Teaching tip: never contradict your co-teacher

[Note: This is not a new post. I originally wrote it in the spring of 2012. It probably got listed as a new post when I was rereading it and noticed a few typos. I fixed those types, clicked "update," and saw later that it became a "new" post.

As it happened, Jane transferred to another school when that semester ended. I never heard where she went. She'd be in the final year of high school now.]

One of the joys of teaching is that no one day's ever the same as the next. Monday's conference with a student sparked this post.

The military has a rule that says "Always obey your commanding officer." Teachers have a similar, yet unwritten rule that says "Always support your fellow teachers. Do not contradict them unless you absolutely have to." Teachers need to back up other teachers to establish consistency both within the school and within the classroom. To contradict or go against another teacher means that the student(s) can exploit a weakness and play teachers against one another. It invites power struggles. Power struggles are never good because all parties invariably lose face.

Being the foreign (Guest) teacher only amplifies this point because the language barrier and not knowing all ins and outs of school culture can lead to students playing the Guest teacher against the Korean teacher(s).

I thought of this rule when a student, Jane, came to my desk yesterday to ask about an exam question. It seems she thought the question had more than one possible answer. Right away, I knew I had to tread carefully because although I proofread the exam, I did not write it. I didn't know the answer to that particular question either because Ms. J the co-teacher had written the instructions in Korean and had said not to worry about it. I asked her to explain the question. She did. She asked about whether the expressions she used were right. In my mind, I knew they looked okay, but I also knew that the co-teacher had had a different answer in mind. To say I agreed with Jane would mean contradicting Ms. J'a answer.

After she finished talking, I said, "Okay, I understand, Jane, but I can't help you here."
She nodded and asked, "But, isn't this the right expression?"
"It may be. I don't know. I didn't write the exam. Ms. J did."
"Yes, but you're a teacher too, and I thought you could help..."

I thought she might say that because she didn't know the difference between my job and the Korean teacher's job. We're all English teachers to her, and while yes, we all do teach English, my status as an Guest English Teacher puts me on a different plane than the other Korean teachers. Guest English Teachers follow different procedures than Korean English teachers. For instance, I'm not officially obligated to write exams or record grades for my classes. It's possible, but I don't have to. This alone means that I have no say with other teachers' exams.

This would be hard to explain to her, but I told her, "Yes, Jane, but the rules for me are different. I cannot help you here. You'll have to talk to Ms. J."

I had no real sway in the matter. To do otherwise would be to put Ms. J in a bind because Jane could say, "Well, Ben said this, but you said that" and put her on the spot. She persisted anyway. She wasn't arguing to argue--quite the contrary, as a passionate learner*, she's dedicated to knowledge for its own sake and simply wanted further explanation. And I couldn't give that to her. Jane eventually said "Okay" and let it go. She thanked me for my time and walked out of the office.

Fellow teachers: back up your colleagues.

*Jane transferred to Gimhwa HS from a high school in Chuncheon recently. She's a teacher's student: she comes to class early, takes good notes, beams a smile everywhere she goes, and studies hard. Her English is nearly as good as the Korean English teachers themselves too. Her advanced abilities play into why she came to my office because students rarely ask me about anything in their regular English classes because they lack the English necessary to explain themselves. They go to their Korean teachers instead.

High school poetry action

For Kevin at The Other Things Matter, whose post “9 Tanka” inspired me to try using some poetry in my 1^st grade high school class a couple of weeks ago. His post was also where I learned about Tanka.

Tanka is short Japanese poetry. There’s likely a more technical explanation, but for our purposes here, tanka means short poems about everyday life. In his post, Kevin writes about a few poems he’d used in classes over the years. He used them because they contained things students could relate to, like loneliness, and they did it in a way that was direct and easy to understand.

The poem I used was this one:

because I thought

it was the girlish thing to do

I pretended

until my 2nd year of high school

to love strawberries

-Mayumi Satou, Kitto Koi no Sei

Please note that the poem was translated from Japanese by Kevin.

I chose the poem for these reasons:

l  In other words, I thought the students might appreciate being able to read and understand a poem in a foreign language. I know how good it feels to understand a bit of Korean and figured that the students would feel the same way.

l  It’s about time and how people change. It might spark some thoughts about how people change over time.

l  It’s about being a girl—or doing the girlish thing, which the students might enjoy discussing, so we can lead into gender roles and ideas about being a boy or girl.

Kevin had included some thought-provoking discussion questions that he used in his classes. I used them as well:

1. What do you notice about the poem?
2. Have you ever pretended to like something?
3. Do you think there is a way to act like a boy or a girl?

...to which I added:

1. What are girlish things? Boyish things
2. Why does the poem end with the word strawberry
3. Could you change the poem to be about you?

We spent more time thinking of differences and similarities between boys and girls than we did writing, but we did end up with some detailed Venn diagrams in all four classes. My coteacher also stepped in and translated the poem for every class. This was good of her to do, since maybe not everyone understood exactly what the poem was saying. I hadn’t accounted for translating the poem.

As for the questions themselves, I listed them on the board and distributed copies of them to small groups.

The groups eagerly listed anything they could think of. After they had time to discuss the questions amongst themselves, I called the class to order and made a master graph on the board. I wrote everything down, from differences in appearance (long vs. short hair) to attitude. The group and class review took longer than I expected, so there was little time for writing. This wasn't a big problem, for the list generated plenty of vocabulary and discussion amongst the groups.

Something else that came up: Few if any of the students said they’d pretended to like anything in the past. They were surprised to hear that I've pretended to like or dislike a few things. One of those things is in this attempt at rewriting the above poem:

because I thought

it was a cool thing to do

I pretended

until age 26

to hate going to bed early

The students seemed to understand it. The bell rang right around this time in all four classes. And all four classes did go well. We may not have gotten to do the poetry recitals that I’d envisioned, but we got somewhere. Ideas came up. Words were spoken. They got on the board. The big thing in my mind was the students had read and understood a poem in English. They’d read and commented on a piece of literature. I count that as a success.

Notes:

l  For the rewritings, I made this model:

n  because I __________________

it was a ____________________

I pretended __________________

____________________________

to __________________________

l  And couple of students did attempt to write their version of the “because I thought” poem. One girl wrote this:

because I thought

it was a good sister thing to do

I pretended until the movie Frozen ended

to love the prince

l  Though I did highlight the poem’s short lines and show that it’s one sentence that’s divided into lines, I didn’t highlight the the girlish thing part. The difference between a girlish thing and the girlish thing amounts to something in general versus something important. Maybe it doesn’t matter as much as I thought, for such a distinction might have been too much for the students to bear at first. 

Stuff I did on the first days of classes (of year four)

The first week is over. I've begun my fourth contract for EPIK and have started teaching at two new schools: Sincheorwon Middle School and High School. Here are some things I did in my first week of classes:

• Greeted students with a smile and a hearty greeting. Some teachers have said "Never smile until after X time," but I disagree, simply because I am indeed happy to have the students in class and am happy to be their teacher. Also, Harry Wong strongly recommends this practice in  his book The First Days of School.
• Set an agenda and a dedicated place for it. In the middle school, the agenda's on the right-hand side of the whiteboard. It's separated from the "main" board by a nearly-invisible vertical line. The high school classes have the agenda written on a whiteboard next to the door. In every class, I wrote the agenda either in advance or in the first minute of class if there wasn't time to do it beforehand. I also took a minute to explain what an agenda is and how it shows what we'll do in class every day. In some classes I drilled pronunciation by clapping the syllables a-gen-da.
• Established one or two quiet signals: Clapping and flicking the lights on and off. Clapping came easily because the students have done it in their other classes. I often lighten the mood by clapping different rhythms for the students to copy. The light flicking is for the high school classes, for the students consider clapping too juvenile for their tastes.
• Used some Korean words and phrases while addressing the class. Some teachers have debated this practice, usually because the class is English and the focus should be on speaking English. As much as I agree that the focus should be on speaking English,  I did so for the following reasons: 

1. To catch their attention and show that I know or am learning some of the students' native tongue. 
2. To demonstrate that I make mistakes with pronunciation and syntax. As the students learn English, I too learn Korean. Experience has shown that (1) and (2) can be powerful motivators for the students. By speaking Korean and admitting to not being perfect at it, I'm demonstrating that mistakes are okay and that practice is the only way to get better.
1. I usually said, "We're both learning! I learn Korean, you learn English. 우리는 함께 배우자!" [Uri neun hamkke bae uja! = We learn together!]
3. For easier explanations or for showing that I might have idea of what the students are saying when they talk to each other.
4. My Korean is far from fluent. It's limited to words and phrases and thus doing an entire class in Korean is impossible.
5. Asking at intervals, "What's X in Korean?" has proven a good way of focusing students' attention and for learning new words myself.
• Furthermore, I do keep on the focus on speaking English. If students respond to a question in Korean in speech or writing, I always say, "English please" or "Use easy words." Sometimes I invite the class or group to help. If a student writes something in Korean, I usually say, "Okay, but what is it in English? Can you tell me?"

• Moved around the room as I talked or while the students were working. Teacher textbooks call this proximity control, but moving around is what it is.
• Held a questions and answers session. In some classes I called this KWL and in others it was simply Questions. As I'm a new teacher in a new school, but not new to Korea itself, the students had many questions to ask me. I either handed out Post-Its or asked the students to write questions in their textbooks. The students were free to discuss their questions and how to write them (in English, of course) in partners or with their neighbors. While they wrote and talked, my coteacher and I moved around the room monitoring students and assisting with questions. At times I stood back and watched. Moving around is fine and good to do, but sometimes its best to stand back and watch from a few feet away. The students should have some room to breathe at times.
• Doing so also established that the students are expected to write in class. Speaking, reading, writing, listening...it all goes together.
• In some classes, I wrote question stems on the board to give the students a starting point:
• Who/what/where/when/how/why...?
• What's your favorite...?
• Do you like...?
• Noted students' goals for the class and ways of learning English. This too was done in small groups. I had a little trouble here, for "Improving English" is too vague a goal; it lacks specifics like "Improve English by doing x." I usually gave students a hint by saying, "I'm learning Korean. One way I learn Korean is by listening to Korean rock songs and reading their lyrics." Saying so resulted in the following ways to learn English:
• Reading books
• Writing Kakao messages
• Listening to pop songs
• Watching movies in English
• Drama/dialogues/role plays
• Ended the class by asking for specific things the students remembered from our discussions.

Altogether, I'd say it was a good start. There's still room for improvement, but compared to my earlier "first days" this one established a few classroom routines and produced tangible products. I ditched my earlier introductory lecture and accompanying PowerPoint presentation in favor of letting the students ask the questions. Sure, telling them X, Y, and Z is fine, but letting the students ask questions (and reviewing question stems) put the focus on the students and gave them a voice in the class. Did strange questions arise? They did. Depending on the question, I either said "I don't know" or "No comment. Let's think of something different." I figure it's just some students wanting to test their new teacher. Teens will be teens. We'll see what questions come up in the lessons to come. So far so good though!

Lesson from KOTESOL / "What did he say?" A quick way to boost class participation

A quick way to boost class participation

I had the good fortune to meet the man behind the excellent ELT Rants, Reviews, and Reflections blog at the recent national KOTESOL conference in Daegu. He gave an energetic workshop called “You’re Doing It Wrong. Maybe.” In it, he brought up many of the oft-repeated “Don’ts” of teaching English and asked us in the audience to consider why they were wrong--or perhaps not so wrong. 

One such thing was “echoing.” That is, repeating back all or part of a student’s speech, either for confirmation or to broadcasting to the class. It looks something like this:

“Hi Billy, what did you do last weekend?”

“I went to Seoul and went shopping.”

“You went to Seoul and went shopping. How was it?”

I happen to echo my students frequently, so this part of the workshop caught my ear. What is good and bad about echoing?

On the one hand, we noted that native English speakers tend to use echoing in conversation. We’ll repeat part of the sentence as a question, we’ll repeat a word or phrase, or we’ll take a word and something like, “I see. Go on,” to keep the conversation going. Part of what English Language Teaching (ELT) entails is showing how native speakers talk to each other, so it is authentic. Echoing also allows speakers to clarify things the other person said. Again, it's common among native speakers. 

Yet, it has its drawbacks. For one, constant echoing can get annoying and repetitious. Sometimes I have felt like the stereotypical old man talking down to a little kid in a classroom. Also, students can tune it out. Consider that if I am echoing Billy the student, I’m probably training the students to listen to me instead of Billy. The students will ignore whatever Billy says and will wait for me to repeat it, which is not so good. I admit that this does happen in my experience.

One thing to do is instead of echoing Billy, we can ask the class, “What did he say?” Mr. Griffin and some of the attendees suggested doing so. This does three things: It shows that students’ speech is important, it keeps the class on track by acting as a short listening exercise, and it allows the class to participate by repeating what Billy said. Moreover, when the class (or an individual student) speaks, it can allow for speaking in full sentences, ie "He said he went to Seoul," and thus acts as an summary exercise.

It’s never been my habit to ask the class, “What did he say?” in the past. But when we were discussing it at the workshop, I thought, yes, this could work, and resolved to change how I interacted with the students. I’d downplay the echoing and introduce “What did he say?” as a way of keeping the class on track. And the question is working! I started asking “What did he say?” first thing on Monday morning, and it is indeed boosting class participation. I’m speaking less and the students are speaking a bit more. Of course, I am not asking "What did he say?" all of the time--just some of the time. Like anything it, would get stale if I did it at every opportunity. Still, it's quick and effective. My coteachers have even picked up on the question and have begun asking it themselves. I haven't asked the students to respond in full sentences or not. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. We can teach that when the time comes. For now, I'm happy to have learned something new and effective in class.

Thank you to the teachers in the room who mentioned this excellent little strategy! I’m afraid I don’t know all of your names, but what you said is making a difference in my classes. Thank you, Mr. Griffin, for giving a fun workshop. It was light on the jargon, yet it had substance and it inspired plenty of conversation. Again, it was good to meet you. Here's hoping we meet again.

Notes:

ELT Rants, Reviews, and Reflections - Quality teaching site from a man with over a decade of experience. 

KOTESOL - Korean Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages: A professional group of English teachers in Korea. It includes hagwon, EPIK, and university teachers. Korean English teachers are also welcome!

Teaching the kids how to rumble / Guitar Fridays

We were at lunch around six weeks ago when Ms Lee the coteacher asked me if I could help teach guitar to the students during the Friday "club activities."* She’s a guitar player herself and had started teaching the students when the semester began in March. I normally use Friday afternoons to prepare for the next week’s classes, but I jumped at the chance because it meant more time to play guitar and a chance to share some music with the students.* I asked about the skill levels. "Mostly beginners," she said. She added a second later, “So, is it okay?” Of course it was! When could I start? As it turned out, I could start that very day. The clock on the wall said half past noon. Club activities would begin at two o'clock, which meant that there was enough time to run home, grab the guitar, and get back to school. I did just that. 

We got going at two o’clock. I quickly saw that the students were indeed beginners. They were busying themselves with awkwardly moving between open chords, finding their fingering and their rhythm. The boys and girls (five total) clearly wanted to get playing, but they needed help with chords and rhythm first.  Lee and I ran through the standard open chords to warm up. The students followed along. They did their best to keep up with us. 

The only way to learn guitar is to play it, but an even better way is to learn from actual songs because they provide a context for learning. In the case of helping the students learn the chords elementary chords D, A, and G major, Ms. Lee led the students through "Reflection" [회상] by the Korean group rock group Sanulrim [산울림] because it rides on an easygoing D-A-D-G chord progression. I didn't know the song before she played it, but I instantly took to it. The students had been practicing the song before, but they were still struggling with the steady rhythm and the changes.  

Lee also asked me if I had anything to teach the kids. Immediately, Link Wray's classic 1958 instrumental "Rumble" came to mind: If the kids were going to learn basic chords, they should learn them from the classics. Moreover, “Rumble,” while an instrumental, represented a key piece of musical (and American) history. It brought the power chord to the masses.

I got to work on teaching the song. Lee herself didn't know know the song, so I jumped to that great music resource, Youtube, and found someone's "video" of it. We listened. Heads nodded. I demonstrated the famous D-D-E and D-D-A riffs a few times. Everyone caught on. Now, as any guitarist would know, "Rumble" has a tricky B7 chord followed by a descending E scale run. The E scale isn't difficult to play, but it takes practice to get right. The B7 though...after 14 years of playing, it’s still a hard chord to get right! Still, we gamely ran through the song. I knew something was clicking because Ms. Lee and one of the boys in the group latched right on to that descending scale run and wouldn't stop playing it. Repetition’s one key to learning. Guitar and English have that in common: The only way to get better is to practice, practice, and practice.

And from there, we jammed. We jammed on “Rumble,” we jammed on “Reflection,” and we jammed on exchanging our music. I learned a cool Korean number; they picked up a classic American one.

 Notes:

*Teachers, take note: If there is any way whatsoever that you can contribute something to your school’s various programs, do so. It will benefit you for several reasons:

•         You’re an integral part of the community.
•          You’re not just there to teach. Commitment to work and considering work as family mean plenty over here.
•          You get more time to do stuff you enjoy.

* Every Friday afternoon, the students get two or three hours away from regular classes to pursue extra-curricular things like music and board games.

* I'll have to post some stuff on Sanulrim, for their first three LPs are quality fusions of 60s pop and 70s rock jams.

Music!

Sanulrim - Reflection

Link Wray - Rumble

The Ramones - Rock 'n' Roll High School

(A literal) Quick hit: The kickball firing squad

The weather's been warming up, so the students have been able to venture outside and run around between classes. Some of them actually run and some of them do this:

I'm not sure how these things start, or why the start--not yet, anyway--but here's a slice of student life.

Farewell, Matt and Alli

[This was long delayed. My apologies!]

Matt and Alli in Dong Song have officially finished out their contract year and have flown out of Korea. They left an indelible mark during their all-too-short time in Cheorwon. Not only did they expand our knowledge of restaurants four-fold, they excelled in the classroom. Their vigor and verve's inspiring, both for us and for the students. Their blog Koronicles documents their time here.

As my custom, here are the big things I'll remember from Matt and Alli:

Alli's laugh could fill a room and the adjoining garage.

Matt always had a quip at the ready.

Both had boundless enthusiasm being here.

Both of them rocked it in the classroom. They always had positive things to say about the schools and the students. They made this video in one of their after-school classes:

Their blog Koronicles tells the story better than I can. Enjoy!

High school move in 2014

The hallway's alive with the cacophony of the incoming first grade students this morning. Though classes are out for the next week and a half, they're here to pick up their school uniforms, their textbooks, and move into their classrooms. Each student gets the standard desk and locker combo. It's similar in the US, although as I recall, many more parents would accompany their children there than in Korea. 

Here, the morning's as much about moving in as it is about socializing. One might think the students were reconnecting after having undergone a long summer away at various camps because of the overemotive banter, but no, that's just how they talk. The omnipresent hagwon and proximity of the small town mean that the kids have probably seen each other every day in the past couple weeks. So it goes here. 

Note: Unlike last year and the year before, I've met all of these students before as middle school students. I'll need to refresh the memory though, for I haven't taught the incoming girls in a year and, thanks to the shifting boys middle school schedules, there weren't many chances to teach the incoming boys. Still, they are not unknown. And I'm no stranger to them: They gave hearty hellos and greetings when I peered out into the hallway earlier. Let's hope the enthusiasm holds: High school's a hard three year slog in Korea and their English classes are about to get more challenging.

End of the 2013 school year / Updates for 14 Feb 2014

Today's post will be short, but I've plenty more on the way. Now that the school year's over and two weeks of deskwarming await me after the weekend, I've a burst of inspiration for writing...

Like yesterday, today was a shortened day for the students here. They attended school for the first half of the day, received their textbooks for next year, and moved their things into their new classrooms. That's about all that happened today from what I've discerned. My dear second graders are moving up the academic boot camp that is third grade. I'll miss them because I don't teach HS third grade. The kids will survive, but they'll have to work for it. The third grade is a grueling slog of 12 hour days and interminable memorization..

  

Graduation Day 2014

While today is the official day, it’s been coming for some time now. The Korean school year hasn’t officially ended yet despite the conclusion of the second semester exams, and winter classes. All three of those things happened in January. The semester itself ended after Christmas. Moreover, the third grade HS students took their CSATs for college in November. They’ve been done for some time now.

The school’s buzzing with activity. Students of every grade are conferring with the faculty. Many final preparations are underway. Meanwhile, I’m watching everything from my desk because all I have to do is show up for the ceremony. Being the guest teacher has its peculiarities—these fly-on-the-wall scenes especially.

Today’s the third graduation I will have witnessed. It’s the one dearest to me because these students are the 1^st graders I met in August in 2011. They’re the group I had the pleasure of knowing for almost all of their HS careers. True, next year’s group will be the first group I’ve known for all three years, but today’s thrilling nonetheless. They were great to have in class because they took English seriously and they were the first group I got to know. Among them is a shy girl who came to me when she’d been bullied. I had done a lesson on bullying around that time; maybe it spurred her to act. Another girl had been spreading rumors about her. She was beside herself. We talked for a while. I’d advised her as best I could and told her ignore the other girl and to call the Korean helpline.

That was eighteen months ago. Today she’s going to graduate and go on to a university in another province. She’s less shy, she speaks more confidently, and she walks straighter. She’ll do well.

I’d better go now. The fun starts in 20 minutes or so.

==
Additional notes:

Korean high school graduation ceremonies differ from their American counterparts in many ways:

• No caps and gowns. The students received their diplomas their their uniforms, suits, or dresses. The suits and dresses aren't common in my experience, though.
• It's short: This year's ceremony barely lasted 45 minutes, and it was, according to a co-teacher, a long ceremony!
• The students receive their diplomas in groups. They also tend to receive any awards or scholarships when they're given their diplomas.
• The students bow after receiving their diplomas, but unlike the Western fashion of bowing while facing the audience, the students bow toward their elders on the stage.
• The students also receive their diplomas while facing away from the audience.
• I can't speak to other schools, but my high school and girls middle school combined their ceremonies into one because they're on the same campus.

Quick link: Koronicles' "Solo Christmas"

Two things to note about the Cheorwon middle and high school students:

1. They all but worship the Home Alone movies.
2. They all wring their hands about spending Christmas "solo," or without a paramour. As noted before, Christmas is much more of a couples' day than a family day here, and the kids feel the pain of singledom. I have to hold back my laughter when I hear 13 year old boys talk about not having girlfriends because they feel like they're failures. The poor kids...I didn't have a girlfriend at 13 either, but that's neither here nor there. The kids will get their paramours eventually.

http://koronicles.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/solo-christmas/

Reflections on the 2013 school year 3: Plans for next year

My lessons aren’t perfect. Next year will undoubtedly present more difficulties than 2013 or 2012 did. There are several reasons for this:

The more I teach, the more I need to learn

While my footing may be surer than it was two years ago and I’ve a better idea of what to teach and how to do it, that doesn't necessarily mean learning has ceased. Quite the contrary: every day brings on a series of questions. If the lesson was good, what was good about it? What can be done better? If a lesson wasn’t good, how come it wasn’t? What could have been better? Was there another way to teach the material? What about next time? These questions determine what happens next.

Also, while I may understand more about Korean culture than before, the journey continues. The more time I spend here, the more nuances come out.

Increasing coordinator duties

A new head coordinator took over in August. He’s an energetic, indefatigable man and he’s got us working on bettering the EPIK program. Admittedly, there isn’t much I can talk about here, but I’m excited about what’s to come down the road. This past year has been a good introduction to coordinating and I welcome what’s ahead in 2014.

Changes in co-teachers

One coteacher, JB, told me that he’ll be moving on to another school once this year concludes. He was here when I arrived and has been a great help both in and out of school. For a time, he was my main co-teacher, so he was in charge of business trips and any issues that arose outside of school. In every instance, he provided invaluable assistance and understood how the EPIK program worked. Moreover, he has unquenchable thirst for learning English because he’s always studying and asking questions about the expressions he comes across. His vigor’s inspiring, for it reminds me to keep studying Korean and not to get stuck doing or saying the same things over and over. He’ll be missed.

Another co-teacher’s finishing out her 5 year stint at one school and will have to move on. She’s co-taught with two other Cheorwon veterans and is another tireless learner. She too understands EPIK and will be a boon to whichever school she teaches at next because of her bright smiles and charming personality. Our conversations are a highlight of school life. But there’s a chance she’ll simply move to another of my schools because the school transfers aren’t final yet. She won’t know where she’s going until March.

My obligations borne out of time spent here.

Admittedly, I don’t know what will happen, but the trend’s been that every year means more responsibilities on the professional side. It makes sense, each year here brings a raise, so asking for more work in exchange for more money’s a fair trade in my mind.

To be sure, there’ll most likely be another night class or two as well as more record keeping to do. The night classes this semester went well because they featured a small group of high level speakers, so each lesson was more like a coffee shop chat than a formal class. I’d choose a topic, draw up some questions and vocabulary, and briefly explain them before we got going. The students simply had to follow the topic (ie, traveling) at hand and speak in English. It was a format that worked well, but for next year, I’ll be including more A/V materials as well as more opportunities for writing. I should’ve better employed their notebooks this year.

More to come later.

Also...I'd like to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and hope everyone's enjoying the holidays.

Reflections on the 2013 school year 2: Anger

Avoid it as much as possible.

I’ll confess to losing my cool and yelling at students for misbehaviors. It’s not something to be happy about. It didn’t do anyone any good because it not only worsened the situation; it gave the kids their much-needed dose of attention. They got what they wanted and I got a headache and a sore throat. Korean society emphasizes the concept of “face,” which I definitely lost a few times over the years here. I took care not to ruin the class and quick switched a more positive mood to get the class rolling. Sometimes it was too late, but we usually got back on the right track.

On a similar note, Pink Floyd’s immortal warning of “No dark sarcasm in the classroom” proved all too tempting to ignore because there’s nothing a good harsh quip to put a student in his place, right? Wrong. Sarcasm doesn’t do anyone any good either. Life isn’t a movie script. There’s no peanut gallery watching the classroom for cutting lines or deft jests, there’s just me, the co-teacher, and the students. Moreover, sarcasm wouldn’t bring about any behavior change because it says nothing about the behavior that’s best for the classroom (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Here’s how: Saying something like “Oh, I see you’ve graced us with shining presence” to a tardy student may gratify for a second, but it won’t make him get in the door any sooner. Something like, “Good to see you, Joe. Arrive sooner next time,” would work better because it’s neutral and also points to the desired behavior. It also speaks the truth—I am truly am glad to see Joe and would like it even better for students to learn that expression to use among themselves. But, there’s another, more effective solution: Wait until the students are off and doing an activity and leave Joe a note or talk to him privately. Doing so allows for two things:

l       Joe gets no unnecessary attention when he enters the room.

l       He’s reminded of his misbehavior.

l       The conversation’s kept private.

l       I (the teacher) have time to cool down.

Contrast that with the aforementioned sarcasm and see which method’s more effective for yourself.

On a final note, I've found that telling the students I’m angry works because saying so always prompts a question as to why, and then I can explain. Yelling doesn’t work, but saying what the problem is—or demonstrating it, one of the two—always yields better behavior.

Let’s conclude by saying that sometimes voices need raising. One example comes to mind here: It happened during a word game we were playing at the boys middle school. One boy’s turn to speak came up and before he could say anything, another boy fired off a salvo of “You’re stupid” and “You don’t know anything” quips. The words cut the boy to the bone and he broke down and cried. As this happened in Korean, I missed the words and only saw the boy crying. A quick question to the co-teacher had her explaining what happened. It was no ordinary joking—it was verbal abuse. I yelled “Stop!” and halted the game so that we could review what showing respect and speaking at appropriate times means. By this time, everyone had gone silent. The other boy knew he’d done wrong, but rather than talk to him privately, I addressed the entire class, for they needed to hear this. They needed to know that taunting and verbal abuse is uncalled for. My co-teacher also talked to him after class and noted the incident in her log. 

More reflections coming soon...

Reflections on the 2013 School Year 1

Exams have concluded today and we’re entering the last days of the school year. The year concludes on 27 December, so we’ve about two weeks left before the winter classes begin. The regular year is, for all intents and purposes, over. We still have more classes to do, but they’ve already been planned out, so I’ve more some time to relax and stretch out. Hence, this post and a future series of posts reflecting on how the 2013 school year went down. Here’s the beginning:

Favorite lessons/activities:

l       The Price is Right--the students had great fun guessing prices of various items we learned about. It also provided an excellent review of money and numbers. The teams liked competing with each other for the closest price as well.

l       The hotel and airplane tickets roleplays--The students enjoyed walking around making their various plans with people. They got to do some real life English as well as practice activities they'll likely do as adults. As reading's been called an "imaginative rehearsal" for real life, so to are the role plays.

l       Battleship--The activity does take some time to explain, but the students understood it after a couple of tries. The game's format lends itself to repetition, so students get plenty of practice with variations on a speaking point without wearing the point out. The students also had fun guessing where the ships were.

l       Board games--UpWords and Scrabble. The games allowed the students to use their repertoire of English words in a fun context. To keep track of the words, they wrote words that they played on a handout and turned them in for my review.

• The summer camp

What else went well? Why?

l       Anything I mentioned about America. The students are hungry for knowledge about my home country as well as the chance to compare Korea to other countries. The students delighted in hearing about how it’s possible to vote, buy rifles, and smoke cigarettes at age 18.*

l       The notebooks and the bringing of materials.I've written about this before—at the beginning, it felt like moving mountains get the students to remember that yes,this is class, and yes, you will bring your materials with you, but theydid get the message. Soon over 80% were bringing books, notebooks, and pencils to class and we began taking notes in earnest. Some grumbled at this, but it was the next step after brining the stuff to class. (Many did see the value, though) The note-taking part’s still being worked on, but the students are starting to see that yes, they need to write stuff down from time to time. Writing helps, interestingly enough, with the hallowed study method of memorization. It’s funny how students will copy words and sentences for pages, but writing stuff that appears on the board is forgotten much of the time here. Oh well…one more thing to work on next semester.

*They couldn’t believe it was possible to own a gun while still in high school. And as someone who turned 18 just before senior year began, it is a strange thing to think about. The Korean students can’t drive, smoke, or vote until age 19, which means after they’ve finished high school. What a contrast to America—driving is high school for a good chunk of the population, for better or worse.

On to SKY

Few things in a teacher's life sound as good as hearing of a student's successes: One my former students has been accepted to the prestigious Yonsei University! Ji-hye deserves it: A consummate scholar and a bright presence, she always showed up to class with a smile and practiced her English at every opportunity. She's certain to do well at the university. Her amiable personality and intelligence will serve her well in the years to come. She's done our school well.

This is what happens when you study hard and keep focus. Well done, Ji-hye! Here's to bright college years. The road ahead won't be easy, but we've every reason to believe she'll keep up the good work.

*Yonsei's part of the Korea's illustrious SKY universities: Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei.

Teaching tip: You can only be you

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson  [Quoted here]

Teaching corollary: Teach how you will, but no matter how you do it, you'll always be you. 

Whether you're teaching in hagwon or EPIK, chances are that if you're teaching in Korea, you will have heard about your predecessor(s) in the classroom. Maybe you're like me and you not only met her, you were neighbors with her. And chances are that in doing so, you have heard students or teachers talk about what predecessor X did for a lesson or how X's differed from yours. It's inevitable when considering all of the different people who go abroad to teach English here. In hearing about X, you may feel tempted to compare your classroom performance to him or be more like him in the classroom. But however you think of X, resist trying to be X. 

While it's good to draw inspiration from teachers past and present, it does no good to try to be someone you're not. You can only be you, especially in the classroom. By all means, learn from your colleagues and emulate the masters, but remember that trying to be someone else is futile.

During my first year here, I thought about the woman I replaced and how my style compared to hers. Since we were neighbors for a time, comparisons inevitably popped up in conversation. Students called her the "games teacher" and referred to me as the "educational teacher." She had a kinetic and whimsical style; I moved more deliberately. She so spoke highly of her former girls middle school students and the lessons they did together that I wondered how well I was doing. The questions came in flashes: Was I boring them? Should be I more like her? Should I jump around more? What if they resent me because she's gone? I'd get into that pattern for a while before the thought of hey now, you're not her and never will be--relax already! came to mind like a Seattle sun-break and I moved on.

As the months grooved along and found my footing, those questions dissipated and were replaced with more practical questions about how to adapt her good lesson ideas to my classes. I couldn't be her, but I could certainly emulate her. Doing so helped alleviate the anxiety and allowed me to concentrate on reaching the students because above all, the students will know when the teacher's on uneven footing. They can sense it and are masters at spotting uncertainty. Like Emerson said above, we can only be who we are, but we should strive toward becoming the best possible versions of ourselves. The students will adjust to you because you are not the first foreign teacher they've had and nor are you likely to be the last. In short:

• Do the best you can, because you can only be who you are.
• There's no one way to teach and there are many different styles.
• The students will adjust to you. They have plenty of other teachers who teach differently. You're no different.
• The students will know if you're going too far out of your comfort zone. 
• Overthinking leads to mental fatigue

And as I'm a fan of bookends, let's conclude with more of Emerson's wisdom from his essay Self Reliance:

There is a time in every man's education when we arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is give to him to toil. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he tried.