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December 2008 ESL Newsletter

Hey Everyone!

Reach To Teach would like to welcome you to another new month in Asia! The weather is finally what some might consider 'cold' and Christmas is just around the corner. For most of you this probably means you are busy with Christmas shows and other fun activities at school. Beyond that is the New Year and some much anticipated vacation time. Plan ahead! Chinese New Year can be a very hectic time to travel in Asia and flights fill up quickly (if they haven't already).

Travel well!
The Reach To Teach Team

Reach To Teach English teachers at our latest event!

Reach To Teach Events!

As many of you already know on November 15th Reach To Teach held it's monthly event at Citizen Cain. For those of you that didn't make it, you were sorely missed. As we have come to expect the staff at Citizen Cain delivered some great food and drinks all within a friendly environment.

We would also like to make an announcement to everyone of the winner of the Reach To Teach Photo Contest. We were happy to see a lot of great entry's showing teachers and student's having a lot of fun in the classroom. In case you missed it we would like to announce the winner, Julenna Newbanks, for her collection of photos. Congratulations Julenna!

If you would like to see Julenna's picture as well as other photos from the contest, check them out on our Facebook Page!

And as always we hope to see you at the next Reach To Teach event! Details will be sent out soon.

Video of Alex Justice as an English teacher in Taiwan

Reach To Teach Videos

Reach To Teach recently added videos on Youtube! We interviewed a number of teachers awhile back about their experiences living and working in Taiwan and now we would like to share their experiences with you! We encourage everyone to check them out.

 

ESL Teaching Tip - Wheel of Fortune

Teaching Tip of the Month

This month I would like to share one of my personal favorite teaching games - Wheel of Fortune. I find this gaming icon of American television fits perfectly within the ESL classroom. The game is also very flexible allowing me to play it with different age groups and abilities. For those of you that have little or no idea what this game is about I will explain.

The materials are easy; all you need is a dice (the bigger the better) and a large white board at the front of the class. You can begin by splitting the class into easily manageable teams; typically three is a good number. I always find it a fun idea to give each team a fun name instead of just A, B and C. Next, secretly write down a short phrase on your own piece of paper (preferably choose a phrase from whatever topic you're teaching that day). The length of the sentence can be determined by the level of skill you believe your students to be.

Don't show this sentence to any of your students, but instead write dashes on the white board representing each letter from your phrase. Be sure to leave a small white space to indicate separate words. The object of the game is for the class to guess different letters in order to put the sentence together and solve the phrase. The first team to do so is the winner. You can start by giving a small hint about what the phrase is, but be sure to not give too much away.

Here is where the game gets a little more interesting. Each time a student guesses a correct letter they receive points for their team. A student will first throw a dice to determine how many points they will receive for each letter. If a student throws '4' and guesses 't' they receive 4 points for each 't' in the entire sentence. (ie. 4 't's = 16 points) If a student guesses a letter that is not in the phrase, the dice passes to the next team and no points are given.

With these main rules established, there are now secondary rules that you can use and manipulate depending on your own teaching needs. For example it is common practice to not allow students to guess vowels, but instead force the students to 'buy' vowels (sacrifice points in order to guess 'a' 'e' 'i' 'o' and 'u'). Also it is not required to guess all the different letters within the phrase in order to solve it. If a student knows the phrase before hand they may guess, but only at the beginning of their turn. However, if they guess wrong they forfeit their right to throw the dice and gain more points. There are other rules you can add as well, for example if a team throws a 6 they loose their turn and a couple points. You can of course come up with your own fun rules to add to the game.

Enjoy!

Famous Larry's New York Pizza - ESL Abroad

Tastes of Taipei

Pizza pizza!If you are anything like me you absolutely love pizza! Layers of cheese covering a soft golden baked crust is a guilty pleasure few can live without. Unfortunately, since arriving in Taiwan I have often questioned what Taiwanese consider to be 'pizza,' and despite their best efforts Pizza Hut has not delivered.

It was thus with great pleasure that I was recently introduced to Famous Larry's New York Pizza near the Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT. Recently opened in September, Famous Larry's finally offers the pizza-starved teacher a healthy alternative to Pizza Hut and solid competition to Alley Cat's.

Famous Larry's offers a variety of different pizza's that includes many of the classics, pepperoni, Hawaiian and my personal favorite, the supreme. Single slices are available starting from NT$90 or you can buy an entire pizza starting at NT$550 that will easily satisfy the needs of three to four people. tasty meatball subs and salads are also offered on the menu as well.

The pizzeria's atmosphere is clean and open and offers a great location to satisfy your hunger while people watching in the side streets. Its central location also makes it a great dinner spot before moving onto other activities in the night.

If you are ready to heed the call and enjoy some of the best pizza Taipei has to offer, I highly encourage you to check out Famous Larry's New York Pizza.

Address (two locations):
Heping E. Rd., Sec. 2, Lane 118,
Alley 54, No. 8
台北市和平東路二段118巷54弄8號
Yanji St, Lane 137, No. 2
台北市延吉街137巷2號

Getting There: Getting to either location is pretty easy on the MRT with a short walk. The Yanji location is near Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT on the blue line. Take exit 2 and walk straight for about two blocks until you hit Yanji St.
The Heping location is near the Technology Building MRT on the brown line. Exit the station and walk across Hepling Rd so that you are on southwest corner of Heping and Fuxing Rd. As you start to walk west along Heping you will quickly run into Lane 118, turn left. Continue walking down this alley until you run into Famous Larry's on the right side.

Telephone: (02) 2738 4747 - And before you ask, no, they do not currently deliver. Major bummer I know!
Web site: You can read more about Famous Larry's and see their full menu at www.thenewyorkslice.com

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