Georgeta, Torsten,
Sorry for the delay in posting about Thurs. and Fri. They were both rather long days considering the train schedule, so I spent yesterday recovering.
Overall, I believe both days went very well. We covered all that we had scheduled to go over.
Here is a quick run down of activities we covered over the two days.
Thursday:
Started with an introduction of myself and my background. Quickly went around the room and had students tell me their names and a brief bio.
Moved onto a discussion of CVs vs Resume. Class participated in formulating ideas on what the similarities and differences were regarding structure, the content, the length and any potential variations a specific industry may need in a CV or Resume. Class was asked to take their Europass CV and turn it into a resume, which we will review on Tuesday.
The only handouts for both days that were prepared were examples of resumes. For activity 2 I showed handout on the projector. Had the students go around the room reading sections of the handouts. While one read the others had to listen and comprehend. After we were complete with the reading we discussed the questions in the class prep.
Activity 3: Went over the vocabulary list. The class participated in defining the vocabulary. Once we defined the vocabulary we had a class discussion on the benefits and shortcomings of each type of employment. We then had students tell which type of employment they are looking for and the reasons why.
Activity 4: Had students write an essay on work and family life. I gave a brief lecture on the challenges of this. We then had a class discussion focused on the questions in the class prep.
Activity 5: Life long learning. Had to project handout on the screen. We then went around the room having each student read a section while the others listened and comprehended. We worked on vocabulary issues as they came up, and also addressed questions after each individual read.
Activity 6: Prepositions. Used some of my material for definition of prepositions. We had a class discussion on prepositions and when to use which one. Compared with German and discussed how flexible English prepositions can be. Used the reader for a quick class exercise.
Activity 7: I gave verbal overview to an MBA program. Students were supposed to use this as listening and comprehension exercise. Questions were asked by students regarding specifics of an MBA program.
Friday:
Activity 1: Assigned students to groups to discuss and list characteristics of types of reports. After 20 min of group work we discussed the results as a class and refined what each type of report is and its basic structure and content.
Activity 2: We read (used the projector) a summary of both German and American business culture and etiquette. After reading a section we discussed the merits of the article’s view point and whether it was accurate or not. We then discussed in the class the questions posed in the class prep. Answered vocabulary and pronunciation questions as they came up.
Activity 3: Had a brief demonstration on abbreviations associated with specific jobs, with what the students may find in American classified ads, and also common abbreviations that might be seen in email or other written correspondence.
Activity 4: Had a mock negotiation. Had two groups of seller and two groups of buyers. They had 15 min to prep for the negotiation. Both sides were blind to the other side’s scenario. After prep they negotiated for 10 min, after which we took 10 minutes to reconsider strategy etc. All groups closed the deal. Seemed to be the highlight of the two days. After the negotiation we discussed negotiation style and some helpful hints. We applied this to the mock negotiation by comparing the lecture with what actually happened in the negotiations.
Activity 5: Worked on how to identify, structure and solve problems. Used the projector again for the presentation. After going over how this is done (during lecture we used an example of building a house as an example of a problem to solve) we ran through a case study on a scenario regarding McDonald’s on how to apply what was just learned. Students worked in small groups and then as a whole class.
Activity 6: Discussed popular jobs. This didn’t seem to go over well with the students. It was the last thing of the day, and they seemed tired and wanting to start their Fridays early. We did get some vocabulary in and also identified all the most popular jobs in the US, UK and Canada for 2011.
Overall, both days went very well. Students generally responded well to everything.
At the end of day one, I asked them for input on the first day and whether they thought it was useful, or not, and how I was presenting material. Generally there were no complaints. The one concern that several students had was that they had to take a very similar course in German and didn’t know why they had to learn business skills in both. They thought there was a little too much over lap. I glazed over the subject and continued on.
At the end of the second day we completed the weekly review of the class and Georgeta and my performance for IBS. Frau Goethe seemed to be very pleased with the results! From the marks that I saw, we had pretty consistent 1’s, 2’s and 3’s.
Hope this helps everyone. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try to get them answered before Monday.
Thanks all,
Jon