ICC Micro Teaching Reflection

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

-Ivy Baker Priest

I like to start these with quotes, because it is just more fun to have a goal or theme in mind when I am writing these. This is not the last micro teaching, but everyone must feel like the end is coming. So, I found the above quote to be very fitting for this reflection. ^^

For my micro teaching, I was very embarrassed. I couldn't believe that I just started in the middle of the lesson. I had been practicing what I would do, I practiced how it would be said and when I got up in front of everyone I just started in the middle. I couldn't believe it and I was flustered.

I didn't handle it very well, and I started to repeat myself, saying "restarting, my fault..."

I felt like I had messed up really bad, but looking at the video, I realized that I was the only one who thought I did terribly and repeating myself. 

In my speech to students I feel like I am a little stilted. when I speak, the sentences sound like there are breaks when there shouldn't be. I want to emphasize what the key parts of a sentence are, but it makes me sound like a robot. 

I have been struggling to find a balance between over emphasis to help lower level students and speaking like a native speaker and not like a robot. 

In my next class I feel like I should speak simply and quickly. Not breaking in between talking, but not speaking so much as to hamper understanding. I am not sure if that will be successful by next week when I have to teach this again. 

When students were in small groups I feel I did a good job of helping to guide conversations. I asked the students what their answers where and I took note of who missed an important detail. Some students were more difficult to keep on task, due to my presence immediately causing a silence to fall on the group. I quickly had to move to the other side of the room and try to listen to them from there.

Next time I should have the students jot down some notes from their partner or make a star next to the words that match their partner. Simply to get them to listen to each other more and give me a quick visual for understanding. 

The one thing I would redo if I had the chance would be to redefine synagogue. One of the students was not content with the definition and I would like to reemphasize the use of "Like a..." to help foster a better understanding of the word. Like a church, is better than Jewish church, which I did accidentally say. 

That being said, I feel I did my best to represent the cultures fairly and evenly for this small lesson. 

if I had more time in the micro teaching I would have liked to have the students change pairs and see what matches and what is different. Then at the end have them compare it to their own culture.

Thanks for reading! ^^

Who are you and why am I reading this?!

 Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.  - John F. Kennedy

 This week I was working specifically on giving directions to students when giving a listening or reading activity. I remember that we talked about in class that having students have an end goal keeps them focused and helps them to take notice of the important details they need.

When teaching this week, during "Meet the World" the mandatory all Korean culture video, I gave the students a goal for listening.
The target language for the lesson were "What do you want to ______?" "I want to_____."
The culture part of the video was displaying three different games from around the world.
I told the students (and wrote on the board with blanks) Listen, and think about "What do you want to play?" After the video is finished answer "I want to play ______" and "Because _____"
After the video finished I had the students turn to their partner and tell their partner what game they wanted to play and why.
When everyone was finished I chose random students and had them tell me what their partner wanted to play and why. When it was time to switch to the next person I had the student with the ball choose another to answer by asking the question. "What do you want to play?"

During this lesson I noticed that students were paying more attention to the video while it was playing, listening to each game as it was being introduced and slightly nodding their head during the one they would choose. (I noticed this with about 1/2 of the students, not all)
Then when I gave the instructions for them to share with their partner, they listened for the details and asked more clarification questions to make sure they understood their partner if they were called on.  (Have to find a different motivation for listening to their partner besides being rewarded or avoiding punishment. T_T )

One of the major draw backs I had during this lesson was getting the students to remember to ask the question when they passed the ball. Most of them did it if reminded, but this will take more practice to get them to do it naturally when passing the ball.
Another draw back was that in a class of 32 children the asking each other when passing the ball was too focused on one child. The rest of the children did nothing except wait for their turn to come.
If I were to do this again I could see breaking them apart into four groups and having them do an 8 person circle where they pass the ball and ask. The only draw back there would be the fact that I can't watch all groups at once and it would be hard to make sure all students ask and answer.

I will definitely be giving students a goal next time they have a listening or reading activity. It helps them to focus and makes it so they notice the key details faster. They are more able to identify where they got the information and how.

I was also trying out using open ended questions for the textbook activities. This is extremely hard as most of the textbook activities have a set answer. I have tried only asking the students how they figured out the answer rather than what the answer is. I am still working on this, so I will blog about it more in the future. So far it is being hampered by the students lack of confidence in answering a question without a set answer.
I hope with more examples and practice they can become more comfortable with my questions and the ability to think about how they think. BUT as Adam always says...MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED! :)

EzCam

Hello, everyone!

Today I am happy to present the EzCam as used in my school.

 This is a device that plugs directly into your computer with a USB port. It is about 7 inches long and 3 inches wide. It folds up easily as seen above and can fold out as seen below.

This device has many uses it can record video, magnify images placed in front of it, and take pictures. 

How is this used in my class, you say? Well, in my class it is used for two reasons. One, we have the students see exactly what I am writing or doing on a paper, and then can easily follow along or understand my directions. Another variation of this is when I have students come up and show their work to the classmates. As seen below: 

The second use is recording role plays. When students are given a story to role play, they are told that it will be recorded. This makes them very motivated to succeed, because their role play will be seen outside of the classroom. I have had homeroom teachers request videos from the role plays to use in different activities. Many times this device gives the students an opportunity to see themselves as we see them.

Why would I use this? As stated before, this is huge motivator for my students, to be able to make something with their role plays or their written paper work is seen as a new experience they want to test out. When given options to be video recorded or not, most students want to be recorded and they want the videos played back later for them to see their classmates and themselves again.

This sounds golden! Why WOULDN'T some one use it?
This is still computer software. As such if the computer you are using is slow it will take a LONG time to load the camera as seen below.

Some students also have a huge fear of being recorded, in my classes at least 1 or 2 students don't want to be recorded. If you use this technology in your classroom you HAVE to allow for the option to not be recorded. This goes double for showing student's work on the board. I usually only use it to show new things the students are doing, like underlining key words. Or drawing a picture of what is happening in the sentences. DO NOT use this for showing mistakes of students.

Also, the mic of the video recorder is located on the camera. So if you students are too far away from the camera they will not be heard. The cord is a bit short measuring only at 3 feet. So if you want to make it mobile you will need an extender.

In my classroom this has increased participation and helped me facilitate more understanding during direction time. It allows for Dual Coding and different MIC techniques. For the students who need it turned off I can simply fold down the camera when they present and open it back up for those that want it. This allows me the freedom to make student videos without having to ask permission to use the one of two cameras my school has.

I recommend this for anyone with an electronics budget and for anyone who has a large display tv in their classroom.

Don't touch my stuff! (Just kidding)

For this week I want to share on the good experiences I have had in my class room with sharing my identity with the students.

Before I start though, I would like to give some background information.
When I first started teaching in my school, I was only working with two different co-teachers, one of them I only saw once a week at best and the other dictated how most of my teaching took place.
She was a good teacher herself, constantly changing her practice and such, trying new techniques and overall doing her very best to try and teach English to her students.
BUT, she would not allow any talking in the classroom that she deemed "not good for students"
I would normally agree, but this included: talking about any action movies, discussing comic books of any kind, talking about games, or talking about anything to do with things outside of pleasant school life.

I had a few discussions with her about how we were supposed to let the students use the language, if they couldn't talk about themselves. (most of them watched movies, played games and read comic books) She said we were to tell them to be quiet and use "proper English" like the textbook.

In my class the students would ask me about things I liked and what I would do outside the classroom. I was told to lie and say that I only read books, studied and cooked. My co-teacher was very strict on this rule, I sometimes made games or had students create sentences on their own, and if they wrote or said anything she didn't like, she would mark it incorrect.

She moved on a year and 1/2 ago, but I was still very nervous to "break the rule" in my class until 1/2 through last year.
At first I would slip in some pictures of action movies, ("I can jump" with actions stars jumping out of the way). When the students reacted positively, and my new co-teachers didn't react negatively I put more and more in my lessons.

One of the biggest steps I finally took was the put my money where my mouth was. I recently bought a set of books (just one as an example) and presented it to the co-teacher in charge of the library. These are all leveled readers, but they focus on the characters from the Avengers. I presented the books and with support from my co-teachers I was able to to get approved to have the school buy the entire set of books for the library. When they come in, I will be announcing it to the students.

I also ordered a set of Doctor who comics. And have gotten permission to have them in my classroom for extra reading. (these are higher level, but all the other books I have are low to mid level, so it is a good fit.)

I used to play league of legends as well. (I was a darn good Carrie Annie or Carrie Miss Fortune if you are a player too)  When the students found this out, it made it so the lowest level students would come running into the English classroom and ask me questions about what rank I was (Bronze T_T) and what characters I play, and if I liked their characters. (I hated Dr. Mundo :P)

In the current classroom environment I have found that sharing a part of you with the students really helps to open them up to speaking English. This is done in two ways (that I have noted) 1. They are more willing to talk about themselves because they have their own personal meaning attached to the language they learned. 2. They are more willing to talk to you, because you are not keeping your distance in a fake manner that all students know.

I would encourage every teacher to share your interests with your students. We are here because we are different, don't try to hide and blend to what you co-workers want you to be, it will only hurt your teaching practice.

Dollar saved is a dollar earned.

As mentioned before, I have a co-teacher who studied and has certification in TEE. This week we worked together to plan a new activity for the students.
The activity was called "Find your partner", as you can guess the goal of the activity is to find your partner as many times as possible.

For the activity there are four steps: first, students would get a card with a character on it and an interest. They would then have to find the character that matches them (Mario goes with Luigi, Pororo goes with Eddy) They would then find their partner, introduce themselves (because no one can see their card but them) find out the other persons interest and then introduce their partner to the teacher. When they could successfully introduce their partner, they would fill in their chart (to keep track of their pairings) and get a new card. The students with the most partners and checks by the end of the time (5-10mins) would get a sticker or leave first (depending on co-teacher)

For this activity, I wanted the students to practice using the phrase "I'm interested in ____." and be able to understand and notice the key information from when their partner spoke. (What are they interested in, and have it be remembered.)
All students in the classroom were able to make at least 2 pairs and introduce their partner. Most students got around 4 or 5 pairs in 10 minutes.
The students who made few pairs were the students who were naturally shy. Many of the girls in my class were hesitant to be the first ones to speak. Luckily, the boys in the class were very competitive and would initiate many of the conversations in the classroom in hopes of finding their partner quickly.
In the future, I will have to find a way to make the girls in the class more comfortable with speaking first, but I am unsure as to what activities would encourage risk taking behavior.
 
Before this activity was done, my co-teacher and I had a meeting about how the directions would be presented to the students. She suggested having a flow chart on the board of dialoge the students could use, based on if they match or not. I suggested authentic dialog that would happen for two people meeting. Some of the dialog couldn't be changed due to it being important for the next day's test, but most of it was flexible.
Talking with her I found that simplifying my directions and getting the most meaning out of the fewest words was the best. 
We settled on four directions for the activity with a role play/model for the 2nd direction to add clarification.
She wanted the format to be all directions given by me and then she would check their understanding in English after.

1: Get a card
2: Find your partner
3: Check with the teacher
4: Get a NEW card and fill in the chart. (the chart was drawn earlier in their notebooks)

The new directions were taken slowly and I had the students repeat each direction as I introduced it. I would hold the card up for the first direction. For the second I asked the students who Mario's partner would be. Then I showed the two cards coming together when I said partner. I then showed a model of the dialog on the board of what I expected the students to say when they checked with the teacher. "This is _____. She's interested in ____."  Any variation with the partners name and the interest was deemed acceptable.

After the directions were given, my co-teacher checked details I had given the students for each step: "How many cards do you get?" "When you find your partner what do you do next?" "What do you do to get a sticker?"
When the directions were given this way, the students were faster in understanding the objective of the activity and their role in it. With a more confident role I found more students were more likly to use more dialog than given, since they felt comfortable in what they had to do. Some of the introductions changed to: "This is my friend, _____."

The one thing that really helped my in being successful in this activity was spending more time on directions, both outside of class with my co-teacher, and in class. Explanation of the directions with all student questions and comprehension checks took a total of 8 minutes, but it allowed for 10 minutes of activity where the students were the ones talking and using the key phrases correctly and confidently for the whole time.

I believe other classes I teach could benefit from an increased time on directions and negotiation of comprehension with the students. As my co-teacher and I agreed, if we spend the time now to explain the activity, we can do something similar in the future with less time on directions and still get the same positive results. Time spent now to introduce activities will in the long run, benefit the classroom as a whole.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

For this blog I will be reflecting on my micro teaching,
mostly because I have not been teaching this week and have only been
grading piles of paperwork, doing loads of renewal paperwork, or on
vacation. :) Not much in the area of teaching to reflect on this week
sadly.



My teaching style hasn't changed that much, it
is still too teacher centered for my liking, but I have reduced the
AMOUNT of time I take in the class for myself. This micro teaching had
more student talk than the last one, with specific examples being with
the students asking each other the main question and answering each
other. With students guiding the answers to what I wrote on the board. I
did like this change, because it gave me some freedom in what I had to
say. I didn't have to explain everything, because they were the ones who
came up with the answers.

The thing I do have trouble with, when
it comes to student answers, is the need for guidance in small groups. I
try to make it so the students will naturally come to the same
conclusion I did before the lesson starts, but some groups need more
pushes in the right directions during small group time. This can be due
to one student having a stronger opinion and overriding the group, or
just a lower level group that focuses on a side part of the lesson as
important. This is not any fault of the students, but it makes it so I
have to be very careful how I word my questions and how much I should
predict what kind of "other" answers I will get to the questions I
pose.



For the white board. I did use it much more than
last time. I was able to even write down the answers the students gave
me on the board. I believe that gives them a sense of ownership over
what I write. I even incorporated the use of  different colors to focus
in on what the main idea or answer I wanted was. I am not sure if there
was a different way I could have done this, but I do feel there is room
for improvement when it comes to transitioning my students from talking
to each other to white board writing and discussion.



All
of the students used a sentence to ask each other the question, but
that was very manufactured. When it came time to do the asking and
answer to each other in pairs, many students fell back on short phrases
and one word utterances. (this is very typical of my normal classes, not
just how native speakers speak to each other) I feel when speaking to
each other that speaking in phrases is okay, so long as the meaning is
clear (and they are always speaking in English).


 I had three
different times when I spoke more than two sentences before letting my
students speak. This was in the beginning when starting out and I felt a
need to give context to my students for the phone calls. This is also
when explaining what we were doing for the writing and listening part of
the activity. I also spoke more when I wanted to explain the focus
point of my lesson. (What they look like)


I could have reduced
these with checking the student understanding (Do you remember what 911
is?) Or just jumping into the situation and having them fill in their
own context. I also could have cut down the teacher talk by asking the
students why I would color another part in red, and having  them come to
the conclusion of why.



I feel overall this
mircroteaching went MUCH better than last one. I felt that more of the
class was focused on the students. The students were more in control of
what was focused on and what they chose to say to each other. I was
better able to check in with students personally during the lesson. I
was also able to better direct the flow of the class due to knowing how
each group was doing.



Unfortunately...John's camera's
sound went weird during the recording. So you just have to look at
beautiful me with messed up sound. I will post the video, but all you
will see during it is MIC techniques and how I addressed the students
with body language.

All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players

- Shakespeare

This is the blog I have been meaning to write for a WHILE. In this blog I wanted to look at the language my co-teachers and I use when giving directions.

One of the biggest problems I have with giving directions is timing. I am unsure of when I should give directions. I want to tell the students what to to as soon as we start an activity, but then they need to understand each piece (vocab and roles) before they can do the activity and I want to explain everything at once. 

"This is a pass the ball game. When you hear the music, you will pass the ball. When the music stops, the person holding the ball stands up." (directions)

"When the music stops the group says "Say hello to the class" The ball person says "Hi! I'm ____. I'm interested in _____" The group answers "Nice to meet you!" 

"The ball person should look a the screen. There is a picture. Say what matches the picture."

"You get points for listening and speaking. 1 point for listening, 1 for speaking."(each piece)

When all is said and done, I find that I have so much information that I need to tell the students and no simple way to give it to them. That is, until my co-teacher A took over one class and re-did my instructions.

I wish I had recorded it. (hindsight is 20-20)

For every direction she gave she had a student rephrase it for her. If they didn't understand a direction she would break the sentence apart and explain each piece until they got it. 

She used simple English that didn't dumb down the main message. One of the key things she does is gives the students a clear thing to DO at each step. 

"First, you will choose one item. How many items? Second, You will make 4 stories. What will you make? 3 lies and 1 true story. How many lies? How many truths? etc." 

The students understood what they had to do and how they could do it. 

She would use all English to explain, she is a certified TEE teacher (teaching English in English), and works on her credentials all the time. She is trying to become a master TEE teacher (one that teaches others how to teach in English). She was able to make input comprehensible without using L1, using the techniques we learned in class. It was simply amazing to see it at work.

I am always talking with her during class, changing what I will say to the students. "You said this, how about this?" We offer each other tips on what to say and how to make the classroom a more well oiled machine to help us and the students get the best out of it. (She was also the co-teacher that first approved my station work for class and let's me try more novel approaches in the classroom) Sadly I only get to teach with her once a week this year. (She was my main ct last year, 16 classes together a week)

I believe this is because I have built a rapport with her and we are able to better read each other. She understands what I want to happen in the classroom and helps me to make it a reality.

On the flipside,  I have had some strange interactions about classroom English with my co-teachers. When ever they speak English in class they seem very ashamed. They will talk to me after class and tell me that they apologize for how they spoke and that they wish they were better. This happens with every co-teacher, even co-t A who has amazing classroom English! 

This week I talked with one of my co-teachers and they told me that they want to mimic my speech exactly. They were pointing out that they have different sentences for the same meaning 

I say "Do you understand?"

She says "You got it?"

The students in her class understand BOTH phrases, so I told her there is no problem with saying it one way or another. She told me that to speak better English she should stop saying anything that is different from how I speak. 

I tried convincing her that we have different voices and that's okay, but I was unsuccessful. 

I am not sure how to build up my CTs' confidence in their English ability.

That's why I quoted this blog with Shakespeare. We are all acting and trying to build our identity as teachers. One place to really focus on is the classroom language you use and how that builds your identity and theirs.

A little light in the darkness

“Don't curse the darkness but light a candle.”
- Brother Andrew

I use this quote because this week has proved this point the hardest.
I planned to use my station work activities for my sixth grade class and see how it went, improving upon my directions and using MIC techniques, but it didn't happen.

On Monday night, I was in a lot of pain. I could barely sleep, but I still wanted to go to school the next day.
When Tuesday came, I was in no shape to go to school. I rushed myself to the hospital and texted and called my cts about my condition.
I only write that to explain what amazing things happened in my class while I was gone!

My co-teacher announce to the students that I would not be in school that day, because I was very sick.
She used the phrases from the book "Liz called me this morning. She said I have a stomachache, I can't go to school today." At first the students laughed because they thought it was one of our role plays about the lesson. (we use role plays to motivate the students and introduce new vocabulary)
Then when she said she was serious the students couldn't believe it. They looked in the hall way and the little room and when they discovered that I was not there, they were sad. ("When is she coming?" "What's wrong?" "Is she okay?")

My co-teacher went on with the lesson, but then when they got to the song in the book, the "Get well song" one of the students suggested that they should practice it and video tape it. And send the video to me while I was at home being sick. Out of seven classes, 2 classes agreed made a video of themselves singing the "Get well Song" with a whole class "GET WELL SOON LIZ TEACHER!" at the end.

My co-teacher sent me the videos from the classes and I watched them from my home. In the video the students were trying to hard, and many of the students who never sang before were singing the song.
I understand why they were doing this, but it still made me happy to see how motivated they were to sing English so that I could hear them.

When I came back today, many students who never speak English were very excited to see me. I got asked all the questions we had been teaching in the book "What's wrong?" "Are you okay?" "What's the matter?". I also got many of the phrases we had been teaching for medical advice. "You have to rest." "Take this medicine" (luckily none of them gave me any medication...) and the best one of the day: "You look bad! Get some rest."

It was very refreshing to be able to speak to the students about my absence and have them listen intently  and understand what I was saying.
I brought in some treats the next day to thank them for their well wishes and I thanked them all for helping me to feel better.

One big thing that really hit me when writing this is the eagerness to use the language they have learned. They all said something, even if it had been said many times before.
It seemed like they were so eager to use the language because they finally had something they felt mattered to the conversation. They genuinely wanted to wish me well, and they genuinely wanted to know what was wrong with me, so they used the English they learned to speak.

The students were my little light when I was feeling sick this week. :)

I know this is more of what we have been reviewing in class with making listening and speaking meaningful, but it was just such a stark contrast to the regular classroom English, while still using it, that I felt I should write it down.

I want to attach the video, but I think my school has a policy against video that is directly of the students' faces (my classes are a more muddy area, that its not the students that are the focus...)

New start to a New day

“I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.”
― Steve Maraboli

This is my second attempt at writing a blog. I have a two page draft of another blog written up and saved, but I feel it was too full of negatives about the administration for me to post in good faith. So, let's hope I get this done with more efficiency this time.

This week I tried a new activity in my regular classes, station work. It was a review lesson of all the material. We had 4 stations set out across the room, with 4 groups of students. Red group would start at station 1 and blue group at station 2, etc... After 5 minutes the groups would switch to the next station.
At each station the student would use a different set of skills. In station 1 it was spelling. How do you spell math? (prompt written in Korean), with key vocabulary used in spelling. The second station was to use pictures to make three sentences. The pictures were all about key expressions or words from the lesson. The third was a sentence ordering game, the students would look at the scrambled sentences and rearrange them in the correct order. Station four was a create your own sentence station. There were no pictures, just three questions that the students had to answer in their notebooks.

All but 2 or 3 students per class completed this activity. I was very happy with how much the students worked together at each station. As I walked around the room I overhead student's spelling difficult words for each other and identifying words for the picture cards. All of the students were eager to do the activity too! Some students who don't usually respond during normal text book time were very engaged with the hands on parts of this activity.
They loved touching the picture cards and moving them around to make a sentence. They would move some of the cards around, open their book to check and then move some more cards around until they were satisfied with the sentence they made.

One thing I have to change is how I set up stations. My room is in desperate need of more tables. Over the years, through use and movement, we have lost over 5 tables. So there is barely enough tables to seat every child. I will need to contact the music room or the computer room to get extra tables and chairs if I want to do a station lesson again.
The students were very flexible about not having a chair to sit at for some of the stations, but I saw some of them were uncomfortable with not having a place to sit down and do the work.

 Another problem I had was the explanation of directions. It was very difficult explaining the concept to the students of having each group start in different places and move every 5 minutes to the next place. It took about 8-10 minutes to fully explain it. If I do this lesson again I think the students will have a easier time understanding the concept, but it was just so difficult this week and I felt really lost when explaining.

My co-teacher seemed very happy about this too. She requested some more materials that would be similar to this lesson. I am hoping to get approved for more of these types of lessons in the future.  That is a huge barrier that is hopefully over come.

You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.

“You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.” - Babe Ruth

Here I am again.
I am happy to say that my classes from last week have improved. This week there was no violent occurrences and no instances of nasty nicknames for either teacher in the classroom.

As I stated last week, my coteacher and I had a long meeting that resulted in this plan:
1- Watch a bullying video
2- Reflect on bullying video
     - How does the bully make you feel?
     - How does the bullied person make you feel?
     - What would you DO in this situation?
3- Discuss the answer to questions, focus on question 3. 
4- Give the students strategies for how to help as a community in bullying situations.
5- Move on to new rule for bullying situations: 3 strikes and you're out. 
     - First warning 
     - Second warning
     - Student goes to homeroom (or little room, depending on homeroom teacher) and completes a paper (depends on homeroom teacher and coteacher's previous decision for the lesson)
     - When the student finished the paper, they come back to the class.
6- What can get a strike, discuss and explain questions that can't be asked and what sentences can't be said.
     - Had to focus this as an American culture unit to satisfy the administration part of paperwork.  
     - Age, weight, money, politics, appearance.
7- Why we learn English
     - Due to students complaints about why we learn English I made a PPT about why we learn English and had them follow along filling in reasons on a worksheet. Then they glued the worksheet into their books. 
     - When they complained about why they learned English at all later, I could tell them to reference the sheet.

I had to spend an entire 40 minute lesson doing this. It was very interesting to see the student's reactions to question three. 
Most students said they would do nothing or ignore it. They said it was none of their business to become involved. Some students said they would tell a teacher, but not talk to the bully or the bullied person, but they were a minority.
I talked with the class and I discussed how the classroom is our community and we should help one another when there is a bullying situation.

The students seemed very shocked that they should be held responsible for each other. I told them what I would do if I saw something bad happening outside. I would call the police or offer help if it was safe.

The student's were also shocked at what I would find offensive. It was a large discussion and many questions were asked to me about it. 
I told them that constantly asking the weight of a person was seen as very rude AND that offering "advice" was also seen as rude. (You should cut your hair. That skirt is ugly.)

During the why we learn English part of the lesson, students where extremely surprised to see how MANY people speak English in the world. They also learned of all the different jobs that require English.
One of the most surprising and asked about was the fact that K-pop stars usually know a good amount of English. (Even if it is scripted)

Many of the students seemed to enjoy the lesson and many students had their preconceived notions challenged. 
I did have to use the strike system for 2 of the students, and the first time it was interesting, but once the student was out of the classroom for a short time, it gave the rest of the class time to reset back to normal.

The next class I had with my biggest challenging class was much better! 
The students told my co-teacher and I that they decided to assign someone to "be in charge of" the biggest bully in our class. If the bully hurts another student then the one in charge will scold them and take care of it in the homeroom after class.
I was shocked they discussed my class in their homeroom and decided to do that on their own.
As I said to Kevan "I put my faith in them, but I was worried my risk wouldn't pay off." 
My faith in myself and my classes ability has been renewed and I couldn't be more proud of my classes. 

Now that I have tackled the beast that is classroom management. I will move on to the next challenge of ever changing paper work in my admin. work. But that is for another blog.

A rock and a hard place

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
- Rene Descartes

This week has not been a good week.
I write this blog reflection, because as much as I try to write about other things in a reflection blog, I simply cannot.

My first dilemma in my classroom is the relationship between my students, my co-teacher and me.
One class this year has been especially difficult in teaching this year. To put this in perspective I teacher about 440 students a year with 8 classes in fifth grade and 7 classes in sixth grade.
One class, we will call it class A, is not a bad class all together, but 3 students in it, actively try to disrupt the classroom. In class A, these students come in and immediately try to change their seats so that they sit next to each other. Then when asked to move back, they will argue with my co-teacher in a very aggressive tone.
I don't understand the exchange, but it is very loud and very angry sounding. When they do go back to their seats, they will then try to grab or slap any student who sits near them. When I move them away from others so they can't reach they will leave their seat and yell or insult me. ("You smell! Big nose!")
I wait for them to stop yelling and I give them a choice, they can either finish English time now, or at lunch or break time. They will agree to finish it now and then sit back down and listen for a few minutes before they try to hit or grab other students.
When they are trying to grab or yell at other students this riles up the class. I usually have the students put their heads down at this point and wait for them to be calm for 30 seconds before we resume.
From what my co-teacher says, this gets worse when I am not there. The 3 students take to insulting each other and the teacher. They also run to the open windows to scream out of them during class at other students. 
From what my co-teacher has told me, they insult her appearance and her English ability, to the point of giving her a nick name that mixes the words b**** and her name together. They also ask her increasingly private questions and complain if she doesn't answer.

The reason I call it a dilemma is because at the moment I can only see two solutions: changing students relationship to the classroom and/or changing how I teach the classroom. (spoiler: the answer is probably both)

I have talked with other teachers in the school on how to best handle the situation with this class and these students, most of teachers just tell me they are a lost cause. Or that they are like that with every teacher in the school.

I had a meeting with my co-teacher. It was extremely productive, we talked about how we both viewed the student's actions, what we believe could be done about it and what options could be done immediatly.
She said that she didn't want to be a harsh teacher, so she wanted to open up to the students when they asked questions, but felt more and more upset when they asked things like "How much do you make?".
She also thought that if we reduced the amount of tests in the classroom we could make them stop complaining.
I discussed the tests we were doing with the students and why. We decided that the students level of writing was too low for the writing tests we had, so we decided to reduce the amount of questions and refocus what we emphasized in the lesson for writing.
Once we handled why, we then discussed what we could do.
I wanted a way to remove the most seriously offending students from the classroom when they got violent or started yelling insults. I offered two suggestions. The one I wanted was to have have student go to the counseling room and write a reflection or do some sort of written work to give them a chance to calm down and come back to the classroom.
The only problem was the fact that the counseling room, due to budget cuts, didn't have a counselor this year. So, the student would not be able to be attended to, and might destroy things in the room or leave the room and wander the school.
The second suggestion was to send them back to the homeroom teacher. I didn't want to bother the homeroom teacher too much, because most of them are extremely busy with other activities and wouldn't want to have one student to watch for a whole class period.
So, my co-teacher, the homeroom teacher and I all came to a compromise. We would send the student to the homeroom teacher with a little packet of material. (this is to be decided by my co-teacher for the lesson) Once the student finishes the material, they can come back to the classroom to try again.
As a teacher, I will be having a reflection time on Monday with the class. We will be discussing what is okay to ask and what is okay to say in class. We will also be discussing what is NOT okay to say in class and what is NOT okay to ask.
Most of the students probably know this, but this will eliminate the "I didn't know not to ask that." excuses.
I also plan on having a reflection time on bullying. We will watch a short video and have the students reflect on each character, what character they want to be like and why. 

The biggest thing I am finding from this reflection is that I can be very forceful in what I believe to be right. I didn't know I could be, but my co-teacher was very passive when she talked to me and every time she suggested something, she would immediately back down from it if I even asked for clarification.
Some of the other teachers have said it is because of my "western voice" but I am unsure of how to change that. I want to be equal with my co-teacher in these decisions, but it feels as if I am taking charge of whole decisions and she just agrees with me.

How can I encourage her to take charge and build her own confidence in the classroom?
Those are the questions I will ponder this week because they are the heaviest on my mind.

A A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/difficulty.html#SV0PekFbBr8tUzYj.99

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/difficulty.html#SV0PekFbBr8tUzYj.99

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/difficulty.html#SV0PekFbBr8tUzYj.99

We are all in this together

As a public school elementary school teacher, I will always be teaching with a co-teacher. So this video is hers just as much as it mine.
For this lesson I wanted to teach the following things:
1- Underlining reading for key ideas
2- ability to find and read ordinal numbers
3- Foster use of partner for understanding and checking.

I was able to accomplish the use of underlining to find key ideas, every student was able to find and underline the key idea in the reading. Though some of the students did require extra help when it came to reading the words on the page. (some of the students are still learning the letters or how sentences are put together.) These students required their partner to speak aloud the word and point to it, or have a teacher match the number and the word ("Fourth" and "4")

Not all of the students could find and read the ordinal numbers. When answering "Read more", out of 36 students in this class, 2 of the students couldn't identify the difference between fourth and floor. (These are two students I worked with during the partner reading and answering time, there could be more that didn't understand, but I didn't catch any more at that time.)

Fostering the use of partners was very successful for this class. I want to encourage the students to ask each other questions about the reading or point out the key ideas to each other.  Some of the students were shy about asking their partner for help, but the more proficient of the pair would usually point out the key words on the page and help the other students.

As for myself...
As I analysed the teaching in my class, I notice that I do a large amount of the talking in class. I dominated the amount of talking in this class. I would like to find a way to include more student talking when it comes to reading and answer, but I am unsure of how to do so.

One of the biggest things I noticed was that I interrupted my co-teacher two times. The first time was during warm up, because I didn't hear her speaking. The second time, my hand with the TV touch pen slipped on the button for the video. I will have to be more mindful of when she is speaking and how she and I can signal when we are done and the other can speak or interject.
I asked her how she feels and what I can do, she said it is something that normally happens between co-teachers and that it is not something that I commonly do in class.

I also repeat myself  A LOT!
I will use this to emphasize the key point or word. I feel like I do it too much, but my co-teacher says that the repetition helps the lower level students to have more time to hear my sentence and digest it. She says that is helps the students to focus on the key point when I repeat it.
"Let's go ahead and open your books to page 12. page 12"

The reason I titled this post the way I did, was to bring the focus back on the relationship between my co-teacher and me. While I do lead most of the class and I plan most of activities (I teach 2 out of 3 classes each week and then she teaches 1 alone.), she is extremely important in our classes.
Sometimes it is for the usual reasons, she can translate new or difficult concepts. (examples in video: "Underline" and "Follow with your finger". )

Sometimes it is for her contribution in Korean culture. During the Egyptian part of "Meet the World". She spoke about her experience in a school house in Korea like that. I had no idea about the history of Korean schools and how they had a similar rotation system that was in place due to lack of schools! Her point of view gives the student a personal and deep connection to what they are learning.

Sometimes having her in class is just better in general. With so many students to watch it is extremely helpful to have an extra pair of eyes and hands. If I am taking care of 15 students in one area of the classroom she can take watch over the other 20. If one student needs extra attention during a whole class assignment I can count on her to go over to his/her seat and help that student.

In this reflection, I just want to make sure I remember that while I am learning and growing as a teacher, I have a wonderful resource that many teachers do not have, a co-teacher. While this may present me with different challenges, it more than makes up for it with all the benefits.

Don't be the same, be better.

"Don't be the same, be better."

As I start the new school year, that is the thought I will keep in my mind as my goal for this semester. I understand that I am a good teacher. I understand that I have some flaws that are apparent in the classroom and that is nothing to be ashamed of in this class. I will strive to be better. I will strive to use reflective practice more in the classroom and that starts NOW.

Warm Up Reflection:

I set out to make an easy to use, and modify, warm up that would be student centered. It consisted of five different questions and answers. The questions and answers varied in difficulty. The first being "How are you?" With the last being "Where are you from?" The objective of this warm up is to have students choose two out of the five questions to ask and answer with their group members before two minutes have passed. I also gave them the choice of using their own questions and answers if they felt the questions were too easy. 

I did feel that I completed my objectives with this warm up. Every student in the classroom asked two questions and answered two questions. The one part that proved difficult was the completing the task in two minutes. Some students could finish the objective in 30 seconds, but others needed about 3 minutes to ask, answer and understand. I am not sure if this was due to it being the first time they did this warm up or if they need more time in the future. 

For this warm up I used a powerpoint (PPT) with the five questions and answers (with blanks) on the center TV in the room. I also used music (piano cover of "Love is an Open Door" from the movie Frozen) as a timer for the students. I used the PPT because it is easy to see by all the students and it can be easily changed. I used music for the timer, because I wanted to foster a relaxed atmosphere for the warm up. 

One of the techniques I used for the warm up was a small role play example. I chose one student and we asked and answered two questions in front of the students. This technique is usually a good one to use, but in this case, it was not very effective. The students where confused by the original directions (out of five questions choose two) and couldn't understand what I was role playing or why I only did two of the questions from the board.  After some Q and A with the students and some translation of the amount of questions needed, four students still didn't understand and needed one on one assistance during the warm up.

I believe this was due to complicated sentences I used to explain the directions ("There are five questions, you should choose two to ask and answer with your group"). When I teach this warm up again I will be simplifying the language ("There are five questions. Choose two. Ask and answer those with your group") and doing more periodic checks of their understanding. I will ask every step of the way and then have them explain it back to me. This has worked before with game directions for complicated games. 

Another technique I uses during the warm up was to have the questions on the board to be one color and the answers to be another color. This helped the students to look at their partner during the warm up and then easily be able to look back to the PPT for the next question, or the prompt for the answer. In this PPT I used two colors, black and light blue. In the past I have used blue and orange,  but I find the contrast hurts my eyes and always pulls the student's eyes away from any text in blue. 

One of the biggest changes I want to make it a visual cue of the time as well. The music is effective, but I find that some student's don't understand when it is about to end. So if I had a bar that drained or a visual indicator of the time it would help students to plan their time accordingly. 

I got a lot of positive feedback about the music. Some students even asked me what the English name of the song was after the warm up. I plan on keeping the music to instrumental only, so it doesn't confuse or distract  them during warm up.  Most students seems to enjoy the music over the timer, and I hope to change the music each warm up time to keep them from making it into white noise.

Overall, this warm up was largely successful. It offers a lot of flexibility for the students' levels and gives me a chance to hear them speak when they first come in to the classroom. It is also a good indicator of level and ability when it comes to the key expressions of the lesson. 

One of the most surprising things I found was the amount of students that helped each other to sound out or read the sentences. Most groups of four had at least one student helping another. This was a really positive change from how little I see helping done in class. I hope to continue to foster partner and group help in future activities.