Teaching About Learning...

So on Tuesday I had the opportunity to teach a 20-minute segment of my Psych class about cooperative learning. I was initially upset that I did not get to go teach with everyone else at the elementary school, but I think things worked out just fine. I think it is really smart of John to make us teach somewhere while we're here, in order to make us actually exercise and apply some of the things that we've learned in his class this semester. It's one thing to be taught how to teach people, and it's easy to sit in class and think about it hypothetically. But when you're actually up in front of a class, you get to know what it feels like to be a teacher, and you get to experience what it's like to have to keep all those different concepts and strategies in mind while you're actually teaching. If anything, I have a greater appreciation for teachers, especially that they get up and do that every single day of the work week- it was stressful enough for me to do it one day for 20 minutes.
When I was first given the topic options, I thought to myself, "I don't know anything about any of those." Teaching it actually made me study it that much more in depth, and made me process it deeper in order to be able to try and teach it. i was still nervous going up there, and I still feel like I didn't quite know what I was talking about, but all in all it at least taught me that teaching isn't something that you just get up and do - it takes work and effort. And perhaps, given that I actually know a bit about what I'm talking about, I wouldn't mind ending up as a teacher or professor someday, if that's where I end up.

The end..but not forever

So as the trip comes to an end, I don't want to think of it as a good bye, but as a new beginning. I have never had a rejuvinated spirit quite like this. I feel as though it has increased my motivation level for life has just gone up not just because of what this world has to offer but because I genuinely have a new found passion for public health. Its kind of random and its not because of the nasty metro stations that ignited this endevour of mine but its maybe partially my own story and the struggles I go through on a daily with health for the past few years. They say everyone has their own battle and personally for me its always be getting my two feet up and doing basic things, I might have mentioned in the past that before I didn't push myself as hard to venture out when I started living with chronic pain but being here has made me realize that I still can live my life to the fullest. Even though I have had 24/7 migraines for the past 3 years now it has somehow sunk into me that this is my story, even if it probably isn't the most epic story it adds meaning to my life, I tend to work well with children who come from unconventional backgrounds or learning disabilities/ any individual who knows struggle because I can empathize with their pain whatever it may be. I haven't really known a lot other than pain for a long time. I'm definitely not the person I was 3 years before I had to endure with constant pain rooting from my spine up but with time I have tried to always somehow keep myself busy with other things whether it was indian rec dance team, community service, yoga, temple, and spending time with my loved ones. I had tried ignoring a lot of the pain because it wasn't approved in my society it was seen as a minor hindrance but in actuality it had created my life to be a living state of chaos. I actually have never been extrinsically motivated, I used to be but it became too much for me I started to lose myself as a individual either get to caught up in competition or attributions. Honestly, at my point in my life I have to do what's right for my wellbeing and still try and integrate myself in the selfless acts I have loved doing my entire life. I hope one day I'll get the chance to live without the burning,tingling,pins and needles sensations. My grandmother who's 70 feels this on a daily and being 20 living with symptoms like this makes me feel senile at times, it sucks but you got to work with what your handed I guess. I have a lot of added weight in my life and sometimes everything is overburdening for me, I'm trying my best not letting chronic pain define me.

Na shledanou!

Wow, where has the time gone?! I can't believe it is already time for our final exam in Educational Psychology! We discussed self-efficacy this week in class and I have to admit that mine is usually pretty low when it comes to test-taking. It is always the psychological factor that gets me because I tell myself that I am never going to be able to remember all of the information that I need to know. Hopefully I have studied enough for this final though and will not have that problem today! I am just so amazed how fast this class and study abroad experience in general has gone by - I feel like orientation was just yesterday! I really enjoyed taking Educational Psychology here. It was such an interesting class and we were able to relate what we learned to experiences in Prague. We created a video documentary this week and used examples around the city to explain topics such as classical conditioning, vicarious learning, selective attention, etc. Also, all of the Czech immersions, such as teaching at a Czech school and the Prague Pursuit, were some of my favorite experiences during the six weeks. This trip was my first time out of the United States and I think it truly was a life changing experience. I learned so much about the culture here and had so many opportunities to do things I would never get to do back home. I hope I get the chance to come back to the Czech Republic one day because there are still so many things I want to see and do - six weeks just wasn't enough! I am really going to miss Prague but I am looking forward to going home and seeing everyone back at NC State in the fall!

Scaffolding in Switzerland!

Picture of the group in our wetsuits before canyoning! The water was freezing but so worth it

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I can truly say it was hard for me to get on the 11 hour bus ride back to Prague I would have stayed forever. I planned our trip to Switzerland the first week we were here in Europe because I wanted to go canyoning and Interlaken is one of the only places you can do this in the world. So we get up early Saturday morning because we are to meet to head to the canyon Grimsel at 8am. We meet our guides and get set up in our wetsuits and helmets and head off on one of the most beautiful car rides I have ever been on. The trip starts with a 50-meter repel down the side of a cliff. At this point I am afraid that we are going to lose some of our fellow canyon goers because this is pretty extreme. By I can say most of us are very far outside of our zone of proximal development. I work at a summer camp and have worked with the climbing staff and I still felt like I needed a lot of help to get down the side of a cliff. After reaching the bottom we set off on a crash course of jumping, sliding and zip lining through the middle of the canyon. Much of the tasks we were asked to do, the guides had to scaffold us through. Many jumps and slides would have been very dangerous without precise directions from the guide. At the beginning of our tour, the guides took a lot more time explaining and making sure we understood how we were supposed to jump into the shallower water and towards the end, after much scaffolding, we were just told that we were supposed to do the "shallow jump." If you ever have a free weekend or are spending extra time in Europe, you have to go to Switzerland and go canyoning. It was truly one of the greatest things I have ever done! I will come back to Switzerland to do it again.

Adventure through Prague!

So last week, John thought it would be fun to turn us loose on Prague. We were informed that we would be getting a packet of instructions and puzzles that we would have to decipher and go to the place or thing and take a picture with it. I have to say that was one of the best days I have had in Prague along with one of the most tiring. My fellow group members, Tim and Lexis decided we would try to figure out all of the possible answers before we left the institute and we were going to organize our routes through Prague to make sure we got everything done that we needed to in each part of the town. After an hour or two of planning we were off (in the pouring rain) to explore and discover Prague. Throughout the journey we encountered many struggles and have a lot of motivation to make it through. One specific time where when I just wanted to give up was when we were trying to find the statue of the author Macha, somewhere on Petrin Hill. We could not find him anywhere and walked around for about an hour. It was such a relief when we finally found the statue (check out the picture). It was probably my favorite moment during the whole scavenger hunt. I can say that our team grew a lot closer when we found that statue. We had a great time during Prague Pursuit even though our team came in last place, I am so glad we got to venture around the city with Lexis and Tim! I am also happy that I got to see a lot of sights that I don't think I would have gone to without the Prague Pursuit!

11 Hour Bus Ride... Worth It? Yes...

So we wanted to go to Switzerland, to do some canyoning - so we went to Switzerland, and did some canyoning. And it turns out, that canyoning is one of the funnest things I've ever done. My only initial hesitation was the 11 hour bus ride to get there. But, after thinking about it for a bit, I figured that the ride would be well worth the experience. But, I almost didn't get to go to Switzerland this past weekend. You see, I'm really good at finding ways to complicate things, and that's exactly what I did. Our bus stopped in Pilsen, at what I thought would be just a normal bus stop - people get on, we keep going. But, instead, a very stern woman boards the bus, and starts checking people's passports. I'm thinking, "Okay, that's cool..." Except, after a moment of self-reflection, I realized I forgot my passport. Now I'm thinking, "I'll be fine, I'll give them my license." So that's what I did, and she looked at it, then back at me, then back at my license, and said something in Czech. I said "Mluvite Anglisky?" And she shock her head like it was a dumb question. The girl behind me interpreted, however, and said that she was going to let me by, but that I was likely to have problems, and I would potentially not make it to Switzerland. I told I'd take my chances and continue on. The ensuing night included two more passport checks in Germany, and one more at the Swiss border, all of which were some of the most nerve-racking moments I've had in Europe. Now after each stop, I was being a typical person and not wanting to take responsibility for the whole situation; I was attributing my failure to others. I was thinking "Why are they doing passport checks anyway? The borders are open... this is stupid..." or "It's 4 in the morning, this is unfair." When attribution theory came up in class this week, I thought to myself "Yeah I do that all the time." But nonetheless, we all made it to Switzerland, and we had us one epic weekend. The first day there, we got settled in and ate, and strolled around town for a bit that night. The next day we woke up bright and early and went canyoning. Canyoning really boosted my self-efficacy a bit, in terms of what i am able to jump off of, because myself and a few others jumped off of a 10 meter cliff into the freezing cold water below. Sunday we went up to one of the peaks and saw the snow-capped Alps, which was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen - definitely experienced some cognitive overload. But all in all, like I said, definitely up there on the best weekends ever list.

Train stations without platforms?

So after what seemed like a long 7 weeks here in Europe, I can now say that I have a high self-efficacy when it comes to traveling within Prague and by train or bus outside of Prague. I am confident that I could get on any train and find a way to get to my final destination. During one of my many weekends of travel, Lexis and I were headed of to Salzburg, Austria. We learned on the way that even if the timetable says it is a direct train to a certain city, that it may be lying. We are on our first train and we are headed to Linz, Austria where we have a connection to head to Salzburg. After about 45 minutes on the train, we are startled by a women, pretty much yelling at us in Czech. We ask if she knows English and she informs us that we have to get off of the train and get on a bus to the next train station because they are working on the railway. So Lexis and I, feeling a little uncomfortable in this small town with no platforms and pretty much a 4 foot drop from the steps of the train to the ground, we accommodate this change of plans into our schema of what normally happens when we take the train and head off to the bus. We are on the bus for a good 30 minutes before we get to another small train station, but this one at least has people and platforms at it. We then get back on the train and head off to Linz. We arrive in Linz fine, grab some food and then hop on our next train to Salzburg. Once again we are expecting that this train would get us all the way to Salzburg, but of course we were wrong. While taking a nice nap, we get awoken again by loud Czech to learn we have to change trains for a third time on this journey. Lexis and I accommodate again and jump off the train to find the connection. I can't tell you how happy we were to finally be in Salzburg. We learned a lot on this trip, since we did not reserve a hostel for our stay and had no plans for what we wanted to do. We learned a lot from our train ride/bus ride and were more than ready when we encountered the same journey on our way home to Prague.

I can now say I am an English Teacher

So since I have learned the art of procrastination here is Prague, I will now be reflecting on the past 5 weeks I have spent here in Europe. It seems like yesterday, our educational psych class was informed Tuesday at 4:00pm that we would be teaching the next morning in a town outside of Prague and that we would have to leave the Pension at 6:15am. Lexis and I had no idea what we were going to teach and when we were going to plan for it since we only had about an hour and half to make a lesson plan. We decide to make a PowerPoint of pictures that correlate with our "MadLib" called A Day at the Doctor. Since we did not know anything about the level of English our 6th had, I was very nervous that our lesson was going to be too easy for them. Lexis was reassuring that we would be fine and that they would enjoy our lesson. So the morning of teaching, we head off to Ondre’s hometown. We arrive at the school and it was nothing what I was expecting. The school was truly amazing. We got a guided tour by the principal, the school was huge with classrooms for every different type of science, a home ec room, music room, two gyms (one with this awesome climbing wall) and the coolest of all a skate ramp. You could clearly tell that the administrators, teachers and students were very proud of their school. We then got to observe an English class and I was amazed by the students and truly enjoyed observing the classroom. After watching the first group from our class teach, I made some much-needed changes to our PowerPoint. It started as just a list of pictures and words, but we then decided to have the picture on the screen and to let all the students tell us what each picture was in English, instead of just giving them the word. I realize now that after every one they got right, I gave a verbal praise. I was even more excited when the students got some of the words correct (or as close as their accent would allow) that I didn’t think they would get like clown and broccoli. I realize now that some praise is acceptable, but I definitely overused praise, which Alfie would say is unacceptable and the incorrect way to teach. After we went through all the words with our students, they got to work on their MadLibs. Many of them did not understand that they could put funny words into the story instead of the correct words. After much reinforcement that they were doing the puzzle correct, we discovered that our lesson was at an appropriate level for our students. We had two students read their stories after they had finished and I was amazed at their level of English. I know our story was in basic English, but neither of the girls struggled with any words on the page. I have to say that teaching English at the school was one of the best learning experiences I have had here in Prague.

Teaching observation reflection

The chlmuec primary school had 523 Student, and 36 student. From a pervious conversation with another native, I had a fuzzy feeling that the school system here is not divided into three level and then college. School here I understood to be only primary school and something else. My friend who I was talking to about this did not speak a lot of English so it hard to confirm with him what I understood. Anyway googling gave confirmation. Here’s what I found out.

STRUCTURE OF EDUCATION SYSTEM

Primary education lasts for nine years divided into two stages of five and four years respectively. It leads to a Vysvědčení. Secondary education comprises three main types of schools: secondary general schools (gymnasium), secondary technical schools and secondary vocational schools. Gymnasiums prepare for study at higher education institutions and for professions. The secondary technical schools and 4-year courses or three-year follow-up courses at secondary vocational schools prepare students for a wide range of professions, as well as for studies at higher education institutions. All these studies culminate in the passing of the Maturitní zkouška/Maturita. The 2-year and 3-year courses at the vocational schools prepare students for professional activities.

Higher education:

Tertiary professional schools even though they are not part of higher education belong to tertiary education and offer professional education leading to a diploma, mostly in economics and health care. Higher education institutions can be of university and non-university type. The non-university higher education institutions usually offer Bachelor study programs and, if accredited, master study programs. They are not allowed to provide doctoral study programs. University-type higher education institutions offer Bachelor, Master and in most case also Doctoral study programs. Higher education institutions offer courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacy, and Theology, as well as in Economics, Veterinary Medicine, and Agriculture, Teacher Training and Arts. They are public, state or private institutions. Public institutions are financed by the state budget through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The private institutions can be partially financed by the State. The Czech higher education system also includes 2 state higher education institutions (the University of Defense and the Police Academy), which are financed by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior. All higher education institutions provide accredited study programs, which are assessed by the Accreditation Commission. Important partners of the Ministry of Education in all decisions concerning higher education are the Czech Rectors' Conference and the Council of Higher Education Institutions.

We were greeted by Andre’s mom and bought to their conference room to wait for the principle to come by and give us a tour of the school. Andre’s mom teaches art classes at the school. After the tour we sat in a classroom to observe the classroom environment. The student stood up and greet their teacher as he enter and signal the start of class. It reminded me of the school in Vietnam, but the Czech students were in normal cloths, no uniforms. The English class was observing was an English class and the kids were consider the “bad” kids. They came from lower social economic background and their parents do not care if they learn English or even do well in school, the teacher later told us.

He started the lesson by asking them "who could cook".

T—How many people can cook in this class"

S—Seven people

S—Seven people can cook

The student spoke with a British English accent, like their teacher mix with their Czech accent. They stressed the K in cook, quite charming. Here watch.

He then asked them to turn to page 54, He said there is a map,

“What can you see in the map?”

He then proceed to use some scaffolding to help them get started, with asking more leading question. He asked

“Is it food?”

“Are there people?”

“Is it the village” one student answer

He corrected and said, “ Yes it is a town”

Then he asked, “ Are there banks in the town? Yes or no?”

The kids were confused a little bit but soon realized that when someone shouted no the teacher continue to ask the question. Deducting that the answer had to be yes.

Someone finally said “yes”

The teacher proceeds to ask the next question after confirming with the student.

“Yes, How many bank are there?”

The student is slowly warming up, because more are attempting to put their hands up or is shouting out the answer. They said “yes” but the teacher said, “Yes, but there are?” Which is the correct formal reply that they should use. A girl said, “there are four bankkss.” It was so cute to hear her voice slowly answer with a hint of hesitation.

Before the class started when we were in the teacher’s lounge, the guy teacher said had told us that that class has been taught and know how to use “there is” and “there are”.

Again he confirms the student answer and proceeds to ask the next question. He asked, “Is there a museum?” The respond rate is picking up; I have to write faster now. The student said, “Yes” Then the teacher would ask “Yes, what, yes?”

S—yes are there

S—yes there are

T—Yes, there is?

S—It is one museum (not completely correct, but he didn’t stop class to correct this mistake)

T—Where is the museum?

S—Museum, is next super market

S—nevím (I don’t know)

S—museum is “buste d sim” (someone is trying to say bus station, and is asking the other student for help)

S—Museum is next to the bus station

Discovery learning anyone? Lol

T—Where is the café?

S(Martin)—Café is between the (sporchal) and the dentist

T—Is the bookshop opposite the supermarket?

S—NO there is

S—No there isn’t

T—What is opposite the bookshop?

S—Yes

T—What?

S—Bank opposite bookstop

T—Is there a river there?

S—Yes there is

The student are gaining confident with the usage of the There is and there are and are more involve in the lesson. It seem like they forgot we were there in the class, and was focus with getting the right answer before the other classmate.

T—Martza What is the name of the river?

The teacher smack the lazy, chubby boy in the head, to keep bring him his focus back to the lesson.

T—What is the name of the river?

S—This name is ‘Hidel’

T— Okay close your book and don’t open anything. Today topic…

He proceed to slide the board around and continue into the grammar lesson on how to use the present tense of “To be”

http://www.helpforenglish.cz/gramatika/slovesa/casy/pritomne/c2006120405-pritomny-cas-prubehovy.html

Přítomný čas průběhový (článek, ELEMENTARY)

He wrote this formula to make the sentence on the board.

Subject + verb form Be +-Ingo verb form

I am

you are

he is

she is

it is

we are

you are

they are

He said “I am playing” to prompt the start them to fill in the rest of the list. They answer

You are playing

He is playing

He is playing

She is playing

It is playing (which I thought was weird)

We are playing

You are playing.

T—Nas Cla ( he asking for the other?)

S—They are playing

S—I Am playing.

Then he asked them to give him the negative form of “to be”

You are not playing

He/she is not playing

He isn’t playing

W are not playing

you are not playing

You aren’t playing

They are not playing

They aren’t playing

Ta Je nib u he

(I’m taking note of what he said, phonetically to how I hear them. It’s a combination of Vietnamese and English so it really just look like gibberish unless you Hear me say what I wrote)

He is going really fast through the form and is answering a giving a lot of the answer to the student, maybe this is a strategy to quickly introduce a topic because he know that they are not going to retain all of it and that he’s just quickly going through the form so that he can repeat later on to make the information concrete. He moves on to the next lesson quizzing them on vocabulary.

They get a card with the word they are suppose to recall in English, and they get 5 points if they get it right, and also food to feed the hamster in the back of the room. I was a bit confuse and didn’t notice the food reward or why they were crowding in the back of the room until the student had all gone through the line at least once. Some of them were fighting over space to see the hamster get feed, so cute. I think the girls were doing better than the boys. Its noticeable that that boys are shorter than the girls, as they should be at this age.

I think it was pretty interesting to have sat through this class. The kids seem very well behaved to me. Although they were very loud after the lesson was over. The kids don’t change class, the teacher move from room to room to teach different lesson through out the school day. I suppose this is more effective with younger children, because it reduce the amount of traffic and confuse of where to go. It would not work for higher-level student, who would require lab, and different instrument or facilities.

He ends the class by telling them “That’s all for today”

The class replied “ Good bye MR. Teacher”

How strange to call your teacher, MR. Teacher instead of Mr. (name)

The video corresponding to this post are here

So...you went canyoning?

This week marks our last week in Prague, and for myself, my last week in Europe. It’s hard to imagine that 7 weeks ago I was on a plane to London and now in 4 short days ill be on a plane back to the states. This past week I finally experienced all of the major sights and sounds of Prague in a whirlwind adventure, Prague Pursuit. I truly enjoyed running around the city with white tennis shoes on and a giant map (in true tourist fashion). The best part of the Prague pursuit was going up to Petrin Hill, easily one of the more beautiful places in Prague. By the time we were finished, myself, Taylor, and Tim looked like a train had hit us and at that point we were happy with how we did and all the amazing places we saw. The next day, Wednesday, I was reminded of what was supposed to happen that night at 6pm; a 10k race. I really never thought I was actually going to do it but then one thing led to another and there we were, at the starting line, of a 6.2 mile race atop Prague. Despite the ridiculous thunderstorm and getting lost, I was extremely proud of myself for running the entire time and for pushing through the race. It wasn’t pretty but I accomplished something I didn’t set out to do. Motivation was hard to come by at the beginning of the race, but by the halfway point and when the rain started coming down hard, I knew there was no stopping. It was great to see Ondre and John run out to me on the track and run the last few meters with me, that in itself was positive reinforcement. This past weekend a group of us traveled to Interlaken, Switzerland where once again, we faced an adventure. We all went canyonning in the challenging Canyon Grimsel. It was breathtakingly beautiful for two reasons; the scenary and the water was absolutely freezing. We all had an amazing time in the canyons and exploring the picturesque town of Interlaken. From an educational psychology point of view when I was standing on top of a 20m high cliff and was feeling nervous to jump, the entire group was shouting, “you can do it”, or “jump!”, or “you’ll do great!.” The words they were giving me can be considered praise because after I did jump, I was met by all of my friends saying, “great job” or “you did it!.” Alfie would not agree with these types of praise but I feel like they helped me to conquer my fear and feel good about myself. Now its on to beginning my last week in Prague, which will be filled with catching up on work and studying for finals!

Teaching Experience

A few weeks ago we went and visited a Czech school.  John's Czech friend Ondrej set it up for us to go to his childhood school.  The school was huge and beautiful!  There was so much technology.  I have not been in an American public elementary school since I was in school myself...it's amazing how much technology changes the way one teaches and learns.  Smart boards?!  Such technology certainly did not exist when I was in high school, never mind, elementary school.  This experience made me realize how unprepared I feel to teach in a public school.  I have been in the MAT program for about a year, but have yet to step foot into an American public school.  The MAT program recommends students substitute teach, but such an inconsistent schedule is not possible for me and my family responsibilities.  I tried to get in to observe some classes, but logistics in making such things happen for MAT students seem to be nearly impossible or at least extremely confused.  I gave up in April, after repeatedly requesting  information. So I have yet to seen how a middle school operates in the 21st Century.  If it's anything like in the Czech Republic, I'm going to be in real tech trouble!  :)

But back to the purpose of this post, which is to discuss my experience teaching in a Czech school.  We were tasked with teaching a 20-30 minute English as a New Language (ENL) lesson.  It was rather challenging to plan a lesson where we did not know the level of the students or the material that they had previously covered.   Initially, I was quite annoyed that we were planning a lesson with little direction about the students' English knowledge or lessons they were currently learning.  I think for the other NC State students in the program this was a significant problem, I am sure their lessons would have been much stronger if they had this information.  However, for myself, who has been teaching ENL since 2003, it was a great challenge: the goal was to create a successful lesson that would allow for extensive flexibility in language use and comprehension.  We needed to create a lesson that could be led by the students since their knowledge would dictate the course of the lesson.  Therefore the teacher role was simply as a facilitator.

My partner for the project was a woman named Meghan.  We decided to try to appeal to our 5th grade students by incorporating some American and Czech pop cultural icons and sports stars.  Our lesson had three parts, student introductions, pop culture introductions, and a memory game.  The purpose of the student introductions was two-fold; develop a repertoire with the students and to learn their level of English comprehension.  The plan then was to include the pop culture icons and the action verbs to the introduction question game.  This would help make sure all the students were on the same page with the pop-icons and the action verbs (for some it may be review and for others a first lesson) as well as show us the skill level of the students in making sentences for the memory game that followed.  The final piece was a memory game.  We figured if the students ended up knowing nothing...then they would have at least learned a few names and action verbs during our lesson which could be able to apply to the memory game.  At the most basic level, students could at least pick two cards from the memory board and repeat the name and the action verb.  But if the students were further developed in their English language skills, then they would be able to create larger more complex sentences. So we managed to create an entire lesson around our students, without knowing anything about them!  Pretty impressive, I thought.

Teaching Day:  We got a tour of the whole school...and then watched a teacher do a lesson. I noticed two interesting things just before and during the observation.   The teacher whom we observed did not like speaking English in front of us. I noticed he tried to avoid speaking directly with our professor.  It made me smile little because I have seen this in West Africa as well.  Often the English teachers did not want to speak English with me because they knew they did not speak as well as I did.  I understand their feelings, since I hate speaking with French speakers for the same reasons. But I imagine it is doubly stressful since they are teaching English. The second thing I noticed was during the observation; there were striking similarities in the structure of the lesson and flow of the class compared to ENL classes in West Africa and the USA.  I was comforted to be apart of this familiar flow while in an otherwise unfamiliar environment.

After observing one class, it was our turn to teach.   We split the class in two-halves with Jennifer and Emily's group in the back of the room and mine and Meghan's in the front.  Our group came to the front of the room and we stood in a circle to begin the introductions.  I wish I had taken the time to move the desks so we could have all sat on the floor and made the experience a little more relaxed for the students.  It would have made it easier to ensure everyone was included, as our circle was more oblong which left some students a little out of the swing of the introduction game.  I call it a game because it is supposed to be fast moving and fun.  I used to do this in Benin every morning to open the class.  Anyway, I ask one person their name, they tell me in a full sentence, then I pop to another person, then another , and another in random order.  Then I ask the student who answered question to ask another student the same question.Once all the students have been introduced we begin to ask other random questions, such as "How are you?", "Where is the door?", "How many windows are there?", etc...  It was after this session that Meghan added the pop icons and verbs to the game.   During Meghan's lesson it was evident to she and I that the students knew the verbs and icons...so we were good with our memory game.  We decided to split the group into two groups of about 5 students, so everyone could get enough "play time".

In none of the lessons do I explain to the students what we are going to do because they are not likely to understand a lot of my words.  Even if they do technically know the words, my accent will make it difficult for them to follow long sentences, at least in the short time we had with them.  So that is why I do not describe much in the way of actual directions given during the introduction game or the memory game.  I led the students by modeling the behavior a few times, before I asked anyone of them to model it.  This works well as long as the students feel comfortable in their environment, trust the teacher to not embarrass them, and trust that the teacher will make sure they all understand before placing high demands upon them.  In this situation we did not have the luxury of building a strong level of comfort or trust with our students.  During the introduction game, it seemed like most of the students were relatively comfortable once the flow of the game began.  But there were some points of struggle in the very beginning and the oblong circle did not help things.

Then again, I could tell the students in my group were confused by the separation into the  two small groups. Their nervousness was evident.  But once the memory cards were laid out and I modeled the game by picking up two pairs and making a sentence with the words.  The students all started to say to each other, "ah, exercise...exercise."  It was cute.  I said, "yes  exercise"...had I known that they knew that terminology, I would have used it earlier so as to keep their nervousness at bay.

Since the students were good with making sentences, I bumped up the exercise difficulty by having them make sentences with the false pairs, such as  "Jay-Z is a model".  The students would then say True or False, which they also seemed to know pretty well.  There were a few instances where the students had questions about grammar.  Specifically with the omission of "a" in sentences.  I had given my pen away earlier in the day and so I had no way of explaining it to them.  I had to run around to get pen and paper.  In the future I would make sure I had both of these...even the simplest games are opportunities to fine tune skills.  I needed to be better prepared.

In all I think the day and the lesson went well.  I really enjoyed being back in a classroom and working with young people.

Prague Pursuit

View Larger Map

We did not cover all the location as routed, but its nice to have this to see the big picture of our overall potential quest.

preparing to teach tomorrow

Googling what discovery learning is....

An interesting point from the article:

"Although students become actively involved, they may still not understand or recognize the underlying concept, rule or principle; in other words, ‘activity’ does not necessarily equate with ‘deep learning’."

I'm trying to think of an activity to do in class to demonstrate this learning methods. Maybe i'll bring something crafty for everyone to do.

Grading Caps

This week we discussed the problem of grade inflation which seems to be an issue in some universities.  We discussed the idea of capping "A"s at 35%.  I disagreed with this idea for so many reasons.  I think a teacher's goal should be for all of her students to receive "A"s.  It is not necessarily for the sake of the grade, but because of what the "A" signifies, mastery of the material.  As my professor and other students were quick to point out...of course...it's unrealistic to expect all students to achieve "A"s: But what sort of a professional only shoots for a 35% success rate?  How many sales people are happy when they achieve 35% of their daily sales goals?  How many surgeons are happy when they only save 35% of their patients? The goal should always be 100%, in whatever one does, yet understand that it is not a failure when less is achieved.  I think we must always strive for 100% and learn from the instances when we fall short of that.  I have been teaching for many years;  this gives me a bittersweet vantage point of seeing successes and also seeing my failures.  The longer I teach, the more I realize I could/should have done last semester, last year, etc...  If I was only shooting for 35% mastery by my students, I might not still be striving to be better for all those students I will work with in the future.  Like I said, it's not about the grade, it's about helping students develop skills that they need, both now and in the future. Furthermore, if we only strive for 35% mastery by our students, in the skills that are supposedly necessary for a successful life, then what is going to become of our society?

I know a young man named Tyler, who at the young age of 19,  is currently a leader in youth mental health advocacy in NC.  As a child he certainly did not appear to be a student likely to achieve mastery on any subject.  Many of his teachers supported him and recognized his family struggles but it was not until 5th grade that someone finally told him that they expected more than just Cs from him.  The teacher told him that he might be able to skate by with Cs now, but in the future it would negatively impact him.  The teacher told him he was capable of much more and she expected to see it.   Tyler said at a presentation at NC State that he was overwhelmed with emotion because no one ever told him that he was capable of excellence.  He now questions why it took until 5th grade for a teacher to tell him that he was capable of more than just Cs.

I wonder, were all those other teachers just willing to accept the notion that only 35% of their students would achieve mastery?  Why was Tyler's 5th grade teacher different?



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This post doesn't really relate to life in Prague...but I was reminded of this class discussion over the weekend when I saw a woman in Paris walking around with a heavy scarf wrapped all around her head with only her eyes peering out.  France recently outlawed burkas in their country.  While they may believe burkas are bad for female empowerment and French national identity, I wondered if the law makers ever thought about the women who wear burkas in France.  A change in law doesn't make the women's beliefs change or that of their families...so now they are forced to wear scarves wrapped all around their heads...which looks really hot in the summer.  These poor women are trapped between two opposing worlds, I wonder, did anyone ever ask them what they want?

And this made me think of the creation of policies that seem good on paper but that do not necessarily positively impact the intended recipients of the policy....which reminded me of the 35% grading cap policy...

Czech Lesson Reflection

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to do something that many teachers can only dream of—I was offered the chance to teach a lesson in a local Czech school. This was an especially exciting task for me because I’ve always wanted to live abroad and teach English in a local school of whatever country I choose. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been very interested in foreign countries’ education systems, and this assignment gave me the perfect taste of what Czech schools were like.

The whole teaching experience was a pretty whirlwind event because we were not given much time to prepare our lesson. Even though the topics for the lesson were endless, it was a bit of a challenge trying to decide what my partner and I thought was most important to teach the Czech students. We decided on a simpler lesson that would allow us to teach for the first half and then play a game for the second half. We hoped that this would make the lesson more enjoyable for the children. The teaching part of the lesson went really well, and I really felt that the students understood most of what we were trying to teach them. They were all very enthusiastic and willing to participate in the lesson. The best part of the day by far was seeing the children’s faces light up when they got a question right. Their reaction to the entire lesson was truly heartwarming. I have to admit, I was a little worried at first that the children wouldn’t respond well to us or that they wouldn’t be willing to use their English, but once we went through the lesson with them and explained the game, they were all very eager to participate. The only thing I would’ve done differently is if we had known exactly how good the students’ English was, I would’ve liked to have made the lesson more English-level appropriate. I felt that part of our lesson was too easy for the students, and I would’ve liked to challenge them a bit more.

This experience further confirmed my want to become a teacher because even though we were only able to spend roughly an hour with the children, it wasn’t hard to tell how excited the students were to be able to interact with Americans and practice their English. My experience at the Czech school was definitely an adjustment from what I’m used to in the United States, but I thought it was good practice if I do end up teaching in a foreign country someday. I had a great time with the students and only wish that we would’ve had another chance to teach an English lesson.

Fight to the Finish Line

Last Tuesday both my ELM and EDP classes participated in the much anticipated Prague Pursuit—a scavenger hunt that would take us across the city and back looking for different statues, memorials, and restaurants. When we were first given the instruction sheet, I thought the tasks at hand seemed pretty difficult. However, as we went through each of the riddles and worked our way to finding the answers, it occurred to me that we were using several of the strategies and methods we’ve been discussing in class these last few weeks. For example, by working in teams we were exercising Vygotsky’s theory of cooperative learning because the problems were much easier to solve when working with other people versus working alone with no guidance. Some of the problems were easier to solve than others, and some of them required us to be very aware of our surroundings in order to find what we were looking for. It definitely helped to have toured the city a few times before partaking in this event because my team didn’t have to work as hard to try to remember where certain things were. Still, we had to be careful of using selective attention when looking for some of the items, and we had to use assimilation when getting around and figuring out where we were going. I’m so used to getting to places in a certain way, either by tram or metro, but I had to adjust and find quicker ways to get to those places by using different forms of transportation. By the end of the day, I felt like I had just finished a review of what we’ve been learning in class all semester. Prague Pursuit was a lot of fun and it really challenged us to see the city in a new way and to notice a few things that we might not have noticed before. I really enjoyed the trek across Prague, and was even more excited when it finally stopped raining!

On Thursday, my ELM class had its big Test Construction project due. When I first sat down to start this project, I felt very overwhelmed. I remember thinking to myself, “There’s no way I’m going to be able to do this.” Then I thought about the fact that I plan to be a teacher someday and figured I’d better get started now, otherwise the road ahead of me is going to be a tough one. It was a little difficult getting started because I was so worried that I would forget one of the basic rules to writing test questions and I would create an item that would be so confusing no one would be able to answer it correctly. I read back through the chapters discussing test construction and decided to just go for it. The questions ended up being a little easier than I had expected, but were still by no means simple. I never realized how much thought went into constructing tests and I now have a much greater appreciation for what my previous teachers have had to do. Even though I was a little weary of this project at first, I am very glad that we did it because I feel much more prepared for what I’m going to have to do in the future. This project has taught me several lessons that I hope to keep with me throughout my years of teaching. I truly feel that I benefited from doing this project, and now I have a better idea as to how much time and effort goes into constructing a well written test.