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27 June 2006
M.
M. was my biggest failure this year I guess.
Not in terms of teaching... just merely in terms of communicating, which is the basic task of a teacher. Talking to your pupils, finding the right way to do it. It’s hard; I guess it takes some time. Should I privilege dialogue, above all? But what does it mean? Should I be more strict? Can I really talk to them? Can they share? Are they ready to open up? Is it my job to listen to them? How far should I go?
I often restrained myself. I forced myself not to say too much, just trying to get to know them enough to have a good working atmosphere. Tried to see if there were any problems; failed to see them.
But I saw M. had a problem. Not a big one. He was just fed up with school I guess. He was in the middle of a crisis, wondering where to go and why.
He had this very nonchalant attitude, not caring about anything, talking like a baby, smoking weed (and stopping when realizing that we started to become aware). It was just all nonsense to me. I saw distress. And I also saw stupidity. Not in the wrong sense. Just teenage-like stupidity you know.
I talked to him many times, gently first, then tried a more severe way. Didn’t work. He never said anything. Never expressed himself other than negatively.
I tried to help him out first, being behind him during the exercises to encourage him. Then he gave up. The tests started to be really bad. I tried to hold on it, to keep encouraging him but I think I also partly gave up when I saw there was strictly no response.
As a young teacher, you believe you can make a difference. You have all those big ideas you know. I guess it's legitimate. Well, I still have them fortunately. M. made me wonder for sure but he didn't shake my beliefs.
He left as he came. In between the two, I’m wondering what happened in his mind. I wonder if my class left any mark on him; I wonder how he’ll remember me.
I hope he will become someone good. I hope he will grow up and find his place in the world. I won’t be there to see it.
That reminds me of something that one of our teachers at the IUFM said: “you plant seeds all the time when you’re a teacher. But you’ll never see the plants grow. That’s the frustration of our job.”
22:55 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (7) | Email this | Tags: communication, teenager
20 June 2006
Feedback
Today was a special day. I asked my pupils to take a piece of paper and to write what they thought about the English classes (and the English teacher!) all along the year. I wanted to have some feedback to help me progress in my job.
I had two different kinds of reaction.
With my first class (15-16 year olds) most of them did it, saying positive things – which was good. Some didn’t do it – they gave back a blank sheet. Or they just wrote a few words, not even about the contents of the class. It was anonymous, it’s the end of the year, they had nothing to fear. One said “don’t look!”. I said “no I’m not looking”. He wrote (in English): “I have much appreciated this year” (sic).
What I’ve realized reading this is their self-restraint. He didn’t want me to read that he liked the class. Only the girls were more direct. The boys didn’t say much – keeping their kind of “pupil-like dignity”: “No we’re not going to tell you; it’s not part of the contract”. Yeah. Right. I’ve nearly forgotten that. They’re in the middle of those trouble years where saying to an adult “I like what you’re doing” is impossible. They’re too much concerned about themselves, their own life. I’m just their teacher, nothing else. The invisible barrier is there, impassable. It was stupid of me to expect more. What should I expect???
They’re leading their lives, I’ve been a tiny detail in them. They’re going on with different things, on a different way.
After all, I am, too, ready to move on, to start a new life, far from here, in a new school, a new region.
Then I met my second class (17-18 year olds). They were only 8 – it’s really the end of the year for them, most of them are not coming to class any more. They took their blank sheets and wrote – and wrote again. I read them after they left. It was the last time I saw them. The little notes were just... amazing. Saying I was a very good and enthousiastic teacher, that I made them progress, that they learned many things, that I was nice... I even had a love declaration ! ;-) “You’re the sun of my life. I like your style – don’t change. You’re beautiful when you’re angry. Big Kiss. R and T.”. They both gave me their numbers on a paper, asking me to send them messages !! ;-)
I held these little folded notes like some precious and secret revelations that I couldn’t put away. I packed my stuff, keeping them in hand, went to lock the door. I felt tears coming up. I felt sadness. I felt my heart pinching.
They were simply the first ones. Can you ever forget about your first times? Don’t they make you feel special? Isn’t it the kind of thing that lingers in you?
I think it is.
22:35 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this | Tags: feedback, notes, pupils, feelings.
13 June 2006
Life of Pi
Life of Pi by Yann Martel is the kind of book you can’t talk about without revealing the whole plot or what the book is all about.
All I can say is that Life of Pi is a fascinating story. It is a classical survivor story (a teenage boy stuck on a lifeboat) but it has many intricacies and surprises.
I enjoyed it very much!
Now that I think about it, it is an interesting book to study with a Terminale (last year of Hig School), literature speciality. Because it is not too long, it is not too difficult (well maybe the vocabulary would be a bit challenging) and above all, it is very interesting to discuss the book with others! Because it raises many questions and doubts – above all towards the end. I am sure the students would enjoy it !
Life of Pi has received the Man Booker Prize 2002.
***************** SPOILER ****************
For those who’ve read the book and want to talk about it, I have to say that at first, like everybody I guess, I thought the story was true, as the author makes us believe. When I came towards the end, I really started to think that it was an extraordinary story. But I still didn’t question the reality of it. Yes, I am a bit naive !!!! The end left me puzzled. I started to doubt. After a quick search on the internet, my doubts were confirmed: it is indeed a work of fiction.
Wow. And shit. I wanted to believe it. But the trick is good.
For more reading:
http://www.powells.com/fromtheauthor/martel.html
How the author got inspired.
http://www.book-club.co.nz/books/13lifeofpi.htm
A good review.
Extracts from the review:
“Martel's talent combines both suspense and beauty, horror and philosophy, gritty reality and quirky allegory. It is imaginative, it is strange, it is profound. It surprises you and makes you wonder. Above all, its haunting questions linger with you. I highly recommend it. Martel is a master of creating a fiction."
Liz Fraser
"Should fiction be believable?"
Good question.
I've still not made my mind up about the questions the book raises concerning fiction and reality. I would be glad to share them with you in comments.
16:05 Posted in what the missteacher reads, listens to and watches | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: life of pi, Yann Martel, survivor, fiction, reality
06 June 2006
DIY- lesson n°1: the big clock
I had the chance this year (during a second training) to teach young learners of English – aged 11. It was their first year. I had to teach them about telling the time, which led me to make up a big clock, with my own little hands ! I did it from scrap and the pupils loved it ! So here are my tips:
Take some rough carboard – from boxes or bought in a stationery shop. Cut a round (approximately 30 to 40 cm diameter). Stick blank paper on one side (you may need several sheets). Write the numbers with a thick black pen. You may also draw a face to make it funnier. Make the hands also out of cardboard. Don’t forget to make the ends round to stick them in the middle of the clock. Colour them all in black.
And now you need the essential tool: a “pin” (attache parisienne in French) like this:
With the legs spread (please don’t laugh) on the back side, like this:
You need a bit of force to pierce the cardboard; you may want to “pre-pierce” with another tool beforehand.
Then, to protect your clock, you need to laminate it. Doing it in shops or buying a machine can end up being quite expensive. I bought plastifying cover for books in a roll. It’s called Tesa®. It’s like this:
It’s hard to put correctly (because it keeps rolling!) but it looks good in the end !
Here is the result:
I did another clock with colours to distinguish “past” from “to”. It corresponded with the pupils’ book. Here it is:
It’s the same principle except that I used coloured paper.
How to use it in class:
The young pupils love to manipulate things so this big clock is above all made for them.
You can act a bit to make things funnier. Keep the clock hidden in a bag and reveal it when all the pupils are ready to work. Whispering a “oohhhh” gives a better effect. I gave a name to my clock (since it has a face) – “Look, It’s Jim the clock!”. I just think it’s funny ! ;-)
Sure, first you need to introduce the new structure (telling the time). You can hold the clock in front of you and show with your finger. For example, you can say “it is five o’clock” by showing the “5” and the big hand while you say o’clock (it means that you have seen or revised the numbers beforehand with them). The same principle applies with “past” and “to”. Do it in the right direction. I mean you turn the big hand 10 minutes by 10 minutes for example while telling the time and making them repeat. Make a full round so that they see what happens when you come to “to”.
You introduce the question and make them find the answer.
After some minutes of practising, you can hand the clock to a pupil who s going to stand up, go to a friend and ask the question. You can already start this activity just with the “o’clock” structure.
You let the pupils go around, asking the question while you turn the hands everytime.
Just ask for correction when there is a mistake.
You can do this activity for most of the class. Make sure you have enough time to hand out a sheet with several clocks on it to write the times – and therefore to have something written in their copybook.
They never seem to be bored while manipulating the clock so you can start again the next class to make sure everybody understood. You can then hand the clock to one pupil directly at the beginning of the class.
Have fun !
14:40 Posted in DIY for the class | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: clock, time, young learners, DIY
02 June 2006
The Geek
The training year at the IUFM is composed of two kinds of training : you have the one concerning your subject. Fairly good, not complete but good. And you have one made out of conferences on the broad subjects of school, education, teenagehood, etc. They are the worst. This institution (IUFM) financed by the State is losing so much money paying people who don’t know what they’re talking about and who talk about it very badly. This is one of the (few) strange things about teachers’ training: we have to listen to people who are NOT teachers, who, for the main part, have NEVER been in front of pupils but who think they can teach us somehow. This is utterly immodest.
We had the best example last Wednesday for one of the last conferences (thanks God). He was a philosophy University lecturer... yes... philosophy. Oh my. You can imagine. He was supposed to talk about secularism in school. We didn’t even approach the subject of school.
He was the perfect example of the GEEK. I don’t think we have an exact equivalent in French. I love the word GEEK. The geek is completely dressed in green (yes... completely) but not a normal green you see, no no, an ugly green (the kind you can find in sick animals’ excrements). Yes, the geek has no taste in clothes – and in other things actually. He has glasses (suuuuure), but too big for him, too old, not even clean (yuck). His hair is pressed on his skull; he’s actually always looking older than he is. The attitude is stiff, shy. The words are far way too complicated, the sentences too long as if he wanted to compensate his predicament by a highly elaborated vocabulary (only understandable by his fellow geek-friends). The geek doesn’t care. He despises you because you are everything he’s not: sociable, open-minded and secure about yourself. So he’s showing off with his knowledge since it’s his only way to exist. He spends his life in books (or nowadays in front of his computer) not to have to face the real world, full of those (also despicable) girls he’s afraid of.
I know what I’m talking about, I saw one. It’s a chance, they’re not going out often.
16:10 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: training, IUFM, geek