Life as a middle school teacher in an international school (or probably any school for that matter) is intense! Needless to say, I did not have much time for blogging although I will try to post a few ideas from my time as a middle school teacher.

Now, I am back in a Chinese university teaching English. I have many more students but a lot more time outside of the classroom, so hopefully, I will be able to get back into a more regular blogging schedule.

For my first post, I want to tell you about a great first-day "getting to know you" activity that I've been doing with students for the past several years. This is an activity I first started using with undergraduate English majors at a university in Tianjin.

I have also adapted it for smaller groups of middle school students in ESL classrooms, and recently, I just used it again for the first day of my new classes this semester at my new university job in Qingdao, teaching English to postgraduate non-English major students.

I took a few photos and a video of the activity this time because I was so impressed by the literal 100% engagement rate of this activity. In the past, it's been successful as well, but my students this semester particularly seemed to enjoy it. As non-English majors, they have a slightly lower oral English level than students I've used this activity with in the past, so I expected it to be a somewhat challenging activity for them, but they persevered and used pretty much only English the entire time they worked on this activity. They also had so much enthusiasm while doing it!

​3) On the back of the page, prepare a section for students to use for interviewing a partner after the first-page activity finishes.

You can see the instructions I give to students in my example handout below. (This is actually the handout I used with my international school ESL students, so the first page boxes reflect that population. I kept the second page the same for my university classes and middle school classes. It works regardless of the student population and doesn't really need any changes since it is so general.)

4) For this part of the activity, students should choose a partner and a topic that their partner had said "Yes" to earlier from the Bingo activity.

Give students some time to think of and write down 3 questions to ask their partner about the topic so that they can learn more about it. (For example: When did you learn to count in Korean? What else can you say in Korean? Do you know how to count in any other languages?)

If you have a low-language level population of students, and if you have enough time, you can do a quick lesson about how to form questions correctly in English. Model several examples so students can have help writing their questions. Depending on the level of your students, the size of your class, and the time you have, this part can be very guided by the teacher or independent work time.

After students have their questions ready, give them time to interview one another. They should take notes about their partner's answers because after this activity is over, some (or all) students will share the information about their partner with the whole class.

During this time, I had a model paragraph of how to introduce a partner on the PowerPoint at the front of the room so that students could imitate my example. i.e. "This is my partner, Peter. He knows how to count to 3 in Korean. He learned it when he was a baby because he is from South Korea. He can say almost anything in Korean because it's his first language. He can also count in English, Chinese, and Spanish."

Depending on the language level of your students, you may need to give some explicit instruction about how to transfer the partner's answers into third-person statements. (I had to do this with my postgraduate students this semester.)

5) Now, it's time to have some or all students stand in front of the class and introduce their partner to the class.

I had enough time this semester to have each student share, but if your time doesn't allow, you can have a few students share or none at all and just read their paragraphs later.

I have never formally assessed their paragraph writing for this activity, but if you wanted to give a score for it, you could. You can also use it to get a baseline for the students' grammar, spelling, etc.

If you have a smaller group and/or a lot of time, and if you think your students have a high enough language level, you can ask the listening audience members to think of another question they can ask after each person is introduced. (So for the example above of Peter, an audience member could raise her hand and ask, "When did you learn how to count in Spanish?" and Peter would have to answer her out loud on the spot.)

I love using this "get to know you" activity because it's flexible and easy to plan. It can take as much or as little time as you want. It helps students practice all domains of language - speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It quickly helps you to see how confident and comfortable students are using English and to get a feel for some of their common mistakes. Most importantly, students seem to love it, too!

I've only used this activity in ELL (English language learning) classrooms, but of course, it can be used in any class, even with native English speakers since, again, it's a very flexible activity. If you wanted to use it for a math or science class or any content area class, you can just replace some of the Bingo boxes with content-area questions. (Examples: I know what a variable is; I know how to solve this equation...)

I hope it helps you try a fun new first-day activity with your students!

Wow, it has been almost a year since my last post! In that time, I've started a new job as an ESL instructor and support teacher at an international school in Tianjin.

My job has changed in countless ways, but I'll try to explain a few of the most significant ways here.


Chinese university students vs. Korean middle school students

Now, most of the students I work with are about 13 years old and are native Korean speakers. I do have a handful of native Chinese speakers, native Japanese speakers, and occasionally a student of another language background, but the majority are and will be Korean.

Before, all of my students (except 2 out of the 2000+ students I taught at the university over 3 years) were Chinese, and most of them were native Mandarin speakers. That made contextualizing things in the classroom very simple. I could relate everything to Chinese culture and sometimes even bring up connections between Chinese language and English (based on my very limited knowledge of Chinese language).

Now, when I contextualize, I have to make sure to include all of the students. I have had to learn about Korean and Japanese languages, at least to the point where I can draw connections between what they already know and what they have to do in English. My first pronunciation lesson in one of my classes this semester was on differentiating between the /l/ and /r/ sounds, a common problem for Korean and Japanese speakers, but rarely an issue for Chinese speakers.

Having multiple language speakers in the same class and at the same school does have the advantage of forcing everyone to speak English more often, and as a result, some of the students see a huge improvement in their oral English. For example, a Chinese-speaking student who began the school year with very limited oral English ability and is the only non-Korean speaker in his class, now speaks incredible oral English because the only way he could communicate with his classmates was in English. It was a constant war for me at the university to get my Chinese students to use English to practice with one another. Even the best students would switch to Chinese when not communicating with a native English speaker, so their oral English really suffered. It is nice to be in an environment where some students really have no choice but to speak English.

On the other hand, it can also be isolating for them when the Koreans use Korean instead of English. Since about 80% of the students at our school speak Korean, it is unfortunately very common for them to use Korean when a teacher isn't around to make them switch to English. Many of the non-Korean speakers feel left out and uncomfortable because of this problem. This is something our school is still trying to work on, and it's not an easy problem to fix.

One last thing I'll point out is the vast difference between university-age students and middle school students. I had never had to incorporate methods like giving out candy or reward coupons into my teaching before coming to work with middle school students. The threat of a bad grade was motivation enough for my Chinese university students. When I provided candy or cookies for them, it was just an extra special fun treat. It wasn't an expected part of the learning process! My middle school students actually expect to be rewarded via candy or other tangible "bribes" when they demonstrate their learning. Many of them don't care about low grades, but they will do anything for a five-cent piece of candy!


Flexible working schedule with 12-16 hours actually spent in a classroom vs. strict 7:30-5:00 5 days a week spent at school

This has probably been the hardest part for me to get used to. I love flex-time work; always have, always will. Most of my jobs have had very flexible work hours, which works for me because I'm a workaholic, so I actually will work from home. It's awesome being able to work in my pajamas or take breaks from work to wash the dishes. Also, as an introvert, I love being able to be around people sometimes at work and other times do my work alone at home.

In this new job, I have to actually be there at school all day every weekday. There is very little break time away from people. I have to wake up really early, and during busy seasons when I am behind on lesson plans or grading, I also have to stay up very late. My body naturally prefers getting about 10 hours of sleep a night, so that hasn't been fun. I have a thirty-minute break for lunch on most days, from the end of one class to the start of the other class. So that's not just 30 minutes to actually eat. That's thirty minutes to walk from the classroom to get my lunch, heat up my lunch, eat my lunch, go to the bathroom, and then get to class on time. It is RUSHED! When I worked at the university, I had a minimum of two hours for lunch because the Chinese students and teachers need to take their 休息 (nap, or rest) in the afternoon. It was really tough for me to switch to a basically 15-minute eating block. 

My body is getting more used to less time for sleeping and eating, so it doesn't aggravate me as much as it did in the beginning, but I do really look forward to weekends and holidays much more than I did before.


Teaching EFL writing and oral English vs. teaching ESL science and pushing in to mainstream classes as a support teacher 

The final thing I'll mention about the differences is how much my actual teaching has had to change at this new job. Right now, I am working half as a classroom teacher, teaching science and English to students who have tested lower in English and aren't quite ready to be incorporated into mainstream classes, and half as a push-in teacher who circulates around the room of a mainstream classroom helping students who have tested high enough in English to be in the mainstream classrooms but still need a little extra support.

I definitely prefer being a classroom teacher rather than a support teacher. It's been difficult learning how to support another teacher rather than be in control of my own classroom, lesson plans, assessments, etc. It requires a lot more flexibility, communication, and patience to be a push-in teacher. At the end of the day, the good thing about pushing in is that you're not technically responsible for the students or their grades; the mainstream teacher is. But I still prefer being in control.

Next year, I will likely be only teaching and not pushing in, so hopefully that will be much less stressful for me. For now, it's been a good experience to see both sides of the ESL world, but I'm ready to get back to pure classroom teaching.

In addition to the actual style of teaching/supporting, the content of what I teach has had to change a lot. At the university, I taught an entire semester-long course purely on English writing and a semester-long course purely on oral English (speaking and listening, with an emphasis on speaking). Now, I have to integrate all English skills (including vocabulary) in one class that I teach, and in another class that I teach, I have to integrate all English skills in addition to teaching science content. I have always been terrible at science, so it was really scary to me at the beginning of the year that I would be teaching science! Fortunately, I have been able to understand most of the concepts enough to teach them to the students, but it has definitely been a challenge I wasn't expecting. Another side benefit is that my score in Trivia Crack on the science category has really improved since starting this job.



That's all for now. I'll try to write more later about some of the specifics of what I've been doing in this new job.

As I mentioned in my last post, this term, my university only has 2 native English teachers, so I've been asked to teach many extra classes.

The two extra classes that I actually agreed to take on are:

2 sections of oral English for 1st year master's students earning an MA in an English-related subject

2 sections of a basic oral English training course for police officers

I decided to take on the first course because I had already taught those students during the fall semester and wanted to continue the learner autonomy projects I had begun with the students. Initially, my university told me the course would be a year-long course, but when some of the other foreign teachers left early, they told me that the spring semester of the oral English course would be canceled unless I took it on as extra teaching hours. I felt that it was worthwhile to take on the extra work in order to give the students a better learning experience and to continue with the projects since I hope to eventually write about them for research articles.

I decided to take on the police training course because I figure it's always a good idea to stay in the good graces of the local police. Plus, the last time I taught the course, I made several good friends, and this semester is the last time I will be able to teach that course for a long time since I am changing jobs next year. I enjoy teaching students who are closer to my age because I feel like once the course is finished, we can more easily become friends. I have become friends with some of my younger students, but we definitely have more of a "mentor/mentee" role than a pure friendship, so I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to make a few more adult "peer-like" friends before I transition to teaching even younger middle school students.

So in the end, I feel comfortable with my decision to take on these extra courses, but I sometimes feel like I am over my head with the amount of work involved in planning and executing 10 classes a week with nearly 300 students.

I have tried my best not to slack off on providing a good classroom experience and to provide students with adequate assessment opportunities, including homework and big projects when appropriate, but at times, I feel like I bit off more than I can chew.

Still, so far, everything has managed to get done, and I just have to hold on for a few more weeks until the end of the term.

This summer, I am going to take one LONG and well-deserved nap.

This term, my university only has 2 native English teachers, so I've been asked to teach many extra classes. 

In addition to the extra classes, I get requests practically every day to teach the friend of a colleague or student. If I wanted to, I could spend every waking hour teaching and make a lot of extra money, but then I'd be so crazy, I'm sure that I wouldn't be an effective teacher in any of the classes!

It's hard to say no, but the sheer number of requests that keep rolling in this term have forced me to become more comfortable with it. At the beginning of the semester, I would try to soften my "no" by at least offering to ask foreign friends if they would be interested in tutoring or teaching an extra class, but now all my foreign friends are tapped out too. So I just say "No, I'm too busy, sorry, I'll let you know if I hear of any other foreign teachers who are looking for extra work." But of course, I'm not likely to hear of any other foreign teachers looking for work since it seems there are simply not enough of them to go around.

One of the reasons why I'm working so much with my master's students on learner autonomy projects is that I'm tired of Chinese students assuming that they can't improve their English without the guidance of a "foreign expert." Many of the people who ask me to tutor their friend or their child assume that just by putting a non-native speaker in the presence of a native speaker, language will be magically acquired.

I actually had one request earlier this term that said, "I have a friend who is going abroad soon, so he hopes he can improve his oral English in several short days by studying with you."

There are no shortcuts to language acquisition. Native speakers are not language genies who can grant your wish of speedy fluency.

Learning language takes work, time, humility, and discipline. It takes willingness to learn no matter what is going on around you or who is available to speak with you - native speaker, non-native speaker, or no one at all. Like I tell my students, when no one is around to practice English with you, speak English to yourself. It's certainly cheaper than hiring a native speaker!

Of course, practicing a language with a native speaker does introduce new, beneficial elements that can't be experienced when speaking with non-native speakers or speaking to yourself. But if a student is unwilling to learn and improve language without the help of a native speaker, I question how successfully they will learn and improve once they find a native speaker to teach them.

This year, I have been developing two projects for my MA students to help develop their learner autonomy skills (or self-regulated learning strategies).

I first was inspired to do this when I attended a teaching conference a few years ago at which Don Snow was the main speaker. He encouraged us to have students watch documentaries and report on them. This would provide good, sensible, authentic input while at the same time giving students a change to improve their learner autonomy skills. Snow suggested having students journal about the documentary, but I realized that with more than 100 students, I would never have time to read journals from each student throughout the semester. Plus, I'm teaching these students oral English, so I'd really like to have them writing less and speaking more. (Chinese students are already quite good at writing and reading compared to speaking.)

So I started musing about how to tweak this idea to fit my context.

Eventually, the idea turned into what I call "LIGs" or Language Improvement Groups. At the beginning of the term, I have students choose a small group of 3 to 5 students. Outside of class, students watch an episode of an English TV show and then meet together to discuss the episode for at least 15 minutes. Students make a video recording of their discussion using a camcorder or mobile phone.

Then the following week in class, students bring the video and watch it in their groups during the first half of class. As they watch, they take notes and discuss with each other about their strong and weak points in using oral English in a conversational setting. As the students watch and discuss, I come around to each group and check to make sure they have a video and that the quality is sufficient. After discussing, students choose one specific goal to try to improve for the following recorded discussion. Then they raise their hands, and I come check the goal to make sure it's specific and realistic enough.

It takes a lot of time, but it really puts language learning into the students' own hands. For many of my students, it's the first time they've ever really watched and listened to themselves speak English. It's mortifying at first, but I think in the long run, it helps them overcome a lot of fears and realize that they can help themselves get better, even without the direct guidance of and practice with a native English speaker.

The second project I've developed over the past year is related specifically to pronunciation. In this project, students record themselves reading the Stella passage on George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive and transcribe their own speech. Then they compare their transcription with that of at least 3 native English speakers and develop a semester-long plan for pronunciation improvement.

This year was the first year I tried this project, so it wasn't quite as successful as I think the LIG project has been. (I'm now on the 3rd time of revamping the LIG project based on students' feedback and suggestions, so it's had a lot of time to evolve and improve.) After I have some free time to think about it and after I hear students' feedback from this term, I will likely revamp the pronunciation project as well to make it more effective.

During my MA program, I found that I loved research - reading it, thinking about it, writing it. Unfortunately, my MA program didn't require much original research. We didn't have to write a thesis (which was actually one of the things that drew me to the program, before I knew that I would actually like research).

So now, I'm trying to figure out how to turn my classroom observations and ideas into "real" research. The kind that can be published in peer reviewed journals and that will help me get into doctoral programs if I decide to apply in a few years.

Little did I know, there are SO MANY RULES to researching.

Before I thought the rules would be pretty easy. I'm good at APA formatting, properly placing commas, and checking my sources. But formatting and style rules are the least of my concerns. The US government has tons of guidelines and regulations about what should and should not be done when collecting research data from living human subjects.

So far, I've spent probably 5 hours taking an online course with Citi Program to certify me to research with human subjects. It's been very helpful, but I still feel like I've just scratched the surface on what I need to do to prepare to start properly organizing my ideas and data.

Now I really wish I had done a more research-based MA program instead of a purely taught MA program, but you live and learn, right?

My Chinese friends tell me that if I only want to publish things in China, I don't need any of these silly consent forms or certifications. Just pay the journal some money, and they'll put that article in, no problem. Too bad that won't look as convincing on doctoral program applications!

Here's a peek at the mess that my living room becomes when it's time to grade final exams:

I love grading objective questions (i.e. multiple choice) because I can keep all the papers in one pile and just quickly go through the pile. In fact, grading objective questions is so mindless, I can do it while watching TV!

When it comes to subjective questions (short answer, essay, etc.), I have to be a little more creative. The way I like to do it is to grade a few different students' papers first to calibrate. Then I start to make piles like you can see here - organized from best answer to worst answer. Then as I keep going through the stack of exams, I'll sort the new papers into a currently existing pile, or make a new in-between pile if necessary, and make sure that I keep answers of similar strength in the same score range. I re-sort all the papers for each new subjective question to make sure they are all graded as fairly as possible. It's definitely a lot of work (and makes the living room quite messy!), but I do think it helps me to be more objective as I grade.

How do you strive for objectivity when grading subjective questions?

One of my favorite things about teaching is getting to introduce my students to stories I have loved since childhood.

Last year, I planned a semester focused on fairy tales, especially Cinderella. I had students watch and compare/contrast several movie versions of the Cinderella story and analyze how men and women were portrayed in these various versions.

Last semester, I was so proud when I was out with two of my former students and they made a joke referencing Cinderella being late to the ball. As a native English teacher, I'm happy that I can help familiarize my students with some of the nuanced parts of English-speaking culture that most native speakers have grown up with and don't think twice about. I think it helps my students gain a deeper appreciation and more of an insider's perspective into their English studying. And it's certainly more fun for them to learn English through children's stories than through dry adult literature from the 1800s, which is what they usually do in their Chinese English classes. (Don't get me wrong - I love 1800s lit, but that was after I learned to love reading Dr. Seuss! There's definitely a need for both.)

Since the most recent Lorax movie came out, I had been thinking about planning a semester around the theme of The Lorax. My resolve to do so was strengthened this summer when I found out that a lot of my Chinese friends had never heard of Dr. Seuss before and the new Lorax movie was their first introduction to him. 

What a shame, to be unfamiliar with Dr. Seuss' name! I knew what just what I'd do, I'd plan a lesson or two!

In the end, I planned more than a lesson or two. I decided to design this entire semester aroundThe Lorax and use it to teach students narrative, descriptive, and compare/contrast writing, "all in one whacker!"

As with all of my new lesson plan ideas, I wasn't sure how students would like it. Would they really get the story? Would they be able to apply it to their own lives? Would they think the movies were interesting, cute, and funny? Or would it be too difficult for them? Would they find it too "forced" or boring?

I'm happy to report that so far, my students have definitely been challenged by analyzing the story, but they also seem to be enjoying it and think the movie versions are quite funny. (The marshmallow scene from the new Lorax movie has gotten the biggest laughs.)

To begin our Lorax studies, we read an abridged version of The Lorax in class. I gave students a four-page handout to fill in for analysis of new vocabulary and narrative story elements. This helped them to more deeply understand the basic Lorax story. They had to determine whether new words were nonsense words made up by Dr. Seuss and whether words were onomatopoeia words. (This was the first time they had ever studied onomatopoeia in English, so that was a good experience for them.) They had to answer questions about the characters, the setting, the narrative voice, the dialogue rules used, the conflict, and the plot.

Then in groups, they had to write their own story outside of class which would show what happened after the boy got the last Truffula seed. I haven't read and graded those stories yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the students applied narrative writing elements in their own story.

Next, we began watching the Lorax movies and working on compare/contrast. As students watched the 1972 movie version, they had to write a list of similarities and differences between the abridged book version and the 1972 movie version. We discussed them as a class and made a master list on the board.

Then the following week (this week), students watched the 2012 Lorax movie version in class and worked on another list of similarities and differences between the 1972 movie version and the 2012 movie version. That homework is due next week, so I'll be able to get a better idea of their understanding of the movie then, but from what I observed as we watched together, they were tracking with everything and really interested in it.

Starting next week, students will begin the process of writing a compare/contrast essay on their own. It needs to be related somehow to The Lorax, but the specific items they want to compare/contrast are up to them. I'm really excited to see how they analyze and apply ideas from the story in a deeper reflective essay.

Although the semester isn't finished yet, and I haven't looked at their writing yet, I can already tell that I love this Lorax theme and am planning to use it again with future classes. It's reminding me of all my deeply rooted environmentalist tendencies that were, in part, brought on by watching and reading The Lorax hundreds of times as a kid. I hope by the end of this semester, students will have brainstormed some ideas they can apply in their own lives to taking care of the resources we've been given.

As for me, I've finally started vermicomposting again, and we've started labeling our recyclables and separating them from the regular trash to make it easier for the recycling people to find and pick up. It's a challenge learning to live more "greenly" in China, but the Lorax is inspiring me to do what I can.

A few years ago, I read that more and more people are typing long phrases into Google and many are even typing whole sentences. I was glad to read that since I have pretty much always typed complete sentences into Google, and it is definitely getting better at understanding me.

Today I typed in "quick interesting ways to divide students into small groups." Not a complete sentence, but pretty long, and Google gave me some great results. 

I've spent hours over the past week brainstorming how to do this on my own. Since I did my teacher observations last semester, I've decided I need to get a lot better at doing group work. My favorite classes to observe involved a lot of group work, and those teachers also arranged groups in a randomized way so that students had to actively move around the room and be with new people instead of with the friends sitting near them. The best teacher I observed did this through giving students laminated cards with different animals from Australia on them (he was an Australian teacher). I thought about doing this with American animals, but let's face it - bison are not nearly as interesting and cute as kangaroos and koalas. So I needed to think of ways to arrange groups in two ways:

1. In a creative way for spontaneous in-class dividing
2. In a mathematically sound, quick way for groups that I wanted to pre-assign before class

I literally spent 2 hours at lunch one day writing numbers in a notebook, counting, erasing, and still not figuring out how to get pre-assigned groups with different combinations of students with no 2 students being in the same group again. I guess this is why I'm an English teacher, not a math teacher.

Today, I had the ultimate brainstorm - use the internet and pull from other teachers' ideas. Jackpot! I now have a great formula for pre-assigning combinations of groups from Natalie Houston and clever in-class solutions for assigning groups from Paul and the Girl Scouts of Northern California. My favorite is to use a deck of cards to split students in class. This is fun, takes almost no prep on my part, and allows me to quickly divide up to 14 groups, which is definitely necessary in my big oral English classes. The internet (and Google) make teaching so much easier!

What are some great teaching ideas you've found through Googling?

One of the best things about being a teacher is getting a long summer vacation.

One of the worst things about being a teacher is getting a long summer vacation.

This is me before the summer:

I have so much free time coming up! So much that I can get done! I'll finish all of my lesson plans for next semester, right down to the Powerpoints and quizzes, so I can do minimal prep work during the semester. I'll clean every inch of our apartment, including underneath the stovetop (which probably hasn't been cleaned since it was installed). I'll organize old paperwork and clean up my electronic files, deleting what I don't need anymore, and scanning in any new items. I'm going to write blog posts and even create a schedule for blogging during the school year. I'm going to be so productive!

This is me during summer:

Well, I've finished watching TV and I've played Bejeweled for awhile. I should probably get started on lesson planning, but a nap sounds so much better...

Sometimes too much free time is a bad thing. It makes me lazy. I can't really wrap my head around the fact that in about 15 days, I'll have to start waking up at 5 a.m. again so I can study for my master's in the morning and then work all day.

To be fair, I did clean under the stovetop last week and I am writing this blog post right now, so that's something, but I need to get motivated if I want to accomplish anything else during this summer vacation. At the very least, I need to get my lessons organized for this semester, though realistically, that will probably happen in between naps and Downton Abbey...

How do you unwind during summer break? Have you found any methods for motivating yourself to get work done during long vacations from school?