Geek out: Teaching
Dec. 4th, 2008 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parasitegirlIt’s been a while since I geeked out at you about teaching.
The end of the semester is drawing near. There are eleven more days to go, seven of which will be teaching days for me. On the 19th I become free of the second semester lesson plans I created, for at least two semesters.
As most of you know, I am the Elementary School English Program Advisor for a city in Japan. There are 15 schools under me including 9 support staff members (8 who are Japanese) who are the English Teacher presence for those 15 schools. Prior to me, the schools and support staff were all left to their own devices to teach, or not teach, English as they saw fit. My section of the board of education is figuring out how to transition to a uniform teaching style and lesson plans with the primary focus being communication/cognative thinking skills and how we will deal with next year’s nation-wide start of English for 5th and 6th grades and the accompanying textbooks. It looks like we will keep our support staff next year, increase homeroom teacher participation within English lessons, and use a 5th and 6th grade curriculum that is 35 hours per year. 16 of those hours will be my lesson plans taught by support staff and homeroom teachers together and the rest being textbook and text book teaching aid based and I will come to most schools one a semester and teach.
Currently all schools are teaching 5th and 6th graders some sort of English and many are including 3rd and 4th graders into the mix. Only 2 or 3 schools are having English activities for 1st and 2nd graders.
On teaching days I go to the one of the 15 different schools, meet with my co-teacher/support staff and teach one of my lesson plans with them for the day with multiple homerooms. Ability to get the homeroom teachers to participate varies wildly, but most have come around to at least smiling, nodding, and not translating things into Japanese. I have a different second semester lesson plan for each grade level. 2 out of 6 of the lesson plans I wrote this summer quickly underwent changes once I started teaching them. We got the kinks worked out on the job.
These have to be good lesson plans, because not only is our goal to present age/level appropriate and interesting materials/topics/activities so that students will be motivated to think through the English so they can participate…but also because some of these lessons plans I have to teach upwards to 45-50 times in one semester. If it isn’t a good lesson plan, I’m going to have a hard time getting the level of energy I need to keep students engaged.
When you’ve taught a lesson plan more than 30 times, as I have with my original 6th grade “costumes and music of the world” lesson plan, you get a very solid feel for if the material works for that level. Once you know that the material you are teaching is interesting, challenging but not too challenging, for your target audiences, you also form very strong opinions on what variables in a classroom (outside of your lesson plan) facilitate or interfere with learning.
Now, with 6th graders, the general attitude from class to class can vary wildly. 5th and 6th grade classes start developing very strong personalities…sometimes the differences are just due to the combination of students in that class and can’t be controlled…but most of the time the personality of the classroom is strongly reflective of that teacher’s teaching style.
The biggest obstacle to students in my classroom is usually the homeroom teacher.
When I worked at one elementary school all the time, I had a variety of teacher breakthroughs. I treasure most the breakthrough of teacher S. She was my age, attractive, and stubborn. For at least 2 + years she had every excuse in the book about being too busy to prep for English, her 5th English class was usually rowdy (in a bad way ) and out of control (it was from her class that I was attacked with a broom by “Slugger”). The other 5th grade teacher was another young, attractive, female who showed enthusiasm and whose class was loud but positively active in English class. I knew S hated English. Still…she was also one of the teachers who would be the face of our new transition to Communication Skills English. She would speak on panel discussions when we had demonstration days. She would spout all the right words about why it works…but she didn’t believe them.
One day I finally got her to practice with me. She was having a hard time imagining her peer’s lesson plan and the changes I’d made with it and I had finally gotten her to take time after school to run through it with me so we could talk about how to modify it for her English level. We worked, I answered questions….and then we talked.
“I hate English” she confessed.
“I know.”
“No, I really do!”
“No. I KNOW. Everyone knows. Your students know. You don’t say it, but you show it.”
We talked about how I understand how the way she was taught English made her hate it, and how what we were doing was different. She relaxed.
When we taught together next it was different, her class was noisy but intensely focused on our English activity…and she saw it.
Afterwords I talked to her and remained diplomatic, talk about how “this teaching style really works…you see it now.” And she surprised me by being aware and willing to express what I hadn’t said…”No, the difference was me. Before, I was showing my students how I felt and that hurt the class…”
When I left the school she was still one of the faces of the program, but now with a nice born-again edge. She was a 3rd grade teacher in our last year together (teachers rotate grades) and was creating super-challenging lesson plans like “The life cycles of bugs!” for English time.
She knew. She finally understood that her unstated attitude toward a subject could negatively affect her students and make it harder for them to learn new things.
At the core of the speeches I give homeroom teachers is the message about how small changes in their attitude and participation, even when they are not in the primary teacher role, can hurt or help their students. I explain why I wish them to refrain from translating anything I say, instead using easy words and gestures and examples to students who are having problems. I explain how translating doesn’t help students learn and is really teaching kids “Yes, without a Japanese translation, this material IS too hard for you.” I tell them they can use Japanese to encurage frustrated kids, to reassure them that they can think, guess, and figure things out…not to translate. I explain that helping their students have breakthroughs and learn to guess what someone might mean creates a stronger connection and understanding of the material (and learning in general). I explain that their students are always watching them for clues, and that if they look uncomfortable or say that they can’t to English it actively teaches the students that the material is too difficult and SCARY.
These speeches have apparently caused a lot of “aha!” moments for teachers who had previously not thought about how their body language and attitudes might be hurting their students.
The good this is that when you’ve taught something 30 time, if the 31st teacher says the material is too hard you can so “It’s not! 30 classes have done it before yours”
Yesterday I had the worst teacher yet. Shame, because she’s got killer senority in the school. Her 6th grade class, though interested in the topic, was insane. The worst group shaped the fuck up when they realized that their desire to fuck-around wasn’t shared by the whole class and that in the first activity/competition they got 3 points to every other group’s perfect score of 7. The students were interested in the topic, but were strange about being in a English class.
Why? The teacher wasn’t making any of those “OMG ENGLISH!” faces I so cringe at. It was worse. The teacher was wandering around, unconnected to the task at hand, looking bored and a bit annoyed at her classroom being interrupted…she watched as groups fucked around and didn’t get involved even though I explain that teachers can use Japanese to deal with disruptive social problems. She didn’t care who was fucking around during activities but she did tell certain students to sit up straight and watch their posture. So instead of the negative message of “English is scary or too hard for you.” they were getting the message that English doesn’t matter, it is a massive waste of time…and proper posture is more important that anything else you’re doing right now.
I wanted to bitch slap her.
The next class, in which I taught the same material…one door away and a whole world of difference. The male teacher looked interested, actively walked around to see how each group was doing and used body language and simple words to interact with groups having problems with the material (the problem they had wasn’t based on English comprehension, it was a lack of geography knowledge…challenging but not too challenging).
I don’t have the authority to directly tell bitch/asshole teacher how they are hurting their classes (although I do report back to my bosses which teachers we are having what problems with, so we better know what to address in general in the future)…but I did have the ability to talk to my male teacher after class, praise him, and explain to him how his simple attitude in the classroom had helped his students participate, not be afraid, and excel in ways the previous class hadn’t…and that I was so thankful.
After the bitch teacher, I came back to the office and started writing the latest speech for homeroom teachers. It wasn’t due to this, but due to the fact that I have reached a special breaking point with the phrase “But my pronunication is not good, so…”
I know homeroom teachers are afraid, but my daily struggles every day with a language I was not born into make it hard for me to be overly sympathetic. I can relate, but the tasks I must do in Japanese are monumental in comparison to the small tasks we are asking of them. In winter my patience frays.
We’ve been doing more and more meetings for homeroom teachers and schools, more demonstrations with just the Milkman’s Sister and myself and an audience of teachers…and this real, but surmountable, fear of bad pronunciation and grammar crippling students keeps coming up. What I want to do is scream “Get over it! For your STUDENTS!” but instead I present you the English draft of my next stump speech on behalf of English.
Japanese people often tell me “Japanese people are not confident about English pronunciation.” I know. It’s not a secret. I know. I understand. I live in Japan. I am not a native speaker of Japanese. I have lived here more than 7 years. I make mistakes everyday. Every day. Sometimes it is embarrassing. Sometimes it makes me want to cry. Sometimes I want to drink very, very much, because the stress is great. I want people to understand me. I want to understand people. I try. I must. And when someone understands me and I understand them? It feels great.
I wrote this speech in English. My friend translated it for me. I can’t usual my normal Japanese speaking style because I want you to understand me as much as possible.
When adults talk to each other in their native languages, grammar and pronunciation is important. We judge people on how they speak. When adults talk to someone who speaks another language, they understand the grammar and pronunciation might not be perfect. You are lucky. We aren’t asking you to teach perfect grammar. We aren’t asking you to talk to other adults. We are asking you to inspire your students. Children don’t care about grammar and pronunciation. Children don’t know when you make English mistakes. They won’t judge you. They will be impressed.
Listen to me. Your English pronunciation and grammar won’t hurt your students. Pronunciation and grammar are a small part of communication. Show your students that you want to learn English with them. Inspire them with your willingness to try. If you do that, you are teaching them something very important. You won’t teach them perfect English. You will teach them to try. You will teach them that they are smart enough to keep thinking when they feel confused. You will teach them that mistakes are ok. You will give them confidence. Small things like grammar and pronunciation can be improved later.
The English books for next year come with cds. Your students will hear native speakers. It’s important that they also see you use English. They need to see that English is possible for Japanese people. They need to see that you are comfortable. They need you to be a role model.
If you want to, you can talk to your students about your pronunciation. Use positive language. Don’t say you are “bad” at it, or “can’t” do it. You can explain, in Japanese, that you started English in Jr.High. Tell them is harder for teen-agers and adults to hear and make new sounds, so pronunciation isn’t easy for you…but that you keep trying. Tell them that every country speaks English a little different, even “native speaking” countries, so a different pronunciation style is nothing to be ashamed of. Tell them if they listen closely to the cd, and to you, they might be able to hear the differences. Tell them they are lucky they are starting early. They can hear the differences, they can make new sounds in ways that adults can’t. When you’re a child, it’s a magical thing to learn you have the power to do something adults can’t.
You can all “use” English. I say “use” because English is a tool. Language is a tool. English is like arts and crafts class. You start with big, cheap, brushes and simple tools, because small children can’t use small, precise tools. You praise them for very basic shapes, tool control, and the ability to express ideas. You show them you understand what they are trying to show you! Some students will have problems with basic tools, but some will have great skills. Later, as they grow, you can teach them to use more complicated tools to express themselves. You don’t need to be an artist to teach arts and crafts, you need to be kind, patient, and show them how to do things over and over again. You don’t cut shapes for them or draw animals for them, you encourage them to do it themselves. Most students you teach won’t become fine artists but some of them will…English is the same. Start with big, cheap, brushes. Start with simple words, gestures, facial expressions. Show them, over and over again, how to do it. Let them show you they understand. They will learn.
You can do this. You can inspire your students. It is scary. I know. It gets easier. When I first came to Japan, I cried a lot. I cried in public. I don’t anymore. It gets better. I know you can do it. Do it for your students. Inspire them.
Thank you.
The end of the semester is drawing near. There are eleven more days to go, seven of which will be teaching days for me. On the 19th I become free of the second semester lesson plans I created, for at least two semesters.
As most of you know, I am the Elementary School English Program Advisor for a city in Japan. There are 15 schools under me including 9 support staff members (8 who are Japanese) who are the English Teacher presence for those 15 schools. Prior to me, the schools and support staff were all left to their own devices to teach, or not teach, English as they saw fit. My section of the board of education is figuring out how to transition to a uniform teaching style and lesson plans with the primary focus being communication/cognative thinking skills and how we will deal with next year’s nation-wide start of English for 5th and 6th grades and the accompanying textbooks. It looks like we will keep our support staff next year, increase homeroom teacher participation within English lessons, and use a 5th and 6th grade curriculum that is 35 hours per year. 16 of those hours will be my lesson plans taught by support staff and homeroom teachers together and the rest being textbook and text book teaching aid based and I will come to most schools one a semester and teach.
Currently all schools are teaching 5th and 6th graders some sort of English and many are including 3rd and 4th graders into the mix. Only 2 or 3 schools are having English activities for 1st and 2nd graders.
On teaching days I go to the one of the 15 different schools, meet with my co-teacher/support staff and teach one of my lesson plans with them for the day with multiple homerooms. Ability to get the homeroom teachers to participate varies wildly, but most have come around to at least smiling, nodding, and not translating things into Japanese. I have a different second semester lesson plan for each grade level. 2 out of 6 of the lesson plans I wrote this summer quickly underwent changes once I started teaching them. We got the kinks worked out on the job.
These have to be good lesson plans, because not only is our goal to present age/level appropriate and interesting materials/topics/activities so that students will be motivated to think through the English so they can participate…but also because some of these lessons plans I have to teach upwards to 45-50 times in one semester. If it isn’t a good lesson plan, I’m going to have a hard time getting the level of energy I need to keep students engaged.
When you’ve taught a lesson plan more than 30 times, as I have with my original 6th grade “costumes and music of the world” lesson plan, you get a very solid feel for if the material works for that level. Once you know that the material you are teaching is interesting, challenging but not too challenging, for your target audiences, you also form very strong opinions on what variables in a classroom (outside of your lesson plan) facilitate or interfere with learning.
Now, with 6th graders, the general attitude from class to class can vary wildly. 5th and 6th grade classes start developing very strong personalities…sometimes the differences are just due to the combination of students in that class and can’t be controlled…but most of the time the personality of the classroom is strongly reflective of that teacher’s teaching style.
The biggest obstacle to students in my classroom is usually the homeroom teacher.
When I worked at one elementary school all the time, I had a variety of teacher breakthroughs. I treasure most the breakthrough of teacher S. She was my age, attractive, and stubborn. For at least 2 + years she had every excuse in the book about being too busy to prep for English, her 5th English class was usually rowdy (in a bad way ) and out of control (it was from her class that I was attacked with a broom by “Slugger”). The other 5th grade teacher was another young, attractive, female who showed enthusiasm and whose class was loud but positively active in English class. I knew S hated English. Still…she was also one of the teachers who would be the face of our new transition to Communication Skills English. She would speak on panel discussions when we had demonstration days. She would spout all the right words about why it works…but she didn’t believe them.
One day I finally got her to practice with me. She was having a hard time imagining her peer’s lesson plan and the changes I’d made with it and I had finally gotten her to take time after school to run through it with me so we could talk about how to modify it for her English level. We worked, I answered questions….and then we talked.
“I hate English” she confessed.
“I know.”
“No, I really do!”
“No. I KNOW. Everyone knows. Your students know. You don’t say it, but you show it.”
We talked about how I understand how the way she was taught English made her hate it, and how what we were doing was different. She relaxed.
When we taught together next it was different, her class was noisy but intensely focused on our English activity…and she saw it.
Afterwords I talked to her and remained diplomatic, talk about how “this teaching style really works…you see it now.” And she surprised me by being aware and willing to express what I hadn’t said…”No, the difference was me. Before, I was showing my students how I felt and that hurt the class…”
When I left the school she was still one of the faces of the program, but now with a nice born-again edge. She was a 3rd grade teacher in our last year together (teachers rotate grades) and was creating super-challenging lesson plans like “The life cycles of bugs!” for English time.
She knew. She finally understood that her unstated attitude toward a subject could negatively affect her students and make it harder for them to learn new things.
At the core of the speeches I give homeroom teachers is the message about how small changes in their attitude and participation, even when they are not in the primary teacher role, can hurt or help their students. I explain why I wish them to refrain from translating anything I say, instead using easy words and gestures and examples to students who are having problems. I explain how translating doesn’t help students learn and is really teaching kids “Yes, without a Japanese translation, this material IS too hard for you.” I tell them they can use Japanese to encurage frustrated kids, to reassure them that they can think, guess, and figure things out…not to translate. I explain that helping their students have breakthroughs and learn to guess what someone might mean creates a stronger connection and understanding of the material (and learning in general). I explain that their students are always watching them for clues, and that if they look uncomfortable or say that they can’t to English it actively teaches the students that the material is too difficult and SCARY.
These speeches have apparently caused a lot of “aha!” moments for teachers who had previously not thought about how their body language and attitudes might be hurting their students.
The good this is that when you’ve taught something 30 time, if the 31st teacher says the material is too hard you can so “It’s not! 30 classes have done it before yours”
Yesterday I had the worst teacher yet. Shame, because she’s got killer senority in the school. Her 6th grade class, though interested in the topic, was insane. The worst group shaped the fuck up when they realized that their desire to fuck-around wasn’t shared by the whole class and that in the first activity/competition they got 3 points to every other group’s perfect score of 7. The students were interested in the topic, but were strange about being in a English class.
Why? The teacher wasn’t making any of those “OMG ENGLISH!” faces I so cringe at. It was worse. The teacher was wandering around, unconnected to the task at hand, looking bored and a bit annoyed at her classroom being interrupted…she watched as groups fucked around and didn’t get involved even though I explain that teachers can use Japanese to deal with disruptive social problems. She didn’t care who was fucking around during activities but she did tell certain students to sit up straight and watch their posture. So instead of the negative message of “English is scary or too hard for you.” they were getting the message that English doesn’t matter, it is a massive waste of time…and proper posture is more important that anything else you’re doing right now.
I wanted to bitch slap her.
The next class, in which I taught the same material…one door away and a whole world of difference. The male teacher looked interested, actively walked around to see how each group was doing and used body language and simple words to interact with groups having problems with the material (the problem they had wasn’t based on English comprehension, it was a lack of geography knowledge…challenging but not too challenging).
I don’t have the authority to directly tell bitch/asshole teacher how they are hurting their classes (although I do report back to my bosses which teachers we are having what problems with, so we better know what to address in general in the future)…but I did have the ability to talk to my male teacher after class, praise him, and explain to him how his simple attitude in the classroom had helped his students participate, not be afraid, and excel in ways the previous class hadn’t…and that I was so thankful.
After the bitch teacher, I came back to the office and started writing the latest speech for homeroom teachers. It wasn’t due to this, but due to the fact that I have reached a special breaking point with the phrase “But my pronunication is not good, so…”
I know homeroom teachers are afraid, but my daily struggles every day with a language I was not born into make it hard for me to be overly sympathetic. I can relate, but the tasks I must do in Japanese are monumental in comparison to the small tasks we are asking of them. In winter my patience frays.
We’ve been doing more and more meetings for homeroom teachers and schools, more demonstrations with just the Milkman’s Sister and myself and an audience of teachers…and this real, but surmountable, fear of bad pronunciation and grammar crippling students keeps coming up. What I want to do is scream “Get over it! For your STUDENTS!” but instead I present you the English draft of my next stump speech on behalf of English.
Japanese people often tell me “Japanese people are not confident about English pronunciation.” I know. It’s not a secret. I know. I understand. I live in Japan. I am not a native speaker of Japanese. I have lived here more than 7 years. I make mistakes everyday. Every day. Sometimes it is embarrassing. Sometimes it makes me want to cry. Sometimes I want to drink very, very much, because the stress is great. I want people to understand me. I want to understand people. I try. I must. And when someone understands me and I understand them? It feels great.
I wrote this speech in English. My friend translated it for me. I can’t usual my normal Japanese speaking style because I want you to understand me as much as possible.
When adults talk to each other in their native languages, grammar and pronunciation is important. We judge people on how they speak. When adults talk to someone who speaks another language, they understand the grammar and pronunciation might not be perfect. You are lucky. We aren’t asking you to teach perfect grammar. We aren’t asking you to talk to other adults. We are asking you to inspire your students. Children don’t care about grammar and pronunciation. Children don’t know when you make English mistakes. They won’t judge you. They will be impressed.
Listen to me. Your English pronunciation and grammar won’t hurt your students. Pronunciation and grammar are a small part of communication. Show your students that you want to learn English with them. Inspire them with your willingness to try. If you do that, you are teaching them something very important. You won’t teach them perfect English. You will teach them to try. You will teach them that they are smart enough to keep thinking when they feel confused. You will teach them that mistakes are ok. You will give them confidence. Small things like grammar and pronunciation can be improved later.
The English books for next year come with cds. Your students will hear native speakers. It’s important that they also see you use English. They need to see that English is possible for Japanese people. They need to see that you are comfortable. They need you to be a role model.
If you want to, you can talk to your students about your pronunciation. Use positive language. Don’t say you are “bad” at it, or “can’t” do it. You can explain, in Japanese, that you started English in Jr.High. Tell them is harder for teen-agers and adults to hear and make new sounds, so pronunciation isn’t easy for you…but that you keep trying. Tell them that every country speaks English a little different, even “native speaking” countries, so a different pronunciation style is nothing to be ashamed of. Tell them if they listen closely to the cd, and to you, they might be able to hear the differences. Tell them they are lucky they are starting early. They can hear the differences, they can make new sounds in ways that adults can’t. When you’re a child, it’s a magical thing to learn you have the power to do something adults can’t.
You can all “use” English. I say “use” because English is a tool. Language is a tool. English is like arts and crafts class. You start with big, cheap, brushes and simple tools, because small children can’t use small, precise tools. You praise them for very basic shapes, tool control, and the ability to express ideas. You show them you understand what they are trying to show you! Some students will have problems with basic tools, but some will have great skills. Later, as they grow, you can teach them to use more complicated tools to express themselves. You don’t need to be an artist to teach arts and crafts, you need to be kind, patient, and show them how to do things over and over again. You don’t cut shapes for them or draw animals for them, you encourage them to do it themselves. Most students you teach won’t become fine artists but some of them will…English is the same. Start with big, cheap, brushes. Start with simple words, gestures, facial expressions. Show them, over and over again, how to do it. Let them show you they understand. They will learn.
You can do this. You can inspire your students. It is scary. I know. It gets easier. When I first came to Japan, I cried a lot. I cried in public. I don’t anymore. It gets better. I know you can do it. Do it for your students. Inspire them.
Thank you.
