Job Discussion Forums

[patsy]

I agree with you. Just when I think this week of classes had gone ok, tonite I got an email from one of my students, telling me that her whole class thinks my lessons are too boring and easy. Even though it's oral english , and half the time I literally can't understand what they are saying because of their poor pronounciation. This is an all girls school and I was so wrong to come here, they need a young teacher who is much more entertaining and talented than me. This will be my last year in china.

[saint57]

Go to work with a bad hangover. The nonsense will end one way or another.

[latefordinner]

Calories:

[viovio]

Ok. Got it

[william wallace]

nil.

[BlakeS]

Today is Blake's bad hangover. This might not make a whole lot of sense....but work with me.

This term....you're screwed. No way around it. If your students don't take you seriously from day 1, you've lost them.

The one comments I always get from my superiors is how well behaved my kids are. I hear other classes running around screaming like helions while mine sit quitly at their desk while I hand out their next assignment.

The key - reward systems and consistentcy. Cinsistent reward and punishment.

Always have a small reward system in every class. Stars on the board or something equally as trivial. Write down the students names on the left of the your board and everytime a student answers a question or enforces a rule for you - give them a star/whatever.

End of class - the top students receive an award. For me, it's this book that I sign each class. The top students get a signature in the book. Whoever has the most signatures by a certain period gets a nice gift of their choice (a basketball or badmitton set - whatever). So you sacrifice 100 Yuan every 3 months .... worth it.

Everytime a student misbehaves - X them. Give them an X. 3 X's and you spend the whole class standing in the corner. Everytime a student speaks out of turn, they stand up and are yelled at by the rest of the class in unison, "NO TALKING WHEN THE TEACHER IS TALKING." or "NO CHINESE IN ENGLISH CLASS". etc etc etc

If you're consistent with it, the class becomes a constant battle between the students of who can be the best behaved.

Anyone have an tylanol?

[rhunderhill]

I don't teach kids but I'm led to believe chocolates can be used effectively to quiten down the unruly. Quietly give out a few to those that are behaving well. The others soon get the idea. May be difficult with a large class and should be used sparingly.

My adults love getting chocolates occasionally and this contributes to the happy to come to class factor. There may be other ways to be generous to your students and make you number 1!

[kev7161]

Contrary to a certain poster's beliefs, a reward system can work wonders in most any classroom. Depending on the age group would depend on the reward you are wanting to give. By the way, a "reward" does not always have to be something that will cost you a lot of money. End-of-the-month DVD Friday can be a goal the class can work towards. The class, as a whole, has to earn a predetermined set of points by achieving certain requirements such as:

- - 80% of grades on tests must be at C-level or better.

- - 100% of the class has to exhibit a certain level of spoken English skills (to be determined by teacher, which is determined by individual class' abilities).

- - . . . or anything else the teacher deems as appropriate.

We shouldn't have to bribe kids to speak English or cooperate in class, but sometimes it's the only way. Stickers, candy, pencils, a pizza lunch, a free period of fun and games . . . the list can go on and on of what you want to do for your class.

Be careful though, if you "reward" too often, the kids will come to expect it and may mutiny when they don't get treats every other day.

Here's a question for you though: Should top students who obviously try and succeed be rewarded while those that laze about in class not be? Is that a good incentive for those that never try, never participate in class (that maybe they WILL try if they see they can get something for their efforts)? Or will they just grow more resentful and mumble "sour grapes" about you? Discuss.

[vikdk]

Of course a reward system can work (dangling the carrot of potential reward is the key to any plan of motivating the student) - after all how many of you would be working here without the reward of your monthly paycheck? So this type of discussion shouldn't run along the lines of to reward or not to reward - but more along those of the nature of this reward, and how it fits in with that pragmatic task of creating learning environments that are not only effective in their operation, but relatively easy to manage.
Here is one way of looking into this little problem - a way of reflecting on the acceptability of the type of reward system you operate in your classrooms.
Look back to your own schooldays and picture the classroom either as a workplace - where just as in any other workplace you get paid, but you are paid in such a way that it makes you want to come back - or reflect on the classroom as prison - a life behind the bars of the school-gates - a place you�re always wanting to escape from.
Now if that memory is a positive one - the workplace you wanted to come back to day in day out - in what form did that payment come? Of course there was the companionship of friends, the free time spent playing - but in the classroom itself - wasn't it sometimes (I know I'm being idealistic here) the teacher who became a role model, the teacher who could entertain, the teacher who could motivate, the teacher who could fascinate (shiite, better shut up now, since how on earth do you entertain, motivate and fascinate while teaching English as an L2 - especially when you have to pass 80% of those kids a top grade at the end of the year). Those gold stars and good grades also played a big part for some of us - but their value as a reward sinks into insignificance with respect to the teacher who was a positive and inspiring role-model - one who didn't polarise the class into antagonistic groups of achievers and non-achievers - but one who respected differing individual ability and personality and tried to create harmony in the classroom. After all promoting systems that encourage the pupil into equating learning with the smell of freshly baked pizza does seem a little less that perfect to the namby-pamby type of bleeding-heart idealists like me � a system that kind of reminds me of the toy gimmicks Mc�Donalds uses to get fat spoilt kids to bully their parents into a plastic hamburger lunch - after all the �smell of bread� can be such a corrupting power!!!!
But who am I talk � the poster who�s always harping on about fighting low wage levels � and anyways my reflection of my own schooldays are dominated by those of hours of clock watching - the drone of the boring teacher - the humiliation of having to meekly submit to power - where the normal reward for the school-day wasn�t anything close to education - but the opening of school-gates � the escape � the going home (which I'm sorry too say is also the key-reward for most workplaces)!!!! In such circumstances the arrival of a chance of winning some pizza, a piece of chocolate or a star or two could be looked upon as a great environmental improvement � at least for the small-child it gives a point to learning � and indeed having to behave!!!
So in conclusion � I�d like to write � If I moved the reflectionary viewpoint away from being a pupil, to that of being a parent - then, in a Chinese situation, I�d actually be pretty happy to find a teacher like Kev for my kids � at least his posts shows he cares and although I don�t wholly agree with his solutions � it shows that he does try to solve them rather than just giving up � which in the Chinese educational culture, (which seems to be one of running from, and taking no responsibility for, problems) - is something that is unusual. What I�d hope for though is that if he did present my child with a substantial material reward for classroom excellence � that maybe he would change it from the likes of a pizza lunch to something more related to education � for example a book � or maybe a prize he could share with friends or indeed all his fellow students � after all our little Johnny has a rough enough time surviving the onslaught of the materialistic world in his out of school life, without it starting to invade the classroom in the guise of the teachers assistant.

[vikdk]

as a post script to my last effort - and with regard to this question

[Steppenwolf]

[vikdk]

[Steppenwolf]

[Steppenwolf]

[vikdk]

Well Steppenwolf old chap, why not give the unexperienced language dud like me a few tips from your illustrious life of assessing the Chinese ESL world during its exams and tests - for example, what kind of mark (out of ten) would you give the following sentence?