Compared to my usual EPIK Guide, today's post is a bit different. While the last two had been more focused on the pros and cons of each program as well as the details concerning EPIK's initial application, this is more of an....update, I guess. 

So I made it to the interview, passed, and mailed everything to my coordinator. According to my FedEx tracking number, the package has been signed off and is currently in EPIK's offices. The only thing left for me  is to wait for a placement, which can be nerve-wracking at best. I'm a bit of a control-freak (to absolutely no one's surprise), and waiting around to be told where exactly in Korea I'll be is a...challenge. 

So let's talk about the interview then. It'll keep my mind off the thousand what-ifs I'd otherwise create just by sitting around. 

Lesson Plan
Personal Essays
Professional Photo
Letters of Recommendation


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​Before I begin, here is a direct link to EPIK's website.

This application includes the components listed above. As it's the very, very first thing EPIK coordinators will see of you--your ticket to an interview!--you'll want to be as thorough as possible in filling it out. The first six pages or so are house-keeping: educational background, work-experience, and the whole shebang. Keep format in mind as you run through the details.

I know most people are worried about their lesson plans and essays most of all, so I'll begin with those. As an update to my own EPIK process, I'd been invited to and passed the interview stage! Expect a post about that interview prep/experience as well as general feelings and emotions going forward. (Sneak-peak, I'm screaming.) Finally, to be transparent, I'd received feedback on my lesson plan due to its better application as a high-school lesson, so I'll tackle that further down as well.

​Either way, this is what I did to get a positive result, and while I can't guarantee anything,  I can share a little (or a lot) about what the initial application had been like for me...

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​Before I start I want to clarify that these are my thoughts not as a linguist, but as an English educator. I am by no means an expert on languages, but rather want to consider the ways in which we Language Arts and ESL/EFL teachers grapple with the difficult reality of Standard English, stigmatized dialects, and neocolonialist attitudes in English language learning.

In my post on Babarbados, I said that Bajans speak English, and that’s true. Obviously Barbados is the Caribbean, though, so there’s the Bajan accent most tourists will grapple with...

I’ve waited two weeks to collect my thoughts, but what can I even say that hasn’t been said already? What can I even say that will undo the murder committed by a single man and a group of cowardly politicians too selfish to deny blood-money from the NRA?

Sorry—was that too “political?”

Fine.

Sometimes I think I fell into EFL without really noticing. I'd gotten my teaching certification in English Language Arts, did an entire year of interning at the middle and high school level with the usual Romeo and Juliet required reading.  My career as a teacher began with little to no indication I would, one year later, begin planning to move abroad. In fact, my career as a teacher was as average as they came:

• meetings with school library attendants for freshmen research papers 
• interscholastic challenges based on a series of short stories in middle school
• state tests, state tests, more state tests
• a series of bureaucratic nonsense meetings that did nothing but give us more bureaucratic nonsense papers to fill out.

In about a week, though, I send in my application for EPIK, the English Program in Korea.  That's not to say I won't be filling out paper-work as a teacher in Korea, of course--running a classroom has a certain universal rhythm.

People talk about five-year plans like there's only ever one road--one path--you could take.

At midnight, I'm standing in the kitchen with my father, and my heart feels like breaking. He's not yelling, and he's not angry.

He's quiet.

Everyone knows TEDTalks, especially teachers.

In regards to ELA, they're a great tool for exploring rhetoric--Does the speaker appeal to logos? pathos? ethos?--What are their strongest pieces of evidence, and where is such evidence placed in the speech? Beginning or end? This leads the classroom through a close-reading exercise, transferring skills learned in ELA to media, speechmaking, and argumentative language as a whole.

When it comes to ESL, though, you usually find a few websites that have ready-made, video worksheets catered to a student's fluency level. You can even find step-by-step lesson plans if you search hard enough. On TEDed, they have clickable quizzes paired to short videos (usually 10 minutes). Such resources are useful to have on hand, but sometimes their predictability can run a class stale.

​Besides, a worksheet isn't always the most student-centered option. It's the equivalent of watching the video once, then again, then pausing at points to ask teacher-led questions. It turns what should be an engaging and real discussion into a hunt for the "right answer." With ESL, the "right answer" is important, of course. Our goal is always comprehension--but to extend that comprehension? It challenges students to understand and produce language.

​Thanksgiving break is here, and Monday morning is an iPad class where I'm hoping to use videos on travel. Since all my students are currently travelers visiting the United States, let's cross our fingers that the theme will help them stay active. As you can probably tell, I'm thinking about drifting from the normal routine. Ditch the worksheet and the mind-numbing step-by-step questions that would play exactly into the boredom you'd expect from a morning-after-vacation class.

​While searching for something ​to use, I stumbled upon this blog post entitled "10 Speaking English Activities using TED." I was immediately a fan of the Vocabulary Collection idea (as that has been an activity I use in reading comprehension task), the Post Speech Interview, and the Wh- Group Questions task.

​In addition to the ideas listed above, I was also thinking about putting students into groups of 3. In these groups, they'll be assigned a different TEDtalk and  must watch, take notes, and create a summary presentation of their video. This summary is then shared with the other groups. Actually, the more I think about this, the better I can see it working if I combine the task with the Wh- Questions activity.

​And when you think about these types of lessons, they actually require less prep work but open up to more differentiation: Find videos at different levels. Students make their own interview questions using grammar points A, B, or C. This group creates a poster summary, this group a written summary, this group records their summary on the iPad.


​I've got a few extra days to think about this lesson, so if anyone wants to share their TEDtalk-Go-Tos, let me know!

I admit I sometimes have trouble keeping track of the grammar focus in a conversation task. There are so many students mixed and matched, and, as a teacher, you feel compelled to walk between each group to correct them.

But then again you also don't want to interrupt the natural flow of English they're reinforcing. But then again that vocabulary isn't the focus today, the grammar structure is. But then again frequent corrections discourages students. But then again maybe this needs to be a more guided tasks with predetermined fill-in-the-blank scripts. But then again...

Yeah. Conversation lessons can be brutal. You have to think of an authentic scenario, balance all your students, and somehow give them feedback. Oh. And maybe, like, persuade them to talk instead of stare at you? 

This past unit had been on Music, though, and I implemented the following two activities pretty seamlessly.

1. Speed Dating
   Since my students this term are all around my age, I often find myself batting away nonsense questions that certainly spark from a mixture of "trying-to-get-the-class-off-topic" and "genuine-curiosity." Usually these questions go something like, "Teacher, do you have a boyfriend?" "Teacher, what's the best movie for a date in the US?" "Teacher..."
   
    Depending on the time left in class, our goals for that lesson, etc. I either playfully look at the nonexistent watch on my wrist while exclaiming "Oh no! Class is over!" then shoo them away, or I indulge them and throw vocabulary/grammar structures into my response, prompting a response from them as well. This past unit was music, and I think I've mentioned before that my class is filled with dancers and singers. I knew they'd be into this theme, so I decided to tease them.
   
   I came up with a list of music related questions, probably about 15 in total, then came into class and started talking about Tinder.
   
   Yeah. Tinder. I said something about how hard modern dating is and isn't there a better way than swiping right and left, and how the WORST was when your date had horrible music taste (to which they all vehemently agreed)...
   
   ...and then I asked if anyone had ever heard of speed-dating. A few raised their hands. I clapped excitedly and said "Oh my gosh that's great because you guys are ALL about to go on dates!"
   
   I set them up in two lines, handed out the sheet of music questions, then told them to have a discussion with the person standing opposite them. After two minutes, they would step to the right and begin a new conversation. I often poked my head into their conversations, making some silly joke about who was getting along with who and "ohhh maybe there'll be a second date soon?" All  while I'd  jokingly gush about them, hiding behind my notebook like a fool, I'd scribble a note about who needed help with this week's vocab.
   
   Of course this kind of exercise worked within the context of my class. We've all known each other since September, already joke around pretty easily, and are all adults that understand the parameters of a game. This activity is easily done without the ridiculous romantic framework. 
   
   
2. Musical Chairs
   This is way less authentic, but it helped them all relax around one another for a public English conversation. My shier students especially. I literally just did musical chairs. Whoever was without a seat would have a short (30 second) conversation with me about a question I'd choose. I set it up so there were four seats, and I'd call five students at a time.  Choosing those five-student groups usually went based on things like "who's about the same height and won't accidentally shove someone hard; who are my most talkative students? whatever).
   
   The second round, I called forth my five shiest girls and everyone, including the girls themselves, laughed at the silly music I played (techno Harry Potter). When the music cut and they scrambled for seats, one of them actually let out the loudest laugh and said, spontaneously about the student that beat her out of a seat, "How could you do this to me?!" 
   
   I loved hearing her response to my question because, while I usually strain to hear her whispered voice, she spoke louder between her laughter. It was like playing musical chairs tapped into that feeling of being a kid at a party with your friends rather than in a formal classroom.

That's all I've got for you today, but next week's unit is sleep. If anyone's got some ideas for that, pass 'em along. Until then...