Final Reflection

One major turning point in my career as an EFL instructor came when I had returned home upon completion of my first contract. I couldn't stop thinking about my students and the life I had left behind in Korea. Even though I didn't really know what I was doing as a teacher I still wanted to go back. That one year experience had changed my life. I really enjoyed spending time teaching young learners the English language. I loved watching them develop and change over that one year period. That made me decide to go back and give it another try.

My second year I really lucked out. I met a girl named Myra who really helped me understand how to help children learn. She taught me that consistency was the golden rule with children. This makes them feel more comfortable in a foreign environment. When they know what to expect they are much more comfortable in their learning environment. Their affective filter is lowered and their motivation is much higher. Creating a set routine for them that included songs and chants really inspired them to learn more. I had great colleagues at the time that loved to reflect and share their classroom experiences. Not just the negative ones but also the positive ones. We shared many great tactics and activities that helped us improve our quality of teaching. we were also rewarded every so often by a teacher of the month award that came as a cash bonus of $250. It was definitely a nice incentive to try harder. At the end of that year I felt much more comfortable as a teacher. My values and actions were lined up with those of my students. It was a great year.

In my short career as an EFL instructor I was rewarded twice by receiving the title of head instructor. This position has helped me in terms of my own career development. Johnston mentions this aspect in ch. 6. It has made me consider my values as a teacher and has created some dilemmas in my life. At work, did I want my relationship with my colleagues to change? Were some of them going to treat me differently now that I have this new position? At my first job, one older gentleman had worked for that school for more than three years and here walks in this newbie and she gets the title. In the beginning, he gave me the cold shoulder for a while until we sat down and had a long conversation or shall I say a heart to heart.Things were much better after that long chat.

On a personal level, my family back home wanted me to return  home. What shall I do? As my sister always says: "You can come and teach ESL here in Quebec.You are missing out on seeing our niece grow up ." This makes me reconsider teaching abroad sometimes. Now that I am married I need to find a way to balance everything but with career development I can find options that can satisfy all of my needs.

In terms of feeling marginalized, sometimes I feel this from my peers who like I said previously view my job at an academy as glorified babysitting. If I look at my school, the parents and students definitely don't make me feel insignificant at all. We are well paid and respected by our colleagues and directors. The focus on making profits can make you feel this way as they would hire teachers with absolutely no experience sometimes depending on how focused the institution is on making money. I've noticed a trend over the past few years where academies are starting to realize that if they invest more money into acquiring better teachers their reputation is positively affected. A better reputation means more students which in turns means more money. Things are changing slowly in certain neighborhoods.

ICC Microteaching

The goal of the my presentation stage was to introduce new vocabulary to the students. I think I managed to do this quite effectively. I started off with a simple TD activity that consisted of the students trying to guess what the topic of the lesson was going to be. A little game of hangman did the trick. The students enjoyed it as did I. Next I used a PPT presentation to introduce the new vocabulary. Each slide had a picture of the food item and its name. To make sure the students understood what they were looking at, I asked them to describe what they saw in the picture. Students volunteered some answers and then I would give them the name of the food item. I made them repeat the word several times and then I would ask individual students to say the word aloud. This was a good opportunity to check their comprehension and their pronunciation.Next up, I introduced a game called Got It that I found in our Harmer book. I would call out a food name and the students had to quickly pick up a card from the table. The student with the most cards at the end of the round would win. My microteaching ended at this point. The rest of the presentation stage consisted of matching the food items to their country of origin. Next, do another activity to help students remember and finish by asking them what food they would like to try. That question at the end would of been the extent to which I could have a discussion with my students since they are so young.Most of the answers would of been something like 'I want to try kebabs because they look yummy'. At least the students were introduced to something new and hopefully realized that not everyone eats kimchi.

After I was done my microteaching I felt really good about my lesson. The lesson was not too hard for the level of students that I have. I was able to introduce some aspects of culture to students of such a young age. I used many classroom interaction techniques and I made sure to give them comprehensible input at all times. I checked for comprehension whenever was possible. I spoke in a clear and loud voice making sure everyone could hear me. I just wished I could of had more time to get a little further in my plan.

The one thing I would have changed is I should of laminated those cards for the activity. Some of the students got a little rough with the materials.

Overall I am very pleased with my execution of this lesson plan!!!

A Nice Surprise!!

            This week was test week for my afternoon classes.It gave me the opportunity to assess what they had learnt over the past few weeks. A few weeks ago, I had tried a new way of teaching them vocabulary. I had introduced more pairwork and made the students use dictionaries to  help them formulate a definition that they could comprehend. They also used the story to help them understand the meaning in context. Next, I spent much more time practicing and using these new words. They built sentences using these new words and I quizzed them several times over the last few weeks. Can you guess what happened. Well the majority of the students scored much higher on their test than they had previously. I can call that somewhat of a success. The way I look at it, is that I must keep refining my approach of teaching vocabulary. I know that some of my students lack motivation to do their homework and study for tests therefore it is up to me to peek their interest in class and hopefully be able to get that information stored into long term memory. I will keep working hard on this aspect because I can see the benefits of changing my approach of teaching vocabulary.

            Another key point to my reflection this week is my t-talk. It really bothered me to be told that I don't sound genuine when I speak in front of a classroom. It bothered me so much that I couldn't sleep last Saturday night and I spent the day on Sunday just mopping around instead of doing my homework. Monday, I went in to work determined to find some explanation behind this issue. I actually asked my boss if I could watch some of my CCTV recordings to see exactly how I talk to my students. To my surprise 75% of the time I speak in a normal tone and sometimes to get their attention I seem to put on a different tone. I was somewhat satisfied with my findings. So then why do I change my tone when i'm in front of my STG classmates? Why do I make it seem like it's a show....a terrible one on top of it. Is it nerves, is it lack of preparation??? I need to keep reflecting on this issue.....  

Week 13 Reflections: Making a poster

Students: First year elementary school students (8 years old).

At the end of my afternoon class on Tuesday we started to look at posters. I brought in some posters that we have hanging in our hallways to see if I could make them notice a few key points about them.

I divided the class into two groups of five and asked them to list as many common aspects as they could. They discussed it for a few minutes and then we did it as a whole group.As I nominated individual students on each team to list me some of their answers I wrote them down on the board.

-They have big pictures.

-The title is very big.

-They use many colors.

-They use 'periods' in front of the sentences referring to the bullets. I thought that was clever!!

-The picture is about the message.

The class was nearing it's end so I told them that we would be making our own poster's the following class. They were quite excited. I chose the two students who had scored the highest on their spelling test to be captains for their team. I'm hoping this will motivate them in the future to do better on their spelling tests as I plan to include more activities into my lesson plans. The students responded very well to this new idea and were quite excited to come back on Thursday.

Personally I was quite satisfied with my lesson. I had finally got my students interested in a production activity. First, by dividing them into two teams for discussion was much more successful compared to discussing it as a group. I got much more participation out of everyone than I usually do. Next time though I think I will use a numbered heads together strategy to ensure that everyone is paying attention in the group. I also need to keep introducing classroom interaction techniques to my lesson. I had a great opportunity to use T-S-S-T after their group discussion was over and I didn't......It would so much better than me individually nominating students.

The big day arrived....Let's make posters!! When I walked into the classroom the students were discussing their seating arrangements according to their teams and the leaders weren't shy of saying who was and who wasn't on their team. Usually, I walk into a classroom of ten kids speaking some Korean and horsing around. I had a good feeling about this one. I gave them a few minutes to find a theme for their poster...something they do everyday that is important. The first team wanted to make a poster about the importance of brushing their teeth. The next team decided to talk about eating healthy food.I gave them a sheet of paper (A3) That had a box in the middle where they would eventually write their sentences.It had a large border where they could draw pictures that went with their topic. They all had enough room around the table and paper to draw. One team drew some fruits and vegetables all around and the next drew some teeth, toothbrushes and toothpaste. 

In this part of the activity I was glad I was able to personalize the task by giving them the choice to choose what their poster was about. It really helped them stay focused and interested in the task. We touched a bit on the writing task at the end of the class. I helped them notice that their sentences should be kept short and that the vocabulary is important. We will complete them on Monday. I noticed that breaking down the activity into several parts made it much easier for them to understand and cope with. I can't believe that a few months ago I would look at an activity like this and try to complete in one 40 minute period and then at the end wonder why this never worked out.

Culture Quiz

This time I decide to challenge myself again. I also lead a discussion class at night that is geared to adults of various levels of proficiency.It ranges from novice low all the way to intermediate high. I work for a company that recruits individuals who are interested in travelling abroad primarily to Canada so that they can attend ESL classes and improve their skills.  Once they sign up for this program they can attend a grammar class and my discussion class for free. I can have 2 students one night and 12 the next. It all depends on how many students and registered and their own willingness to come to class.

For the past 2 weeks I had four students that were coming to class regularly. After reading the activities in the book I was very interested in the cross-cultural trivia.I thought this would be a relevant discussion to have with students that are on their way abroad.

The main objective that I have for this class is to make students feel comfortable enough to share some their ideas with the class. I don't want to pressure them to talk or else they might not attend the class anymore. I don't spend all my time correcting their mistakes when they speak or else they might close up and stop sharing with the class.

I came prepared with four copies of the trivia for my usual students.I set up the activity for them and they seemed really interested by the topic. These four students have great comprehension skills even though their speaking skills are are about average. I handed out the quiz to them and they started circling true or false. I was glad to see that they were getting the gist of the statements. Then slowly but surely more and more students started to arrive. they were late and I was not very pleased. I didn't let it show because this is an informal class that is meant for pleasure. I took the time to introduce myself as they were new students. They sat down I reviewed what we were doing and gave them the quiz. After about 30 seconds I could see the confused look on their faces. I figure they couldn't understand the content. In my head I was thinking 'Ok now what do I do?' Well I couldn't continue the class the way it was going or else it would be a complete disaster. I decided that instead of them filling out the quiz sheet by themselves we would discuss as a group where I would take the lead on explaining each statement. At this point another student walks in late and I'm just like well here we go.....I'm screwed. Good plan Julie teacher.

I didn't let that scare me away from discussing these situations with my students. By now the class size has doubled and most of these new students were probably wondering what kind of discussion class had they come to. They saw the camera and just sat silently in their chairs. I started reading each sentence and making sure to use vocabulary that they could understand but I knew deep down inside that the new students wouldn't take part in the discussion. From a culture stand point I've dealt with situations like this many times before in this class. Korean students are very shy and they need to feel comfortable with their surroundings before they join in the discussion. The camera was definitely not making them feel comfortable but at this point I was running out of time to make this activity completely meaningful to all of the students.

By the end of the discussion I was pleased with the outcome of the discussion considering so many interruptions had occurred. The students understood that different cultures act and behave differently.As a teacher I felt like I had accomplished something meaningful by talking about these differences in culture. We had some good laughs when talking about frequent touching of the arm when talking with someone of the same sex. All the guys thought this meant that the person was 'gay' while all the girls viewed this as showing signs of affection.

If I had to use this quiz again, I would definitely change the vocabulary to make sure that the input is comprehensible on paper to ensure that the discussion is not completely teacher centered. I would also allow more pair work to ensure that everyone participates. I was so frazzled by all the interruptions and at the same time I didn't want to force any of the new students to interact by fear that they wouldn't return.

Week 12 Reflections: Back on top

At the beginning of this course I was very excited at the prospect of learning all these new techniques that I could apply to my own teaching. I started implementing some of these techniques into my own classroom discourse and I could see the potential value that they had in my student's learning progress. My classroom was slowly becoming less about me and more about my students. It felt really great to reduce my t-talk and increase the s-talk. My supervisor had even noticed that my class was speaking more English. I was trying hard to make sure that all the input that I presented to my students was comprehensible by incorporating all of the MIC techniques that I had learnt in my methodology class.Everything was going well and then......

Then slowly my frustrations started to build.  The amount of tasks that needed to be completed at work just kept getting bigger. For a while I didn't even have time to sit down and think about lesson planning for my own classes. Unlike public school, where they have the chance to refine their plans because they get to teach the same lessons several times in a week, I never a had this opportunity since I work at an academy. I teach every lesson once and barely have the time to reflect on it that i'm teaching a new one. This has been the biggest frustration of all. On top of that, I was really stressed over the classroom management issues that were happening in one of my classes. I am happy to say that since one the students has quit our program things are going much smoother.

I knew when I signed up for this course that it was going to be a challenge. Trying to keep two jobs and do all of my homework was no problem at first but then I started to slack on my homework and my projects. Since I am the queen of procrastination, I would wait until the last minute to finish all of my work.I would skim through the articles just enough to answer the questions and then I would forget about all of it. Well last week was a rude awakening when I got my meth assignment back and I realized how poorly I had done. After class I though about how I could rectify this problem. Well, instead of waking up on Sunday and forcing myself to start my homework, I went for a three hour hike with my husband up to Namsan tower. Apparently it's just what I needed to get over this bump in the road. Over the past few weeks I had forgotten to take time for myself  to reflect about what was happening in all aspects of my life.

On Sunday I decided to set a goal for the upcoming week. My goal was to give more descriptive feedback instead of evaluative feedback. Since I started teaching children about six years ago I never even thought about descriptive feedback until I learnt about it in this class. Saying things like good job, excellent and good answer have always been my go to expressions. It's really hard to break habits.

Monday morning, I went to class with this in mind. During my morning warm up routine I started asking my students what they had done on the weekend.  Instead of just saying 'great or that's nice' when my student said he had gone to the restaurant with his family and then move on to the others. I started asking other questions like: What kind of restaurant did you go to? and What kind of food did you eat? and to my surprise other students started responding as well. One kid said "Teacher I also like meat." I mean it makes
perfect senses that f you engage your students you will get a response but I find it very hard to break old habits. I will continue making an effort because the outcome is just fantastic.

I feel much more positive about this whole experience compared to a few weeks ago. Look at me I even posted my reflection on Wednesday rather than late Friday night!!

Week 11: Teaching vocabulary

When it comes to teaching vocabulary to my afternoon students, my school has a set way for us teachers to go about it.

1- Give them a sheet where they practice writing the words. They do this so that the next class they can have a spelling test. Most students, 7 out of the 10 don't even bother memorizing the words and usually score between 2 or 3 on the spelling test. I find this extremely pointless.

2- Give them a worksheet that consists of the words with a space to write their meaning and then another line to write a sentence with that word. We are supposed to give them this worksheet as homework. Again, most students don't complete the worksheet and there are no real consequences to not doing your homework because keeping the students and their parents happy is the golden rule at  hagwons.

For the past few months, instead of sending the definitions worksheet home, we started completing it together in class. The first time we did this, we simply looked at the words together and I tried to elicit some form of meaning from them through a general classroom discussion.You can guess what happened. I ended up giving them all the answers. Well that was a giant fail.

The next story, I thought we could use the glossary at the end of the book as a helpful resource for defining the terms. The students really enjoyed racing to find the words in the glossary. They were so active and seemed to really enjoy this activity. After finding the word we would read the definition and some example sentences then I would ask them to rephrase the meaning in their own terms. It was difficult at first because they had never done such a task. I would call it a half fail.

I thought about it some more and this month I refined the task even more. Before the main reading, there is a short story that will incorporate the target language. I started off by making the students read the short story by themselves to get the gist of it. We discussed as a group what everyone had understood from the story. Then we looked at the vocabulary words together. We tried to find their meaning within the context of the story.This was a little rough at first because it was the first time we had looked at vocabulary in this way. We then moved on to the worksheet. I divided the class in two and they raced to find the words in the glossary. Then I gave them a minute or so to read the definition and come up with their own meaning of the word. we compared both answers and decided on a final version of the word. I was surprised how well they did. We did it word by word since they had never done anything like this before.The next class, I paired them up to write sentences together and at the end they shared their answers with the class.

I'm feeling more confident about teaching vocabulary now. I know I still have to improve my method of teaching it but for now I am satisfied with the results of last week compared to a few months ago. In the future I will consider including more follow up activities with the students to ensure that the TLC has been understood by everyone.

Week 10......Meltdown

This week went by like a flash. I didn't do much teaching this week. Tuesday, we had a field trip. Thursday, we celebrated Halloween by having a festival filled with activities, stories, and a haunted house. I was very sad that I couldn't participate in scaring my students half to death in the haunted house because I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon interviewing candidates for next March.As head instructor this is part of my duties. Each candidate took nearly half an hour of my time. I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday doing interviews.My co-teacher taught most of my classes. Then my story telling classes had to be replaced by open class preparation.

Open class season. I hate this time of year. I never understand why the parents can't just come to school and watch us teach our every day language arts classes. No, instead we must put on a 'show' that is so rehearsed it makes me sick and the students very bored after practicing the routine for like 2 weeks. On top of it, this time around, we've got to demonstrate it twice. Once to the potential new parents that might sign up for next year and then once more at the end of the month for their own parents. That means this week I had a total of one class to explain and teach to my kiddies what will happen next Tuesday morning....Oh yeah I'm sure this will go extremely well. You can now guess what I will be doing on Monday instead of teaching my language arts class. I mean the 'show' must look good so that my hagwon can make more MONEY next year.

Update on Andersen class. Wednesday afternoon a complete meltdown occurred in this class. My co-teacher was teaching them phonics or trying to do so when all hell erupted in that class. The boys just started fighting and screaming. One of the boys punched one of the little girls and then proceeded to hit my co-teacher.By the end of class, she had to call front desk to get assistance because she could not control them. You can see from the pictures below what happened.There was nothing left on the walls...nothing...everything was on the floor.

My only questions: How does this happen? How can it get this far? This resulted in one of the boys not being allowed to return to our school. Finally, the issue of money was put aside for my co-teacher's sanity. 

I'm sorry that my blog is not really a reflection of my teaching. I needed to share all these things so that you could understand that right now I'm completely exhausted and my brain needs a time out....Good night.  

Culture in a pumpkin.

This culture assignment was harder than I had anticipated. The thought of teaching culture to a class of six year old kids was quite a challenge. I really wanted to give it my best effort. Many of my classmates gave up and directed their lesson towards adults. After a hard week of work I think I succeeded.

I sat at home two Sundays ago wondering all day about how I would approach this lesson. I must say I lucked out a little at school because my director had planned an event for that week. We were to carve Jack O'Lanterns and at the same time teach our children the story behind the real Jack. I don't think my director has ever taken the time to research herself what the real Jack O' Lantern really entails.

Monday morning, I went to work and Googled the story about Jack. I was in for quite a shock. An old stingy Irish drunkard who plays tricks on the devil and is mean to the people of his town. Finally when he dies he cannot go to heaven or hell and spends the rest of eternity wandering in limbo waiting for his judgment day to arrive while holding on to a lantern. Yeah that's the kind of story I want to tell my students. Then I researched a friendlier version of the story and finally found a shorter version that could be adapted for my class.I think the version of the story I chose was somewhat appropriate for my students.

I thought about it all day Monday and came up with the idea of incorporating a basic lesson on traditions. Halloween vs. Chuseok in terms of what we wear, eat and do on these occasions. I was worried that this might be a little too hard but I at least had to give it a try. I prepared some flashcards, the story, and a simplified definition of the word tradition. I thought I would give it a go and see what happens it's a total failure then I will go home and write a new lesson plan geared towards adults.

I set up the camera in the corner and off I went for the next 40 minutes I would attempt to teach culture to my little kids. My main objective was just to get them to understand the meaning of traditions and that Canadian tradition are not the same as their Korean traditions. I explained in basic terms that traditions are things we do every year with our family. One of my students mentioned birthday parties to which I agreed because not all countries celebrate the same way. I explained that in Canada we celebrate Halloween and we went on to describe it in more detail. Next, when I asked them about a Korean holiday filled with traditions they answered Chuseok, well my little Hailey did. Good enough for me!! We went on to describe the Chuseok holiday and talk about the children's hanboks.

We moved on to the story about Jack O' Lantern. I started off by explaining how mean and stingy Jack was and the students understood by means of examples. When it came to words like heaven and hell I used pictures of an angel and a cartoon like version of the devil to simplify my explanation. My co-teacher helped me to explain these concepts to the children. Another hard issue was explaining to them the meaning of the word death again with the assistance of co-teacher the children were able to grasp the concept. The only issue here is that I have a Vietnamese boy who doesn't speak any Korean. The confused look on his face told me that he did not understand this word at all and I don't think it is my place to make sure that he understands it 100%. I am not aware of his family's beliefs on this subject therefore I simplified the issue by saying he took a very long nap. He seemed satisfied with my answer and we moved on. PHEW! After telling them about Jack we finally started the best part of the lesson, carving a pumpkin. They all took turns helping me clean out the pumpkin with a spoon and then they watched as I carved the pumpkin with a knife.

I was definitely able to capture and keep their attention throughout the lesson by using pictures and asking personal questions like 'What will you be wearing as a costume for Halloween? and What color is you hanbok?' The kids enjoyed sharing their answers with their fellow classmates. I definitely had their attention when I set down the pumpkin that we were going to carve on the table. They were fascinated by the whole process. One of students went on to tell me that she made her mom and dad carve a pumpkin with her at home the weekend after this class.

The lesson was definitely appropriate for their age as I can remember being even younger than them and enjoying this moment with my family. I think some of the concepts in the story were a little to hard for them to grasp like the devil and angels. Next time instead of directly using the story about Jack I might want to use a video of trick or treating in general and just showing them how the Jack O' Lanterns are there to help children find their way around their neighborhood to find candy. I definitely need to use more pictures or even just drawings on the board would be more useful than me talking all the time and expecting them to understand me.

Overall, the children did get an understanding that different countries have different traditions. They seemed to really enjoy themselves during the production stage on the lesson. I am very satisfied with my first try at teaching culture in my classroom.

Ohhhhhhh Andersen class....

In terms of teaching, this week was rather uneventful. My school had many activities planned which took away many of my teaching opportunities. In total, I only taught two language arts classes and the rest of our storytelling time was taken up by decorating our classroom for Halloween.

This gives me the chance to explain something that I haven't really addressed since I started this blog. I teach at an academy and I'm blessed for having such great students in my full time class. These kids are the reason why I love to teach. They are always so eager to learn and well behaved.

This brings me to my other kindergarten class. They only come for half the day meaning they arrive for lunch at 12:50 and finish at 3:45. In all my years of teaching I have NEVER experienced anything like this before. They suck the life out of me to the point that I don't even want to teach them anymore. They make me love my other class even more. They are so naughty. They are constantly fighting, kicking, punching each other, and recently they are using many Korean swear words. I feel really bad for my co-teacher (first year of teaching) because they even talk down to her. They have lost total respect for her. She has left the class crying several times and our director just chooses to ignore these issues. Money is more important I guess.I find it very frustrating and exhausting to teach these children. I can't even put in to words exactly how they make me feel.

They are all at complete different levels of learning which just makes things worse. For example, one boy can barely hold a pencil and write while another girl can read and write with ease. It makes it difficult to keep them focused on the lesson when we are always waiting for a student to finish writing. I have tried to incorporate some small speaking activities while we wait for the other students to complete their work. For example this week we are talking about food items and the students must tell me one thing they like and one item they don't like. I reward them when they complete their sentences by giving them a smiley face which they collect to get stamps and later on prizes. So far so good!! I hope this is the start of something good...I hope. It feels good to be able to share this frustration with others.

Reflections....

As I sit back tonight and watch a video of myself teaching, which is actually getting easier to do each time and I'm becoming more critical of myself, I am proud of what I have achieved over the past few weeks. Let me explain the classroom interactions techniques that I have added to my classroom discourse.

My main goal overall is to reduce my t-talk to a minimum, sometimes it's hard because I teach 6 year old students so I don't see myself only saying 2 sentences in between each student interaction but i'm trying my best to keep it at a minimum.

Monday morning I remembered that on Saturday Tom had passed a comment on how most us don't use individual nomination. I made sure that in the class I specifically called on students to answer questions. Apparently i'm a big fan of choral repetition so I've noticed. This time I did a round of choral repetition while holding my flashcards then I asked each student individually what was on the flashcard. Oh yeah I started using flashcards instead of pointing in the book, way more effective!!

T: S.J (showing him a flashcard)
S.J: A milkshake

T: Sunny (showing her a flashcard)
Sunny: A sandwich

That's how it went until I had asked all of my students. For my next activity, I spread all of the flashcards on the table and by modelling an example for the students  I said to them

T: You stand here and you choose a card and you say "I want pizza" and then you take something you don't want and say " I don't want rice" ok can you do that?

Ss: Yes!!!

T: Raise your hand who wants to go first?

I invited a student to bid by raising his hand and then after he was finished I individually nominated students until the whole class had done one example.

Next up, there was an activity in the book that required the students to pair up and ask each other questions. Before I started this class, I probably would of skipped that example either because I thought it would take too much time or because I thought my students wouldn't be able to accomplish the task. I'm not going to lie but I used to think that it would be stressful for me to get the task accomplished by everyone. I'm realizing now that good instructions and modelling are key to the success of an activity like this. The first few times it can feel like a disaster but after completing a few exercises both the students and I felt much more comfortable with such a task.

I took the time to explain the chart on the whiteboard and then did an example for them with my student S.J.
I paired them up and off they went on their own. I was surprised to see that most of them were able to do the task on their own. That gave me the opportunity to help the few that were having trouble. I felt really great that this week went by so well.

Then today I was able to see all our hard work payoff. I had telephone English with them, where I call them over the phone and we talk for a few minutes. They were able to answer my questions without hesitation and they were capable of formulating their own questions for me!!!
   

Week 6 Reflections

I just completed a fantastic week at work. Not only was I able to record my preview lesson but I also got to experience something completely new as a head teacher.Twice a year my director will observe a few of our classes and give us feedback on our teaching methods. Well this time I was invited to join her in the process. I had to observe six different classes and give the teachers feedback on their teaching methods. My first two classes I felt really awkward observing my coworkers. I've always felt like we were all at the same level and this was the first time where I really felt like I was the head instructor. Not gonna lie but my ego got a little bit of a boost this week. It felt good!

Ok let's get back to reflecting on my own teaching. I am currently trying to upload this video to Youtube as i'm typing hopefully it will be done before I am. Last Sunday, I spent a great deal of time thinking about my preview and what I would do. I took some notes and slowly started my lesson plan. When I got to work Monday morning I thought well let me give it a go. I did and I think it went pretty well. Overall I am really satisfied with my teaching.

I am proud of myself even though my lesson was somewhat teacher dominated I still got everyone in the classroom to participate in all activities such as singing and answering questions. I find it somewhat of a challenge for the lesson not be teacher dominated when teaching 6 year old students but slowly and surely I'm incorporating more pair work activities where the students must communicate with each other. I've had some great success this week with this concept. I used to think that it would be such a struggle for my students to engage in team work not only for them but for me as well but I realize now that if my instructions are clear and concise my students are very capable of achieving this task. The one thing I learnt this week was to never underestimate the capabilities of my students and my own as well. Great week at work!!!

  

Week 5 reflections

I didn't get a chance to post last week. Sorry about my tardiness. Here are my reflections.

Last week was a little overwhelming for me. It has been over 10 years since the last time I wrote a paper. When I was in school I always hated writing papers. I was never good at putting my thoughts down on paper. I was surprised once I started to write this paper, it wasn't so hard after all. I like analyzing data and putting my findings on paper. Overall I am very happy with my discourse analysis. I will talk more about my findings in my next posting.

My week was was overshadowed by this research paper and tests. By the end of the week I realized that I was stressed out for nothing. Partially the reason why it took so long for me to add this posting.

In terms of my teaching, my storytelling time and circle time went great. That class is divided into 2 parts: reading a story book and learning about the theme of the week. To discuss the theme which was transportation by air I chose to sing a song. It was a simple song that had movements to go with it. The kids loved it and responded very well to the activity.

I'm trying to limit how much talking I'm doing in the classroom and by adding these simple activities the children spend more time practicing their English. I was very satisfied with my teaching by the end of the week.

My goal for this week is to include more pair work activity for them to practice the target language. 

Week 3 Reflections & Module 1 Topic

Well this week was a short one. I only worked 2 days and Tuesday we celebrated Chuseok at school by having an all day festival. I did manage to try out the game I mentioned in last weeks post again. I simplified it to go with the words we were learning in our story book. As professor Randolph had mentioned to me last week I need to find ways to make input more comprehensible. I think I did well with this....I think

Let me explain, the story book  repeated the following four words constantly; walking, running, hopping and skipping. In the first part we reviewed this vocabulary quickly because my students already know the meaning of these words but I need to make sure that they could all do the movements. Next, I made them form a circle and also decided to review our numbers by incorporating the 3,6,9 game. Every time a student fell on the number 3, 6 or nine they had to choose one of the 4 words and say it out loud. Then all the students had to skip, run, jump or hop in place. We practice our numbers until we got to 20. We repeated the process until every student had a chance to choose a word. The warm up lesson was very successful and the students really enjoyed themselves. I will definitely try it again next week but this time I would like to include more speaking on behalf of my students. I'm thinking instead of practicing numbers I will  use sentences we learned in our language classes. Then I can tie in all of our lessons together. The students will get to actually use their sentences in a new context.

Since I've been teaching in Korea I have never really sat down and planned out my lessons and I can now see how useful this process can be. My lessons are becoming more interesting for my students.

In terms of the module 1 paper I was considering discussing the three following classroom interaction categories:

-Corrective feedback: As I watched my teaching video, I noticed that many times I just let the student make mistakes without correcting them. As a teacher I don't want to discourage them from speaking but I also don't want them to continuously make the same mistakes.

-Turn taking: I always try my best to make sure that every student has a chance to speak. In my video when i ask the children what kind of bugs do they like I forgot to ask my student SJ for his answer. I'm lucky he is not a shy student and he said to me "teacher not me."

-Scaffolding: I know that as a teacher I will always help my students when they don't know the answer. In my video I've noticed that my favorite tactic for this is to start saying the word in hopes that they can complete it.

  

Week 2 reflections

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b355/Storytelling/documents/TeachingStorytelling2007.pdf

This week I decided to try 2 new ways of interacting during my storytelling time.(talking less and including an activity)

 I wanted to make sure that I spent less time talking during class time by including an activity where the students communicated more than I did. I really want my students to interact more with me and the other students. From looking at my video, I can say that I get an A+ for using repetition as a way of interacting with my students but by the end of story time I've realized, I use it way too much.

To do this, I had to do a little research to find new ways of teaching storytelling. I went on the internet and found the following article. The link is posted above. After reading the article I had a whole new outlook about teaching storytelling. I used to think of it as just a simple activity that passed time (a filler) but I realize now that there are many benefits to storytelling.

I read over this article and I had a preference for the game called Rakan-san. Before I played this game I had to adjust the game to the story we were reading. Our story involved animals, so, what I asked the children to do was each time they had to freeze into a statue they had to choose a different animal.They each took turns and they had to guess what type of animal their classmates had changed into. They really enjoyed participating in this game.

Overall it was a success, the students spoke more than I did. We need a little more practice but that's like anything new that you try. Practice makes perfect!

I was really proud of myself because working in an academy sometimes tasks get boring and redundant. I'm really excited with this new challenge of improving my teaching. I definitely felt better after teaching story time this week.

I will film myself again next week so I can see the result of my hard work.   

My reflections

Here are my answers to the questions posed by Richard & Lockhart. 

1.What did you set out to teach?
I set out to review the story book and discuss modes of transportation.

2. Were you able to accomplish your goals?
Yes, I was.

3. What teaching materials did you use? How effective were they?
I used the whiteboard for drawing and writing and the storybook .

4. What techniques did you use?
I used the classroom interactions of repetition, comprehension check, asking and answering questions 
and assistance


5. What grouping arrangements did you use?
None we did everything together.

6. Was your lesson teacher dominated?
Maybe a little but I did get the students involved in all aspects of the lesson.

7. What kind of teacher student interaction occurred?
I asked the students questions and they answered me.

8. Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
We all had a good laugh at my drawings.

9. Did you have any problems with the lesson?
No.

10. Did you do anything differently than usual?
Not really.

11. What kinds of decision did you employ?
I followed my lesson plan.

12. Did you depart from your lesson plan? If so why?
No, I didn't.

13. What was the main accomplishment of the lesson?
The students reviewed the story and forms of transportation.

14. Which parts of the lesson were most successful?
The students being able to answer my questions without hesitation. 

15. Which parts of the lesson were the least successful?
When they all speak at the same time.  16. Would you teach the lesson differently if you taught it again?
No, I think it was really successful.

17. Was your philosophy of teaching reflected in the lesson?
Yes, teaching while having fun.

18. Did you discover anything new about your teaching?
I talk a lot.

19. What changes do you think you should make in your teaching?
Talk less. Try to incorporate more games and activities.


Questions about the students

1. Did you teach all your students today?
Yes, I did.

2. Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Yes.

3. How did you respond to different student needs?
I only have seven students therefore it makes it easier to respond to all their needs on an individual basis.

4. Were students challenged by the lesson?
I think they were. I asked them many questions.

5. What do you think students really learned from the lesson?
They learned the vocabulary words related to transportation.

6. What did they like most about the lesson?
At the end they got a worksheet and a coloring page which they love.

7. What didn't they respond well to?
Nothing really.

Questions to ask yourself as a language teacher?

1. What is the source of my ideas about language teaching?
A lot of my ideas come from the teachers I had growing up. I`ve also picked up many new ideas from some of my coworkers.

2. Where am I in my professional development?
I`m still at the beginning stages. 

3. How am I developing as a language teacher?
Im developing by taking this course and always being open to criticism and new ideas.


4. What are my strengths as a language teacher?
I`m fun and passionate about teaching. Im good at making students feel comfortable and willing to speak.

5. What are my limitations at present?
My teaching knowledge is very limited.My vocabulary needs some improvement.

6. Are there any contradictions in my teaching?
I always want them to communicate more but many times I`m the one doing all the talking.

7. How can I improve my language teaching?
By trying new ideas and keeping up-to-date with the new trends in teaching. 

8. How am I helping my students?
I try to make them understand that even if you make mistakes, I won`t judge. Just try to speak.

9. What satisfaction does language teaching give me?I get so much satisfaction when I see and hear my students interacting with the new vocabulary that we have learnt. My biggest satisfaction is when a student starts to read. I know I have changed his life forever. I love it!!

Teaching video-Circle time and stoytelling

Alright everyone, after spending this week trying to figure out all of this technology, I think I've finally got it.

I teach 6 year old children at an academy near Hongdae. I only have 7 students in my classroom. Each week we have a theme and a new book for our storytelling time. This week the story we were reading was entitled Ten Cats Have Hats and the theme was transportation by land.

I consider myself very lucky to have a small class size. I really enjoy the more intimate learning setting compared to public schools. Another part of my teaching that I find awesome is the freedom to choose my books and activities for this class.
  

I'm new to the blogging world. In this first ever post I just want to mention how excited I am about this new adventure we have all embarked on together. It's been a bit over ten years since I've stepped into a classroom as a student. I'm a little nervous and overwhelmed but I know if I take it one step at a time I will succeed. I'm looking forward to working with such fantastic and interesting teachers.