SEPIC STaff
Chungcheongnamdo Office of Education

Dear Raquel, When I returned to my home in Gyeryong City after the reunion in Asan, I spent the next morning reviewing the materials presented by the SEPIC teachers. During the following week, I began to focus on the following year of teaching and the methods and materials that I will use. Goal: I want the students, grade 1 and 2 to speak English during class time 85% of the class time. Last year I experimented with many formats to help the students engage with me and with one another in English. My aim was for them to speak, 90% in English during class. The results varied by class (I have 20 different classes per week), but in the beginning stages, the average was closer to 75% as many students would "slip" easily in to speaking Korean. I found that, when I selected truly relatable and interesting topics, the students found their own MOTOVATION. It was not always easy to find these areas of interest. As time went on, the topics that inspired them to chat (in English) became more obvious. I have discovered that on the high school level motivation can be decisive as the students are very busy with many subjects. I need to catch their imagination and their inspiration, quickly! The most interesting information from the seminar for me was the list of successful resources that speakers shared with us. They shared successful and specific motivational material that they personally experienced with their students and methods of delivering this material. Murdockreferred the class to
http://www.Nationalgeographic.com
At this great website, I found a video that I will teach: “The Women Divers of Jeju Island. I am in the process of developing worksheets and activities including other videos on snorkeling and scuba diving. Murdock also suggested teaching The Simpson’s videos which I think will be great fun and ….. motivational! Lindsay Herandiengave me the idea to use movie trailers as motivators in the classroom. http://www.english-trailers.com ….I am now in the middle of putting together a lesson plan for: ShaolinSoccer supported by interesting worksheets from: www.bogglesworldesl.com At this website, I was able to locate a number of
excellent soccer related worksheets. www.esl-galaxy.com was the better site for my high school students.David Mortonsuggested including Mr. Bean videos and follow-up material. Excellent Idea! I loved this idea, these will be great motivators. Dave’s humor was infectious, he is an excellent communicator. I will make excellent use of these resources during the year. The seminar for me, as you may be able to tell, was interesting, helpful, and encouraging. I loved meeting the teachers and being a part of such a useful gathering. Thank you all for your help and concern. Sincerely, Renee GrouskayYong Nam High SchoolGyeryong City, South Korea