Final Posting!?

Per the Johnson questions.

The major milestone in my journey as an ESL teacher until now. Probably the first major decision was just the decision to become a teacher. I was unsatisfied with my work as a banker. I knew that I enjoyed working with kids, and a friend of mine was in Korea teaching English. He recommended that I should try it, and so I did. The biggest decision was just deciding to do it.

The next major milestone was the realization that I enjoyed teaching, but I didn't like the unstable aspect of ESL teaching. My first public school job could not renew after the first year due to budget cuts. My following job at a hagwon turned out to be less than ideal. The owner was the worst supervisor that I have ever had. I should never have to fight to get a pay check. And my third job was much like my first job, the contract wasn't renewed due to budget cuts. I realized that I needed to get some type of professional credential, so I could get some type of stability.

During the same time, I also realized that I really needed some formal training. I realized that I had some serious deficiencies. I would periodically check the CELTA website for training opportunities. They had an online component, but I could never find a school that had the online component with the onsite component that would work with my schedule. So finding this course and taking it was another big decision.

Relating to my personal life and values:

I've always felt that if I do something, I should do the best job possible. And "doing the best job" means paying attention to what students have to say. I think the other person will take a positive experience from the interaction. And if the students have a positive expectation from the teacher, then they are more likely to positively interact in class. Obviously, it's important for the teacher to care about what the students are trying to say.  That's why dialogic discourse is so important.

Obviously, conflict of values occurs with any interaction with people from other cultures. With my students, one of the culture clashes is that in the USA, finishing homework is extremely important. However, in Korea, students rarely finish homework that I assign them. Also, students expect the teacher to tell them exactly what they need to do. In the USA, students are expected to be given a lot of latitude. So as a teacher, I have to conform my teaching style to the expectations of the students.

Marginalization: Probably they way that I am marginalized is probably the same way that most foreign English  teachers are marginalized. Conversational English just isn't given as high a priority as reading English is. This is obvious in the way that students treat the class. They never bring their books, and sometimes, half the students seem to fall asleep. The big part is that English speaking isn't tested on their exam, so the students have very little reason to care. The way that I try to combat this problem is by making the lessons varied and interesting. I never do overt grammar or listening activities now, they are all part of the process of getting to the end goal. At my old school, that's how my lessons were set up; they were very compartmentalized. There  was a listening section, a grammar section, and then a speaking section. Now, I try to integrate it all into flowing river, one section flows into the next.

Reactions to the Second ICC Micro-teaching

This is the video of my second micro-teaching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIkPQfR7nk4

Lesson in a nut shell:
1. Watch a video introducing the topic.
2. Make a list of bad manners in various places.
-Begin MT here.
3. Read the article.
4. Answer questions about the article
5. Culture questions.
6. Isolate "should have."
7. Watch video of bad manners. Correct the bad manners.
8. Act out the bad behavior, and offer a correction.

Thing that I did well from my own estimation:

I thought the directions that I gave where well done. I repeated the directions with a one word comp. check. I think that one word questions is the best way to go. I also like how I broke the directions down into chucks, and I used very simple words.

The type 1 and type 2 activities were adequate for the students to understand the reading selection. And the culture questions were in place to look at the underlying reasons for the behavior described in the article.

I didn't speak more than two sentences at a given time, even when I was giving an explanation of "jaywalking."

Things that I could have done differently.

I should probably lower the level of my voice. It did go up in tone a couple of times. It was usually when I wanted to highlight something. I do this unconsciously. I'm use to having a big classroom with noisy students, so I feel that I need to speak with a loud voice. I think in the past two or three weeks that I've gotten the feel for controlling the classes better, so I probably don't need to use a booming voice as much.

I could have asked a follow up question for the comprehension questions, just to get into the meat of the article. This probably would have increased the level of dialogic discourse in the room.

While the students were reading or doing their activities, I probably could have moved around the room, and checked on the students' progress.

Overall, I think that this MT went fairly well, just a couple of tweaks would have made it better.