ICC Mini Lesson Reflection

My team chose the German cultural practice of Polterabend to explain to the class. The lesson was divided into 3 parts based on Moran’s stages of learning.  Each team member took one aspect of the Cultural Knowings.  Evalyn taught Knowing About, I taught Knowing How, and William taught Knowing Why and Knowing Oneself.  Evalyn showed the Ss pictures of smashed plates and then activated the schema of the Ss by blending these pictures with pictures about marriage and couples.  I believe that our lesson provided unusual cultural information to the class, and as a result was interesting to the Ss.  I presented the Ss with role cards so that gave a brief character summary that guided the Ss towards understanding the different feelings people could have at a Polterabend.  Due to the time constraints the Ss were able to have a short example of plate smashing to experience a cultural behavior. Finally, William asked the Ss to think about the benefits of people having a Polterabend, and then asked the Ss to compare this pre-wedding cultural practice with pre-wedding cultural practices in their country.  This covered all of Moran’s Cultural Knowings and provided the Ss with opportunities to interact and learn about this cultural practice.   

Was the cultural content objective and free of over-generalizations and stereotypes?

I believe the cultural content objective of this lesson was to learn about an interesting cultural practice, but even though the behaviors were strange (smashing plates and having the bride and groom clean it up).  The small c cultural feelings associated to this event were not uncommon to the Ss, and are evident in many cultures around the world. People feel angry over lost love and smash plates to let out aggression.  Marriages have problems and the couple needs to work through them. The mess from the smashed plates is a visual example of problems the couple must work through together.  By cleaning up the mess the couple can feel they are a team and have a feeling of accomplishment.  During the lesson, one student (Michelle) stated that the Greeks have a similar kind of cultural tradition.  I don’t think that the point of the lesson was “Man, these Germans are crazy!”  I think the point of the lesson was here is a strange custom, but it includes small c cultural feelings that all people have.

Was the lesson well-sequenced, paced and balanced?

The lesson was in sequence, starting with Knowing About, then Knowing How, then Knowing Why and finally Knowing Oneself.  I know that the lesson was not properly paced as there were activities that were shortened.  Honestly, it was just a matter of preparation. We each had valuable parts to play in the presentation and we each had interesting information to present, but we just needed to fine tune the timing and flow of it all.  We accomplished our stated goals for the lesson plan, but the TLC could have been a little more focused in the lesson throughout the change of teachers.

·         Know what “Polterabend” is and where it comes from.

·         Understand when and how a “Polterabend” is held.

·         Understand the small c cultural reasons for holding a “Polterabend”

·         Use and produce the TLC (‘Wh-‘ questions with ‘can’ and ‘do’ simple present).

·         Further reflect on the “Polterabend” practice and relate it to their experience.

Was the content and language appropriate for the student profile and proficiency level?

When I was making the character cards for the role play I wrote down things like “He has social and emotional issues” then after creating the six characters I went back and realized that that information was above our selected Ss level of High School Grade 1, Novice High/ Intermediate-Low, so I rewrote that to read “He doesn’t play well with others. He gets very excited and says silly things when there are a lot of people around.”

I also changed “She has a sharp tongue”, which is an idiom to “She likes to talk about people and make them feel bad.”  Maybe also as a teaching team, we could have focused our language to be more consistent with each other.  I think the content was appropriate for that level in the fact that there was the aspect of smashing things. Thinking about weddings is not something high school Ss are focused on; however they are aware of what goes on in them. In the Korean culture there are “wedding factories” everywhere, where a couple can walk in wearing shorts and t-shirts, get fitted out in a wedding dress and tuxedo, have a ceremony and reception, so the Polterabend would at least have some crossover cultural value.  

Was it student-centered? Did it provide ample opportunities for students to produce language (especially TLC) in meaningful and contextualized ways?

The lesson plan, in its entirety is very student centered. There is a great deal of interaction and activities involved.  The lesson that we actually taught was not as effective due to time constraints. We missed some interaction opportunities (William’s Pyramid Activity and my role play) and by skimming through the lesson we lost some of the focus on the TLC.

What aspects of the lesson plan and implementation were you pleased with? Why?

Learning about culture is fun, but actually getting to practice the culture is even better. I know it was only a short instance but getting to smash the plates and cups was fun for me and I hope it was fun for the Ss.  The part of my presentation that I thought flowed the best was using the powerpoint to elicit answers and “Wh- questions” from the Ss.  (e.g. Answer: You can bring things to smash.  Question: What ___________? What can I bring to the Polterabend?). This is something that I do a lot in my classes and it is a comfortable part of my teaching style. 

What aspects could be improved? Why and how?

Firstly, if the TLC is simple present then my role play activity may not have been the best choice. My initial thought was do the role play and have the Ss discuss what happened in the Why section with William.  We could have changed the TLC to simple past “did” and that could have worked.  The characters could then explain how they felt when the groom’s best friend said that he loved the bride. Why did you feel that way? Secondly my instructions introducing the role play were bad. I could have been more clear in the way I presented them, but I was really rushed for time and I wanted people to smash plates.  For example I could have done a teach back – I could hold up the cards and say “We are going to do a drama, I will give you a card. This is your character card. Don’t show it to anyone.  Read your card, tell your name and who you are

T: What am I going to give you?

S: a character card.

T: Who do you show it to?

Ss: nobody.  Etc etc

Thirdly, TLC focus between the team would have been a little better if we had met to smooth out the details of our finished presentation. We had a very productive meeting to discuss our plans, but we needed a little more time to meet for the finished product and fine tuning.

Shaky Scaffolding and Limiting Factors

Yesterday I needed to get a group work activity completed for my Module 3 paper, and after one day of teaching and getting some feedback from two intermediate high classes, I settled on my topic.  Limiting factors (things that restrict a population from growing e.g. lack of food or water, extreme temperatures, and predators etc).  Over the past two weeks I have been teaching about Ecosystems and the Energy Pyramid (mouse eats grains, snake eats mouse, eagle eats snake). The information in the book while very detailed, there seemed to be an understandable flow.  The task for the group work was to identify a limiting factor in a particular ecosystem (Arctic Tundra, Tropical Rainforest, Desert and Ocean) and give an example of its effect. For example - The lack of water restricts plant growth in the desert.

What I thought was a logical flow from predators eating prey limits the number of prey, to limiting factors in ecosystems, turned out to be a tough hill to climb.  I reviewed the concept of poisonous red tide algae, where the fish eat the algae and die and then there is no fish for the sharks to eat, so some sharks may die.  I had 4 Ecosystems and 4 groups, I normally give out one category to each group, but one of the students asked if we could use the Red Tide as the Ocean example.  I said yes and that threw me off and so instead of allocating one ecosystem per group, I just said do them all (3 more ecosystems and 3 more examples).  This class is very smart almost advanced level but they had a great deal of difficulty getting through this. Most groups only had 2 out of 6 answers (2 answers is their normal task).   So what I thought was the Eiffel Tower of Science Information Scaffolding, was actually a condemned shanty on the beach.

With my first dismal failure for the day I focused my efforts and tried to be more clear in my explanations to the next class of intermediate high/ advanced students, and after watching the video of that class I realized I have fallen back into a lot of teacher talk.  That said I accompany my flapping gums with a lot of gestures, but I know now that a simple written example on the board, with me eliciting why it is there from the Ss, would have been so much more successful.  Something very amusing happened in my second class. I asked for an answer from a S who spoke softly.  I couldn't hear her, so I put my hand to my ear to show her "Speak Up".  As she told me her answer bit by bit I wrote it on  the blackboard (BB). I was acting out her answer using MIC and she picked up on this, and mimed the last part of her answer to me.  I cracked up!! That was awesome!!

I realize now that even with my intermediate high/ advanced students, they have the cultural behavior of nodding their head "Yes, I understand", when they really mean "No, I don't understand".  They understood the meaning of the vocabulary word but they had difficulty applying the concepts into meaningful sentences.

   

Flowery pronunciation

I recently taught a lesson on flowers, their parts and how they are the reproductive organs of the plant. It all seemed a straightforward lesson until one of my students read a word from the flower diagram.  I showed a picture on a powerpoint slide of a flower. There were arrows pointing to different sections of the flower and the  Ss had their TB's open with a named flower diagram in it.  My S read the word as  "pee tahl". This is L1 interference as he has a mental connection (pe = blood or rain, and al would have an ahl sound like "ahl bap" a spicy meal).
I corrected his pronunciation and got the class to repeat "pet  ull", but then I looked down at the diagram to see the word "sepal" (the green leaves that protect the budding flower) on the diagram as "petal"  which for all intensive purposes has the same kind of  form  (Consonant) CeCal, then I thought about the place name "Nepal" which has a completely different pronunciation as well.  Honestly, I have rarely if ever used the word "sepal" before but I knew that it was not pronounced in the same way as petal.  I wasn't 100% sure of its pronunciation, but it turns out I was a good guesser :)

My problem now is encouraging my Ss to be excited about learning and speaking English when there are confusing pronunciations like this which would activate their affective filters, and have them clam up.   I need to focus my preparation and think like my Ss so that I don't gloss over aspects of the lesson, thinking they would already know that, or know how to pronounce it.

Teaching about perverts and swear words

Before I begin I just wanted to say that I am innocent of all charges.  My purpose was to teach some science vocabulary to my students and that was all.  I just didn't allow for this shocking but amusing culture clash. The lesson was about life cycles of animals.  I started out with the life cycle of the butterfly. The TLC was the word "Metamorphosis".  Since science words are more often than not multisyllabic, it has been my plan since the beginning of the semester to break the words down into morphemes and teach my Ss those word parts. If they notice the word parts in a new vocabulary word then they can guess the meaning of it.

Anyway, back to "Metamorphosis". I wrote the word on the BB like so  meta morph osis and got my Ss  to read the word out loud.  I asked if anyone knew what the word meant, and one of the responses I got was "byeontae" which is "pervert" in Korean.  I thought he was just being silly or rude for the heck of it, but I confirmed with my other Ss, that in Korea, the word "metamorphosis" is a word used to describe a pervert.
It wasn't exactly the point of the lesson, but it did create an interesting cultural aspect to my class.

 Another answer I got was "body changes" so I wrote that one on the BB I explained that "morph" meant "form " and I wrote that underneath morph on the BB.   I asked the Ss, "If 'morph' means form, what do you think 'meta-' means?"  They guessed it meant "Change".  I drew a semi circle over the top of the two morphemes "meta and morph".  I explained "metamorph is a verb meaning "change form".  I asked them to guess at what  "-osis" meant and they had no idea, until I gave them the hint of it changes the verb into a........."Noun!"   I also explained that "-osis" meant "the process of", so metamorphosis means "the process of changing form." (Thinking back I think that metamorphosis would apply to transsexuals).

Moving along in the lesson we learned about animals that lay eggs.  I asked, "Where do the embryos get their food from?"   The answer was they get food from the yolk of the egg.  I asked my Ss, "What is a yolk?"  It was at that point that one of my favorite students flipped me off!  I was like what the heck is wroing with my class today?????  After flipping me off, she kindly explained that "yolk" in Korean means "swear word".   So instead of asking my Ss, "What is a yolk?"  I was actually asking them "What is a swear word?"

I guess the lesson here is random episodes of weirdness will attack your classes when you least expect it, and the best plan is to go with the flow, and maybe there is some good conversational fodder for the class.

So without any further yolking around,  I bid you all adieu

short week + long lessons = frustration

This week has been a short one because of Korean Labor Day, which means I have only 2 periods to teach the lesson instead of 3. This particular lesson is four pages longer than all the previous lessons. There is a lot of vocabulary in this lesson. It starts out with the reproduction of moss, and deals with seeds, spores, flowers and finishes with pine tree reproduction.
Something happened yesterday when all the teachers and students were outside practicing activities for the Children's Day carnival, which will be on Saturday morning.  The two Korean homeroom teachers were explaining the activity to the Ss, when a gust of wind blew up and sent a mini tornado of pine tree pollen all over the poor teachers.  About 20 students looked to find me in the crowd and yelled "spores".  I had been teaching them about sexual and asexual reproduction in plants, but they haven't learned about pine trees yet (It's pollen which is sperm, therefore sexual).  Thanks God for the visual aids :)  In addition to this I have been buzzing around my classroom acting out the pollination process and using a ppt of pictures explaining this and getting one S to ask another S the question.  (TSST)
Every week I have to make a homework sheet of review for the lesson.  Marking this weeks homework sheet gave me some really great feedback of what the Ss understood and what needed reviewing. I was able to go through this information in my next class, but this means I have to make up time next week which is also a short week.  I found this week to be very frustrating given that I had to do a GW activity and had precious little time to do so. This week has not been so great for some of my students, given the volumes of vocabulary this lesson had.  Lots of TT and IRF and not great lessons = VFT (Very Frustrated Teacher)

Signs of the Apocalypse

My standard week is 2 1/2 teaching lessons, and the last half of the 3rd class of the week, I play a review ppt game with my Ss called Pirates of the Classroom.The Ss really love playing it because it is very interactive and noisy. I also really enjoy this because I can check to see how much input my Ss have retained from my lessons.
As I complete more lessons I change the questions in the game, so my Ss get to see some questions maybe 3 or 4 times sometimes.
Anyway at the end of the 5th lesson there is a chapter review, which I thought they could do together as GW. There was 15 questions and I gave them 3 minutes to finish, and the first team to have everyone in their team answer all the questions would get a 5 point bonus. Telling them this basically served the purpose of focusing their attention on answering the questions.  This worked and they were very studious, but it was interesting to see which students were operating as individuals and which were collective in their attitudes.
This was my low level class and for the entire time that I have been teaching at my school (8 weeks) there have been 2 boys in this class who would never answer a question or talk in English.  When I asked what is the answer to questions 1 and both of their hands sprung up, I almost had a heart attack.  I'm sure that it's been prophesied somewhere that when these boys answer a question in Daniel Teacher's class that this would be a Sign of the Apocalypse. They were confident in their answers because there are 2 smart girls on their team and they had discussed the answers with them before.
It really goes to show how good that "Team Talk Time" works to encourage very shy students to participate :)

Just how C is my I?

This past week marks the first time that I have actually given my students a standardized test. It is the first time that I find out “Just how Comprehensible is my Input”.  I made two tests, one for the two high level classes (A & B classes) and one for the two low level classes (C & D classes).  I made two review sheets and I had a review class and a test class this week.  The C & D classes both had an additional class this week, as a makeup class.  This was a short week because of the Wednesday holiday, so I used this makeup class as a poster making project class, focusing on the material that we had learned in class.  In this way, the students are focused on the TLC but in a more relaxed setting.  

For the C & D classes, the 2^nd page of my review sheet was the actual test.  I gave them a 3 column box of Prefixes, Root Words, and Suffixes.  There task was to choose one of each, put them all together to make a new word (it could be a nonsensical word) and then explain its meaning to me in a sentence.  I wanted to test their comprehension of the bound morphemes that I had been teaching them.  The other question on the 2^nd page was to write a sentence telling me about “planaria” or flatworms that they had studied in their Korean Science class. In class they were very verbal and had many things to tell me about planaria and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to practice their writing skills.  This was a somewhat difficult task for some of my D class students (one girl was in tears at her poor result).  I needed to challenge my C students more, for example “Write 3 sentences telling me about planaria”.  I did tell them before the test that I would be testing them on Capital Letters, Periods, Spelling and Grammar. I wrote “C P S G” on the board before the test and asked my students what that meant and they all knew.

From the tests that I have marked so far, their grammar is pretty bad across the board. Even when the students are given the correct grammar form in the question they will change it to the incorrect form in their answer.  

For example:

“Bacteria are found just about everywhere. They can live in foods, on tables and inside our bodies.”   

Question: Where does bacteria live?

Answer: The bacteria can live in foods, on tables and inside our bodies.

So just how C is my I?  One of my D students asked me during the test asked me “What is planaria?”

His test answer was “I think it is a plant.” This was great grammar, but a completely wrong answer.  This student is active in class discussions, and I had given him this exact question on his review sheet. In my defense, his entire class was disgusted at him for not knowing what planaria was.  After chunking and rephrasing and using visuals and checking comprehension, my question is just how responsible is the teacher for the student who does not study? 

My students did well for the most part, but is that a mark of how good my MIC is or is that a measure of how easy I made the tests?  This test was definitely a learning experience for me.  What did I learn:

1: Put one class name on each test, do not combine the names on the test (eg Class A & B) because the students tell each other the answers.

2. Make the C level test more difficult than the D level test.

3. Focus on correcting grammar form in class

Beware of the Nigerians

I have been teaching about Invertebrates this week and that included jellyfish and sea anemones.  The animal family they belong to is the “Cnidarians” (a silent “C”).   The first time I heard a student say this I heard “Nigerians” and I’m like “What do they have to do with jellyfish?”  I got a kick out of the wordplay (Nigerians - Nigh dare e ans) so I thought I would use it in a review at the beginning of the next lesson.  I wrote up a whole bunch of words and morphemes on the WB so that I could use non-verbal cues to get the students to ask each other questions.  One of these words was “Nigerians?”. 

My A level students came in…..

T: S1 please ask S14 What are …..(pointing to the word). (S14 was a little confused but proceeded to answer the question) 

S1: What are Nigerians?

S14: “They are jellyfish and sea anemones” 

T: (making a game show buzzer noise) “ahhhhhh” Thanks for playing

Ss: ahhahahahhaha

T: Does anyone know what Nigerians are?

S7: People from Nigeria???

T: That’s right, (pointing to the world map in the classroom) and what word should be up on the board?

Ss: Cnidarians

The Ss really got a big laugh out of this, so I repeated this with my B level Ss and I got another big laugh J  

I’m feeling good about myself.  I want to encourage my students with wordplay and I want them to have fun in my class.

I repeated this again with my C level Ss.  I got a laugh but also a few confused looks.

S1: Teacher why did you write that on the WB?

T: because it sounds like “Cnidarians”, and I was testing you to see if you could see the mistake

S1: ohhh  (quizzical look)

I repeated this again with my D level Ss and a few got the joke, but the poor student who tried to answer the question, lost face, and I felt like crap.  I shouldn’t have done it. It wasn’t my intention to embarrass anyone, but that’s what happened. My normally very enthusiastic student, became disappointed and it’s my fault.

I learned a lesson that day. Especially with the lower levels, don’t try to be too clever, just give it to them straight.   So take my advice and “Beware of the Nigerians”.

Drinking Flatworms and One Hole Digestive Systems

I have to give the students a homework paper every week that is a kind of review of the whole lesson in the book.  The problem is I give them the homework on Wednesday and I don't finish teaching the lesson until Friday.  My kids were complaining that I was giving them homework questions on stuff they hadn't studied yet, so with that in mind,

Goal #1 was to do a quick overview of the vocab words in my first two classes, thus giving the Ss the knowledge they needed to answer the questions.

Goal #2 was to not focus on all the details in the book, as there are a lot, and I could totally get bogged down in all of this, and it would be a long hard slog for the Ss and that's no fun :(

Goal #3 Was to declare war on all one-word answers :)

As this was the first day of the month, it is National Change Your Seat Day.  This is both the most sought after day and also the most hated day of the month.  Ss beg to change their seats all month, and then when I change them they say "Oh no Teacher!!!  Why this seat????  I don't like her/him!!"   Not my favorite day, but a good opportunity for me to bust out that K-pop anthem "I don't care air air air air air'

Lesson Topic: Invertebrates and Symmetry

 I started out using a ppt with "Symmetry is........." and a picture of 3 flowers cut in 2, 6 and 12 pieces.  I was pleasantly surprised that even my lower level students were able to piece together an explanation (equal parts).

From Symmetry to Asymmetry to Bilateral Symmetry etc etc.    I introduced "Prefixes, Root Words and Suffixes" and asked what "A-" at the beginning of "symmetry"  meant, and once again they got it :)  Yay Team!

Secret Weapon #1 - I knew that the Ss had studied "Planaria" or flatworms in their Korean Science class, so they had lots of information to tell me about this.

My next slide was Bilateral Symmetry  Bi- means 2,  Lateral means "side" so.......Bilateral Symmetry is '2 equal sides."  I showed them a butterfly with a dividing line, then I showed them a picture of planaria.

They recognized it straight away, and I asked them to tell me what they knew about planaria. It was awesome.  Everyone had something to say, and then one student would "notice" the connection between planaria and bilateral symmetry. I would quiet the class down, ask that student to share his/her findings with the classroom and watch the lightbulbs turn on over their heads :)  YAY!!   

One student said planaria lives in clean water, so I went over to my desk,  and picked up my cup and drank some water. 

T:  MMMMMMmmm  yummy planaria. Did I just drink planaria???  

Ss: Nooooooooo!!!! 

(well at least I hope not).  Planaria is a flat worm and I asked them to look in their books and tell me why they would not want to be planaria. 

S:  "Ewwwww teacher, planaria only has one hole in their body, so food goes in that hole and waste comes out that same hole!" 

T:......and on that note students, I hope you have a yummy lunch!!

I like grossing my Ss out :)

Scorecard on my goals

Goal #1 - All my classes went well except for one really noisy class, whose student population are constantly interrupting me to ask questions to gain points for their team - Reading of the riot act commences next class.

Goal#2 - I did okay with my skimming the important information but I need to always be aware of this, to not get bogged down - it is sooooo easy to do

Goal#3 - I fought some good battles and won a lot.  I will continue the fight.

Go, find balance Daniel San!

I'm not sure if any of you know this, but this last week was "Daniel Teacher's Official Sentence Week" (the beginning of many truth be told, but one must start somewhere).  I wrote this on the WB and my students were asking me open display questions. S1: "Teacher, what does that mean?"  T: Does anybody know? S4: "It means we have to answer in sentences." and to stay true to my IRF roots :p   I offered the feedback  T: S4 is a genius!!"
It was gratifying to listen to my students this week, demanding sentence answers from other teams. They expect  nothing but the best (from the other teams, that is).
 Writing my research paper uncovered some not so great habits that I have incorporated into my classes:

"Teachers need to be discouraged from always ‘filling in the gaps’ in the discourse of the EFL classroom. By so doing, they may be creating a smooth-flowing exchange, but reducing opportunities for interactional adjustments and learning potential."  

Walsh, S. 2002  Construction or obstruction: teacher talk and learner involvement in the EFL classroom. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Language Teaching Research 6,1 (2002); p.20

I am a filler of gaps. I like to approach my class like a game show, and as we all know a fast game is a good game.  In my haste sometimes I have prevented other students from interacting.  Also in my defense, if I have already called on three people with their hands raised and I'm getting nowhere, I will interject the answer  I am looking for, to the disgust of the one S who actually did know the answer.    My goal is to find balance.  I want my students to have a fun class, but I also want to give them opportunities to practice their L2.  Time is not my friend.  

Confessions of a Lousy Science Teacher

 Maybe the title's a bit harsh, but I'm riding the emotional rollercoaster that goes along with being a teacher and I've just come off a mountain top and I'm in a valley at the moment.  I finished the week last week playing a ppt game that all the kids loved.  I forgot to take my textbooks and teachers guides home for the weekend and I started the week off ill-prepared.  I knew the basic ideas, but when teaching 5th Grade Science, the textbook is actually quite in depth (American 5th Grade Textbook). My cursory Science knowledge is somewhat lacking or exposed when one of my brainy students asks me a question, or asks me to clarify, when I haven't read all the fine print.
My topic this week was Animal Classification. I spent a great deal of time making game questions for the "Sit down if you can't ______" game.  I gave each of the students a piece of paper with a command on it. I told them don't show anyone your paper.  I will then ask you to read it to the whole class and they must obey what  you say.  "Sit down if you can't snap your fingers"  etc.   I was really excited about the game, and I was more excited when the kids actually understood why we played the game.  However, I spent too much time on the game and trying to get the meaning of it through to the kids, that I pretty much wasted one class. Now I have a lot of information to cover, and only one class to do it in, and all the kids will be hanging out to play the ppt game again.

I've created a nice little mess for myself - WAAH!!!!!  All this week I've been chasing my tail.  It would be nice to actually have all my lessons for the week sorted by the weekend or Monday at the latest.

Daniel Teacher vs The Midget Wrestler

Normally students walk through my classroom door and say "Hi Teacher" or "Annyong" in which case I send them back out to walk through the "magic vacuum" one more time to remove the Korean words from their mouths.  Today was a little different, however, when Will (my shortest student by a good 20cms) comes running through the door and yells "Teacher, let's fight!!"   He is such a funny little kid, but what he lacks in height, he makes up for in verbal production.

I videotaped this class (minus the opening fight scene sadly) only to find out that Will, will definitely be a challenge for me this semester.  He talks at 100 miles an hour and has no filter between his brain and his mouth.

Personally I noticed my lesson beginnings are very loose and unstructured and they eventually morph into a lesson, but I should tighten that up.  I really need to focus a bit more in the break before class starts.  I am employing the students asking students questions technique, and they are really enjoying the lesson, but I still talk too much.

The Magical Vacuum

Just for grins :)
I am pleasantly surprised at the English skills of my students, in comparison to my last school, they are quite good..  That said, we have been encouraged to not let the students speak Korean in our English classrooms.
I asked my students for a show of hands as to who practices their English outside of the classroom, out in the hallways, and around school.  There was a few hands in the higher levels, but mostly they agreed, that if they were going to speak English, it would be done in the English classrooms.

I explained to them that as they enter my classroom, and go through the door. It's  like a Magical Vacuum that sucks all of the Korean words out of their mouths and magically replaces them with English words.  I stepped outside the classroom and walked backed in saying  "Annyong Ha ---llo"  or "Kawi, Bawi , paper".  (Rock scissor paper).  The kids got a real kick out of this and have been "hamming it up" and getting quite creative with this all week :)  It really makes me laugh, to see my students being "punny" in English.

The Plague of Frogs

One of my go-to ice breakers is to make an origami super jumping frog.  It's fairly simple to make and if made well, the frog can jump pretty high.  Anyway, I am the science teacher and I thought, we study frogs in science, so it's applicable.
Little dd I know that I was responsible for unleashing a "Plague of Frogs" of biblical proportions!!  My co-workers would mention to me in a round about way
Co-worker (CW): "Are you finished teaching the origami frog lesson yet?"
Me: "Sure, why?"
CW: Because I am confiscating about 20 of them every class." (hint of frustration in the tone)
Me:  Oops, sorry.  Yeah go ahead and confiscate - I'm done.

My students loved making them, and they are doing so in great numbers.  Two students in particular have over 30 frogs each.  I guess you can't have everyone like you all the time :)

1st day and meeting students

My first official blog ever.......
Today in class I met my students for the first time.  I am the 5th grade Science teacher at a Private Elementary School.  I have my own classroom and the students come to me :)    I am still getting used to the processes and requirements of my new job, but I can already tell that this place is a LOT more organized, than my previous job.   The top two favorite expressions of my old boss were: "It is changed" (normally spoken after work had already been completed, and would have to be repeated in another format...grrr) and "It is not yet decided".  My old boss was very disorganized and thrived on creating stressful situations in the last minute.  On the first day of my new job they gave me important dates to prepare for, and also stated the busy months of the school year, so make sure you allow for these busy times by getting your work done in advance :)  All good things!

I will have approximately 100 students and in meeting them today, I took pictures of them, and will label the pictures with their names to help me recall all or most of their names.  I was happy to find 5 or 6 students that I had previously taught in Kindergarten.   They had lost their baby fat and grown a foot taller.  It was an interesting interaction for me to reintroduce myself 4 years later :)

I am for all intensive purposes in control of what I teach, which is pretty awesome.  This is a freedom that I have not yet experienced, but it will also be somewhat of a challenge given my poor time management skills. The benefits I see are being able to choose the meat of the material and leave the random bits of information that the students don't really have to know.  I was advised by the foreign head teacher, that above all my job is to teach English (just with a Science flavor).   I like this!

I employed the hand shaking attention getter device, and my students responded to it pretty well.  I also gave them the option of me yelling at them individually "HEY YOU OVER IN THE BACK. BE QUIET!!!!" , but they chose the hand shaker option :)    The levels of English classes that I met today were A, B, and C levels.  I have yet to meet the "D's" but I'll be interested to see how the "hand shaker" works with them.

Much more to do tonight
peace out