Tonicing the Troop!

This should be the first of three re-focusing posts that will probably bore my rare readers senseless. Really, it’s a lot like I am there with you! First one is about instruction, second one will be about schedule and the third one about quarterly re-focus.

Having been once through the highly prescriptive “communicative” textbooks, and with three very different classes, I have learned a great deal. Mainly that when I got here I was a pretty sucky instructor. ;-) This was partly due to being tossed into three classrooms with three different books all of which had different approaches and resources. But it is also safe to say that I took the path of least resistance. Now, having spent more time thinking about things I have about 5 changes in teaching style.

1) THE BLACKBOARD - As mentioned before, I’m going back to the blackboard. I started my blackboard work based on a staff-development presentation in the first week. This included a bare-bones outline of the daily class and three sentences:

“In English that means _____________”
“In Korean that means _____________”
“Go Out!”

This didn’t work that well for me, so I gave up on the blackboard a bit and tried to do everything “scampering monkey style.” Which I’m ok at, but it left a lot of things unsaid and working directly from the book can be a pain – it’s easy to lose your place, among other things. So next semester I am going to outline everything (minus vocabulary) in the days’ lesson plan. Even if we don’t cover it all we will know what we should have covered and what might end up on the test.

2) THE BOOKS - I now have a far better idea of the kinds of things that are in the books. This will help me when I get the new set. I should be able to take them home (that would be this weekend for the summer classes) and assess what they have to offer. I will spend a bit more time figuring out which exercises (all the books essentially rotate the same 10-12 exercises, but with different content, from week to week) work and concentrate on them. I’ll also check out the websites and the handouts/tests/homework. Which leads me to –

3) THE HOMEWORK – I’m going to assign a bit more of it this semester and I’m going to grade it rather than use the money system. This will give me more backup if there are problems with grades (in case someone challenges them) and it will give the students just a bit more work in their 2nd (sometimes 3rd) language. The money system is too imprecise a homework payment system for me, since it is easy to apply unevenly and doesn’t have much scalability. Also, I want to separate academic issues (other than speaking English) from behavioral issues. This leads me to…

4) THE MONEY – I will still use the money for in-class English speaking, emails, office visits, and supportive behavior. I can’t think of a better way to do that on the fly. But that will be the limit of it.

5) THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT – I have also been able to find a few things that all the classes loved. These are the clown car things: I act something out; I draw; we have games pitting the men versus the women; even spelling, for money or competition, seems to get the class going. The movie I showed in one class was worth its weight in gold. So I will formally schedule these events into my class and into my lesson plans, so I do not forget to do them.

I think that these five changes will make the classroom experience a lot better for me and for my students. If I’m going to hop up to Seoul next year, I’ll need to have my game a bit tighter than it has been here. The good news (segueing to the schedule post) is that I have some college and university classes on the intersession.