Teaching Goal

Hi All,

I am back at school (yesterday was a National holiday) and although I was supposed to teach today I managed to get out of actually teaching. This is because a. I wasn't very happy with the lesson I created for this week (it was boring and not fun) b. I am tired from yesterday and c. the students have midterms tomorrow, sat. and Monday. All this adds up to my students having my class as a self-study time. I thought this would be like a study hall, where I would be in the room and watch them, but it turns out that most of the Korean teachers went to watch the classes instead of me! Which was super nice of them. I only had to attend 2/5 classes today. This has given me lots of time which I have used in very productive ways (surprisingly). Instead of just gchatting or watching t.v. online I managed to study some Korean, lesson plan a little for next week, and get excited/interested in teaching again.

I enjoy teaching and am fairly good at it, but sometimes I am not all that interested in it. I felt like that was happening the past two weeks. However, I have a goal for my students to reach at the end of this semester- make their own podcast. I had this idea when I came to Korea, but thought it would depend on my student's English ability, resources, etc. When I began planning my lessons I threw the idea out because I thought it would be too difficult. My student's English level is decent, I would say most of them fall into the intermediate range- with a few outliers (in both directions) here and there. I really want my lessons to be productive and my classes to have a product showing their English ability at the end of my time here in Korea. I really think that a podcast is the way to go. We have a language lab downstairs and I think if I structure the assignment correctly (step by step), my students will be able to surpass my expectations (like the Green Eggs and Ham lesson).

All the lessons I have taught thus far either teach or review a skill my students can use to make a podcast. Such as reviewing introductions, having confidence when speaking, and reviewing contractions (speaking like a native English speaker!). Next week I am going to do a lesson on syllables, again this will help with pronunciation. I am fairly certian I can continue in this theme to prepare them for creating a podcast.

I will create a rubric with all the requirements. Something like: a written script of what will be said, making sure everyone speaks, some parts of speech, etc. I want to have students work in groups of 3-4 and create a podcast around a topic they are intested in- something surrounding Korean or American culture- I'll make a list later.

Now that I have some of my logistics settled I need to check with the school to see if this is possible. Mainly that they'll let me download the two programs on every computer in the language lab I need to make the podcasts. I think I'll also need to make sure it's okay if I put the podcasts online- to protect my students' privacy, etc. So, we'll see...I guess I could still do the assigment even if we cannot record them. But I'm super excited about this possibility. Note: it would also be difficult to navigate all my students through these programs!

Okay- back to planning class for next week- so I can leave for this weekend without worrying about anything!

-me :)

P.S. I uploaded pictures of my friend David teaching (I went to visit him two weeks ago) and pictures around my apartment/Daegu, and most notably (sorry David) pictures from the Andong Mask Festival! I went there yesterday and I'll post more pics and maybe even some vids on here soon. This post was originally supposed to be about the festival, but I got excited about the podcast idea! I'll post more about the festival (probably tomorrow)!