FSU TEFL Certificate Course Spring 2019

This weekend I not only met with my conversation partner, but also met with another CIES student from China, Minjie. She and I talked for hours about her life in China, her job with little kindergarteners in Shanghai, her 7 year long distance relationship with her now husband, her parents and their prejudice towards her husband due to the fact that he is from Hong Kong, her wedding and their future plans as a couple!! I was so ecstatic to learn this much about the Chinese culture through her and all her stories, she had so much to share about her life and her opinions about Chinese and American culture. Towards the end of the night, she even let my try on two of her traditional Chinese dress wear from the Qing and Zhang dynasty, it was such an honoring and amazing experience!!! I learned so much about Chinese culture and am really motivated to learn Mandarin and visit China while I am abroad:)

This weekend I hung out with Ran and other CIES students to have a traditional Chinese meal. We all made rice bowls and talked about certain customs in China that differ from those in America. In China, rice bowls are usually sweeter and eaten either for breakfast or before dinner, and are left in a large pot of water after being steamed, so that the whole family can sit around the pot and communally eat them together. It is a traditional food usually eaten during the Chinese New Year or other holidays. In China, when you go over a friend's house for dinner, it is expected that you bring something to drink or to eat, but the hosts' will usually prepare a plethora of food for the guests. We ate everything from chips to edamame to rice bowls to steamed broccoli to coconut cake and a soufflé!! And after we left, the hosts' insisted that they didn't need any help cleaning up and that they would do it all! How friendly and selfless of them:)

I just finished my sixth conversation session with DJ today through Skype in my bedroom and it lasted an hour, 28 minutes, and 35 seconds, from 8:16 to 9:44 PM. We talked about Korea's military service, what guilty pleasure means, movies we like, why certain countries like a movie while in other countries it is not that popular, Korean dramas, how education and success is viewed in South Korea and in America, and beliefs about other planets. I love talking to DJ so I told him if he wants to we can keep talking through Skype once a week. He really appreciates it so I will be speaking with him again once a week until he no longer wants to.

Yesterday on February 21, 2019 from 8 to 10:15 pm at Bento's Sushi and Grill, I had my sixth and last tutoring session with Mohammed. We went over the remaining vocabulary words from the context clues worksheet and then ate sushi. Then he asked me questions again about culture and beliefs so we had another interesting conversation. In the end he thanked me so much for everything I had done with him and told me I was a good tutor. I gave him the website were I had gotten some of the worksheets from and told him he could continue practicing his reading skills there.

On Wednesday, February 20 th , I met with Yahyia at CIES at 12:00.   He wanted to go over noun clauses and adjective clauses. He already had a grammar exam this week that included questions on noun and adjective clauses, but he just wanted to go over them again with me since he was not feeling completely confident in his answers for the test.   Yahyia had a good understanding of non-defining adjective clauses and was able to successfully identify and create them.   However, he would get a bit confused on defining adjective clauses, so I explained the differences between the two and how to identify a sentence for a defining adjective clause. When we finished going over what he needed clarification on, he helped me to refresh my memory on Arabic letters and sounds since we still had some time left until he had to go to his next class. Yahyia has made a lot of progress throughout the last few weeks and I look forwards to our future tutoring sessions dur...

Today, February 20, 2019, I tutored Marcelle for the last time at Gilchrist Elementary from 10 till 11:10 am. In class she was going over grouping words with the same sounds together, so she brought her slips of paper with the words and we worked on grouping them in the library. Then she wrote a few of them on the board and I pointed to each letter so she could tell me what they are called. I went over the sound certain letters make together ans she was able to read a few words. In the end, she finished the three tracing worksheets, front and back, for the remaining letters U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.

On Monday, February 18 th , I met with Yahyia at CIES at 12:00.   He wanted to go over a reading passage that he needed to write a summary about.   He understood all of the main points of the passage, but just needed some help with certain vocabulary words.   Words included in the passage attuned, fraught, fixated, and obsessed.   I helped him figure out what the words could mean by using context clues from the sentence, which helped him.   Afterwards, I gave him synonyms for each word and would use the words in a sentence so that he could get an even better understanding.   Afterwards, I helped him write a short summary, but he seemed to have a good understanding of what to do for this and did not really need that much help.   When we were done, I told him to come up with at least two or three sentences for each vocabulary word so that he could get extra practice.  

Today on February 17, 2019, I had a tutoring session with Mohammed at Bento's Sushi and Grill, which lasted from 5 pm till 9:15 pm. First we went over a worksheet with several sentences with context clues to figure out the meaning of the vocabulary words, and he practiced the strategies I have taught him the previous sessions. He has improved and is getting better at figuring out the meaning which is so good to see as a teacher. After that we ate sushi and then we had a several-hours-conversation on religion, and differences between his culture and my culture. It was very insightful.

On February 16, 2019, I talked to DJ for the fifth time, from 9:18 till 11:25 pm, through Skype in my bedroom. I was very excited to share things I had learned in the classroom with him. For example, I taught him how one sentence can have several different meaning depending on which word you stress. Then I typed different sentences, asked him to say them several times, each time stressing different words, and then I'd ask him what he think it meant based on the word being stressed. I also went over words that are shortened in casual conversations, such as gonna and wanna. He actually already knew about them but he asked me if people use them at work. The last thing we talked about was the use of colons and semi colons. This conversation session was a little more academic than the other sessions, but I was able to teach him about casual conversations, which is what he has always wanted to focus on.

On Friday, February 15, 2019, I tutored Mohammed for over an hour and half at Bento's Sushi and Grill. We focused on reading comprehension again, and he read an article about Facebook and privacy. The article had a preparation activity before the reading that helped him understand the text and then multiple choice and fill in the blank questions afterwards. We went over his incorrect answers and I asked him questions that would make him think about his answers and utilize strategies for finding the correct answers. This is important because I want him to be able to use these strategies on his own rather than just give him the correct answers without any explanations since this won't help him in the future.

On February 15, 2019, I had another tutoring session at Gilchrest Elementary for an hour with Marcelle. The topic of the day was the continuation of the alphabet, with the letters q, r, s, and t. She completed the tracing worksheets for those letters, then practiced some more by writing them on the whiteboard. Then I read her a book about Thanksgiving and went over more words in the French-English dictionary. She practiced writing the words and I said each letter as she wrote them so she can associate what she writes with the letter names.

On February 20th Ran and I met at CIES  for our fourth conversation partner meeting! We talked about the stereotypes Americans make towards Asian culture and especially, food. She thought it was funny that Chinese and Thai restaraunts here sell sushi... that is a Japanese food!!! She has recognized that in America many parts of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc. culture and traditions are just put into one basket and are all considered the same thing, Asian. A misconception she has noticed the students at CIES have, as well! We then talked about different Chinese films that I have been wanting to see and what her favorite films are. We also talked about the different apps they use in China and how they differ from those Americans use, social media and online banking. We then talked with other students in the CIES program about the cultures in Saudi Arabia vs. Kuwait vs.China.

On February 13th I met with Bao for a tutoring session to help her study for her upcoming final exams. She was working on a grammar exercise on the Conditional tense. I monitored her as she worked on the exercise and answered any of her grammar questions. Then, we worked on her writing and speaking. I gave her a prompt on her favorite foods. She wrote what her favorite Vietnamese dish was and then explained to me, verbally, what came in the dish. I helped her distinguish between what adjectives and adverbs were and when to appropriately use both. I asked her more questions about her favorite foods and I learned that she never ate desserts. In Vietnam it wasn’t common to have cake, but more common for people to eat lots of fruits! We went over vocabulary of fruits and learned a lot about each other’s cultures in the process:) She seemed to be pretty prepared for her exams.

On February 11th I met with Ngoc at CIES for a tutoring session before her tests. She had an exam in speaking, writing, and listening, so we covered each subject briefly. I went over some grammar to refresh her memory, looked over her past homework and went over questions she had from the answers she got wrong. Her notes from the listening exercise she did in class were very impressive and we went over which sentences were correct and which ones needed corrections. She was struggling with minimal pairs so we touched on those a bit, too. The difference between the B and P sounds in cyber bullying, which was one of her speaking topics.

On February 13th I met with Ran at CIES for our third conversation partner meeting. We talked for a while about many different topics. She gave me a brief overview of her week and the tests that she took and how relieved she felt to be done with them. I started asking her about the differences between the grading system (and the school system in general) in China and the U.S. She said academics are more stressed in China, and although they don’t give out letter grades, the grading system is very similar. They take the average percentage across all your grades to give you your one final, all-inclusive percentage. She explained to me how people seem less busy in America, that they have more time to care about the environment and nature. In China life is very fast paced. I asked her about global warming and the pollution in China. She said over the winter months they must wear masks from all the smog and pollution. Ran said she gets a cough when she’s in China, and the air in U.S. is noti...

On January 30th, I met with Ran at CIES study rooms for our second Conversation Partner meeting. We talked about the Chinese New Year and the similarities and differences between the New Year’s celebration the U.S. takes part in, and the New Year’s celebration China takes part in. She explained to me that the Chinese New Year is a very big deal, similar to the way we treat Christmas in the U.S. The students have a two week break and some employeers let their workers have vacation time. All the families get together and stay with each other during this time and cook traditional Chinese meals. Dumplings are one of the main foods families cook for the Chinese New Year and are Ran’s favorite:) She explained to me the symbolism behind the mythology of the Chinese tradition and what each year means. It was so interesting learning about their customs through her eyes.

On Wednesday, February 13 th at 12:00, I met with Yahyia at CIES.   He needed help with the three types of conditional sentences since he has a quiz on it tomorrow.   I explained what each type of conditional sentence is and had him make at least five example sentences for each throughout the session.   The trickiest one to explain was the third type since it was a bit difficult for him to recognize the differences between the third and second type.   The best way for me to explain the differences between the two was by telling him that the third type is absolutely impossible to happen since it includes a past event that did or did not occur.   He was able to make sentences using the first type with ease since he uses this type regularly.   By the end of the session, he was comfortable with making sentences using the three conditional types and can now easily recognize the differences between the three.   I told him to make at le...

Today on February 12, 2019 I spoke with DJ for an hour through Skype in my bedroom. We talked about Korean weddings, the Korean Lunar New Year Celebration, hanboks (traditional Korean attire), and online shopping. I learned that Korean weddings can be complex and that they can have multiple parts, such as a ceremony with the white dress and tuxedo, then another celebration with hanbok. In the Korean Lunar Year celebration, people give thanks to their ancestors, kids bow to their elders, and sometimes the elders give the kids money. DJ was explaining the kinds of gifts married couples receive and then I explained how in America, it is popular to sign up with companies to create a wedding registrar online, such as with Target or Amazon. Then going off on that topic, I told him how the CEO of Amazon once said that he knows Amazon will not last forever because companies don't usually last for more than 100 years. He will try his best to keep adapting Amazon to consumer behavior, but he...

I met with Yahyia on Monday, Feburary 11 th at 12:00 at CIES.   He needed help with verb tenses, specifically past and future verb tenses.   I helped him remember the different kinds of tenses and how to identify them.   He needed the most help in future perfect continuous and past continuous tenses. I had him come up with sentences for each tense and had him express the same or similar idea using different tenses.   There were some times throughout the session where it was a bit difficult to understand what he was asking, but I eventually understood. We then went over some prepositions, but since this was towards the end of the session, we were not able to get very far.   We decided to go over more prepositions for our next session, which will be this Wednesday.   I told him to make at least five sentences for each tense for the next time we meet.   I plan on going over the sentences with him to make sure that he understands the...

I tutored Marcelle at Gilchrest Elementary for an hour today on February 11, 2019. We worked some more on compound words. Marcelle cut some flashcards and then we went over them. She knew how to say a lot of the words, however, it was because of the picture, not because she can read the words. So after that, she practiced her reading and writing by writing some of the words from the flashcards and I would say each letter as she wrote them so that she could learn what the letters are called and what letters together form what word. Then I read her a book and went over some other flashcards about animals.

I met with Dojun for our weekly Skype session on Monday, February 11 th . We talked about the Lunar New Year, which was last week. We did not have a tutoring session since last week because of Lunar New Year since he went to visit his family in Busan, which is his hometown. He taught me more about what Lunar New Year is and he explained some common traditions and ceremonies for ancestors.   According to Dojun, people get about five days off from work and school.   I asked him if there are any well known parades or marches like the United States has for Thanksgiving, but he said there are not any.     We then talked about transportation and I had him explain different types of transportation and compare the times it would take to get from one place to another using each method of transportation from Busan to Seoul. I learned that it takes about five hours by car without traffic, three hours by a fast train, and only about one hour by a plane. ...

Today on February 8, 2019 I met up with Mohammed at the restaurant Arepana from 2 to 4:30 pm for our tutoring session. He brought me some idioms he had written from his reading class and I explained them to him and then we ordered food. After we finished eating, I gave him a worksheet on idioms. The sentences were filled with context clues and I showed him strategies on how to figure out their meanings using the context clues. I explained all the idioms and gave him examples of how they might be said in a casual conversation. He told me I am a very good teacher because I explain things clearly which made me feel good about tutoring skills. I definitely feel like I have a good structure with Mohammed and feel as though I am improving as a teacher. On Sunday I will help him with reading comprehension.

Today on February 8, 2019 I tutored Marcelle at Gilchrest Elementary in the morning for an hour. When I came to the classroom, she was working on compound words and the teacher asked me to help her match the words to the picture. At the library she cut them and then I asked her to point to each word in the other paper so that she could understand that car + the other word makes a compound word (such as carpool). She glued each word to each corresponding picture and repeated the compound words out loud. Then she worked on tracing four more letters in the worksheets and practiced writing them on her own on the whiteboard. After I read her a book, asked her questions, and pointed to the words as I read them so that she could familiarize herself with them and eventually start to read them herself. Then she practiced writing some of the words in the book on the board and as she copied them I would say each letter out loud.

On Wednesday, February 6 th at 3:00 p.m., I met with Ngoc Han. for lunch.   Her sister joined us this time and we all met at a small BBQ restaurant next to the Starbucks on Copeland St. It was a very nice day and we sat outside. We talked about Ngoc going back to Vietnam for a few weeks to visit her family and I asked her what she plans on doing when she goes there.   She then asked me if I thought there would be any issues regarding her Visa when she comes back and I told her that I was not entirely sure.   I told her that it is important to talk to people who work at CIES or the Vietnamese Embassy if she had any questions about this since I did not want to give her any wrong information.   We then went to get frozen yogurt and planned to meet again next week.

On Wednesday, February 6th, Yahyia and I met at CIES and went over some grammar rules.   He needed help with present tenses and past tenses so I gave him some examples and ways to recognize these tenses.   I then told him to come up with some sentences for each tense so that he could get some practice on it.   He seemed a bit confused in the beginning and told me that grammar is typically something he struggles with, like many other EFL students.   I told him that it’s important to be familiar with grammar and grammar rules but also told him to not overthink it or become too stressed out about it.   We also went over complex prepositions. He had a list for this from his class so I went over each example that he had and gave him the definition and how the word or words would be used in a sentence given the definition.   He seemed to be a bit more confident towards the end of the session and we planned on meeting either tomorrow or Sunda...

Today on February 4, 2019 I tutored Marcelle at Gilchrest Elementary for an hour. We went over the letters we've gone over before on the whiteboard and then she traced new letters on the worksheets. She practiced writing the new letters on the whiteboard and then I would quiz her by pointing to a letter and asking her to tell me what it is called or by saying a letter and asking her to point to the correct one. Then I read her her book and then we went over some flashcards. She was a little restless this tutoring session and wouldn't sit still, but she is starting to retain some of the letters, which is very good. Before I finish all of my tutoring sessions with her, my goal is to teach her how to write all of the letters and hopefully she'll be able to recognize all of them and tell me their names. This is the foundation for her to be able to read.

My third tutoring session was with a student named Turki, who is also from Saudi Arabia. Turki was very kind and offered me pringles before the session began while making small talk about his journey to FSU and why he wanted to learn English. I find that it is important to get to know your tutees personally before diving into English material. It helps me to see where they are level wise, as well as see how motivated they are with their learning. Turki is definitely a very focused student, he was getting overtly upset about his multitude of errors and I could tell he was determined to improve. We went through his essay paragraph by paragraph and ended up spending most of our time on correct word usage (for example the difference between success and to succeed), as well as the proper use of articles and prepositions. He asked that I bring in materials to work with that will help him practice these skills, and I plan to do so next session. I like working with Turki because it is a mutual...

My second tutoring session was with Manal from Saudi Arabia. We decided to meet at Starbucks, for last time The Sweet Shop was much too loud. She bought an espresso coffee and a red velvet coffee cake that she offered to share with me. It was delicious to say the least. We picked up from where were last time, starting by talking about life and seeing how she was doing with CIES. She seemed happy and positive about her school work and life in Tallahassee. She mentioned that her husband is going to start taking English classes in Tallahassee, so now she will have even more opportunities to practice. She wanted to review a first draft of an essay she was assigned for class. I have noticed this with both of my tutees, they really enjoy working on writing and are hungry to learn more about how they can improve their essays. We went through the essay step by step, but ended up mainly focusing on the Conclusion of the essay. She was struggling to incorporate her thesis and supporting points i...

Today on February 3, 2018, I finished my second tutoring session with Mohammed. We just met at Black Dog Cafe from 5:10 until 6:40 pm and we went over an article about the popular term FOMO (fear of missing out). The article discussed the repercussions of students waking up in the middle of the night to check on their phones because of this trending phenomenon. I approached this reading session from a top-bottom perspective. First I gave him a worksheet with fill-in-the-blank vocabulary terms that were going to appear on the article as a preparation activity. We spent a longer time on this than what I thought we would, but it was good because I was able to effectively explain why you would use a certain form of a word over another. Then he read the article and answered multiple choice, matching, and fill-in-the-blank questions. I went over each one, giving clear explanations when he got an answer wrong. At the end I introduced him to two other worksheets, one about using context clues ...

My third conversation partner meeting was with Josue, my conversation partner from Paris, France. He suggested that we go to a restaurant for this meeting, and recommended the Colombian restaurant on Tennessee St. called "Super Perros". I had never been to this restaurant before, so it was interesting to not only converse with someone from outside of my culture but also at a cultural restaurant with an atmosphere and menu different than what I am used to. Most of the menu was in Spanish, so we were able to bond over trying to figure out what the menu was saying, and ended up sharing a lot of laughs over it. During our meeting, we caught up on how he was doing at CIES, what he's involved in in Tallahasee, and discussed deeper topics such as the current political affairs going on in France. This led to a grander discussion about American politics, and it turned out we had similar views. It was interesting to connect our ideas across border lines, realizing we all want the ...

On Sunday, February 3 rd at 1:30 p.m., Yahyiah and I had a tutoring session at his house.   He needed help writing the final draft of an essay and wanted me to explain why he got the feedback that he got from his professor.   Before I met with him, he corrected the paper using the feedback that his professor gave him and I had him read the essay to me one sentence at a time. From this, I noticed that a common mistake he would make consistently was run-on sentences and sometimes saying the same thing twice.   I gave Yahyia tips on how to notice a run-on sentence and how to break the sentence into two different sentences in order to make the paper flow better.   Towards the end of our tutoring session, he seemed to be a bit more confident in his writing skills and seemed to have a better understanding of how to form better sentences by avoiding run-on sentences.

On February 1, 2019, I had my third conversation partner session with DJ. He came back from his vacation on Monday and he had a relaxing time. He went to Saipan Island with his wife, which is an island close to Guam, and got to enjoy the beautiful beach. The main topic of this conversation session was slang words. I taught him several popular slang words and messaged him sentences with these words so that he could read how they are used in a sentence and in context. I would model how people would say them and in what situations. I also found out he doesn't know what memes are, so I explained the concept and sent him several memes through the chat. Then I sent him some memes that used slang terms so that he could know in what social situations people use them online. It was a funny session because I liked seeing his reaction to the memes once he understood them. In our next session we will talk more about slang phrases.

On February 1, 2019 from 12:45 to almost 2:45 pm, I had my first session with my new tutee, Mohammed Alfsufyani, at CIES. This was an assessment and diagnostic meeting, so I could gauge what level he is at and what he wants to work on. He told me his session ends at the end of February and that he just wants to focus on reading. I gave him a reading to look over to see how much he understood and he told me it was challenging for him. Level 1 and 2 readings he can understand but level 3 is difficult for him, so I am going to focus on giving him some short, intense level 3 articles, timing him, and giving him questions because he wants to improve how fast he reads. I learned that he is from Saudi Arabia, has traveled to over 40 countries, is studying anthropology and philosophy, has 12 siblings, has kids (who attended school in Florida for 5 months before leaving back to Saudi Arabia), loves to try new foods and travel, and likes to cook. We will be meeting twice a week for the next four...

On February 1, 2019, I tutored Marcelle at Gilchrest Elementary School from 10 till 11:05 am. We continued working on the alphabet. She practiced writing the letters e through g by tracing them on the worksheets and then by practicing again on her own in the whiteboard. I quizzed her by also telling her to write the letters we had learned in the previous session, both in uppercase and lowercase letters. I am going to continue quizzing her cumulatively to reinforce all of the letters she learns. Then we went over the French-English dictionary and she wrote a few of the words she knew how to say in English on the whiteboard. I would tell her what each letter was so that she can make that mental image and apply the letters to the words and meaning. In the end I read her a book of her choosing form the Fancy Nancy series and asked her questions as I read to keep her engaged.

On Thursday, January 31 st at 7:00, I met with my conversation partner, Ali. He invited me over his house for dinner and I got to meet with wife, Badrisa, and his newborn daughter, Mila, who is only three weeks old.   I learned that his wife used to take classes from CIES and I helped both her and Ali with their English speaking skills. I told Badrisa that I used to take Arabic classes but that I forgot a majority of what I learned with the exception of the alphabet. She then helped me remember how to write words in Arabic and gave me tips on how to remember certain letters and sounds that I used to struggle with when I was studying the language.   Throughout my time there, we all talked about a variety of different things, including American history. Specifically, we talked about topics regarding Native Americans and the Civil Rights Movement.   Then we talked about religion and Ali was kind enough to explain exactly how Muslims pray and what each ...