Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith Management by Ricky Griffin Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
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I've made a conscious effort to do more reading over the past few months. Here is the list of books that I've completed over September and October. Having read Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut several years ago, I decided to dive deeper into more of his work. My favorite was Mother Night, and I really loved the quote: "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful about who we pretend to be."
October Reading How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield September Reading Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Talk like TED by Carmine Gallo The Power of Self Confidence by Brian Tracy I've recently been considering starting a second degree. I've been doing a lot of research into American College of Education. Not only are they fully accredited, but they offer some of the cheapest graduate degrees around, and get very good reviews from current and former students. I've been attempting to narrow down my options, and I created this short list of some programs that I'm looking at, along with some pros and cons. Educational Specialist Degree (Ed.S) in Leadership
Overview: Degree that explores concepts like leadership, grant writing, ethical leadership, management, and policy & governance; Designed for leaders in various disciplines. Possible Job Opportunities: Higher Education Administration, Career Counseling, Student Services, Possibly teaching at the community college level, other varied options in business and leadership fields Advantages: Courses would be relevant toward education at any level. Credits could later be applied toward a Doctor of Education in Leadership Degree (Ed.D.) This would mean that it would only require another 23 credits (+ dissertation) after obtaining the Ed.S to then get a full doctoral degree. It is a higher level degree than simply getting a second master’s degree. The Ed.S. is considered a post-master’s degree. Disadvantages: Degree not very well-known outside of academia. Cost: $12,500 Number of Credits: 37 University: American College of Education Website: http://www.ace.edu/academics/ed-d-ed-s-in-leadership/ed-s-in-leadership Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Instructional Design & Technology Overview: Degree that explores the topic of designing instructional materials and developing and implementing these tools both online and face-to-face. Possible Job Opportunities: Instructional Designer at a school, college or business, or possibly at an online course provider such as Coursera or Udacity Advantages: Relatively cheap cost, interesting topic, prior experience with developing English lessons Disadvantages: Possibly hard to break into the field if potential employer demands large portfolio of projects; unlike the Ed.S degree this degree proscribes a specific field of employment Cost: $7200 Number of Credits: 31 University: American College of Education Website: http://www.ace.edu/academics/master-of-education/m-ed-in-instructional-design-and-technology Master of Science (MSE) in Higher Education & Student Affairs Overview: Degree that prepares individuals to work in higher education and student affairs at a college or university Possible Job Opportunities: Career Counseling, Higher Education Administration, Student affairs Advantages: Pretty good price, interesting field Disadvantages: Without internships it might possibly be hard to secure a job, degree is very specific, the Ed.S could offer me the same opportunities and more Cost: $9000 Number of Credits: 36 University: Fort Hays State University Website: http://www.fhsu.edu/aep/HESA/overview/ Advantages of a second master’s Slightly cheaper and quicker than the Ed.S; a M.Ed. in Instructional Design and Technology could nicely complement my interest in education and technology. Disadvantages of a second master’s Keeps me at the same educational level As I talked about in my last post, I am currently enrolled in the MOOC course, Shaping the Way We Teach English, offered through Coursera in conjunction with the University of Oregon. I'm soon to be starting two additional courses:
Introduction to Guitar, Berklee College of Music, Provided by Coursera Learning How to Learn, University of California San Diego, Provided by Coursera I look forward to starting these courses, and am amazed at the quality of information being offered online for free. I have recently begun my first MOOC course, offered through Coursera. For those unfamiliar MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course. These are courses offered online either for free or at a very low cost. Over the last five years, as education increasingly migrates to the online realm, multiple MOOC operators have opened up shop. Coursera, EdX, and Udacity are some of the biggest names in the business.
MOOC's are unique in that there are no entry requirements and students from around the world can join. Classes can be as small as 1 student or contain over 10,000 students. These courses are offered in almost any field imaginable, from astrophysics to social media marketing to teaching. It is this latter category that as a teacher I am most interested in. I am currently taking the course, "Shaping the Way We Teach English, 1: The Landscape of English Language Teaching." I must say that I am most impressed by the course thus far. The course is administered through Coursera, but is a project of the University of Oregon. A typical week involves several videos, video quiz questions, a reading assignment, a discussion in the online forum, and a cumulative quiz. The content has two main thrusts: the use of realia in the classroom and the implementation of project-based learning. The emphasis is on reducing Teacher Talk Time in the classroom and increasing the engagement of the students, especially their affective engagement with the subject matter. In the past week of the course (Week 2), the workload intensified somewhat. In addition to the regular weekly tasks as detailed above, we had to design a lesson plan and related materials that incorporated the use of realia in the classroom. We had to upload our files to Coursera by the deadline. Week 3 (the current week) has subsequently involved evaluating our classmates' lesson plans. This has the dual benefit of not only providing our fellow students with critical feedback, but also giving me great ideas and activities for future lessons. I must say that I am quite happy with the course thus far. The readings, videos, and other assignments are helping to give me new ideas in the classroom, and providing me greater impetus to construct new and exciting lessons. It is amazing how far online learning has come, and certainly is providing tangible benefits to me, and by extension my students. I am still a very new teacher- let me state that right away. However, in the ten months that I’ve spent teaching elementary children here in Korea so far, I have found one very distinct difference between those first shaky months and now; that is I no longer struggle to fill the entire class time.
I remember in the first six months of teaching frequently looking at the clock and just willing that minute hand to move faster. This would occur as I saw that the students were finishing the last activity that I had planned, and I still had ten more minutes left in class! I would get nervous and worried thinking, “How am I going to fill this last chunk of time.” I would often find some kind of video to play, but the students were well aware of the fact that their teacher had not done the best job with time management. A most welcome change is that now we never run out of time. I have been able to achieve this due to many factors, but maybe the most important one is always planning one more activity than I think we’ll need. As my knowledge of how long activities will take has improved, I find that many times this extra activity is not needed. However, when it is needed it is great to be able to pull it out and use it. That is not say that I don’t ever use videos anymore. Sometimes when I see that the students have mastered the material, or just that they look like they need a break, I will put on a short clip (I love the “How It’s Made” clips on YouTube; they’re in English, they’re educational, and the kids and I love them). However, it is nice to be able to choose whether or not I play a video, rather than having to play one out of necessity because I don’t have anything else planned- a most welcome change! As some of you may know, I am currently writing a book on teaching English as a foreign language in Korea. My goal in working on this project is to provide an all-in-one resource containing all of the information about teaching in Korean in one place.
Topics that I plan on covering in detail include the following
With TEFL a growing industry, it is my sincere hope that this book can serve as a useful guide for anyone considering coming to Korea to teach English. I hope to have this published soon. Now, back to writing! I have undoubtedly had friends and family members ask me, "How do you teach elementary-aged children when you don't speak their language? Isn't a Korean English teacher better equipped for the task?" I have thought a lot about the reasoning behind having a Native English Teacher (NET) in the Korean public school system. Through the accounts of others and my own personal experience I believe that there are several advantages to having a NET in the school.
1.) Many Korean children never interact with foreigners I think this is an important factor for having a NET in the classroom. Korea is after all the most homogeneous country in the world. Look in any Korean school and you are hard-pressed to find anyone not of Korean heritage. If not for me, my students would never meet someone with a different culture and a different physical appearance. 2.) Having an NET in the school provides a more concrete example of the value of learning English I often reflect on my own experience learning Spanish. When I was in high school and even college, I really didn't have any native speakers with whom I could practice. However, once I went on my study-abroad experience in Costa Rica, I suddenly was given ample opportunities to practice the language. This made the language learning suddenly much more important, and I found myself running to my dictionary to look up a word that I didn't know. By having an English-only speaker in their school, the kids are forced to use the language to be able to communicate with their NET, making the language more valuable and real in their eyes. 3.) The NET provides native English pronunciation Even the best Korean English speakers that I have met have some kind of accent. Being able to provide that native English accent provides the students an opportunity to hear how English sounds from a native speaker with no accent. 4.) The NET is often able to create classes that break from the mold of normal Korean classes Many curriculum Korean English classes use rote memorization and boring CD's to present the subject of English. My classes are a complete break from this kind of learning. Teaching in an after-school setting with complete free reign over the topics and lesson style, I am able to present information in a fun and exciting style. I incorporate games, total physical response activities, and task-based lessons to present the subject of English in an interesting and memorable way. I want to share a great game I used in my 6th grade class. This is a class that has only three students, so can sometimes make games dependent on larger classes or teams become hard. Unit 2 of the Cheonjae book series for 6th grade is all about sickness, and the related emotions that go along with it. Instead of calling out "Row A Column 1," the students are presented with English words from the text for the rows and columns. It is a great activity to practice reading, writing, and listening, and can work in a small or big classroom. Credit goes to "Seoulcutie" on Waygook.org for making this template. Please see below- |
AuthorCliff is an adjunct professor at Yonsei University, Wonju campus. Archives
December 2019
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