I realized about one month ago that a couple of my students were simply not absorbing any of the vocabulary words they were learning. After a couple of disappointing review sessions, I resolved to maintain a set of flash cards for all of their vocabulary words--a habit I forfeited after realizing how tedious it was to keep up cards for a dozen different classes. But JiSu and Guen Woo needed it! I also started to crackdown on the unfinished homework problem.
I'm pleased to say these simple efforts bred spectacular results. At first, the vocab quizzing cost us nearly twenty minutes of class time. I started setting aside difficult cards for second reviews, but gradually the second review pile receded. Then tonight, JiSu whizzed through her flash cards, and I couldn't contain my happiness. I ran around the desks and gave her a good shoulder squeeze, telling her how proud I was.
Recent wedding plans have forced me into forward-thinking, but when I leave work these days, I wish I didn't have to give up teaching my students. My evolution as a teacher is something that makes me laugh and smile. It's sort of this comic strip in my head.
In the first box, I am a scared and lonely cartoon. My inner monologue says something like "Please like me, kids. I'm nervous and alone!" During this phase, I acted pretty weak as a teacher because I felt pretty powerless in general. I prayed just to get through each day of classes.
In the second box, I'm sort of an entertainer--like the ringleader of a circus or a magician pulling new tricks out of her hat to wow kiddy eyes. My thought bubble in this box says: "You thought yesterday was fun. Wait until you see what we're going to do today!"
3rd box: I'm noticing that their amazement should be no substitute for a lack of learning. Plus, I'm running out of ideas. I waver back and forth between carrots and sticks, but decide carrots are easier and tear-proof. My speech bubble: "I'll give you one piece of candy if you do your homework, two pieces if you answer this question, and heck, if you're a good little boy, then we can eat the whole bag and play UNO for twenty minutes of class." (I'm hyperbolizing, but you get the idea.)
4th box: My class room is a zoo because of my easygoingness, and I'm a bit dumbfounded. "How did they become such monsters?" Thought bubble to follow: "O...I made them that way."
5th box: I decide it's time to be a disciplinary, even if some kids hate me. Speech bubble: "This is English class. If you're not here to learn, then 'na ga!'" That's Korean for "Get out!"
6th box: I'm finally comfortable being a disciplinary unapologetically. I've figured out a few things about rowdy boys and whiny girls, and more importantly, I've learned that planning a successful lesson is different from teaching successfully. Patrick informs me that I should test the students at least once per month to make sure they're really learning. Funny, it should take so long for someone to mention tests to me. I start initiating flashcards and regular quizzes. My classroom games change from UNO and Go Fish to jeopardy review. I guess this is the box I'm currently in. I had a few teaching moments today.
I tried to explain to SuJung the differences between see, look and watch. See is the general ability of the eyes, look is directed toward one object or person, and watch is directed toward a moving object. We watch TV and baseball games. We say "Look at me!" but "Watch me dance!" We looked out the classroom window, and I told her that I could see the market, the street, the fence, the cars--all in my peripheral vision--but that I was looking at the tree.
In another class, teaching was more of a chore. I got frustrated when a couple students couldn't remember to conjugate for he and she in the simple present tense. It seemed as if they were just slapping a sentence in their notebook without much thought. I ditched my lesson plan and drew a giant chart on the board with I, You, He, She, We and They on the left side and six different verbs written across the top. One by one, the students rolled dice to determine the pronoun and the verb, and then wrote the correct form for each on the grid. Anytime they conjugated for he/she, for example, "she studies," I asked them to color in the box if the verb contained an "s" at the ending. My hope is the long repetitive task will drill into their brain--I play, and you play, and he plays the piano. Tune in next week to see if it works!
For a different class, I've asked students to answer the question, "Why do we study English?" for homework. We made a list of English-speaking countries. Then I asked them to come up with three famous Korean people who use English in everyday life.
If my current comic box had a speech bubble, it might say something like: "English matters. So learn it!"
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