4 Steps In Class: Getting students to be ready the way you want them to be

Something else that works in my classroom: 4 Steps in Class!

One of the biggest obstacles I faced in my first year was coping with classroom management. It is distresing trying to get students to be ready for class. By the end of the third month, I wrote down my ideals. I want students to greet the teacher politely, I want students to have all their books and stationeries ready, I want them to be courteous and listen to instructions.

Therefore, I made my four steps in class chart and drill this everytime I step into the class.

I will show the students the charts when I go into the classroom and before we do anything, I ask my students to read the instructions aloud. For students with problem with pronunciation, I will get them to repeat after me.

After reading the instruction, they have to carry out the instruction accordingly. Correct the students to achieve your standards.

It acts like a "Do Now" and once tailored to meet your class' needs, it helps students to understand and be reminded of classroom expectations.

My students have memorized these instructions perfectly now and can remind each other to adhere to the four steps in class. The plus plus plus point is that it acts as classroom decor!


Good luck trying this in class!

七転び八起き

I started reading this amazing blog a few months ago and it took my breath away. The blogger is 15 and joyful. She shares her insight and all things beautiful in her blog.

Which brings me to the title. The title comes from this particular blog. This is a Japanese proverb that literally means: fall down seven times and stand up eight. How beautiful this phrase is. Fall down seven times, stand up eight! It means when life knocks you down, you stand back up. You just keep trying.

Today, I rediscovered something that works in my classroom (I tested it out in all almost all of my classrooms since last year and it works wonderfully every single time!) and this activity I am taking about is the common and humble:

BINGO!

This is a super effective activity in my classes.

You can use BINGO game for practically every subject and every topic.

Some examples:

When I am teaching Grammar, I use BINGO for guided practice. For example, simple future tense using the format of "I will ... next weekend.".

1. Get the students to list down plans for the weekend on the board first. 
2. Then fill in the BINGO worksheet with the plans. 
3. Students take turn to read something from their worksheet but they need to state in full "I will (go swimming) next weekend". Only if they can state the sentence correctly they would be allowed to cross out the item on their BINGO sheet.
4. Once they cross out five item across or down their worksheet they win the game!

When I am teaching vocabulary, I use BINGO for revision.

1. Just list down the words on the board. 
2. Get students to put them into the BINGO worksheet. 
3. For my class, I will state the Malay meaning of the words, and they need to cross off the English equivalent. 
4. The first person to get BINGO is the winner! (Idea stolen from Shannon)

You can use this for synonyms, antonyms, sentence structure, question words, SVA, literature component, reading, speaking etc. etc.


BINGO is a super game in my classes after the Flyswatter Game (NOTHING beats the Flyswatter Game, of course). And it works for almost any subject there is (History, Mathematics, Geography, Science etc.)! The kids are always super excited if you narrate the game in an upbeat tone and even better if it is organized in groups because it would add in some competitiveness amongst groups!

I am glad that we enjoyed ourselves today, and ended it with good old Friday Song (:

It's time to wrap up March! Enjoy the holidays!

In Reality

Going into this particular classroom makes me feel nauseated, dizzy, defeated and tired. It is not because thier English is too far behind. It is not because they are slow learners or that they do not want to participate in the classroom activities.

They bring the worst out of me. The way they chat in the classroom during IP, the way they slouch in their chairs when you address them, the way their eyes judge you when you talk to them, the way they take offense of every consequences for their misbehaviour.

I shout, and yell, and shriek and chase after them. All these seem hysterical when I am no longer in the class as this is definitely not how I normally look like in the public.

All I have left in me is the hope that He is still in charge and He will be the agent of change in me as well as my class.

Extending that compassion. Delaying the judgement.

It is so hard to stay focus in classes, I learn.

How do you focus in English class, when the weather is so hot?

How do you focus in English class, when you are feeling so woozy and sleepy?

How do you focus in English class, when you cannot understand a single word the teacher is saying?

How do you focus in English class, when your cousin just passed away a few days ago?

How do you focus in English class, when your boyfriend has just broke up with you?

How do you focus in English class, when you were just caught stealing?

How do you focus in English class, when you were found to be involved in a crime?

How do you focus in English class, when your mother remarried very recently?

How do you focus in English class, when your mother just lost her job?

How do you focus in English class, when your friend just got suspended?

How do you focus in English class, when you just got beaten up by some older kids in school?

How do you focus in English class, when everyone in class are picking on you?

How do you focus in English class, when you are isolated and stereotyped being a minority?

How do you focus in English class, when your teacher is always so angry?

How do you focus in English class, when you see no connection between English and solving your problems?

I realize today that some days I forgot that my kids are just like me, breathing and thinking human beings with their equal share of problems and heartbreaks.

So here I was, thinking the world of simple present tense and smple past tense and being so upset and agitated by the lack of interest in my kids when they are just too bogged up in their mind to even try.

In the quest of planning lessons that will distract kids from their existing problems!

And instant pick-me-ups for the sleepy-heads!

It's Saturday and it's MARCH!

In comes the black March! Last year around this time, most of the fellows in our first cohort were having a devastating time. I was in a terrible state myself in March last year. I was not eating on regular basis, I was always working well into the evening in school but that did not help at all in raising any sort of efficacy in the classroom, I woke up every morning finding excuses to not go to school, I lost confidence in the mission, sense of possibility running low, well you get the picture.

I coud not believe that it has been one year since that time I was in the death valley. I am still very much in a bad shape with deadlines, programs, syllabus, exercise books etc. wrestling with me for my personal time. I am still an amateur when it comes to being a teacher and every day I fear that something I did or something that I did not do will cause to my kids to kill themselves or to be depressed or be doomed in the future but I have grown so much. At least, I have learned to take things one step at a time, at least I am eating decent meals at least once a day, I can breathe better in the classroom as well as in the staffroom, I lose my temper less, I have the capacity to come up with new ideas and campaigns and programs once in a while.

This year has been so much better.

One of the things that I really fear at the moment is to become compliant of the existing system, the existing classroom culture, and also to be too much into the role of being just-a-teacher-who-dictates.

But, grace is constant in teaching, as in we are showered by grace from time to time, by the children, the parents etc. Yesterday, I totally blew up on two of my kids. One did not complete his work (which was due a week ago) when everyone else in the class has already moved ahead to a second assignment. One was having problem completing his work and was caught copying the answers from the answer sheet.

It was all teary and loud and angry noises and scoldings etc. but today they showed up in school, along with 7 other classmates to help decorate the classroom. They hold no grudge and they were still respectful despite being hammered so hard. One of the boys when asked to design something to put on the wall actually doodled my name in calligraphy (: 

After working hard the whole morning, we had lunch together
in a restaurant outside school.

Posing with their food. Super invested students who made such improvement
in English last year. We will continue to work hard this year.

I forgot to take pictures of the class, AGAIN!? But maybe I will take one after we put up the curtains and is done with the notice board.

One of our fellows shared this video on our Facebook page and I was completely blown away! It is so creative and is such a great opportunity to raise awareness of quality education. Enjoy the video!