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.