Beckie Loewenstein

Listen to 21 Chump Street: The Musical about a love story between a senior highschool student and an undercover police officer on This American Life . Read the transcript.

When listening to English songs, be aware of the short forms and contractions of words. Then, practice pronouncing these words to speak more quickly and smoothly. This lesson greatly improves English listening comprehension :

What type of language does the Supreme Court consider on Facebook? graphic violent threatening scary

My student Batur, 9, draws and folds paper ships, waves, clouds, and the Sun onto separate pieces of paper. As he moves each piece around, he imagines a story. I listen and write out the story for him to read out loud: Two ships sail the Marmara sea. The ships become a sea monster. He eats the captain. Then, the monster opens its mouth and eats the clouds. Next he drinks the sea because it likes salty water. Finally, he eats the Sun: it is hot so steam comes out of his mouth and the ship stacks.

Even monster dolls play a role in language learning in my English lessons in Istanbul. Realia such as toys inspire holistic language while playing with the toys cultivates the kinesthetic learning style. When my student Rita, 8, brings her monster doll to our lesson, I challenge her to describe the doll in a 100 ways. At first, she says this sounds too tough, maybe impossible. But she soon realizes how much she would like to say about her doll and rises to the challenge. Imagination games bring out the best of creativity. These authentic, free response tasks contribute to a more interactive, effective and enjoyable lesson. Let's play together :)

Rain and high humidty brings the land snails out of their hiding places and into English lessons in Istanbul. In our playground lesson, Rita, 8, and I imagine and tell stories about snails. There are two snails, each with one brown spiral shell, one muscular foot, four tentacles, two eye-like light sensors, brown grey skin, and maybe a mustache. They carry their houses on their backs, and extend and retract their tentacles to look and feel around. photo: Beckie

Gardening is my graffiti. - Ron Finley, 2013 Ron Finley describes his guerilla gardening as a defiant, therapeutic, and artistic way to beautify and bring nourishing food -- fruits, vegetables, and beans -- to his neighborhood in South Central LA. This English lesson gives my Turkish students listening practice with the African American accent and cadence of a hopeful gardener and designer, Mr. Finley. Personally, I would like to garden more at home in Istanbul. Parsley, dill, mint, green onions, garlic, and strawberries grows the best in direct sunlight. Arugula grows well in the shade in the garden. What would you like to grow in Istanbul?

Listen to Imogen Heap's " Wait it Out " on TED talks: How does time heal?

As many earthworms live in my garden, I can easily bring a few in an envelope to my English lessons with children in Istanbul. I dedicate this lesson to Rita because she always expresses her curiosity about nature and gently handles the insects. Earthworm in the dirt in Istanbul on May 27, 2014

I frequently use this listening activity in private English lessons in Istanbul because it consistently sparks dynamic discussions about how to keep relationships strong. As usual, the listening tasks given depend on the level of the student. For example, I would ask the more advanced student to listen for the specific answers to all of the questions with a maximum of three listens. Listen to this one minute Scientific American podcast Movie-Watching Together Strengthens Marriages , and answer the questions below:

What's up? Ne haber? Whatsapp proves an incredibly popular and useful communication tool. My Turkish students actually introduced me to this app, and now I arrange almost all of our English lessons in Istanbul this way. After reading a few of my chat transcripts, I noticed how this technology raises expectations for (1) immediate contact, (2) wide availability, and (3) flexibility to change both the time and location of meetings at a minute's notice. Maybe a phone call would be faster but who receives or gives phone calls anymore? Instead of phone calls or SMS, almost everyone writes on Whatsapp from smartphones. This either speeds up or slows down communication, depending on the person's proclivity to act on their words.

Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention. The Republic, Book II, Plato English lessons give us a chance to discuss and possibly innovate ways to address our needs in Istanbul. Innovation demands creativity, and creativity requires a unique perception of our needs and challenges. Let's start with our perception of innovation in Africa: Listen for the answers to these questions while listening to the TED talk, Toby Shapshak: You don't need an app for that :

Kabataş - Üsküdar ferryboat on May 9, 2014 Yellow grate on ferryboat Çengelköy Kahvaltı Immense gratitude, A warm feeling that fills me up Like a hot air balloon, Lifts me into the rain clouds Above Istanbul. At this height obstacles -- A motorcyclist swerving on the sidewalk and A taxi driver madly turning the corner -- Appear surmountable. Rain washes All of these worries away Down the drains. On the Kabataş ferryboat With its mustard yellow painted door, I send photos of the speedy ride Across the Bosphorus to Anatolia To my brothers and sisters in the USA As if to say, I feel grateful to be here. Fog scatters the morning light And blurs the mosque minarets of the skyline. We touch down in Üsküdar. Descending the slick boat prow, We step over the gap, Ignoring the water depths below. Opposite the dock, A blue minibus fills up: Inside blue LED lights Illuminate us like deep ocean fish; Our warm breath fogs up the Submarin...

Hanife hn merhaba, Sizden aşağıdaki işen yapmanızı rica ediyoruz Selin'in odasının temizlenmesi (camlar silinecek balkon yıkanacak, yerler silinip tozlar alınacak, dolapların içleri silinecek) Salonun camlarını silinecek Selin'in odasındaki perdeler yıkayıp, yeniden yerine asılacak Teras iyice yikanacak Salondaki koltuk silinecek Girişteki camlı kapının camlan silinecek Giriş silinecek Teşekkürler!

Turks relax in hammocks at the Polonis restaurant in Polonezköy, Istanbul, on Thursday May 1, 2014. I greatly enjoyed a Turkish village breakfast at the Polonis restaurant, walk in the forest, and English lesson with my student A. and his family in the historically Ottoman and Polish village of Polonezköy, Istanbul, on Thursday May 1, 2014. With the blocked streets and cancelled public transport on Labor Day, I felt especially grateful to escape the European side for the calm village on the Anatolian side. In green, calm Polonezköy, the sounds of nature, the taste of delicious food, and the coolness of a shady forest all relaxed and inspired us for English and Turkish language learning.

My student E. describes and categorizes the objects he sees and touches while walking around the stands in Ortakoy, Istanbul. This vocabulary lesson suits a kinesthetic learning style: Use pronouns to gesture to the objects and to avoid repetition of the object names: one and ones (See British Council grammar ) this, that, these, those (See British Council grammar ) I like this one. I like that one. I like these ones. I like those ones. I don't like this one. I don't like that one.I don't like any of these. I don't like any of those.

As an English teacher in Istanbul, my friends often ask me how I teach adults at a starter level of English. Most importantly, the task should not only correspond with the language skill level, but also be entertaining and relevant to the unique needs and interests of each student. In fact, with challenging enough tasks, even children's books prove rewarding for adults.

In English lessons, we practice analytical writing and critical thinking skills through responding to the graphs and questions in Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson. Describe the graph "Two Ways to Make a Duck":

The game of Bananagrams, named for its banana-shaped, yellow zipper case, challenges the players to arrange the letter tiles to spell words in horizontal and vertical rows, just like a crossword puzzle. My family, friends, and I usually play this game as a friendly spelling competition and brain exercise. In English lessons, I play this game with both children and adults. The student can practice spelling with either a limited or full selection of tiles. First, we practice the phrasal verbs and adverbs to start the game:

My lawyer student C. and I compare and contrast legal vocabulary found in a news article about recent court decisions to ban and (un)block Youtube in Turkey. A good learning strategy involves finding connections, synonyms, and antonyms of the new vocabulary. After checking the definitions in the Merriam Webster dictionary , I created this mind map with text2mindmap :