2010/2011 Winter Intensive Speech Class

Ok I guess if I am going to do this blog I need to go ahead and do it!  Before our trip home for Christmas there had been rumors here and there about a "Winter Intensive Classes" I just more or less blew it off thinking it would be much like the "Summer Classes" we offered for the kids when they were out of public school to help give them an extra class to work on their English and well for most of the parents to help give their kids something to do all day.  Korean parents really hate to let their kids just sit around....ever! 

Well after our trip home we got a call at 12:10 on Monday from a coworker who seemed to just want to make small talk.  We were sadly still sleeping trying to catch up our jet lag and were not in the mood for random conversation.  Well when Ryan finally asked what they wanted we were informed that we had a class at 12:30 (not the 2:30 when we thought we had to be in), well sadly Ryan hung up the phone without even saying good bye so we could jump up and start to get ready.  We showed up at school about 12:45 and I was informed that I had a "Speech and Interview" class waiting for me, made up of 8 sixth grade students.  I was not to happy to say the least once I found out there were not any lesson plains for this class and it was going to meet everyday for an hour until January 1st.  My students, some of mine and Ryan's favorite, were not to happy to say the least either.  Oh boy this was going to be fun, some of our smartest kids, who are also our laziest kids, who don't want to be here, unless there is food, a movie, or a game being played. 

Anyways I racked my brain for ideas on what to do with this class.  Most of them have pretty good vocabulary and can do free talk pretty well; however, two of my sweet girls were not quite up to the level of the rest of the class and decided to try to use this to their advantage to get out of doing any work.  Sadly for them it didn't work but did lead for a lot of extra work and explaining on my part, but hey I am the teacher that is my job! So for the first two weeks of class we did just random questions that might get asked in a speech contest (I have never been to a Korean speech contest so I was just winging it)  and it went pretty good.  Korean kids don't always have the best imagination so some of the questions I asked forced them to try to think outside of the box, those were my favorites but they hated them and mostly used my examples as their answers. 

Here is a peek at the questions I asked them.  We would do a warm up for about half the class where I would write 2-3 questions on the board and I would ask them to answer them (in complete sentences) and then I would ask them to ask or interview a friend in the class the same questions.  For the most part they would answer the questions about themselves and then look at their friends page and just copy the answers they wrote down, enn I guess at least they did it. 

As I look back at these questions I start to think that it maybe a little hard for me to answer these.  I think I might have to give it a try later.

Questions For Winter Intensive Speech Class:


Tuesday January 4th:

1. Do you think doing homework is good or bad for you? Why?
2. Do you think that watching cartoons all day is good or bad for you? Why?
3. What is your favorite animal? Why do you like this animal?
4. What is your least favorite animal (animal you do not like at all)? Why do you not like this animal?
5. Do have a pet? What kind of pet is it? Is it a girl or a boy? What color is it? What does it eat?

Wednesday January 5th:

1. What do you think the best thing about school is? Why?
2. What do you think the worst thing about school is? Why?
3. What are two things you would do to make school better?
4. What is your favorite school subject? Why do you like this subject?
5. What school subject do you not like? Why do you not like this school subject?

Thursday January 6th:

1. Who is someone you respect and look to for advice (information) and support? Why do you look up to this person?
2. If you could have one super power what would it be? Why would you want this super power and what would you do with it?
3. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Why do you like to do this?
4. Do you like having to wear a school uniform? Why or why not?
5. If you didn’t have to wear a school uniform what would you wear to school?

Friday January 7th:

1. Do you think it is ok to litter (throw trash on the ground)? Why or why not?
2. What are two ways you think would help people stop littering?
3. Do you think it is good recycle? Why or why not? Do you recycle?
4. If you didn’t have to wear a school uniform what would you wear to school?
5. What Disney character would you like to be? Why?

Monday January 10th:

1. Who is your favorite family member? Why do you like this person?
2. What you think really happened to the dinosaurs?
3. What are three things that make you a good friend?
4. What would be your plan to get rich fast?
5. What would you do with all your money once you were rich?

Tuesday January 11th:

1. You are in jail, what did you do to get there?
2. What are 2 good excuses for missing English class?
3. You are a monster, tell me what kind of monster you are, what you look like, what you eat, and where you live.
4. What are 2 things you have learned so far in life?
5. What are 2 things you hope to learn in life?

Wednesday January 12th:

1. What is one bad thing that has happened to you?
2. What is one good thing that has happened to you?
3. If you could be any animal for a day what animal would you be? Why did you pick this animal? What does this animal look like? What color is this animal? What does this animal eat? Where does this animal live?
4. What are 2 different animals you can see at the zoo? What do these animals look like? What do they eat? Where do they live?
5. What are 3 things you are thankful for?

Thursday January 13th:

1. What is your favorite holiday? Why do you like this holiday?
2. What is another planet you would like to visit? Why do you want to visit this planet? What do you think it would be like?
3. Do you believe in aliens and UFOs?
4. What do you think it would be like to be kidnapped by aliens?
5. If you were invisible for a day what would you do?

Friday January 14th:

1. Do you have a hand phone?
2. Do you think it is ok for students to use their hand phones in class? Why or why not?
3. What are your goals in life?
4. What will you do to reach these goals?
5. Do you ever feel like it is ok to tell a small lie? Why or why not?

And then I, and well they, got sick of that plain so we started to work on one big main speech and well countries seemed like the best thing to write about.  So here are the questions they all had to find on the Internet and then write into their speeches (with the help of Ryan and I).  Following the questions are the speeches I still have saved from my students.  Sorry I know they are full of errors. 

Country Speeches:


1. What country are you doing?
2. What is the capital city of your country?
3. What colors are the flag?
4. Does the flag have anything special on it?
5. What is the national animal?
6. What is the national flower?
7. What sports do they play in this county?
8. What language do they speak?
9. What religions do they practice?
10. What holidays do they celebrate?
11. What kind of money do they use?
12. What kinds of food do they eat?
13. Where is this country located?


Crystal's:

Hi my name is Crystal. Today, I am going to tell you about France. The capital city of France is Paris. The colors of the flag are red, blue and white. The flag has red, blue and white rectangles. The national animal is the Gallic Rooster. The national flowers the fluer-de-lys, lily and iris. They play a lot of different sports in France like football, soccer, baseball and basketball. In France they speak mainly French. The main religion practiced in France is Catholic. In France they celebrate many different holidays like Good Friday, White Monday, and Labor Day. The money they use in France is called the Euro. They eat many different types of food in France like bread, cheeses, and fresh vegetables. France is located in Europe. Thank you for listening.

Ploby's

Hi my name is Ploby.

Today I am going to tell about Switzerland.
The capital city of Switzerland is Bern.
The colors of the flag are red, and white.
The flag is a red rectangle with a white cross.
Switzerland has no national animal.
The national flower is the Edelweiss
The play a lot of different sports in Switzerland like Ice- hockey, volley-ball, hand-ball.
In Switzerland they speak, German,French, Italian, Romanian and many more.
The main religion practiced in Switzerland is catholic.
In Switzerland they celebrate many Holidays like New Years Day, Labor Day, and Christmas.
The money they use in Switzerland is the Swiss franc.
They eat many different types of food in Switzerland like potatoes, cheese, and chocolate.
Switzerland is located in west central Europe.
Thank you for listening. 

Ben's
Hi my name is Ben.
oday I am going to tell you about France.
The capital city of France is Paris.
The colors of the flag are red, blue and white.
The national animal is the Gallic rooster.
The national flower is a lily and Iris.
They play a lot of different sports in France like soccer, basketball, baseball and short track.
In France they speak mainly French.
The main religion practice in France is Catholic.
In France they celebrate many different holidays like Labor day, Victoniaday and Christ day.
The money they use in France is called the Euro.
They eat many different types of food in France like cheeses, fresh salads, and breads.
France is located in Western Europe.

Alex's
Hi my name is Alex.
I today I am going to tell you about Russia.
The capital city of Russia is Moscow. The flag has white, blue, and red stripes.
The national animal is the brown bear.
The national flower is chamomile.
They play a lot of different sports in Russia like boxing. In Russia they speak mainly Russian.
In Russia they celebrate many different holidays like Christmas and Christmas is on January 7th.
The money they use in Russia is called the ruble.
They eat many different types of food in Russian like Potatoes, bread, eggs, meat, beef and butter.
Russia is located above China and Mongolia.
Thank you for listening.


Crisy's
Hi my name is Crisy. Today I’m going to tell you about France.
The capital city of France is Paris.
The colors of the flag are blue, white and red.
The flag has one blue, one white and one red stripe.
The national animal is the Gallic rooster. The flower is an iris and a lily.
The play a lot of different sports in France like foot ball, basket ball, and tennis. ln France they speak mainly French.
The main religion practiced in France is Catholic.
ln France they celebrate many different holidays like new year’s day, Labor day, and Bastille day.
The money they use in France is called the Euro.
They eat many different types of food in France like Baguettes (a long Thin loaf of bread) and crepes (thin pancakes).
France is located in Europe.
Thank you for listening.

John's
Hello my name is John. Today I am going to tell you about Portugal.
The capitol city of Portugal is Lisbon. The flag colors are red, green, yellow, white, and blue.
The flag has a red square, a green rectangle, a yellow circle, and a blue cross in the middle.
The national animal is the cock and the wolf. The national flower is lavender.
They play a lot of different sports like soccer, basketball, and auto racing.
They speak mainly Portuguese. The national religion is Roman Catholic.
They celebrate many holidays like Carnival which is in February.
In Portugal they use the Euro as their official money. They eat many different types of food in Portugal like fresh fish, lobster, crabs, and oysters. Portugal is located in South Western Europe in the Western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Thank you for listening.

Dean's

Hi my name is Dean.  I am going to tell you about Brazil.  The capital city of Brazil is Brasilia.  The colors of the flag are green, blue, white and yellow.  The flag has blue, yellow, green, and white stripes.  The national animal is the Macau, and Jaguar.  The national flower is the orchid.  They play a lot of different sports in Brazil like Basketball, Auto racing, volleyball, and soccer.  In Brazil they speak Portuguese.  The main religion practiced in Brazil Roman catholic.  In Brazil they celebrate many national holidays such as Corpus Christi day and Independence Day.  The money they use in Brazil is called the Real.  They eat many different types of food in Brazil such as root vegetables, yams, and peanuts.  Brazil is located in South America, next to Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru.  Thank you for listening to my speech about Brazil.

Esther's

 Hi. My name is Esther. Today I’m going to tell you about Germany.

The capital city of Germany is Berlin. The colors of the flag are black, red and yellow. The flag has a straight pattern. The national animal is the Black Eagle. The national flower is the knapweed. They play a lot of different sports in Germany like soccer, and ice hockey. In Germany they speak mainly German, however you can also find English, French, Spanish and etc. The main religion practiced in Germany is Protestant. In Germany they celebrate many different holidays like Christmas, Easter and New Year’s Day. The money they use in Germany is called the Euro. They eat many different kinds of food in Germany like White Bean Soup, Sausage, Potato Dumplings, Fresh Asparagus and Apple Pan cakes. Germany is located in the center of Europe. It is by Belgium, France, Switzerland and Poland. Thanks for listening.

The kids took about 2 weeks worth of classes to memorize these. It started out with them just performing their speeches in front of Ryan and I, but then somehow someone wanted to turn it into a video to send home to the parents. Well this said teacher makes all my kids really uncomfortable so they didn't do too well. The next day they were having a snack and movie party; however this teacher thought that Ryan and I should take it away and make them present again, this didn't go over to well and none of them knew their speeches anymore. Ryan and I had to print them in very large print so they could read them off for the camera; however this didn't seem to help to many of them. Sadly they were angry and I can't blame them.


Anyways that was speech class and boy oh boy and I, and the students, thankful it is finally over!