Extreme Makeover

Hmmmmmm... I feel like I never know where to begin when I sit down to write these... So many thoughts racing around in the old noggin, hard catching up with one of them to put it into words! But luckily for you guys, I've made a couple of booby traps and caught a few of them.

One of them is actually is a thing that I had addressed in a previous blog, but have yet to act on it. It's the appearance/environment of my classroom. It's been almost a month since I had written about this and have done nothing to change it. A couple of reasons that this issue needs to be addressed again... Besides the obvious of me not doing it!!! Stems from our lesson planning assignment. As I was going through the sample lesson plan, figuring out what things I could steal and put in mine!!! HAHAHAH joking joking... I came to the section "location of lesson". This HONORS student had written about not having her own classroom to teach in (which I've experienced and did not like so much) and if she had her own class, that she would decorate it appropriately to give her students an environment for improving classroom life. Next, she goes on to quote Brown 'students are indeed profoundly affected by what they see, hear and feel when they enter the classroom.' (which I totally agree with too) and then talks about this classroom at her school that is perfect to assist in her pedagogy (I hope I used that word write... trying to talk like a big kid these days), but she is unable to use it because her students are too old. For her, there are all these things that could significantly help her if made available; then there's me... I have an opportunity and the resources to accomplish all these things, but have done nothing!

Unlike the last time, this time I actually contacted my co-teacher/boss and am having a meeting tomorrow morning with the wonjangnim about decorating the classroom, she has to approve what materials can go up before "Extreme Classroom Makeover 2014" can commence....

Hahahaha I’m going to make a new reality TV show on TLC about struggling teachers who need help, and my team of teaching experts come in and give their lesson plans and classroom a complete make over!!! I’d watch it!

For our lesson plan we are supposed to use a preview, to activate the students’ schema, get them ready (affective blocker down) and feeling comfortable. This is my goal for the classroom decorations. I want the students schema activated every time they come into my class. I want to put up a greeting song verse above my white board (Hello, Hello, Hello... Hello how are you? “feelings”), the alphabet (big and little), an interactive calendar (What day is it today? As the students develop their vocabulary, I can then start to introduce the phrase with yesterday and today. Also, can focus on the months and numbers) and an interactive weatherboard (How's the weather?, “sunny, raining, hot, warm, chilly, cold”).

Since these will be an everyday interaction and experience, there will be no pressure for the students to acquire the language within a certain time frame. I believe learning these key phrases this way will be highly efficient and less burden to the students because it will just become an everyday routine instead of an English lesson.

I will start of by doing T-C repeat/repetition and chant until I believe that they are ready and feel comfortable enough with a more complicated discourse. Next, I will have a S act as the teacher and lead the class in the morning greeting and warm-up asking questions like “How’s the weather?” or “What day is it today?” to the other Ss or S. Then as this starts to become easy, I will introduce new versions (+1) like yesterday/tomorrow or have them start to combine ideas in a sentence (It’s sunny and hot). My final goal for this will be to essential have them be able to do this in pairs. Starting from repetition and T ask Ss, then S asking Ss question for role-play was a way of modeling the interaction so they will be able to do in pairs. Given their age (4-7), pair work is extremely difficult to initiate. This is definitely a long-term classroom discourse plan.

I actually have a video I wanted to upload to reflect on greetings, my lack of preparedness and the horrible use of classroom time management. But that will have to wait for another blog. 

Side note here… I really like these reflective blogs (even though they take me forever to do) and how it’s a way of peeping into the box that’s ‘my teaching’ and figuring out what is really in it (who I am as a teacher). And then what to do with the things inside… throw away, move around and/or need to add.