Wednesday, Feb 7, 2007

2/07/07 I'm going to reinstitute my practicum journal. I'm serving as Marshall's "mentor" this semester for his practicum, and I think sharing journals with each will be a good way to exchange ideas and experiences. And -- because this class is a new experience for me -- students with various levels of English and not all beginners like at Franklin site -- I feel the need to record and reflect on my own teaching in this new arena.

To find out what this class was like, I sat in on 2 evening sessions before the holidays. The teacher was much-loved by the class -- they gave her a fruit basket on the last night she taught. She was very touched. She WAS a good teacher in the old fashioned teacher-centered way. She led a lot of work from the text and workbook and used no authentic materials. I wondered if/how the students would respond to a CLT model.

So -- in my first class with them after holidays, I revived one of my standard lesson plans on numbers 12-100. I did this (1 to assess how much they knew, pronunciation, etc and (2 to begin with a lesson that wouldn't be too hard and so would make them begin to feel comfortable and not threatened by me on the first evening (create safe space for learning) I could see that they were not the very beginners I have become used to and will require me to develop more materials and lessons for a higher level.

Second class -- Marshall came originally just to observe and do his own needs assessment of the class and individuals. But he got drawn into teaching right away because we saw early in the evening that, in order to challenge the more advanced couple, we really needed to break them away from the others. They had requested to learn more grammar esp past tense verbs, so Marshall worked with them using a beginning level grammar text. I worked with the lower level group on the lesson I had planned on places in the community.

So -- now to report on last night's class -- the 3rd time I've met with this group. Marshall and I had decided that our format for this class would be (1 opening exercises (review, recycle) with whole group, (2 break into levels -- I take lower level group/Marshall work with Cesar y Isis, (3 wrap up evening with whole group coming back together. Well -- good plan, but Marshall had car trouble and couldn't come to Sylva. That meant I had to teach the whole class -- both levels. I swear I won't procrastinate again! I didn't do my lesson plan all week; I didn't do it over the weekend; I didn't do it Monday night after yoga -- I left it to create Tuesday during the day! I had to come up with both mine and Marshall's portion.

But I really wanted an opportunity to attempt this -- diversified instruction. (I thought going in that I had never done it before -- but I just now re-read all the postings from MY practicum months, and I HAD had to design work for various sub-groups within one class -- even of beginners who were at different levels.) I expected the teaching experience to feel like playing 3 -dimensional chess, but in actual practice it really wasn't that hard. My main question at this point is -- how do I design a lesson so that one group isn't sitting idle and bored while I am working with the other group -- or even giving directions for next activity to the other group??? That is my challenge. But to me this is using the same process I use to create a 3-D collage or a flower arrangement -- Hunting/Gathering (the elements for the lesson, collage, arrangement) and Placement of the elements.

05/16/06 Attending: Artemio, Manuel, Laura, Esmeralda and newbies novices Eulalio and Baudelino Lopez (Misael's brothers). Tonight's lesson recycled names of places in the community and introduced prepositions. We were chugging along when in the middle of the lesson Misael brought in his brothers who were very beginners. I tried to fold them into what we were doing but that required them to quickly learn vocab for places in community, complete with pronunciation, and prepositions too. They hung in there, but it was over their head. For the activities, the class naturally divided into pairs with Laura helping Baudelino, Artemio helping Eulalio, and Manuel and Esmeralda (who are basically on the same level) working together. Laura is loud and disruptive. She explains everything in Spanish and several times I had to call the class to "order" so everyone could hear what I was saying. I'm glad that Laura was there to work one-on-one with Baudelino, but I'm thinking it might be better to bump her up to Betty's class. I think she does know enough English to be in that class. Artemio probably does too, but I hate to lose him. He is my current mainstay and sometimes he's the only student who shows up. Plus he can translate what I can't get across. He's reluctant to change classes but I do think he's ready. I've had several newbie very beginners come for one or two times then disappear. Because Misael is very faithful in his attendance, I think he will see that Eulalio and Baudelino come often. That would mean going back to square one. And if I didn't have Artemio and Laura, I could do that. I had a good lesson planned for tonight but only got thru about half of it due to the newbies. I had some good activities for the end that I never got to.

04/26/06 Jamey came tonight to observe. Only 2 students showed up -- Patricia and newbie Artemio. Tonight's lesson was on introducing weather terms, recycling months and seasons. With only 2 students and so much less interactions and small group/pair work, my lesson went faster than I had planned. So after the break I pulled out some materials on opposite adjectives that I had used back when I first started teaching this class. Last week I'd cleaned out my car and didn't have the Traveling Show that I'd been carting around for weeks. I'm going to start carrying it around again -- I could've used things from my files tonight. I can see that my challenge in upcoming weeks is to figure out how to fold in newbies while preserving some kind of order to my "16 Week Syllabus." Is this a Zen assignment -- holding the opposites???

04/18/06 Jamey was supposed to observe tonight but canceled late in the day. I had prepared a "tight-ish" lesson plan so I went in pretty confident. My current regulars -- Patricia, Martin, and Manuel -- showed up plus one newbie Artemio. Hadn't seen Manuel for the last 2 lessons. Artemio has gone thru 12th grade in Mexico and said he'd learned some English in school. I decided to wait to test him til Thursday. I think he understood most of what was going on and he's probably ready for Betty's class.

Lesson tonight was on days of week and they got it. They continue to struggle most with pronunciation. The lesson was designed to unfold to a crescendo (well, that's hyperbole) of reading hours of operation from the realia of Smoky Mtn News -- recycling numbers, clock time, am-pm, hours of operation plus added days of week. But just before I could introduce that final activity, 3 newbies walked in -- about 20 minutes before end of class! So I tried to fold them in the best I could, register them, and beg them to return on Thursday. I'm beginning to think about how it's gonna work constantly folding new people in -- what do they build on? does it work if they just jump in wherever we are and start building from there?

One thing I've tried in the past couple of lessons is adding an activity at the end of a lesson that uses whatever topic that's been introduced in that lesson and stretches it in conversation by including vocabulary that I don't particularly define explicitly at the board but they figure out from context. Like tonight -- after an activity where we explored When do you work? -- I led a discussion that began -- When do you go to church? When do you wash clothes? When do you . . . ? And they got the idea. We figured out the verbs using both Spanish and English, gestures, etc.

And, Emily, tonight when Patricia said -- I don't know -- I said -- Yes, you DO know and pushed her!

04/06/06 I decided to take a break from numbers for a bit. Let's do some words for a change -- calendar, months, date. I figured that this would be a good topic for regulars and newbies alike -- just start everyone on something new. So, first thing to happen was that my regular classroom was unavailable (literally taped shut with "Do Not Enter" signs in both English AND Spanish!!!). The room I got had couches around the perimeter, no white board, no writing surfaces for students, no desk or podium to put my notes on. To shape the space so that students could be nearer one another and in a circle, I brought in some chairs from Betty's classroom (oops, just realized I forgot to put them back, oh well). I've been carrying around 2 small white boards in the trunk of my car (part of my Traveling Show), so out they came. I'm just so sensitive to space -- layout, room arrangement, can everyone see each other, can everyone see the board, does anyone have their back to the others????? AND this was Chandrika's night to observe -- thank goodness I didn't have to videotape too!!! But, all in all, I was pleased with the lesson, and I "taught" all night in my dreams.

Comments on interruptions vis a vis Flow: Because of space arrangements, I had to do more than my usual amount of up and down and walking around. And while I had to step away from the group to gather materials, erase little white boards, etc my "team" teacher Rebecca went into her usual "de-railing of my lesson" mode. OK -- she WAS answering questions that a student would ask -- like "What's the word for______?" And, yes, I too follow those threads when they come up -- until they go far past the point of relevance for the lesson. Rebecca is a nice friendly person but she has no concept of Flow. Here I've crafted a lesson that I know can unfold in a logical sequence, each part building upon the parts that have come before. But Rebecca takes the class off on tangents. (When she is teaching, the entire lesson is one big tangent -- no planning, no lesson objectives, just talk, talk, talk about whatever comes up.) Tonight I had to say to Rebecca -- Please let me follow my lesson plan tonight -- My teacher is observing and I need to show Chandrika that I have a plan and that I can execute it. Another example: When Genia was my "team" teacher on Tuesday nights (when I first started and before she quit), she'd usually sit in the back of the room doing paperwork. She totally left me to teach the lesson. But every now and then she'd interject a comment, related or unrelated to the on-going lesson, and as she tried to explain in English what she was trying to get across, the students would become more and more confused -- they didn't have a clue what she was talking about. To my way of thinking, interrupting the (my?) Flow with explanations in English that are way over the heads of the students shouldn't be done. Another example: Tonight every time Isaac heard an English word that he recognized, he would start singing a rock song in English that contained that word. He knows English lyrics to lots of rock songs and uses pretty good pronunciation with them too. (Does this mean that he understands all of what he's singing? I'm not sure.) At one point (after Chandrika had gone), we went off on what I considered a pretty unproductive tangent discussing music. But wait, Chandrika! The discussion was all in Spanish. Yes, it was social and fun, but I felt after a certain point I had to bring them back to spring, summer, fall, winter. And I felt like somewhat of a party pooper in doing so. So the question is -- how far do I follow students' questions before I have allowed us to pass the point of no return and find ourselves on a bona fide tangent? (Sounds like "Sex and the ESL Teacher") I think I can answer that for myself but I resent when others interrupt MY Flow. Chandrika -- how DO you just sit there and not say a word and let us do it our own way when you can obviously see a better way??? I think that must take a lot of patience!!! But I do thank you for allowing me to make my own mistakes so I can learn from them!

My final comment on the evening has nothing to do with teaching but everything to do with service to my fellow humans -- which is why I'm doing this in the first place. Isaac told me 3 things last night -- I heard every one of them -- but they didn't totally "register" til I woke up this morning. First, he said that he had walked 30 minutes to get to class because he doesn't have a car. I actually thought I heard him say (twice) that he walked an HOUR and a half but I don't want that to be true. Then he said he had $1000 to buy a used car and hoped he'd find one soon. Then he said that if he didn't learn English he would lose his job. This comment came as he tried to ask me the English word for "lose." I should've sat him down right there and asked him what vocab, sentences, etc he needed for his job!!!!!! and made arrangements of some kind to teach them to him. And we're not going to meet at all next week. Why didn't I HEAR what he was telling me? What does spring, summer, fall, winter matter when you don't have a job??? I wasn't nervous, anxious or stressed out last night ( with Chandrika's visit or with weird space arrangements). I just WASN'T LISTENING. And I feel bad about that today.

04/04/06 I didn't post last Thursday because I only had 2 students (Manuel, the regular and Patricia newby) and nothing really eventful happened. We worked on numbers and at the end of the night we practiced numbers in real life by playing Go Fish! That was kinda fun.

So tonight only Patricia shows up -- no Manuel. But tonight I also had to re-videotape the class (last time I tried I didn't get the sound thingy in the right thingy hole) AND Emily came to observe. Patricia said she didn't mind a "private" lesson so I forged ahead. An hour into the class, Guadalupe stuck his head in the door and I asked him if he'd come to my class instead of Betty's for the evening. He agreed and the tempo picked up a little. He's so personable and Patricia is rather quiet. Now, that does not mean that the class before Guadalupe arrived was totally quiet because Emily was there -- remember??? :) She put the spice in what would otherwise have been a pretty low key lesson.

In the last couple of weeks -- ever since my class more or less "re-formed" into a group of total beginners -- I've been thinking that maybe the lessons were going too slowly, maybe I should move faster with new things I introduce to them. Staying so long on numbers, for example, was beginning to seem a little boring to ME. But these people are so novice and I haven't been seeing them take up the material instantly. The recycing and practice, practice, practice seemed to me to be the best approach. I've been very careful to introduce only one new concept at a time, even if it's only a "little" concept, and not to clutter the lessons with extra information that seemed to me to make the lesson more complicated than it needed to be. For example, when I taught them the little conversation to use when meeting a new person, one of the lines was -- "Where are you from?" And the person would answer -- "I'm from Mexico." And I didn't stop to explain about contractions -- I just focused on the interrgative "where" and the meaning behind a reply. Contractions can come later.

So in regards to simplicity -- tonight's lesson involved clock time, quarter past, quarter to, and half past specifically. With hindsight I think I would omit entirely that vocabulary for novices. I think at this stage it's enough to be able to say "It's 8:45." Anyone could certainly understand that response. The "quarters" and "half pasts" aren't used very much in real speech anyway. So why did I introduce them tonight? Because they appear in ALL the texts I used as resources. It was a real stretch for Patricia, and I think there are other things she needs to know that are much more necessary. So lesson from tonight -- don't just take what's in a text at face value -- think about its effect on the student. Duh.

My explanation of morning, afternoon, evening, night was a flop. I thought we had picture cards to use for those words but we didn't. So I really had no way to explain the meanings except with more words. It was a flop until Emily showed us the page in the big Side-by-Side picture dictionary that goes with the text. Whew!!!

3/23/06 Tonight I had Manuel plus 2 of the returning newbies. It looks like I have a real class again. Isaac wasn't there tonight though and I was disappointed. He seems so eager to learn and I had planned some upper beginner work especially for him. Teodora came last week for the first time and she'd only been in the US 2 weeks! She told us last night that she works from 5 pm to 1 am at Shoney's every day but Thursday. Now that takes some kind of dedication to spend your one off night in English class.

I've decided that I need to build some consistent routine into each evening. I'm beginning each lesson with mini-conversations. So tonight we reviewed conversations for greeting a friend and meeting someone new. I added 2 new sentences to the "meeting" conversation -- Where are you from? I'm from ________. I always ask this question to all the new folks anyway. I love to find out where people are from and they now consider the map a regular part of our classroom! Even the students from the other 2 classes come into our room to look at the map. I just love that!

I'm also going to build in a grammar "bite" into every class. So tonight it was the "where" interrogative. "Where are you from?" Then we reviewed numbers 1-12 from last class. Teodora hadn't been there so this was new to her. She seemed to know 1-8 pretty well. I had made flash cards with numbers and words and I gave her a set to keep. She spread them out on the table and used them as an aid as we worked with the numbers.

I'm also going to have a segment on pronunciation and tonight's lesson went over and over pronouncing the final consonant of words. They continually fail to do that. I write "five" or "nine" or "eight" on the board, model pronouncing the last consonant, underline that letter, etc. I've gone over and over this for the past 3 lessons and finally tonight I heard Manuel correct himself. This has really been an example of how important it is to recycle. The other sound we've been working on is the "i" sound in English. I've written on the board and explained
"i = ai" many times and they still say "Hee" for "Hi" or "neece" for "nice" if they're not thinking.

Then as a "K+1" activity, I spread out a deck of cards 1-10 and asked "Where is the 8?" "Where is the 10?" etc.

My last segment in each class will be, of course, some way to tie the lesson to real life. Tonight I introduced the clock with new vocab for clock parts and then used the numbers 1-12 in telling clock time -- just the straight up hours first -- they would've been way overwhelmed with half past and quarter past. I had a couple of worksheets dealing with clocks. And in the middle of the second one, it dawned on me that I had done a stupid thing! But let me go back a little. In looking for materials on telling time, I had bought a little workbook at Walmart. As I read it, I realized that it did give someone practice in telling time, but my students already knew how to tell time! What they don't know are the words for time in English! Duh! So there was actually very little of the workbook I could use. So on the internet I found a worksheet with blank clocks. I drew in the hands and asked them to write the time below. While they were writing away, I realized I was doing the SAME THING that the Walmart workbook had offered! So when they were finished, I made sure that they read out loud the times they had written. That at least was practice in speaking and listening. In some of these very beginner lessons, I am going to have to watch for that trap -- it's the language and NOT the actual skill that I need to teach them. However -- there was one interesting thing in this. As Teodora filled out her worksheet, I watched her silently count around the clock -- 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 -- putting her pencil on each number until she reached the number where the little hand was pointing. Then she wrote 9:00. Did that mean that she could barely tell time??? Very interesting.

I want to note something here about speaking and listening. One of the things that I have come to see is very important is for them to talk to each other so they can hear each other's pronunciation, so they can self-correct their own pronunciation based on feedback their classmates give them as to whether or not they are making themselves understood.

03/21/06 I had students again tonight -- yea!!!! Manuel and 3 newbies returned plus one more newbie showed up. Tonight I had designed a lesson plan that would incorporate any new person into the lesson for the first 45 minutes or so and then had small group work for the others to do while I registered and tested the newcomer. This is how I am going to organize the time in these classes from now on. It will take a little more thought and work but I just don't want to hit a newcomer with paperwork and test the minute they come in the door. I came to class early tonight to get the testing and registration forms and materials organized so I could just whip them out. This worked. This was the first test I had administered, it was way too hard for the guy, but it was the version that I was told to start with. And I really couldn't tell from those first 45 minutes whether or not this was the right level test. I think after this experience I'll be able to make a better decision about which test version to use.

Tonight we worked on numbers 1-12. I had a series of activities beginning with flash cards I'd made with numbers and words, then just numbers, then dots with no numbers or words. I also had dice and playing cards to use for practicing numbers. Maybe next class I'll teach them to play Go Fish. I actually used up all my activities which surprised me. We had about 10 minutes left at the end of class and I asked them what they wanted to do. Talk, they said! So we did.

The only thing I wasn't 100% happy with tonight was the way the groups worked. I tried to get them to work in pairs on each activity but they kept working as a whole group. I had to let it be OK but I did think that the newest guy didn't get a chance to practice that much because the ones who knew the answers spoke quickest and loudest. But it did give me a chance to work one-on-one with Isaac (see below) who just breezed thru each activity anyway. He kept saying -- listo, listo (ready, ready).

Isaac is a new fellow from Columbia who came for the 2nd time tonight. I could tell during this lesson that he probably belongs in Betty's class but he doesn't want to go. The work I'm giving the others is really too easy for him, so I used the time while they were working to answer his specific questions. There's so much he wants to know and he's frustrated because he feels like it's taking so much time. I kept telling him -- in time, in time.

03/16/06 I have students -- Yea!!! One of the newbies from Tues returned plus Manuel and 2 more newbies came tonight. (I convinced Guadalupe to move "up" to Betty's class and he reluctantly agreed.) So now , except for Manuel, I have an all "new" class of very beginners. Thursdays are the nights I work with Rebecca, and we both decided not to begin registering and testing the newbies the minute they hit the door. So I got to work with them the first segment of the evening and hopefully make them feel welcome and less anxious.

OK -- I'm going to go on one more rant about SCC and then I'm done. Having brand new students fill out a bunch of forms (which they don't understand) and take a test (which makes them feel stupid right off the bat) does NOT seem to me to be the best way to organize a site. Having the same person do registration, testing, AND teaching of very beginners creates chaos and a very unwelcoming situation. Why don't they have the teacher of the highest level class do the registration and testing? At least her students can more easily be given group or solo work to do while she's doing something else. At least they can understand DIRECTIONS she'd give them to work on their own. Doesn't SCC have goals of recruiting AND retaining students? Aren't they playing the numbers game too?? At NCCAT we treat teachers with what we've come to call Deep Hospitality. Well, I know I'm just a practicum student and I won't say any of this to anyone at SCC, but I can sure think of a better way to organize this program. This is a Zen lesson for me. I can only do the very best I can during each lesson. OMMMMMMMMMMMMM

And one more thing about SCC program -- the site coordinator Nancy came to me tonight and said -- "I understand (that means Genia probably told her) that you're not using the text in your lessons." She said she didn't care and I wasn't "in trouble" :) but she must've had some reason to even bring it up. I think she was worried that I wouldn't be teaching what students needed in order to be advanced in time into Betty's class. So -- I told her about my curriculum design class and how I was designing a hypothetical course using my students as targets and explained that I was focusing on skills measured on CASAS and supplementing the lessons with the text (which is actually a lie!) plus other outside material, blah, blah, blah. She seemed cool with that. So, folks, there IS some value in having goals and objectives clearly thought out!!

OK -- for tonight in anticipation of a group of new newbies, I planned a lesson around simple greeting conversation, learning names of letters, simple conversation to ask for someone's name, using alphabet to spell names. They were such beginners that the major accomplishment of the night was to learn how to spell their own name outloud using English alphabet. But hey -- what's more basic than that??? My final activity was to use phone book as authentic material to spell a name while a partner wrote it down -- listening for the letter and writing down the correct one., then reading the name to check and see if what they'd written was correct. I had actually planned for all that to be the first segment of the evening and had planned a lesson to introduce numbers 1-10 in second segment after the break. But we never even got to the numbers.

So, Chandrika, I'm sorry you weren't feeling well -- you sounded bad on the phone -- but I actually think I did some good tonight.

3/14/06 Yes, Aaron this experience is full of ups and downs. I went to class tonight with no formal lesson plan because I had no idea who would show. I do have, however, my own traveling show now -- in a bag AND a box -- so to prepare for the class I just reviewed lesson plans and materials I'd already prepared -- some I'd used and some I haven't had opportunity to use yet. Well -- Guadalupe and Manuel -- the regulars came. That would've been fun. But then 7 new students showed up!!! Chaos. This was my first night on my own -- so I would've been responsible for teaching the guys plus registering and administering tests to newbies. Thank goodness Genia was there finishing up some paperwork. She did the testing while I tried to work in a very noisy situation with the guys plus help her with the testing. Testing took the first section of the class. After break I had time to welcome the new students (I got 3 of them for my beginner group) and lead a discussion in English where we all got to know each other. I tried hard to tell them in Spanish to come back, the class would be fun, what we would learn (from my objectives). But there is no way to know if they will return.

So -- Chandrika, when you come to observe Thursday, I will have a whole new class -- maybe -- starting from scratch. It's like playing Sorry and being kicked back home.

I told Guadalupe that he really should go to Betty's class. He is way past novice, actually doing very good. He's my favorite student. He's reluctant but I think he would be really bored (aburrido) sitting in a beginner class.

03/02/06 I went to class tonight with what I thought was a good strategy. I'd spent time preparing a lesson on basic numbers 1-20 for Alejandro, another lesson for Guadalupe on places, maps, miles and then another segment that pulled the two lessons together so they could work together, each at their own level. I thought it was a pretty good plan and I was really looking forward to seeing if I could pull it off. But then NEITHER of them showed! Not even Guadalupe. Scratch that.

Then Manuel from Honduras came rambling in. I hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks. I decided to work with him on the material I had prepared for Guadalupe but "team teacher" Rebecca started talking to him about puppies and his son and and and. So I just "pushed" my way into the lesson and all 3 of us worked on addresses. I had brought actual envelopes and we used those as examples to learn city, state, zip code, first name, last name, etc. And we were going to have Manuel write a letter to someone and address a blank envelope that I had also brought. It went pretty well; we all worked together.

However, there was also another twist tonight. Nancy, who teaches the most advanced of the 3 classes on site, couldn't come. Only a couple of her students showed up so they went into Betty's class. And after Rebecca and I finished our "address" lesson, she, Manuel and I went into Betty's class. So everyone last night ended up in Betty's class. Manuel really didn't want to go but we went too to support him. And it didn't seem practical to have 2 teachers working with 1 student and 1 teacher working with 9 students. I also thought we might get to do some assisting but Betty ran the show. She teaches an old fashioned grammar-based class with absolutely no authentic material. BUT the students really seem to like her class. They laugh together and appear to feel very comfortable speaking out loud in class, even making mistakes. I guess I feel a little jealous especially since "my" class has sort of petered out. The continuing ed director, who is over all the ESL classes, told me in my "interview" that the only request she had of me was that I make the class fun. She said that only one of her teachers had followed that request. Well, it certainly seemed to me that Betty's class was having fun last night even though Betty wasn't using any of the methodology I've been learning. I think I'd like to observe more of Betty's work so I can contrast and compare and reflect on what I'm seeing. But I guess for now I'd just like to have some students.

02/28/06 I planned one lesson tonight for Guadalupe in case he was the only one who showed up plus another lesson in case the others came. And just as I anticipated, Guadalupe was the only one. (I don't know WHERE the others are! Even Manuel from Honduras hasn't been coming and he seemed to enjoy the classes so much. Nancy and Betty told me not to worry or take it personally -- that there are all kinds of reasons -- just like Emily said.)

I began with a review of G's last lesson on clocks and time with some "K+1" worksheets (reading and vocab) to challenge him. And he did it! Then I had planned to begin work on directions, maps, and place. BUT then came Alejandro from Guanajuato -- age 54, shorter than me, 3rd grade education and very little English. So -- what to do to keep Guadalupe interested but begin back at the beginning with Alejandro??? While Genia tested A, I did the review of time with G. Then I brought them together. Well, I've never started with a very beginner so I went to the first page of the text. Numbers 1-10. Then I made up a 6 sentence conversation -- What is your name? Where are you from? What is your phone number? Short conversation and numbers. I did offer G the option of moving on to Betty's class (tonight she had 5 students) where I told him he would be more challenged, but he declined. He said he would help me with A because it would be a review for him and help him remember. So I had A read some authentic phone numbers out of local ads -- then I saw G doodling on the paper (never saw him do that before) -- and I alternated asking G to read the addresses and hours of operation (which we had been studying). A tried to read them too. This class just whizzed by.

Hmm. If G stays in my class, I can see that I am going to have to prepare one lesson for him and another for A. (And what happens if the others return?? Yikes!) I'm going to have to have parts of these lessons worksheets or games or something that they each can do on their own at their own level while I'm working with the other. And it would be great if I could find SOMETHING that they can do together. AND starting next Tuesday, Genia will be gone and I will also have to test any newcomers -- all at the same time.

02/21/06 Only one student tonight -- Guadalupe -- so he got a private lesson. He is the best student in the class and probably should be moved up to the next class but I don't want to let him go. He inspires me plus he helps the others -- when they come. Without students for small group work, I just flew thru tonight's lesson plan, used both back up activities and had to scramble for more activities to finish out the class time. But it was OK. I can now say that I have the beginnings of my own "bag of tricks" -- and in a bag literally. These are activities plus relevant props that I can pull out when needed. I've even decided to organize my lesson plans in folders according to topic and carry them around in the bag too so that I can easily access them when needed.

I'm a little concerned about why attendance has been so poor these last 2 weeks. I know there are lots of possible factors -- weather, illness, gone back to Mexico, etc. I just hope it isn't because they don't like my teaching style. I know they have been learning. And they seem to enjoy the process -- always laughing and thanking me when they leave. When (if) they return, I think I'm going to try to find the Spanish to ask them why they've been absent. That's on-going assessment.

I have somewhat of a dilemma. The Continuing Ed director told me when she "interviewed" me that her one requirement of me was that I make the learning fun. She said that she's told this to every teacher she's hired and that only ONE has done what she requested. This is probably true. In the other 2 classes at my site, they read from the text and do worksheets. Problem is -- the students seem to be OK with it. They don't respond to CLT as negatively and vociferously as Aaron's Ukranians do but they don't act antsy either with the traditional method. My class seems to enjoy our sessions. While complementing me on the variety of authentic materials I incorporate into my lessons, Genia also politely told me tonight that I should be focusing more on the text. But I don't like the text! I'm just not sure how to proceed. I really think what I'm teaching them is more relevant and useful PLUS will help them go up the CASAS test rung. It is a dilemma.

02/16/06 Thursday night with Rebecca. She blended in more with my lesson this time, thank goodness. Manuel and Guadalupe the only students who showed up. Moving from numbers to money and using money. Because Manuel wasn't in class Tuesday when we worked with numbers 12-100, I reviewed that. Also reviewed numbers that sound alike 13-30 etc with my tip on pronunciation (see previous post). I thought that would help -- but it wasn't very successful. They understood the concept but wouldn't use it.

For my own use, I am going to start constructing lesson plans in a more useful format than the very formal one we used in methods class. What I'm finding is that I spend a lot of time designing what feels to me to be a well ordered and well timed lesson plan but then don't get to use it because of need to be flexible. Now, I'm not saying that I've ever expected my "going in" lesson plans to unfold exactly as on the paper. What I am saying is that the time I'm spending obcessively perfecting the construction would be better spent finding and shaping activities. In the last 2 or 3 ESL classes what I'm finding is that I have to blend 2 or even 3 lesson plans according to the evening's need. And I know this from NCCAT. I love the seminar design part but I've never had a seminar that went exactly according to schedule. The design is the container. Once you add the students (or in my NCCAT case -- teachers), a powerful unpredictable and uncontrollable variable is added to the mix. At NCCAT I've learned from experience to trust the process and I guess that's one more thing I'm carrying from NCCAT into this new venture.

2/14/06 Jamey came to observe tonight. We waited til 7:20 or so and only Guadalupe showed up. So I "borrowed" 2 students from Betty's class -- Esperanza and George. Esperanza is more of a beginner than George but they are probably both in Betty's class because George helps her. He translated some for her. If they were "my" students, I would politely say -- English only please. But I didn't feel comfortable saying that to George tonight since I had just met him. Jamey, the class wasn't as lively tonight as it usually is when more of the guys are there.

I've come up with a general plan for my time with this class during the semester. I'm going to focus on numbers -- money, time, appointments, reading calendars -- all skills that are tested on the next level of the CASAS test that they will be given probably sometime in May. I began tonight with numbers over 10. Right off the bat I found out that they were pretty familiar with those numbers. I had planned one teaching section followed by an activity aimed at listening skills where I pointed out that 13-30, 14-40, etc sound similar. I could tell from their work in the introductory session that they were indeed having trouble discriminating those sounds. The interesting thing was that when they were calling out the numbers to each other, they seemed to understand each other but I had trouble discriminating the sounds they were making! They were getting the answers right and I don't think it was by chance. After the class was over, it occurred to me that I should have told them about accents. I think we tend to accent the last syllable of the teen numbers and the first syllable of the multiples of 10. So I'm going to point this out to Guadalupe next class.

In the second half of the class (after Jamey had gone), I moved the numbers lesson into money. My plan for tonight was to focus only on bills and do coins next class. But I found out that they were quite familiar with handling money. So we worked with both bills and coins. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since they've told me that they don't use checks, only cash when shopping. Well, next class I'll know to go right into writing money with decimals, shopping, reading prices, etc. Will be good opportunities for using authentic materials.

For the end of class we played bingo. Guadalupe called out the numbers and George, Esperanza and I played. I won!!! I think I will be using bingo as a filler activity in the future. It does give good practice reading, speaking and listening to numbers.

2/2/06 Th Well, this lesson plan was a bust and waste of time. Guess things turn out after all because even after spending a lot of time on it, I still felt like it was a weak lesson plan going in. OK – after Tues I’m thinking – I have to have a plan that will accommodate a group of very beginners (like Tues) or all the regular guys (who are above the very beginner level) or BOTH. And go in thinking I’m covered. It’ll require some punting, but hey, in this sphere I’m finding that I CAN actually think on my feet. However, I go into the class and the lesson is immediately derailed by Rebecca, the class’s main teacher (who is SUPPOSED to be LETTING ME teach). (Thank GOODNESS Genia “lets” me teach on Tuesday. I’m going to do a little schmoozing next time I see her and tell her how grateful I am that she is stepping back and letting me go. Of course, she’s more than glad to do this – gives her time for the paperwork.) So Rebecca starts out by trying to explain to the first student who walks in the significance of Groundhog Day. What’s a groundhog in Spanish anyway? I told her just tell them it’s a big rat that lives in the ground. But we come up with marmot – marmota and they still don’t know what a groundhog is. Then a second student comes in and she starts all over. I just have to write this down. Trying to describe that he sees his shadow, I don’t think she even knows that he sees its shadow because the sun is shining (vocab word sunny) or doesn’t see its shadow because it’s (another vocab word) cloudy. Well, OK, she wasn’t there Tues when I taught the weather vocab. But I don’t think she gets the meteorological connection between sun and shadow; cloudy day and no shadow. Like duh. By the end of the schpiel second time around, the guys were just shaking their heads. They finally understood what she was trying to tell them (with stupid marmot pictures) but I could tell they were thinking – what a dumb holiday.

Only Guadalupe and Manuel tonight – but both working at same level. I asked Guadalupe if he minded if we recycled the weather words from Tues when Manuel wasn’t here. He was glad to work with the some more. And I started in – basically using a combination of Tues and Thurs lesson plans. Rebecca eventually sat down and we all 4 worked together with me leading. Interestingly – they began on their own moving in the direction of activities I had planned. I felt some desire to stick with the way I had ordered the activities and do them in my order, but knew I had to follow their interest. I felt like I did teach them something tonight – months, days, days abbreviations. I’m leading up to how to make, keep, and cancel an appointment. And I just have to be satisfied with the little steps of progress – both theirs and mine.

Big picture: I know where I want to head. I want to use the CASAS second level test (the next test that my guys will be given) as a guide for planning the rest of my time in this course. Major topics are use of numbers, money, time, calendar, shopping. This weekend I’m going to think about a general “course” plan to take me thru the rest of my time with this class. And I think by May it will be about time for them to take their next test. Oh yes, and one more thing. Neither Genia nor Rebecca does any sort of long-range planning or even short-range lesson planning. They come in each week and decide what to do on the spot. I could say that they have lots of experience to draw on but that’s not all that’s at work here. At NCCAT we call it the Golden Thread. There’s no Golden Thread here. No lesson is related to any other lesson. Yeah, they may go back and recycle what’s been learned before, but there’s no purpose for the recycling. I am too much a logical sequential thinker to bear this. It is so satisfying to me to create a logically flowing lesson plan. And at this point I don’t even mind when it doesn’t come off the way I envision it. (No NCCAT seminar I’ve planned has ever come off exactly the way I planned it.) But thankfully I have already had an experience where a plan and the actual class came pretty close to meeting and the thrill of that experience was enough to give me the patience and faith that it WILL happen again. This week I didn’t walk around Wed and Friday on the high I had last week, but this is still so rewarding.

1/31/06 Tu Welcome to the world of ESL teaching! Spent a lot of time planning, then revising lesson for tonight. “Where are you from?” “How’s the weather in _______?” weather vocab, then months on calendar, then tie weather to months for thinking about real world. Planned it for my regular guys. Even had a gut feeling I was introducing too much material. But then only Guadalupe showed up and new Mariana very beginner AND Kim and Soo from Cambodia!!! These are the 2 “Chinese” that Genia had told me about. They were from Cambodia, not China – oh well, begins with a C. Soo was translator for her aunt Kim. Soo learned her English in these very classes – took her about 3 years, she said, to get to where she is now – which is very good. Kim soft spoken, understands much more than she lets on (as I’m finding most do), pretty good pronunciation when she actually speaks. Kim wanted to write everything down which slowed down the others. So while she copied everything off the board, I just went on with Guadalupe and Mariana. Then folded Kim back in when she was ready. I felt bad holding Guadalupe back. Soo spent a lot of time explaining everything to Kim in Cambodian – felt disruptive to me. However – Chandrika will be happy – no Spanish for Kim!!! But I felt like I was kinda cheating with Soo there as translator – and, I have to say, she spoke MUCH more Cambodian than I ever spoke Spanish to “my” guys!!! One little interesting side light to that: I explained (in Spanish) to Guadalupe at the beginning of class that I was advised not to speak so much Spanish, only in a pinch. He must’ve gone out at break and told the guys in Betty’s class because Misael came into my class during break and said – basically – Hey, I hear they told you not to speak so much Spanish!!!! Interesting!

So anyway, well planned lesson derailed. Had to go much slower for Mariana and Kim while trying to keep Guadalupe interested and challenged. Taught weather terms within some conversation. Then recycled opposites from last week. Played concentration AGAIN. But they liked it. Broke the ice. At break time Misael and the other students flooded into my room. That hadn’t happened before. Watched the end of my students’ concentration game. I had brought a big map of Mexico and Cent Am to use in the “Where are you from?” conversation. They all spent their break at the map. Of course, I had to ask everyone the question. Interesting how little they know of their own country’s geography. But it had everyone talking – in Spanish though. Next time I’m going to nose in and suggest they talk in English to each other. Would be great opportunity – CLT in action.

1/26/06 Th Oh, rats! I just lost all I had written!!! Begin again. First observation. I wasn’t nervous. I think that all the mistakes I make and all the little things that I don’t do during this time I’m learning are small in comparison to the energy in that room – the Big Picture. I want to give those guys so much and I just have to be patient while I learn. After tonight I now have a couple of things in my bag of tricks that I know I can depend on. In a cooperative learning situation (students AND teacher) I know I can enlist the aid of the students to help each other in their learning. They do this for each other anyway like when they constantly translate for each other. But in the times when my explanations – in English or Spanish -- are just not getting through, I am going to consciously and actively encourage the more advanced students to explain to the others. Misael did this tonight. And in pronunciation too. I think that sometimes they can hear one another’s pronunciation better than they can understand mine. And I’m not so afraid anymore when an absolute beginner comes into the classroom for the first time. I will just fold them into the group and let the others help them along. That’s what Manuel did tonight for Aldo and I told Manuel he is a good teacher. It helps Manuel learn too.

We’ve talked for YEARS at NCCAT about creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere for learning where students feel they can take risks. It’s so interesting to experience a concept that I’ve known intellectually for so long – I must be creating that safe space because even the quiet students participate. I didn’t consciously set out to do that when I started with this class but I guess after all these NCCAT years it comes naturally to me. But I need to think about HOW I am actually doing that in THIS particular situation. Fodder for future reflection.

Questions after tonight: This pronunciation thing. It was so noisy in the room. How DO you teach Eng pron from the very beginning? That was one of the main things I didn’t like about Patricia Hackett’s beginning Span class at SCC that I took with Grace. She taught the kids how to say the NAMES of the letters but she never taught them the sounds. I never understood why. Span is so easy and regular to pronounce. Those kids struggled with pron never realizing they could sound out the words. Maybe I should take Mrs. Burrell to lunch!!! Do I need to learn how to teach phonics? I never found anything in last semester’s methods class that answered this question. Where do you start when Eng letters have so many different sounds, esp vowels, and so many diff combinations make diff sounds?

Another question: Antonio stayed after class to talk to Rebecca and me. He is frustrated. For one thing, he says when he goes home he can’t remember how to pronounce the words he’s learned in class. And he is one of the students who really struggles with pronunciation in the first place. And he says he wants to be able to TALK to people and he wonders WHEN he’s going to be able to do that. He wants conversation skills. I didn’t have the Spanish to tell him that we will “recycle” lessons in the class so that he has opportunity to practice the new information over and over. But I want to know how I can design the course to meet THOSE needs. What can I do to help them talk?