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!!!