LISTENING/SPEAKING CLASS CLIMATE
I’m really glad I had time in a listening and speaking class, the teacher made it VERY relaxed for the student, I though. I wonder how? Part of it must be her personality, a biiiig part of it, part of it must be their comfort with each other (basically 2.5 cultures in the room so there were critical masses of similarly situated peers), and I’m guessing she did thing at get them active with each other. If I had more time, I would have had them reflect on that … Which reminds me, I wonder when the school will share with me the results of the surveys the completed on my teaching. I also wonder what other aspects of the situation allowed for what seemed like such a comfortable vibe.
WRITING INSTRUCTION: FROM ONE-ON-ONE TO GROUPS
I’m looking forward to the writing session though as well. I feel that I have a uniquely prodding but enriching and engaging style one-on-one with helping students edit their writing word-by-word (grammar, word choice, transitions) and have seemed to notice their gains over time. So my challenge is to figure out how to balance that intense granular focus with a more big-picture (rhetorics, logic, enumeration/illustration, organization, voice/flow). I know that things can often/quickly become a spelling/grammar/word-choice whack-a-mole game. So it will also be important to translate some of the skills I have worked on in the last 4-5 years one-on-on with groups.
NEXT STEPS
I think I’m ready … Or at least I will be, after this coming week of catch up on video-viewing, lesson plan postmortems, reading up o. Writing, collecting some theory notes, hitting the library for some research on rubrics, and a little work on my FLT final project (I’m considering revamping that, but I do need to respect time, I’ll just summarize what I have Monday or Tuesday and go from there). A long list, I know but I have 8 weeks and its pretty engaging and I just need to break it down and meet deadlines. So. later today I will peruse the ESL book and look at my FLT project pieces.
Wish me luck!
Great blog you have going here ~ from a fellow teacher
Hi Gwen, thanks for the compliment. What do you teach?
5th graders!
Wow, That’s like the upper limit of my patience, then it comes back like around 10th grade … a little. Are they ESL students? Hey, what are your challenges lately and how long have you taught?
I’ve subbed since 2007 and tutored since 2008 also plus did a 2-month stent with college prep ESL students (ages 18-35) last fall Disasterous! But also enlightening about teaching in ways and gave me a real kick in the pants/life lesson on a FEW things!
I’m challenged with sequencing I noticed in a few lessons I’ve done recently [wrong sequence in retrospect, or things go out of sequence when rubber meets the road]. Grading of student work is also a challenge, even in some situations where I thought things were rather straightforward and when I had modeled what was expected.
Thanks for this reflection. I think your comments about the classroom atmosphere are really important. Much of this is down to the dynamics that the teacher facilitates. It’s funny, though — I think I do more or less the same stuff every session, but sometimes I have a great rapport with my students, and sometimes it’s like getting blood out of a dozen stones. So, it’s not just the teacher! But you’ll have the opportunity to watch next session from day 1 as another teacher sets up the classroom ethos and expectations. Be sure to reflect on this important aspect of teaching.