This is the second week for the second semester of my teaching career here in China. The first week went smoothly as planned. I divided the class into small groups consisting of 2-4 members in each group. The main purpose for this is for the class to be involved in an interactive classroom to have "student-student " interactions by presenting a short dialogue or role plays. I also requested that everyone should bring a notebook for their listening exercises. I have given some examples on the things that they can do in class as long as they will speak in ENGLISH. I explained these things with examples taken from the web. These are the examples:1. Short Drama/ Role Play: They are free to copy an excerpt from a movie or a story and they are also encourage to write their own play. (Example: Homeward Bound 1 when Shadow fell into a pit and Chance telling him not to quit.
2. News Reporting: They can tell something new that is happening in school, in the country or any types of information they want to share. (examples of news CNN Soulja Boy and CNN weather news)
3. TV Commercials: They can also copy a famous tv advertisement, if they don't have access to English tv channel they can translate some Chinese tv ads. (example: "I am PC" by Microsoft)
4. Interview: The group can prepare set of questions for the other member to answer. A simple question and answer would do. (Example: a CNN interview of a Taiwanese star Wang Lee Hom)
Since we only meet once a week, I have arranged two presentations for each class so that they would have enough time to prepare. To make sure that the instructions were clear I asked them if they understood me, many said "YES". In some classes, I even asked the best student to explain the instructions in Mandarin "Putonghua". When they said they understood, I thought they meant it. So when the week of orientation and giving of instruction ended, I was looking forward to the second week to see what they would be showing to the class. I had expected that most of them would be bringing their notebooks and of course the group scheduled for this week is very much ready. I even imagined that they would bring some costumes or some materials for their group presentations. Here's the result...
First Expectation: After checking the class attendance,
I asked them, "Did you bring a notebook today?"
Some just stared at me blankly and others managed to say,
"什么" Shen ma? as in "What"!!!
"Well, I told you last week that you need to bring it today right?" I replied.
"Oh we forgot..." was the answer.
"真的吗" zhēn de ma ？Really!???.... I said which I sounded and looked disappointed.
"I'm sorry teacher." One of the boys said. (Tuesday class)
Well, I couldn't punish them for forgetting, so I just said, "I understand." I remember a friend who once told me that "forgetting" is a gift for when we forget we can easily forgive. I hope this is really the case, that "forgetting" and "forgiving" are related since this is my main weakness too. I was disappointed since only 10% of the class managed to remember my instruction. Then I told myself, "Please try understand these students are still young, they have many things in their minds and perhaps they're still not over with the Spring Festival Holiday to remember such small detail". Now that's Defense Mechanism no. 1 "The relationship of forgetting and forgiving and thinking that they have their own reasons why they forgot." It made me felt better. I'm glad it worked!
Second Expecation: Group performance.
"Okay, before we start the class let's have group No. so and so to have their presentation today."
I then proceeded to call the names in the group. In some classes, students stood up. Looked at me, looked at their classmates from left to right, then muttered,
"Well, I told you last week that you need to bring it today right?" I replied.
"Oh we forgot..." was the answer.
"真的吗" zhēn de ma ？Really!???.... I said which I sounded and looked disappointed.
"I'm sorry teacher." One of the boys said. (Tuesday class)
Well, I couldn't punish them for forgetting, so I just said, "I understand." I remember a friend who once told me that "forgetting" is a gift for when we forget we can easily forgive. I hope this is really the case, that "forgetting" and "forgiving" are related since this is my main weakness too. I was disappointed since only 10% of the class managed to remember my instruction. Then I told myself, "Please try understand these students are still young, they have many things in their minds and perhaps they're still not over with the Spring Festival Holiday to remember such small detail". Now that's Defense Mechanism no. 1 "The relationship of forgetting and forgiving and thinking that they have their own reasons why they forgot." It made me felt better. I'm glad it worked!
Second Expecation: Group performance.
"Okay, before we start the class let's have group No. so and so to have their presentation today."
I then proceeded to call the names in the group. In some classes, students stood up. Looked at me, looked at their classmates from left to right, then muttered,
"什么？Shen Me?" again.......
"为什么？wéi shén me?" as in why??? how come????
Others didn't even know why I called them, they thought I was asking them to read some dialogues from their textbooks so they tried to scan for pages and asked other students what page to read.
The scenes that were playing on my mind where totally different with what I was experiencing. For this week, at least 14 groups were scheduled to have their presenations, but out of these 14 groups only 3 managed to make it. One group had a good dialogue taken from the movie, "300" one group was reading from a magazine and the other wrote their own dialogue but the members were too shy to read it.
The percentage is really below the objective. My goal is that 70-80% of them would do something for the sake of enhancing their "English learning experience" but I failed. I have learned to set this expectation when I started teaching and so far my objectives were realized. Defense mechanism no. 2, "There's always a second chance and everyone deserves a second chance right?" Now, I'm smiling!
I have known myself to be impatient. I understand that in learning repetition is very important. But when I was a student, I didn't like this theory of learning applied to lessons , like when the teacher would start repeating the previous lessons I would always see that as a waste of time and it would make me bored to death. Then, when I started teaching I realized that this theory is indeed very important. I just love being a teacher, this profession totally changed me. When great expectations fail, the sum is disappointment, then the product would be Patience. I can say that I becoming less impatient now, or let me state in a positive way, I learned to be more patient.
This is my formula for this week's teaching experience, my English Math.
(Great Expectations = Disappointment)=Patience
"为什么？wéi shén me?" as in why??? how come????
Others didn't even know why I called them, they thought I was asking them to read some dialogues from their textbooks so they tried to scan for pages and asked other students what page to read.
The scenes that were playing on my mind where totally different with what I was experiencing. For this week, at least 14 groups were scheduled to have their presenations, but out of these 14 groups only 3 managed to make it. One group had a good dialogue taken from the movie, "300" one group was reading from a magazine and the other wrote their own dialogue but the members were too shy to read it.
The percentage is really below the objective. My goal is that 70-80% of them would do something for the sake of enhancing their "English learning experience" but I failed. I have learned to set this expectation when I started teaching and so far my objectives were realized. Defense mechanism no. 2, "There's always a second chance and everyone deserves a second chance right?" Now, I'm smiling!
I have known myself to be impatient. I understand that in learning repetition is very important. But when I was a student, I didn't like this theory of learning applied to lessons , like when the teacher would start repeating the previous lessons I would always see that as a waste of time and it would make me bored to death. Then, when I started teaching I realized that this theory is indeed very important. I just love being a teacher, this profession totally changed me. When great expectations fail, the sum is disappointment, then the product would be Patience. I can say that I becoming less impatient now, or let me state in a positive way, I learned to be more patient.This is my formula for this week's teaching experience, my English Math.
(Great Expectations = Disappointment)=Patience
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