Lateral Thinking

While I was preparing for my English class, I found out a fantastic noun phrase, lateral thinking. I like the phrase which means the way of solving problems through an indirect and creative approach.

Finding the phrase's meaning in Google, I entered into this website(Lateral Thinking Puzzles) and there are some interesting questions with which students can demonstrate their own creativity.


Here are some examples.

1. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?

The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus.

2. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man?

The fireman is the only man in the room. The rest of the poker players are women.

3. The Boxes

There are three boxes. One is labeled "APPLES" another is labeled "ORANGES". The last one is labeled "APPLES AND ORANGES". You know that each is labeled incorrectly. You may ask me to pick one fruit from one box which you choose.

How can you label the boxes correctly?

Pick from the one labeled "Apples & Oranges". This box must contain either only apples or only oranges.

E.g. if you find an Orange, label the box Orange, then change the Oranges box to Apples, and the Apples box to "Apples & Oranges."

The Amaszing Commercial from Thailand

The Video Stella showed to TTP teachers last year and made us cry.

Guessing 13 Most common superstitions

The Origins of the 13 Most Common Superstitions


from the website, RANKER (interesting to look around :-))

something to read from New York Times

Today's article for speaking with Mr. Son

Megan Huntsman was arrested for leaving 7 bodies of  babies in cardboard boxes and whether the babies' parents are Huntsman and her husbands is not identified yet. A lot of cases related to killing children or babies in Korea as well as in other countries make me unpleasant.

Look back at the past and other trivial things

 While trying to find interesting materials I will show to my students, I searched my portable drive to see the photos taken in California. It was taken only 2 months ago but for me, it seemed that it was more than one year ago. I want to go back to the past. 

- Most of the teachers in the 2nd grade agreed to quit teaching the textbook and teach the students with workbooks written only for the university entrance exam. It was not a good news for me because it is not easy for me to do several activities utilizing the book. I'm not sure that students' English will be improved only when they study with those kinds of books. I think it is not a learning but just a practice to solve questions. 

However, it is true that most high schools don't use their textbooks and teach other workbooks. The situation Korean schools face for students' English goes to a strange way. 

- Students, of course, liked the activity 'correcting the order of comics'. At first, they arranged the order. Then, I let them make a story with the pieces of the paper and do storytelling. The students did much better than what I expected. I know the reason why they did well. "Because they did what they like and want"

- The club ,which 5 of TTP teachers including me organized for the education focused on students' creativity and personality, was passed through Busan School Board's evaluation. kkk 

Our goal is to develop the materials we learned during TTP course taking them out of our notes and using at our classrooms. Our first meeting will be held on the 17th evening!!

- The schedule on which TTP teachers have an open class from May was released and I still have no idea about it. ㅜㅜ 

Quizlet for EBS Force Chapter 19

A Flow chart for lesson 2 using gliffy

Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/)

You Tube video for the text, 'we are what we eat'

Correcting the order of comics

  Studying Lesson 2, I found out that students really really like Naver Webtoon series, especially "Cheese in the trap" and "Tower of God". So, for the activity to wrap up Lesson 2, I printed out the first chapter of "Cheese in the trap" in an English Version on the website, Batoto(http://www.batoto.net), cut into 8 pieces of paper, and changed the order so that my students can read them and guess the right order. I hope they find it interesting and useful for their English. 

Warm spring, April

  It's a warm spring and my clothes become lighter. Finishing 5th period with the 2nd graders, I am staying at English Room for a while to have a rest, feeling spring winds through windows. This place makes me comfortable even though there isn't a big difference to the teachers' room. 

  Yesterday, I got an official document from the Busan School Board that teachers having participated in 3+3 or 5+1 course in BUFS should have an open class in May or June. Most of the teachers in TTP got stressful about it and shared our opinion on our band. Some teachers decided to have the same class with the one he or she had in BUFS even though the textbook is different with the one their students are studying. kkk. 

  I am in the same situation and I didn't decide about it yet- whether I prepare for a totally different class or not. However, I chose the date for the open class, 19th Monday in May. I want to invite some professors in BUFS who taught me a lot for 5 months but they can't come because of lots of class schedules, maybe. :-)

 Right before, I had a short discussion time with my students about comics (they are useful or noneducational) for the motivation of Lesson 2. They naturally started to discuss it and some students enjoyed to debate and show their opinions. I was very moved. 

  Teachers can try and make changes among students, but students' positive reactions also give teachers a lot of power and a bigger change them.