Final exam(1)

Final exam(2)

 Today is 10th December, 2025. I have been English teacher in the most popular kindergarten for 10 years. The reason which my workplace is well-known among many parents is that we have taught our students by unique and special methods unlike the other kindergartens. Would you like to know about the secret of my school? Now, I am going to talk about that.

 First, we let our students take a test which informs their own learning style before we start a new semester. In the past, most students was able to know only their IQ and EQ. Even though they knew these things, it did now help them improve their English ability. However, our test is totally different from them. The structure of test is similar to them, but we can discover suitable learning style for each student from it. There are five classes related to learning style in our school. If one student is good at doing exercise, his class will be class for physical. Also, if another one is interested in wrting and reading, his class will be class for verbal, too. The number of students each class is under 12 and they have this class every 2 hours a day. 10 years ago, when I worked in another school, most of my students looked so bored and they did not have interest about English. On the other hand, current students really enjoy learning English as well as their English has been improving dramatically.

 Second, we make our students have a exact motivation before new semester starts. In terms of study, having certain purpose is the most important thing. Because of this, we give a time to think about their motivation and they have to express it by drawing or writing. Even if their goal is just for getting good marks, it does not matter. Having exact purpose is very crucial. We found that student who has his own goal shows better achievement than another one who does not have a goal.

 Third, before starting class, we welcome and greet with our students by doing handshake Q&A. When I studied TESOL in my university, I learned about it and I was eager to apply this way in the future. So I suggested it to my boss. As soon as we applyed it, it is very effective way to check our students's current learning state. We can ask what we learnt last lesson as well as we can tall about their daily life by handshaking. To be honest, it is quite hard to communicate with each student face to face, but we can share our our feelings by doing this.

 Fourth, every teachers in my school tries to educate our students by communicative language teaching. In prehistoric times, it was common way to teach them by grammar translation method. It had many negative effects. For instance, teachers let them memorize vocabulary and sentence and students usually felt tedious due to this. That is why students could feel nervous and they did not speak English at all when they encounter foreigners. To solve these problems, we teach them by doing various activities to improve their speaking skill such as role play and dicussion time in English. When they are doing it, I do not disturb them and I just assist them when they need my help.

 Finally, students have a free time to study whatever they want by computer every 1 hour each day. There are lots of websites which help their English learning by themselves. Most of all, the most popular website is 'Lyrics traning' among our students. They offer various songs, including song for children. They not only listen to music but also study English listening.

 That is all thing which explain the secret of our school's success. I really satisfied with teaching English for children and I would like to educate them by more varied tools. I am going to find it. :)

01/12/15

• What did think as you watched your videos?

After watching my video, I was quite satisfied with behavior of speaking. In my opinion, the most important attitude in terms of discussion and presentation is a loud voice and exact pronunciation. I think I have both of them. My voice was so loud that another people could hear and my pronunciation was also quite exact. However, I have a weakness as a speaker as well. When I talked about subject that is familiar for me, I could answer it confidently, but I lost my confident and my speaking was slower in opposite situation. Last thing is that my tone and intonation was robotic. 

• How could you have improved what you said - language correction, speaking style, or anything else?

 I concluded that I should fix my robotic speaking style. To improve this, I have to practice English speaking repeatedly. For example, I really like to watch American drama. When I watch it, I use English subtitle to understand their conversation easily. By this, I could learn exact pronunciation and I sometime could imitate their speaking. 

It will help me have more natural speaking than now.

11/24/15

*What thoughts did you have about the specific things shown in the videos?

→ I was really surprised about teacher's challenge for students. Now, I teach English for teenagers in small institute, I have never tried to teach them by new teaching method. Although they sometime feel tedious, I always let them memorize vocabulary and solve some questions which are for their exam. I know that it is wrong way as a teacher, but I think it is inevitable especially in Korea. Most korean think getting good mark in test is only their purpose and it show their real achievement of their studying. I'm really sorry about that. When I went to abroad to study English, All teacher at school used various kind of class material to help us make sense our lesson like teachers who appeared in videos. After watching video, I turned back my behavior and I wanted to be a special teacher for my students. 

*How have you (or others you know) included these in your teaching?

→ I found only one thing is included in my teaching skill. I'm very glad to know it. It is giving clear instructions. When I teach my students, I use book as teaching material. During lesson, I make them memorize vocabulary by giving specific time. If I don't do that, they lose their concentration and make a noise with their classmates. That's why I always give them exact time and also it help to teach them easier. 

*How might use these in your current or future teaching?

Starting the Lesson with a BangUsing Guessing ActivitiesHandshake Q & A FishbowlDialogue CirclesVoice ProjectionGiving Clear InstructionsTeacher Movement and PositioningUsing Gestures and Nonverbal CommunicationStaying Focused on Teaching and Not Being DistractedDealing with Behavior Issues

→ I think I can't use all of these material for my teaching, but one thing that I really want to try in the future is Handshake Q&A. As soon as I watched that video, I was fond of this teaching way. Because it is helpful to make a close relationship between teacher and student as well as check each students's condition. As a teacher, Communicating with students is also critical thing. That's why I want to educate my students by this method.

*What systems of behavior management/discipline do/will you use in your teaching?

→ When I watch several videos, some teacher in England tried to fix their tone and habit of their speaking. After watching that scenes, I considered that making a gentle voice is also important thing to educate especially for young students. I often shout when I don't listen my speaking and I usually say quite quickly when I explain something to them. So I'm going to make a considerable voice and tone for my students.

Welcome to the world of cooking

03/11/15

1. Which sites and resources were of most/ least interest as a language learner? Why?
The most interesting site was 'English central' to me. There are a lot of videos and it also offers a English subtitle and explanation of vocabulary. In addition, I could choose a different type of video depending on my level. It might be helpful to improve my listening skill. On the othet hand, the least interesting site was reading site. I wanted to read a novel, but the structure of site was quite complicated. Because of this, I could not read what I wanted to see.

2. Which sites and resources might be useful as a teacher? why?
'English hilfen' site might be useful to teach English as a teacher. There are a various kinds of quizes about grammar which we can make a error easily in the site. Also, the type of quiz is like a game, so it makes students enjoy doing these quizes without any pressure. I would like to provide this site to students after teaching grammar as a review.

3. Which other sites have been useful to you as a learner or teacher?
When I was in NewZealand, I used to enter 'lyrics training' site. Also, this site was very popular among other students. It provided us a variety of pop songs and we had to fill in some blanks by listening music. Thanks to music, we really enjoyed doing this game and also it helped us improve our listening skill. It is the most useful site to me as a learner.

4. What did you enjoy about spending time in the computer lab vs the classroom.
Of course, I really enjoy spending time in the computer lab. We always have a class in classroom and the only things that we do in classroom is just listening teacher's lecture and looking at white board. Due to these, I sometimes feel bored. However, I did lots of interesting things such as game in computer lab unlike classroom and I could choose a material which I wanted to do. That is why I was satisfied with studying in computer lab.

27/10/15

today's class was so interesting. It was about flipped-class. Before class, I have never heard about it. Because this teaching method is not common in Korea as well as other countries, but some school in British have tried this method nowadays. During class, we was a various videos about it and most of all, the memorable video was story about korean middle school students for me. While they were studying at school, they felt bored easily in terms of their class and they used to sleep for class  just like normal korean students. When I watched their behavior, I laughed at them. Because their behavior was so similar to my behavior when I was middle school student. The reason which I felt bored easily was that their teaching skill was tedious to me and I already learnt it in 학원 before studying it at school. However, in documentary, some teachers changed their teaching skill from original one to flipped-class skill. After changing their method, the result was so incredible! Most students participated in their class and concentrate on it very well unlike before. Also, their exam score was amazing. Most of them got higher score than before and one student went up his score even 30. I was really surprised about that result and I think that all of schools in Korea have to accept this method. However, it might be a revolution in the area of education and it could take a lot of time to change eduation way. I hope that I will see this teaching skill at school soon!