Knowledge is power!

Holy COW.... I can't believe that I made it through the weekl! CCHHHAAAWWWW!*  Week 5 of this program was by far the most challenging week yet... In a way, "life changing"!!! Only through adversity, can we truly understand our full potential! Having to study for a quiz worth 10% of my grade (scary), first research style project paper, readings, blogs, more blogs all while working was a lot to deal with, especially when shooting for HONORS!!! (hint hint) Then add that EL presentation on top of all the other work, made me at times feel like I couldn't breathe... Not like a panic attack, more like if your standing at the bottom of a ENORMOUS mountain with only your trusty Swiss Army knife in your pocket and thinking that there is no way you are going to be able to make it to the top! But I didn't quit, I took out my trusty knife, killed some bears, made some pelts, then got to the top of that mountain. And from up here... The view is glorious! Being able to successfully complete all the objectives for this week, was great for the old self-esteem... Granted I still haven't received a score on the paper or test yet, but either way I feel that I am able to tackle anything. The best things is that all these long hard days are all for me and my development as a "professional" teacher. 

Which brings me to my EL presentation. If you told me 2 months ago that I was going to be able to tell you the difference between a present perfect and past perfect or what a past/present participle was, I would've slapped you and said, "don't say such nonsense, whatcha be smokin"... HAHAHAHA Nah, but I definitely wouldn't of believed you. And now, not only knowing the difference between these, but able to comprehensibly teach and explain them feels great! 

For my presentation I really wanted to make it interactional, in a way that students (fellow classmates) and I could construct meaning of the target skill (English Grammar) together. My plan was to first have the students go through the handout marking any tenses that they already knew. I knew for some that this was going to be an extremely difficult task, but that was to be the point. I wanted to then go through the sheet together during the presentation marking the sentences as we learned them. My focus was to ask them WHY, why is it that tense. (a mathematical approach(present be+past participle=?) deconstruct the sentence)  Have them explain in their own words, making it personal to them, so it had meaning. A way of looking at grammar from a Logical-Mathematical approach using the multiple intelligence theory because for me, this is what I had to do to come to understand it. But I didn't do this! Basically I just controlled the classroom discourse and if it had not been for Tom, I probably would have had no interaction with the students. Your traditional, teacher talks and student listens. So pissed I did this! GGRRRRRRRR But live and learn.

There are many things that I would change if I could do it again. First, I wouldn't start of with having the students fail at something. I thought it would be cool to at the end of the presentation/lesson for them to look at the handout and think, "wow that wasn't hard at all" when at first it was. Instead I would start off by giving the students the sheet and saying, "What would you say if I told you by the end of this lesson you could tell me which one of these sentences are present perfect, present simple, etc...". Starting off with hope is so much better than failure. The next thing I would change would be the handout itself. Make it two sided, one side being a couple of sentences with examples and rules that went in the sequential order of the slides. This would let us work through the rules and sentences together. If there were questions, I would first see if another student could help them understand before I did. Since this was my initial goal. The other side of the handout being a little quiz sheet, but unlike the one I handed out with 20 sentences, it would have 2 sets of 4. The first set we would do together and the second they would do alone. 

 Live and learn... Next time!

* "chaw" is my own made up word that basically means; yay, happy, great job, and awesome but said in more of a battle cry way!

The most profound statements are often said in silence!

In class I have been trying to implement different strategies, techniques and/or theories that we have been discussing in class. A big thing that I have been trying to change is the amount of error corrections I do. I thought that this was going to be an easy task, but as I'm finding out, there are so many different aspects to this little thing.

First, I have to choose what errors I feel are worth correcting. I find myself mid-teaching thinking if the S's error is worth correcting or should I let it pass. This kind of gives me anxiety, like I'm taking a test. What if I'm not choosing the write errors to correct... What if they are learning bad habits... Or worse, what if I am missing a key moment in our exchange for them to develop context to the correction. I might be exaggerating a little, but I'm finding it hard to to distinguish between which ones I should correct.
Second, after I've decided to correct an error, I now have to choose when and how I should correct the error. Do I do it instantly, or wait till the S has finished talking and how do I optimize this error correction, so that the S and Ss can benefit the most out of the interaction....
Taking all these things into consideration, my once thought of easy task of error correction, has now become a lot harder.
But as time goes on, I feel that it's becoming easier choosing what to correct and what to just let slide. I started to notice, especially in my older class, that when I wait to make an error correction that it creates opportunity for S-S error correction. My intent at first wasn't to promote S-S interaction when I didn't correct their mistake. I was just waiting for the right moment to make the correction. But as we have learned in class, waiting that extra 3 seconds; promotes increased participation, Ss initiate and quiet Ss more active. The last part quiet Ss more active surprised me. A lot of S-S interaction was coming from one of the quieter Ss.

I think that it's funny how amazed and stoked I get when certain theories, rules, practices that we've learn in class, when applied in the classroom or a certain situation... work. I love it. It's like when you are trying to learn a new trick snowboarding... At first you can't do it right away. It takes time, practice, video or feedback from your friends that can see from an outside perspective of what you are doing wrong (which I have found extremely helpful, because you can't see yourself) and then you slowly start to landing it. With a little more time and practice, you are stomping Rodeo and Corked 5's in contest to win 1st place! The same thing is happening with the style of teaching. 

From realizing the potentiality of wait-time with error correction, I've decide that most of my corrections will done at the end of the S's discourse. Hopefully prompting more S-S initiated interaction. Another way that I decided to make error corrections is to address the class with the question of "Is the (incorrect phrase/sentence) correct. My goal is to initiate the Ss to peer correct or maybe the S will notice their mistake and self-correct.

I started this reflection focusing on Error Correction, but through the reflection I have found that more wait-time will increase S-S interaction (not only for error correction, but all classroom discourse) which will reduce the excessive T-talk.

Getting An Eye Exam

Where oh where do I start... Maybe with the realization that I have a parrot in class or that I am a monological dictator in a little province known as John Teacherstan... Well those will have to wait, because I want to start with how I talk to my kids like they are idiots.

Last class, Lawrance made a comment about how he hated when people would leave out articles when talking to nonnative speakers. I thought to myself, that I totally agree with him and that its more detrimental to the learner when their interlocutor does this. Then low and behold, first class Monday morning I caught myself doing that exact thing!!! The sentence, "Oh, you went to park" tried to escape from my mouth. I don't know if it was because of our previous discussion that made me aware of this, but I had stopped before finishing the sentence and corrected myself. This makes me wonder how long I have been doing this. In the recent readings I was just introduced to Long and the interaction hypothesis. That if L2 acquisition is going to happen, then there needs to be modified interactions. Would this be an example of such a thing... Maybe, but I feel that leaving out articles is a bad habit to form... And I heard that all bad classroom habits are the teachers fault.

Now, on to the bird problem that I never knew I had. Besides not using articles, I also noticed that I repeat (T Echo) almost everything that my kids say. Like having a pet parrot in class but not so pretty to look at. I must have been doing this for a long long long long time because after I realized it, I couldn't stop. It took me a bit before I could actually proceed in the lesson and not TE. I think it might have started out as corrective feedback, but from what I noticed, right or wrong I wanted to TE what they said. This is bad for two reasons. First one being that there is no L2 acquisition from me TEing. Second, this means that I am talking WAY TOO MUCH!

Which gives me my Hat Trick for things not to do in class and thats just use a Monological discourse. I noticed it wasn't as bad with my older kids, but I am just dominating my little ones. They have no opportunity for Ss free talk. It's all T driven and when I do give them an opportunity it's the monological IRF, where it's a closed/display question that I'm only asking to check their vocabulary.


I view the STG program like going to the eye doctor for the first time because you think that you might need glass... Before going you think to yourself that your eyes aren't that bad, things are just a little blurry. Then when you get your new glass and put them on for the first time... Things become so vibrant, clear and beautiful, like full HD! You can't believe that it took you so long to go get them. And then the time comes that you see yourself in the mirror. Pit stained shirt, tattered jeans, socks don't match... Looking like you were dressed by a 3 year old. You can't believe that's what you actually look like. This is how I feel about this program. Helps me see whats really going on around me good or bad.


This being said, my Monday morning wasn't quite such a bust. For my next class I was able to change how I approached my classroom discourse. I know that some of these aren't huge changes but I believe that they are steps in the right direction.
My 6 year old class always has vocabulary to review. This time as I went through the colors I asked certain a S if they liked or didn't like said color. Then I addressed the class with the same question. At first they really didn't know what to do, maybe because of the way I was changing them from discovery to transmission, but they soon caught on to it. By the end they started to tell me other things that they liked that weren't color related.
Another way I tried to change class discourse was to relinquish my control, simply by asking what they wanted to sing at song time. We sing an emotions song that has 10 different verses. I have always chosen the order that we sang. Instead I asked them which ones that they wanted to sing. Again they were lost for a bit, but then picked it up quit well.
With my 7 year old class I broke them up into pairs for S-Q-S to replace T just reading and asking Q. This was also difficult and will take some time, but I believe through scaffolding they can pick this up quickly.

With group/pair work, asking open ended questions and letting the Ss choose the direction of certain activities will significantly help change my classroom discourse!

'Folsom Prison Blues' to 'The Gambler'

It's 9:25pm on a Thursday night and I finally built up the courage to watch my warmup video I had recorded Monday morning at 11:30. HAHAHAHAHA Don't know why I was so nervous to watch it. I keep forgetting that I'm the student in this situation not the teacher, here to learn, develop and grow. I have to keep telling myself that it's okay to be wrong, to make mistake, as long as I learn from them. So, that being said... What have I learned or been made aware from watching my video?

The warmup is with my newly turned 6 year old class. I have actually known some of them since they were in the 4 year old class. I see them once a day for 30 minutes Monday to Thursday.

First and foremost, WHERE AM I TEACHING??? My classroom looks more like a prison cell for convicts, than a place of caring and nurturing made for the inspiration of young minds! I would love to place the blame on my school for stripping my walls over the break, but even before the break my falls were bare. I just never realized until watching it in the video... At the start of the video you can see that the children are all focused on the only stimulating thing on the walls and it's the old tapemark remnants of a previous poster! I definitely need to work on my classroom, make it personal; something that reflects me and my teaching. Work on some projects in class to decorate the walls and give them life. ART ART ART COLOR COLOR COLOR WORDS WORDS WORDS 

Looking at the warmup itself, I believe that it went relatively well considering how worried I was about watching the video. The students seem to be very responsive to this activity. At first, you can see some of the students not fully engaged with the song/actions, but by the second time around, the entire class was participating and having fun. Which was the point of my warm up.
~I noticed, (from the readings I have recently done) that I don't give the students anytime to react or speak on their own. I don't know if this would be something that I would apply or worry about given the warmup activity is a song and their age.
To change this I could keep leading in the same manner , then in future classes I would assign a song leader who would essentially take over my role and lead the class. The goal being to slowly remove myself from helping the 'Song Leader' till I could completely remove myself and each student could lead without my assistance. In the end it would be a warmup completely made up of student student interaction, which would be completely opposite of what I'm doing now.

WOW... I literally just came up with this as I was writing and reflecting on this video. Maybe those guys Richards and Lockhart are on to something with this whole teacher reflection thing. Also, I hope that's a good idea! Because if not... that means I probably shouldn't be feeling the way I am now. Well, I'm proud of myself for just coming up with that and that's all that matters! HAHA

As for the overall teacher interaction, I noticed that I whistled at a student to get their attention. Need to stop that approach. They're not dogs. I do like the hands up, hands down, etc.. for getting their attention. I will actually do this in the middle of a lesson or do a song and dance when I feel them slipping through my fingers. Gets them moving around again and focused back on me. This also gives me a second to rethink my approach for teaching the material or if it's time to just switch gears completely and start something new. I STRONGLY believe one of the top attributes of a professional teacher is that 'you got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em'. If the class is rolling, don't stop it just because you have something else planned or the lesson says to. You might not ever get this opportunity again, so just go with it. On the reverse side, if it's not working, then stop. Later, go over what you did and try to figure out what went wrong. If you just keep going, you accomplish nothing in the form of teaching. The only thing you accomplished is finishing a page number, chapter or lesson. It might not be the right approach, but that's how I feel!

)

"The Blinking Light"

This is a pre video watching reflection. Yesterday I videoed 2 of my classes, one with the warm up I stated in the earlier blog and second being my older more advanced class for meth. I think that I will have a lot to reflect on from watching these recordings, but the process of making the videos has already given me so much to think about.
In my first blog I had written, "These days I feel that I'm an extremely good teacher, but lack the knowledge and insight to develop myself any farther". The lack of knowledge and insight was dead on, but I feel the extremely good teacher might be farthest from the true. 
Why do we feel nervous about filming our classes??? Is it because we are all shy in nature and it's like inviting a stranger into our bedroom while we change... Or is it because we all have insecurities about our self, our identity(identity-in-practice) that we have taken so much time constructing, and then to have somebody else tell us different would be unacceptable. 
For me it's the second! If I am not this amazing teacher that I think I am, then who am I? What have I been doing the last 5 years of my life?
It's an extremely scary thing, a feeling of being lost in the fog with no direction. But, to grow is to be able to let our guard down and take in the criticism, not as an attack to our self, to the person we believe ourselves to be, but as that blinking light in the fog that gives us that hope... that reassurance that we will make it out of the fog, to that blinking light... to our goals!!!

I say this because when thinking about which classes to film for homework. I felt that I was trying to give a false self (there is a psychological term for this that I can't remember). Like when you clean your house before people come over. This isn't normally how your house looks... But if your guest saw how it actually looked (the real you), they might judge you, see you in a different light than you want to be seen. I feel that I was doing the same thing for my recordings. 

The reason I titled this "Am I really even a teacher???" was because I felt that I should be able to film any one of my classes. But for me at this point, that is not the case. To be able to do this, to film any of my classes at anytime and not have that feeling of shame is my blinking light in the fog!!!

After reading through what I wrote, I decided to change the title to "The Blinking Light". For some reason this title seems to resonate with me. Turning a negative into a positive! 

"I like nonsense it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities"

~Dr. Seuss~
I hold this quote close to my heart and try to never forget it!


Before coming to Korea, I made my living by working in the food service industry. Starting off my sophomore year of collage working the graveyard shift, washing dishes at Denny's. Talk about "starting at the bottom", but that's exactly what it was... at starting point. The start of a 7-8 year career that would teach me so many valuable lesson, besides just cooking. By the time I graduated from my university I had made my way up the working ladder, from graveyard shift dishwasher at a fast food style family restaurant to fine dining dinner sauté cook. I decided to keep cooking instead of using my degree in Psychology. I was making more money utilizing the trade that I had learned than I could of with my degree. My final year of cooking before coming to Korea, I viewed my self as a chef. Not in the way that I was the lead in the kitchen, but the style and level of food I was producing and putting out and I usually was the only one in the kitchen, that didn't go to Culinary school. I learned through trail and error, hands on experience and from my colleagues(other chefs) how to properly cook certain ways, different style of cuts, when to use them, and shortcuts/tips to become faster and more efficient. I prided myself on this, but always felt that I was lacking the knowledge/skill to take my cooking to the next level that school would have given me.

I guess that I'm a creature of habit... This story is exactly the same for my journey with becoming a teacher. I have been teaching in Korea for a little over 5 years never thought twice about it. Thinking back on my first year teaching, I'm horrified about the way I taught. Making worksheets to kill time, showing movies when I was too hungover to teach and the lack of songs, games and overall CIs no wonder why my class didn't excel in ELA. I was a horrible teacher.
I hate being bad at anything (that's why I don't noribang, can't sing) and love teaching. For me, this is what drives, pushes. motivates me to become a professional teacher! These days I feel that I'm an extremely good teacher, but lack the knowledge and insight to develop myself any farther from this point without guidance and direction. I'm looking for the next level!

Planned Warm up For Next Week
I am currently working in a kindergarten with students from the ages of 4 to 7. I have been at this particular school for quite a long time now, that my 6 and 7 year old classes used to be my 4 and 5 year old classes. Being with them for so long, I've been able to (through trial and error) learn what works best for each class. Because they are so young, I try to always have them moving, with either song and dance or a game.

My warm up will be the song Row Row Row Your Boat.
First I will start by sitting up straight in a chair (tables are positioned in a square and seats around the tables, so that all the students can see me), hands down by my sides and say, "start position". Usually they don't catch it at first, so I repeat the action again, but exaggerate the start position action by slouching down and moving my arms away from my side before I say SP. This models the desired action and pose for the students. The students that have now seen and done the target behavior, I tell them good job or look at them with a smile and a nod to reinforce that they are correct. I will repeat this until all students have done the target behavior.
Once the class has all come to SP, I will tell them, "It's time to sing a song. We are going to sing Row Row". (Later with this phrase (especially with the older class) I want to do a Q and A with them. T: What time is it? Ss Time to sing a song. This can all be down through TPR and acting out time, what and sing.)
Next I will say and do, "hands out(put my arms out with hands open), fits(close the open hands into fits), one, two(move my fits, one on top of the other)". I will do this one more time and have the kids follow me by repeating and doing the motions. This action gives us our oars to row the boat.
We will see the song a total of three times. The first time we sing the song, we will do it at a normal speed. The second time, I inform the students that we will do it again, but we are going to do it slow. I/we then go through the same SP and oar actions to begin at normal speeds, then at the start of the song I/we start to sing and move like I'm in slow motion. Finally the third time, I inform them that we are going to sing the song fast. Once again, go through SP and oars action at a normal speed, then when I/we start to sing super fast.
The goal of this warm up will be the target language slow, fast, hands, fits, sing, song, time and have the become aware of start position.