Grading: A Pro Tip

Grading: a Pro Tip

If you keep track of your grades in a spreadsheet of some kind, this does not apply to you.

However, if you are like me and keep track of your grades on those paper attendance sheets your university gives you, then heed this advice. As an aside, I don't do the spreadsheet thing because my uni, quite ridiculously wants everything done on paper and I refuse to do the work twice.

But, onward to the grading pro tip. Every single time you enter a grade of some sort, photocopy the paper and stash it away in some drawer, or file folder, either at home or at work. Then, if you lose your main folder that you carry around to class every day through some unforeseen disaster, your disaster will actually be a whole lot less terrible.

I've never actually lost my folder, but you never know.

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Reader Question: Sample Syllabus for a University Conversation Class

This one from Joshua:

"Could you post a sample of a syllabus that you would use for a University conversation class in Korea?"

Hey there Joshua, no problem.  Check out the link here to one that I used last semester:

English Conversation Sample Syllabus

Some (most) people make their syllabi far more complicated/official sounding than this one. But, I like to keep it simple since it's my style and I always try to keep my audience in mind (students with sometimes quite basic English skills) and not worry too much about appearances for the sake of the admin.

New Year's Teaching Resolutions

Here are my New Year's Resolutions with regards to teaching:

1. Plan lessons at least 2 weeks in advance. In the past, I have been very organized, planning stuff weeks ahead of time but for some reason last semester, I got into the bad habit of doing it only a day or two before, which really isn't my style.

2. Email my students back immediately. I also have been good at this in the past, but last semester I would check the email and then wait a day or two, for no really good reason.

3. Don't teach overtime classes that I hate just for the money. I stayed strong on this one last semester. It's always a temptation but I know how unhappy it will make me feel. Teaching basic conversation, or "free-talking" with students is the most terrible thing I could almost imagine and no amount of money will make me want to do it.

What are yours? It's the perfect time to make some decisions about how your next semester will look. And remember, keep 'em realistic and well-defined so you actually have a chance at meeting them.  Maybe your resolution is to learn a few new things about teaching ESL. To start, check out this book by Jeremy Harmer. It's simple, practical and an excellent book for beginners or more experienced teachers.  How To Teach English (with DVD)

Top 5 Vocabulary Teaching Tips

Vocabulary Teaching Tips

A helpful article that I ran across from Edutopia.

The Must Dos of Vocabulary Instruction

I particularly like #1-Be Selective.  Yes!  Less, is more basically all the time with anything related to teaching.  It's better that your students know a few things really well than know lots of stuff, not really at all.

For more vocab teaching ideas, check out another sites of mine:

ESL Vocabulary Activities

Using Timelines-Present Perfect Continuous-Present Perfect

In my advanced conversation class, a chapter in Touchstone Level 3 has a section about the present perfect continuous and the present perfect.  It's actually pretty complicated grammar and not something that students can understand that easily.

For example, what is the difference between these two sentences?

1. "I've been watching Survivor since I was in university." (present perfect continuous)

2. "I've watched survivor since university." (present perfect)

Both are talking about repeated activities that happen mostly in the past, but what is the difference?  It's subtle.  In the first case, it's an activity that began in the past, but is still happening now.  In the second case, it's an activity that began in the past, but it's a bit ambiguous whether or not the activity is happening in the present.

To explain this to students, timelines can be really helpful. 

 Present Perfect Continuous

Past-----Present-----Future

Yes-------Yes--------??

Present Perfect

Past----Present----Future

Yes------??---------??

Quiet Time is Okay (or, I'm not an Edu-tainer)

A common thing that many English teachers in Korea fall into is feeling like they need to be an Edu-Tainer (Education Entertainer).  I think it's mostly because of how foreign English teachers are portrayed in the media: as clowns (Babos in Korean) or dancing monkeys.  This means that some teachers always feel the need to "perform" and keep the students entertained, excited and happy no matter what. 

I resist this at all costs for the following reasons:

1. I'm not naturally an "entertainer." I'm a bit shy and so being on stage isn't really something I crave or want. 

2. Learning can't always be "fun." Sometimes, you need to memorize vocab, or explore a difficult grammar concept in depth.

3. Students are different.  Some like being entertained, some like working quietly by themselves.

4. I'm all about student-centered classrooms.  An Edutainer is all about a teacher-centered classroom, which is something that I think is really bad for students.

5. I consider myself a "real" teacher.  I actually want my students to take my classes seriously and learn something.  I think this is probably best achieved by taking myself seriously as an educator and not falling into the Edutainer trap.

Check out this Ebook if you want to  get a University Job in South Korea

The Small Stuff that Matters: Ditch the Microphone

A small Sunday morning mini-rant.  When I go into classrooms that only have 30 or 40 desks filling up the entire space, there is always a microphone that has been put to obvious use.  Like it's actually sitting on the podium or something like that.  It always makes me wonder why.  Who actually has such a small voice that they can't project it enough for a class of 30 people?  Does anyone actually just stand at the podium and lecture the entire time?  Does anyone actually like holding a microphone for 75 minutes?  Most importantly, do students actually LIKE listening to a voice that is microphone projected, with a low-quality sound system and crappy microphone? 

It's all just so strange to me.  I've never used a microphone, even with classes of 40 or 50.  But, maybe my style is just kind of different.  I INSIST on absolute silence if I'm talking because I refuse to yell over the students.  I quite rarely write down things like answers to questions in the book so students ACTUALLY have to listen to what I'm saying in order to get the information that they need.  I also INSIST that students sit in the first few rows if it is a really large classroom, without a bunch of empty space because I refuse to yell over them.  I also tell them that I will never use a microphone so if their hearing is poor, they really should sit at the front of the classroom.

Anyway, isn't part of the job of "professor" at a university to be at least decent at public speaking?  The microphone/podium warrior just doesn't seem to cut it, in my world.

Tips for Newbies to the Korean University Scene

It's that time of year again, when lots of people are getting ready to start new jobs at Korean unis, perhaps for the first time ever if they're making the transition from a hagwon or public school.  Exciting times!  I remember how nervous I was about the whole thing.  This post, back from 2011 was one of my most popular ones ever and might be helpful in this situation: Ten Tips for Newbies to the Korean University Teaching Experience.

The only thing I wouldn't necessarily agree with anymore is #7 about class size.  Sure, smaller is better but it wouldn't be a big factor for me in taking a job, or not.  With a bit of experience, teaching a class of 40 or 50 is really not a big problem. 

Final Grades....it's that time of year

The day has come when I can start to enter my final grades.  Since it's my 14th round, I've gleaned a few tips over the years that I can share with you:

1. Online programs, while fancy and cool don't necessarily save you time.  I used to use Google Spreadsheets but now I just go old-school with pen and paper.  My uni makes me submit a paper form filled out with attendance and all the grades, so it seems pointless to do my work twice and use some computer based thing.

BUT, if you do this style: be careful!  After you enter a grade, make sure you photocopy your papers and then store it in a separate location.  I keep one copy in my attendance folder in my "work-bag" and then one copy in my desk in my office.  If I lose my bag, or the building burns down, all is not lost.

2. Make your life simple.  If the final exam is worth 25%, grade it out of 25 points.  Homework is 10 points?  Yep, mark it out of 10 points.

3. Make your grading system simple enough that even the weakest student in the class understands it.  And then explain the system (again....you probably did in the first class already) in one of the final classes.  That way, the students can roughly calculate their own grades and you won't have so many questions to answer.

4. Tell the students that the only time you will change a grade is because of calculation error.  Parents being angry or not getting a scholarship will never result in me changing a grade and sending the email is a waste of time. 

5. Don't procrastinate!  It's annoying, but just be done with it and then enjoy your vacation.

Textbooks: it's a toss-up

I remember back in the olden days when I was just starting out as a teacher, I felt like I NEEDED a textbook, because without it, what could I possibly do in class to fill the time? It just seemed so complicated and stressful to have to figure out what the students needed and were interested in and then design my own materials.  But, as I've become a more experienced teacher, the less I've relied upon textbooks and if given a choice, there's probably a 50-50 chance of whether I'll use a textbook for a given class or not. 

I'll generally use a textbook in the following situations:

1. I'm inexperienced in teaching the subject matter.  This semester, I was given 3 sections of advanced academic writing.  Although I've taught writing before, I've never gone this in depth with it.

2. It is a content based class.  For example, if I were teaching an intro to psychology class in English, I for sure would use a textbook of some kind.  

3.  If forced to.  Most unis in Korea have some sort of mandatory textbook that they require you to at least pretend to use.

4. It's an exam preparation class, such as TOIEC speaking or something of that sort.  It's just too time consuming to come up with enough practice questions on my own without this.

If given a choice, I'll never use a textbook in the following situations:

1. A conversation class.  I find it much more interesting and useful to just design lessons around themes of some sort.  Structural based syllabi, upon which many textbooks are based are bad news in my opinion.

2. Advanced level students.  Authentic materials (real newspaper articles or youtube videos for example) are much better for these students than inauthentic stuff from a textbook.

3. A current events or contemporary issue in society kind of class.  How can you use a textbook for this?  It's far more interesting to talk about stuff that's actually in the news today.

For more details about this topic, check out Teaching Unplugged by Scott Thornbury, which is the first (and only?) book to deal comprehensively with Dogme ELT.

Your problem and my problem

Boundaries.  Strong ones.  This is the key to having a happy, successful and long-lived experience working in education.  There are many areas where you really need boundaries such as saying no sometimes (to people asking for you little favors, or more OT work when you're really busy, etc) or keeping a good balance between work life and home life and not letting a bad class or two get you down.

But today I'm going to talk about "my problem" and "your problem."  I work at my school's Global Zone, where students have to make appointments to meet with me (or others), the native speaker of English.  The slots usually fill up each week and those that try to squeeze in last minute usually won't make it.  And in the 2-3 minutes between appointments, I'll always get 1 or 2 students trying to catch me just to "check something quickly" for them.  Or, when my shift is done and I'm heading to another class, they'll try to stop me.  Or, they'll try to pressure me to end a scheduled appointment early so I can help them for a few minutes.  In these cases, I will always say no.  Their stress does not become my stress.  Why should I rush through a student who made an appointment?  Why should I not get myself a cup of tea and rest my mind for 2 minutes in between appointments?  Why should I be late for my next class?

It's always urgent homework that the student has left to the last minute, which is most definitely the student's problem and  most definitely NOT my problem. Sure, the students get kind of angry but I actually don't really care.  I consider it a life lesson!

My favorite book on this topic:

Graded Language, or "You're an English Teacher and you should know better"

In the past couple of months, I've had an opportunity to witness two of my colleagues interacting with students in a small-group discussion kind of setting and what I saw kind of disturbed me.  Even though the students were somewhat high-level (maybe low-intermediate +), the teachers made no attempt whatsoever to grade their language.  You can grade your language in 2 ways:

1. Speed.  Just use whatever grammar/vocab you want, but speak more slowly.  And use pauses to allow for some thinking time.

2. Difficulty, in terms of grammar/vocab.  Make it simpler for lower-level students and more difficult for higher-level ones. 

These two teachers didn't grade in terms of speed or difficulty and just talked to their students like they would have talked to me, a native English speaker.  The result is that the students had the "deer in headlights" look in their eyes and really didn't know how to interject any comment into the "conversation."  The result was the teacher perhaps felt awkward and then just kept talking, but ended up just making worse because instead of the 1 minute monologue the students didn't understand, it had now been upgraded to a 3 minute monologue.

Now, if the teacher had noticed the confused looks in her/his student's eyes, she/he could have thought, "Wow!  My students have no idea what I'm talking about right now" and then simplified/ summarized what she/he had just been saying.  Except, of course this wasn't the case.  The "teacher" who would do this in the first place probably is not the one who is really caring whether or not the students are "getting it."

So many Koreans have commented that they can easily understand my "accent."  It's not the accent, it's just that I grade my language, but they don't know how to say this.  Think about it!

Teaching English in Monolingual Classes

Monolingual (as opposed to multilingual) classes can present a problem for teachers because there is often no compelling reason as to why students actually have to communicate with each other in the target language.  Sure, they have to speak English to the teacher but in a class of 30 or 40, it's just not feasible because, as we all know: Teacher Centered is Bad!  It's hard enough for me, who pretends to speak a total of 0 Korean words to my students, but the situation is actually far more difficult for Korean teachers. 

This post was actually brought about by talking with a Korean colleague of mine who teaches the same students as I do-the ones who are preparing for an internship in the USA.  These students actually all speak English reasonably fluently, except that she told me in class, they just all speak Korean to each other and to her.  I find this really bizarre because the students are actually some of the best students I've ever taught and are in no way lazy or apathetic. 

Anyway, some tips I have to help deal with monolingual classes:

1. Set the expectations high.  For high-level classes, I say that I expect 99% English.  1% Korean is okay if they need to ask your partner for a vocab word or clarifying an instruction or something.  For lower level classes, I say 95-5.  

2. Design activities well.  Make it easier for students just to use English with each other than Korean.  It takes some experience to do this well, but it's really possible. 

3. Encouragement/positive reinforcement.  Praise students who are making a serious effort to speak in English to each other. 

4. I "rank" classes in group activities such as a survey.  It's surprisingly effective, at least in Korea and it can definitely help turn a "bad" class around.  I will write an arrow on the board: 

terrible----------> good----------> excellent

At the end of the activity, I will rank the class.  If excellent, I will say things like: I loved how you all spoke together 1-1, You all wrote your partner's answers in English, I heard almost all of you speaking in English. 

If not excellent, I will give suggestions for how to improve.  Something like: I heard many students just speaking Korea...that's a waste of time, we are here to improve our English. 

For even more tips on handling monolingual classes, check out this resource:

Teacher-Centered is bad!

These days, all the current ELT research, no matter what perspective it's coming from, advocates student-centered classrooms.  And for good reason!  Teacher-centered classrooms, beyond the very, very basic level of learning a language, or for extremely young learners has largely proved to be very ineffective at creating students who can actually communicate in a meaningful way. 

Just the other day, I was teaching across the hall from one of my colleagues and could overhear his/her (identity secret!) class.  It was teacher-centered to the extreme.  Like this person basically was "on-stage" shouting out vocab words quite loudly for 20 minutes out of the 50 minute class.  There were only 1 second breaks in between the words.  It was bizarre and I couldn't quite believe that this was actually happening in a university classroom.  What did the students actually walk away with at the end of that class?  My guess is probably absolutely nothing except maybe a headache. 

Here are a few tips to help make your classroom more student-centered:

1. Groups.  It's all about partners, or groups of 3, 4, or 5.  Beyond that is often too big to be effective.  Mix them up, randomly.

2. Set-up an activity (give them a task) and let students do it.  Supervise and give gentle correction or feedback, but don't interfere if they're doing a good job. 

3. Lecture, if you must, but only in 3-5 minute intervals.  Students will not pay attention for anything beyond that.  Then, use some activities to get students to practice what you just lectured about.

4. Think of your job as more of a "coach" than a traditional "teacher."  You're guiding students to correct language use, not uploading it into their brain. 

5. Challenge students.  Give them tasks that are big and not so easy.  Encourage them that they can do it.   Support them and give help when necessary.  Praise them when they genuinely meet the challenge and do a good job. 

Dealing with the busy

My life is slightly insane at this point and I feel like I've actually over-committed myself with regards to all the overtime I'm doing, as well as keeping up with my regular classes.  It's too late to go back and reduce my schedule somehow, but here are some tips that I have for dealing with this situation:

1. Recycle.  You truly don't need to reinvent the wheel.  Use some old lesson plans if appropriate and just modify if for the class in question.

2. Use the textbook.  While I generally don't like to use textbooks and will often use my own material for class a lot of the time, if you're pressed for time, do the book-warrior thing for a couple weeks until you have some more breathing room.

3. Breaking News English is your best friend.  Ready made lessons at a variety of levels, on a variety of topics.

4. Grading-without the stress.  While giving helpful feedback is important, I simply have too many students (over 100) to correct every single grammar mistake on a 500 word essay.  I will just circle the errors and make some general comments.  If the students are actually interested and don't know their mistake, I encourage them to ask me.

5. Keep up with lesson planning/grading. Just because you're busy, don't get into the habit of doing stuff minutes before class.  That just pumps up the stress.  Try to have things done at least a couple of days before, even if you have to use a weekend day to do it.

6. Breathe.  Exercise.  Eat healthy food.  Cut down on the alcohol.  Sleep.  Make the time that you have to spend on planning/ grading productive time.

Content Classes, minus the PPT and Lecture death

When I cruise by the open classroom doors of some of my colleagues, I can see the power-point screens of death.  12 point, full-sentences, no titles or subtitles.  What is the main point?  Who could possibly tell.  I'm quite sure even those fluent in Korean probably don't know either.  Combined with this is a teacher, standing at the computer, either reading word for word from said slide, or reading from the textbook.  It really, truly does seem like death.  Students are either sleeping or using their phone and maybe only 10% are actually paying attention and taking notes. 

This semester, I have the content class thing going on since I'm teaching advanced writing and presentations/interviews.  Avoiding PPT/lecture death is totally doable!  Here are my top tips:

1. Make your PPT slides simple!  Then make them even simpler.  Main points only!  Refer students to the relevant pages in the textbook for more information. Make them available online so students can just pay attention and listen and not worry about taking notes.

2. DO NOT READ word for word from either the slides or the textbook.  People can read much faster than you can speak.  If I have a page or two in the textbook I want students to absorb, I'll throw up 4 or 5 question on a slide.  Then, I'll give them 6-10 minutes (depending on density and difficulty) to read the pages and then think about answers to the question. 

Then, they close their books and do the little "test" with their partner.  Then, I will very briefly hit the main points. 

3. Use a variety of activities besides just lecturing.  I do the reading on your own/answer questions with a partner as previously mentioned.  I also use a million and one other things, such as group discussion, doing an exercise in the book and then discussing the answers, standing up and finding a new partner to talk about something, warm-up discussion question, watching a video and talking about xyz, worksheets, etc. 

4. Teach what is relevant to the tests!  If students know that they have to know the stuff, they'll have  A LOT more incentive to pay attention.

5. Make announcements/give important information each class, but at random times.  Beginning/middle/end.  That way, students will be far less likely to sneak out.

Lectures are actually one of the worst ways to teach, if you actually want students to retain any information.

RESULTS:  in my classes, nobody sleeps.  I quite rarely notice anyone sneaking out for smoke breaks, etc.  Almost nobody is on their phone.  Sure, some of them look a little bored sometimes, but that's not necessarily something I have control over.  A lot of people shut-down" with the English only thing.  When I compare that to my colleagues, I think that I'm doing pretty well :)

Teaching: the Small Stuff that Actually Matters #8- No Shame

Something you realize after living in Korea for like even a couple weeks is that shame, or the avoidance of it dictates many a social situation and that in your class, it's really no different.  Koreans will feel shame for a myriad of things: appearing not as smart as others, appearing less well-dressed, not doing homework, having weak second language skills, etc, etc.  The smarter, more well-prepared students will not show their true colors because they're afraid of making their lesser classmates feel shame.  It's a little bit ridiculous at times and often gives me stress, but it's one of those things I've just come to accept about living and working in Korea.  Here's how I deal with it:

1. Never put students on the spot.  NEVER.  Always give students a chance to practice something with a partner or small group before you pick an individual student to answer.

2.  I generally choose a team or group to answer and one person has to do it.  So, the weaker students can hide behind the stronger ones.

3. Ask for volunteers, but give some sort of incentive.  Like a reward system, or telling the students that once you get 5 answers, they're finished for the day.

4. Don't embarrass students for wrong answers.  There are plenty of ways to deal with mistakes that don't involve doing this.

5. Never call out of students in front of his or her peers.  If you need to discipline someone, do it outside the classroom 1-1. 

The Small Stuff that Matters #7: Smile

Come see me tomorrow at the Kotesol Busan-Gyeongnam Symposium.  It will be myself and 3 other speakers presenting on a wide variety of topics and promises to be informative and interesting. 

Tip #7 from my presentation is smile!  It's easy, but actually makes a big difference.  I get so many comments from the students at the end of the semester that they loved my smile and thought that I was very friendly.  Nobody likes a grumpy teacher unless they're some sort of freakish genius.  But, chances are most of us aren't, so that leaves being friendly as the better option.

The Small Stuff that Matters #6: Simple is Better

I'm all about simple in almost all aspects of my life and that includes teaching.  I like to go simple in the following ways:

1. PPTs- white background, black text.  No animation/graphics, etc.  Just the info.

2. The amount of info in a class.  Instead of like 10 different grammar points, 1-2 is better.  Instead of 20 vocab words, 5 is better.  Instead of a million and one activities and games, just a few that you can expand upon.

3. Grading.  Make simple homework and tests that are easy to grade.  Not multiple choice of course, but like essays for conversation classes is just too complicated.

4. And going along with grading, if something is worth 20% of your final grade, why not make it out of 20 points?

5. Routines.  Have a routine so that the students know what to expect and you have something to assist you in your planning.



Simple!  It's better!

Teaching: the Small Stuff that Matters #5: Names

I must confess: I'm pretty terrible at remembering names and it's probably my greatest weakness as a teacher.  However, it really is possible to compensate for this (somewhat).  The solution is that I require my students to have name-tags on their desk.  Basically, just an A4 paper folded into a standing triangle.  I tell the students they can use their English name, or Korean name; it's up to them.  I introduce the idea by telling a joke about how I'm getting old and my memory isn't what it used to be.  I like the name-tag idea for 2 reasons:

1. It's far friendlier to use a name, then to say, "Hey! You!" if you want to ask someone a question or something.

2. It actually helps you remember the names because you have many chances to put names/faces together (every class basically).

Perhaps it's time that I check out something like this.  Summer reading? How To REMEMBER PEOPLE'S NAMES

And of course, come check out  my presentation on Saturday!