A new little story, from July 1st, 2007, in Kyrgyzstan. Listen to the audio. Text coming soon.

 

 The Grasshopper on the Glass Shelf [1:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (220)

Here are two slide shows of the 2007 CATEC (Central Asian Teachers of English Conference).

The first is called “Smile,” and it’s shorter (1:17), and thus easier to play or download).

The second slide show is called “25 Years From the Sunday,” (3:51) because we hope participants will remember the conference that far in the future. Music is by Ed Kilban, lyrics by Kevin. Sung by Kevin and Christy McWilson. Photos by Kevin and Alex W.

 

 Podcast Video [1:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 CATEC, 25 Years from this Sunday [3:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (56)

At the 2007 CATEC Conference (Central Asian Teachers of English Conference) I attended a workshop in haiku writing by Ludmila Shirmina from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

First Ludmila had us brainstorm in groups. We wrote down anything we wanted on the topic of spring. (See the photo). Then we put together our 3-line haikus following the pattern:

Line 1: 5 syllables

Line 2: 7 syllables

Line 3: 5 syllables

What’s cool about haiku is that they can just be images, or small little thoughts. They don’t have to be complete sentences even.

Here is the poem I wrote with my partner, Natalya Shiripova from Turkmenistan.

Under night’s white stars
such a delicate theme
two crickets kissing

I turned this into a 27-second song. (I added the article “the” in the first line. But, hey, haikus don’t have to be so exact.)

 

 Two Crickets (McCaughey, Shiripova) [0:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10)

I interviewed ten people at CATEC (the Central Asian Teachers of English Conference) in Issyk-Kuhl, Kyrgyzstan, and asked them to give me one adjective to describe the conference. In the brief audio you’ll hear 10 adjectives.

See if your students can write them all down. It’s just a 16-second audio.

Answers: impressive, large, incredible, riveting, awesome, creative, useful, international, effective, perfect

 

 Adjectives to Describe the CATEC Conference [0:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (81)