Class Setups

I know I haven’t updated the blog that frequently. Sorry about that. At this point the days feel a bit repetitive.

My survey class normally goes like this: Write a power point of maybe 40-50 slides, show videos in-between the slides, there’s a break in the middle of two hours. Most of the class is spent speaking and lecturing, not interacting. Since the idea of the class is getting an idea and information, not learning a skill, there’s little practice or interaction.

The class starts with a “Hello”, and then a quiz, in which I tell them not to speak or have their books open or I’ll fail their quiz for that day. I’ve not caught anybody cheating yet, but I have a good feeling that’s in part because I need to read the questions out loud while presenting them on the screen.

Both classrooms have a projector, but my Friday class, I discovered, has a microphone that works, so I use the microphone to speak. The Friday projector has issues with the color yellow, so maps are hard to read and present. I go through my files and presentation, there’s a break, continue the presentation of a mix between power point, pictures, and video.

I chose power point not because I think it’s a good teaching tool, but because I think it’ll be a useful review tool. I get the points on the slides, I send them to the students to review because a lot of them struggle with understanding oral English. Apparently, with the microphone, it helps them understand what I’m saying- maybe it’s because they’re used to hearing English through a system and electronically, or maybe because it’s louder- I remember hearing something about microphones in elementary schools, and that it went really well then. So I have a combination of videos, power points, and a microphone in teaching.

In my audio visual class, there’s a lot more interaction. We have maybe 20 minutes of talking at the beginning, and then we watch the video. When we reach the part with the script, we’ll then listen, follow along with the script, then read through the script, ask me questions, and listen to the video again. I often can go through this 2 times, and there’s a little bit of time left over to show a fun video at the end. The video is fun, not quizzed, and usually visually interesting. I’m hoping it’s merely a fun way to listen to English. I know they all want subtitles, but I refuse; I want them to practice listening.

The setup of that class is nice; I have control of the master computer, and they only have displays that I can control. Isn’t that fun? I think that’s fun. I have another display screen to make sure that I see what they see. The only downside is that I feel that from behind my massive computer desk, I am far away. I enjoy being in front of the students, so I’ll often walk in front of the desk even if it doesn’t work out well.

My conversation class is little more than a blackboard, podium, and their desks. I finally managed to get them to sit in a circle, but each day is a little different. That’s probably the most fly by the seat of my pants class that I do teach.

They’re all very cute and lovely, though. I enjoy them very much, and they enjoy my trick-or-treating class excursions very much.