Jena Graduates, January 2011

ESL Projects English Team Trainers
21

Day 6/ 10,Jena, January 3rd, 2011

Hi Torsten and Jon,

Torsten, thank you for your kind words and I look forward to hearing the news after tomorrow’s meeting. You are absolutely right about the fact that we need to work on making the students aware of the ongoing aspect of the language learning process.

A good day again. In the morning, one student reminded the group the topics covered on Thursday and Friday. As I promised them on Wednesday, we began the activity with ‘Going the Extra Mile’. It’s just a personal observation, but the students are doing better and better on listening activities. They are taking notes all the time, ask questions and seem really interested in the success principles. Each student had to give an example from their own experience.

I tried to find a link between this and the next activity by having the students find adjectives which best describe people who are ‘going the extra mile’. I used the handout which I shared with you and they had to find the adjectives in the word search sheet, choose those which refer to personality and make sentences. I also prepared a handout in order to help them use the adjectives in the right order. They wrote a paragraph in which they had to use at least 10 adjectives and describe a typical German businessman. They strongly relied on what they learnt from Jon on Thursday.

The fact that one of the students used the adjective ‘negative’ in his description helped me introduce the next activity. We discussed the importance of a positive mental attitude. I used the worksheets from which each student had to choose and answer two questions of his/her choice. We also listened to the audio material and analyzed its message.

Keeping ‘success’ as the keyword of the day, we watched the video presenting the history of the Levi Strauss company. I saw that the students not only became aware of the story behind this very ‘common’ item of clothing but also felt proud that the successful businessman had German origins. Using the projector, I presented them the layout and the content of the company’s 2009 annual report and we discussed some of the issues. I asked one of the students to print out the descriptions for two of the jobs advertised on the company’s homepage. I also suggested they do additional research on the jobs because there are quite a few possibilities around Germany.

I made a slight change in today’s plan because one of the students ‘went the extra mile’ and on her own initiative, prepared a presentation on her job interview experiences. I considered it very important to let the student present the material not only for its content but also to help her gain self-confidence and let her see how her ‘going the extra mile’ really pays off.

She received positive feedback from her colleagues and I encouraged two more students to share their experiences.

The grammar part planned for today will be done on Wednesday.

We watched the movie ‘The Secret of my Success’, I gave the groups the quiz and we analyzed the interview situations and I asked them to think about the success principles which helped the main character to achieve his goals.

Jon, I switched the two projectors this morning and the one I brought from the computer room worked perfectly with my laptop. If you have problems with it, please ask Frau Gothel to switch them back. I would like to wish you a pleasant and successful day tomorrow.

Have a good night and I look forward to reading your post tomorrow night.

Best regards,
Georgeta

22

Georgeta, Torsten,

Class went pretty well today. We once again were able to get through all of the planned material.

Georgeta, the projector worked fine with my computer.

We started with a group exercise where students needed to come up with a list of stereotypes for both Germans and Americans. Needless to say the list for Americans was longer!

Once we had the list we spoke about origins of the stereotype and then their accuracy. We also discussed how they could be helpful and of a hindrance in the professional world. Then I had the class give their opinion on stereotypes and reasons for the opinion they held.

Next I gave the students time to discuss their CV’s, resumes and cover letters. I let them know on Friday of last week that I would proof read and add suggestions for changes if they wanted. Only one student wanted me to look at their cover letter, so this went rather quick. Was a little dissapointed that there was so little interest in free help.

We next discussed how to promotes one’s self. This was a pretty good discussion. In it we spoke of the value of job boards, how you can learn who potential employers are from them and then head to the company website to find specific information about the firm and then apply through the company website. I told them how companies prefer to look at resumes that come in through their website because it is free, and generally of higher quality. Additionally we discussed how in the employer/employee relationship, employee are service providers to their employers, and how important it is to make sure that potential employers think you are better than the next applicant. We also spoke of the power of social networks. There was some heated debate on this. Some people thought that it was inappropriate to approach their friends to help in their job search and it would seem like begging. I mentioned ways to tap the knowledge of you friends without “begging” for work, but some did not agree. Within the networking piece we also discussed the power of donating your time to charitable organizations or to other organizations as it builds your network, which in turn opens up possibilities. Finally we closed with a discussion on the power of a personal website and how to get that done.

Next we worked on Modal Verbs. We had a brief lecture on this specifically to address severity of modal verbs, a more subtle concept, and then did two short quizzes. There seemed to be a good grasp.

We listened to The Effect of Enthusiasm and had a comprehension review where students had to take notes and provide an overview of the listening.

We had a good discussion on trade publications and business magazines. We spoke about what is available to read, and more importantly what information is contained in trade publications. We discussed how most trade organization publish yearly compensation reports that clarify the pay rate and demographics of their employees and how this can be useful in seeing what jobs you are qualified for, negotiating a salary and pricing yourself aggressively.

We closed out the day with a case study on Wal-Mart in Germany. Student had 30 minutes to read the case and prepare and analysis of the business situation and ultimately what had caused Wal-Mart to fail.

Hope this helps. Talk to you all soon.

Jon

23

Day 8/ 10, Jena, January 12th, 2011

Hi Torsten and Jon!

A reminder on Tuesday’s topics. I used a phrase from the movie viewed on Tuesday to start the marketing and sales activity. We first listed the qualities of a good salesperson then we read a material from ‘Manage in English’ which I will attach to the course. Discussed vocabulary, expression related to sales and defined the sales manager’s role and place in a company.

Students, in groups, had to give examples of marketing strategies. We read the article
‘Five Strategies for Business Growth’ and analyzed each strategy.

Because we didn’t have internet access we couldn’t research Solar Valley’s homepage. Instead the groups worked on a case study in the 'In Company. They had to come up with possible solutions and then we learnt what the 2 companies did in order to overcome the crisis.

I prepared handouts for the next topic and we discussed how the 'supply demand ’ concept in trade works on the labour market.

Students had to answer the question: What would you do if you had a million dollars? I was impressed: most students mentioned investment and only a few thought of buying a fancy car or spending money on clothes. We listened to the recording and the groups’ summaries were compared. The re-telling of the story using the first person narrative mode wasn’t very successful. I reminded them the structure of conditionals and we solved exercises in IBS reader.

Ready to do or make business? We discussed the use of verbs often confused in English.

The stress factor in business. Student had to choose an occupation which they consider the most stressful and give reasons for their choice. I prepared a PP and we tried to guess which were the 10 most stressful jobs in 2010.

I introduced the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs business support programme. We read a success story and discussed the opportunities offered by such programmes.

Students worked on the project, and tomorrow the groups will present them together with the logo they will design for their companies.

Good night to both of you and more tomorrow night.

Regards,

Georgeta

24

Hello Jon and Georgeta, thank you very much for your excellent work and for keeping each other up to date. In our Skype session next week we are going to talk upcoming projects.

Best regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Past due notices[YSaerTTEW443543]

25

Hi Jon and Georgeta,

I’m quite glad to read that your students in Erfurt have been making more and more progress in English. Let the students keep up the good work!
I hope I can meet both of you personally some day and exchange or share our experience.

Have a nice day!

Regards

Roberto

26

Hi Roberto!

I think that the greatest reward for every trainer is to see the students’ progress. It would be great to meet one day. Maybe we could ask Torsten to organize an English Team meeting that would be a good opportunity to meet fellow trainers and share ideas, experiences and, why not, learn from each other.

Have a nice evening and a relaxing weekend ahead!

Best regards,

Georgeta

27

Hi Torsten and Jon!

A rainy but otherwise very pleasant day in Jena today.

After the usual morning report on the previous day’s activities, I explained the students the tasks related to the final phase of their projects. Because I intentionally advised them to be ‘creative’ and this, just as I expected, started a discussion on what being creative really means, we felt the need for explaining the meaning of this word. I listed everything the students suggested on the whiteboard, then we read the text ‘Creativity’. We discussed and concluded that the ‘formula of creativity’ is ‘the action of rethinking existing elements’. I also showed the students some examples of organizational diagrams and they had to create one for the company in their project.

Next we spoke about means of advertisement, logos and slogans. We analyzed each means and the students started working on designing their logos and giving the final touch to the projects. Each project had something special in it and the students were very enthusiastic. We had a ‘project exhibition’ and each group had to visit the other groups’ stand and leave comments and make suggestions in the ‘guest book’ (well, guest A4 paper sheet in our case). The ‘hosts’ had to respond to the comments left by their peers. At the end of the activity I congratulated each group, gave them feedback and handed them the diplomas.

Two of the projects were designed as internet businesses and this helped me introduce the next topic: e-business. Brainstorming on ‘why establish a business on the Internet?’. Besides the clear advantages, students gave, and supported their point of view with arguments, a number of reasons why they wouldn’t start an e-business.

For the ‘International Organizations’ activity I used the video and gave the groups the while-listening questions. They seemed a little bit tired and managed to answer only a few questions during the first listening. I re-played one by one the parts which contained the answers and the second attempt was more successful.

In ‘Working abroad’ I inserted another listening activity and this time the results were positive. We discussed the advantages and drawbacks of working abroad, the cultural impact, the importance of information and research and ,since none of the students has ever worked abroad, they shared travel experiences and the problems they encountered while visiting different countries.

The last part of the day was spent with correcting some exercises given as homework and solving some more in the English Reader.

Now I need to confess: I already feel bad about tomorrow because I wish it wasn’t the last day with this great group.

Have a good night and relax during the weekend. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Best wishes,

Georgeta

28

Day 10/10, 14.01.2011,Jena

Hi Torsten and Jon!

This was the last day of our 2-week course in Jena.

In the morning we reviewed spelling, grammar and vocabulary. I used a text from ‘Manage in English’ and exercises in ‘In Company’. The students were invited to ask questions related to the topics we covered during the 2 weeks.

For 2 hours the students worked on the final test.

After the lunch break, they had to ‘visit’ the board and chose one of the folded paper slips pinned to it. They contained the most important topics and the students were given time to prepare their part of the final revision. Each student presented the assigned topic in front of the class and step by step the round-up got its final form.

During the last part of our today’s activity, we decided to ‘go the extra mile’ for a student who joined our group yesterday. On Monday, he has an interview and this was a good opportunity for the students to put once again into practice everything they learnt about interviews. They were so enthusiastic, sent out the interviewee and prepared themselves for a ‘tough’ interview. The outcome was a perfect combination of team-tag and stress interview.

It’s been a real pleasure working with this group of young graduates.

Many thanks,

Georgeta

29

Hi Torsten,

thanks for the invitation. I’m unfortunately busy at that time on Wednesday. Could we postpone it to Friday 21 at 5 p.m.?

Regards

Roberto

30

Hello Roberto,

From now on we will be having meetings on a regular basis so you will more opportunities to take part. Many thanks, Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Loading the car[YSaerTTEW443543]