Class Journal: Week 1


This semester I asked the dean to give me classes all of the same subject to help maximize the time I could spend studying TESOL.  So I'm teaching 8 classes of introductory English.  This is a mandatory class that every freshmen in Hyupsung University has to take.  So the sample of students is very well distributed.  The interested and the disinterested, the good the bad and the ugly are all in it together.  As a secondary benefit of having multiple iterations of the same class is that I can trial different techniques with the same content concurrently. So I plan to focus the journal on one of these classes while occasionally comparing to other classes I use as control or with a class I try using a variation on.  I will also take a look at some of my private tutoring, not systematically but for the sake of contrast because what I can do in tutoring is a lot more varied than what I can do in a university class.  For example, at the moment my oldest son Scott joins me on one of my private lessons as a kind of TA/trouble maker.  My relationship with my son changes the tone of my lessons so drastically it's truly fascinating to me.  It's kind of an experiment that I sometimes try just to see what happens, the kind of experiment that would land me in hot water at Hyupsung!
Ok, well lets get down to brass tacks.  This week all my classes are basically introducing the course so its a 45 minute lecture not a class per se.  But I find that the first class is very important in setting the tone for the semester.  What I focus on when I'm speaking to my students is channeling an identity that is antithetical to the common stereotype of what a Korean High school teacher is.  In my view most freshmen are emotionally scared by their secondary school education and they usually project a negative image of what a teacher is upon their teacher and fall into a predefined relationship with that teacher based on that image.  And I find the default T/S relationship in Korea to be highly counterproductive to creating free flowing student participation.  So I consciously try counteract their preconceived notion of who I am and by extension who they are in relationship with me.  So does it work?  Well, to be frank I'm not sure but I enjoy teaching much more when I'm being myself!  Hopefully this journal will help me assess the actual value of expressing one's identity in the classroom as opposed to expressing an identity that is censored by social or institutional expectations.
I don't really have any specific comments on my classes this week but I will say they all went as expected.  I perked the interest of some of my morning zombies and got a lot of active listeners when discussing my educational philosophy  and reasoning behind it.  Next week is going to be more of a challenge as I attempt to lift the level of my implementation from previous years.