#reflectiontime

December Mayhem in the classroom. Classroom management, routines and survival techniques. Year 2

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Starting the lesson, rewards chart, reflection and feedback and classroom management.

These are the stages of the lesson that did not really change in December. We kept all of the existing elements and we simply kept using them without any major alterations. It is also interesting to look back and realise just that. I suppose that means that our routines are in place and they bring the outcomes as intended.

I continue to take notes about their behaviour and performance in the notebooks and I noticed that they all care. Now and again, I have a student ask ‘Are you going to write in our notebooks this week?’ or ‘Have we got the new notes in the workbooks?’ and whenever we use the notebook for the first time in the week, I have to remember to mentally add a minute or two for them to check the notes and ask questions and so on before we actually get down to what we have scheduled for that lesson. It is also a great opportunity for me to reflect on each child and to follow their progress.

Story and songs

Our main focus of the month, regarding the song was, of course, ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town‘ and it was a fun one, from the methodology point of view. My students are already not so little anymore and not so illiterate anymore. For that reason, we could do a song, just with lyrics, going over the song, looking for the new words and using a page with text during rehearsals…That felt great. I also decided not to create any special dance routine at all. I just told the kids, ‘You are good at improvising. Go on, improvise!’ and they did!

Again, there was no time to do any real story and I am not happy. Again. What I think it calls for is a real plan, with a reading list for us to cover, at least one piece of real literature a month.

Socialising

We had three main events planned for December and all of them involved us working as a team, within the class, within the year and within the school.

  • Open lessons for parents were an opportunity to show what we can do to our parents and, although it was stressful as an event, it was very rewarding and necessary. And, overall, it went well and even if it did not, I was happy for the parents to see all of us in our natural habitat. As usual, it was an interesting case study because some kids behaved well because the parents were present and some, naturally, were acting up specifically because the parents were watching. There were some, too, who were acting up just because their parents could not attend.
  • Christmas Fair was a whole school event that we all were getting ready for and, of course, on the day, it did affect our everyday life because the children were excited to see, to share ideas, to share opinions and then talk about everything that happened. But it also went very well and it was a success. I was not personally responsible, I was just a little piece of the machinery. But, nonetheless, I could see how much it did for the team spirint and bonding within classes 2A and 2B.
  • Christmas Concert for which we were preparing a song and a little dance (‘Santa Claus is coming to town”) and it also helped us bond and work together. And, during the concert, we really (really) rocked it!
  • We also did a few other things during that month:
  • creating long garland for our classroom
  • preparing the Andy Warhol Christmas trees for the classroom and for the school
  • our communication lessons (there will be a separate post, eventually)
  • lots of pairwork

Creativity

We haven’t really created a lot as regards the visual arts. Thinking about it right now, I think our most recent take was in November, with the Turkeys and the Craft Day. However, our life was so eventful that we (and by we I mean, me, the teacher) struggled with making time for the regular, curriculum-bound activities. And we did lots and lots of craft in our extracurricular classes.

But we developed a new hobby, that of coming up with nicknames for us and we spent hours and hours of classtime in character. That was fun.

We also had a lot of fun with the langauge, in all the role-plays, talking about unusual food and decorating our letters for the pen pal project.

Teacher

The teacher in December was trying hard not to go crazy. Trying and mostly succeeding. Because of all the events and kids being tired and waiting for Christmas and the break, we were all tense and a bit on the edge. But, overall, we had a good month.

I was really proud of us taking part in the concert and doing such a great job (and having fun!), working hard and taking part in all the activities.

Things to come…A teacher’s to-do list

  • a revision of the rules, I am considering a real January Rules Challenge
  • a revision of the language because the first two weeks will be messy
  • another soft skills lesson to give us a chance to develop
  • some tests already scheduled for January
  • a new Art theme for the month
  • a new song, a real one
  • a January book (apart from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that we have in the coursebook)

Actually, l am looking forward to it all.

Happy teaching!

Those who inspire OR How did you become the teacher you are? (part 1)

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I have no idea how I found myself in that mode, a bit like Alice who fell into the rabbit’s hole and kept falling. And reflecting. That’s me now.

Maybe because we are making a full circle in the online-covid-offline-rapid changes-uncertainty-new reality? Maybe because I started to run again and when you run, your brain wanders and comes back with ideas? Or maybe I took part in Anita Modestova’s series of interviews EFL Around the World and was invited to reminisce and to reflect? Maybe all three. Maybe none of them.

Teachers and foreign languages

…and among them my first foreign language teacher who was not even a teacher of English. My first foreign language was Russian. From the first ‘здраствуйте’ (zdrastvuyte), it was like this new world, that you could enter through some, until then unknown words and a completely new set of letters. I don’t remember much about the lessons, I could not comment on the methodology and activities or even the coursebook. But I do remember my teacher, miss Janina, who was the first language magician and it was thanks to her that I did fall in love with Russian. Love at first sight.

Among them is also my first English teacher, miss Ewa who put together a most random group of kids of all ages, when the lessons of English were still a rarity and a luxury. There were no coursebooks for children so we used what our teacher could find and share.

Such as? Such as a magazine for kids, Mishka, made in the U.S.S.R, teaching the kids around the globe about Snegurochka, Baba Yaga, A.S. Pushkin, Red Square and what not, which was published also in English. Today, it makes my head spin, but back then, as a beginner, I was ploughing through and the unabridged text would not stop me because I was in love with the language. Again. We set me off and then we met again in the final year of my high school, to prepare for our A-levels and to help me get to B2+ level.

Mis Ewa was a strict teacher but a fair and inspiring teacher. In her lessons, every single minute had its own purpose and it was used effectively. Once you experience that, there is no going back.

History?

It is actually a beautiful coincidence that almost all my school History lessons, from the middle and high school, seven out of nine years, took place in this very same school and in this very same classroom. With me sitting on the very same chair. Probably.

It was in this classroom that our teacher, professor Janusz Merchut, a real maestro, taught us about the past. His were not lessons, but a performance and I still remember how quiet the whole class were, how focused. We did not listen, we lived it. Maybe it was when I got spoiled and started dreaming of lessons with a few grains of magic, lessons that are not a lecture but an experience.

In the same classroom, a few years later, I met professor Krystyna Kradyna and a new adventure began. Naturally, we did have coursebooks and the curriculum objectives to meet but these were just an idea. It was the time of change and transformation and there were many, many things that were yet to make it to the coursebooks. She introduced them and she did let us think and talk about them.

Enter Hieronymous Bosch

There were two other people that I do think about when we talk about ‘My teachers’, both of them my university professors. University of Wroclaw in Poland was my first Alma Mater during the very special five years of my MA in History programme, a long time ago, in the pre-EFL life.

Dr Piotr Oszczanowski appeared in our lives for two terms because, apart from all the obligatory subjects, we were eventually given a chance to choose a few optional modules and one of them was the History of Art. Initially, there was a lot of ‘whatever, let’s take this one’ rather than an informed decision but the best thing since the sliced bread.

Today I would say that dr Oszczanowski knew his subject and had an amazing teaching personality and classroom presence. That he engaged his students very effectively throughout the entire lesson and the entire course. But this is me, a teacher trainer at work, today. Back then, I just loved being in his class and so did the rest of the group.

He taught us how to look at art and how to read it. And it was not the case of getting the one correct answer, and memorising facts. There were different interpretations and ways of approaching the topic. Our second term was devoted to the history of art of Silesia and we spent our class time out and about in the city, looking the past in the face. Plus, we were allowed to choose what we wanted to be assessed on. For me it was Hieronymous Bosch.

‘Miss Zapart, I have no idea about jazz but this is a good topic. Go.’

….is what my tutor, professor Stanislaw Ciesielski said during the first class in our 4th year when we met to discuss our MA dissertations in modern History.

Professor Ciesielski probably sighed when he found out that he would be taking care of us since we were an inheritance from another teacher who had left.

We, on our part, we did panic because people had been saying things and it was not panic the type of a storm in a teacup, it was panic the size of a proper hurricane. Professor was said to be very strict, very accurate, very serious, a great scholar and a great brain and, in general, a force to be recognised. With time, we learnt that all of it was true but these were exactly the things made us respect him for and, really, feel extremely lucky that we were thus ‘inherited’.

I mean, it was not a bed of roses. Professor was tough and there was absolutely no way of cutting any, even the tiniest, corners throughout those two years of my research and dissertation. The job had to be done. Not getting things done was not an option. The very thought of not getting things done was not an option. It’s not that he would shout or get angry, he was the calmest person ever. You just did not want to disappoint him.

We were made to work hard but Professor was with us every step of the way, supporting and guiding and no wonder that we got great results. I also personally got spoilt for years to come as regards the role model for mentor and supervisor, strict but fair and supportive every step of the way. No idea if professor Ciesielski read about Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development but he rocked it.

Coda

Today, I only wish, I could travel (or travel back in time) and return to all these classrooms to say ‘thank you’ and to tell my teachers that they did an excellent job and that they did inspire.

Does it mean that I was the one happy child in the entire universe who was taught by the amazing teachers only? Ha! Of course not. There were teachers who made me cry, who humiliated me, who shouted at me, those who made me scared or very angry. Teachers who hated their job, those who were unfair and those who simply wasted my time. In some cases I knew it back then, in a few other cases, I realised it only when I became a teacher myself.

Alas, all these will remain anonymous, although, I guess, I should be grateful, I had a chance to learn ‘What not to do’ and this counts as ‘experience’, too.

To be continued…

Those who inspire OR How did you become the teacher you are? (part 2)

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My Mmy

This is the second part of the post. The first episode can be found here.

A huge part of the everyday inspiration are …

…my students. There is reading, there is research, there is the continual professional development, webinars and conferences presentations and the conversations in the teacher’s room, all of it very useful. The real source of power and of inspiration is the classroom and the kids in it.

If they are not an easy group, that makes you start planning with a sigh and enter the lesson with taking a deep breath (or a prayer), you will be looking for solutions for your problem and sometimes you will end up successfully reinventing the wheel and taking the game to the next level. They might also be a teacher’s dream and, because of that, you really want to go ‘bigger, better, faster, more!‘ and you create, re-create, experiment and, again, become some EFL Gagarin.

I don’t remember the names of all the kids (and all the adults) that I have thought over the years but the thought that there have been at least two thousand of them in Poland, Italy, Spain, the UK, Brasil and Russia does put a big smile on my face. I would like to think that all of them did learn something with me but I know that I have learnt a lot with them and because of them. My state school kids, my summer schools students, my IELTS students and my Business English engineers, all of my pre-schoolers and all of my teachers in training.

Why? Because sometimes, when I ask for feedback and I ask ‘Did you like the lesson? Why?’, I get back real treasures, such as ‘Yes, because I am not scared anymore’ from one of my teens (there must be a post on that story) or ‘Yes, потому что тут Анка’ from my primary. (Yes, because of Anka).

That is more than enough to motivate me to make an effort next time but I usually say is ‘Great students make great teachers’. I really do believe it.

The everyday support aka ‘On the wall in the office’

It might make me look like my teenage version of me, with a bedroom wall all covered in posters. Thankfully, the pop music posters (Europe and Limalh, my dear Lord) gave way to Hieronymus Bosch, the photos of Land’s End and the map of the UK. The huge Trainspotting poster was added a bit later. The thing is, I do like to have something to look at, ‘My favourite things’, in one interpretation or the other. This is how these five end up on the way, all my private superheroes, the source of inspiration.

Batman, the only real superhero here. He is my favourite one because he is ‘only’ a human, without any accidents and mutations, he saves the world only because he’s got access to lots of resources. I mean, he is ridiculously rich but still – a human with appropriate tools. A role model number 1.

General Kutuzov, a field marshal of the Russian Empire and the hero of the Battle of Borodino. During all the teacher training courses and projects that require lots of multi-tasking (which I hate to bits), I do find myself staring at the picture of Mikhail Illiaryonovich, thinking of the troops management, provisions management, morale management and whatever else general was obliged to take care of. Simultaneously.

Leo Semyonovich Vygostky or, simply, Leo. I cannot think of any one that had a bigger impact on what I think about teaching and education. The more I read about him, starting from comments and references in other sources, to articles by Vygotsky scholars and followers, and to Leo’s own papers which I am still going through, the more I agree. Reading and repeating ‘Yes, absolutely!’ or ‘I could not agree more!’. Literally. Because of the conviction that every can, with appropriate support, because of the role of the teacher who is only supposed to be the lighthouse, not the leader, because of the attitude to the level of challenge. I am in love. Plus, we are almost birthday twins with Leo. Which is random but kinda cool.

There is Yuri Gagarin, too, of course. If you ask me, ideally, there would be Yuri on every wall in every classroom. He is on mine, too. And there is Zima Blue, the creator. If you are not familiar, look up Alastair Reynolds or Life, Death and Robots.

The other side of the coin

The superheros have been on the wall for a few years now. When I first took a photo and showed my friend, she said ‘There are only guys, here. Where are the women?’

At first, I just shrugged it off. I didn’t know why. But the question stayed with me and it was bothering me for days on end. Until I finally figured it out and sighed with relief. The answer is actually quite simple, ridiculously simple. As simple as it is beautiful.

I don’t have any photographs of inspiring women on the wall above my desk because they are all real women that I have a pleasure to know and to have in my life. All the photos are in albums or in folders on the computer. And when I need inspiration, I just talk to them. That’s how blessed I am.

There are a few great mums here, some stars who make the world a better place by helping people, a few teachers, a few translators, a few chefs, a few Leos, a photographer, a biker, and a creator.. All of them are strong, intelligent, funny, beautiful, creative, or, in just one word: amazing.

Also, represented here by some random trinkets. Some of them, at least.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being in my life.

P.S. It was easy to write these post and it took a lot longer than I had planned. As soon as I finished, I started to be bombarded with thoughts of my teacher trainers, supervisors, colleagues, family members, writers…In one word, enough material for two more posts. I think it is better to post what I have ready now or else this post will never really happen. But, as Terminator used to say: ‘I will be back!’ And on that note…

Happy teaching!