Some days teaching feels amazing - the students are making the connections on their own, and you feel awesome about the lesson or activity that you did that day. And then, there are days where you just aren't sure about anything - the students aren't engaged, you feel like you are pulling teeth to get an answer or discussion going, and it is just so forced.
This week has been a mix of those extremes, and man is it exhausting!
In my ESL C class, we started our book study unit. There are three different novels (each of a different level of difficulty). At first the students seemed excited to start reading a book all in English. As a class we read "The Paper Bag Princess" to learn the skills that they will then be using in their own novels - and they loved it! It was so easy for them - they created an awesome list of adjectives, they could find examples of direct and indirect characterization in the story, and they were so excited to take that knowledge and find those examples in their novels.
Today, however, it was torture; that excitement that they felt yesterday was short-lived. Most of my students were glued to their phones, and the ones who prefer to do nothing, did exactly that. They sat there, and read the same page for about 15 minutes. When it was time to move into our small groups to start looking at character development, it wasn't any better. And it didn't matter if I sat next to them, or if I took the phones away, the energy from the day before was gone. And getting them to speak in English?! Ha! . . . It was just that kind of day.
It is days like today that make me second guess what I do - how can I make it easier for everyone to want to engage, for everyone to want to read and learn more English?! How can I bottle up their positive energy and save it for a day like today? I don't have the answer. The only thing that I know for certain is that these days are humbling.
These days are the days that drive me to get better at what I do, to seek out the expertise of other educators to see how they engage their students, to seek out strategies that can bring my teaching to the next level.
While I may not have the answers today, I will continue on this seemingly impossible adventure, and I will continue to get back up and try again and again and again. . . as many times as is necessary. And while it may be an exhausting process, I can only hope that it might become a little easier, and that my arsenal of strategies will increase so that I have more options for days like today.
This week has been a mix of those extremes, and man is it exhausting!
In my ESL C class, we started our book study unit. There are three different novels (each of a different level of difficulty). At first the students seemed excited to start reading a book all in English. As a class we read "The Paper Bag Princess" to learn the skills that they will then be using in their own novels - and they loved it! It was so easy for them - they created an awesome list of adjectives, they could find examples of direct and indirect characterization in the story, and they were so excited to take that knowledge and find those examples in their novels.
Today, however, it was torture; that excitement that they felt yesterday was short-lived. Most of my students were glued to their phones, and the ones who prefer to do nothing, did exactly that. They sat there, and read the same page for about 15 minutes. When it was time to move into our small groups to start looking at character development, it wasn't any better. And it didn't matter if I sat next to them, or if I took the phones away, the energy from the day before was gone. And getting them to speak in English?! Ha! . . . It was just that kind of day. It is days like today that make me second guess what I do - how can I make it easier for everyone to want to engage, for everyone to want to read and learn more English?! How can I bottle up their positive energy and save it for a day like today? I don't have the answer. The only thing that I know for certain is that these days are humbling.
While I may not have the answers today, I will continue on this seemingly impossible adventure, and I will continue to get back up and try again and again and again. . . as many times as is necessary. And while it may be an exhausting process, I can only hope that it might become a little easier, and that my arsenal of strategies will increase so that I have more options for days like today.
Comments
Post a Comment