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.