As an experimental ESL teacher, I'm not always sure how to measure "success" in the classroom. Students might perform well on a test, but then freeze up when I try to talk English to them in front of their parents. Or, they might figure out how to sound out a word, but forget what their newfound vocabulary means and how to use it during a class exercise.
Today, in Grades 2 and 3, though, we had moments that I think classify as "success."
In Grade 2, I handed back spelling quizzes. One of our sweet, shy, lower-performing students earned a spelling start today. It was his first time. All other nine members of Grade 2 cheered loudly for him. Early in the year, we had a little competition problem with Grade 2. One of our students got very, very bent out of shape when she didn't win a game, and we instituted a policy of, after every game, requiring the whole class to cheer for each other: "Good job Team 1! Good job Team 2! Good job Team 3!" She didn't cheer one day, and we had quite a major struggle of the wills, but ever since then, all of Grade 2 has been good about cheering for each other - even if they are sad that they didn't win.
When our first-time-spelling-star student came up to the front to put his sticker on the "Star Speller" board, his class was genuinely happy for him. It felt like a moment of "team spirit" success.
At the beginning of the year, I would avoid (at ALL cost!) allowing Grade 3 to get out of their seats unless it was a very specific, structure activity. With 22 of them (23 for a while), it felt like the second they were released from the expectations of their seats, behavior dissolved into a chaotic, maddening, free-for-all mess. I've gotten a LOT better about explaining my expectations of the behavior I want to see from them when we do classroom activities now (working in partners or small groups, relays, etc). Today, probably for only the third or fourth time this year, I instructed the students to not only stand up, but also to move their desks and chairs to the sides of the room. Six months ago, this would have resulted in a full 20 minutes of me trying to get their attention back on me, but today, in a mere five minutes flat, they had all the desks and chairs neatly against the walls, and were sitting in lines in their respective groups.
We played a version of a telephone-relay race (practicing asking and answering questions and pronouncing English words), and the game progressed in a (mostly) controlled manner, with everyone participating, and nobody getting hurt, and my patience remaining in check for a good 15 minutes. I looked at the clock at four minutes until the end of class time, and decided to go ahead and keep going for the last four minutes, even though some of the students were starting to get a little crazy (competition gets fierce among some of them... and others get bored easily and want to do other things). We were able to hold it together for those final four minutes, and the class listened diligently when I instructed them to put their desks and chairs back into order (in the past, I've been so frustrated at the end of class I just send the students on their way and put the room back together myself!).
Classroom management success!
It is in these areas - the character development of sharing each others joys and triumphs when one student makes improvement, and keeping yourself under control to be able to listen to the teacher and participate in fun games - that I find myself measuring my success as a teacher. I'm not sure that's what all teachers do, but for my first run at teaching elementary ESL, I feel like it's as good of a measuring stick as any I've got!
Today, in Grades 2 and 3, though, we had moments that I think classify as "success."
In Grade 2, I handed back spelling quizzes. One of our sweet, shy, lower-performing students earned a spelling start today. It was his first time. All other nine members of Grade 2 cheered loudly for him. Early in the year, we had a little competition problem with Grade 2. One of our students got very, very bent out of shape when she didn't win a game, and we instituted a policy of, after every game, requiring the whole class to cheer for each other: "Good job Team 1! Good job Team 2! Good job Team 3!" She didn't cheer one day, and we had quite a major struggle of the wills, but ever since then, all of Grade 2 has been good about cheering for each other - even if they are sad that they didn't win.
When our first-time-spelling-star student came up to the front to put his sticker on the "Star Speller" board, his class was genuinely happy for him. It felt like a moment of "team spirit" success.
At the beginning of the year, I would avoid (at ALL cost!) allowing Grade 3 to get out of their seats unless it was a very specific, structure activity. With 22 of them (23 for a while), it felt like the second they were released from the expectations of their seats, behavior dissolved into a chaotic, maddening, free-for-all mess. I've gotten a LOT better about explaining my expectations of the behavior I want to see from them when we do classroom activities now (working in partners or small groups, relays, etc). Today, probably for only the third or fourth time this year, I instructed the students to not only stand up, but also to move their desks and chairs to the sides of the room. Six months ago, this would have resulted in a full 20 minutes of me trying to get their attention back on me, but today, in a mere five minutes flat, they had all the desks and chairs neatly against the walls, and were sitting in lines in their respective groups.
We played a version of a telephone-relay race (practicing asking and answering questions and pronouncing English words), and the game progressed in a (mostly) controlled manner, with everyone participating, and nobody getting hurt, and my patience remaining in check for a good 15 minutes. I looked at the clock at four minutes until the end of class time, and decided to go ahead and keep going for the last four minutes, even though some of the students were starting to get a little crazy (competition gets fierce among some of them... and others get bored easily and want to do other things). We were able to hold it together for those final four minutes, and the class listened diligently when I instructed them to put their desks and chairs back into order (in the past, I've been so frustrated at the end of class I just send the students on their way and put the room back together myself!).
Classroom management success!
It is in these areas - the character development of sharing each others joys and triumphs when one student makes improvement, and keeping yourself under control to be able to listen to the teacher and participate in fun games - that I find myself measuring my success as a teacher. I'm not sure that's what all teachers do, but for my first run at teaching elementary ESL, I feel like it's as good of a measuring stick as any I've got!
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