I think I’m finally starting to figure out this teaching thing.
Part of me thinks it’s ludicrous that they throw us into a classroom in a
foreign country with no training of any kind and expect us to be good teachers,
but another part of me is a firm believer in praxis: the idea that we learn
best by doing. Indeed I have learned quite a bit these past few months, and
starting fresh with a whole new group of students has driven this point home to
me rather forcefully. Six months ago I was lucky if I could hold half of the
students’ attention for half the classes, now 90 percent of the students are
staring raptly at me for 90 percent of the class.
I think there are three main contributing factors to my success
this semester. The first one has absolutely nothing to do with me, but the fact
that the school decided to cut down on my class size dramatically. Whereas last
semester I was expected to deal with 30-40 kids per class, this year I have
about half that. I cannot stress enough what a big difference this makes. There
is absolutely no way to engage 40 rambunctious middle school boys whose English
levels very from three words to conversationally fluent. Especially in a language
class when this is the first time many of them have been exposed to a native
English teacher who doesn't speak their native tongue and whose main goal is to
get them speaking, not memorizing grammar rules for a test!
The second two changes have to do with me and what I have learned.
Firstly, I am just more confident about standing in front of a group of people,
speaking slowly and calmly, cracking jokes and engaging students with my
prosody, body language and gestures. This is something that comes naturally
with practice in public speaking, and although I am an outspoken individual, I
certainly had plenty of qualms about public speaking, sometimes even becoming
visibly nervous answering a question or giving a presentation at my university.
After six months of doing it every day it has become second nature.
The final change also has to do with me, but is a much more case
specific type of knowledge. I understand my students. That is
to say I understand Korean middle school boys. Not that they are all identical,
far from it, but they are a distinct culture group with sub-classes and
prototypes that I have learned how to engage. Keep in mind that I don’t give
grades, so it’s completely up to me to keep my students on task and entertained.
Here’s an example of how I’ve adapted my mindset and methods to
better fit my audience. Last year I was reticent to use a reward and punishment
system. I am a firm believer in drive being influenced mainly by autonomy,
mastery and purpose as described by Dan Pink, and I certainly learned best not
when I was promised a carrot or a stick, but when I was internally motivated by
the material or my own goals. Furthermore, since my class consists mostly of
fun student centered activities and games, and because my students clearly thought
I was a cool and interesting individual (mainly because I played soccer with
them at recess), I figured it should be easy for them to pay attention and get
involved.
But I was wrong. After 15 years of discipline based on incentives
and deterrents, students did not have the slightest idea how to respond to my
relaxed college professor mentality, and so they misbehaved. Nothing drastic,
they are really very good kids, but they would talk, they would refuse to do
their work or participate in activities, they would sleep, and in the end I
would be teaching to the five or ten best students while the rest of the class
went to shit. I learned in my Fulbright orientation that this is pretty common,
but that didn't do much to comfort me, I knew in a way it was my fault.
I also learned that they are reallllly good at filling in
worksheets. Hand them a crossword puzzle, or put a paper in front of them with
blank spots in it to fill in and they are back in familiar territory. So this
year I used that to my advantage. Let me take you through my first lesson…
(I've attached the worksheets at the of this entry)
“Welcome to English class…Here are my three rules, what is a rule? *규칙* Good! It’s written there on the board in English and Korean, please fill in the blank spot on your sheet. Ok, rule #1, no talking while I’m talking, what does “while” mean? There it is on the board; fill it in on your sheet. 1st offense, ten push-ups, let me show you how to do a proper push up. 2nd offense, 30 second plank, this one’s great for your core abdominal muscles, maybe by the end of class we will all have 6-packs. *hahaha* 3rd offense checklist, I write your name here and then tell your homeroom teacher and when school ends you have to stay for 5 hours and write about what a bad boy you are. *oh teacher no!!*, 4th offense you will be asked to leave, what is leave? There it is on the board” I open the door and wave, “byebye!”
The kids ate it up. They were all laughing or silently swooning over me within the first few minutes. “Ok rule #2, do your work. I know English is really hard, learning a new language is always difficult, but please try your best. If you have any question that’s great, I love questions, raise your hand anytime and ask me. I’m sure many other students were wondering the same thing. Even when class is over, come see me! I’m here every day, 830-430, watching soccer videos, come ask me about English class, another class, 어마 and 어바, your 여자 친구, whatever *hahaha*.
The kids ate it up. They were all laughing or silently swooning over me within the first few minutes. “Ok rule #2, do your work. I know English is really hard, learning a new language is always difficult, but please try your best. If you have any question that’s great, I love questions, raise your hand anytime and ask me. I’m sure many other students were wondering the same thing. Even when class is over, come see me! I’m here every day, 830-430, watching soccer videos, come ask me about English class, another class, 어마 and 어바, your 여자 친구, whatever *hahaha*.
Also, please do
not be afraid to make mistakes. What’s a “mistake”? Good fill it in please. I
know in some classes mistakes are bad, but I think in a language class mistakes
are very important. You can’t learn a new language without making many
mistakes. I know we have many different levels in this class, some people are
very high level, and some people are very low level, so we will all help each
other and learn together. 괜찮아?”. At this point I pause for my
co-teacher to translate and make sure they all understand this. I try not to
use translation too often, but with stuff like this that I really want to be
sure everyone fully comprehend its sometimes necessary.
“Ok, Rule #3, be
respectful, what is respectful? Good. By now everyone should have filled out
their sheet, good, good, good, ok my friend here hasn't written anything.
Do you know all these words already? What is respectful? Oh, you don’t
know? Please fill out your sheet. Ok who does know all these
words? Quiz time, what is blah blah blah (I can always find someone who already
knows all the words). So my friend here just answered my question correctly, so
I will give him one Alaitz Dollar. One Alaitz dollar can save you
from push-ups. So say my friend here is talking, and I say hey! Why
are you talking?? Push-ups! He can give me his dollar, *mime taking the
dollar* and he does not have to do push-ups *oh teacher very
good*. OR he can save his money, until he has five dollars. Five dollars
can get you a piece of candy.” *I pull out a bag of candy and wave it around
for them to a chorus of oohs and*. It’s all about knowing your audience.
“Everybody
understand the three rules? Ok good, today we are going to introduce ourselves,
first I will introduce myself to you, then you will introduce yourself to me.
So I tell them a little bit about my family and hobbies and then have them turn
their sheet over and I explain how to fill it out and go over a couple of the
most common grammar mistakes I see using the sentence “I like play computer
game”.
Soon the kids are working quietly and I can go around providing
individual assistance. When one student finishes I have him read his paragraph
aloud to me, help him correct the mistakes and then sit him down with a student
who is struggling, reminding him not to write for the other students, just to
talk with him and help him understand and write for himself.
When there are five minutes left I give my helper students a dollar, and invite the brave souls to come up to the front and read what they wrote to the class in exchange for a dollar. I swear last semester I couldn't even get the students to read stuff they wrote aloud to me, assuming I could get them to write stuff, but now in every class multiple students of all levels are eager to come and practice their public speaking skills. Some lower lever students even stay after class practicing with the higher lever students so they can read to me free of charge, and I've been known to receive cheers and applause when is start and end class, and even sometimes even just walking down the hallways. It’s surreal.
When there are five minutes left I give my helper students a dollar, and invite the brave souls to come up to the front and read what they wrote to the class in exchange for a dollar. I swear last semester I couldn't even get the students to read stuff they wrote aloud to me, assuming I could get them to write stuff, but now in every class multiple students of all levels are eager to come and practice their public speaking skills. Some lower lever students even stay after class practicing with the higher lever students so they can read to me free of charge, and I've been known to receive cheers and applause when is start and end class, and even sometimes even just walking down the hallways. It’s surreal.
Perhaps the most
gratifying thing however are the little things, like am no longer left with a
classroom and trash can full of worksheets. Without being harangued all my
students now take their work with them, so I can at least pretend it meant
something to them and that they will review it at their leisure by choice, not
just to prepare for some pointless exam. If only I didn't have to teach the
same class 44 times (half the students means twice the classes) life would be
pretty good.
As an educator and environmentalists the idea of imposing strict
regulations to ensure discipline and printing out thousands of papers to
guarantee participation seems totally banal and prodigal, but I guess it’s all
for a good cause…And that’s the number one thing I've learned in Korea:
cultural adaptation. Sometimes you've just gotta follow the norm to reach
people, an onerous adjustment for a candid rebel like me with strong moral
convictions who has never been one for fitting in to get by. But I guess that’s
just one of many luxuries we have in the US, varied cultural heritages which
bring with them many different customs (and many different foods), allowing for
us to choose which ones agree with us on different occasions.
1. NO _____________ WHILE I AM _____________
IF YOU ___________ THIS ___________...
1ST OFFENSE = 10 ____________
2ND _________= 30 SECOND
____________
3RD OFFENSE = ______________
4TH OFFENSE = YOU ______ BE
________ TO __________
2. DO YOUR __________
3. BE RESPECTFUL
Vocabulary:
Rule = ____________
Talk = ___________
While = ___________
Break = ___________
Offense = ____________
Leave = _____________
Work = ____________
Respectful = ___________
(side 2)
Hello! Today we will introduce ourselves!!
My name is Alaitz
teacher. I am from the United States. My favorite hobby is
playing soccer. My favorite food is hamburgers. I like cats. I
don’t like cold
weather. In my free time I like to play guitar and go hiking.
Now tell me about yourself!
What is your name? ____________________
Where are you from?
____________________
What is your favorite hobby? ____________________
What is your favorite food?
____________________
What is something you like?
____________________
What is something you don't like?
____________________
What do you like to do in your free
time? __________________
Now please write your answers in a paragraph
like I did above...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When you are finished please draw me a
picture :)
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