"Vloer...sluk my..."

An interesting title for those of you not well versed in Afrikaans.  A saying my mother uses a lot, which translates to "floor, swallow me up (please)"  and is generally used when one is embarrassed...or wants to get out of a situation fast.  When I watched the video of my class yesterday...these were some of the first words that came to me...

When I finished taping this class, I knew that it hadn’t gone well.  In fact…from about 10 mins in, I knew that we weren’t going to be able to meet the goals I’d set…

It all started last week when were learning about questions, and we practiced asking, answering and summarizing responses to questions.  My intention, last week, was to do a warm up of questions (which we did), and then we were going to do some more in-depth practicing, specifically with regards to how to write interview questions if you want to learn about someone’s life.

However…last week was our first day of term, so, the class started 10 minutes late, and we didn’t get anywhere near the main focus of the lesson.  As a result – children were asked to write questions for HWK…as I had planned…and I was hoping that they would be alright…but alas, it was not so.

When the children came in with their questions, my plan was to look over them and see how we could group similar questions into groups – these would form the base for some paragraphs when we started writing.  However, it was clear that many of the questions they brought were not quite right for interviews (not bad questions – just not appropriate.) 

We spent a while talking about how we could group similar questions – but this was difficult for them, especially because some of the questions were ‘random’ (When are you going?)  We managed to get through grouping some questions.  We also began a tiny bit of writing (I wanted them to use their questions to help them write an introduction about themselves – a sort of autobiography…) but again, most of them seemed unsure of what to do, and they had to do the bulk of the task at home.

When I watched the video.  I became very aware of a few things – which honestly, startled me.  Here’s a list:

1.    If I’m honest, I don’t think I really thought this project through…the pieces of it don’t fit together at all – it’s landed up being messy and confusing for me and the children.

2.    It became painfully apparent to me that I spent the majority of the class talking… the children (all except one) were basically bored and silent (SHOCK HORROR!!!) and confused.

3.    The one child who did talk monopolised all the talking time…and to make things worse, I noticed that I directed most of my questions to her.

4.    This is a writing class, but there was probably less than 2%’s worth of writing in it.  I only did verbal models – and given that this prompt is probably confusing them, I definitely should have given them a written model.

5.    I go off topic…a lot.  Tshirts, my brother’s friend’s hair length…the list is endless and embarrassing.

Now – my initial gut feeling was to try and record something again…but I decided that this video was really valuable as a tool from which to start identifying areas that I need to improve…  So – if you do watch this – I’m sorry!  I assure you – my classes don’t usually run this badly (I think…)

I’ve been thinking about how things went wrong and I have a second list:

1. From the get-go I think I’ve been nervous about filming, and, as John mentioned in his blog, was trying to portray an “Amazing Amy” full of energy and excitement and knowledge (what a dismal failure this video would have been…)  I think one of my biggest problems was that, rather than focusing on the lesson I SHOULD have been doing, I tweaked it to make it “STG friendly.”   I put my needs ahead of my children’s needs… big mistake!  As a result, my lesson was unfocused and I was mostly distracted.

2. We’ve just started a new time schedule for After-School, and our classes are 10 – 15mins shorter…   One of my weaknesses is time. I think I’ve been trying to squeeze things in – but instead I just get tongue-tied because I can’t focus on anything except “finishing on time…”  Also – just my luck – the blinking clock in the classroom is broken.

3. I am guilty of “finding the keen student who wants to answer all the questions and using them to push the lesson forward.”

These children are mostly a quiet group.  They probably wouldn’t have lively discussions without my encouragement.  BUT – this is no excuse.  I should be managing talk time.  I should be asking individual questions.  I should be doing comprehension checks with everyone – not just one child!

4.  A lot of my questions were met with vacant stares…and I feel as though I didn’t do m best to address them – I mostly passed over them – OR answered them myself L  My unfocused objectives and my lack of REALLY knowing what I wanted meant that I couldn’t tell the children what I wanted…

So – as much as I may be being overly dramatic… Watching this lesson (and transcribing it – even worse when I hear the stupid things I say more than once) has made me realise that I need to:

**BE PREPARED – know my own objectives clearly, and set out how to meet them…I also have to make sure I give children what they need to meet the objectives!!

**BE MYSELF – putting on a performance for STG is pointless – I won’t learn a thing unless I do what I do best, and learn from what I do wrong.

**BE MINDFUL – make sure I am giving each child an opportunity to ask, and answer questions, and not focus solely on one child!

**BE QUIET!!!! Or at least be sure that what I say is worth saying…

These are just a few things that I need to work on…I know this is going to be a learning experience and I am committed to making sure I move forward!!  So I’m looking forward to ‘turning it around’ tomorrow when I see this class! 

 
 

Until next time...