COURSE DESCRIPTION | CLASS SYLLABUS | ESL SITES | CA's UNIVERSITY CLASSES
April 14, 2003
Today wasn't a complete disaster, I guess. Some parts of the lesson went well. All in all, though, the timing was way off, and I got too distracted by the large number of students. I wasn't expecting 44! That's 3 times the number of students I had last year! I didn't even have enough handouts for everyone since I was expecting between 20 and 30, but had made 40 copies, just in case (afraid that a lot of them would be wasted).
Since Prof. Hamada had only 24 in his class, he's going to let me know who those students are. As for the others, I wonder why they're taking the class. Don't they know it's for people who plan to be teachers? Don't they read the course description? Well, we'll see what happens next week when they get the syllabus.
As for what went well, I'd have to say the Jazz Chants went as perhaps even better than I had expected. The students responded well, and I was actually able to take it a pretty fast. I can tell that it's going to be a good way to start out the class each week.
The game went fairly well. The students seemed to understand the rules. However, they didn't seem to mingle as much as I would have liked. Also, the classroom is not set up for such a game. If it were going to take more than 15 or 20 minutes, I'd have them move the tables around. Also, because, contrary to my expectations, there were a lot of the students who weren't planning to become English teachers, I didn't talk as much about HOW and WHY I was doing the activity as I would have. For the sake of Hamada-Sensei's class, I should have, anyway.
I also seemed to be talked too much. I have to remember that. Their listening skills are pretty weak and, if I talk too much, they'll just tune out.
My biggest mistake was in not putting the game closer to the end. I could feel most of the class tuning out during the last 10 minutes. Part of it might be just the psychology of those 10 minutes. I mean, once it turns 12:00, it's lunchtime, right? I'll have to make sure to include some dynamic activity towards the end of every class. Of course, once we have the Self-Assessment Forms, that's what they'll be doing at the very end of class.
It will be interesting to see how many students and who shows up next week. My guess is that it will be fewer. I'm going to make sure the "deadbeats" are out of the class by May!
April 25, 2003
On Sunday I went to METS (Meeting of English Teachers in Sapporo) to hear Pierre's presentation on Public Speaking. What was interesting is that he didn't follow his own admonitions in some cases. For example, he didn't really take his audience into consideration. At times, he talked way above their heads in terms of both vocabulary and speed. Probably only a handful understood his jokes. Also, he went on too long, to the point where everyone was getting restless. Finally, he didn't end with what he himself had cautionedÑthat the final words were what the audience remembered the most. After reading an inspiring speech, written by his daughter, he continued mumbling something about the effect his daughter's speech had had on him rather than just ending with the speech itself, which would have been much more powerful.
Listening to Pierre's speech helped me reflect on why my Monday class had gone so poorly, with one student obviously looking at this watch, and the Friday class so well, with students paying attention to all that I said. One reason had to do with the amount that I talk in class. I realized that the less I talk, the better. Then my words will have more of an impact. If I go on and one, the students eventually tune out. The same is the case if I talk too fast or above their heads. I have to keep my language simple, as well as pause often for emphasis. In other words, if I concentrate more on making certain the students are understanding everything, rather than on covering all the material I think I need to, I'll be much more successful.
As for dealing with the deadbeats, I decided to make up a Teaching Contract with a list for them to check off and then sign. Also, they had to write their reasons for taking the class. I wasn't all that surprised when one wrote "to make friends" and another wrote "I don't know." I knew they didn't really have good reasons for taking the class, and that simply confirmed it. We'll see what happens when I announce that those whose contracts I didn't sign are not invited to continue the class. If they choose to continue, what's unfortunate is that their presence is distracting to those who are taking the class seriously. Also, they may be shocked at midterm when they discover, if they don't attend class regularly or turn in journals and portfolios, that they're going to fail the class.
May 16, 2003
For the last two weeks I followed Wilma's suggestion of seating the students alphabetically, by laying out their Self-Assessment Forms before class. This is the first time in my 26 years of teaching that I've seated students that way, although I sometimes have them count off to form conversation groups Ñ especially with larger classes since it's quick and efficient. Much to my surprise, the system worked beautifully. The students, especially those who had been disruptive the first couple of weeks, were exceptionally cooperative. The only thing is that they weren't as responsive during the Jazz Chants or when I asked questions. For the advantage of a quiet, more disciplined class, I had to give up on one that was more interactive. However, as students adjust to my way of teaching and to each other, I plan to allow them to sit wherever they like. The alphabetical seating was only a temporary measure and not one I would want to resort to every week.
Sometimes I wonder whether students are getting the point of my lessons. Since I don't lecture, I don't always state explicitly why I'm using a certain technique or activity. I'm teaching by an inductive rather than deductive approach, and Japanese students are not used to that. Sometimes I can see from their comments whether they're "getting it" or not. For example, if someone merely writes that the class was fun, they seem to have missed the point. In fact, I even get a little irritated because I am not developing lessons merely for their entertainment, although I do hope to instill in future teachers of English that both learning and teaching can be fun. On the other hand, I know I've really gotten something across when a student writes that he will never use katakana when teaching English. Of course, that's something that I warned about explicitly, so it's not something he induced merely from the activities. Maybe I need to explain more often, in one way or another, exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing. However, I have faith that what the students are experiencing now will be recalled at some time in the future, and then it may dawn on them, "Oh, that's what CA meant, or that's why CA was teaching us that way." One can only hope.
May 23, 2003
Once again a student has referred to my class as "high tension." The first time I saw this term, on a class evaluation, I was really disturbed since tension is generally caused by stress, so I thought the student was feeling strssed out because of my way of teaching. I have since discovered that it means something more like "high energy." In that sense, the comment on the class evaluation was positive.
If my classes are so high energy, I wonder about the usual classes. As I think back on classes I took, particularly in graduate school, the energy came not so much from the teacher as from the students. My university professors encouraged interaction, including expressing differences of opinion. Since the students in my classes in Japan have experienced a passive form of education for so many years, I generally don't get the same kind of energy from them. (It's partly what makes me nostalgic about teaching junior high.) The exceptions are when the students in a particular class know each other very wellÑmore true as Kyoikudai than at SatsudaiÑor when there are one or two people who are more aggressive about speaking out. When that is not the case, as with the Teaching Development course, I end up providing most of the energy. That can be exhausting but, from the feedback I get, generally provides students with a positive experience.
The one drawback to having an active rather than passive class is that some students don't know how to handle it. Instead of putting energy into class discussion or other educational activities, they end up up acting out, just as they might at a boisterous social event. Since they're not trained in the conventions of how to behave in an active class, they sometimes end up being in appropriate, in how and what they say and do. However, I consider it important for me to continue teaching in the way that I do. For one thing, that's my style, and I would feel stifled teaching any other way. For another, since they chose to have a class with a Westerner, I can use this as an opportunity to expose them to a style of teaching they may be unfamiliar with. They may experience a bit of culture shock, as a result, but that's part of their education.
May 26, 2003
Today I felt I just might be going nuts. For one thing, several students were absent, including TWO who had emailed me promising they were coming! (Both of them have now missed so many classes that they can't pass the course. I feel bad about that, but it's their responsibility.) On the other hand, two took the trouble to email me explaining that they were absent because of illness and promising to complete the homework. When I get that kind of response from students, I feel as though the effort I'm making is worth it.
Another setback, which I more or less expected, was that I had told students I would be checking journals today. While most of the students brought theirs and, as a result, received a small sticker saying "Good Job," there were a couple who acted as though it was the first time I had mentioned the word "journal" in the class. Aaarrrrgh! Not only did I pass out handouts with clear instructions, but I've mentioned journals in class a number of times, including mentioning that students should bring them today since I was going to check them. I mean, it's not exactly a secret! One even had the gall to say that he had been absent (for which, I might add, I never received an excuse note), and he assumed that was an acceptable excuse for not knowing about the journals.
How have these students made it to the junior year of university? Were their previous instructors simply babysitting them? Did they expect no responsibility from the students, such as finding out what the course requirements were and fulfilling them? How are these students possibly going to be prepared to enter the working world in a year or so?
On the other hand, a large number of students write on the Self-Assessment Forms that the class was fun and they're enjoying it. I suppose I should take that as a compliment. However, I'm wondering if I'm merely being viewed as a source of entertainment rather than an educator. Are the students actually getting anything valuable from my class? If so, I wonder what. Maybe I'll know more when I have a chance to read the journals in July, that is, if students write in their journals.
I feel I'm not being fair to those who are making an effort. One young woman, in particular, is writing such an excellent journal that I'm really looking forward to her observations. I'm sure I'll feel better after reading them. She's an excellent participant in the class as well. I only wish I had a class full of students like her!
June 6, 2003
My Teaching Development class (called Oral Comprehension B, for reasons I don't understand) is the only one where there's still no rapport among the students. In my classses at Kyoikudai, there's a natural rapport since the students in at least two of the classes are together for many, if not all, of their other classes so know each other well. In my other two classes at Satsudai, there has been good attendance, and the students get to know one another through exchanges, either in conversation or writing. Also, in the writing class, the room is smaller, contributing to a feeling of more intimacy.
In the Teaching Development class, on the other hand, the attendance has been sporadic. There hasn't been a single day when all the students still in the class have been together, including the first, since some of them started late. The result is that I haven't been able to develop the rhythm and flow that are make for a truly effective class. This is frustrating for me since I know I can teach well, given the right circumstances, but it's a cooperative effort. That is, my approach to teaching involves a great deal of interaction with and among students. When students don't know each other well in Japan, they are reluctant to interact.
In addition, there are a couple of disruptive students who seem satisfied with simply being in an environment where English is being used. Why they signed up for a class intended for future teachers of English, I don't know. They not only don't contribute to the class, but they are a drain on my energy as I end up focusing on how to bring them into the class.
Ironically, right after one of my best classes, the one on Grammar-Translation where I had some interesting exercises, including the use of a song, and everyone was very involved, three students withdrew and the attendance got much worse. Some of the latter can be attributed to Golden Week, the timing of which couldn't be worse in terms of education. Just after two or three weeks of the beginning of the school year, when the momentum is really going well, comes this holiday, and it takes enormous effort to get that momentum going again. If, on top of that, attendance is poor and some of the students are less than cooperative, it simply means a class that never quite succeeds in jelling.
I have yet to see whether this class will succeed as a whole, even though a few individual students are doing a great job. Since I contacted a number of students by email this week, I'm hoping that attendance will be up next Monday, and the pace will pick up. If not, it might not happen until fall or winter, if at all. Though terribly frustrating, it will be interesting to see what happens.
June 10, 2003
Yesterday I really lost it in class. The inconsistent attendance is simply driving me nuts. Although it was higher yesterday, up to 21 from 15 last week, that's still less than half on the roll. It's already the 9th week, and I'm still not completely sure who's taking the class!
Not only that, but the students are so totally passive, some might even say passive aggressive because of their attitude. I am so aware of how some are constantly checking to see just how little they can do but still pass. If only that same amount of energy would be put into just doing the work! It must be very tiring for them to keep checking to see if I notice they're not really participating in activities. It's tiring for me. The point at which I lost it is when I was holding up some material for them to look at. (I hadn't made copies since it was in Japanese, and I was only going to comment on it briefly.) A couple of the students didn't even bother to look at what I was holding up!
At the point, I started having the feeling of, why am I standing up here talking to a bunch of deadbeats. I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. It didn't help that it was the 3rd day of the Hokkaido Shrine Festival, meaning over 300 booths in my neighborhood attracting hundreds of passers-by, and a police officer right outside my window shouting through a bullhorn all day long warning cars not to park there. The heat and humidity in the room simply added to the stress.
I'm not even sure what I said to the students, and probably none of them really knows, as well (partly a language barrier). Some of it had to do with how I generally work with whatever energy I get from the students, and this class was giving me none. I knew, however, that I wanted to continue with the lesson for the few who were there to actually learn. I gathered up my animosity as though it were a ball, opened the door, and tossed it out, saying, "I don't need you," then went back to the lesson. However, because of the general lack of enthusiasm in the class, I could barely muster enough of my own and was totally exhausted by the end.
All day long, I couldn't get the class out of my head. What went wrong? What is going wrong? This is the 5th year I've taught the class, and while it's never been the easiest class to teach, I've never met with so much actual resistance. Why? Some of the factors I considered were:
- The students are sleep-deprived; I get messages from some of them at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning so have no idea how much sleep they get.
- Their understanding of English is really limited and they can't follow what I'm saying in class. One of my friends asked whether I use Japanese, suggesting that as a solution. It could be that some of the other non-Japanese instructors use Japanese in class so they're used to that, but I don't, first, because my Japanese is not all that good, and second, because they're third year English majors who supposedly plan to become English teachers! If they can't understand my English, which is very clear and generally slow, then it's really pathetic!
- They are taking the class merely because it's on a Monday, and there are fewer classses on Mondays than on other days. In other words, they think they're going to get away with less work. Boy, did they get that one wrong! (They obviously didn't read the course description and syllabus, both in English.)
- They have been conditioned by years of training in the Japanese school system to be passive and don't have a clue as how to respond in a "communicative-style" classroom.
All of this was running around in my head, plus a comment made by one of the students that the class wasn't very active this time. My immediate response to that was, is it my job to be an entertainer? Am I the only one responsible for making the class active? Anyway, I ended up staying awake until nearly 5:00 a.m. to prepare for next week's class. I don't want a repeat of the same "deadness" I experienced today. Also, I was really unhappy with my own reaction, and I want to have a "sure fire" class to make sure that doesn't happen again. I suppose I'm nuts to be making so much effort to make this class work when the students are giving me zilch, but I can't help from wanting to have every class be the best it can be!
June 13, 2003
Today my English conversation class at Kyoikudai turned out really well, contrary to my expectations. Since it was Friday the 13th, the topic was Superstitions. For homework, the students were to choose from and do research on questions dealing with black cats, four-leaf clovers, wishbones, and so on. I wasn't surprised that nearly a third of the students hadn't done the research. Fortunately, two-thirds had, some very thoroughly, so I had them sit in groups according to the question they had chosen. Those who hadn't done the homework simply had to listen to their peers to get the information.
Then everyone had to circulate and get the answers to as many questions as possible. Since it was a rather muggy, gloomy day (with some students in my first period class nearly falling asleep), it was good to get the students moving. Since the questions were of interest to them, they were really motivated to talk to others. The comments later reflected that they enjoyed the activity since they had an opportunity to talk to so many (there are 49 students in the class!).
Finally, they returned to their groups of 4 to report on what they had learned, and to talk about Japanese superstitions. The activity turned out to be so popular and such a success that I'm going to try it every Friday the 13th from now on.
June 25, 2003
I didn't want to wake up after the dream I had this morning. It was about the Teaching Development class, but as it might be. It was a dream of a class! It was the first day, and the students (who were not the students currently in the class now but a more internationally diverse group) were eager to learn. As I explained the nature of the class, they were nodding their heads and asked numerous questions, in fact so many questions that I had to explain that I wanted to get on with the day's lesson. For a very short time, I was able to experience what it felt like teaching an active, motivated class. Unfortunately, it wasn't real!
July 2, 2003
I had a dream that was just the opposite of the one the other dayÑa nightmare. In it, students were walking in late as usual as I was trying to start the class. The thing is, they were not quiet. Then, when some students walked in who had really bad attendance, I asked, "Why are you here? You can't pass this class." In fact, one guy had only come 3 times, and he told me that he was going to the U.S. as an exchange student the next week so he couldn't come any more, but he expected to pass. I was astounded! I said, if you miss classes in the U.S. and expect to pass, they will laugh at you.
Then I tried to use the chalkboard to explain the system in the U.S. where anything below 60 is failing. The students tried to argue with me and say, "But that's not the system at this university." Then I tried to explain how attendance and participation were connected, and if they didn't attend, they couldn't participate. As I tried to explain, it was difficult to write on the chalkboard because it was very dirty and the numbers were not clear.
Students kept interrupting and trying to argue with me, and I kept saying, "Wait, I'm not finished. I want to explain it all." They wouldn't keep quiet [which is the opposite of my class, but I can hear the "noise" in their brains as they think about something besides my class.]. I started scolding one student who was talking to others, and he said, "But I'm only trying to explain to them what you said because they don't understand." I replied, "Then you should say, 'Excuse me, CA, may I have a minute to explain to these students what you said?'" He acted as though he had never thought of doing that but apologized.
The students continued to argue that my standards were too high and that I expected too much. I asked them, "Why are you here? Is your purpose to be educated or something else?" I continued to try to explain the nature of my class but could tell students weren't listening. They were restless. Those who were listening disagreed with me and kept trying to interrupt [something which never happens in my actual class]. I wasn't following my lesson plan at all but felt it was important to have the dialogue.
Then one girl said, in a rather loud voice, "What time is it?" She obviously wanted the class to be finished. I went over to her and said, "Slap me." She didn't understand, so I slapped her (gently) to explain slap. Then I said, "Slap me," and she did it but softly. I said, "Harder." And then, "Again. Harder." She didn't understand why I insisted that she slap me. Then I explained, "When I'm in the middle of a sentence and you ask, 'What time is it?', that's just like a slap!
I woke up feeling completely frustrated. Even though the dream wasn't real, I could feel the truth of the message. When I try to teach this class, I feel as though many of them are not listening at all and that they're making as little effort as possible to do what I expect. It's unfortunate that the university has such low standards and worse that the students have such low expectations for themselves. Meanwhile, my frustration is that I expect each student to be doing his or her best. No wonder I end up having nightmares!