'Extracting the Juice: Creativity in the Classroom' Part 1 - 4 (Course Materials)

I was involved in the Bull's Eye and Speed-up Course at Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan Negeri (BTPN) Penampang, Kota Kinabalu on the 10th and 11th October 2013. I conducted a 4-part talk revolving around the theme of 'creativity in the examination classroom', using 'extracting the juice' as my main metaphor / analogy. I talked about how teaching and preparing students for examination can be done creatively without limiting classroom activities to rote drillings and pencil+paper. The idea for the talk came up after teachers from various parts of Sabah raise their concern over the lack of creativity and motivation in their classrooms, especially when examination classes are concerned.

During the course, participants were invited to explore the possibilities of using more hands-on activities in exam-based lessons, by utilising the positive backwash effect of the examination items. We also discussed the IDCA model, where the main focus is on finding inspirations through passions, aptitudes and interests - both the teachers' as well as their students'. It was exciting to see how a lot of creative ideas began to emerge after the teachers tried to dig deep within them and explored their own passions, aptitudes and teaching styles. I told the wonderful teachers that they are every bit as important as their students, and that they should really take care of themselves. It is true that great teachers inspire, but in order to inspire other people, they have to be inspired first.

I would probably be working on a few blog posts around the topic, but for now I would just share the powerpoint slides. If everything goes well, I would conduct a more comprehensive workshop on the same topic with my teacher friends in Kunak. I'll update everyone about the date, time and venue soon.

Oh yes, I would also be talking about the IDCA Model in the International Conference on Languages, Linguistics and Society (ICLALIS) 2013, organised by the Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning Universiti Malaysia Sabah at Promenade Hotel Kota Kinabalu on the 22nd October. Is anyone else coming? Please let me know, so we can meet up for a cup of coffee - on me. :-)

Here are the powerpoint slides for the 'Extracting the Juice: Creativity in the Classroom' 4-part talk:

Extracting the Juice (Part 1: Unleashing Language Teachers' Superpower) from Cynthia James

Extracting the Juice (Part 2: Sentence Construction and Scaffolded Writing) from Cynthia James

Extracting the Juice (Part 3: Encouraging Children to Express Opinions through Language Learning Activities) from Cynthia James

Extracting the Juice (Part 4: Teaching Paragraph Writing and Narratives) from Cynthia James

The songs on sentence structures can be found and downloaded from this link:

Singing the Structure: Using Simple Melodies to Teach Sentence Construction

Here is the link to the logical connectors song:

Logical Connectors Powerpoint Slides and Song

Link to the video and the lyric of the 'reasons' song (the one that was sung to the tune of I'm Yours by Jason Mraz - with the pink ukulele, remember? ;-)  )

Some Ideas for 'Hands-on' Writing Activities (Materials from 'Speed-up' Talk in Tawau)

I'll upload the Little Red Riding Hood storytelling video soon, I need to get consents from the parents of my students first. Let me know if you need anything else from the course.

That's it for now. Till the next post!

-ccj