I have just returned (at least that's how I feel) from National JALT conference 2011, which was held from 19 to 21st. It was such an inspiring and thought-provoking conference. I have attended 5 presentation and 1 Pecha Kucha while helping at Aston table, meeting wonderful grads. All the presentations were amazing and educational especially the one by Dr. Fiona Copland, investigating complexities and contradictions of EFL classrooms. The question was if using L1 is effective in teaching L2. It was the exactly the same and recurring question of mine. I have started using L1 in case of supporting student's better understanding, however, it has more advantages than that, according to Dr. Fiona.
I have read a few articles on this issue and would love to investigate the result in my classroom. I must read more about bilingualism in classrooms and implement the method effectively. Otherwise, mother tongue would dominate the classroom language. which is not my intention.
Since I have found this interesting research point. I would focus on this topic and write relevant discoveries in my classes.
So far, in my 6 graders new class on Monday, using Japanese (mother tongue/MT) lessen the tension of using English and thus Ss can focus more on enjoying to find the similarities between MT and TL(target language). It also satisfies their desire to know all everything said in the class.
The obvious problem is overreliance on MT which might take away the joy of spontaneous discovery of the meaning of new words. However, some report stated that it would be achieved as their understanding increases. From my personal experience in learning English, I also believe in this view and will use "Sandwich Method" in order to decrease the stress of incapability to use the TL and increase understanding. Sandwich method is to use MT in between TL.
This will be interesting to investigate. I believe it would work particularly well in high-schooler's class since they are afraid of being considered as impotent in any fields and they refuse to talk in order to avoid to make mistakes.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Wednesday Class
In the morning I had the nursery school class and two classes in the evening.
The first class is always fun and wild with nine 3-year-olds and one 5-year-old. We played with everyone's favorite, One Little Finger song and reviewed numbers, colors with some new animal names. At the end of the lesson I read a funny book about ketchup. They loved to shout "YUK!" when they were asked "Would you like ketchup on your cornflakes?" Bless their innocence!
The second class went well with role playing. Each student got a part and performed while I was recording. They had fun and quite motivated to perform well :-)
In the third class, I had 6 students and did pair practice, asking a few questions each other and report what their partner said to the class. One of the coolest answer to the question, "Do you think we should do things on our own without depending on others?" was "Yes. Because God is busy." This high schooler wants to be a singer song writer. How cool is that!
It seemed everyone enjoyed communicating with their partners; however, one of the students, a high school girl said she didn't like to mingle with others because it was difficult to understand each other. She said she tried to avoid to talk with her school mates as much as possible except some of her good friends.
I would love to ask her more questions to find what she meant but maybe it would be better to do so privately. She is very sensitive girl so that she might have been hurt by misunderstanding or something. Fragility is beautiful but sometimes misses some opportunities to broaden your horizon. Sensitivity and fragility of youth reminds me of the emotional and soft side of myself. I really appreciate for that.
The first class is always fun and wild with nine 3-year-olds and one 5-year-old. We played with everyone's favorite, One Little Finger song and reviewed numbers, colors with some new animal names. At the end of the lesson I read a funny book about ketchup. They loved to shout "YUK!" when they were asked "Would you like ketchup on your cornflakes?" Bless their innocence!
The second class went well with role playing. Each student got a part and performed while I was recording. They had fun and quite motivated to perform well :-)
In the third class, I had 6 students and did pair practice, asking a few questions each other and report what their partner said to the class. One of the coolest answer to the question, "Do you think we should do things on our own without depending on others?" was "Yes. Because God is busy." This high schooler wants to be a singer song writer. How cool is that!
It seemed everyone enjoyed communicating with their partners; however, one of the students, a high school girl said she didn't like to mingle with others because it was difficult to understand each other. She said she tried to avoid to talk with her school mates as much as possible except some of her good friends.
I would love to ask her more questions to find what she meant but maybe it would be better to do so privately. She is very sensitive girl so that she might have been hurt by misunderstanding or something. Fragility is beautiful but sometimes misses some opportunities to broaden your horizon. Sensitivity and fragility of youth reminds me of the emotional and soft side of myself. I really appreciate for that.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tuesday class
Sometimes a miracle happens for some reasons. It happened in the most challenging class I had yesterday. I say "challenging" but actually it is relatively easy and fun class. I had three boys -one is a 1st grader who joined the class from this month. The other one is relatively new, 2nd grader who has a bit of trouble to sit still and shut his mouth more than 10 seconds. which can be a trouble in a big class but in my class no problem but adorable. But another one has been a heartache to me because of his apathy. I can handle too much energy but apathy has been killing me. He used to come to my class with a big irresistible smile on his face but as soon as he entered an elementary school this April, he eventually lost interest in learning English. He keeps saying he is busy for doing other things.
The heartbreaking boy didn't show up on time. I was a bit upset about that but it turned out to be good because I could pay attention to those two other boys till he showed up. I knew he forgot (or wanted to forget) to come so that I gave him a call and said, "We are waiting for you!" Others were already deeply engaged in their activities by the time he came and had no issue with me paying full attention to their classmate.
When he rushed into the class, I sensed something a bit positive in him somehow. Did he finally become aware how much I care? Did he have an exceptionally good time at school or after school? Did he have some magical food like chocolate to make him feel less intense and reasonable? Did he finally find how cool learning English can be?
Anyway, we were doing number bingo and I invited him to join us. Unexpectedly, he did gladly and won the game. I thought to myself, "YES! This might be the best time to show him his own capability." but remained as calm as possible not to deprive him of his triumph. Instead, without any break, we did phonics book. This time, he was quite engaged and managed to read the first word. With my spontaneous admiration, he became on fire. I enjoyed witnessing his enthusiasm as well as amazing capability and potential.
The big change to note here were that his school classmate joined this class and two big boys moved to a different class. And perhaps the biggest one was my mind setting. It has been changed in great deal since I started writing this journal. I consider their circumstances more carefully and realized how lucky I am to share time with those kids including him. Having a brilliant consultant for my school from last month is also a great help for this positive change in myself. There might be more reasons for the positive change in this boy. Whatever the reasons are, I was so thrilled and blissful to feel the positive air in the classroom AGAIN.
Of course, it is too early to conclude that everything will be okay but at least I had a blast with those three boys for the first time in a while. Which will make me gigglish for a while and I know from my experience, such a giggle brings more giggles in others, making a big circle of positive vibe.
At the end of the class, I thanked him dearly for bring the marvelous atmosphere back to the class. He looked happy and proud what he had achieved. And I thought, "This is the reason why I keep on trying to be better not only as a teacher/ researcher but also as a person." It was amazing and humbling to recognize how much power such a little one can have over me.
I am really motivated more than ever and hope it would last a little more than a week.
The heartbreaking boy didn't show up on time. I was a bit upset about that but it turned out to be good because I could pay attention to those two other boys till he showed up. I knew he forgot (or wanted to forget) to come so that I gave him a call and said, "We are waiting for you!" Others were already deeply engaged in their activities by the time he came and had no issue with me paying full attention to their classmate.
When he rushed into the class, I sensed something a bit positive in him somehow. Did he finally become aware how much I care? Did he have an exceptionally good time at school or after school? Did he have some magical food like chocolate to make him feel less intense and reasonable? Did he finally find how cool learning English can be?
Anyway, we were doing number bingo and I invited him to join us. Unexpectedly, he did gladly and won the game. I thought to myself, "YES! This might be the best time to show him his own capability." but remained as calm as possible not to deprive him of his triumph. Instead, without any break, we did phonics book. This time, he was quite engaged and managed to read the first word. With my spontaneous admiration, he became on fire. I enjoyed witnessing his enthusiasm as well as amazing capability and potential.
The big change to note here were that his school classmate joined this class and two big boys moved to a different class. And perhaps the biggest one was my mind setting. It has been changed in great deal since I started writing this journal. I consider their circumstances more carefully and realized how lucky I am to share time with those kids including him. Having a brilliant consultant for my school from last month is also a great help for this positive change in myself. There might be more reasons for the positive change in this boy. Whatever the reasons are, I was so thrilled and blissful to feel the positive air in the classroom AGAIN.
Of course, it is too early to conclude that everything will be okay but at least I had a blast with those three boys for the first time in a while. Which will make me gigglish for a while and I know from my experience, such a giggle brings more giggles in others, making a big circle of positive vibe.
At the end of the class, I thanked him dearly for bring the marvelous atmosphere back to the class. He looked happy and proud what he had achieved. And I thought, "This is the reason why I keep on trying to be better not only as a teacher/ researcher but also as a person." It was amazing and humbling to recognize how much power such a little one can have over me.
I am really motivated more than ever and hope it would last a little more than a week.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Monday Classes
From this month, I have only two classes on Monday. One is in the morning and the other is in the evening.
The morning class started from 10:30 but as usual, two students were 10 mins late for the class. They were too busy and tired to come to the class on time, I believe. One of them selected the most inappropriate story to read in the Monday morning. It was called "Pork chop" and unexpectedly a story about suicide of an old man. Really gross story to start your new week. But we managed to laugh about that as we shared and discussed what would we react to consideration of others in times of grief. All of us agreed that we would prefer to be left alone for a while because absolutely nothing can heal such a deep grief except time.
It was obviously too deep and personal subject to talk about. I should have avoided the story but interestingly it was one of the girls choice. She usually picks pleasant ones but this time she got the darkest one of all. I wonder why she did that. I didn't dare to ask the reason for the story was already heavy enough and I didn't think I could deal with extra heaviness in the class. However, I must ask her the reason later.
Before reading the story, we shared our up-to-date stories from our journals. One of them has been having a personal problems and she feels very sick nowadays. I thought to myself "Oh, what a gloomy Monday morning."
At the end of the class, I managed to talk about something uplifting such as enjoyable activities for each of us. One girl said "Shopping" and the other said, "Theatergoing". The latter one loves Takarazuka, the only women theatrical company. Well, at least, they left the class with smiles on their faces. Phew!
The second class was with three super motivated boys. They are really priceless. One and only challenge was that all of them had difficulties to pick "l" sound such as in cellphone. They tried really hard to catch it and pronounce it. It is really typical obstacles that everyone knows and perhaps every English teacher at school have students practice "l" sound individually in his/her class at least once or twice but I find it unimportant whether they can say it or not at this stage. More importantly, they achieved to make a reasonably understandable sound after a lot of attempts. What a dream team this is!!! I thought to myself "This class is too good to be true."
Tuesday class with three boys is the reality. Sometimes I have to stop and reflect what to do to get full attention from them and keep them interested. Their reaction is instant and direct so that it can be quite severe. In the class, what I planned sometimes doesn't work at all for some reasons and I am sure none of them would tell me what went wrong. They would show me the total boredom. Which is very very normal and healthy and I even appreciate their honesty and respect their pureness. The tuesday class is like a dance with wolves- wild, unpredictable and thus thrilling. With such a class, I can make my personal as well as professional development. In a very different way, it is motivating and inspiring class for me; however, this Monday class is surely my soul savior for almost everything works or they help me to make it work. It can spoil me badly so that I must be careful. Only my fear is to see any disappointments on their faces. Oh how spoiled I am!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday classes
In the first class, one of students couldn't make it due to a meeting at her uni. Which left two of us, a girl and myself, talking about the same old subject - how to improve English. I thought to myself, "Gosh, how many times have I said the same thing!" This girl has been my student for 10 years, actually more than that. She has got a job right after graduated university but has been thinking to go overseas to get a master's degree. The question is, she says, in what field she wants to study. Which is a huge question I reckon.
We were supposed to read one of the stories in the book we use but we ended up talking about the same question. She asked me a couple of questions regarding the reading but her major interest right now is to get high score in TOEFL. She has a vivid photographic memory which has been her advantage while she was in Japanese educational ladder, however, getting M.A. is a very different ball game. It takes more than memorizing all the information in a textbook. It takes more than getting right answers in multiple choice questions. It takes desition-making, problem-solving, critical-thinking and analyzing skill. If she doesn't have a clear vision on her goal, pursuing it is challenging. Giving up her current job and doing self-searching business alone in overseas sounds a bit too risky for a 24 year-old Japanese woman with a serious sleeping problem. I am not certain whether I should tell her or not this biting truth. After all, it is her life yet I feel responsible to inform what she should expect.
The second class was the last one, at least, for a while, till they finish the entrance exam for high school. We did a reading practice and an interviwing activity. After that, I shared my favorite quote, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. " with my interpretation. In the last class, the question is thrown back at me: Did you do your best?
I am sure there are so many ways that can be more enjoyable, productive and meaningful for those students but my question is whether I have tried enough to facilitate the most enjoyable, productive and meaningful learning environment for them. The answer should be YES yet pathetically it is always YES/NO. Yes, I've done what I thought it would the best. No, I haven't really figured out what exactly works for each of them. I suspect that I can never say YES to the question but it is a good question to keep on asking myself.
The third class has just started a month ago but I had them last friday since they had a football practice this monday. Those new faces motivate me to do better. So far, they are absorbing all the new information brilliantly. My mission for them is to be ready for Jr. high and to cultivate positive attitude towards their ability to learn this new language. So far, so good.
Overall, I had a very emotional day.
We were supposed to read one of the stories in the book we use but we ended up talking about the same question. She asked me a couple of questions regarding the reading but her major interest right now is to get high score in TOEFL. She has a vivid photographic memory which has been her advantage while she was in Japanese educational ladder, however, getting M.A. is a very different ball game. It takes more than memorizing all the information in a textbook. It takes more than getting right answers in multiple choice questions. It takes desition-making, problem-solving, critical-thinking and analyzing skill. If she doesn't have a clear vision on her goal, pursuing it is challenging. Giving up her current job and doing self-searching business alone in overseas sounds a bit too risky for a 24 year-old Japanese woman with a serious sleeping problem. I am not certain whether I should tell her or not this biting truth. After all, it is her life yet I feel responsible to inform what she should expect.
The second class was the last one, at least, for a while, till they finish the entrance exam for high school. We did a reading practice and an interviwing activity. After that, I shared my favorite quote, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. " with my interpretation. In the last class, the question is thrown back at me: Did you do your best?
I am sure there are so many ways that can be more enjoyable, productive and meaningful for those students but my question is whether I have tried enough to facilitate the most enjoyable, productive and meaningful learning environment for them. The answer should be YES yet pathetically it is always YES/NO. Yes, I've done what I thought it would the best. No, I haven't really figured out what exactly works for each of them. I suspect that I can never say YES to the question but it is a good question to keep on asking myself.
The third class has just started a month ago but I had them last friday since they had a football practice this monday. Those new faces motivate me to do better. So far, they are absorbing all the new information brilliantly. My mission for them is to be ready for Jr. high and to cultivate positive attitude towards their ability to learn this new language. So far, so good.
Overall, I had a very emotional day.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday Classes
I have two classes in the evening. One is with three 6 graders and the other is with 4 high schoolers and 2 university students.
The first class has done Step test level 5 textbooks and lately switched to an intensive reading course book. They read a short easy story and answer comprehension questions along with it. Two of them have good reading skill but one boy is the way behind. The good news is he is still trying quite hard to catch other classmates but from time to time, he loses his patience. He is one of the brightest kids I had and his brothers are brilliant at reading. I have been puzzled why such a smart boy struggle to acquire simple phonics rules so much. He loves reading in his own language and extensively read books. So, it is not about the literacy problem some of other kids have. He doesn't hesitate to interact with others in English. In fact, he usually the one who enjoy communicative activities the most. At school, he is definitely one of the most inquisitive students and his high intellectual level is more than obvious. His motivation gets low from time to time but not significantly low, even a little higher than most of high schoolers. Especially lately, after we started using the course book, he has shown so much interests and really lively in the class. Other two students are quite motivated and get to the point where they would work without anybody's support. They knew their high English proficiency for their age and quite proud of that. In other words, they have become autonomous learners.
This week, I experimented to give some Japanese translation as I read the story for the first time while they listened. I tried to make it less obvious as I make the japanese part as short and brief as possible. This idea is from interlingual communication which I have heard at one of workshops for poets. Quite interesting idea and wanted to see how it works in my classroom. So, since we read a poetic story about a lonely moon, I spontaneously switched English into Japanese and then English again at some words I assume they didn't know. Interestingly, one of the students started taking notes and other two followed. I peeked at their notes. Unexpectedly, those translations I put were written. They surprised me greatly, which I love, for I often need to ask high schoolers if they don't need to take notes what I said. some students, if not many, are trained to be absolutely passive in a classroom and they don't do anything unless they are told so. Therefore the spontaneous action of them are unexpected and finding learner's autonomy in the class made my day. Furthermore, the boy did excellently in comprehension questions.
This might be controversial to give some Japanese translations for it would spoil the joy of discovery or guessing skill, however, I wonder if it is rather effective and pleasurable for students if we do so limitedly not throughly word by word translation. I wonder if this interlingual concept can be a middle ground between anti-grammer-translation and deadly tiring grammer-translation. It is too early to say anything but at least I had such a positive reaction from some students.
The second class has quite motivated students. All of them have stayed with me more than 6 years and three of them have nearly 10 years of history with me. I feel fully responsible on their English proficiency and I am not satisfied with my teaching skill. They are great kids but I don't see learner's autonomy in them yet. They are rather passive in spite of their friendliness and well-mannered behavior in the class. We are emotionally bonded for sure due to the long history we shared, however, my ultimate goal is to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and I haven't fulfilled the mission yet I am afraid. Two girls in the class have mentioned they would love to go abroad and expand their horizon in the future but other 4 students have no intention to get out of their cozy small world. After all, it is not entirely my responsibility how they live but it is a shame if they can't see their full potential. And I believe it is my fault if lack of confidence in their English abilities is the reason for their apathy toward overseas.
In order to stimulate their adventurous spirits, I started using stories written by other EFL teenage students, hoping one day they would get out of here to see the world for I believe we perceive who we really are only in comparison and I also believe we want to know who we are as much as possible.
http://www.topics-mag.com/back/issues.htm
This week, I asked them why they study English. What motivate them to do so. I got only one expected answer. Which is "To get into an university." Other answers were quite surprising and exciting as follows:
To live in Spain in the future
To study in Canada in the future
To visit Australia in the future
To be able to write original English songs
To be able to read all the papers regarding the world history
I hope each of them find a way to achieve their goals and wish I could be a bit of support for them.
The first class has done Step test level 5 textbooks and lately switched to an intensive reading course book. They read a short easy story and answer comprehension questions along with it. Two of them have good reading skill but one boy is the way behind. The good news is he is still trying quite hard to catch other classmates but from time to time, he loses his patience. He is one of the brightest kids I had and his brothers are brilliant at reading. I have been puzzled why such a smart boy struggle to acquire simple phonics rules so much. He loves reading in his own language and extensively read books. So, it is not about the literacy problem some of other kids have. He doesn't hesitate to interact with others in English. In fact, he usually the one who enjoy communicative activities the most. At school, he is definitely one of the most inquisitive students and his high intellectual level is more than obvious. His motivation gets low from time to time but not significantly low, even a little higher than most of high schoolers. Especially lately, after we started using the course book, he has shown so much interests and really lively in the class. Other two students are quite motivated and get to the point where they would work without anybody's support. They knew their high English proficiency for their age and quite proud of that. In other words, they have become autonomous learners.
This week, I experimented to give some Japanese translation as I read the story for the first time while they listened. I tried to make it less obvious as I make the japanese part as short and brief as possible. This idea is from interlingual communication which I have heard at one of workshops for poets. Quite interesting idea and wanted to see how it works in my classroom. So, since we read a poetic story about a lonely moon, I spontaneously switched English into Japanese and then English again at some words I assume they didn't know. Interestingly, one of the students started taking notes and other two followed. I peeked at their notes. Unexpectedly, those translations I put were written. They surprised me greatly, which I love, for I often need to ask high schoolers if they don't need to take notes what I said. some students, if not many, are trained to be absolutely passive in a classroom and they don't do anything unless they are told so. Therefore the spontaneous action of them are unexpected and finding learner's autonomy in the class made my day. Furthermore, the boy did excellently in comprehension questions.
This might be controversial to give some Japanese translations for it would spoil the joy of discovery or guessing skill, however, I wonder if it is rather effective and pleasurable for students if we do so limitedly not throughly word by word translation. I wonder if this interlingual concept can be a middle ground between anti-grammer-translation and deadly tiring grammer-translation. It is too early to say anything but at least I had such a positive reaction from some students.
The second class has quite motivated students. All of them have stayed with me more than 6 years and three of them have nearly 10 years of history with me. I feel fully responsible on their English proficiency and I am not satisfied with my teaching skill. They are great kids but I don't see learner's autonomy in them yet. They are rather passive in spite of their friendliness and well-mannered behavior in the class. We are emotionally bonded for sure due to the long history we shared, however, my ultimate goal is to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and I haven't fulfilled the mission yet I am afraid. Two girls in the class have mentioned they would love to go abroad and expand their horizon in the future but other 4 students have no intention to get out of their cozy small world. After all, it is not entirely my responsibility how they live but it is a shame if they can't see their full potential. And I believe it is my fault if lack of confidence in their English abilities is the reason for their apathy toward overseas.
In order to stimulate their adventurous spirits, I started using stories written by other EFL teenage students, hoping one day they would get out of here to see the world for I believe we perceive who we really are only in comparison and I also believe we want to know who we are as much as possible.
http://www.topics-mag.com/back/issues.htm
This week, I asked them why they study English. What motivate them to do so. I got only one expected answer. Which is "To get into an university." Other answers were quite surprising and exciting as follows:
To live in Spain in the future
To study in Canada in the future
To visit Australia in the future
To be able to write original English songs
To be able to read all the papers regarding the world history
I hope each of them find a way to achieve their goals and wish I could be a bit of support for them.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tuesday class
I have only one class on Tuesday at the moment with 4 boys aged 7 to 10. Three of them are fairly new faces. I do TPR a lot to outlet their incredible energy in the class. I can't expect them to sit still and listen to unknown sounds for 50 mins. They love to get out of the classroom and do something in the garden. It is very fortunate that our little school has its garden, big enough to play Mr. Wolf or other fun games.
We spend more time in the outdoor classroom when the weather is mild. It seems to me it is more productive for no need to ask them to sit still or settle down repeatedly. They can be as wild as they want to be. In fact, I find it quite disappointing because they are not really wild. I was much wilder kid.
Yesterday, we had a guest who was 7 year old boy. 5 boys in a classroom can be quite messy especially with a mum observing the class sitting next to the new face. One of them who is also 7 went really wild. For some reasons, he needed to show how rebellious he could be with big boys and the leader of the class, me. He acted so badly and tried to spoil all the fun of all the games we tried to play. It was awesome effort to get me really angry at one point when he started laughing at the visitor's pronunciation. It worked so well that I gave him the most frighteningly disgusted look. He couldn't help to say "Scary..." It was too adorable to be mad at even for a few more seconds.
Other boys must have felt sorry for me because of this insanely behaving classmate and were so helpful with the class and the visitor, encouraging and even praising his effort to do something. After a couple of activities for phonics with the severe peer pressure, the little rebellious one stopped being unreasonable. The visitor seemed to have fun with other big boys and for my big reward, he gave me the cutest and sweetest smile as he left. He would join us for the Halloween trick-or-treating this Saturday.
Overall, it wasn't really the best class I had but quite interesting one to observe. I must admit I tried to show the best class I could possibly manage to the visitor and his mum. Which must have smelled fishy or at least awkward to the little cute monster and his terrible behavior is just a reflection of his uneasiness, concern or disappointment. Or can be the test many children often give us to see how reasonable we, teachers/ parents/ grown-ups, are. Having a visitor is a big test for me for I am apt to get to know the person instantly and convince him that I am on his/her side within a class. Which is quite silly and arrogant notion of me. I wish I could have another chance to show who I am and let him decide whether he likes me or not. Also I must gain the mutual trust with the rebellious boy again. Big ego often gets in a way. It is my dilemma how strong I should show certain leadership for without a captain, all the ship might be lost or crushed. I'd love to be the lighthouse, warm and stable, to guide the ship gently and surely to the destination but I am too noisy and clumsy for that.
We spend more time in the outdoor classroom when the weather is mild. It seems to me it is more productive for no need to ask them to sit still or settle down repeatedly. They can be as wild as they want to be. In fact, I find it quite disappointing because they are not really wild. I was much wilder kid.
Yesterday, we had a guest who was 7 year old boy. 5 boys in a classroom can be quite messy especially with a mum observing the class sitting next to the new face. One of them who is also 7 went really wild. For some reasons, he needed to show how rebellious he could be with big boys and the leader of the class, me. He acted so badly and tried to spoil all the fun of all the games we tried to play. It was awesome effort to get me really angry at one point when he started laughing at the visitor's pronunciation. It worked so well that I gave him the most frighteningly disgusted look. He couldn't help to say "Scary..." It was too adorable to be mad at even for a few more seconds.
Other boys must have felt sorry for me because of this insanely behaving classmate and were so helpful with the class and the visitor, encouraging and even praising his effort to do something. After a couple of activities for phonics with the severe peer pressure, the little rebellious one stopped being unreasonable. The visitor seemed to have fun with other big boys and for my big reward, he gave me the cutest and sweetest smile as he left. He would join us for the Halloween trick-or-treating this Saturday.
Overall, it wasn't really the best class I had but quite interesting one to observe. I must admit I tried to show the best class I could possibly manage to the visitor and his mum. Which must have smelled fishy or at least awkward to the little cute monster and his terrible behavior is just a reflection of his uneasiness, concern or disappointment. Or can be the test many children often give us to see how reasonable we, teachers/ parents/ grown-ups, are. Having a visitor is a big test for me for I am apt to get to know the person instantly and convince him that I am on his/her side within a class. Which is quite silly and arrogant notion of me. I wish I could have another chance to show who I am and let him decide whether he likes me or not. Also I must gain the mutual trust with the rebellious boy again. Big ego often gets in a way. It is my dilemma how strong I should show certain leadership for without a captain, all the ship might be lost or crushed. I'd love to be the lighthouse, warm and stable, to guide the ship gently and surely to the destination but I am too noisy and clumsy for that.
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