Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

You know, I teach little first graders, darlings all.

Today, I'm to start my teaching day at second period. As is usual, I get there near the beginning of first period to get things ready for my lesson. As I walk in, the Chinese teacher is conducting her lesson. The kids are attentive and seemingly eager to learn. There's very little chit-chatting and other sorts of distracting behavior. This is not uncommon, by the way.

2nd period - my Math class. We are learning to tell time. For the most part, the kids were okay, but the build-up is coming. 3rd period is phonics - - initial blends is the lesson. For some reason, the kids can't get into language arts - - no matter how much we sing or chant or color or whatever, they just seem bored and restless and they sure do let me know by talking to each other while I'm talking, turning their pencil and eraser into toys, making little origami things, etc. It seems the louder I try and talk over their noise, the noisier they get. I try the opposite approach and just stop talking. That rarely works. Today, I just YELLED at this little 'uns: "Be Quiet! You don't do this for Miss 'X", why do it for me!!!!" Well, of course, that shut them up pretty darn quick, but I hate to resort to yelling to get them to pay attention.

I've had this complaint here before, but I know a couple of possible reasons to my problems:

1. The students don't get to move around enough because 25 students + two or more teachers are crammed into this little closet of a classroom. We can't do too many activity-based games due to restrictive movement. Also, right now it's too cold to go outside and do something.

2. The language barrier: By now, 90% of my students seem to understand pretty much everything I say. Their pronunciation is good when they repeat words and some are starting to formulate simple sentences on their own. However, learning another language can be totally uninteresting, even at the first grade level, no matter how many "fun" activities you try and do.

3. Chinese children are animals! Everytime we DO try some sort of activity, these kids are just bouncing off the wall. Okay, not everytime. The other day in Science, the kids were doing Life Cycle charts in pairs and that activity ended up pretty good. But MANY times, it just seems to fall apart.

4. I'm a crappy teacher whose creative juices just aren't flowing very freely these days. I am constantly trying to come up with something new and different, but I'm sputtering out. AND, I do have a textbook to get through before these kids move on to second grade.

So, I guess - - HELP! Who has gone through this sort of pain and suffering and what are some tricks that worked for you? My guess is I do a lot of the same things as you do/did, but maybe not often enough. AND why is it they can be the perfect little students for their Chinese teacher and not for me? This is no different than their later high school years. They sure do start their indifference early, don't they?

PS: I've decided to also stop sending homework home on the weekends (as parents have requested). Last Monday, all their Chinese work was returned and I got about 50% of what I had sent home with them. So, I can't be bothered with that aspect any longer.

[Petulia Pet]

My girls and I at Salon Doreen use to take some lesons at the high school about beauty tips and they were always very interesting in what we said so we didn't have your problem so I can'be of much help from my teaching exerience, but in my on-line TESol degee Professor Chicotoze (???) said the golden rule was Keep em busy. He had a poem,

If they fidget with their digit
And make you cross and shout
Make em take their notebooks out
And make the little baskets work

I am going to make this my golden rule. Work work work. I think eep their heads donw and donw'tworry too much about the talk. If their writing they can't act up. I suggest you make them write. Don't worry about the frills.

[dajiang]

So how much time does a lesson take?
Are you teaching one group for like an afternoon? And is mrs X still in the classroom when you are teaching?

Anyway, something that might work is that you could be more strict. As you've noticed a loud voice does the trick, if you use it sparingly, but perhaps the little 'uns think you're too soft on em. So, try to be tougher on them.

So, fun and games should be used, but make it seem like it's a reward for their good behaviour. If they're rowdy, it's gonna be boring quiet activities the whole time, but if they're nice and behave, you can give them something fun.

Structure I found was very important too. I don't teach young Chinese kids myself, but lower high school kids in Holland (very very rowdy bunch btw), and to keep them in check I write the set up of the lesson on the board at the start of the class, so that people know what we're doing. I keep instructions very clear and uniform too btw, but I'm sure you're doing that already.

Anyway, I've seen a couple of young learner's classes and one thing I remember that worked well was to have the students work in groups of say 4 or 5 on different subjects. The thing with this is that you need lots of materials and a system that the kids know well. You said you teach several subjects, so you can have extra materials on these subjects with exercises that they can work on individually on in pairs. When they are finished with one thing they can work on their other subject for a while. (this can be easy or fun, like a puzzle or drawing). It's to make sure that they are kept busy and not bored when some students are still working on other subjects/exercises.
In this you can introduce a system of cards for the kids: Green if you are fine and don't need help; red if you have a question. This will save you from lots of hands in the air or worse, hordes of kids yelling for help.

G'luck with the little buggers,
Dajiang


PS: Pet, your post is hilarious. I like the way you keep it unclear for us readers if you are for real or not.

[7969]

one thing i've noticed in chinese classrooms, in particular middle school, is the complete absence of field trips.

i remember taking field trips to planetariums, museums, restaurants, parks, a real field trip to look for different flora and fauna..... kids need a break from the classroom once in awhile, something fun to look forward to. this is seriously lacking in china.

7969

[vikdk]

[kev7161]

I'll try to clarify a few things:

Yes, the other teacher is often in the classroom with me. Sometimes she actually is up and walking amongst the students while I'm teaching the lesson. This works out great because they, if not paying attention, are at least not talking so much. Many times, however, she's at her desk doing . . . something . . . on her laptop or sometimes even "resting" with her head down. I don't get that at all. I teach the same group of kids 4 lessons a day. Every day is 2 language arts classes (Phonics, spelling, reading, etc.), 1 math class, and then a rotation of classes including science, art, oral english (New Parade). They also have 5 Chinese lessons a week, 2 "Chinese" math classes, 2 PE classes, 4 music classes, and a few other things that I'm not involved in. They are kept busy. They stay in that classroom until 7pm or later, so I can understand why they behave they way they do - - I just don't like it so much.

Yes, I should be able to teach with NOBODY else present and I do that from time to time. It's not like the kids are out of control and running around and kicking me in the shin or anything. It's just they seem restless, disinterested, and talkative. Not ALL the kids mind you. Out of the 25, there's easily 7 or 8 that are top notch and these are the ones that always raise their hands to answer questions. However, my goal is to get beyond that top 25% group and get the others more involved.

We have plenty of learning materials - - textbooks, manipulatives, worksheets, more. I do have puzzles and coloring sheets available when needed. I teach 40 minute lessons and try to put in two or three different activities in each lesson. One poster said it right: when they have busy paperwork, they are pretty good. The one bad habit I'm trying to break of them is to tell them to TAKE THEIR TIME. Some of them think it's a race to see if they can get done first and even the sharpest of the group can make silly mistakes.

I've mentioned field trips to my co-teacher and it's been greeted with less than enthusiastic feedback.

I honestly don't feel it's my teaching skills, rather how to mix it up a little and figure out what's going to keep these kids focused and on task for a large portion of the class time. By the way, they get 15 minutes between classes to play and drink water and go to the bathroom, etc. I personally feel that's too much. That's about 15 x 6 breaks, plus a huge break after lunch. Not that I'm a taskmaster, but they really get wound up running up and down the halls and getting them calmed down for class can be a challenge. I'd rather have shorter breaks and then a 20-30 minute recess time in the afternoon where we can go outside or to the gym to play for awhile. Our class instigated a "mini-class" of 30 minutes during that 2 hour lunch break. Basically a review class that one of us takes each day. Now the other 1st grade classes have followed suit. Keeping in mind these are 7 and 8 year olds and they do need enough "play" time throughout the day. If we could only have a bigger classroom where we could have such things as a reading corner, an art corner, centers, play areas, etc. This special class is supposed to reflect a "western style" class and those types of things are common in American 1st grade classrooms.