Something good is happening… but I don’t know why?

I asked a colleague the other day, “Do you ever have one of those lessons where everything feels right – the students are into it, they are working hard, you’re feeling at the top of your game, and the time just flies by, almost effortlessly?” Of course he could relate, as most of us can…

The problem is… I’m having those kinds of lessons almost every time these days. In no way is this meant to be bragging, because if I knew what factors and dynamics were causing this, then I might want to brag just a little. However, for the life of me, I can’t put it into any kind of clear explanation. Everything seems to have come together, but it is frustrating as hell not being able to describe it in a convincing or intelligible way. Forcing myself to try, here’s what comes out:

1. The students trust me. They walk into class (junior high and high school EFL classes) and start asking on the way through the door, “What are we gonna do today, Steve?” Maybe they think that it will be interesting or meaningful. I’ve taken to writing things on the board, like, “Dear Y-chan, Today’s menu is: 1. ____, 2. ____ and 3.____” because she always asks the same question at the same time each week.
2. The lesson is about them. More and more, I’m able to set up lessons, or frame them, as “I need you to help me understand what you think about ______.” Or, “I want you to put together a _____, so I can use it in your juniors’ (or seniors’) class. Or, “You need to be able to (read faster, write faster, talk about yourself, understand Canadian speed English, etc) so we’re gonna ______ so you can practice that skill.”
3. They are buying into my input/output balanced approach. I regularly elicit and write on the board why we’re doing what we’re doing. For example in Chu 1 (grade 7) I tell them that our 3 goals for the year are: 1) Learn to write quickly, 2) learn to read out loud in English, and 3) Learn to talk about yourself. Therefore everything I do with them must add to one of those 3 goals; they always know which one (cuz I elicit it from one of them).
4. I negotiate with the students (more and more). They are speaking out more and more about how they want to do something as well as what they want to do. The more I listen to them and allow them to do things their way, the more effort they seem to be putting out. For example, the Ko III (grade 12) final speech last week “My 3/6/12 years at Seibo” had always been a 3-4 minute memorized speech with no paper allowed. This year they negotiated to be allowed to have their paper with them and to be able to read some of it. The result was that I got 7-8 minute speeches with much better content, a better audience reaction, and girls “pumped” at the end of giving their speech – smiling and feeling great satisfaction.
5. I spend more time with students during class. I find myself spending much less time speaking and just getting out of the way as quickly as possible. I set something up, encourage them to discuss it, then get to work. This frees me up to circulate and answer questions, prompt, elicit and give encouragement and feedback. I have more time to explain things on an individual basis whenever necessary as well.

Well, that’s a start.

Dear Blog, I promise that I’ll try to get back soon to keep reflecting and recording my evolution as a teacher.

Cheers,

Steve

Seth Godin walks the walk!

Don’t go to business school 

Source: www.squidoo.com

Six intense months working with a few other amazing people (and me.)There are plenty of reasons to get an MBA, especially in a down economy. I’m not sure exactly what they are, though. A typical MBA might …

Deadline Dec 14th – Would anyone be willing to take over my lessons, finish my dissertation, pick up my kids every day, and reassure my wife that I’ll return in 6 months, for me? Cuz, among the countless ideas that fly by everyday, this is a GOOD one – Work on a team for Seth Godin in New York until July 20

Part II: For those of us still struggling with Japanese kanji

Edubloggers Unite! Help spread the word…

Survey link for Synergising Professional Development

Hello,

If you caught our presentation at the JACET/JALT Joint Conference and would like to take the survey, please click HERE

Thank you for your time.

Cheers,

Steve Herder

What’s your thread?

It was my first national JALT conference even though I’ve been teaching in Japan for 18 years. I attended because I finally wanted to “join the [EFL] conversation”. The people I met were inspiring, friendly, and still committed to learning more. I left the weekend stimulated, challenged and wanting more. (50 words)

This is where I’ve been…

My poor neglected blog…

I’ve been busier than ever online, just hanging out with a different process. It is called the MASH community and it is an online collaborative community that my new best buddy and a small circle of colleagues on the University of Birmingham MA TEFL course have created.

In 5 short months we’ve been able to create quite a buzz for professional development through collaboration. The talent was there all along. We simply needed to give it a vehicle and off it went… vroom, vroom

Anyways, check it out if you like,

THE COMMUNITY

Eddie Reader – words don’t work sometimes…

What an incredible voice! When she lets go, angels seem to fill her body and come out of her mouth. I’m a sucker for people who get to the level of letting the music take over. Here are a couple of examples, one from TED Talks and one from You Tube that I may try with some of my high school classes:

And another real voice is Lyfe Jennings, who I stumbled upon thanks to an old magical friend, Maria, back in the summer of 1979 (can you tell I have another essay due at the end of this month? I’ve run out of things to clean and am now looking for new distractions) :

High Expectations???

I’ve been reading a few books on teaching and a common thread running through all of them is that a good teacher has high expectations for the students. It got me thinking – pretty hard, in fact – about my own expectations. Every year I start each class with a little theme for each grade followed by a short speech about the potential that they all have. I tell them some things that former students have achieved with English and they seem to react positively. Finally, I tell them that I have only 3 rules in my class:

1. Be on time – I also promise to finish on time because I know they have important things to do during their 10 minutes breaks between classes.
2. Be Kind to one another – I warn them that seeing any kind of bullying will make me go ballistic. It happens once every 5 years or so, and it ain’t pretty.
3. Try – I ask them to try in my class. I promise to try my best to make useful, interesting lessons and I expect them to try to improve their English.

OK, so here’s the problem: I guess my expectations take many forms because I expect something different from each student, based on where they are and what they seem capable of doing. How do we ever know if we are expecting enough, too much or just the right amount? I’d love to hear other teachers comments on this topic.

I’m sure it has a lot to do with making my expectations clear: in general, as well as specific terms. I expect your speech next week to be at least 2 minutes long, I would like you to make at least 5 different points in your argument, etc.

But I wonder if other teachers would get more or less effort and results from my students than I’m getting? Point me in any direction you see fit to get a better handle on this topic.

Cheers,

Steve

Where to begin?

I’m not doing much to prepare my students for the future, but this video gave me the idea to show it to my Grade 11 & 12 writing class and get them to write their reaction to it.