Strangers in a Room Full of People

So, this is just a short bit of humor for all those who have been in foreign country and felt lost in a crowd.

I may not have written this before, but my wife is not a native speaker of English.  She is ethnically Korean but is Chinese by birth; think of Mexican-American but replace it with Korean-Chinese.  As such, she is fluent in both Korean and Chinese.  Occasionally she has her Chinese friends over for a meal or just to visit.  Naturally, they converse in Chinese rather than English.  However, the other night she invited a very dear Korean friend to join us for a big dinner with some of her Chinese friends and me.  I am sort of used to the conversation being predominantly in Chinese and just sit quietly or try to engage someone in English.  However, I noticed that our Korean friend was sitting quietly and not talking much.  It hit me that she also did not speak Chinese.  I was guilty of just lumping her in with our Chinese guests and assuming she spoke Chinese.  I felt badly for her and for my assumption, so I quickly engaged her in a very pleasant conversation; first with my very limited Korean vocabulary and then in English, of course.  I was rewarded with a big smile and a look of relief at not being the only outsider in the crowd

We are truly living in a multi-cultural world and it may be the other person who is lost in a foreign culture and not always you.  You just never know and it speaks to the need for any professional language instructor to try and pick up a few words in every language they can to help someone who may be that lost person.

Book Review - Visible Learning for Teachers

Hello again! I want to thank all of you who are reading my blog.  I hope one day that more and more people enjoy my writing, but I never want to lose sight of the fact that a few of you have been loyal readers from the beginning.  

I wanted to address a second point.  One of my colleagues called me out on my off and on poor syntax.  It made me laugh.  "Healer, heal thyself ....."  Yes, I admit that I make mistakes.  Even we mighty teachers of English are not perfect when it comes to using English.  I had one of my Chinese students actually explain grammar to me a couple nights ago.  I explained to him that sometimes grammar is just intuitive and maybe I couldn't explain the rule, but I knew right from wrong.  As an American, English speaker and writer my ability is sometimes clouded by my enjoyment of pop culture and basically my lack of attention at times.  I am not using it as an excuse.  I am merely stating that sometimes I am just in the "zone" writing and not paying attention, so poor language use creeps in and haunts me.  I apologize to all of you out there and perhaps I will endeavor to edit a bit more before I post.  

Okay, the book I want to briefly talk about is a particular favorite of mine, John Hattie's Visible Learning for Teachers  Spoiler Alert!  This book breaks down into one easy statement; intervention works.  Essentially Hattie has synthesized over 15 years of research and produced his best practices; which he details in the book.  The meat of the book is a guide to preparing, delivering and reflecting on a lesson.  This all occurs in part two of the book, approximately 100 pages of a book of slightly more than 160 pages in total.  In this section Hattie talks about preparing the lesson, starting the lesson, how a lesson flows, where feedback is needed and used, and ending a lesson.  As stated before he makes use of his extensive research to provide examples of what has worked well before based on the data.  One term he uses that always gets me to the point of why I teach and that is when he terms teachers as activators.  We are what begins the process of learning much like a catalyst in a chemical reaction.

The first section reinforces this as it talks about where we get ideas for our teaching methods and how important a role teachers play in the overall learning process.  The final section discusses "Mind Frames".  He speaks to the mind frames of teachers, school leaders, and administration.  Again the point is that good teachers are an important asset, but they have to be backed up by good leaders and good administration.  We all make up a part of a team.

The book also has a great section on data for those that like to see the numbers.  In the appendices Hattie breaks down his data for all to see.  For example he rates the effectiveness of different influences on achievement.  One of the highest is student expectations.  Hattie's studies show that students generally achieve to their expectations.  With this in mind it is necessary as a teacher to raise those expectations.

I highly recommend this book to any teacher looking for some breakdown on preparing and delivering lessons.  It is a short but thoughtful read and full of great ideas.

• Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.
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Teaching Philosophy

I had an interesting discussion today, brief but interesting, about teaching philosophy.  I wanted to share my thoughts before I got involved in another task and 12 days had passed before I remember again.  We've all had a week like that, right?  I keep meaning to write a bit more frequently, but life seems to get in the way.

My teaching philosophy has evolved over the years and continues to evolve as I become more knowledgeable.  I actually don't remember what I first developed as my initial teaching philosophy but I am sure I have it saved somewhere on a thumb drive.  I was actually meeting with the professor who first forced me to write it down and we discussed that many students,  hoping to teach, have never developed a teaching philosophy.  Yet, they want to teach just as I did when I realized that I did not have any thoughts on a teaching philosophy of my own.

To me, the basic tenet of my teaching philosophy is that I want to try and deliver the best material to my students that I can.  I feel that as a professional I owe them nothing less than my best.  This is what motivates me to continue to learn and to even start writing this blog.  It is a little hard to put oneself out there and become open for criticism.  However, without being challenged, we tend to stagnate.  In all my years of work, not just teaching but any kind of work, the most hated two phrases I hear are, "Because that's how we've always done it." or any phrase with "can't."  I am not sure why people repeat those types of phrases but they seem to be the go to excuse for not making change. Usually they have been espoused by the mysterious "they."  I once asked someone to, "Give me they's phone number."  It made me smile when they became so flustered that they did not realize my mistake in pronoun usage.  I am always seeking to change things.  I figure at my age the worst that can happen is I get a little embarrassed by my failure.  Who cares!  So, give the students your best, even if it ends up being a bit of a bomb.  They will appreciate the effort.

My next basic tenet is to use real material.  If you understand that language evolves then you have to understand that the materials we use to teach; the language, the texts, the exercises, etc. all have to evolve as well.  I will find some old exercises floating around and realize they are no longer valid but still in use for some reason.  Why not change them out for newer material?  Plus you have to become technically adept and try some different techniques for delivering your material.  There is nothing wrong with using some technology if it is applicable.  Believe me, the students definitely use tech.

Finally, be flexible.  As I stated in an earlier blog, I was forced to do some radical rethinking when faced with a class that I just didn't seem to be reaching with my stated syllabus.  I had to try a few different and new things, and I was able to incorporate a little class observation into my thinking.  There is nothing wrong with taking part of a class period and just chatting with your students.  Find out what they are looking for and what interests them.  And, as I stated above, try some new techniques.

I want to close with just a bit of generic advice that was offered to me.  Don't always feel you have to teach to the now.  Sometimes you are teaching to the future.  What I mean to say is that if you give your all and it seems things are not working out, just continue to provide your best and I assure you that a few weeks down the road the class will click and all that information will come flooding back to the students that you thought they were missing.