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October 17, 2007
Cardboard Furniture
It's amazing what you can find by doing a Google search for "cardboard box". For example, Davidgraas: Furniture from Cardboard.
Posted by lsloan at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)
Entire Boba Fett Costume - Cheap!
And once you've finished your cardboard Boba Fett helmet, why not complete the look with a costume- using cardboard!
Posted by lsloan at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)
Boba Fett's Cardboard Helmet
Yes, this fellow shows how to make a cardboard costume helmet. Specifically, Boba Fett's helmet. The PDFs containing the templates are nicely done. It makes me think that one could make this out of other materials, like sheets of stiff plastic, thin sheet steel, or aluminum.
Posted by lsloan at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)
Halloween Pumpkin Spider
This Pumpkin spider is very creative.
Posted by lsloan at 08:11 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2007
Play Bingo To Learn Vocabulary
I think this article, "'Call out Bingo' for Vocabulary really works", could be a good method for teaching American kids the Korean words for Taekwondo techniques.
Posted by lsloan at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
Chinese Subtitling Competition
I found this NY Times article, "Chinese Tech Buffs Slake Thirst for U.S. TV Shows - New York Times", to be very interesting. It sounds like these Chinese are having fun making subtitles and they're learning about US culture. I wonder if what they're learning is all that good, though, since the show "Prison Break" involves US government conspiracy theories.
Posted by lsloan at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
Leading a Class
Last Tuesday, I had my first opportunity to lead a class at my dojang. Even though I am only a student at 7th gup, I was put in charge of students of higher ranks. That may seem a bit odd until I explain that the class was all children and I was the only adult there.
Every Tuesday is our demo team practice day. Lately, there have been a lot less team members showing up for practice. That's because our full-time instructor, Master Sim, left for a trip to Korea just two weeks before and he will be away for more than a month. Master Sim really gets on people's cases if they don't show up for practice, but nobody's acting as the enforcer in this respect while he's away.
The other reason fewer people come to team practice is that just over two weeks ago, we finally put on a demo performance at the one-year anniversary memorial luncheon for our Grandmaster, Marshall Johnson. We had been practicing sometimes as much as 3-4 hours per week for over two months to get our demo program right. I think some of our team members don't realize that we weren't practicing for just that performance. We are meant to put on this performance on other occasions, too, like at martial arts tournaments, local festivals, for schools, and so on. But I also think that some team members just want a rest from practicing so long. It probably doesn't help our team that summer is over and the kids and teens are now bus with homework from school.
Honestly, my son and I missed one day of demo team practice, but we had an appointment, so it wasn't completely relaxing.
But last Tuesday's team practice was supposed to be led by one of our school's part-time instructors (and good friend of my family), Master Jeff Winkle. Master Winkle was unfortunately delayed, so the school's owner, Master Jamie Johnson, asked me to start the practice. There were five kids, including my son, Seamus, and I thought I could handle them well.
I'm used to using a balance of toughness and gentleness with Seamus, and thought I could apply it to this group of kids. Of course, every kid is different. Everything did go pretty well, but one boy, Peirce, decided to have a bad day. He didn't want to listen, didn't want to stand still, and didn't want to follow orders. When I asked him if he wanted to quit the demo team, he practically threw a tantrum. He did straighten up after that.
After a while, Master Winkle made his arrival and came to my rescue. Not that I really needed rescuing from these kids, but I really hadn't come there prepared to teach and I kept stopping to think about what to do next. There's also the fact that I'm not great at all the techniques we needed to work on. Seamus helped me by leading the class for a few things.
The best things about Master Winkle leading the class was that he then had to deal with Peirce's attitude and for the last fifteen minutes, he taught us hoi jeon moo sool sword techniques. He's hoping that if we can learn these, they can become part of the demo routine in the future.
This afternoon will be another demo practice. I hope I won't have to lead again, just so I can practice techniques myself. I hope we'll also work with the swords again.
Posted by lsloan at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)