Only five lesson plans to go!
I wrote my first blog about teaching after I had taught four lessons and I can’t believe I’m now planning my last four lessons for the remaining month here. I’ve noticed such a change in my classes and in myself and I feel that together we have found what works and what doesn’t. As my students grow in confidence in their English speaking I become more confident in planning my lessons and more ambitious with the activities I set them; I often can’t remember what it was like when they were too shy to say a word.
The biggest change I have made is that I now approach planning lessons completely differently to when I started. Before, I knew the classes well enough to adapt while I was teaching or I would sometimes have to make a quick change halfway through the lesson, depending on how the class was responding. However I was still trying to teach each class using the same methods and vocabulary. Now, I know my classes well enough to consider in advance how I can teach each class class and often end up with ‘mini’ lesson plans scribbled on the back of my overall guide. I know the classes who will really need to be encouraged to speak, but write fantastically and I know the classes who love to be active in group work but need to practise their listening. Because of this, my Monday classes are no longer my ‘chance to find what’s wrong with my lesson plan’ class because I can usually include something I know they will enjoy. I’ve also learnt to respect that the eight science classes are taught differently to a way I am used to, so I have to be patient when they just want to write or work individually.
Recently, I’ve also been able to find the right teacher/friend balance and the students all know the rules of the classroom and when it’s the right time to chat or make jokes. I no longer need to tell them to settle or be quiet; they know they can chat when I’m writing on the board or when they are working but as soon as I face them to talk I hear a chorus of SSSSHHH! and then a few laughs. Although I still have a closer relationship to certain classes, I know in nearly all of them there will be a relaxed environment and they feel more comfortable asking me for help, or just about my life in England. I’ve found the more open and honest about my life at home I am, the more they enjoy listening or the more they want to know.
Of course, there are still those who are falling asleep at the back of the room, head against the window and no idea another lesson has begun since the previous lesson that must have sent them to sleep. You can’t help but laugh when they wake up to see their English teacher standing in front of them, as they realise they slept through the break in between class and the immediate, ‘why is Emily here already’ look on their face. Usually, all I have to do is knock on their desk with a water bottle and it’s always nice when they just laugh along with the rest of the class. Similarly, some students will use every writing activity as an opportunity to do their Chinese homework. However, they know when I walk past and close their textbook that it’s time to do English and I have to say it is never the same student twice.
After the first few ‘getting to know you weeks’ I felt a lull in the classes and lesson plans which made it easy to feel discouraged, but I knew I couldn’t give up on them. I’d say some time in April, within the space of a week something just clicked into place and they all became students I am very fond of, rather than a big class of strangers I was asked to teach. Luckily, this happened to my volunteer partner (Alice) around the same time so we decided together not to alternate the grades we teach as originally planned. I’m happy to know I’ll be teaching my grade until I leave MinZhong (pronounced Minjong, an abbreviation of the schools name) and I’m going to put every effort into the last four lesson plans I have to teach.
Last night, I was invited to Class 2 to watch Good Will Hunting; their English teachers lets them watch a film in English twice a month instead of evening classes. It was lovely to sit with them just as their friend and their English is so good that I could chat with them freely. Some people may disagree, but one of the things I love most about them is that they know I’m only their teacher for forty minutes and then I’m just like them. I know how much I’ll miss them and if they were students at home, they would be some of my best friends.
