Michael Free
Kangwon National University, South Korea
About
Michael Free holds degrees in TESL/TEFL (MA, University of Birmingham), Music Criticism (MA, McMaster University), and Music Performance (B.Mus., University of Western Ontario). In addition, he has obtained certificates in ELT including Teaching English to Young Learners (Anaheim University) and ELT Management (TESOL Int’l Association). Michael has lived and worked in Korea for over 15 years and has taught in a broad range of contexts: public school (all grades from kindergarten through Year 2 high school), vocational (including training for winter Olympic volunteers and staff), and, most recently, university level credit courses. He is currently an invited professor at Kangwon National University, where his classes primarily happen in the Liberal Arts Dept. and the Dept. of English Language Literature.Sessions
Synchronous (Film) An interactive Tour of Korean Film from 1960 to the Present more
Wed, Nov 3, 20:00-21:15 Asia/Seoul
ABOUT THE TOUR: Squid Game, Parasite, and now My Name. Chances are excellent that know about the first two of these, and by the time of the Reel to Real conference rolls around you will probably have heard of the latest hit as well. Korean cinema, on both the large and small screen, has been front and centre on the global stage for the last while. It’s quite possible that you’ve run into other English-language films by Korean directors and production companies (Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and Park Chan-wook’s Stoker immediately come to mind). Or perhaps you encountered Korean cinema via one of the many remakes: Spike Lee’s version of Old Boy or the American version of Kim Jee-woon’s absolutely awesome-sauce A Tale of Two Sisters (which gets a different title: The Uninvited). On the other hand, you might not know any of the above and are just beginning your journey into the world of Korean cinema. If that’s the case — don’t worry! Whether you’re a newbie to Korean cinema or not, you’re cordially invited to join your host, Michael Free, who will take you on an interactive tour of the last 60 years of Korean cinema. Going decade by decade, and letting attendees ask questions along the way — which very well might take us off course, but in a hopefully delightful and informative manner!) — Michael will show you what Korean cinema has to offer beyond these recent hits. From Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960) to Park Kim Do-young’s rendering of Choi Nam-joo’s novel Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (2019), this quick romp through Korean cinema’s history will give those interested places to look for Korean films and suggestions for what to watch according to their tastes and interests. ABOUT YOUR HOST: Michael has been teaching English in Korea for over 15 years now, with an extremely wide range of students (public and private, academic and casual, as well teacher training). The courses he has taught are, for the most part, the usual: conversation English, speaking, academic writing and so forth. In addition to those, he has developed content-based courses in film: general film appreciation, the horror film, as well as courses dedicated to the vampire and zombie genres. Living in Korea and teaching mainly Korean students, a natural part of the growth of these courses (and his own knowledge of Korean language and culture) was the not-quite-casual study of Korean films. Recently, this study has become more intensive with his most recent course assignment: teaching international students about Korean language and culture via film and TV dramas.
Synchronous (Session) Designing Reflective Observation Tasks for the Online Classroom more
Sat, Nov 6, 18:00-19:15 Asia/Seoul
If you’re struggling with online teaching, or thinking about how to improve it, reflective practice is for you! Among the best reflective tools are tasks, particularly observation tasks. However, most of these were designed with the traditional classroom in mind. Can we still use these tasks? How? The purpose of this session is to address these questions. This workshop will be in two parts. After briefly rehearsing some terminology, the facilitators will present tasks from some of the standard resources categorised according to their applicability to ‘the new normal’: tasks that can be used, those that can’t, and those that require adaptation. The bulk of the time will be spent in the second, highly interactive, section. Participants will work in small groups to create tasks for their own contexts. The takeaways will be tasks participants can either use or adapt as, as well as ideas for self-designed tasks. MYSTERY EASTER EGG