Show-Lesson Onslaught
I’ve discussed the elusive show-lesson before. Elusive in that we, the foreign teachers, have yet to find real meaning in them. Now, as self-important as that might sound, YOU try sitting in on some of the Chinese co-teacher show lessons and then try telling me that they are important and valuable and can teach a native English speaker how to better teach English. I am fully aware that there are many, many things I do not know about teaching English to little Chinese children. However, listening to a new teacher say the word, “pleese-ooohmahn” for “policewoman” seventeen hundred times is not the best approach for teaching me some of the knowledge I lack. And, being a Westerner, I am fully aware of my superior air here (and do apologize if it offends): the idea that I know better than people who’ve been doing this for years, but even Mr. Ye would suggest that we know some things better than those that have been doing it for years, hence the desire to have Westerners teaching in the first place.
For example, each foreign teacher carries with her the confidence of knowing the language and it’s nuances front and back. Even if we’re not all formally trained as teachers, knowing the language as well as we do automatically puts us in a better position than a young man or woman just graduated from a teaching college, with English as a second language. Now the problem begins when foreigners let this automatic superiority (for lack of a better word) justify laziness in other areas of the job. Now that I think about it, it certainly isn’t superiority and I should try harder for a better word…advantage expresses my meaning more precisely. So, we’ve got this advantage and it allows some of us to become lazy and forget that this job of teaching the little people, like anything else in life, is real and should be done with the utmost care and concentration.
I started out this entry to discuss my own situation at Wuchang Experimental Primary School and how that situation has been turned on its head twice now – which means I’m back on top. Somehow, I’ve gone off into dangerous territory – critiquing my peers, and I’ll stop here because nothing good can come of it. So let me get back on track.
So show-lessons. For a while there, we were watching Chinese co-teacher show-lessons. And then, about three weeks ago, we all attended two classes of Roy and Angela, a married British couple who worked for the school last year. I found that I learned a bit from Angela’s lesson, and a little less from Roy’s lesson, although I found them both to be very good teachers. I think I resolved myself to the show-lessons as being as mandatory and annoying as say, a required review of a co-worker or a required self-review, both of which I’ve had to do in more than one job back home.
And then, this past Wednesday (a week ago tomorrow), we all gathered to watch Matthew and Colin do their show lessons. They both went pretty well. Afterwards, Mr. Ye brought all of the co-teachers and all of the foreign teachers together in the center of the room and asked us to critique what we’d just watched. He is the worst mediator possible, I might add and it was über-unnerving. After a few mediocre comments about lovely teaching aides and lots of energy in front of the class, Mr. Ye informed the group of forty that Lisa and I would be next. At the moment, I was flattered. For some reason, I feel that Mr. Ye is show casing his favorites. I think I have this feeling because of the compliments he gave in a meeting several weeks ago where he called out Roy, Angela, Colin, Lisa and myself as having very good lesson planning books. That’s all I’m going on here, but I needed the imaginary build-up at the time because I was having an all-time teaching low last week. I was confused, bumbling in class, lacking the energy to make teaching aides or really think through the lessons before presenting them and the classes were reflecting my confusion and disorder in their class time chaos.
The only thing I was enjoying about my job last week was Kindergarten. I’d finally cast off the self-imposed shackles of order and decorum and was just having fun and running around playing and speaking English during class. Mostly the children laugh and giggle through tears of joy during Kindergarten these days. It makes for quite an end to each busy day. I put 80% of the blame for my upsetting week last week on two things: another cold and the finishing up of the novel challenge. With the “novel” out of the way, I feel rejuvenated and much more excited about all of the other things going on in my life. I’ve also crossed the hump of my cold and now just have the green phlegm (sorry!) and slightly scratchy throat to contend with.
So I had a restful weekend and came to school ready to give it my all yesterday (Monday) and it was a blissful day. Midterms were last week for all grades and after midterms, there is always a week of visiting parents. The parents decide what two classes they’d like to sit in on and both of my Grade 2 classes chose English while only my Grade 1B class chose English. I had the parent show lesson for Grade 1 on Monday. It went so well! I was able to disentangle from all of my worries and insecurities about being a teacher for just a moment to see that the children were in love with me and that the parents looked satisfied and happy. Christy and I were a well-oiled machine and 1B is such a joy to teach. I’ve chosen them to be the class that I use for my show-lesson next week.
Then, today I had my Grade 2 parent show-lessons. I’d prepared a bit with Julia last week but created the bulk of the lesson this weekend. Season is my co-teacher this week for Grade 2 while Julia attends a conference on teaching in another province. Sandra, Ellie’s mother and the head of all of the Chinese co-teachers didn’t trust Season to help me with the show-lesson, so she placed herself in the position instead. She was very concerned that I didn’t know what I was doing and tried to micro-manage a bit. I was gracious and took a lot of her suggestions but stayed firm and true to my own methods – the ones that have proven to be successful with the Grade 2 classes, and everything went smashingly, to quote the Brits who wrote the Chatterbox material we teach. After lunch, Winnie, a co-teacher I’ve hung out with outside of school and someone I adore, told me that a parent of one of my Grade 2 children had gushed – Winnie used this exact word – about my lesson. The parent loved my “creative, colorful” teaching aides and was “shocked” to hear that I’d made them all myself. The parent also felt that I was calm and “endearing” in class and made the environment “a warm, fun place for learning”. I swear, I didn’t make this stuff up – it all came from Winnie. And, if I seem to be stroking my own ego a little too much right now, let me just say that I was DOWN IN THE DUMPS a mere week ago. I felt lost and wondered how I had possibly been chosen to teach English. It is so satisfying to get this wonderful feedback, but more importantly, I found a place of detachment in terms of the daily ups and downs this weekend that has also helped a great deal.
In the end, I’ve learned (and I’m fully expecting to learn more and more as the weeks go on) that if I throw myself into creating a simple, direct, well-thought out lesson plan and use lots of aides and tools (relevant, of course) to drive home the point of each lesson, teaching will no longer be scary but will be fun and I’ll arrive to each class as excited as I want the children to be. Suddenly, it seems so easy, and to this end, every bit of work I do has become very enjoyable and un-work-like - especially the making of the teaching aides!
I had wanted to write one more entry about something that happened this weekend that places me even further from some of my “house mates” than before, but I’ve got to make the Grade 1, Unit 5 test and teaching aides for Grade 2’s lesson tomorrow on WEATHER. I’ll have to save it, the entry, that is, for another day.
One last thing, if you’ve actually made it to the end of this entry, please try to say “hello” in the comments section. I think I might have fixed the problem…and this time Yahoo did a bit to help out!
