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.