I taught the same lesson to the whole fifth grade today. There are 9 different classes and about 25 students in each class. Because of social distancing measures kids have plastic coverings over their desks.
I am the only native speaking English teacher in a large school and somehow how to reach all the kids from 3rd grade to 6th grade. I can only meet two grades a week so every kid can see me every other week. I consider this precious time and so prepare activities that engage students and help them think.
Our lesson today was daily activities using the key expression, “What time do you…” I created videos in the past for this topic but I wanted something more.
I wanted something more interactive and student center this time. I began class with my crazy puppet and kids laughed when they heard that my puppet goes to bed at 2am and wakes up at 3am. They all said, “That’s why you are so short!!”
We had a role play about two kids who wanted to be friends with an owl but they couldn’t because the owl was nocturnal and they could never find time to play together. I then asked if anyone knew what time it was in Seoul. I asked them if they knew what time it was in New York. When they learned that it is actually yesterday in New York now they were shocked.
For the last ten minutes of class I taught kids how to make a mini book and write about their daily activities. A lot of kids asked me how to say “have a zoom class” in English since half of their school life is still online. Other’s asked me how to say “Play LOL” in English. I thought the mini book would be a good idea for them to express personal applications of the key expression.
The problem came in steps of making the book. Most classes followed pretty well when I demonstrated how to fold the paper lengthwise and then fold it in half again and cut it in the middle to make a book. Two or three kids struggled to follow the instructions in each class. This is expected so I went to their seat and showed them how to do it. They then followed quickly with my example. But at the end of the day in the last class I had the most peculiar incident.
The Korean teacher asked them in Korean if they knew how to make a mini book. About 70% of them raised their hands. That was true. Then she asked if anyone needs a demonstration and about six students raised their hands. I directed the demonstration to those 6 students. They all got it but one. He kept telling me to go over the first step. When I looked closely he wasn’t using his left hand to fold. He was doing everything with his right hand.
I thought to himself how futile this child is to try to fold everything with only one hand. He is just waiting there for me to help him because he won’t fold with two hands. I was already exhausted from teaching all day and didn’t have much more patience left for a spoiled kid who won’t fold a piece of paper with two hands.
I looked a little closer and tried hard to keep myself from crying. I managed a little smile as if everything was OK and I became his left hand. The boy’s left hand was shriveled and red. He had no control over it. His left hand just laid limp.
Who is the teacher here? I can make funny videos and puppet shows and make them laugh but after a long day I am blind to see who they really are. I see a blur of faces from years and years of teaching. In their eyes I see a student I taught twelve years ago. I call his name out of habit, but he is another generation.
I teach other teachers about the importance of personalization and engagement but I myself lose touch with who these kids are. Around this time of year I know that summer vacation cannot come any sooner. Ironically the solution to becoming out of touch with kids is to get some time off from them.
This is Friday, the weekend begins with a wake-up call for me. Inside I am just a big a jerk as any other teacher. I would like to say I have learned my lesson, but as the years go on I recognize more and more students with disabilities. Because I’m not a homeroom teacher and it is a big school no one tells me about it. Instead it is usually the students themselves who tell me or show me in some way or another that they are a little different from the crowd. It's my job to bring out their special ability.
You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat.
Its not easy to keep track every single student's needs in your class at all time. It is an idealistic thought process, especially when you consider that you're with 25 students. It would have been different if they were fewer, so don't be too hard on your self.
The most important thing is that you realised your mistake and gave the child the special treatment that was required. You're only human, a very awesome human that's flawed like everyone else.
Thanks @belemo. It's actually 25×36 kids total I see over a period of two weeks. What got me was the sweet way this one kid said, "Thank you" when I helped him as if he knew I was struggling.
Yeah man. That's a lot of work and you can only do your best.
This story gives me shivers.
I haven't seen the kids face to face a lot because of covid so I was caught off guard.
Actually is not and easy task managing such a big school. You're doing a great job teaching them English despite that some students may have disability.
One thing is teaching is getting to know each student because it makes it easy to follow up with them and facilitate fast learning as you call them by their names.
So take it easy and pay adequate attention to the students.
Right @da-prince,
Name is so important. I've been in classes where the kids don't even know each other's name. I have tricks to keep tabs on names but some teachers can miss this really important step in teaching. The best time to get the names down is the first week. In the English class I assign nicknames to seats but I've been teaching in the homeroom this year so I depend more on the homeroom teachers' management.
I believe with time you will get to know them all and the action you are taking to get all of them to actively engage in activities matters a lot too.
it truly does take a lot of patience to be able to properly impart knowledge to the students of today, especially is face-to-face classes are still not open for some countries, what you do is truly inspiring! thank you for sharing!
https://d.buzz
This is pawsome from d.buzzed @ilovewintergem
I must admit I love teaching but also love the weekend.
Purrrr...
Wow
The class sounds like fun
Maybe I should join the next one so I too can learn to fold my journal
Don't look at me like that...... I love writing journals too. I can say things I wouldn't say out loud, in there.
But the kids🥺 teachers do really need to move from how much they getting paid, to how much of these kids do they know on a personal level
I am glad you learned yours today, I hope other teachers will learn as they progress in their teaching jobs and professions
You did great with your puppet and the owl. You are a great teacher
Thanks @edystringz,
I don't mind if the pay even though it is less than minimum wage in the US but I do mind that our contract says we can do no other work outside of the work given by the ministry of education including youtube or teaching online for pay. That is because some teachers care more about their youtube channel than their classroom. I can see the ministry of education's point but I think most teachers should be able to know what they can after class without being dictated by a government agency.
Oh I am sorry that you teachers have your lives detected to you
It's not the same here
Teachers are free to do other teaching jobs as long as it doesn't conflict with their government teaching contracts
I don't know if it's a thing though, I guessing it is because I see lots of teachers doing other part time stuff, once they are outside the classroom
The difference between you guys and our teachers here is time
Teachers here do not even have the time to consider setting up other teaching routine such as getting a channel because of the time frame put into bring in class and out of class
Well, that doesn't mean there are no teachers making out the time to do that
It's just really rare. Over if someone is doing a teaching video online, it's most likely they are not working for any teaching institution, including the government
And @edystringz,
You would be a wonderful student :)
You are really doing a great job! You go about teaching a large school English language all by yourself and I assume you enjoy doing it.
For children in schools, there are some who actually got disabilities and it's the duty of every teacher to go round the class inspecting that every child had gotten what was taught. When the number of students in a class is higher than the approximate number, there are chances of most kids not understanding what he or she was taught. So it's the duty of every teacher to make sure that every child has learnt one or two things before ending the lesson.
Yeah,
They all learned a thing or two. Assesment is really key to the learning ladder even if it is self assement.
The most important job for a teacher is to be there and don't freak out. When all the world is crumbling a teacher should not.
See what I'm talking about! A true definition of a great teacher. Just imagine the sweet words. Any child would love you.
Don't you think you should lecture me too? Lol
Very good point @teknon,
There has to be something...
The education system is screwed up
University tuition increases more than inflation
Many people have no access to education
Private schools and online schools are expensive
Students have no motivation to learn and need intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Can a blockchain model school help with some of these problems in education?
Definitely! That's if it does favor it's students.
So what lecture do you want to hear today?
So what lecture would you like to hear today?
You have written a beautiful piece of information here and I would like to invite you to take up the challenge on the subject of financial crimes. I would be distributing 2000 CTP power to the winners.
@tipu curate
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