Jeremy Lrikes Spring, Vacation the Weather Is Warm

Just a few funnies from my classes this week...

-Sometimes I find that I don't have enough time at work to plan/finish planning all lessons, so I resort to just "planning" on winging the textbook section of my lesson, if that's possible.  All my lessons include triple amount out-of-book activities, because the dry curriculum is just that, dry. But beyond that. It's awful. Plain awful. I would feel bad for the kids to sit through the videos they put on the CDs, but I have to endure them too. What is difficult is when I come across something I haven't prepared for, i.e. an incorrect grammar piece on one of the conversation videos. Came across this yesterday, during a video where two characters are asking directions to a doughnut shop. When they seem confused by the directions given, the woman tells them to just follow her, by saying "Let's come along with us." It's tough, because I don't want them to ever see that again, but they get tested on the book's material. Alas, one of the pitfalls of a crummy curriculum development team.

Unrelated photo: Malia and I love eating this seaweed stuffed with rice as a side to our dinners here.

-At my smaller school, the English level is LOW. I was surprised to find out, however, that my students grasp numbers fairly well. They did an activity during a "What are these? They are my _________. How many ________ do you have? I have ____ _________." lesson. They had to draw an item, and number that item for the dialogue ([draw]pencils x 36), and the partner is told "higher" or "lower" to the first guess if it's incorrect. They keep guessing until they get it. One kid drew erasers x 54. His partner starts off his guesses with like 5, increasing by 1 each time, until I help him by telling him to guess 80. "Lower." "79.......78......." I tell him to try 60, as we are almost out of time. "Lower (laughing)." "59....58....57.....56....55.....53" ........!!!...kid, come on. You had me convinced my teachings weren't in vain! The laughter from his partner and my bewilderment must of helped him trigger his gaffe, as he quickly got the answer and scurried out the door when I dismissed them.

-Sixth grade. Lesson: Spring is here. New vocabulary: vacation. Word "vacation" temporarily replaces (just one student): because. Target language: My favorite season is _________, because ________. Sentence becomes "My favorite season is summer vacation I have a summer vacation." Why? "Vacation I have summer vacation."....Sounds like someone suffering from an attention disorder who likes run-on sentences. Sounds like every student I've taught...Funny, though!

-My 1st and 2nd graders are grouped together, and the second grade teacher sits in to help control the chaos. Now, when Koreans say any word, English or Korean, that has an /i/ sound after an /s/ sound, it sounds like /sh/. For instance, "sin" would be "shin", and "cinderblock" would be "shinderblock." Don't know where I got those examples from. Anyway, it's quite funny when she tells the students to sit down....

-In that same sixth grade class, I had to explain to the students that saying "I like summer because I can go swimming at the beach" is correct, whereas "....because I can swimming at the beach" isn't. Then I had a mental breakdown, thinking how hard it is for ESL or EFL learners to grasp grammar, when I could also teach these as correct: I can swim, I can go swimming, I like swimming, I like to go swimming, I like going swimming, I swim, I like to swim, etc. Yes, these aren't always the same when given the context, but wow is it tough to face (especially when most students have Korean teachers who don't know the correct ways).