Johnson Reading Reflection

June 6, 2014

4. I had no plans on becoming a teacher.  As soon as I quit my job in Canada, I originally came to Korea for vacation.  While I was here, my cousin asked me if I wanted to help out for a summer program.  She runs a hakwon and it was only supposed to be for a month.  But it just so happened that I started to like being a teacher, more than I had ever imagined.  I quit my job, thinking I was going to back to school in Toronto.  But in the back of my mind, it wasn’t something I was totally interested in.  I didn’t really like what I was studying in University so I thought that I should take my time in making a decision before I regret it. So I ended up staying longer and now it’s been nearly 2 years.  I had taught at Sunday school for a number of years, and I had tutored students for many years as well, so teaching was not 100% new to me. 

As I was teaching here, I felt that I had an advantage over other teachers because not only was I a native speaker, but I was Korean by blood as well.  Although I was raised in Canada, I was raised under traditional rules.  So I felt I could be a better teacher because I could relate to them more.  However, the main problem I was having was, as Johnson puts it, hypocrisy.  I was expecting my students to learn and I thought I was trying hard in teaching them.  But I realized, especially after taking this course, that I was expecting them to learn, but I wasn’t trying to learn myself.  I was trying to teach the materials that were in front of me, while trying to satisfy my co-workers ideas and feelings.  It was hard at first when my co-worker had so many expectations but could not express his emotions and feelings properly. 

I am enjoying life as a teacher and I enjoy seeing the children learn and change right in front of me.  I worked on a farm for many years so I got to see animals being born, and seeing them grow up.  But it was interesting to see students grow.  They were growing with my influence.  With that in mind, I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted.  I need to learn how to be a good teacher for all types of students, and I hope to do so, whatever language or subject it may be. 

I just turned 30 so I don’t know if I want to be a teacher for the next 20-30 years, but I feel like I am at the age where I can try things out.  Maybe things could change once I get married and settle down.  Perhaps stay here or maybe go back to Canada.  But one thing for sure is that I enjoy being a teacher and I want to be one wherever I am in the world. 

5. I understand the stories in Johnsons reading, and I understand how they might have marginalized but I don’t think I have felt marginalized yet during my years of teaching.  I think the main reasons are that I haven’t been teaching for a long time and also that I teach at my cousin’s hakwon.  So she’s been helping me in every way.  However, one thing I could think of is my relationship with my co-worker.  He felt that he needed to control everything.  I was appreciative of the fact that he wanted to help and he wanted me to go back his ideas and lessons.  But as time progressed, I wanted to do things differently and I tried to make small adjustments, but my co-worker would get extremely upset.  However, things got better as time progressed and now I do have more leniency.  For now with my problem, I think time and experience will help solve my situation.  

Reflection 13 – More Questions…

June 5, 2014

I really wanted to record one of my classes this week and reflect on it, but I didn’t really have a chance to.  This week was a reduced with the holiday, and I had many test this week.  However, I kept thinking of the topic we learned last Saturday in terms of teaching writing. 

Dictation is something I do with most of my reading classes.  For every class, we do it for almost every lesson.  At first, my co-worker strongly felt that it was a good idea, and because he is superior to me, I had to go along with it.  Because it’s something that we do so often and consistently with the students, I feel it has helped them in small ways.  They are slowly getting used to it, their writing neatness is improving, and generally I feel there are a lot less “huh?” and “what?”s. Individually, I could see improvements and their confidence level seemed to be improving as well. 

However, I do agree that it takes a lot of time, they’re writing down sentences that are spoken at speeds that are not realistic in a real conversation, and there could be many other things that could be concentrated on.  This week, I kept thinking about this.  While I was giving the dictation, I kept thinking if this was a good idea or not.  I kept thinking about the writing examples that we learned in class, which were the fill-in-the-blank example and the re-ordering example.  They would both help the students think about the sentence structure a little more.  I then, thought about how connected reading, writing, and grammar actually were and how they should go together to produce better results.  I didn’t realize it because there are 3 different teachers who teach those areas.  I felt that we were basically going our own way and not really connecting them all together. If I use those two examples, rather than writing what I say, they would practice writing something that they may have learned in grammar class, which would help them with their writing; and it would also be connected to the reading class.  There would be more practicing from all classes together.

Another aspect I thought about was pair work.  After we read a passage, I would ask them comprehension questions and they would answer back.  I would try to mix in personalized questions, and some of them would answer well.  But after learning that pair work could be more productive, I tried to do that with my higher level students. 

At first, it seemed like a good idea and it seemed to work.  There was more student-student interaction.  It was also good to see the higher level students helping the lower level students.  Everyone was working together and I felt it was a more productive way for them to learn the story, as well as the language.  However, this week because I couldn't record my class, I got to sit back while they were doing it, and think and see what they were actually doing. 

I realized that the higher level students were helping the lower level students, and it was always the same case.  My question was whether the lower level students were actually learning.  Are they just practicing writing?  Or are they actually learning more about the story, than if I was to talk to them and ask them questions?  So that led to me to ask: what if I gave more speaking tasks, where I give them discussion questions.  However, will that lead to the higher students dominating the lower level students all the time?  What if I put the lower level students together?  That would mean that the higher level students would keep going up, while the lower level students go up slower…wouldn't it? 

The more I thought about it, the more questions I was getting.  The main question I had was: what’s the best, most productive, and efficient method for my students to learn, understand, and comprehend the story, while improving on all areas of their skills?  The only answer I had at the moment was that I should just slowly try different methods, and just see how it goes.  It’s not up to me so I have to discuss with my co-workers before anything is changed.

Non-stop planning and…experimenting…?  I guess that’s the duty of a teacher.  But I wish I found the answers soon...

Reflection 12 – ICC MT

June 3, 2014

This MT went better than I thought.  Prior to this day, I spent several days thinking about what I wanted to do and I was in panic mode.  As soon as someone helped me with the topic, I was able to finish it, but I didn’t plan it as well as I wanted to.  As a result, I modified part of my lesson plan as I went along, but they were things that I normally do, which I will explain later. 

For my preview stage, although I did not teach it, I planned for a vocabulary game, but I realized afterwards, that maybe this wasn’t really necessary for my lesson plan.  I thought that it would’ve been an interesting activity, but it would have taken too much time and I think it would it have been more suitable for a different lesson.  Afterwards, I wanted to show them a picture and remind them of camping or vacation in Korea.  I realized after watching the video that I had explained too much, when I wasn’t going to even teach it. 

For my presentation stage, I started off with my top-down task of scanning the article and underlining all the subtitles.  I wanted to reduce my teacher-talk so I tried to speak more clearly so that they would understand.  I realized throughout my video that I could have personalized with the students more, instead of watching them, looking at the time, and trying to go by my lesson plan too much.  I was just moving back and forth with a paper in my hand, which didn’t really seem “teacher-like”. 

I had them the students discuss with their partners on their answers.  Some missed a few, so they were able to help each other find the right answer.  They generally seemed to do it well, and they didn’t seem to be confused.  I tried to make it more dialogic so I had the students ask each other, but again, I could have personalized with them more.  This part was not planned. 

I wanted to ask them if they knew where the article was taking place, but I wasn’t getting the answers I was expecting, so I had to rephrase my question and they were able to get the right answer.  A few thought it was the states, but the right answer was Canada.  I made a joke about how it was the best country in the world, but I realized the main topic was on culture and how there shouldn’t be any stereotypes, but I was doing just that.  My students would have joked around and said that Korea was the best.  However, thinking of that again, I knew that even that might have not been appropriate for the students to learn. 

I’m not sure if I had taught the top-down task properly, but because there were so many subtitles, I thought that it was a good idea to have the students scan it and check for the subtitles, because underlining could help them find the answers for future questions, and could help them scan the article better.  I wanted them to read for gist.  If they had for details right from the start, I don’t think there would have more questions and confusion. 

For the top-down-bottom-up task, I had the students’ think of 3 things that they have and have not done in Korea based on the article.  This is where I wanted them to think of the grammar part of the TLC for present perfect and also wanted them to think about their own culture and compare it with the other culture (Canada).  The students seemed to do the task well and did not seem lost or confused.  Afterwards, I had the students ask each other and share their answers.  But while they were discussing with each other, I should have written the questions and answers on the board to help the students discuss with each other.  I was thinking about whether to do this or not but I thought that it may have been considered as isolation so I decided not to do it.  But regardless if it was or not, I should have just done it…

Another thing that I did that was not planned was asking the students about hunting in Canada.  I thought that it would have made them think about the article more and think more about both cultures.  I don’t know if it’s possible to hunt in Korea, but I would assume that all of my students would have never hunted before.  But I know it would be something they would find interesting. 

For the bottom-up task, I made more of a conscience effort in speaking more clearly so I wouldn’t have to speak too much.  I told them to discuss a scenario that I had given them.  Originally, I wanted them to look closer into the text by thinking about how much it would cost for them to do both of their activities for the day.  However, thinking about my students, I thought that it might have been difficult, so I took it out at the very last moment (during the break).  However, again, I should have left it in because I realized that that would have been a better way of doing the BU task.  In this part, I wanted the students to practice speaking with simple future sentences, without having to teach them.  The “students” for this MT did very well, but I’m not sure if I would have gotten the same results with my real students. 

Generally, I wanted to reduce my ‘umm’s’ and ‘ok’s’ but I realized that I was still saying it too much.  I felt that I wasn’t as nervous as my previous MT’s, but looking at the video, I realized that I might have been more nervous than I thought because I kept moving around with the lesson plan in my hand.  I know it would have been different in my real class, but I should have personalized with the students more by going around and actually talking to them, and not just listen to them to see if they are simply doing it or not. 

I felt that I was speaking less and the students were speaking more with each other.  They were using the language, using the article to help with their discussion, and they were discussing things about the other culture.  I didn’t feel that there would be any stereotypes because I feel anyone from any country could have taken part in this assignment.  Students from around the world could have discussed with each other and shared their opinions.  It would have been interesting to see students from different cultures, participate in this lesson. 

Through this assignment, I learned that it was possible to tie in all aspects of speaking, writing, reading, and listening into one lesson.  I normally taught a reading comprehension and I did not think about or teach grammar.  But after reviewing previous notes and comments, I realized that I did have to think about vocabulary and grammar (TLC) for my lesson because that’s how they learn the language.  This assignment made me open up my eyes as a teacher, made me think more about what I have been teaching in my hakwon, and it made me think of ideas of what we could change at our hakwon.   

Reflection 11 – Successful class...or was it…?

May 27, 2014

It’s been a while since I reflected on my blog, but it doesn’t mean that I have stopped reflecting and thinking on my own about my class and my teaching techniques.  In this blog, I wanted to reflect one of my reading classes.  I recorded several weeks ago, but didn’t have the time to reflect on it.  Because almost half the class was missing, I felt I was able to personalize with the students more.  However, I do feel that this class atmosphere has generally improved and the students seem to be enjoying the class more, and feel more comfortable in speaking and answering questions in English.

The class started with an open discussion about the missing students and they all answered well, naturally.  In this class, we usually go over the vocabulary, do a dictation, then discuss the main story, which includes discussion and doing a worksheet together. 

I started by asking some target vocabulary, which was a review, and most of them raised their hand trying to answer in English.  They don’t respond in Korean unless they ask and I allow them.  I then asked a word from the example sentence for the target vocabulary, followed by questions that referred to the picture in the book.  I felt that the students were comfortable with answering the questions.   I tried to make it more dialogic so I tried asking personalized questions to help students relate to the topic and word.  Because this was a review and they had practice, I felt they were ready to answer the questions.  But the question is if they really learned the word and if they would be able to use them naturally.  However, they generally seemed to understand and had a good time in class.

After reviewing the previous classes’ two target vocabulary, I read the next sentence first so that they could listen to my pronunciation.  The students read together aloud (although there was one student who liked to fool around).  And similar to above, I would ask questions based on the word from the example sentence and the picture. 

I tried to help a student with their pronunciation and I first tried to help him through individual repetition, but I didn’t want to put him on the spot, so I asked the whole class for choral repetition, then I asked other students for individual repetition.  I didn’t want to spend too much time on it, so I just moved on quickly.  I also asked another student right away when they said ‘white’ wrong.  But I simply asked them what they said, and they were able to self-correct the pronunciation.  The students are getting better and they are able to realize on their own if the pronunciation is correct or not.

After I asked personal questions throughout the lesson, I tried to give them more time for them to respond and not let the dominant voices speak for them, and in doing so, they were able to speak more. 

In general for the vocabulary section of the lesson, I feel it went well.  The students reviewed the words, learned two new words, and were able to speak about their own selves from all of the open-ended questions. 

For the dictation section, I was pleased to see that some of the students had memorized the example sentences from the book so they were able to write down the sentences without my help.  It was clear who did not memorize.  Their dictation skills of listening and writing seem to be improving over time.  I noticed that I had to repeat the sentences more and more over time.  Next time, I think I should try asking them to listen to the sentences first, tell them to think about it, and then write it down.  Hopefully, it will help improve their listening skills and I won’t have to repeat so many times. 

For the main story, I asked them review questions on the pages up to where we were supposed to read.  Then, the students read rotationally and afterwards, I asked them comprehension questions.  I tried to ask more dialogic questions, but I think the dialogic discourse was too long.  I noticed that although the students were speaking more, that I may have talked too much.  But I’m not sure how I can reduce my teacher-talk further at the moment.  However, I did try to get the students to ask each other the questions for the worksheet.  In all my classes, I try to get the students read the questions more. 

In general, I feel that this class went better than expected.  Having only four students helped because I was able to focus on them more.  I want to strive for a class like this, where there is more open discussions and personalized questions that allow the students to speak freely more and help raise their confidence ins peaking.  This is not always the case.  However, I think I may have to reduce the length of the open discussion, and try to plan it more so that they use the vocabulary from the story more.  Also, I have also tried to teach pronunciation more, trying to not put the student on the spot.  I tried to use my hand as a mouth and my other hand as a tongue.  This helped them learn more, and it helped me realize how they were pronouncing words by them telling me how they were using their tongues.

This class was recorded several days ago, before they took the unit test.  They all did very well on the test, which I was quite pleased with.  I hope I continue to have more classes like this, where the students continue to learn and enjoy learning English.  I hope the process of them enjoying learning will be productive.  Over time, I want to see if my teaching techniques are good and that my students are really acquiring the language. 

Tech Tool Blog

May 9, 2014

I was trying to think about what to write about for this blog because I don’t use any tech tools in my class.  The only thing I thought of was my video camera on my phone because I use it to record my students’ presentations.  Then I realized I put those presentations up on BAND.  And this is the tech tool that I would like to talk about. 

You may all have seen this on TV and at the theatres on the previews, but BAND is a phone app and it’s a private space for groups.  It’s similar to Kakao, but you can more things and it’s more suitable for sharing.  

At our hakwon we use BAND with our student’s mothers.  We put up any announcements or anything interesting for our parents and we have separate rooms for each of our levels/classes.  The good thing about this is that you can put up videos without worrying about the size.  So far I haven’t had any problems uploading videos (although I’m not sure if it would allow you to upload video sizes similar to a movie).   With Kakao and along with other similar apps, you’re limited to the size of what you can upload.

You can upload pictures, chat with individual members or as a group, you can mark things on a calendar, and you can create a poll.  The good thing is that everything is shared.  You can upload and do everything from your phone, or there’s also a desktop version that you can install as well.  It allows you to stay in touch with your student’s parents and they can voice their concerns or questions.  If there are teachers that don’t have a personal relationship with their students’ parents, then teachers could use this and stay in touch with each other. 

We first started BAND to allow the parents to see how their children were doing at our winter camp.  We were trying to find a place we could upload pictures and videos.  Then we eventually used whenever we had to make announcements.  Then I started using it to upload videos of the presentations of the students.  I started incorporating presentations into our units, so they would do one presentations almost every 2 or 3 weeks.  We originally put them up to show the parents their progress.  However, the parents have been using that to improve on their presentation skills.  Originally they would memorize their presentation speeches at home, but the parents were helping them more with memorizing, and also with their presentation skills.  The parents know that presentation skills is important, not only to English, so many of them try to help their children to help improve their confidence level.

Although the parents are not able to attend the class and see for their themselves on how their children are doing, this tool has allowed them to see what their children are doing in class, so they can help them accordingly.  I suppose other teachers can use this tool to upload lessons or other videos so that parents can teach their children at home (for additional work, or cover missed lessons).  Students can also watch their own recordings (ex. speaking) so they can distinguish for themselves what mistakes they have made.

I believe this tool is beneficial for all teachers, parents, and teachers.  If you are interested, check out the website at: http://www.band.us/home. 

Reflection 10 - Vocabulary Blog

May 9, 2014

This week I have done some minor things with my classes that I have not done before.  Generally, after starting this course, I found myself doing a lot of things that I learned and naturally incorporating them into my classes.  For my higher level reading classes, we would take up a comprehension worksheet together in class.  Then I changed it around to make it more dialogic so I had them work in pairs to complete the worksheet.  They were shy with each other at first, but they are getting used to it and they communicate with each other a lot about the questions.  It allowed them to speak to each other more in English and it allowed them to help each other understand the story and the questions a little more.  Afterwards, we would take up the answers together and I would ask each pair or individuals on the answers and we would talk about them. 

This week, I got the students to ask each other the questions, instead of me reading it to them.  It was interesting to see that they asked each other quite well, but it was more interesting to see that they put more effort in answering the questions in full sentences.  Normally, they would give me one word answers or short answers.  Also, instead of just asking if the sentence statements were true or false, I would ask them to make the sentence statement true if the answer was false.  These new methods and techniques seem to get the students more interested and it creates more dialogic interactions. 

I was getting used to having students ask each other questions in my other younger speaking classes, but I was wondering for a while of how I would incorporate them into my reading classes.  I never realized I could have incorporated them directly into my lesson plans and I certainly didn’t expect it work out so well. 

As for teaching vocabulary, I found reading Harmer and Nation interesting because vocabulary is something that I teach quite often.  I tried to incorporate some of Harmer’s activities but I didn’t know how I could incorporate them into my lesson plans yet.  I teach a somewhat strict, tight lesson plan and I don’t have much room for creativity because I have to basically teach the same materials and technique (to a certain degree) with my other co-workers. 

As for Nation’s article, I could be wrong, but I found myself teaching some of the things that is suggested.  However, I wanted to learn more from next week’s STG class and see if I am interpreting this article correctly. 

What I normally do with my reading classes, is teach the target vocabulary that’s in the textbook.  There are 8 or 10 depending on the level.  The target vocabulary has an example sentence and a picture to go along with it.  I would give the students a typed up definition sheet and we would read the example sentences, and the definition.  I would review two of the words every class.  So for the two words, we would read the sentences out loud together, and then I would ask questions about the word, such as if they know what the word means, what a synonym would be, ask them questions about the picture, ask them questions about other words in the sentences, and also ask them open ended questions.  Then I would ask them to make up and tell me some example sentences.  Recently, I would ask them for a synonym for each target vocabulary, and I would ask them to give me a sentence using the target vocabulary and a sentence using the synonym.  I have been using this method with my higher level classes and I feel that it is helping them learn the word more.  For homework, they would get a sheet where they would copy down the word, definition, and example sentence for a number of times.  Remember, this is just a review for the word and the homework sheet is intended for review.  The first class when I teach vocabulary, their homework would include a fill in the blank sheet and also a sheet where they would have to write example sentences using the target vocabulary and the synonym. 

However, one thing that I started doing this week was have my other lower level classes try to come up with an example sentence.  My co-worker thought that having them make sentences was hard, so I tried to listen to him and abide by his suggestions (Korean style).  However, I just thought of asking anyways and if it was too hard, I was going to move onto something else.  To my surprise, they came up with their own sentences pretty quickly.  They weren’t complicated, or may not have been correct, but they tried very quickly and some spoke correct sentences.  If there was a word in a different form, then I would ask them what the original form is and we would talk about it in different ways. 

I was quite pleased with this because I feel getting the students to think of their own sentences, will allow them to think in English more.  It will also allow me to see if they understand the word and see if they are using it correctly. 

I still don’t know what the best method for teaching vocabulary is and I know it is one of the most important aspects of English.  I know I will have to continually think of ways of teaching it more efficiently.  Generally, the atmosphere in all my reading classes is getting better and the students are feeling more relaxed.  They are laughing more and they are enjoying English a lot more.  I remember when I first started teaching them and some of them were thinking of dropping out.  Now, I have to get them to stop laughing and pay attention.  But they’re good kids and I hope they continue to enjoy learning English.

Reflection 9 – I feel like I am slowly moulting!

April 28, 2014

This second MT was quite interesting.  After I finished, I still felt the same as my first MT.  I felt that it went horribly wrong and that it did not go the way I wanted it to go.  My intention for this lesson was talk go through an article that they would eventually use for a debate.  For two of my reading classes, we’re trying to introduce debate into our reading program so it’s still a working idea.  I knew this MT was going to be challenging because I had to combine my original teaching style, with the assignment.  An article like this is supposed to be a little challenging to my students, but it’s a level that my students would be able to comprehend when planned more carefully. 

Before watching the video, I realized the first thing that I should have done was to have the students read aloud, not silent reading; rotating students after reading one sentence.  I never do silent reading, and I don’t know why I did that.  My front page was written for rotational read aloud, and I would fix their pronunciation, but my lesson plan had it differently.  I didn’t give the students enough time so they felt it was too hard.  I should have however, told them that they would pre-read this article several times before coming to class so they would’ve been familiar with it.  In any case, I feel reading it together aloud, would’ve helped them understand the story more. 

It was difficult teaching this class as if it was my real class and finding the motivation without a preview.  I was concentrating too much on the format of my lesson plan and the format of the Harmer format (p. 291).  Therefore there was no real interacting going on.  There was T-S interaction and T-S-S-T interaction, but but I felt I was just mostly telling them what to do like they were just following orders.  There was no real personalizing and interacting with the students.  I feel I could’ve created more motivation and interaction if I asked discussion or personalizing questions during the comprehension check phase, where we took up our answers to the sheet.  I had students ask each other what the answers to the next question were, but before I did that, we could’ve created a conversation about the questions.  Originally, I was saving the discussion question to the end.  Again, I was thinking too much on how to do the TD, TDBU, BU method. 

For the lead in, I tried to ask them if they can find the URL so they could be able to find it on the internet if they want.  However, after watching the video, I could have asked them if they use the internet, if they use it to do homework, and basically personalize with them a little more.  Even if it was a question or two. 

I asked the students what the subheadings were, but I could have asked them to quickly scan the article for a minute and then I could have asked them what the subheadings were by TSST interaction.  After, I could have asked them to tell their partners what they thought each subheading was going to be about.  This, I believe, would have been top-down.  After reading, I could have changed the questions, and one of them could have been how their answers changed.  When the students were discussing in their groups, I could have interacted with the students more instead of just walking around quietly. 

One thing I should have done was to write the answers to the questions beforehand.  I thought I would have been able to handle the answers fine, but I forgot on the spot. 

Compared to the first MT, I felt I was more relaxed, but I still had the jitters and I was able to concentrate on a little more, but my plan didn’t work out the way I planned.  I felt I had more communicative feedback than evaluative compared to before, I still feel that it was not enough feedback.  The students are at a point where they need to start thinking more about this topic and speak more in English.  I felt I was just trying to follow my plan too much. 

I feel I am improving but there is a conflict between my original style and what I am learning and it’s definitely a good conflict.  I am learning a lot by watching others too.  I am concentrating too much on the teaching formalities, rather than personalizing with the students.  However, I know that my classroom atmosphere is totally different.  The constant question I have is how I can successfully and efficiently teach a lesson.  I feel like this is just the beginning of my moulting stage!  I hope I change for the better!  

Reflection 8 – I guess hard work and patience does pay off...

April 22, 2014

Things don’t seem to slow down for me.  I accepted the fact that I would not have a life until this course finishes, but it still is a little overwhelming.  In any case, I will still try to do the best that I can! 

This week’s topic for my Tuesday’s speaking class was telling time.  As I said before, this class is the most challenging class for me so I need to do a lot of planning, but I’m learning more from this course on how to do it. 

Up until now, I concentrated a lot on content and how I was going to teach it in a way that the students would accept and enjoy.  I tried to mix in games as well, and then I put emphasis in the warm up/preview, and also tried to connect more with the students by making the teacher talk more dialogic.  So basically, I tried to incorporate a lot of what I learned in this course.  For this week, I wanted to study my discourse and tried to use more MIC techniques into my teaching, even if we were playing a game. 

My anticipated problems were: the students not being able to tell time, even in Korean; they would have difficulty understanding instructions, and if they were able to tell time, they would have difficulty telling it English.  My anticipated solution was to ask other students to help each other, and do more MIC techniques (repeat, gesture, visual, rephrase, preview).  For MIC techniques, I would try to correct them and have them repeat, or I could draw on the board more, and I could rephrase my questions differently.  Basically, I would try to consciously put more of my effort into MIC techniques. 

I started out with a basic greeting, where the students were now able to respond a little faster, and give different responses, followed by a short reason.  I was quite pleased because they didn’t answer like that a few weeks ago.  Then for the preview, I first asked them to tell me what the current time was in English, and then I put up a picture of a clock on the WB.  I taped the minute and hour hand and randomly asked students to tell me what the time is.  To help them, I wrote on the WB: ‘What time is it?’  and ‘It is…’.  The students understood what they were supposed to do and they followed the instructions quite well.  Throughout the entire lesson, they referred to the WB to answer their questions. They had difficulty telling the minutes, and then I realized later that they had difficulty counting higher numbers.  So I wrote down 15, 30, and 45, and o’clock to help them.  I got the students to ask the question to each other by asking: “(name), what time is it?”  Generally by this point, I didn’t expect the students to have much interest, and didn’t expect them to really respond.  But they answered and participated better than I thought.

The preview took longer than I had originally planned.  I then gave them a hand out.  It had pictures of clocks that had different times.  I went around and asked each student individually on what the time was.  I asked them: what time is it? and then they responded by saying ‘it is…’.  I tried to use gestures for them to look on the board and answer according to what was written.  They followed pretty quickly and answered quite well. 

Next, I skipped an activity that I planned due to time, and then played a game.  The other side of the handout had different times with a number beside it.  I put them into two teams and I would read out the time or the number, and the students would have to tell me what time or number it was.  It was challenging to some, but generally, it was a suitable for their level.  Again, they had difficulty reading the time and also listening and indicating what the time or number was.  So to help them, I tried to point to the numbers that were written on the board, or said the first letter of the word. 

I then played Time Bingo at the end.  I handed out a time bingo card, where they were to draw the hour hand and write the time for each square.  I would then read out a time and if they got 3 in a row, then they would call out BINGO.  Before I reward them the point, they would have to read the time back to me, which was a little challenging for them. 

The terminal objective for this lesson was for the students to successfully tell time.  The enabling objective was for them to read and answer the question (written on the board), read clocks and tell time, and enjoy and actively participate in the activities.  I felt that the objectives were met.  I felt that the students were getting more comfortable with me and the class style.  I made a conscious effort on warm up every class, with all my classes, and I felt that the students were getting more comfortable with this method.  I also made more of a conscious effort on the MIC techniques, but I hope I can improve on them.  I feel I am getting more comfortable with this class and they are getting more comfortable with me, but I know there is still more to go. 

I wanted to upload the full video of my lesson, but for some reason it stopped recording half way through.  I tried to give more wait-time to the students and I felt it was suitable for the students.  I was shocked when I said “has test” so many times.  I said to help them understand better, but I realize now that talking like that isn’t really necessary.  And I didn’t realize that I said that so many times.  Overall, I liked the way how things were done in this class and it was good to see the students getting more comfortable with each other and with me.  

Reflection 7 – T’was [a little] blind, but now I see [a little more]…

April 10, 2014

My first speaking class of the week was on Tuesday.  After horrible planning last week, I spent some time thinking of how to teach this week’s lesson.  This week’s lesson was on sports and the students would learn how to ask “do you play…”, “do you…”, and “do you do…” questions, depending on the sport, and they would learn to respond by saying “yes, I do” or “no, I don’t”.  I’m still trying to find a good method or curriculum for teaching this class, so I changed the format of the lesson plan again. 

My task was to go over warm-up, then a preview to activate schema, followed by the lesson and some games in between.  I have not done warm-ups with this class, so I was interested to see their reactions.  I taught my Friday’s class “how are you doing” but I didn’t teach them how they can respond, so they were a little confused.  So this time I decided to write some of the responses (also remembered some of the other MT ideas).  I wanted to record the whole class, but I realized afterwards that I didn’t have enough space.  But oddly enough, it recorded all of my warm-up, and stopped right when I was going to start my preview.  My warm-up is around 4 minutes and 37 seconds.

I knew they were going to have difficulty understanding and following instructions, but I felt it was harder today because they were in a bad mood from the previous class.  But I tried to boost the atmosphere.  I tried to ask “Did you have fun from your previous class?” but they didn’t seem to understand.  I was expecting them to scream out yes or no, or just basically say anything, but they were really quiet.  I felt this was a way to personalize with them.  I wanted to ask them more, based on what they said. 

Afterwards, I had the class read together what was on the board: “how are you doing.”   If I felt they were not paying attention or they were too quiet or they had difficulty pronouncing it, I repeated it again until they were all speaking loudly.  Afterwards, I tried to get students to ask each other.  Because they were not used to it, and after rushing my MT on Saturday, I decided to give them some wait-time, but at the same time be cautious so that they don’t feel they are on the spot.  I felt they were a little shy and confused at first, but they seemed to get used to it and the speed improved. 

They know from previous classes what side Team A is and what side Team B is.  So I told them they had to ask the student on the other side but the surprising thing was that some of the female students didn’t want to ask the male students.  The male students didn’t mind.  But I didn’t realize how young they were until today.  They were trying to choose who to ask so I tried to be understanding and be patient with them. 

After watching the video, I saw my habit of saying too many ‘ok’s’, and too much evaluative teacher talk (ok, yes, very good), instead of communicative t-talk.  But I’m not sure how I could do communicative t-talk with this class.  Or should I be more evaluative, such as being more enthusiastic?  Or would it be much different if I just significantly reduced saying the word: ok?   I wanted to personalize with them more like I do with the other class, but I’m not sure what it is about this class.  This class, however, is new and they are still getting to know each other, it still is an interesting experience.   

For my preview, I asked them what sports they liked.  At first, they didn’t seem to understand or maybe they were too shy, so I had to say some sports.  After asking the students individually, I told them we were going to play a memory game for points.  I would ask one member of a team and ask them what sport one member from the other team liked.  I rotated teams and made sure each player answered once.  Generally, they seemed slightly interested, some remembered what the others said, and some didn’t remember.  I awarded them points but they still didn't seem too energetic.  At least it wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. 

 

Next, I gave them a handout.  We read some words and repeated them several times.  There were different sports that were organized by ball sports, individual sports, and Asian sports.  After repeating them and asking if they liked those sports, which they responded quite well (closed questions), I wrote on the board of how they would ask the question of if they did that sport. 

For example, ball sports, I told them you would say: Do you play ___________?  For individual sports: Do you ____________?  For Asian sports: Do you do ___________?  I asked the students individually (referential question), while pointing to the sentence on the board.  Then the students would respond by saying: yes, I do or no, I don’t, which they have at the top of the page.  Then I had students ask each other.  They would use the board for assistance, they would take time, but generally, I felt they were slowly learning, or at least learning the pattern of how to ask and respond. 

Afterwards, I had them play a speed game.  I decided that the individuals would get the point.  The point of the game was to see if they can ask six questions in one minute, one after another, that was not intended to anyone.  They were a little confused at first, but after repeating the instructions several times, they understood and they were all given a chance.  They referred to the board to answer; some students were faster than others, and although they asked the questions in incorrect form (ex. Do you play taekwondo?), I just let it slide, because I felt it was important they practice their speaking, and improve their confidence doing it. 

Overall, I felt the energy and mood would improve as the class progressed, but I feel it didn’t really improve.  I don’t know if they were bored, but they all put in effort in doing the task that they were supposed to do.  For feedback, there was a lot evaluative feedback, and there was a lot of repetition (and reading), but I feel that this may be the first step in teaching the students, because they are not at the level to answer for themselves.  I have to continually think of ways to get this energy level way up there so they have fun learning.

This class is one of the most difficult classes I have, but it’s also one of the most exciting and challenging classes I have.  I feel this challenge is helping my eyes open even wider as a teacher.  

Reflection #6 – My First MT Experience…

April 9, 2014

My first micro-teaching experience was very interesting.  I changed my whole lesson plan for one of my classes, and I put in warm-ups for the first time.  So after I taught it (unsuccessfully), I thought I would be fine when I did the MT in front of the class.  I was fine all the way until I was up.  As soon as I was called, all the emotions suddenly hit me and I felt so nervous.  I was way more nervous in front of this class than any of my classes that I teach. 

Anyways, my first thoughts after I finished was how nervous I was in class and because I was so nervous, I rushed a lot, not being able to communicate with the students.  My intention was to get students to talk but I talked most of the time.  The students didn’t really seem too interested but I felt that they understood what I wanted them to do.

After looking at the video, I realized how bad I actually was.  Because I was so nervous, I tried to talk more and get things moving more quickly.  But it was so quick that I wasn’t personalizing at all with the students, when there were so many opportunities to.  I was very conscious of time but not on the students.  I realized that the students could have easily thought that I ignored them.  This was the most surprising part of my MT.  Some of the reasons I try to get my students to do repetitions of target vocabulary is so that they can get used to it more and I can hear their pronunciations.  So I did do it in this MT, but because I wasn’t personalizing, I felt it may not have been as efficient as I thought.  I know it would have been different with my normal classes, and I would have personalized more, waited for them to answer, and basically, would have taken more time.

One of the things I knew I was saying a lot was “ok.”  It could be heard as a sign of acceptance but I realized it could be heard as a sign of my uncertainty, nervousness, or even ignoring students and trying to move onto something else quickly.  I did however try using the WB as planned, tried moving around the class, and tried asking different students, but I was asking a lot of closed questions, when I could have asked more referential questions and got more student-student interactions.  For feedback, I realized the majority of it was evaluative t-talk (ok, very good, yes).  More communicative t-talk could have also generated more discussion. 

My intent on activating schema was through vocabulary.  My plan was to show them the words, have them repeat it, ask them if they know it, then show the pictures afterwards.  If they didn’t know the picture, I would help them by asking them to look at the words.  Then, I would play a word-picture matching game.  I realized that I wasn’t really activating schema, but I was teaching vocabulary.  My actual warm-up was only 1 minute and 33 seconds.  For the warm up, I could have slowed down, wrote the responses for “how are you doing” on the WB, then ask them to repeat it and get students to ask each other.  

To activate schema, I thought of it incorrectly.  I could have shown a single picture of a dirty house.  I could have asked them to brainstorm ideas on what needs to be done to clean the house.  Possibly show them a before picture (dirty) and then an after picture (clean), and then ask them what needs to be done in order to be clean.  I could have asked them both open and referential questions, and this could have generated more discussion.  If they cannot answer properly, I can then move onto the vocabulary section. 

For the vocabulary part, after asking them to read and repeat each word, I could have asked more referential questions, asked as a class and individually, and expand more on their responses.  The words were also extremely small.  I was asking them what the words and pictures were, the students were then responding, but I wasn’t using their answers to expand on them.  Instead of saying “what is this?” I could have transitioned the next item by saying something like “now this next one is something that is very loud” (referring to the vacuum). 

To save time, after asking the students of the words and pictures, I could have asked them to put them on the board.  I could ask individual students of each item, award them points, and they would put them on the board.  After they put it on, I could then quickly move onto the next item, and hopefully they would find this fun by earning points and moving around the room. 

Generally, if I wasn’t so nervous and didn’t rush everything, I felt I could have personalized more with the students.  I realized how bad I was after reviewing the video several times, but not only was I able to learn from it, I was also able to generate more ideas.  I know I would have acted differently in my normal class.  I generally make a big effort in asking all the students and have every student understand, even if there is a lot of wait-time, but in this MT, I think my wait-time was not there at all. 

I learned so much from this experience and got so many ideas.  I didn’t think I would have gained this much.  I’m interested to see what lies ahead.

Reflection #5 – What a week…

April 4, 2014

I feel like I have been staring at this blank document forever.  Not because I’m trying to think about what to write…but because there’s so much to write about…

First off, this week has been very hectic.  Last weekend, we had a teachers meeting and we were supposed to talk about some ongoing issues, and basically start fresh with a new canvas.  It’s the beginning of the school year, and this is the time where a lot of parents are looking into new hakwons – a lot of students dropping and joining.  Our hakwon keeps growing so we’re supposed to start new classes this week.  We did, however, we had one teacher quit this week.  There was so much drama between the teachers but we we’re all trying to keep it behind closed doors.  I don’t want to go into details, but it was extremely difficult this week.  On top of all this, my mind has been all over the place.  Some of my classes are relatively new, but I keep getting more classes, and as my knowledge as a teacher continues to grow, it was getting pretty overwhelming and stressful. 

Despite everything that’s been going on, one of the things that have been on the top of my head was warm-up and greeting.  It wasn’t something I have really thought of.  We run a pretty busy schedule from the afternoon to the evening, with a maximum class size of 8.  We see all the students in the halls before our class starts and talk to them even before they start class with a different teacher.  So I was trying to figure out how I could incorporate it into my lesson plan.  Although I made a conscience effort to try greeting the students more and trying to make them relax, I wanted to really focus on two of my classes – one on Tuesday and one on Friday. 

For Tuesday’s class, there was so much drama boiling at that point, at the same time when we were starting our first classes on that day, I couldn’t really prepare for it.  For my Friday’s class, I usually went by a book and went by the previous teachers ideas and lesson plans.  But this week, I decided to try something totally new.  It was a speaking class for four 9-10 year old boys.  Up until now, they would do some reading, there would be specific questions that they would ask each other, and I would give them points accordingly.  However, they had difficulty reading, they were young so they had a hard time concentrating, and basically, I felt I wasn’t teaching efficiently. 

So this week, I planned my lesson by starting my greeting by asking them, “How are you doing?”  I don’t usually write things on the WB before hand, but I tried to use it as much as I could before the start of my class.  So I decided to write their names on the side (so I keep an ongoing record of their points); today’s topic; and the question on the board, thinking that the students would know what to expect.  I would first start off by asking individually how they were doing, and then I would get them to ask each other.  Then I would ask them questions on what they brought into class, because they would always have snacks or something new from the previous class. 

However, it didn’t go as planned.  First, the previous class ended really late so I started late.  This is a problem because I have other classes that start right after one finishes.  So I had reduced time and there was a lot of “activity” going on because of the start of new classes.  Also, I expected them to ask me if they could speak Korean because they wouldn’t know how to say a lot of things, but when I asked them how they were doing, they either said, “I don’t know” or kept doing other things (ex. eating food, joking around).  I tried asking them individually, but I was getting the same response. 

Because I was pressed for time, I decided to just move on.  I knew that if I had tried asking that question in different ways, the students would have gotten really bored.  Then, I kept thinking if I had to do a warm-up or preview that made the students interact with each other, even though it had nothing to do with the topic.  But I didn’t think it would have been good for my class – time being one reason.  Today’s topic was thinking about what we can do for our parents on special days such as Mother’s Day.  My plan for the enabling objectives was for the students to learn words that relate to house chores that they would do at home.  To activate schema, I’m not sure if I thought of it correctly, but I thought of doing it bottom-up.  I wanted to review some vocabulary first, so when they listened to the CD of the main passage, they would have a better understanding of what it was talking about, and then they could use those words throughout the lesson. 

I printed and cut out the vocabulary words so that I can show them and have them repeat together.  I asked them what they were and they answered back using their L1.  I was quite surprised because they understood most of the words quite well.  After I showed each word, I taped them to the board.  After, I showed them pictures of the word.  I asked them again what they were and they answered quite well again.  Then I taped those onto the board as well.  I then made two teams of two, and had them match the words with the pictures.  By doing this game, I thought it would be a fun way to activate schema, help them understand the vocabulary for the lesson, at the same time recycle TLC. 

For the rest of the lesson, I felt it went well.  I had planned to ask them questions about mother’s day and what they do to help out, but they tried using the words that were on the board and I felt they did a great job.  They are young and at times, it’s hard to get four energetic boys to pay attention, but they were able to find the words they were looking for to answer my questions and fill out their worksheet.  In previous classes, they didn’t have too much fun reading and writing, so I tried to reduce that a lot by playing a game.  Rather than having them speak sentences, which I have been doing in the past, I tried to get them to practice on their vocabulary by playing BINGO.  I was worried that they wouldn’t have found it fun, but to my surprise, they had fun, and I realized it was helping them with their reading.  They couldn’t read and catch the words quite quickly.    

When I first started class, I was worried because my class time was reduced by 10-15 minutes.  But my next class came late, so what I thought of cancelling from my lesson, I just went with the flow.  If the class came, then I would just stop, but I was able to cover most of my lesson and they seemed to have fun with our new class style.  I really wanted to record this class, and I was already, but there were so many interruptions and disturbances that prevented me.  It took me several hours to prep for this 40 minute class, but I feel like I learned so much.  I tried to see if I could go more dialogic, but as soon as I tried, I realized there was that moment of silence and confusion, so I just made it more monologic. 

Everything was so hectic and I was so worried about this lesson, wondering if I was going to miss anything, not do anything, etc.  I had to manage my time really well, but once I started the BINGO game, I was just starting to feel at ease, and feel more comfortable.  Next time, I’m going to have to record, think of a better way to do the warm-up, and have them practice speaking more sentences, where they can also practice saying to each other (dialogic interaction).  Next time, instead of talking so much about what I did, I realize I have to record more of myself so I can see where things went wrong, and think about how to fix them.  More planning, but more reflection and corrective action!

Reflection 4 - A Sudden Epiphany

March 28, 2014

For this week’s blog, I wanted to talk about planning.  Last week, we read chapter 21 from Harmer’s reading homework.  As I was reading it, it all seemed pretty straight forward and to a certain degree, seemed like it was common knowledge.  However, last week, I was going to use the computer at the hakwon to do some work and the first thing I saw was my co-workers lesson plan.  She is relatively new but she has a lot of teaching experience.  Because we don’t teach the same students, I never really talked to her about teaching.  She started teaching students younger than mine, and I was surprised to see her lesson plan.  It was nothing complex or extraordinary, but it was well planned, and as soon as I saw it, it quickly reminded me of chapter 21. 

I then went home and quickly skimmed the chapter again.  It felt like I just had an epiphany.  It was a weird feeling.  Planning should be common sense for teachers.  I thought I was doing it.  But it got me thinking about my two speaking classes.  I never felt comfortable with those classes and felt they were a challenge for me.  But I realized right then, that what I had to do was more pre-planning and planning. 

I thought about my speaking classes and thought what my goals were for those classes.    The chapter talks about aims, long term goals, and short term goals, so that made me think about what my goals were for these classes.  They are young and they don’t have strong skills, so I don’t expect them to speak well after several months.  But I wanted them to have fun with English and practice speaking it.  I wanted them to build their confidence and have fun while doing it.  My goals were always the same.  However, what I thought of planning, was different. 

Up until now, I was pretty much going off of what the previous teacher taught and I was going by her lesson plans.  But they were very brief.  I had used those brief plans and just basically, went with the flow.  I would have some plans but they were all in my head and they were planned at the last minute.  However, after seeing my co-workers plan, and seeing the example on page 374-375, I re-organized my plan accordingly. 

For my Tuesday’s class, the main topic was sea animals, and the questions that the students had to learn were: ‘what’s that?’, ‘what do you think about it?’, ‘what are those’, and ‘what do you think about them?’.  This time, I did some more planning – thinking about more specific vocabulary (thinking what animals they would think of), how I could teach them, how I can teach those sentences in a more active way, think of a different fun, educational activity, and also think about the interaction between teacher and class.  I never thought about this aspect, but I realized that I had to speak less, and think of ways to get the class to speak more.  Either through repetition or through student-student interactions. 

Thinking more about the interactions for these two classes made me think more about my plan, and made me adjust my plans accordingly.   Because they are lower level, they would take more time reading.  So I decided to do less reading, and organize it so that they could speak to each other more, such as through more or longer activities.  I needed to do more planning, instead of only following textbooks, or old lesson plans.

Unfortunately, I did not record this week.  However, I felt after more planning, the students were able to have a little more fun and I was able to expect that before hand.

Reflection 3 - What Have I Been Doing Till Now?

March 21, 2014

Last week, I recorded and transcribed a lesson from one of my new speaking classes, but this week I decided not to.  I was going by a lesson plan that a co-worker used before and I tried to fit it into my students.  I tried to make it more interactive, but this week I got mixed results.  The previous weeks they seemed to have fun.  This week I decided to try to speak a little more and have them repeat and split them into teams.  They seemed to get more interested and involved when I gave them incentives with points.  But at the end of the class, I heard some comments that they wanted the class to finish and I may have heard that it was boring.  I realized the more monologic I was trying to go towards, they did not respond well to it.  I realized I have to try to be more dialogic and allow them to speak more and with each other.  I also have to think of different, interesting games to get all of them rowdy again. 

This week, I decided to record and transcribe a different class because I feel the first transcription I had done last week did not have enough information to do an analysis on.  I chose one of four of my reading classes to do a new recording.  I felt recording this class and analyzing it may be useful because over the past couple of months, I have received different comments and feedback regarding this one class.  It is a relatively new class and I am still trying to reach a mutual comfort level with the students.  And I feel we are slowly reaching that level.  But I wanted to analyze this classroom more. 

I recorded the last 20 minutes of the class.  They have a test next class, so after reading the text, I asked them comprehension questions on our main story for the unit.  Because this was a comprehension review, I had to ask a lot of display questions and lower cognitive questions.  I knew that some of the students needed more time to understand it more, so I tried to explain it more in different ways so that they understood, which I tried to do by asking modified questions.  

I also used more wait-time.  The students are at different levels and some may understand my questions quicker than others so I wanted to make sure that everyone was given a chance to answer.  I wanted to help everyone get a better understanding of the text so they could do well on the test.  I would wait and not ask a student for the answer until I saw more hands go up because I know giving them more time would allow them to find the answer and they wouldn’t be as stressed trying to answer or feel too competitive to answer.  When more hands went up, I wouldn’t necessarily choose the hands that are up, but sometimes hands that are not up.  If they couldn’t answer, then I would try explaining more so that that student understands more and is able to reply.  I think the type of turn taking that I used was individual nominations and invitations to bid.

I realized that I have been affirming their contributions a lot and have been giving feedback on their responses sometimes by reformulation, elaboration, comment, repetition, complimentary language, backchannelling, and paraphrasing.  I don’t know if I am misunderstanding what all these are, but I at least try to give feedback in this manner.  I have continued to try to give positive feedback so that it motivates them, builds their confidence, and of course, improves their English. 

When I was in class, I tried to ask different questions, tried to motivate them, tried to encourage the quiet speakers to answer, tried to explain more if they didn’t understand, and I realized I may have been asking more closed questions, and have been running a monologic IRF style.  I wonder if I can make this class more dialogic.  In class, I felt I did a good job in carrying out the task.  They didn’t seem too bored and they all seemed to participate actively, and generally seemed pretty eager to answer.  However, looking at the video, I realized that it may not have been the case.  They may have been more stressed as I thought. 

Recording a part of this class and analyzing it was very interesting.  I hated looking at myself but it was interesting to see.  I had many problems with this class and heard different comments over the past couple of months, but I feel things are getting better and I hope I can continue, improving my skills as a teacher.  

Reflection #2 – A Long Way To Go...

March 14, 2014

For my new speaking class this week, I wanted to review what we learned last week – the days of the week and some of the different types of weather.  There were was a lot of repetition and I tried to play games so that they would have fun and get to know me a little bit.  For this week’s class, I wanted to continue with the same idea, with them having fun, but I wanted to try having more student-student interaction.  This week’s lesson was about introduction – what’s your name, how old are you, and nice to meet you.

After a quick review, and doing it in a game format, where they were put into 2 teams, and were rewarded points.  It made them more energetic and seemed to have a good time.  Next, I wrote on the board of what we were going to learn.  I didn’t think that they would know what to say, so I wrote the question of what they were going to say on the board.  At any time if I asked them a question or asked them to repeat, if I felt that they were speaking loud enough, I would ask them to speak louder so that I know they won’t get tired or bored as easily.  Given their age, they liked to yell a lot, but I didn’t mind; I preferred that. 

Because this was just our second class, there was a new student, and all of the students didn’t know each other from the first place, today’s topic of introduction or “it’s nice to meet you” was suitable.  I tried to split them into teams and have them rotate asking each the other teams the different questions.  I tried to reward them points and after when I felt they got used to it, I told them I would take away points if they didn’t remember any names (although everyone remembered everyone’s names).

Overall, I felt the students had fun today, the new students got along well, and there was more student-student interaction, where I felt they were not too familiar with.  However, after reading the different articles and seeing myself in the recording, I realize that there are so much to learn and there are so many different methods of teaching.  I realized that what I’m trying now may not work for long.  Children always need to have some kind of change so that they stay interested. 

When recording, I decided to point it at myself because I didn’t think the students would have been able to concentrate, and also due to the time constraints, it would have been time consuming otherwise.  So I just recorded without the students really noticing.  I realize that some things may be working in this class, but the dynamics of my other classes are a little different.  I notice already that all this reading for the course is making me think of things that I never thought before.  It’s making my feeling of being scared and nervous in teaching this class, to a good nervous, challenging feeling.  After looking at the video, I realize too that what I think and feel, may not be quite be the same as what is actually happening.  There is a long way to go…

Reflection #1 – My First Class...

March 12, 2014

I currently work at a hakwon and I’ve been teaching for about 1.5 years now.  Life as a teacher wasn’t planned.  I came to Korea originally on vacation.  Then what turned into a summer program, turned into a full time job.  I have been teaching mostly reading classes to grade 4-5 students.  I’ve had some writing classes in between but now they have given me speaking classes.  The issue is that these speaking classes are for 9-10 year old children.  They don’t speak English well and I am not allowed to speak Korean.  So I know it will be difficult to communicate with them.  Another issue is that because they are young, they need to have fun in learning something.   I personally have an introvert side as well as an extrovert side, but teaching actively and making it fun is quite of a challenge for me.  If they are not having fun, they could easily move onto a different hakwon.  One of my responsibilities in these speaking classes is for them just to have fun with English.  If they have fun, they will stay motivated and interested in learning from their other classes.

I started a 9-10 year old speaking class last week.  I was very nervous because I know how much effort I had to put into these classes and I had to have fun with them while speaking only in English.  This new class was formed by two other classes, so both classes didn’t know each other. 

WARM UP

For this class, I had to continue teaching from a book that the previous teacher had used.  The topic that I had to teach was the days of the week.  I taught them: a) days of the week b) Question: What day do you like? Answer: I like _______________  c) Weather: stormy, windy, rainy, and sunny – Today is _______.

My plan was to write the days of the week on the board and have them read the days out loud together.  I know if I had asked them individually, they would be more scared and shy of answering.  So I wanted them to read out loud, scream if they wanted to.  Then I would put them into 2 groups.  There are 6 kids so I put 3 in team A and 3 in team B. In teams, they would read the days of the week together.  I would have them read together, and then I would slowly erase some of the words (for example erase Mon in Monday).  They would still repeat the days from Monday to Sunday.  By the end, they would have memorized the days of the week by constant repetition.  To help them stay motivated, I would reward them with points (generously) in any way I can.

Next, I would ask them what day they like. I would ask them individually and then have them ask each other.  By now, I hope they would feel a little more comfortable with my and each other.  Then for the weather, I would show pictures of what stormy, windy, and rainy, and sunny looks like.  I would ask them what today’s weather is like and they would respond by saying “Today is _____________.”  All questions I would write on the board for them to read and guided answers would be written on the board.  I would ask them what each day is and if they like it or not. 

By the end of the class, for content, I hoped that the students learned the days of the week and the different types of weather.  But most importantly, I hoped that the students had fun. 

AFTER LESSON

After completing the lesson, the class went better than I thought.  They had more fun than I thought.  Teachers told me beforehand of what the students were like.  The plan with the days of the week went well.  They were actively participating and liked to scream out the answers.  They also memorized the days of the week well, whereas when we started the class, they had difficulty reading them. 

For the question of what day they liked, they couldn’t answer quickly.  They took a lot of time trying to figure out what day they actually liked.  I wanted to ask them individually and then have them ask each other, but because of the time constraint, I only had time for asking them individually.  They were very active and loud at the beginning, but I noticed that the energy was starting to slow down a little bit.  So then I taught them the different types of weather. 

I showed them the different pictures by posting them onto the board and write below what they are.  After several repetitions, I erased the words, and they were able to slowly memorize the words.  By this point, I was over my class period, so I couldn’t complete my lesson.  I just taught them what they were, had them memorize it, and asked some of them what today’s weather was like and if they liked the different types of weather.  I couldn’t ask them all individually. 

Although I couldn’t complete my lesson, I feel this class was successful because they seemed to have a lot of fun.  That is the most important thing for me with this class.  Next time, my plan is for more individual interaction between each other.