English Trainers wanted: Eilenburg August 10 through October 2, 2009

[Markus Neubert]

Hey Scott,

I would gladly take up on your offer to meet at the train station in Leipzig.
It would be interesting to hear some tales from a more experienced teacher.

When shall we meet there ?

Markus

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Monday 14th September 2009

We started today with a review of our activities from the weekend.
The students constricted a plan of their weekend and then discussed in two person groups, what their activities were and why they did these activities.
After this project we worked from the Business Basics work book.
We covered pages 86 to 88.
We then constructed a debating topic surrounding the importance of money.
We discussed a little about the important in money in the modern world and then i asked the students to move into two groups and create arguments for and against this topic.
This game very positive feedback as to the students ability to construct arguments and legible sentences structure with correct tenses.
We finished the day with a short fun game of Hangman.

[Scott Graham]

Hi Markus,
Sorry for the late reply but I've been very busy over the weekend moving into my new flat. If you get this message I will be on the platform to catch the Eilenburg train at about 6:50. I think you'll see me I have black hair and will be carrying a grey and black rucksack(with a red pin badge on it), also one more thing you could say I'm vertically challenged! (which means I'm not the tallest of people standing at a meer 165cm). I hope we can meet which will give us the chance to chat on the train and en route to the AFI.

Have a good evening and I look forward to meet you tomorrow.

Regards
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Wednesday 9th September 2009

Our first activities today was to write a short report about the students privies evening.
They used the revision list of words we had constructed from the privies day and composed a short report on their actives.
The details were cleared up and then the student had to reread out the text again with the corrected text and pronunciation.

We worked with the Business Basics book and covered making appointments over the telephone.
We played in two man groups and composed dialogues in the environment of working in a hotel.

We finally worked today on a text about Healthy Living and we discussed what is good and bad for a health life.
The students finished the day with a short game of Hangman, using words from the privies day.

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Tuesday 8th September 2009

We started today with the Business Basics Book.
We covered material on making a diary and also planning dates and times.
This topic was very interesting for the students and challenged them to construct workable diary time tables using English.

We then made a discussion group based around the simple task of describing all the objects in the class room.
We clarified their names and then we discussed positions of the objects.
After that we formed full sentences, describing these objects and where they were located.

We then read a text taken from the BBC news channel and that was translated and clarified.
The more challenging words from this text were then copied onto a list for the students.

We finished the day with a quick game of Hangman.

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Monday 7th September 2009

We started today with a quick report about our individual weekends and what we had done.
I then asked the students to make organised plan of their weekends.
Examples of useful sentences and words were given and after the students had copied this material, they carried out the task.
This was a very positive task and provided interesting feedback on the students ability to tie together separate sentences to create tangible paragraphs.

After lunch we worked with Business Basics.
We focused on telephone calls and for this the student had to create dialogues and enact out there dialogues against one another.

This groups level of confidence is building up steadily and these students are well able for challenging material.
And I find when these students are challenged, they mentally involving themselves in the work more readily, than when the material perhaps is more mundane.

[Scott Graham]

Hi Ian,
Thanks for your detailed report, I'm sure it will be of use for Markus tomorrow. I will be with this group from Tuesday onwards and looking at all the reports written by all the trainers that have been working with them, I can see they have been going from strength to strength. Your very right when you said this group prefers a challenge and when you give them one they show great enthusiasm and really take the bull by the horns! I am teaching the 'Air-cargo' group in Eilenburg tomorrow but will pop my head in and say hi. Again thanks for letting us know what you've been up to and I wish you a great week.

Regards
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Thursday 3rd September 2009

Today was my first day with group.
I spent some time today Introducing myself and also learning a little about my students.
I found this group automatically very positive, friendly and welcome.
After this Introduction, We discussed what the students felt was importing for them to learn and what they believed was their weaknesses.
We began with the Business Basics Book and started working on Business Planning.

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Friday 4th September 2009

Today we first discussed what is important for a good weekend.
We set out ideas of each others weekends and then made dialogues in groups of 2 discussing the pros and cons of each others ideas.
We then continued on with Business Basics and started to clarify what the students felt were weaknesses in their knowledge.
After this we clarified words such as they, us, our, and the students created new sentences to demonstrate their understanding of the words.
We finally read a small text taken from the BBC and translated that text.

To finish the day we had a fun game of Hangman.

[Ian Spring]

Hi Scott.
If you pop your head in, send my best wishes to the students please.
Thanks and have a fantastic week !

Ian :-)

[Scott Graham]

Tuesday 21st

It's very nice to be back with this highly motivated and dynamic group after 5 weeks. I was very please to realise the progress each individual has made, and also as a group they have really knitted well together to become a strong team. As Ian mentioned previously this group can really face a challenge and actually I would say they thrive on it, which is why I planned to throw a really good task at them.

We began with a session of 'Pictionary' to revise vocabulary and spelling as well to lift the spirits in the room by adding a pinch of fun to get them in the right frame of mind for the impending exercise.

I then gave them their challenge, it was to get into groups of three and create a company . I told them they must invent a new product based on the theme 'something that makes everyday life easier', then they are to seek financial backing from a panel of investors by creating a presentation. I explained the structure of a typical presentation:

-Introduction
-Main body
-Summary
-Questions

I explained the golden rule of presentations which is 'Say what your going to say, say it then say what you said'.

I also gave them some signpost language to help their presentations flow, and I had a short session of motivational training to help put them at ease.

They got to work and created their products which are:

-A fridge device which warns of food that is reaching it's expiry date
-A foldable travel microwave
-A vacuum controlled wardrobe which helps create more space for more clothes.

To help them I showed them a couple of episodes of Dragons' Den' which is an English TV series, it has a panel of very high profile businessmen who are approached by budding entrepreneurs who need investors.
We analysed as a group each presentation looking at the language, the structure and the important points covered, the group found this very useful. Tomorrow the groups will give their presentations and of course there are nerves as well as excitement amongst the participants but I'm very sure they will really prove their abilities with this task.
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know I've received the following email from Thomas: Hallo Torsten,

wir sind die Englischklasse der AFI in Eilenburg.
Unser Lehrgang ist am 2.10. beendet.
Wir können ab 14:00 Uhr eine Bowlingbahn in der Nähe der Schule für 2 Stunden nutzen. Ist das möglich?
Die Lehrer, die möchten, sind herzlich von uns eingeladen.

Tschüß,
Thomas

I think this is an excellent idea and I'll be there! Scott, I know you are in Delitzsch that day but maybe you can somehow join us too?

TOEIC listening, photographs: A beekeeper in action

[Scott Graham]

This week has been a great and interactive experience for the group. As always with this group they have proved their English skills and dynamism through the challenges I have set them.

You can see in my previous post that I asked the group to prepare a business presentation, using the guidelines and structure I gave them. They did this with fantastic enthusiasm which produced absolutely super results. The presentations themselves, were at such a high level I explained to the group even a native would be proud.

The next exercise was based on the theme 'Job hunting', I began by showing the group the website www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk which is the unemployment centre of England and also the largest database for vacant jobs. I took them through the search process explaining new vocabulary and phrases as the came up such as, different job catergories, shift patterns, term-time, salry Vs wage, pension, national minimum wage etc. Each ss then found a job relevant to their profession, skills and qualifications, and individually they worked through the advert translating any new words or phrases.

Now it was time to apply, so I created a letter of application template on the board including the basic format and structure. Using this they then completed it using the information from the advert and their CV.

This led us nicely onto the next task, to translate their CV's into English. I showed them some example CV's which were in English and German to show them the translation of things such as schools, training, qualifications and of course the headings of each part of the CV. I also explained some rules to consider when creating a cv, one of the most important is the 10 second rule, which is based on research that says that a prospective employer only looks at a cv for 10 seconds. As we know this we must keep our CV short and sweet but very high impact. So in my opinion one of the most important things to have on a Cv is a personal profile at the very top. This is a short paragraph written in the 3rd person (to avoid sounding arrogant) and it contains mainly personal quality adjectives such as reliable, enthusiastic, punctual, ambitious etc. First we created a list of these adjectives on the board, and each ss picked 10 that best described them. At this point I suggested the group used the example CV's I gave them to translate their own which they did without too many problems. They mentioned they found this useful as it gave them something to take with them which may be important in the future.
Using these the group were able to translate their own CV's without any problems.
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Aste]

Hello, I am Angela. I started the course for 8 weeks because I want to improve my English. I met former colleagues again in this course. Our group was very concentrate and the learning has been fun.
At the beginning of that course was my English very bad. I understand a little and had many problems with the grammar. Speak and hear English all day was tiring but very helpful. Now I understand better and I can speak and write a little bit more. I hope to help the English-test side to further improve my English.
In the future I will read the spotlight, watch english TV and speak with my daughter.
She was one year in the U.S. and speaks good English.

Thanks for the good time

[Aste]

Hello together,

I am Ute. I started this course in Eilenburg for 8 weeks to improve my English. I hope is helpful to find a new job. In the beginning I found speaking and understanding very difficult. We had different trainers with different dialects of English. And they spoke only English with us. I had not so many problems with the grammar. I like the learning in our group. We had much fun together.
Sum up I can say the time together was very well. I learnt a lot of English and I will learn more English. My daughter can help me. We can speak English together. And I can help my son with his homework.

Many thanks

Ute