Seoul Chapter July 2018 Workshop

This month, we have triple the fun, excitement, and professional development with our fabulous three presenters, who are each coming to give a short, interactive, and practical workshop that will be of great benefit to any English educator, of any level. 

Timings: 

Registration and mingle: 14.00-14.30

First session with Holly Harper: 14.30 – 15.15

Second session with Leonie Overbeek: 15.20 – 16.05

Third session with Maria Lisak: 16.10 – 16.55

Coffee and chat: 17.00 – onwards (at a nearby coffee shop)

Preregistration is available here: https://goo.gl/forms/hCmV6ztePiN1yJBM2

First Session with Holly Harper: Writing Your Voice

Writing voice is rarely considered within Secondary curricula. Indeed, ESL education often focuses on organization and prewriting rather than student's voice. This is in part due to the abstract nature of voice and the difficulty in identifying and understanding practical skills to teach it. Through experiences with in-service teachers, several activities have been developed to encourage voice within ESL writing.

Holly Harper is an instructor at the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Language Education and has been living in Korea for more than 3 years. She studied for her MA TESOL at Dankook University and her interests include multicultural education and critical literacy.

Second Session with Leonie Overbeek: How many neuromyths are still in your classroom?

Despite many advances in language teaching, both practice and theory, there are many myths that people still hold as self-evident, and put into practice in their own learning and teaching.  In this short workshop, we will explore what these myths are, whether they have some basis in fact, and how damaging or benign they are. Crucially, we will check how many of these are still common practice. Participants will get a chance to discuss their own best practices in the light of 50 common neuromyths.

Leonie Overbeek has worked in the fields of chemistry, mining, and engineering, before turning to teaching English in Korea. She has been working in the public school system for eleven years in both elementary and middle schools and has discovered a lot about herself, teaching and learning. She considers herself a lifelong learner.

Third Session with Maria Lisak: Midyear Reflection: Analyzing power and practice in our teaching context

This interactive workshop invites participants first to reflect on their goals, actions, and feelings, and then to do an assessment of their teaching context through a socio-cultural lens inspired by Bourdieu's capital theory. By analyzing the practices of power, agency, and identity of the stakeholders in our teaching contexts, participants are encouraged to posit future goals for themselves that honor the boundaries needed for healthy work and professional development balance.

Maria Lisak is celebrating her 22nd anniversary of her first steps in South Korea this year. From the Midwest in the US, her Chicago accent still plagues her Korean pronunciation. In answering the question that a Korean colleague asked her last semester, she is still here because she can live a simple life while pursuing her love of learning in a community that values education. She has been teaching public administration and social welfare at Chosun University since 2012. You can check out her degree pedigree on her blog: koreamaria.typepad.com/gwangju