#teaching experiences

[toshio-the-starman]

Story time

So hlaar wanted to hear this story, so I might as well share it with all of you.

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Okay, so, there was this one girl in one of the Grade 5 classes who was so shy, that she could barely speak her own language in front of her friends and classmates, nevermind English. 

Part of this was because her father was killed in an accident just a few years prior, and her mother moved the family from Barcelona to my city because the mother had family there. So this girl lost her father, and was suddenly put into an unknown city and school away from any familiarity.

I had been trying to help her speak in private since I got there back in late October, and I could only get her to speak barely louder than a whisper and we had to be totally alone or else she couldn't do it. It also took constant encouragement and saying things like “I know you can do it”, “come on, just this one little sentence”, and things like that and ending with smiles and high fives. It was so quiet I had to be inches from her head in order to hear her.

Some time in April, I was taking students in pairs to do a reading activity and I got her to mumble and whisper some English to me with another student (a friend) in the room, and her friend was shocked and impressed. Later on, when I had returned to the class to get some more volunteers, the shy girl had her hand raised. I asked her if she wanted to do it again, and she said "yes" in Catalan. She was very playful and affectionate toward me ever since that day.

She's been especially fond of flipping my hoodie up whenever I wear one. One day in late May, I had class with her group and she really wanted to flip my hood up over my head, so I held her hands "hostage” so she couldn't do it herself and told her I'd do it for her if she could ask me in English.

With only a little encouragement and help, she said "can you put your hood up please?" She did this at an almost normal volume, and with minimal mumbling. In a class full of students. In English. It drew some nearby attention, which was so positive and had shocked several other students because it was so out of character for her. By this point in time, she also spoke normal volume Catalan with her friends and classmates. This girl had made such a turn-around in eight months, I was so happy for her and proud of her.

It made me feel like the Lionel Logue of Spain.

[vicariousvalerie]

Teaching Victory

I met or exceeded the departmental average for every category on my teaching evals!  Most importantly, I got 5.0 (out of 5) for my feedback--thank you, students, for recognizing the amount of time that goes into grading each paper!

[vicariousvalerie]

Lasts and Firsts

Yesterday was the last day of classes for my first teaching semester.  This semester, I have:

Successfully (?) balanced teaching and a full course load.

Arranged a mildly successful faculty workshop series.

Gotten positive feedback on my teaching style and my teaching portfolio.

Maintained an A average in all of my courses.

Successfully proposed my Master's capstone...on SPENSER

Now only two seminar papers (worth 50% each, of course) which threaten my dearly won 4.0 and freaking PhD apps stand between me and Christmas break.  May the Lord have mercy on my soul.

[teamteachers]

Week 1; Tumblr Post Question 2: Did learning about the emotional keyboard on page 18 (figure 2.1) change your perspective on any students you have had?

Please answer this question on your personal blog. You may copy and paste the question and figure into a new post on your blog so that it will show up when the tag "Summer book club" is searched, and so that if it is an excellent response your response can be promoted. We'd like you to be able to get the notes. (This is something we learned from Question 1).

Also, don't forget the Week One Google Doc Discussions.

We start reading the next 2 chapters starting Wednesday.

Don't forget to use the "summer book club" tag!