Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Goku]

Just curious,

A cool teacher I met the other day mentioned being Zen with her classes.

Rather than dismissing it as a new age, moon crystal and herbalist "I can communicate with the spirits" kind of deal, I listened and she said that even though as teachers we are supposed to change the kids, we still accept even the bad kids because that's who they are, and there's nothing we can do to change it. The only thing we can do is harness the best in them but we can't change their level or their interest.

I might have dismissed this on the grounds that it seems like "giving" up on the kids. But I realized she meant that it's like accepting a "bad" son. If anyone has read any of steven covey's books and that tale about how he had a failure of a son, who sucked at everything. They tried to change him but couldn't. His parents finally accepted the way he was and later the son changed for the "better".

Does anyone have this approach to teaching? How does it work for you?

[VanIslander]

[Fishead soup]

I found a great story of Doubels ning site

We have a choice

We can be like the carrot. We go into the boiling water hard. We are strong at disipline and we don't take any crap. We eventially get worn down and become soft.

We can be like the egg. We go into the hot water soft and we become hard. This is like that teacher who had all these idealistic idea's and wanted to be the teacher from" Dead Poets Society". They are ones that are shocked when they see the Korean teachers hit kids. The students eventially walk all over their easy going nature and they become bitter.

The third kind is the coffee the coffee beans change the water. The water doesn't change them.

[dean_burrito]

I guess without realizing it I've taken this approach with the class I've wrote about in the technical high school forum. The class became a battle. I know the kids battle daily. They are crammed in classes not big enough for them and are herded from place to place. They aren't treated like I was treated in school or some of the other classes.
I had to give up on group instruction as it was just turning inot 50 minute blocks of discipline and negative reinforcement about school for the kids. I realized I wasn't changing anything and this was a waste of all our time. We go in the room if someone wants to do the lesson I help them. If someoe wants to play starcraft I let them. If they want to dance or scream or shout they can because in all honesty I can't change that.
Since giving up or finding zen (sounds much better than giving up) I've learned a lot about this class. One kid is a comedian and a quite good one at that. He writes skits and directs other students to act them out.
Another kid can do the rubiks cube in under 1 minute. Another kid is learning German all on his own and doing quite well. Another kid is a blues enthusiast and has lengthy conversations with me about delta blues. All this information is transferred in midst of madness.

[Goku]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[dean_burrito]

Thanks Goku. Respect back at you and thanks for sharing this. What a lovely Dave's moment.

[D.D.]

[ddeubel]

[Goku]

ddeubel I hope you can share more on how to do it.

Quite frankly I've been overstressed and I haven't been getting anywhere with my kids as I can see manifested.

I think my hardline disciplinng approach does not work with my kids. And the stress is blowing me out.

I'm the carrot.

This teacher, who I've always considered cool and calm, told me her approach I was envious of her happiness. I think I need to chill out a bit and learn to accept students and polish the coals into diamonds, Instead of trying change them into gems they are not.

[Zulethe]

Sometimes we also project onto the kids what we believe should be the ideal classroom environment: All students fastidiously hanging on our next word.

From my experience and one that I learned about in college with kids, i.e., play therapy, sometimes a bit of chaos (not to Burrito's level) is not bad and should be harnessted.

In one of my classes, I've got the usual suspects who seem to be learning nothing. On the contrary. These kids are learning a lot. They just can't sit there and learn in the traditional sense. They need to be active: playing with toys, solving a puzzle, whatever.

While they are playing, they are also soaking up at least some of the lesson.

I'm going to try to incorporate more of this play learning into more classes catering it to the kids that just need to be active all the time.

As for my "really" out of control class, it's still movie time.

If you think about it, that's one of the funnest aspects of this job. Being able to experiment and see what works in different settings. When we forget this, we get stuck in the same old rut and do the same things over and over again.

[ddeubel]

Please amend the above url to http://eflclassroom.com/inspiration/coffeebeans.swf

Goku wrote,

[Silk]

the carrot isn't hard enough

you got to be hard as woodpecker lips

not hard on them...just hard