*on teaching, part 2 aka some fun anecdotes and observations and ruminations that I don’t know how to seamlessly incorporate into previous post because I’ve delayed writing this for too long*
Add me on Facebook!
A good number of all the students taking these lessons have nice phones, iPhones even, and also iPads. It’s quite surprising how accessible these gadgets seem, especially considering that in the program profile it was highly emphasized that the province and the town of Quang Tri were not hugely well-off. But it may be just a where-do-you-spend-your-money thing. I’m not sure and I don’t want to say anything definitive because I don’t know enough. However, I do know that because they have access, they’re really really really into social media. From the first week until now, I have about one hundred new Facebook friends and I believe they are all Vietnamese schoolchildren. It’s wild how quickly they found each of us on Facebook, even though my name is currently Niki and not even Nikila. All the students added all the teachers and my Newsfeed is in all Vietnamese now. Some fun things they do with Facebook include: asking for pictures of/with you even if they’re in a different class and tagging you in them, downloading your group photos and profile pictures and making them their own cover and profile pictures, having profile pictures without their faces or odd Facebook names (until now, when many of them changed their names to their English names from class), adding friends from home too, and of course incessantly messaging us. They like to ask where we are or what we’re doing or if we can hang out. Two of my students messaged me, one asking if I remembered her (and when I said, “Yes, of course I remember you- you’re my student!” she said “I feel so happy that you remember me!”) and another asking what I was doing at 9:30 on a Monday night (and when I replied, “Getting ready for bed!” he said that I went to bed “too early” and asked why I didn’t go out…). It’s a lot, but it’s also really hilarious.
Units and lessons and vocabulary and pronunciation and hacks and tips
Khanh and I organize our lessons based on units, which is what I think most people are doing. It’s funny- one week we’ll pick family, and it turns out seven other classes are doing that too or something and we wouldn’t have even talked about it. So far, we’ve covered describing family and friends, hobbies and emotions, American holidays, and food. This week will be careers, and the last week will be culture and music (so that we kind of end with the Culture Show- more about that later). Within each unit we have some vocabulary, and some sentence structure, and we practice these with games and repetition out loud for pronunciation. We try to have as much focus on speaking and listening so it helps to have a set unit to practice situational dialogues and conversations. Skits are fun because these kids are so creative and weird- we did them with emotions which was hilarious because some of them do love to act. This week we had restaurant dialogues. Fun story: Brad Pitt and Tom were a group and Tom was the waiter, who offered Brad Pitt some of the red wine special, to which Brad Pitt responded, “I would, but I have to drive.” So they’re good fun and also I get a chance to rest my voice. We try Telephone (which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t) and play movie clips and Hangman. On Fridays we, along with many of the other classes, play an English song and they have lyrics sheets with blanks to fill in, and then we teach the song. My favorite so far has been “Just the Way You Are,” which we did after teaching them compliments, but last week we caroled for the other classrooms after doing American holidays. It’s safe to say that my voice is dead after class and particularly at the end of the week. I bet the DukeEngage group is thankful for that because then I stop talking.
Are they even learning and is my teaching even good enough?
The first few weeks, I was unsure if I was really being effective at all at teaching. Despite some experience co-teaching an ESL class in Durham, and other assorted experiences with teaching, it was hard to tell here with these kids. I didn’t know if I was approachable enough especially when it seemed like other kids seemed to be more attached to their teachers or asked for extra pronunciation practice or had fluent conversations with them in English. Of course, comparison never helps and especially not in a setting where it’s entirely qualitative and also not about us teachers, but it was hard to remember for a while. But then I started noticing small things that made me feel that yes, me and Khanh had a class that was most definitely learning and enjoying class. They would remember vocabulary they learned in week one, and tell me they would miss me next year, and give me lollipops and other snacks during break. We had an activity where everyone had to say what they were thankful for and one of my students said, “I am thankful for you because you teach me English.” And in our make-a-Valentine activity two of them made me and Khanh valentines that said “We hope you don’t forget us!” They’ve started to laugh at my weird sense of humor and they love when I exasperatedly say shut up (in the nicest way possible, obviously), but they actually do stop talking then. They’ve started to pick up linguistic trends and slang that I didn’t even teach them but which I’ve said in class, like “You killed it!” or ending sentences with “man” (as in, “Hey man!”) And one of the biggest things is that the majority of them speak up louder and prouder in class, which is more than I can say for the first week of class- I guess the shouting exercises maybe made a difference. And it makes me happy that I can feel the progress here just as I can physically see the progress at the worksite.
Please, let’s go outside!
Some teachers go outside after break once a week and just play, or spend time inside just playing non-ESL related games. We (as in Duke students and our roommates) have talked a lot about striking the right balance, but it really depends on the style of class. Our class actually plays a lot of ESL games to learn anyway, and when we only have six weeks of 1.5 hour classes I don’t see that it’s worth it to play outside (also it’s hot). But other teachers see it as valuable time to connect with students…I’m not sure what’s best. But this week Khanh and I did play outside with our kids for a half hour and it was good fun. We played this game that’s really popular here and it’s a version of Tag with counting, so at first I played and the kids were super surprised that I was a fast runner. And then I was the moderator so I counted in Vietnamese instead so they were super surprised that I knew Vietnamese (well, the numbers, at any rate…) So I’m glad it happened. We also took them out for smoothies once and we’ll probably do it again at the end of the program. They don’t talk much during smoothies, just stare at me and drink up, but of course they love it all the same.
Add me on Facebook!
A good number of all the students taking these lessons have nice phones, iPhones even, and also iPads. It’s quite surprising how accessible these gadgets seem, especially considering that in the program profile it was highly emphasized that the province and the town of Quang Tri were not hugely well-off. But it may be just a where-do-you-spend-your-money thing. I’m not sure and I don’t want to say anything definitive because I don’t know enough. However, I do know that because they have access, they’re really really really into social media. From the first week until now, I have about one hundred new Facebook friends and I believe they are all Vietnamese schoolchildren. It’s wild how quickly they found each of us on Facebook, even though my name is currently Niki and not even Nikila. All the students added all the teachers and my Newsfeed is in all Vietnamese now. Some fun things they do with Facebook include: asking for pictures of/with you even if they’re in a different class and tagging you in them, downloading your group photos and profile pictures and making them their own cover and profile pictures, having profile pictures without their faces or odd Facebook names (until now, when many of them changed their names to their English names from class), adding friends from home too, and of course incessantly messaging us. They like to ask where we are or what we’re doing or if we can hang out. Two of my students messaged me, one asking if I remembered her (and when I said, “Yes, of course I remember you- you’re my student!” she said “I feel so happy that you remember me!”) and another asking what I was doing at 9:30 on a Monday night (and when I replied, “Getting ready for bed!” he said that I went to bed “too early” and asked why I didn’t go out…). It’s a lot, but it’s also really hilarious.
Units and lessons and vocabulary and pronunciation and hacks and tips
Khanh and I organize our lessons based on units, which is what I think most people are doing. It’s funny- one week we’ll pick family, and it turns out seven other classes are doing that too or something and we wouldn’t have even talked about it. So far, we’ve covered describing family and friends, hobbies and emotions, American holidays, and food. This week will be careers, and the last week will be culture and music (so that we kind of end with the Culture Show- more about that later). Within each unit we have some vocabulary, and some sentence structure, and we practice these with games and repetition out loud for pronunciation. We try to have as much focus on speaking and listening so it helps to have a set unit to practice situational dialogues and conversations. Skits are fun because these kids are so creative and weird- we did them with emotions which was hilarious because some of them do love to act. This week we had restaurant dialogues. Fun story: Brad Pitt and Tom were a group and Tom was the waiter, who offered Brad Pitt some of the red wine special, to which Brad Pitt responded, “I would, but I have to drive.” So they’re good fun and also I get a chance to rest my voice. We try Telephone (which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t) and play movie clips and Hangman. On Fridays we, along with many of the other classes, play an English song and they have lyrics sheets with blanks to fill in, and then we teach the song. My favorite so far has been “Just the Way You Are,” which we did after teaching them compliments, but last week we caroled for the other classrooms after doing American holidays. It’s safe to say that my voice is dead after class and particularly at the end of the week. I bet the DukeEngage group is thankful for that because then I stop talking.
Are they even learning and is my teaching even good enough?
The first few weeks, I was unsure if I was really being effective at all at teaching. Despite some experience co-teaching an ESL class in Durham, and other assorted experiences with teaching, it was hard to tell here with these kids. I didn’t know if I was approachable enough especially when it seemed like other kids seemed to be more attached to their teachers or asked for extra pronunciation practice or had fluent conversations with them in English. Of course, comparison never helps and especially not in a setting where it’s entirely qualitative and also not about us teachers, but it was hard to remember for a while. But then I started noticing small things that made me feel that yes, me and Khanh had a class that was most definitely learning and enjoying class. They would remember vocabulary they learned in week one, and tell me they would miss me next year, and give me lollipops and other snacks during break. We had an activity where everyone had to say what they were thankful for and one of my students said, “I am thankful for you because you teach me English.” And in our make-a-Valentine activity two of them made me and Khanh valentines that said “We hope you don’t forget us!” They’ve started to laugh at my weird sense of humor and they love when I exasperatedly say shut up (in the nicest way possible, obviously), but they actually do stop talking then. They’ve started to pick up linguistic trends and slang that I didn’t even teach them but which I’ve said in class, like “You killed it!” or ending sentences with “man” (as in, “Hey man!”) And one of the biggest things is that the majority of them speak up louder and prouder in class, which is more than I can say for the first week of class- I guess the shouting exercises maybe made a difference. And it makes me happy that I can feel the progress here just as I can physically see the progress at the worksite.
Please, let’s go outside!
Some teachers go outside after break once a week and just play, or spend time inside just playing non-ESL related games. We (as in Duke students and our roommates) have talked a lot about striking the right balance, but it really depends on the style of class. Our class actually plays a lot of ESL games to learn anyway, and when we only have six weeks of 1.5 hour classes I don’t see that it’s worth it to play outside (also it’s hot). But other teachers see it as valuable time to connect with students…I’m not sure what’s best. But this week Khanh and I did play outside with our kids for a half hour and it was good fun. We played this game that’s really popular here and it’s a version of Tag with counting, so at first I played and the kids were super surprised that I was a fast runner. And then I was the moderator so I counted in Vietnamese instead so they were super surprised that I knew Vietnamese (well, the numbers, at any rate…) So I’m glad it happened. We also took them out for smoothies once and we’ll probably do it again at the end of the program. They don’t talk much during smoothies, just stare at me and drink up, but of course they love it all the same.