A First-Lesson Lesson Plan

My go-to first lessons typically involve introductions. It's a useful skill for just about everybody and it gives the teacher the opportunity to get a feel for the class from the very first day. 

With my professional students, we'll usually start with formal introductions and introducing a partner, practicing structures like, "this is so-and-so. He's responsible for..." using key verbs for business people. With my BTS students though, I wanted to do something differently.

With all of my BTS students, 1st and 2nd years alike, I have them write their name and stick it on their desk to help me learn their names. Every week they automatically get them out, and every week I learn a few more names! (I have about a hundred students...) 

Another classroom management tip is that I'll choose the first volunteer, and once they have given their answer (or whatever I have asked for), I'll let them choose who goes next. This way, it's as if they are "rewarded" for participating, and it motivates more students to volunteer from the get-go because they want to be able to "choose their destiny" in a sense -- they'd rather go first then randomly be picked during the mix. 

Here are my ideas for successful first lessons! 

For my 2nd year students:

A fun start: Two truths and a lie! 

I had each student write a short introduction (hi, my name is, I'm X years old, I live in...) and then end their introduction with two truths and a lie. Then, the class had to react -- "I think X is a lie." When the class finds the lie, the student sits down. This is a nice way to get to know some facts about the class. 

Just because it's the first day doesn't mean we can't get straight to work, so then we did a listening exercise taken from the BBC: Entrepreneurs: BBC English Express. 

Because the text is only a minute long, we could listen to it a number of times before discussing, and then listen again when nobody in the class could answer my general questions. 

I had each student take notes about the four speakers (one narrator and three people being interviewed). Their goal was to be able to summarize what each person said: what do they want to do, and why? 

Then, once everybody had the answers and an overall understanding of the text, I asked them to brainstorm and to write their own response to this question:

An investor agrees to give you 100k€ to start a business. What is your plan? (Think about the who/what/when/where/why/how). 

After 15-20 minutes of writing, I let the students present following the tip given above -- I chose the first one, and then after that they choose whoever they want to go next. For this exercise, I had them stand up in front of the class. Most students only spoke for about 30 seconds, but that is a great start! 

For my 1st year students:

I had them start pretty much the same way: introductions and two truths and a lie. Then, I had them play the game "find somebody who", where they had to ask the right question using "be" or "do" as an auxiliary. When they finished the exercise, we went over it as a class, correcting their sentence structure and learning things about each other. I also took advantage of this opportunity to ask the students (as a group) other questions: When is your birthday? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Where were you born? What other languages can you speak? 

Find someone in the class who:

 Has a birthday in December   ________________________________

Was born in the same month as you ___________________________

Likes pizza   ______________________________________________

Has a pet ________________________________________________

Was born outside this country   ______________________________

Likes listening to rock music   ________________________________

Wants to travel to Australia   _________________________________

Has a sister   _____________________________________________

Has no brothers or sisters ___________________________________

Doesn’t like tomatos   ______________________________________

Plays basketball   _________________________________________

Favorite color is green   ____________________________________

Loves English   ___________________________________________

Speaks another language ___________________________________

New Lessons: BTS Industriel here in France

It may have been a long time since I've posted anything in this blog, but that certainly does not mean that I have stopped planning lessons -- au contraire! 

At the beginning of September and despite previous promises to myself, I decided to accept a teaching position in a BTS (post-high school, 2-year technical degree) school, training students to become Opticians. They will have to take the BTS Industriel which I found a bit silly, but it makes more sense than taking a commercial BTS degree when only a part of their responsibilities will be commercial and the rest will be quite technical. 

To sum up the program, I'm teaching four kinds of classes: One group of 2nd year students who are apprentices, two groups of 2nd year students who are full-time students, one group of "prepa" students who weren't accepted into the first year but after a year of catch-up courses should be admitted next year, and two groups of first-year, full-time students. 

I only have an hour with my apprentices and my prep-class kids per week. Otherwise my lessons are an hour and a half long. 

I've decided to structure my lessons as follows: 

1. Corrections of the previous week's quiz (graded every week -- yes this sucks, but I think it will be truly beneficial for them in the long run to see their mistakes on the board and to participate in mistake correction as a group). 

2. A quiz: use last week's vocabulary words in a sentence or correct the mistakes, and this week I'm going to try a listening quiz with multiple choice questions. Again, the idea is to correct the mistakes as a class & continually assess their needs and my methods.

3. Listening practice: For the BTS exam, students will have to listen to a text and be able to sum it up in French (I think). My goal is to have them summarizing texts in English so that when they have to do it in French, it'll be a breeze. I always try to over-prepare my students so that when it comes time for the exam, they'll be more than ready. 

4. A grammar or a vocabulary point. We've already covered vocabulary about school (trainee, apprentice, a graduate, a diploma, etc.) and we've covered adverbs of frequency (1st years) and modal verbs (2nd years). Either I ask them to write or discuss a topic that I give them, and then we do a class brainstorm. 

5. Reading or writing: This is either an article or an excerpt of an article, either followed by a presentation or group work. Normally there is some kind of writing or speaking preparation involved and I try to switch it up every week.

and finally:

6. Presenting. This is where they either individually or in pairs/small groups present whatever they have prepared in the previous step (or 2). 

By the time we've made it through all the steps, they've done a little bit of everything -- listening and speaking, reading and writing, and hopefully assimilated a number of new vocabulary words. This method requires a lot of work outside the classroom on their end, but I feel like our time in class is pretty well spent. 

As the semester progresses, I'll share some of my lesson plans (beyond just my structure) and the links I've found to various listening exercises and articles. My goal as a teacher is to be able to construct well-prepared lesson plans every week and to consistently keep up with my grading in order to have corrections to give them. I also like to take the time to write corrections on their homework rather than just giving them a grade and handing it back. I want them to be able to read over it, think about it, and ask questions if necessary. 

Why I Quit the BTS Job

I think the title says it all. Yesterday, I didn't go back to the difficult job that I've been complaining about for two weeks. I stewed over it all week and all weekend and finally made my decision late Sunday night. I sent out my email on Monday morning announcing my resignation.

Yesterday when the time came around for me to be "in class" (if we can even call it that), I didn't even feel a hint of regret. There would have only been two reasons to continue: 1) Really, really hard up for cash, or 2) Desperate to work on classroom management.

I will admit that I have reached a level in my life where I can "pick & choose" the kind of people that I want to work with, but also the kinds of jobs where I can teach in my way. This job was neither one or the other, which is why my resignation included two key points:

1) I firmly believe in pedagogy -- giving students texts and asking them to memorize vocabulary is not, in any way, shape, or form, a good exercise in pedagogy for language learning. They can read texts at home until they are blue in the face. They shouldn't use class time for reading, translating, and memorization without context or student-perceived of value (finding their own meaning, understanding and importance for what is being instructed). If I can't teach them in my way, in a way that encourages them experiment and assimilate the language, then all (in my opinion), is lost. We are both wasting our time.

2) I am not a babysitter, nor am I the police. Oh good god, I am so far from my babysitting and policing years that it is not even funny. I now enjoy the luxury of teaching real adults -- people who have personal motivation and investment in what I am teaching. People who respect my work. People who listen. People who try. I do not need to go back to the teenager who hates me just because he hates English. To all of that, I say a big, resounding "bye bye"!

Onward and upward.

So what will I do instead? You know I get bored easily -- I've already got other projects.
I will work with some new adult clients AND I will go back to real university. I will teach students who have received a B1 on their BULATS exam and as a reward are put in a "fun class". That's even what the administration has been calling it. When meeting the head of the languages department, he asked me if I thought I would be able to produce a TV show with them and I replied fervently that nothing would make me happier. I'm full of ideas, of creativity, of energy... it should be a positive experience unlike the soul-sucking 3 hours of class I subjected myself to.

I feel bad for the students who wanted to be there and wanted to work, but at the same time those are the kinds of learners who will go out and do the work on their own. Having me there shouting at their classmates won't help them at all.

I'm looking forward to talking about my creative endeavors with my new students and my new professionals at the beginning of January. Here's to hoping 2013 will be another positive year of teaching.

Adults and Second Conditional

Getting back into the swing of my normal life after my stressful Monday afternoons is always nice. This morning I had a group of my professional students that started out as "true beginners" who are now well on their way to being pre-intermediate learners. Because we had already talked about the simple past, the future, and modal verbs for giving advice/making suggestions, I thought it would be a good idea to head into the conditionals. We talked about the first conditional a few weeks ago and last week we started the second conditional by having the students ask each other what they would do in a variety of student-generated ridiculous situations.

To bring it back around to professional themes today, I created an exercise where they would have to use both first and second conditional structures for giving each other advice (and refusing advice) to deal with troublesome office situations.

Here are the scenarios I put together this morning. We only made it through discussing three of them before time was already up! They gave each other good advice and did a good job using the first conditional to reply with a "yes but if I do that, then...will happen" reply.

Without further ado, a professionals-oriented mash-up of 1st and 2nd conditional tenses for ESL learners in the Western world:

1)     My boss is blackmailing my colleague.  What would you do?
(But if I do that, then he will … )

      2)  I’m working with a client who is completely racist. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then he will …)

3) My client said he preferred to work with me “under the table”. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then he will …)

 4) Two co-workers are having an affair. His wife is a friend of mine. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then he will …)

 5) I suspect my deskmate is an alcoholic. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then he will …)

6)   I discovered bad business practices at my company. I should have a promotion next month. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then will …)

7) I haven’t had a raise (an increase in my salary) in three years but I have a lot of new responsibilities. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then…)

 8) My colleague is late to work every morning. He should have a promotion next month. Maybe if I tell my boss, I will have the promotion instead. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then …)

 9)  My manager and I don’t get along. I love my job and my team but it is very difficult to work with him. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then …)

 10) I think my colleague is secretly working for the competition. What would you do?

(But if I do that, then…) 

The Difficult Class: My (failed) Plan, la suite

I made it through nearly six slides of the presentation I prepared. It started off well until I got to the group speaking bits. They would turn and talk to each other, but when it came time to share what was said, no such luck and for a variety of different reasons.

1) "No".

Why? I asked. Why wouldn't you want to answer an easy question where the answers are written on the board just behind me? A number of replies: This is stupid and it's too easy (so then why aren't you doing it?) I don't feel like it. Yeah, I know how to conjugate that verb, but I can't think of anything. (please remember that the verb in question was "to be" and they had a minute to think about it before I started calling on people).

2) "I hate English". Well that's not an answer to my question either. Why? "Because I don't understand".

The students had decided before they had ever even seen my presentation that it was too difficult just because it was in English. My point was that even if everything was only in English, they could still understand because after studying English since 6th grade, they should all have a pretty good understanding of the present simple. They do, they are just painfully argumentative and uninterested in listening to me. Sigh.

3) "You insult me and I don't like you". Well tough shit, Girl-Who-Has-Never-Been-On-Time. I am the teacher. An answer to the question "why don't you have an example?" after having been given the time to come up with one is not as seen above. Don't blame me for your lack of will to participate.

After sending out my third offender, I myself decided it was time to leave. I found the director, told him I was through, and that was that. Done.
We had a "heart-to-heart" with the class where everybody aired their grievances.
A number of students (not the trouble-makers, of course) came to apologize to me.
Others came to make their point. "We want this". And I said, "Yes, but if you don't give me XYZ, how can you expect me to think you are capable of doing ABC?" to which they replied, "Okay so we have some soul-searching to do." To which I replied, "Yes, you do. I can't do this alone."

It's true. The teacher plays a role and the student plays a role. If one person in the equation decides to stop playing their role, then the lesson won't work. A teacher cannot do a student's job and vice versa. It takes two to do the "Learning Tango".

I'm more or less convinced to keep going with them. I figure we have already come so far and failed so hard that it can't possibly get much worse or more exhausting. There's just a few problems that remain:

The director wants me to "teach the test" just to "get through this"... meaning, do texts, translate them, look at the vocabulary and call it a day. I told him that was against my teaching principles. I told him there was no pedagogy or practical application of that exercise and that I'd rather give it a go my way. He told me to take the easy route and just do texts.

I reckon if I continue, I'll try to do a mix. How can we do texts but no speaking exercises? How can we learn vocabulary without learning how to use it?

So we'll see where this goes. For the moment, I have no inspiration, motivation or desire to carry on with these kids but just like last time, maybe a stroke of something will hit me and we can find a way to work together (and maybe it will be less of a fail). I don't know. I'm trying to rebuild the foundation of a building that is in ruin. I've done it before, but I was a different person... not entirely sure I can do it again.

Ever dealt with a really difficult class?
Was it cultural or just situational?
What did you do to meet the challenge?

Who Am I?

ESL by Amber -- but who is this Amber character?

In short : American. Mother. Sister. Daughter. Friend. Teacher. Coach. Trainer. Instructor. Translater  Interpreter. 26 years old. Lives in Roubaix, France.

When my fifth year of teaching came to and end and I still had the desire to be a teacher, I realized that in short, I had "made it". The first five years are the make-it-or-break-it years for teachers, especially when you live in a foreign country. Lots of people fall into this job because it's something they can do in their foreign country while they are learning the language or while they are in transition. I am not one of those people. Teaching was a deliberate choice for me, even more so teaching language.
I can proudly say that in my sixth year of teaching, I am a "young veteran" of ESL in France, and that after six years in this country, a year of which I have been teaching independently, I still love teaching, but I love pedagogy even more.

So I'm a teacher. But who do I teach?

I teach babies. I teach toddlers and little kids. I teach big kids. I teach adults that think they are big kids but behave like little kids. I teach the serious, the laid-back, the old souls and the young at heart. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, smart or struggling... in short, I just teach.

I spent a year teaching primary school and a year teaching preschool. I spent four years teaching in a private business school parallel to teaching adults in companies. I've spent the last year specializing in English coaching and training for Web and IT professionals, from back/front end developers to designers, from SEO project managers to web analysts, from the big boss to the secretary -- I've taught them all. My clients at the moment are web agencies full of dynamic individuals who need to use English for their jobs... but that doesn't mean that's all. I go through life with my "teacher hat" on -- if people ask me questions, I answer them. If there's any opportunity to teach somebody something, I take it.

But how do I do it?

With a carefully planned schedule and an open heart and mind, that's how! More specifically though, I use the direct method. That means that my learners and I speak English, or the target language, 100% of the time that we are together from the first day of their classes to the last day, whether we are in the classroom or in front of the coffee machine. They learn through speaking, through making mistakes, and being corrected first by their peers, then by me. They learn through prompts which encourage them to speak on their level, about a variety of subjects that have meaning to the student. They speak within their learning zone by building on prior knowledge. We learn together by correcting eachother, asking questions, and motivating each other. 

For my students and I, confidence, trust and security are the key elements to creating a positive environment for fostering learning. 

Okay. Is that all?

No. I also teach teachers. I pride myself in my network of education professionals because just like our students, we can also learn from each other! I believe in sharing my experiences and explaining the difficulties I've come up against and how I managed. Most of all, I believe in learning from our mistakes, testing out new ideas and concepts, and encouragement, encouragement, encouragement.

The majority of the adults I work with come to me with excuses -- "sorry for my bad accent!" "Excuse me for my weak vocabulary!" "Oh, this would be easier in French!" -- afraid to make mistakes or be laughed at. In my lessons, we laugh with each other and we learn and grow together.

But what makes me different?

I like best practices. I like learning from the people I teach. I want to create a user-friendly, ergonomic method of education. I want to create social learning where different teachers share ideas and can adapt them to whatever audience they may have. I want to promote a method of learning that will encourage and foster open, positive communication.

So why the blog?

I'm doing this for two reasons:
1) Every year I meet new teachers. They always have the same issues -- classroom management, not enough direction, boring resources, difficult age levels, misunderstanding of cultural norms. If I can share and encourage others to share their experiences with these issues, then we can all be more efficient and reduce the time it takes to adapt to a new group and get the learning started faster.

2) Every year I see new (old) resources. The same books and the same lessons over... and over... and over. I haven't found a single textbook that is tailored to my students' needs. I make a lot of my own stuff and I'm sure other teachers do too. Why not share it, why not adapt it, and why not use it? After all, nobody ever said that they wanted to "get rich teaching". We can't make a fortune off of this stuff, so why not "get rich" in experience instead? How can we do that? Well, first of all... by sharing!

So that's why I'm here. I'm here to share, to exchange experiences, and to grow as a teacher, a learner, and a human being. I'm here to give, and maybe to take. To ask you questions, and to answer yours. I'm here to motivate you to find a passion for learning and teaching, and to hopefully contribute something to your life, no matter how small.

Happy learning, happy discovery, and most of all, happy teaching.

Amber