Looking Back on the 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia

The following post is from Thomas Tye, a guest blogger.

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Earthquakes. Tsunamis. More earthquakes. I’m not trying to sound nostalgic in the midst of all of these natural disasters, but it makes me think about the really BIG earthquake, the really big tsunami that called upon me to come to Asia. In 2004 it was the earthquakes of all earthquakes, the big one that hit off the coast of Ache in Indonesia. Sent a tidal wave that caused destruction and mayhem in its wake. Everyone on the planet that was supposed to go, went, including me. It took me a few weeks to decide if I was going to leave America or not, but I finally did.

I had no money, just enough gas to get my truck down to Texas to the only NGO that was willing to take me over. I had no relief training, no idea how or why I even wanted to go. All I knew was that there was something pulling me across the planet, something… a feeling I couldn’t ignore that was making it hard for me to drive down to the rickety 747 that was held together with duck tape and chicken wire, an airplane that belonged to the organization Global Peace Initiative, and to Dr. K. Paul, an immigrant who used his life as a radio beacon between him and God who went anywhere and everywhere to bring aid and assist in the time of heartache.

I was lucky enough to bum a ride, along with Congressmen, reporters from all the major news agencies, doctors, and aide workers that constantly have a bag packed and ready in the closet of their homes for times like this. Like I said, I bummed a ride, so I had no idea or control over where we were going. Our first stop—Abuja, Nigeria during the African Conference. No room on the runway for our plane, so we had to park at the end and hike 45 minutes over blazing tarmac to the gates, which proceeded to lead me into the craziest night of my life, a story meant for another time.

I only reminisce about that time now because we just completed our 10th episode on our podcast Married to a Foreigner (Facebook) here in Korea. My wife and I just had our 5 year anniversary, 10 if you count how long we dated before getting married. If it wasn’t for that tsunami 11 years ago, I’d probably still be sitting on someone’s couch wondering when my life was going to begin, hazy eyed thinking that I’d one day get up and out of America. Instead, I hitchhiked on an NGO plane, set up Jack’s Place, a backpacker’s hotel in Sri Lanka, went to diving school in Thailand, spent 6 months learning to walk again after almost cutting my foot off, made a movie in Japan, lived in a castle in Spain and caravanned around Europe, met my wife in South Korea and spent 10 years teaching English around the world. All because one day, the universe told me to get up off of my ass and care about something other than myself. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. I’m sorry that I didn’t learn to give a damn sooner.

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Using CLIL to Kill Two Birds With One Stone

CLIL or Content Language Integrated Learning is becoming quite the buzzword in language learning circles. Basically, it's teaching a subject using English to students who don't speak English as their native language. An example of this would be to teach history in English to French speakers in France.


CLIL and Its Effect on EFL
CLIL gets particularly neat if you can further connect the language and subject. You could teach about the American Civil War in English, or perhaps talk about Picasso in Spanish. Many EFL teachers already use CLIL in their classes, they just haven't put a name to it.

My Personal Experience
I've taught art, science, social studies, and history in English. It hasn't been easy. While I studied art at school, teaching science and history was quite challenging. I had to study the material a lot before I could even teach it and if students asked me questions that weren't in that chapter I couldn't always answer them.

Benefits
There are lots of benefits to using CLIL, perhaps the best one is that students get more contact with the target language. Their vocabulary will increase and they'll get more chances to practice using it. CLIL is also motivating since the focus often moves from grammar and vocabulary to content. It also raises the bar for students since they are learning something new in a foreign language and not just the foreign language in a contrived environment. Another added benefit is that students can learn two things at once: a subject and a language. In addition, CLIL can be used with all levels and ages.


Drawbacks
If CLIL is as great as people proclaim it to be, what are the drawbacks? Well, for one, it can fail miserably if not implemented correctly. Since you're teaching two things at once, you could waste twice as much time than if you were just teaching one subject. The other major drawback is that teachers have to be proficient in both a language and the subject they're teaching.

Useful Links

• The BBC's Teaching English has an article as well and activities about CLIL. 
• Cambridge has a couple of guides, such as teaching history and teaching maths and CLIL basics.
• Chiew Pang wrote A CLIL To Climb.
• The European Commission Languages website has info and links.
• Jeremy Harmer wrote a blog post about the pros and cons of using CLIL.
• International House has a course on how to teach CLIL. 
• One Stop English has an entire section with nearly 1000 resources on CLIL as well as a quick intro.
• The UK's National Centre for Language has an introduction and info for English, French, and German.

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Cool Link: ABC Teach

If you teach K-8 or at an international school, then take a look at ABC Teach. They've got lots of free materials, like subjects, reading comprehension, holidays, ABCs, interactive, as well as sections divided by levels, and even a special needs section. It's easy to navigate, bright, and colourful.

There is also a tools section which allows you to generate all types of worksheets such as games like bingo and sudoku, or activity sheets, spelling, and ABCs.

They also have a paid membership section which costs about $40 a year. They also have discounts for groups, schools, and districts.

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Cool Link: Kid Zone

Made for kids preschool to grade 5, Kid Zone has worksheets for a variety of different subjects. They have their resources arranged by grade as well as topic. Their topics are animals, geography, language arts, lesson plans, magic tricks, math, science, and thematic units.

The magic tricks are especially cool because kids love amazing their friends and family. At the bottom they have recent updates to the site, so you can always see what's new. Kid Zone is part of a dozen other sites run by the same family. You can see their complete list of sister sites on the bottom right. All their sites are simple, have lots of info and are basically advert free. So be sure to check out this site and their sister sites as well.

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Cool Link: Yacapaca

Free for students and teachers, Yacapaca is part of the Chalkface Project. You can create quizzes, surveys, tests, eportfolios, and more for your classes. Yacapaca helps you share assessment, set homework from the comfort of your home, grade automatically, and use tools to analyse what you've done.

When you go to the teacher section you can select your country from a list of about 20 and the curriculum for that country will come up. This is great for those who teach at an international school as they have subjects such as economics, citizenship, design and technology, English, geography, history, math, foreign languages, science, religion and a whole lot more. It's in 7 different languages as well, so your students might be able to access it in their native language. What to know more? Check out their site.

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Cool Link: TLS Books

TLS Books has free worksheets related to ESL, EFL, as well as subjects such as Math, Geography, and History. The worksheets are aimed at children aged preschool to sixth grade. Young learners can be challenging to teach but these worksheets make lesson planning much easier. They also have a section for teachers with flashcards, links, and book reviews. In addition they have colouring pages and a section with games.

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How Boys and Girls Learn Differently and What to Do About It

Updated 18 February 2012

These tips come from a workshop given by Lucrecia Rodriguez in Lima, Peru in 2008. You can find more tips at teaching boys and girls.

Catering to Girls

• Give extra encouragement when they do spatial activities like computer design.
• Let girls manipulate objects, build, design, and calculate.
• Use water and sand tables in science.
• Use puzzles to help with visual perception.
• Set up spatial lessons in groups to encourage discussion.
• Form groups and teams to promote leadership roles and negotiation skills.
• Play physical games to help develop gross motor skills.
• Encourage the quieter girls.
• The work environment should be clean, tidy, and well-lit.
• Put up pictures and posters.
• Take photos of girls completing tasks successfully.

Catering to Boys

• Make lessons experiential and kinesthetic. Allow for movement and noise.
• Give them breaks to stand up, stretch, and walk around.
• Give boys chores, such as sharpening pencils, helping the teacher, handing out papers, etc.
• Allow them to play with clay, crayons, or doodle while listening.
• Use bead work, blocks, legos and other manipulatives to encourage fine motor skills.
• Keep verbal instructions short. Use pictures, graphs, and diagrams when explaining.
• Use male mentors and role models.
• Allow boys to be a bit disorganised. Arrange tables and chairs further apart so that they have their own space.
• Increase computer based education.
• Use intellectual competition, such as math, spelling, or geography contests.
• Read more non-fiction in class. Boys like facts and information.

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