3rd Russian lesson - circuit exercise

I have now completed about ¼ of my teaching practice. It was a double lesson, and I was substituting the Russian teacher for real, because she had a planning meeting of the staff, plus she was sick. I had gotten some positive feedback from the students and the guiding teacher, so I was excited to try out even new things. I probably had high ambitions to have an educational, interactive, and fun lesson.

The preparation took about 3 hours. Teaching in class is very hard work, and I have already noticed that if one wants to have something extra on the class, the preparation takes irrationally long time. If I would teach 25 hours per week, I would not have enough time to prepare for all the lessons! Now preparation takes at least as long as the actual class.

I had a wonderful, creative idea for this lesson. I would organize the desks and chairs in 4-5 islands. Each area would have a different topic, and the students would rotate from one task to the next, as if in the circuit training. One station would be “pronunciation clinic”, where the students would read the chapter out loud in Russian and I would correct and help with the pronunciation. The other stations would be a bank, a café, a shop, and a tourist agency. The students would have different tasks relating to each station.

Implementation

I asked a friend of mine to lend me Monopoly game money to be used in the “Bank”. I made written signs for all the stations in Russian, and the instructions. I arrived in the classroom 40 minutes before the beginning of the lesson to arrange the desks and chairs in 5 stations. I checked that the overhead projector was working.

The lesson

The students normally arrive early, some even 30 minutes before the lesson. Today they showed up only 10 minutes before. I learned that they had had an Improbatur orienteering, hunting stamps from the bars according to drinks, so out of 22 students, 9 were missing, most because of hangover, but maybe some because of the flu epidemic, too. As for me, it is easier to teach a bit smaller group, so I didn’t mind.

Today’s topics were Numbers and Noun/Adjective Plural Forms. We learned the numbers 30-100, and repeated 1-30, which the students have already learned. The spelling and stress in the word is complicated, so we took time to repeat them. I had prepared to teach a handout “How much does it cost”, but I learned that it was already covered on the previous lesson. I quickly moved on. We spent quite a lot of time on noun/adjective plural forms, because it was a new item, and will be asked in the exam. I covered the grammar from the text book, and had the students complete an exercise, and I reviewed the grammar from an overhead transparency. We also learned some business vocabulary and two new verbs, ‘idti’ and ‘exat’, indicating going somewhere by foot or by a vehicle. Then it was time for the fun part!

As there were only 13 students, I omitted the Travel Agency section from the island, because more students were needed to fill 5 stations. Also, we did not have time to cover the material related to this, so that will be taught the next time. I asked the students to sit on the bank, café, restaurant, and pronunciation stations, 3 in each, and 1 extra in one table. I explained what they are to be: In the Bank they ask for a certain sum of money. Then the cashier will count the money and write the sum down on a piece of paper, and the client will check if the spelling is correct, and thank the cashier. In restaurant, the students ask a free/taken seat and ask how much different dishes cost. In the shop, they ask if there are food items in plural forms and do the nominated exercises in the study book.

I stayed in the pronunciation clinic. Three students at the time read the chapter 9 and I was listening. I corrected their pronunciation and made them pay attention especially to difficult consonants: sh, shj, ch, z, zh, stressing the words correctly, pronuncing the unstressed vowels (e becomes i and o becomes a), and raising the intonation at the end of the question sentence. Each group of 3 students was very different. The first one was very slow and I corrected them quite a lot, the second one was very quick, the third one very shy, and the fourth one very brave and loud. I felt that the students were nervous when they “had” to read out load and when I was listening, but I purposefully did this exercise in a small group, so that no-one would not be ashamed in front of the whole group. I got the idea for this exercise last week, when I noticed that some students can read and pronounce Russian quite well, and other hardly. This exercise confirmed by observation: few students did not have a very clear idea of the pronunciation, which is difficult for anyone. I know that the students come from several beginner’s groups and they have had 2 different teachers last spring, and I notice this background: some students are a lot more advanced than the others, and I think I can tell which students were taught by which teacher. This is quite amazing, but actually I know some students already from the last spring, when I observed the Russian lessons.

Each group carried out the exercise for 7-8 minutes, and then I asked them to switch places. This was just in time when the students in my table had finished reading the chapter. The whole exercise took about 30 minutes, until the end of the lesson. I asked the students how they felt working in this way, but no-one really said anything. It would be nice to receive some feedback, because I had no idea if this was an effective way of teaching, but for this purpose I will ask them to fill out feedback questionnaires on my last teaching session.

When I got home, I felt extremely exhausted. I wonder if I caught the student’s apprehension, when things were done in a different format, or maybe it was because I was involved in speaking and observing during the whole session. Normally I have the students do pair or group activities while I check what is next in my agenda and arrange my papers.

What is happening with my studies?

This is short update of what is going on with my iVET studies.

I started my teaching practice 2 weeks ago, and that will continue until the end of November.

I will have one optional course to be done, and that will begin next week, on Oct 3. The topic is Tools for Teaching in English, and it is perfect time-wise, and considering the teaching practice.

I will today polish my Core Plan and submit it again to Juha.

I will shoot the video of my teaching practice in November, and edit it to be evaluated by Blaire in early December. I will also write the final report of the teaching practice then and apply for my Diploma.

Everything seems clear and is progressing nicely. Of course life could throw surprises or unexpected things, but as for now, I am proceeding like a train towards the destination.

2nd Russian class: restaurant culture and food, alive accusative case

Today I had a triple Russian class. Beforehand it had felt like a marathon and I wondered if we will have enough exercises and things to do, even though there was plenty of material. My supervisor had given me a lot of material, but I also made some on my own.

I needed to make photocopies for one exercise, but I ran into problems, as I didn't have my temporary log-in codes with me (I didn't know I would need them). I asked for advice from other language teachers, but they did not offer to help be. They told me to ask from the security or the students affairs office. There was no-one in the booth, and it looked like I would not get the copies for the material I had prepared for 4 hours! Eventually it worked, just before the class.

I felt quite nervous before the class, but as soon as I started speaking, I was quite confident and relaxed. Last week, during the first double class, I was nervous and my back was wet from sweat (and I never get sweaty normally). We learned vocabulary items relating to food and restaurant. I told the students about different ingredients, dishes, and mealtime practices. I had brought some props with me: a beetroot (used for making borsh soup), lipstikka herb that the students could smell, and I had some Russian chocolates that would be the price for a little competition. I also had a little shot glass with water, as of vodka shot, and told the students about the toasts that the Russians love to make at parties.

The students did a lot of oral exercises in pairs and small groups. They are active and free when they discuss with their peers, but as soon as I ask something: "Which noun form is used when asking: Do you know Vladimir Putin?, they quiet down. Finally someone answers' though. I try not to have a "favourite student" whom I would always ask and rely on, but ask from everyone.

In the last hour we did the special exercises I needed the copies. I had prepared 14 pictures with their full names i Cyrillic script and some background history. We pronounced the names together and then the students practiced inflecting the full names: the first name, the patronymic, and the last name.

I got spontaneous, positive feedback from one student. She said that she likes my teaching, because it is "a bit different". Maybe the teaching is a bit more interactive, even though I do things in a quite similar way than the normal teacher: a lot of repetition word after word and sentence after sentence.

1st day in the teaching practice 11.9.

I had my very first teaching session today. I have never taught a group of real students before, but I am still alive! The double lesson went really fast. I was quite nervous for a few days before this session, but  nothing catastrophic happened. I also managed to switch on the overheard dvd projector and the document camera, which I have never used before.

During the summer I have been writing the Core Plan and I just handed it in few days ago. I will split my teaching practice between Russian and English classes, and I was really looking forward to teach Russian. I will teach Russian in Septermber and October, on session per week, each 2-3 hours. I already know the supporting teacher from last spring, when I observed the lessons. She is a native Russian speaker who has lived in Finland for a long time. I like her as a person and appreciate her as a teacher, so it is great that I am able to continue the cooperation with her.

I arrived early in the classroom, so I had time to figure out how the overhead dvd projector and document camera worked. Luckily there were instructions, so I got them working. I wanted to greet all students as they entered the classroom. Some of them were surprised to see a new teacher, so they were even dubious whether they had entered the right classroom. Some students of this age don't look at others or greet, but that's ok. I must have been like that at this age, too. However, I will encourage interaction as we are learning a language, and relationships are everything in Russia.

My Russian class is 22 students, and 20 were present today. Two of them were guys, and the rest were girls. I met some of them during the observation period in April, so it is good to know some students. The group come from four different Business student groups. I asked then in the beginning, why they chose Russian language and how does it feel. Some said the picked it, because it will, or it has been useful for work. Several students work part-time and are able to use Russian at work with Russian clients. They had realized that many Russians don't speak any other language. Some students were interested in learning a new language, and especially Russian, one had a Russian partner, and one student's mother was Russian. Others said they needed the credits, and one said they had been promised a trip to St.Petersburg with the class, but the trip had been cancelled.

Today's topic was accusative case, living and non-living, as well as free/occupied inflection in cases. We read a lot of exercises out loud, and there was several pair exercises. I also had the students rotate from one person to another, when exercising living accusative.

The students were quite active, when they did pair exercises. When I asked them something, first everyone was quiet, but finally someone replied. I interacted quite a lot with the group to find out what they already knew. Towards the end of the exercises the students got quite noisy, while waiting for the others to complete the exercises, but as soon as I spoke, especially the grammar, they were quiet. They completed the exercises quite quickly, but some students had to be waited quite a while. I got the impression that some students are quite beginners, but when someone was struggling with pronunciation or a word, I approached the student to help her.

I want to teach the students the culture and Russian life as much as I am able, so whenever there is a change, I illuminate some aspect of the culture or Russia to them. Today I told them about two famous Russian authors, Alexandra Marinina and Mihail Bulgakov. I also told them about the Hermitage in St.Petersburg.

To evaluate my teaching, I think it went quite well. I did many things the way I have observed my supporting teacher Olga do, like have the students repeat the words and sentences after me. I try to emphasize oral interaction and communication. I had the students tell each other the grammatical content I had just taught them to emphasize learning. My speaking voice is not quite loud, I I need to pay attention to that. I was very attentive to what students were saying to each other, for example the words that they did not understand or any other missing information or miscommunication, and I responded to those. I asked the students two times during the class, did they understand the grammar. The first time they did not, so I continued teaching, and the second time I asked, they had understood it. Also the exercises we did proved that they had figured it out. They also asked me, if part of my teaching was in Moodle, and I told them I will have it added.

I had made a very detailed, written lesson plan with exact timing for each activity and exercise. This was very helpful, when the students were busy with an exercise, I checked what is next, and I also checked the management of time. We managed to get everything done, about 10 exercises and grammar.

Towards the end of the session, 4 minutes before the ending time the students started stirring and becoming restless. I asked if they had more classes and if they were busy, so I let them go. Actually it took those few minutes to check the students' attendance, so when everyone had left, the time was up.

I will continue keeping the time, because it was helpful. The next time I will rotate around the students more and listen to their pronunciation and to help them with the exercises. I forgot to mention one piece of homework, but they are optional. I will have the next teaching session on Monday, but I don't have the material yet.