Off Topic Topics..

"Too many topics" says students. As an English Teacher, I dive into rabbit trails. They feel distracted, overwhelmed, unprepared, & confused. For example, the class topic might be "FAMILY." I can ask you about your mother's occupation

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Maybe your mother is a doctor. The topic might be "Family" but I may then ask about medicine, doctors, hospitals, nurses, & other things that may seem to be unrelated to the main topic of family, which can hurt my students. People feel lost around me. They drop out (quit) of my class. They give up (surrender). Are my classes too crazy? Maybe, but life is crazy as well. I want to prepare people for the real world. Life is full of twists & turns. Life is unpredictable. Be open to innovative ways of new teaching methods. Expect the best but accept the worse in life

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In class, my questions are often too open-ended & general. They may not like it if I ask, "What's new?" because there are so many different answers that you can give to that question. I can ask about music. Tell me about work. Tell me about food. Talk about your personal life. These are general suggestions & questions. For beginners, I type more on the keyboard & display it on a screen. I have teaching assistants who translate my English to Vietnamese. I will also write my questions in different ways if and when the questions are too hard

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I can ask you a question that is more general. What's new? Good question. If that question is too hard, I can add more words to it. What's new in your life? How are you? How are you doing? What did you do this week? I can ask a question in different ways. I give them sample answers for example. I like talking about many different topics because I want to help people learn how to better navigate between topics. Normally, we just talk. We don't play games or watch videos. But we can if students want to. Education needs to be more immersive....

2015-12-13 Sun 1 PM, Anh Coffee, Q.1, TP.HCM

TEL: 0168-478-5542

Joey Arnold