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Post by ChinaGurl on Nov 23, 2004 15:23:07 GMT 7
So I took this position with a private school at the beginning of this school year. The school's been great to me. I can't complain about them at all... the boss owns half the furniture stores in the city and he's a generally good man. They've given me a wicked schedule where I enjoy 6 days off every 2 weeks, never have class before 10.30am and never work in the evening or on weekends. And, for a job in rural Shanxi, I'm making pretty good dough with moderate benefits.
My problem is this: I'm pretty sure the school has whacked-out expectations of me. My job is to teach English to the junior middle school kids. ALL OF THEM. That's fine, but they also want me to see each class 3 times every 2 weeks. That means I'm teaching 2 classes at a time - no fewer than 80 students. And the classroom is a lecture hall, which isn't conducive to good study.
I'm rapidly becoming disenchanted with this teaching situation. I've tried explaining to the school that each and every kid in the class is apt to misbehave because they're all thinking, "Teacher isn't watching me." They've been really nice about not blaming me for the students' misbehaviour, but I don't think it's fair to blame the other teachers, either.
I've amassed a collection of walkmans and comic books that I've taken away from kids in class. I've had kids come back and clean the classroom after school. I've tried reasoning. I've tried scaring. I've tried everything I can and I'm at the end of my rope.
Does anyone know of any ideal activities for groups this large? Where they don't get out of hand, and every student gets a chance to speak?! I'm really at a loss here. I can only work so many miracles.
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Post by MK on Nov 23, 2004 18:30:11 GMT 7
well, I don't have any solutions, but I am teaching classes of thirty middle school students and have the same problems you described. Are your classes mixed level too? I think all the schools expect us to do is stand at the front of the class and lecture from a textbook...they dont really care about all this 'communicative method' and 'Student talking time' crap that we try and pull.  Can you move the desks to create groups? Doing tasks and feedback with individual groups rather than whole class works better with large numbers.... |
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
Posts: 264
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Post by roaming kiwi on Nov 23, 2004 19:49:16 GMT 7
Like Monkey said, I don't think they really know any other method than stand, bark and deliver.
Back in the old place (Baoding) I had to teach 400 for 80 mins every two weeks.
I reckon I got 95% of them talking. (English - well, I don't know, to be absolutely sure)
How?
The room had a huge screen with a powerpoint presentation and a VERY loud microphone system.
The lecture hall rows were in three massive sections. The paint was peeling, the floor had a layer of spittle, the desk top was cracked, and chairs were broken...
I did bucket-loads of pair work ,once I'd set up the target language, and went round to as many as poss to check pron, etc.
I did really noisy things like dividing the three sections so that the outer two were the B's and the inner section the A's and every time A or B had something to say in a dialogue EVERYONE in that section had to stand and shout the line. ;D (conducting skills come in handy)
I got the first row to turn around and the row behind to dictate the stuff I had on screen to the back facing students, who in turn wrote down what they heard.
I got them to play Simon Says - yes, all 400.
I got them to play "hot seat"- the game with the word written up behind a student and forward facing students have to get him/her to say it without them actually saying the word.
However, I had to be realistic. Not all of them would do well, but I was providing an opportunity for all of them to do something - no excuses. I gave the slackers a hard time.
I actually had lots of fun with that big class. But it required energy and development of lesson plans that used big brush strokes rather than the finer brushes of smaller ones.
Age group: 1st years at university (mind you, some of them still acted like 12 year olds.)
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Post by Hamish on Nov 23, 2004 20:56:53 GMT 7
Like Monkey said, I don't think they really know any other method than stand, bark and deliver. And, she is not even telling you about the thing she used to do at the end of the class with the hot music blaring and the Japanese fans. And the black weather balloon. |
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Post by Raoul Duke on Nov 23, 2004 22:55:30 GMT 7
My solution to this problem- which does indeed exist in all these classes regardless of size- was simply to never, ever teach kids' classes again for any amount of money.
I wish I could offer you something more immediate....
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Post by Steiner on Nov 24, 2004 3:10:39 GMT 7
Does anyone know of any ideal activities for groups [of junior middle school students] this large? Prison. |
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Post by ChinaGurl on Nov 24, 2004 7:06:08 GMT 7
To be honest, and fair, I really like my kids. And my Chinese is pretty good, so the communication gaps can be filled that way. But that makes things hard on me too! Woe to me! I should have never started speaking Chinese in the first place.
Steiner, it's also been suggested I take the 3 worst students and toss them over a cliff. I'm thinking about it. Show the rest I mean business.
Really, I'm advocating to split the classes up, or stop making them mandatory for the kids who don't want to be there. Something, ANYthing.
I've had classes on their own and they always seem to go pretty well. It's these big groups.
Well, I'll have to wait it out and see what happens!!
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Post by ChinaGurl on Nov 26, 2004 11:25:17 GMT 7
Probaby pretty far away, Sunaru... I'm braving the rural province of Shanxi. Close-ish to Xi'an, but far enough away that bad people get banished here.
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Post by con's fly is open on Nov 26, 2004 13:50:00 GMT 7
This is why I'm so grateful for my last year: never faced so much as 30 students in one class.
The Powerpoint setup thing is great if you have the means; if not, slides, any overhead projector, hell, a shadow puppet show will all serve. Remember that the little bastards are TV kids. Shiny objects!
Put 'em into teams and make them recite silly sentences or tongue twisters in unison. Do whisper relays. Take a poll! They all have opinions.
Bring music in English and a decent stereo. Play it with lyrics either on handouts or written on the board. You could even give a multiple choice quiz on what the singer said in the Chorus/first verse/etc.
If they're not doing something, they're just listening to you. Their boredom isn't the worst problem- the huge demand for material as you talk to them is. Blah blah blah, making sure they laugh or answer you at least once a minute.
I never found a way to make anybody listen to me that long unless I scared them first. If you can get away with killing the worst kid in front of the others, the survivors will be angels from then on. But kicking a kid out will work wonders too.
There is always the option of simply ignoring the ones who don't pay attention. There must be a core of motivated students, so perhaps you should focus on them and neglect the slackers- if their parents complain, blame the lazy students and they'll either quit the class, or show up motivated by a flogging from Daddy.
Oh, do you give grades? This affects things.
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Post by Mattholomew on Dec 11, 2004 12:25:42 GMT 7
I teach senior middle school, 15 and 16 year olds mainly, and I've encountered some of the same problems. Even with thirty students, getting them all to pay attention will make you crazy.
Since I'm a rookie teacher, I naturally expected to be able to get through to everyoneTEXT, and all that happened was that I got very frustrated and they didn't get any better at English.
Finally, I was able to identify which students show an inkling of interest and which ones don't- fortunately, the ratio is about 80/20.
With that in mind, I aim my lessons to the ones that care. As for the ones that don't, well, I just ignore them. When they get too rowdy, I ask them to leave. No problem.
My new philosophy is as follows: if I can get through to just some of them, and get them to like English, then I feel that I've done OK for myself.
Yes, it's not ideal, but my rotten students were driving me toward insanity and alcoholism so I had to change my approach. Now? I'm perfectly sane and happily alcoholic.
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Post by Hamish on Dec 11, 2004 13:57:42 GMT 7
My new philosophy is as follows: if I can get through to just some of them, and get them to like English, then I feel that I've done OK for myself. In some way or another I have taught for 20 years here and there, this and that. You can only get through to the ones who want you to, and it won't be 80%. If you actually make a difference for 5%, you are golden. Watch out for your liver. |
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly! 
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Jan 7, 2005 16:33:51 GMT 7
From the mouth of babes. I was in the office the other day telling the Chinese English teacher that this is my last week with the grade 2s and I will be teaching grade 1 next year. One of the students hanging around said "but we like to PLAY with the foreign teacher. Boo Hoo'
Well your parents are rich why don't you buy one.
I have no pretensions about this job. I have been teaching these kids for a year now and they have made progress because they have wanted to, so they can catch all my jokes.
When I told them that this was our last class and I said "now you can ask me some questions and the main one was "did I enjoy teaching them" Yes I did.
Slowly slowly catches monkey.
the main thing for me is they feel comfortable enough with me to come up and talk to me, make jokes and they are great kids. I rarely get angry and they self regulate if they get too noisy. Chinagurl that is probably not very helpful but I play a lot of games that incorporate what they are learning in their English textbooks which just helps to reinforce the language.
In my next life I think I will come back as a gameshow host.
Cheers
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Post by con's fly is open on Jan 9, 2005 3:34:37 GMT 7
Yeah, Christ, the ones who learn nothing. Chinagurl, welcome to production line meatball teaching. If they don't disrupt the class, if they just zone out, there's really m'kay-all you can do.
Love the bike, by the way.
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Post by ChinaGurl on Jan 9, 2005 10:49:44 GMT 7
Lucky for me, the school recently installed thousands of dollars in A/V equipment in the lecture hall where I hold my classes. I now have access to:
A computer with the internet
An overhead projector
A DVD Player
A big whopping tape deck
A projector with a 10X10ft screen which can display the first three items
Microphones, which I refuse to use because it gives the kids an excuse to talk louder.
My first multimedia lesson was: watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Give me a break! It was Christmas time.
Second: Shrek. Give me a break! The kids (and teachers) requested it. I've now seen Shrek 14 times, though. FOURTEEN.
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