ENGLISH WARRIOR!
Aug. 22nd, 2014 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parasitegirlI'm starting this on the train to my last day at the teaching compound.A reminder that I'm talkign about a substitute teahcing gig and NOT lil' Ninjas.
Typing this helps me think about what I'm going to do...and it helps me kill an hour on the train.
One of the things that makes me happy is that they've decided to pay me, directly, on the last day instead of transferring it to my bank next month. So after the gig is over tonight I will celebrate by plunking 90% of that pay-check straight into paying my taxes. I mean straight. I'll walk 2 minutes to a 7-11, they'll scan my taxes and Ill pay in cash.
A tax payment, an insurance payment (house) and my health insurance all came at once this month but this horrible job will keep me from dipping into the money I've set aside for emergencies.
My second day and third days of teaching went slightly better and I have hopes that day four will be ok.
On day three I brought one of my asaya sticks (a fancy wooden dowel really) and we lined up for "over or under" where I'd pose that question to each student and they'd pick over or under. Then I'd set the height of the pole and they'd limbo or jump. Eventually I added back and forth and up and down motions to the pole to make it more of a challenge. We ended with each of them getting to control the pole and ask me and the other kids "over or under?" and getting to decide the pole conditions. Commando crawls happened.
I also brought in my kitchen timer, a lacross ball, a stopwatch, and a whistle.
The preposition class and the next class both had to do pages of random conversation practices. When doing the arbitrary conversations where a word could be swapped out to make it more fun or relevant...and actually teach the grammar/structure...we crowd sourced our English. For example "where are you going?" "I'm going to the store." I asked them to think of Places they might know in English. Then I set the timer for 45 seconds and they'd shout the words at me as I scribbled them on the white board.
Then we'd practice the sentences with more enjoyable ideas "I'm going to the moon!" "I'm going to Italy!" "I'm going to Disney land," and eventually get in a circle, passing the ball while a timer counted down, hot potato style. Whoever ended with the ball got an absurd question for me or, in the case of "what X do you like?" "I like.." we changed the question topic.
(Added after finishing Friday)
On our last day we did the prepositions with actions and added next to, near, by (jumping distances away from the squares) and did some more limbo and jumping with over, under.
The test was hard for them...it involved reading, looking at pictures, and writing the correct preposition but they did quite well and didn't give up. I did give some help.
The third class was the class of three students with the random pile of flash cards of statements and replies/follow-up statements. (Achoo/bless you...although Japanese has no phrase for that...I'm hungry/are you?...hurry/Please wait) and a random pile of verb flash cards that lumped in "like" and "want" with action verbs, and the direction to do countries and flags and a map and a collection of tiny, dark, blurry flags.
On day two I worked on introducing the idea of continents (the kids are in 3rd and 4th grade...they don't get to continents until 5th grade in school) but we just called them by the colors they were on the maps for the first time we worked on the idea. We listed animals, and then figured out what continents various animals inhabited. We then used those animals (and the timer and ball) to start learning "do you like x" and then followed up with "what x do you like?" questions about foods, sports, and more.
On the third day, before work, I whipped up a "passport" worksheet. It folded and had international stamps on the front and said "summer passport!" Inside the kids had spaces to draw and write what characters, foods, and animals they liked...then we all interviewed each other using the "what x do you like/ I like Y" and signed each other's passports The next page focused on "I want to go to....I want to (do)" more writings and sketching and interviewing and I started teaching the kids the continents (which I included in the passports).
The passports sort of blew the minds of my bosses, as it meant I'd done prep work. They then double checked the pay rate they'd quoted me. I suspect it was because they worried I expected more money and thus was working more. My bosses seemed kinda blown away with my concerns about my own teaching and desire to prep. They never once watched me teach.
They're nice people as people...it's just what they think about teaching that I can't relate to.
On the fourth day we continued with the passports, because one kid had been a absent day three. This meant we all got to review everything. Then we worked on continents and what they are called. I busted it my ipad. Crappy teaching supplies? I'd downloaded flag images and used the iPad for my flash cards. We looked at flags, talked about what the country was called in English, listed the colors (Man, kids like finding and shouting colors), and eventually tried to figure out which country was in which continent. Then we designed our own flags on the space it made at the back of the passport. I asked the students how many colors, what colors, and a few questions about "Oh, do you like X?"
I ended by asking each a series of questions we'd converted over the last 3 days and giving their passports a final stamp (I brought my own, T-Rex or Hedgehog)
This was the most exhausting class. I won't say "but it was the more rewarding" because this hasn't been a Halmark Experience. Seven students, all third and fourth grade kids, at 6:10, for their second class in a row. This was also the class burdened with that page of vocab of random shit at the beach/pool/playground (sand, pebbles, rocks, wheelbarrow) and a quiz on Friday of every thing on that list (40 words!) and NO conversation prompts...just more action verbs.
Pure fucking chaos and I don't blame the kids.
On the second day I tried some timed pictionary and a storytelling game. The storytelling game was the usual improvisation game where each person added a new sentence. I told them they could do the sentence in Japanese but one object had to be from the vocab list and said in English. It puttered out but I know they will now remember the stinky bucket of crabs and seaweed. I didn't even try the pile of flash cards(stay up late/ turn off the light/...)
On the third day I decided, fuck it. No way they can survive a class with a cd listening quiz and then nothing but vocab unconnected to their lives. While we did the listening quiz I ran around taping more squares on the floor...which drove them crazy with curiosity..and I broke out my asaya.
Kids need to move!So I decided they'd be learning some of the preposition movements a few weeks early! "Up-down-in-out-in front-behind-yaaaay!"
They loved it and learned it quickly, shouting loud and moving correctly with the cues once we made it Kathryn Says. They also loved over/under. They wanted more but we had to do some of the vocab because of the quiz on Friday. We reviewed. I also taught them how to say "help me." "Hint, please?" And "sketch please." And we reviewed again with English and visual hints. (Flippers: water shoes! Deckchair: it's a chair!") because I was getting ready to make Friday's quiz possible.
On Friday, when I came in some of them asked about the preposition words again because they wanted to get the order right. I started the CD listening pages and they pointed to the yellow squares and asked if they'd be using them today. I told them that the squares come AFTER the listening pages. PAGES DONE VERY QUICKLY!
We pushed the tables to the side and went to the squares. "Up-down-in-out-in front-behind-yaaaay!" I added "Kathry says" to that tossed in extra verbs like "run, walk, jump, sit down, stand up." which they also liked. Over-Under game also went well.
We then had to do the vocabulary test. It was way too hard but they did yell for help, get sketches, and more hints and we "finished" it.
I wrapped up class but was stopped at the door by kids who wanted to double check the square-movements order and do a few more rounds with me. SUCCESS. Those kids were playing in English when parents showed up and the women in charge of me informed me that some kids told their mother about the really awesome teacher they had for the summer program.
There were two Jr. high classes but the 4 elementary school classes are about all I have the energy to write about tonight.
Those in charge of me did praise me and were really, really, happy with what they got in a substitute teacher.But that's not why I left feeling like YES! HAAA! I left because I TAUGHT!
I might not have taught exactly what was asked of me... but I taught some kids some stuff they'll remember and the kids felt good about what they did.
Typing this helps me think about what I'm going to do...and it helps me kill an hour on the train.
One of the things that makes me happy is that they've decided to pay me, directly, on the last day instead of transferring it to my bank next month. So after the gig is over tonight I will celebrate by plunking 90% of that pay-check straight into paying my taxes. I mean straight. I'll walk 2 minutes to a 7-11, they'll scan my taxes and Ill pay in cash.
A tax payment, an insurance payment (house) and my health insurance all came at once this month but this horrible job will keep me from dipping into the money I've set aside for emergencies.
My second day and third days of teaching went slightly better and I have hopes that day four will be ok.
(Class 1)
For the 3 kids who have to be learning place prepositions I taped off four squares on the floor and made up a chant/movement routine for up-down-out-in-in front of-behind-yaaaay!(Jump-squat-feet out of the square like you're doing a jumping jack, back in the square, jump in front of the suqare, behind the suqare and back into the square waving your arms). And got them moving slow and fast and then used "Kathryn says" for checking retention. Students who had barely spoken above a whisper were using their full voices again. It's great when you see the light come back behind the eyes of children in learning environments.
On day three I brought one of my asaya sticks (a fancy wooden dowel really) and we lined up for "over or under" where I'd pose that question to each student and they'd pick over or under. Then I'd set the height of the pole and they'd limbo or jump. Eventually I added back and forth and up and down motions to the pole to make it more of a challenge. We ended with each of them getting to control the pole and ask me and the other kids "over or under?" and getting to decide the pole conditions. Commando crawls happened.
I also brought in my kitchen timer, a lacross ball, a stopwatch, and a whistle.
The preposition class and the next class both had to do pages of random conversation practices. When doing the arbitrary conversations where a word could be swapped out to make it more fun or relevant...and actually teach the grammar/structure...we crowd sourced our English. For example "where are you going?" "I'm going to the store." I asked them to think of Places they might know in English. Then I set the timer for 45 seconds and they'd shout the words at me as I scribbled them on the white board.
Then we'd practice the sentences with more enjoyable ideas "I'm going to the moon!" "I'm going to Italy!" "I'm going to Disney land," and eventually get in a circle, passing the ball while a timer counted down, hot potato style. Whoever ended with the ball got an absurd question for me or, in the case of "what X do you like?" "I like.." we changed the question topic.
(Added after finishing Friday)
On our last day we did the prepositions with actions and added next to, near, by (jumping distances away from the squares) and did some more limbo and jumping with over, under.
The test was hard for them...it involved reading, looking at pictures, and writing the correct preposition but they did quite well and didn't give up. I did give some help.
(Class 2)
The second class, two kids, had the picture dictionary pages of "buildings in town".
Once again I'd like to say that no good teaching places should use a picture dictionary as a required vocabulary list to get through.
I made a game where they each got a playing piece and we told a story of going to different places in town using English and Japanese. "I'm at the bank, (then in Japanese )"but then x happened/but then I wanted x/but then I needed x" and we'd figure where they need to be next.
(Student)"I'm at the cafe, (but then I saw a robbery)"
(Others)"The police station!"
(Next student) "I'm at the police station, (but then I saw I had no shoes!)"
(Others) "the shoe store!"
And then we did the conversations with the timer, ball, and such.
The second class was actually supposed to be getting a quiz on the buildings and the next page (in the country). The quizzes feature the kids getting a photocopy of the page with the words whited out (sometimes rewritten in Japanese) and then they hear the English word and a number and have to write the number in the right place. It's about 25-30 words per test.
Imagine how I feel about this sort of quiz.
I decided there was no fucking way to make "in the country" relevant. One of the words was pylon for fuck's sake.
So, I didn't teach "in the country: and spent more time on the buildings and the conversations. I then, after my third day with that class, I told the woman in charge of me a sob story of how I didn't pace my lessons well and didn't get to "the country" and it would be terribly unfair to the kids to get a quiz on it on the last day...
(....classes finished, on my way home)
This class only had two kids and one was out on the last day. It's hot as fuck and many kids were gone because of that.
The one boy and I zipped through the listening quiz. We then reviewed buildings and did the vocabulary test. When asked I gave hints in English. "It's next to the bank/ cars sit there).
Our conversation sheet was, amazingly, all about offering foods, food choices, declining food, asking about food preferences. We didn't need to brainstorm words. We soon had a full vocabulary for offering each other choices like "do you want cockroach or ice cream? Can I have a beer? Can I have your house? How about some monkeys?" And declining, accepting, and asking for more..an we did that for the rest of the class.
In all the class's students get "Stamps" based on how hard they worked. When they fill a stamp sheet they get a prize (a colored pen, a pencil case and cute eraser). A teacher assigns the stamps, they take the stamp paper to the front desk, say how many stamps they get and then are asked which stamp they want (some kids want just one kind of animal, some spell words out with the letter stamps...). My student used "Can I have....two stamps?" when I told him he'd get one. I said yes but only if he used "Can I have..." again when the teacher asked him which stamp. He did. Good job, kid.
Once again I'd like to say that no good teaching places should use a picture dictionary as a required vocabulary list to get through.
I made a game where they each got a playing piece and we told a story of going to different places in town using English and Japanese. "I'm at the bank, (then in Japanese )"but then x happened/but then I wanted x/but then I needed x" and we'd figure where they need to be next.
(Student)"I'm at the cafe, (but then I saw a robbery)"
(Others)"The police station!"
(Next student) "I'm at the police station, (but then I saw I had no shoes!)"
(Others) "the shoe store!"
And then we did the conversations with the timer, ball, and such.
The second class was actually supposed to be getting a quiz on the buildings and the next page (in the country). The quizzes feature the kids getting a photocopy of the page with the words whited out (sometimes rewritten in Japanese) and then they hear the English word and a number and have to write the number in the right place. It's about 25-30 words per test.
Imagine how I feel about this sort of quiz.
I decided there was no fucking way to make "in the country" relevant. One of the words was pylon for fuck's sake.
So, I didn't teach "in the country: and spent more time on the buildings and the conversations. I then, after my third day with that class, I told the woman in charge of me a sob story of how I didn't pace my lessons well and didn't get to "the country" and it would be terribly unfair to the kids to get a quiz on it on the last day...
(....classes finished, on my way home)
This class only had two kids and one was out on the last day. It's hot as fuck and many kids were gone because of that.
The one boy and I zipped through the listening quiz. We then reviewed buildings and did the vocabulary test. When asked I gave hints in English. "It's next to the bank/ cars sit there).
Our conversation sheet was, amazingly, all about offering foods, food choices, declining food, asking about food preferences. We didn't need to brainstorm words. We soon had a full vocabulary for offering each other choices like "do you want cockroach or ice cream? Can I have a beer? Can I have your house? How about some monkeys?" And declining, accepting, and asking for more..an we did that for the rest of the class.
In all the class's students get "Stamps" based on how hard they worked. When they fill a stamp sheet they get a prize (a colored pen, a pencil case and cute eraser). A teacher assigns the stamps, they take the stamp paper to the front desk, say how many stamps they get and then are asked which stamp they want (some kids want just one kind of animal, some spell words out with the letter stamps...). My student used "Can I have....two stamps?" when I told him he'd get one. I said yes but only if he used "Can I have..." again when the teacher asked him which stamp. He did. Good job, kid.
(Class 3)
The third class was the class of three students with the random pile of flash cards of statements and replies/follow-up statements. (Achoo/bless you...although Japanese has no phrase for that...I'm hungry/are you?...hurry/Please wait) and a random pile of verb flash cards that lumped in "like" and "want" with action verbs, and the direction to do countries and flags and a map and a collection of tiny, dark, blurry flags.
On day two I worked on introducing the idea of continents (the kids are in 3rd and 4th grade...they don't get to continents until 5th grade in school) but we just called them by the colors they were on the maps for the first time we worked on the idea. We listed animals, and then figured out what continents various animals inhabited. We then used those animals (and the timer and ball) to start learning "do you like x" and then followed up with "what x do you like?" questions about foods, sports, and more.
On the third day, before work, I whipped up a "passport" worksheet. It folded and had international stamps on the front and said "summer passport!" Inside the kids had spaces to draw and write what characters, foods, and animals they liked...then we all interviewed each other using the "what x do you like/ I like Y" and signed each other's passports The next page focused on "I want to go to....I want to (do)" more writings and sketching and interviewing and I started teaching the kids the continents (which I included in the passports).
The passports sort of blew the minds of my bosses, as it meant I'd done prep work. They then double checked the pay rate they'd quoted me. I suspect it was because they worried I expected more money and thus was working more. My bosses seemed kinda blown away with my concerns about my own teaching and desire to prep. They never once watched me teach.
They're nice people as people...it's just what they think about teaching that I can't relate to.
On the fourth day we continued with the passports, because one kid had been a absent day three. This meant we all got to review everything. Then we worked on continents and what they are called. I busted it my ipad. Crappy teaching supplies? I'd downloaded flag images and used the iPad for my flash cards. We looked at flags, talked about what the country was called in English, listed the colors (Man, kids like finding and shouting colors), and eventually tried to figure out which country was in which continent. Then we designed our own flags on the space it made at the back of the passport. I asked the students how many colors, what colors, and a few questions about "Oh, do you like X?"
I ended by asking each a series of questions we'd converted over the last 3 days and giving their passports a final stamp (I brought my own, T-Rex or Hedgehog)
(Class 4)
This was the most exhausting class. I won't say "but it was the more rewarding" because this hasn't been a Halmark Experience. Seven students, all third and fourth grade kids, at 6:10, for their second class in a row. This was also the class burdened with that page of vocab of random shit at the beach/pool/playground (sand, pebbles, rocks, wheelbarrow) and a quiz on Friday of every thing on that list (40 words!) and NO conversation prompts...just more action verbs.
Pure fucking chaos and I don't blame the kids.
On the second day I tried some timed pictionary and a storytelling game. The storytelling game was the usual improvisation game where each person added a new sentence. I told them they could do the sentence in Japanese but one object had to be from the vocab list and said in English. It puttered out but I know they will now remember the stinky bucket of crabs and seaweed. I didn't even try the pile of flash cards(stay up late/ turn off the light/...)
On the third day I decided, fuck it. No way they can survive a class with a cd listening quiz and then nothing but vocab unconnected to their lives. While we did the listening quiz I ran around taping more squares on the floor...which drove them crazy with curiosity..and I broke out my asaya.
Kids need to move!So I decided they'd be learning some of the preposition movements a few weeks early! "Up-down-in-out-in front-behind-yaaaay!"
They loved it and learned it quickly, shouting loud and moving correctly with the cues once we made it Kathryn Says. They also loved over/under. They wanted more but we had to do some of the vocab because of the quiz on Friday. We reviewed. I also taught them how to say "help me." "Hint, please?" And "sketch please." And we reviewed again with English and visual hints. (Flippers: water shoes! Deckchair: it's a chair!") because I was getting ready to make Friday's quiz possible.
On Friday, when I came in some of them asked about the preposition words again because they wanted to get the order right. I started the CD listening pages and they pointed to the yellow squares and asked if they'd be using them today. I told them that the squares come AFTER the listening pages. PAGES DONE VERY QUICKLY!
We pushed the tables to the side and went to the squares. "Up-down-in-out-in front-behind-yaaaay!" I added "Kathry says" to that tossed in extra verbs like "run, walk, jump, sit down, stand up." which they also liked. Over-Under game also went well.
We then had to do the vocabulary test. It was way too hard but they did yell for help, get sketches, and more hints and we "finished" it.
I wrapped up class but was stopped at the door by kids who wanted to double check the square-movements order and do a few more rounds with me. SUCCESS. Those kids were playing in English when parents showed up and the women in charge of me informed me that some kids told their mother about the really awesome teacher they had for the summer program.
There were two Jr. high classes but the 4 elementary school classes are about all I have the energy to write about tonight.
Those in charge of me did praise me and were really, really, happy with what they got in a substitute teacher.But that's not why I left feeling like YES! HAAA! I left because I TAUGHT!
I might not have taught exactly what was asked of me... but I taught some kids some stuff they'll remember and the kids felt good about what they did.
