg. now open)

This is a public service announcement for free on-line Teacher Professional Development.

Greetings from the U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur!

The American English team is pleased to offer American English Live: Teacher Development Series 3. The six online seminars of the series cover a variety of topics intended for teachers of English or future teachers of English around the world.  At the end of each event, participants will have the opportunity to earn a digital badge that verifies their participation.

Participants are also encouraged to register to join the associated Ning,  http://americanenglishwebinars.com,  to participate in discussions, view related materials, and find recordings.

The series will take place from September 5 – November 15, 2018.  The 60-minute sessions will be held every other Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. or 1:00 a.m. Malaysia Time. Participants can join the sessions by viewing the live posts at the above times on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishforEducators/

Though not mandatory, registration is encouraged.  Registered participants will receive email reminders with links to pre-session readings and online discussions. Prior to each session, registered participants will receive a reminder email with a Zoom link from americanenglishwebinars@elprograms.org.

Here is the link for registration: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4460087/American-English-Facebook-Live-Series-3

Title and Presenter Information	Dates and Times
Empowering Students to Solve Local Problems: Adapting Materials for Service Learning Presenter: Annaliese Hausler-Akpovi	Wednesday, September 5, 2018 8:00-9:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, September 6, 2018 1:00-2:00 am Malaysia Time
Designing and Leading Professional Development for Teachers Presenter: Laura Baecher	Wednesday, September 19, 2018 8:00-9:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, September 20, 2018 1:00-2:00 am Malaysia Time
Embracing Social Media to Engage Students and Teach Narrative Writing Presenter: Jennifer Borch	Wednesday, October 3, 2018 8:00-9:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, October 4, 2018 1:00-2:00 am Malaysia Time
Academic Language Objectives in the EFL Classroom Presenter: Michelle Benegas and Amy Stolpestad	Wednesday, October 17, 2018 8:00-9:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, October 18, 2018 1:00-2:00 am Malaysia Time
Effective Strategies for Teaching Large Classes Presenter: Dieter Bruhn	Wednesday, October 31, 2018 8:00-9:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, September 1, 2018 1:00-2:00 am Malaysia Time
Adapting Your Materials for Use in Mixed Ability Classrooms Presenter: Susan Iannuzzi	Wednesday, November 14, 2018 9:00-10:00 pm Malaysia Time Thursday, November 15, 2018 2:00-3:00 am Malaysia Time

Notes:

Digital Badges

Digital badges will be issued at the end of each event. Participants will be prompted to enter their information via a link at the end of each session (similar to entering attendance at the end of previous webinar sessions). The link will have questions about the session and prompts for participants to enter their contact information.

Note: To answer the required digital badge questions, participants will need to watch the entire event.  Certificates will be issued to those who attend 4 out of 6 sessions, as that has been standard practice for previous AE series.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

English Language Team

U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur

SJKC Jinjang Tengah 2 English Jamboree

The English Jamboree at SJKC Tengah 2 has become an annual event, this third year running. It is an opportunity for me to give back to the community, an urban an Chinese school serving a population where many the students are economically disadvantaged. Huge hollers of thanks for the GB Pn. Lim Swee Lean and Mr Tiong Giong Hock (Sentul Education Dept), who have cordially hosted and arranged the event. The event occurred on the 27th - 28th of June. The event was designed for multiple sessions with students from Year 1 - Year 6 and for teachers on the Thursday afternoon.

The first session on Wednesday was Phonics based program for Year 1- 3 students. This session was more of stage setting session for Thursday. The marvellous English teachers (T. AB, T. Kwan, and T. Jesshan) at SJKC JT2 had done a fine job teaching the students the sounds of the alphabet. We reviewed by watching some Alphablocks and I began teaching the actions related to the sounds. We also practiced CVC words with CVC penguins and learned Magic 'e' and played an interactive Magic 'e' game. We introduced R-controlled words via the Bossy 'R' Farm.

The second session was for students Year 4 -6. The primary target was grammar and writing skills. In this session, we reviewed the Parts of Speech Boot Camp, played Walking Punctation Marks, and we played Parts of Speech Uno. Much to my amazement, the teachers had saved the cards for the previous year, moreover, the students were keen to play again.

On Thursday morning, when I met the Year 2 -3 students, I was feeling a bit guilty from the previous day. There first session had lots of instruction, but it was necessary to learn before we play. Games are not a substitute for learning, instead they enrich and encourage to students to apply in a competitive low-stakes fun environment. When I told the students that it was going to be game only day, the room bursted out in cheer. We played Word & Pics CVC game, CVC action races, Magic 'e' game, and 4 Corners Parts of Speech.

In the second session with Year 5-6 students, we completed a review of UPSR Paper 2 Section C. With the work completed, it was game time. We played Parts of Speech Cooties, The Dice Game, Jeopardy, and more. The students were charged an applying skills they had learned and reviewed form the previous session.

On Thursday afternoon, there was a teacher training session. This was an assortment of awesome teachers from neighboring schools who attended. It was based on evaluation versus assessment, how to write formative feedback, the trend of differentiated learning, and the merits of Game-Based Learning and Gamification. The theme was Students First. Following the theory, it was time to play some games. Teachers made Parts of Speech Cooties Catcher, Parts of Speech Uno, and the The Dice Game.

'We make a living by what we get, but we make life by what we give.' -Winston Churchill

The 1st Launch of TOFEL Junior JET- SMA Rompin

In November 2017, I was certified by the Test Center of Malaysia (ETS Representative) to teach TOEFL Primary Step 1 & 2 and TOEFL Junior. Last summer and this summer I have taught an abundant number of students in China (online) TOEFL Primary Step 1 & 2. TOEFL Junior and TOEFL Primary are relative newcomers to the TOEFL family.

Ezani, the head of the Test Center Malaysia, had conceived an idea to raise the profile of the TOEFL Junior test in Malaysia. He secured MoE approval for the program, but with one hitch. The JET (Junior English Test) program has one year to operate in a minimum of 6/13 states in Malaysia to receive a federal endorsement. Eva wonderfully took lead of the project for the Test Center of Malaysia and their supreme team. So that's the beginning of the story, lamentably I don't know how the story ends. It is just as much a mystery to you as it to me at this moment in time. However, you can check back the blog periodically to gage the unfolding of the plot. In summary, we have till the end of this year (2018) to run the program in 6 states. Fortunately, I do know how the story starts.

The month of Ramdhan was fast approaching, the window of opportunities to run the program was shrinking. JET was suppose to takeoff in March, although typical with big adventures the flight was delayed. In a dramatic fashion, SMA Rompin (Pahang) move forwarded their departure date and decided to be the inaugural launch site for the JET program. Big thanks for T. Yanti and Principal Husin bin Mohamad Yunus for hosting and coordinating the schools of SMA Tengku Ampuan Fatimah and SMA Bukit Ibam to attend.

The JET program consists of 3 main parts: 1. Instruction 2. TOEFL Junior test 3. English games. The TOEFL Junior is a paper based test including 3 divisions Listening Comprehension, Language Form & Meaning, and Reading Comprehension sections. The Top Gun instructors are Pn. Shahidah and myself, but I don't know why she keeps calling me Goose, lol. Anyhow, I prepared the students for the Language Form & Meaning and Reading Comprehension sections while Pn Shahidah prepared them for Listening Comprehension section. After which, the students take the approximately 2 hour exam. Now that work is out of the way, it's time to play.

The majority of the students have received no TOEFL Junior training prior to this event, it's safe to say the bulk of students don't even know what the TOEFL Junior is. It is my responsibility to illuminate them on what, why, and how we take the TOEFL Junior test, especially the Language Form and Reading Comprehension sections. My first task, is to orientate the students to concept of assessment over evaluation. You can't pass or fail, there are no grades in the TOEFL Junior, it is not like the SPM evaluation. Quite the contrary, it is an assessment tool designed to give the student accurate feedback geared for their improvement.

Pn. Shahidah pulled some ace moves by doing some practical demos of the Listening Comprehension section. Note, most students in Malaysia don't receive any formal examination with a listening component throughout their primary and secondary educational careers. They lack exposure and training in listening skills. Students often find the Listening Comprehension section the most challenging. After Pn. Shahidah's Listening Comprehension simulator, the young recruits are ready to take off.

We recognize the sombreness of test-taking and the scarcity of English events in the typical Malaysian students path. Therefore, we seize this occasion to create a one day English environment. Following an eye opening morning of learning how and accomplishing the taking of an internationally accredited test, it is ever so important to drive home the resonating message that learning English is fun. Since we can't add games into the TOEFL Junior, the next best thing is to have an afternoon dominated by them.

Students were divided into 8 groups. The first activity allows them to unleash their creativity in a group poster contest that includes the theme, 'TOEFL Junior JETS me to success!' Next, there are 4 stations of games where points are captured by competing teams. The 4 stations are:1. Prefix Bingo 2. Roll the Dice 3. Matching Card Game 4. One-Shot Stop. These games are followed by the final landing involving a paper plane making and group toss contest. Before the event came to a complete stop, there was brief prize giving nicety. The students takeaway from this event is a Score Report.

The students will receive their TOEFL junior Score Report, which includes scores for each section, detailed feedback on strengths and weaknesses, CEFR level, and Lexile measure (level appropriate reading list). As previously mentioned, students don't receive grades only scores. The total score ranges form 600 - 900, each section ranges from 200 - 300. A CEFR level from A2, B1, or B2 will also equated to the students performance on each of the 3 sections. Detailed feedback on all 3 sections. 'They have a good command of vocabulary typically used in everyday non-academic settings,' is a sample comment from the Language Form and Meaning section.

The Lexile measure is a useful tool for reading skills. It can be applied to find reading materials that satisfy or challenge the student's appropriate level. Lexile measures can also be used predicts a reader's development. This helpful literacy tool is just one of the many advantageous outcomes offered by the Score Report. Hence, the Score Report takeaway should clear skies and better direct the student's course to fluency and success in learning English. TOEFL JETS me to success!

Notice my picture with Abdu Rahim, in the backdrop is a poster with his picture on it. 

SMA Ampuan Siti Fatimah, Speak Yourself

For 2 days the on 14-15 of April, the first annual English event was held at SMA Tengku Ampuan Fatimah. It was geared to Form 3 students on Saturday and Form 2 students on Sunday, with a combined total of 250 students. It was a pleasure to band together with T. Faizah, T. Hannah Hanina, T. Ein, and T. Arifah to put legs on this aspiration of theirs, Speak Yourself. Although all 4 main skills would be engaged throughout the event, the main focus was on learning, eliciting, practicing, and improving listening skills.

Saturday had a slow beginning with a damp rainy morning, but after some fine tuning of the Audio Visual equipment the event's Geist steadily rose until it reached the level of guided ruckus. The first was a Find Someone Who? game on synonyms/ antonyms. Students used their dictionaries and learned some new vocabulary words. The Form 3 students learned Confidence in Public Speaking via a training module to prepare for their national exam known as the PT 3.

On Sunday, the Form 2 students  had a different learning profile compared to their Form 3 peers. It is the result of them being the first class to be raised under the KSSR syllabus. Hence, we replaced the PT 3 workshop with some Advanced Phonics (Bossy 'r', soft 'g/c') After learning new speaking skills, it was time for the first set of 4 stations. The girls were split into 8 competing groups who win prizes at the end pertaining to their team's performance during the stations. 

In the first round of stations, the students played Reading and Responding to Text Messages, Interpreting Body Language, Speaking Role Play, and Grammar Jeopardy. Before we commenced the next round of games, we had some minor instruction by Grammar Andy on The Past Progressive Tense to level the skills of the students. Games are great tool for enhancement, enrichment, and practice, but they are never substitute for leaning. In the afternoon sessions, the 4 stations included: Living Sentences, Past Progressive Freeze Game, Oral Dice Game, and The Story Telling Game.

The team of teachers was amazing and the bunches of students were fabulously loquacious!

Phonics Toon- Cubs and Bugs- short vowel /u/ story

Introducing the newest member of the Phonics Toon (PT) series aimed at gapping the digital divide with modern mobile learners. These are meant to be watched on smartphone, pad, or computer. The printable version is also available for supplementary purposes. This PT focuses on short vowel /u/ sound CVC words and sight words. The blocking vocabulary term is 'falafel'.  As newly debuted features, the PT highlights most of the short vowel /u/ words, and it has a sorting task for word families -ut and -un. Share, use, and copy. Read with a smile!

Click to view Phonics Toon video: Cubs and Bugs


click to link for printable version Cubs and Bugs

1st Annual ASEAN English Language Teaching Conference - Melaka 2018

It was my good kismet, I got to participate in the 1st Annual ASEAN English Language Teaching Conference- Maxamizing the Potential in ASEAN Diversities Through English. It occurred on the 15 -17 March, 2018. Melaka was the host site of the inauguratory event, it plans to rotate every year through all the ASEAN countries. Next year, it heads to Palembang. The event's main sponsors were University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universitas Islam Negri (UIN), and the US Embassy KL.

This conference can trace its roots from an event last year in Jakarta. UIN, UPM, and US Embassy Jakarta sponsored the Indonesian Malaysian English Language Teaching conference. It was aptly named, "Breaking Boarders, Enriching the ELT Experience." The event took a regional approach to teaching English. It was the Geist of this event that birthed the ASEAN ELT Conference. You can check out the blog for reference ( click here IMELT blog ) Side-note:  I ran into my fellow musketeers, Ma Vin and Ikhsanudin, in Jakarta and Melaka.

Glen Richards and US Ambassador Kamala Lakhdhir were the keynote speakers. A brief summary of their talks. Mr Richards took the audience through the last 40 years of English Teaching to the present day importance of core dimensions of teacher development, language proficiency, applications of pedagogic content knowledge, content knowledge, repertoire of teaching skills, expert teachers, conceptions of teaching, cultures of learning, developing one's sense of identity as a language teacher, and developing Learner Focus Teaching. He was a eloquent and succinct.

The US ambassador is originally from Brooklyn, NY and she began with background information about her career. She is a former English teacher herself, having taught in China and other places. She had been assigned to the Middle East and other Asian countries before coming to Malaysia. She spoke about an inspiring Malaysian Educator who is the top Polar research scientist in the country, Dr Siti Aisyah Alias. She concluded he talk telling us more or less, her impact as an ambassador is less and more short-lived than our long lasting and potentially life changing impacts we have as educators. It was a powerful message, given the source.

My co-presenter for the session was Maddam Farah, we were teammates previously in Langkawi and Sabah. Our presentation was a fast and furious hands-on session, the Giddy Game-Based Learning Lab. We had a 55 minutes session with about 75 minutes with material, lol. We met the afternoon of the presentation for the final huddle and we hatcheted excess material. We started our session early and ran a wee bit late. We were pleasantly surprised to have a packed room by the end of the presentation, standing room only. We began our session with a pre-toon, that  projected only green due to a weak bulb in the projector, and brief introductions of ourselves. Madam Farah set the parameters for the session by explaining the differences between gamification and game-based learning. Next, I led a quick review and discussion on the benefits of game-based learning.

Since the theory portion of our presentation was over, it was time to roll up the sleeves and get busy. We split into 2 groups. Madam Farah facilitated one group (G1) and I facilitated the other one (G2). G1 had fun making and playing parts of speech cootie catchers. G2 had trail run with the Past Progressive Freeze Game. Like a healthy classroom, the conference room was buzzing with the hum of activity and participants milling about with interactions. The second round included G1 playing a Grammar Game on Contractions and Possessives (Their, They're, Its, It's, Your, You're). Participants were intrinsically motivated by the gamification technique of giving Apostrophe Badges as a reward. G2 was engaged with a Living Sentence task.

The clock was ticking, so we divided into 4 groups a played a round of digital version of Grammar Jeopardy. Even though are participants hailed from different parts of ASEAN countries, apparently Jeopardy was not a popular show and this was their exposure to the format of the game. Like any good designed game, it has all the mechanisms to elicit participation and competition, with low/no stakes for failure. The group quickly learned to give their answers in a form of a question, as per Alex Trebek's rules. The group found a useful tool for making grammar more fun and less dry in Jeopardy.

With the buzzer about to sound, we went into hyper-speed mode. I briefly recommended a few cool apps they can use in the classroom, or more importantly share with their learners who can use it outside of the classroom. Madam Farah wowed the participants with a demonstration of of Plickers. Time was up, we officially dismissed the participants with a positive firsthand experience to use digital and non-digital games in the classroom. All the resources presented were accessible via Google.Drive to the participants. The dynamic duo had left a mark that would travel back with the participants to various classrooms throughout the AESAN region. See you in Palembang 2019!

The 3 Musketeers

Intan and AB representing

38th Thai TESOL Conference in Chiang Mai-2018

I'll begin with a massive acknowledgement of appreciation to the Regional Language Officer (RELO) who supported my presentation at the 38th Thai TESOL Conference. The conference's theme was Digital Literacy In English Language Learning And Teaching. The event was held on January 26 -27, at the Empress Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was co-sponsored by US Embassy Bangkok, British Council, Australian Department of Education, and New Zealand Education. There were educators from all over Asia, Middle East, Oceania, and North America. It was also teeming with all the dynamic English Language Fellows who are sponsored by the US State Dept. and are spread throughout Southeast Asia.

I had a 45 minute session on Thursday, January 26, at 11:20 - 12:05 in Chiang Mai Room 4. My session was titled Blends and Trends in the 21st Century Classroom. The fact of the matter was, I had prepared for a 60 minutes session. It required some creative Edward Scissors Hands type cutting of content and a Speed Racer approach of delivery. It was attended by over 50 educators from multiple countries. A Toon was played in the beginning to highlight  the workshop's agenda. Next, I gave a brief introduction of myself as a teacher, but I emphazied my preferred terminology: Educational Rockstar. Moreover, I impressed this notion upon all the participants, they are Educational Rockstars too.

With the mood set, we posed the first question. What is the most important thing in the 21st Century Classroom? The participants discussed with each other and came up with some brilliant answers, then we converged on the unanimous decision the teacher is the most important feature of the 21st Classroom. Then we collectively compared the 20th vs 21st Centuries classrooms. We concluded this segment with a 2 minute video on the Role of the Teacher in 21st Century Classroom.

Afterwards, we dived into the Blends segment of the presentation. It was an opportunity to showcase some of the potent and practical free English Language resources offered by the US Dept. of State. The deal gets sweeter, because they are all free and easily accessible. Our first task was to look at Voice of America- Learning English website in the Photo of the Day section (VOA-Learning English Photo of the Day ). We sampled a few photos to demonstrate a Visual Literacy task. Subsequently, a professor from Tokyo was roused by the task and he planned to take it back to his University classroom in Japan as a lead-in activity.

Go, Go Speed Racer! As we shifted into higher gear, I highlighted the American English Youtube Channel. We took a few minutes to pour over the digram and catalog of resources for teachers and students available. The advantage of the AE Youtube channel is it well organized and it's not overloaded with resources. It is navigable and applicable for blending your classroom or doing some professional development in the English language teaching skills. Most of the participants got on their smartphones and went to the AE Youtube channel to experience it firsthand, by my prompting. It was time to put the resource in action.

The selected 2 minutes long video was from one of my fave series on AE, Grammar Andy. It is an animated instructional English grammar video with 11 episodes. Grammar Andy is ideal for blending in or out of the classroom. These short videos can be used as instructional or review tools. We watched Grammar Andy: The Past Progressive together (Grammar Andy: The Past Progressive ). It was meant as review tool to prep for our Past Progressive Freeze Game. The crowd split into 2 groups as they took turns acting out scenes, while the other group's back is turn. When I yell,"Freeze!" Group 1 stops mid-motion and group 2 turns around to ask questions in the past progressive what they were doing. It had all the elements of good game, the target language and grammar was applied with laughter, smiles, and excitement.

Oh no Speed Racer, we have about 12 minutes left. It was time to shift into high gear and show some Trends. Digital Books were introduced as way to gap the digital divide with younger generation of learners and still promote literacy skills. The group viewed  My Fin is Fine (PT My Fin is Fine ) as a sample of applying synthetic phonics in a digital story format for the mobile generation. FrogAsia's E-bahan files were noted. Next, I discussed the world of online teaching and my experience with VIPKID, Uber like teaching platform. Time was running out, there was a break before the next session. I concluded with reminding them, they are Educational Rockstar. The session was dismissed on time, but the majority hung back as we watched the emotional 3 minute video on the importance of the teacher to solidify the main premise, the teacher (aka Educational Rockstar) remains the most important feature of the 21st Century classroom.

Briana's session