The wise words of Lao Tsu

*This too will pass * When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be * When you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to * Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Busy-ness of Being

How come when trying to simplify things, inadvertently it often ends up that I over complicate things...and when I say things, I guess I mean life!

What is that saying "Jack of all trades, master of none" ? I'm definitely one of those people who does bits of this and bits of that. I do (and have done) so many jobs, always trying to look for that perfect "life balance" and probably working more hours than an average 9-5 day job in the process :)

There is one thing that is constant in my life (wanted or not) and that is music. I have a kind of  love hate relationship with music. I grew up wanting to be a star (a drummer) I loved every bit of playing in bands, writing songs and listening to a whole range of styles. I travelled Western Australia playing in towns full of red dust and jovial spirit. I studied hard to get accepted into "West Australian Academy Of Performing Arts" and graduated with a distinction in song writing (interesting when your major is drum kit). Whilst I learned many things in my time there, I lost many things too, the biggest being passion for music and in turn I lost my way and myself. I become numb to the basic love and enjoyment as it was replaced by text book techniques, dissecting every movement you made, every sound you heard. It was a telling time in my life and I gave away my life long dream and love and let it drift away. I deliberately distanced myself from music BIG TIME.
Being a highly emotional person means that music often brings me pain, not only from heartfelt lyrics but even particular chord progressions that "strike a chord" somewhere deep down. I left it all behind and stopped playing, listening and writing.

THE SHIFT

When I took off on a plane to China for a life and career change, music was far from my mind. I had no idea that heading of to teach ESL would see the delicate rekindling of a thoroughly wet down fire into a slow burning flame that came about through a fascination for the Traditional Chinese music. I could hear it everywhere. The odd looking instruments that played such simple tunes (that sounded like the songs I wrote as a child on all the black notes only along the keyboard). Gentle melodies and warm woody tones. Nothing to bend my mind around. I didn't know these instruments nor the way the musicians themselves came at (approached) the music...I had nothing to dissect and for the first time in a long time I could purely listen and enjoy.

The Power Of Guzheng

I set about purchasing a Guzheng (a traditional Chinese musical instrument) and when I got it home, I reveled in the feel of the wood and the round mellow open sound that literally flowed like water out of it's beautifully crafted shell. Like the black notes on the keyboard, it is pretty close to impossible to make this instrument sound bad....That is not to say that making it sound amazing is not an easy task. For me though...that wasn't an issue. I loved that Guzheng and whilst  had to leave so many of my possessions behind in China for the big move back to Australia, that is the only one thing I truly miss. Here is a little video I recorded back in 2010 one of my first songs I learned on Guzheng.


Onwards


After the revelation that I could indeed love music, I also purchased a keyboard music work station and set about composing my own songs again. This was for no reason other than the fact I wanted to. No gigs to go to, no songs for song writing class to be handed in for homework, no rehearsals or performances... This was just for me. A heap of stuff I wrote over there and to this day here now, is oriental inspired. It is perfect in its simplicity and I love it for that reason and so many more. I had no idea that my new career teaching ESL to 11-13 year old middle school Chinese students and my old music career were in the first stages of starting to merge to a whole new pathway.


The Art Of Creation


So days of teaching saw me drawing on some performance skills to "sell" my class. No mono tones and dreary theory allowed, my days melded into a constant search for lesson material to match or better the previous lesson. Students would definitely not allow a drop of any proportion in quality. If this happened, I would be held punishable by a fate worse than a rowdy classroom of 60 teenagers and that was a class of 60 teenagers bored out of their brains, talking, studying other subjects and successfully managing to make you feel like you were a T.V. on for background noise, as they did more important things.
This only had to happen once or twice for me to realize that I had to find a successful game plan and stick to it.
Chinese kids (like all kids around the world) love computer games. I learnt fast that there were PowerPoint ESL games to be found online and that were a huge hit with my classes, unfortunately I also found out (in class....which is not recommended) that they were full of glitches, crashed regularly, had spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and content could be touch and go as to level appropriateness. So the next trade I taught myself was obviously "Designing PowerPoint Games".
I watched and read every thing I could find online, joined in forum discussions and became a PPT Guru. And what do all good PPT's have....Good music....and BINGO!

Getting More For Your Buck


Some time throughout my teaching and designing lessons and learning games process I stumbled upon a web site called "Teachers Pay Teachers". This is an American based website that teachers can use like an online store to sell their own lessons. Somehow I'd ended up paddling along this stream of teaching (which surprisingly came easily to me and I enjoyed) and creating (lessons, music, sound files, designing). It was all kind of interlinked and whilst like anything I do it's no fast flowing body of water, It flows along nicely on it's way to....who knows where?

To view my products, games, music etc. there is a TpT store widget over to the right of this page or visit this link Clever Fox Lesson Box Store
Some links to my Sound Files also here Sound Files


Wednesday, May 31, 2017

The Birth of Clever Fox Lesson Box


Expectations

Whilst spending 8 and a half years teaching in China, I learnt a trick or two about teaching. Teaching ESL to 11-13 year old children for such a long period of time, well lets just say if you set a high standard for yourself (like I do) they won't let you go back on it. Lucky that when I trained at ATA TESOL College for my ESL certification they introduced me to the Rassias Technique (which involves animated gestures, movements and lively participation to help remember languages). My class expected a performance (of types) every class and if that's what it took to keep them controlled and learning...I set myself to deliver.


Classroom Material

Everyone knows that there is a plethora of ESL stuff on the net to assist ESL teachers but I frequently found myself stumbling on good ideas that had not been spell checked, had inappropriate contents for my classes, PowerPoints that had major errors and crashed or just stuff that was totally outdated and dull. My mission (if I chose to accept it) was to study studiously at becoming a PowerPoint Guru and design lively, interactive, informative and fun PPT Games. I worked on these day and night and came up with the idea of turning many of my own childhood schoolyard and camp trip games into ESL lessons. It wasn't long before other ESL teachers in my city started contacting me for some of my materials. I'd had the honor of the education department themselves viewing some of my classes with raving reviews on how engaged the students were.




TpT Magic

Somewhere along the line I also happened to stumble upon TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers), A cool American based website where teachers can earn extra income by selling the outcome of all the blood sweat and tears (their lesson plans, games, materials) to other teachers....BRILLIANT IDEA! Thus Clever Fox Lesson Box was born. I now had a platform where I could earn extra income from the PowerPoint games, card games, lesson plans etc that I had to design for my classes anyway.
Clever Fox Lesson Box
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Clever-Fox-Lesson-Box

Obsession Gone Mad

Now to say I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to class presentation is an understatement. Years on and now I'm tutoring back in Australia AND training others to be ESL teachers themselves and I still have a blossoming business online where I sell all "my stuff", tried and tested in the toughest of classrooms. I continue to craft power points, lessons, games and even have branched out selling my sound files, compositions etc (I studied music at university) for other teachers to purchase and use in their own PowerPoint games, videos and such.

The Message

I guess the message here is that you never ever really know what different pathways bloom out in to. One thing leads to another and another....
Enjoy your journey!


Wednesday, May 24, 2017

I Believe I Can Fly

I have often learnt how I should be looking at life, just by observing my dogs. This is my girl , showing how to let go and live for now. Left picture in China, Right picture in Australia.
Bringing a dog back home to Australia from China is a HUGE deal....Info Post coming soon


If only people realized just how much they can learn from their canine companions and learn how to communicate with them, they would find a wonderful, lasting bond that brightens everyday.








Monday, May 22, 2017

Return to Blogging

I totally stopped this blog.  I got busy with life and everything and just stopped blogging. In that time I have returned to Australia after a whopping 8 and a half years living and teaching ESL in Yichang, China.
I am now tutoring ESL in Oz and I also train and accredit people who wish to teach ESL overseas like I did. This is through the company I originally trained with way back in 2008 that started my China Odyssey , ATA (Australasian Training Academy).
Do I miss China?  Absolutely!  But being home after such a long absence is also great. Anyway my plan is to get back to this blog as a kind of therapy for my integration back home . So much news to tell you all including how I bought my dog home with me, how I lived in Malaysia for a while, how I'm still contacted by my Chinese teacher friends and students and exactly how over 8 years of China living panned out.
Much love
xx