Video – The Piano Guys cover of What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction

The video we watched a cover by The Piano Guys of What Makes You Beautiful from One Direction.

Enjoy the video again.

Lesson 17 — Brainstorming Global Issues & CRAP Design

In today's lesson, we brainstormed different global issues in order than we can cover different issues in class.

We also discussed slide design using the CRAP acronym. You can review with the slideshow below. On Saturday, we will have a short quiz.


CRAP Slides
You can review the CRAP principles by using the slideshow below:

CRAP Design Principles from Daniel Beck

I forgot to share this with you in class. My colleague wanted me to share this poster with you. It's for a talk tomorrow at the Niiza Campus. The main speaker is a Maori from New Zealand and they will talk about the earthquake in Christchurch and how it affected some people groups. Please have a look at the poster below and attend if you are interested.

Video – The Jungle Book / Sarabande (The Piano Guys)

The third stop on the Piano Guys tour of the Wonders of the World was Chichén Itzá, the Mayan ruins in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. The music is from the Disney movie, The Jungle Book and from Hayden's Sarabande.

Enjoy the video again.

Video — Scene from The Mission (Gabriel's Oboe)

This is a scene from one of my favorite movies The Mission. It is the story of missionaries who took the news of Jesus Christ to the native peoples living near the Iguazu Falls which was featured in The Piano Guys video (the music is also from this scene). In the opening scene of the movie, the first missionary to try to meet the local peoples was killed and tied to a cross and sent over the falls. His fellow missionary (the main character of the movie) decides to continue the work and climbs the falls. That is where this scene begins. I strongly recommend seeing this movie.

Lesson 16 — Renewable Energy Discussion (continued)

In this lesson, we watched a clip from the movie The Mission. This is the scene with the music that was used in The Piano Guys video from Brazil. We had a mini-presentation by Yuzuka and also saw some music from Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle.

We also discussed some of the pros and cons of renewable energy.

Video: The Mission / How Great Thou Art (The Piano Guys: Wonders of the World Part 2)

The second stop on the Piano Guys tour of the Wonders of the World was the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Brazil. They also visited Iguazu Falls, also in Brazil. Iguazu Falls is considered by many people to be one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. Iguazu Falls was the location for a movie called The Mission. It is a powerful movie. I recommend it to you.

Enjoy the video.

Video: Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends - ThePianoGuys (Wonder of The World 1 of 7)

The first stop on the Piano Guys tour of the Wonders of the World was the Great Wall of China.

Enjoy the video.

Lesson 15 – Renewable Energy

We continued our discussion of Germany: Is It Really Boing Green?

Fill in the form below for homework:
Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy

Also, remember to practice Quizlet.

Lesson 12

Slideshow
I shared photographs from my trip to Okinawa. You can see them again on my Facebook account. Or, if you don't have Facebook, you can see them from this link:
Okinawa Trip 2016


Mini-presentation
In this lesson we heard from Miku about her trip to Laos to train to ride elephants.



Presentation Preparation
We spent time in our groups to prepare for next week's presentation.

Lesson 11

In this lesson, we listened to two example discussions and thought about how to be good participants in discussions.

We then brainstormed ideas about how to help victims of the earthquakes in Kumamoto.

Next Week

1. No class on Saturday. Enjoy your weekend!
2. Thursday — Preparation for your group presentation on your idea.
3. Saturday — Group Presentations

Make Up Class: July 2, 3rd period.
If you cannot come, just let me know.

Please practice using Quizlet!

Video: Samurai Smartphone Parade

We watched this TV commercial by Softbank about walking while texting. What do you think about it?

Lesson 4 — Family Conversation and Discussion Principles

In this lesson, we did some more conversation practice and looked at our first discussion principle.

Conversation
We learned vocabulary for talking about our families and learned 3 family conversation questions:

How many people are (there) in your family?
What's your mother like?
What does your father look like?

We practiced the conversation questions and then had a conversation using those questions.


Discussion: Discussion Principle #1
We learned about Disucssion Principle #1 — Respect Every Voice: Be a good listener.
We looked at some bad attitudes and practices. Next week, we will consider some better attitudes and practices.

Principles are like the foundation of a building.

Building foundation

Feedback Form
I would like to get your feedback about our class. Please fill in the form below:
Feedback form for Lesson 4

Video — Gangnam Style (Jayesslee cover on YouTube)

We watched Jayesslee's (Janice & Sonia Lee) cover of Psy's Gangnam Style. They are a talented pair of Korean-Australian women from Sydney. Enjoy it again below:

Lesson 3 — Conversation / Discussion / Quizlet

We practiced conversation and discussion skills and signed up for vocabulary study.

Conversation Strategies
We learned and practiced these strategies:

Opening a conversation (questions)
How (are) you doing?

How's it going?

Opening a conversation (answers)
Never been better!

Great!

Good!

Pretty good.

Not bad.

Okay.

Not so good.

I’ve been better.

Terrible!

Ending a conversation
Nice talking with you!
You too!



Discussion Dynamics
We experimented to find the best-sized group for discussion. We will continue with this on Saturday.



Quizlet
Quizlet is a flashcard app for iOS and Android as well as Mac and Windows.

Join our group and try out the features on Quizlet for next class.

Lesson 2 — First Discussion & Self-assessment / Vocabulary Check

We took a vocabulary levels check and practiced our first discussions.


First Discussion

We had our first discussion about what items to send into space to share about the diversity of life and culture on earth. After our discussion, we took a self-assessment. Please share your answers with me by filling in the form linked below:

First Discussion Form

Lesson 1 — Introductions

It was nice to meet you in class.

I introduced myself with a short presentation and you introduced yourself with a short speech. Also, you filled in a form for me.

I look forward to our class together this Spring.

In class, I mentioned that we would be using a textbook, Ideas & Issues. However, the book is out of print. Don't worry for now. We will talk about it in class on Saturday.

Welcome!

Welcome to the English Intensive 1A (Global) Blog for Daniel Beck's course.

Please bookmark this blog and visit from time to time.