Preparing for the classes

This week I have been preparing the English lesson for the coming three weeks to come. Preparing the lessons is painstaikingly slow, taking hours and hours. In additing, I cannot access Moodle, which is the e-learning environment. I have received a temporary one-month ID's, but for some reason they are not working. In other words, I am unable to see the materials that are already on the website. Luckily I have some material as paper copies and transparencies, so I have built two first lessons based on those. My supervising teacher will attend the first lesson, which is good, so I can have some support and advice during the class.

I feel a bit nervous about the coming lessons. I feel that I "should" be an interesting personality, at ease with the students, and able to control the class. Somehow encountering the students makes me uneasy, and of course it's due to the fact that I don't know them -yet. On the other hand, I aim to create some kind of connection with the students, and I believe it is key to successful teaching.

When I gave the Russian lessons, I made a bit effort of having interactive tasks and sharing interesting stories and experiences to the students. Now it looks like the method of working is not going to be so interactive and that I could not give so much of myself, so I would be just teaching routinely, even though teaching anything but routine for me.

At the moment I feel that teaching is not going to be something I could enjoy in the long run. I would be exhausted simply because the preparation, let alone the teaching, and as a teacher in a university of applied sciences, I should have time and be able to do both preparing and executing the teaching. However, I really enjoyed having private students, so perhaps a smaller group would be ideal for me. I feel like resuming my current position full time after the teaching practice as a secretary will be a bliss. I just show up in the office and complete the tasks that will come ahead. Let's see how these few weeks will change my experience.

Obseving English lessons

I have been observing English lessons in Technopolis, Savonia in Kuopio. The teacher is my supervisor, a French language teacher. I was observing two groups of tourism students that I will start teaching next week.  Both groups have about 20 students and they are mostly women. There are a couple of foreigners, but they have been travelling and sometimes they have classes elsewhere at the same time.

The topic for the day on both groups was restaurant terms and language. The first group seemed quite active and they said things on their own initiative, when asked. The level of English was quite good. Also I learned some new terms that I did not know before.

The lessons take place in the language laboratory. However, there will not be listening comprehension, but computers will be used in some exercises. Having a computer and access to Internet seemed to be a distraction for some students. On the other hand, they have access to online dictionary, which is useful.

Technopolis has great facilities for teaching. The classrooms are modern and they have good, yet normal technology: computers, document camera, and a video projector. My supervisor has a workroom for 3 teachers, but at this time there were no others. The teachers have a very nice conference/coffee room, and I will also have an opportunity to make tea before or after the classes, which I appreciate.

I am now preparing for the lessons. The first two lessons are on business correspondence.

Latest events in my studies

I have now completed one third of my teaching practice, the Russian language phase. I have almost completed the last optional course: I have attended all the virtual sessions and I have one more essay to write. I will observe two English lessons in two weeks time, and then have 2 weeks to prepare the written English lessons for tourism students. I will teach 8-9 double lessons in November. On the final lesson I will ask my supervisor to record a 10-minute video of my teaching and the feedback, and then I will edit it. Then I will write the teaching practice report and attend the final teaching practice seminar. After that, all that is left is to apply for my diploma. There will be one month of hard work ahead, but then it is all done. I can do it!

Students' feedback on my Russian lessons

On my last Russian lesson I had collected written, anonymous feedback from the students. I asked which things they liked about the teaching and why, which things and how the teaching could be developed or changed, and how they would describe the teacher (me) in few words. I have kept the feedback forms in a plastic pocket, and now I picked some courage to read them through. It’s surprisingly nerve-racking to hear (or to read) the students feedback.

The students had liked the teaching, because there were a lot of exercises and it was versatile. Writing on the whiteboard clarified things and helped to understand. It was important to focus on the pronunciation. The things were taught in way that was easily understandable and clear. There were a lot of creative written and oral exercises and enough repetition, and the dialogue exercises were good, and also the content of exercises.

Several students commented that the teaching contained a lot of extra information and cultural knowledge, because none of the students have visited Russia. I had asked this on the first lesson. Punctuality, calmness and Russian knowledge were appreciated, and also when I shared my own experiences in Russia and my own studies. The atmosphere was good for learning. Someone said that the lessons passed quickly, and I totally agree with this one. Another one said: “It was nice when Maarit was teaching for a change. She shared of her interesting experiences of the Russian culture.”

Reflecting on this feedback, I considered it as important to share cultural knowledge, as well as grammar and Russian language. The real teacher is native Russian, so I brought the students a different view, what Russia and the Russians look like to me as a foreigner, and what kind of observations I have made. The students have taken one semester of Russian before this course, 4 hours per week. In other words, they are still practicing reading and pronunciation, because there are quite difficult, when the script is strange (Cyrillic). I also wanted to have fun in the classroom, not just doing the same routines over and over again.

I’m glad the students liked the exercises and that the classes were not boring. I am quite matter-of-fact person, so I made an extra effort to have variety and surprises on the lessons, just like there are many mysterious and surprising things about the Russian culture.

Then I looked at the negative feedback and ideas for developing my teaching.

Speaking could be more confident and energetic, you don’t have to be shy or afraid of the students. It is not necessary to have several different activities. Describing the tasks could be clearer.

I could challenge and inspire the students more. More exercises from the book could be done together in classroom. There could have been more business vocabulary and we could practice basic verbs more (Oh, there are so many more things that could have been done, but we needed to cover the must items, such as grammar etc. And then, few classes focused on restaurant culture, not the business life). Sometimes the context seemed vague, the teaching could be less scattered (I think this is also due to the fact that so many things had to be learned or covered on one lesson). One student considered the pace a bit slow. One asked for even more knowledge on Russian culture, because very few know much about Russia, even though it is our next-door neighbour.

If there is a task that seems not to be working, you could give up the idea or change the implementation. (I think this refers to the “cocktail party” discussion, that the students circulate freely in the classroom and have short dialogues on the given topic. I still think this is a good exercise, because they need to contact several people and listen to many accents, but the students are shy or unwilling to try it.) Someone commented that in university of applied science, we don’t need to do any kindergarten-style games, and other said that several teaching methods and exercises would suit better a primary school. I guess she referred to numbers and bank exercises, when fake Monopoly money was used. As I observed this exercise, it looked like at least some students enjoyed it.

This feedback is very much to the point and I also recognize myself the need to be more determined and confident when teaching. I did feel a bit shy or apprehensive of the students, I guess because at this age as young adults the students are quite sure of their own opinions and what they prefer or dislike, even though deep inside they could be searching for themselves. The bank game with Monopoly money seemed to divide opinions, and actually the teacher had “warned” of this – she also said that on the level it may not be suitable. I though it was a cute idea and executed it. I guess from now one, I can demand the students more and be a bit more professional and treat them like adults.

Finally I asked the students to describe me as a teacher in few words. Here are the comments: Overall, good teaching. It is a good addition to tell how to act in Russia, to share cultural knowledge.  Peaceful teaching style. Expert, a bit shy. Helpful and easy to approach. Ok, sometimes a bit boring. Quiet, cannot yet control the class at all.  Great to be enthusiastic about her topic. Interesting teaching, I have energy to attend the classes. Lively and expert teacher. Quite clear, we get to know things thoroughly by topics. Interesting, things are explained clearly and in an understandable way. Horosho! A really nice, friendly, and knowledgeable teacher. Spasibo! Da svidaniya!

Again, I recognize myself from these comments. From the feedback I can tell that my teaching objectives were fulfilled quite well. I think I was quite easy on the students and did not give them any strict guidelines, but rather observed how things are going. The students were cooperative and friendly, so there were no disciplinary actions.

Feedback from the Russian lesson

After my last Russian lesson, I had a feedback discussion with my supervising teacher. First she asked me to comment on the lesson and my teaching from my own perspective. I said that the timing worked well. We had a work test in the beginning of the class. I introduced the topics to give all students time to arrive. My supervisor said that I could start the exam as soon as the lesson starts, and it’s the students’ ”own fault” if they show up late. We discussed the pros and cons or being strict or lenient, and whether we should take the student-originated approach or follow the rules of the work place of arriving punctually in time.

I found it distracting that she pointed out some things during the class, such as a misspelled word, that after the word test the words are not repeated, and that I should circulate more in class and listen to and comment on students’ pronunciation and grammar.

The positive comments were made about the peaceful and calm atmosphere in the class. The downside is that the calmness may turn into timidity or being careful, and I need to work on that. I have gotten praise for creating interactive and creative tasks for the students. My supervisor said that she is just a boring teacher who has not done anything extra with the students since the first years of teaching, so my efforts were appreciated.

I got some hints of giving negative feedback or correcting the students. I could say, for example: “I might not say that in such a way”. I can encourage the quick students to repeat the exercise, if they have already finished it, rather than allowing them to chat in Finnish: ”It doesn’t matter, if you go through the dialogue again.”

My supervisor is very skilled at using appropriate comments for positive and negative feedback, while maintaining a positive atmosphere.

There were some points of development, which I considered important to hear, because I am a rookie teacher. First, I could be a bit bolder when speaking and teaching. Secondly, I can give the students more credit, for example praise them for working hard and tell in the end that now we have a little treat, such as a cultural video. I should, or could use as much Russian as I can during the class, especially when saying things like: “OK, ready, well done, let’s see, thank you, please”, and so on.

One of the main points that I need to pay attention is introducing the new tasks and giving clear instructions, in order to give the task a good rhythm. I need to wait that the class is quiet before I start talking. I need to give one point at the time, if there are several stages in a given task. For example, I will ask he students to first write down a four-course menu. When they have completed this, I will give further instructions to order from the menu in pairs, such as: ”Now you may continue with…”. Otherwise the students may forget or get confused what they were supposed to do, and this is what happened. Also, there is no point giving instructions when the task has already been given, if only one or two students are listening.

My supervisor gave me nice feedback, and I was digging for more points for development. She was afraid that she had already been too strict with me, but she had not. I hold her in high esteem and am very happy that I was able to follow her teaching and attend her lessons.

One thing that happened during the class was that I gave a bit misleading instructions for one pair exercise. I had asked them to have a dialogue in restaurant, using plural forms. I had taught the plural forms, but the students had not learned them in a negative context, when the inflection changes from accusative to genitive case. The supporting teacher commented the forms shortly for the students during the exercise. I got the advice that if I say something that I later realize is totally wrong or somewhat different, I need to correct myself, and maybe apologize, saying something like: “Now I just taught you nonsense. I will repeat what I meant and we can continue.”

Sometimes I can also give the students a crash course by telling them to close the textbooks and help me spell the numbers on a blackboard, because they are difficult, to make the students think hard.

We also discussed generally that teaching is hard work, and that preparation takes a lot of time, which I noticed. I prepared for the classes 1-4 hours per a double class. The supporting teacher said that most teachers prefer to spend their free time on their own, because during the school day they are in contact with other people so much.

I was very content with the first phase of my teaching practice. Next I will observe a couple more English lessons in few weeks time, and start teaching again in November.

Last Russian lesson

I had my final Russian lesson today. The students have studied all the material that will be covered in the exam, so I was to repeat the important things on the last double lesson. In addition, the teacher said that they had already practiced many things already. I felt like making mountains out of molehills - how could I spend 90 minutes from scratch?
I prepared some own exercises, based on the ones I had done earlier with the students. I also created a question box. The students could ask anything about Russian language and culture from me or the supervising teacher, and we would answer to the best of our ability. If there was plenty of time, we could also watch a short video about Russian culture. I was afraid there would be a lot of extra time in my hands.
I was more nervous than on previous occasions, because the real teacher would assess me. Also the situation that nothing new was to be taught, was challenging. Was it boring to repeat the same exercises than before, even though they were new.
The class went quite ok. We had plenty of things to do and did not even have time to watch the video. I repeated the main grammatical points, such as alive accusative case, noun plural form, and the numbers 20-100. After each bit the students did a written and oral exercise. For example, they were to compile a 4-course menu and practice ordering the food. Then they were to assign prices for the dishes and have another conversation.
Finally the students turned in their questions into the question box. I had suspected earlier that they are shy of asking things, so this gave them an opportunity to ask anything anonymously, and also it would show us, what they students were interested in. The students turned in almost 10 questions. One asked what's the best part of the Russian culture, another one asked what kind of music the Russians listen to. Someone wanted to know the Russian rouble exchange rate, and another one, if everything must be hand-written, because there are the block capitals, and the handwriting font, and these two look different. Someone asked the classic Finnish question: What do the Russians think of the Finns? The questions were honest and profound, so we tried to give deep answers, as well.
One third of my teaching practice is now completed. We stayed in the classroom for almost 2 more hours, while I received feedback, discussed the lesson and chatted for quite some time.

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.