So the reviews of my teaching thus far: my students love me, but I talk WAY too fast and they can't understand what I'm saying. Awesome. At first I was pretty stoked. The day after I started teaching, Pee Mam got calls from her students saying they liked me, and she just said to slow down my talking a bit. So I did. Or so I thought. It seems that even when I think I am speaking painfully slowly (Heeeelllloooooooo. Myyyyy nnnnaaaaammmmmeeeee iiiissssss Aaaaaallllllllllllllllllliiiiisssssooooooooooonnnnnnn), they just hear mumbo jumbo. I feel like Dori in Finding Nemo--whale speak!
Uggh, it can be so frustrating at times! I work very hard to speak slowly, and in every class I teach I have told my students on multiple occasions that if I am speaking too quickly or they don't understand, to tell me. I also learned how to ask them in Thai if they understand--"kow jai mai." The other Thai teachers thought this was fabulous as it would help me figure out whether things were going smoothly or not.
Let me just say this--it isn't helping. The students thus far are not willing to say they don't understand. Even when I have told them to say if I speak too fast for them, they just let it go and tell the Thai teachers later that it was too fast. When in class I ask if it is too fast or ok, they say it is ok. When I ask "kow jai mai?" (do you understand?", they automatically respond "kow jai" (I understand). They don't seem to think of it as a question, more like one of their rote memorization drills--when teacher says this, I respond with this. I honestly don't know how to figure out if they are understanding or not when they refuse to interact. Even when I am asking comprehension checking questions it seems like short term memorization--they are able to regurgitate whatever I have just said, or parrot it back in the correct fashion, but the true comprehension is missing.
I am not trying to sound overly negative, I just came up against these hurdles in the last 2 days. I realized that the class I was teaching ecology truly had no comprehension of the topic. Yesterday I was supposed to coteach the class with pee Mam, but she was running late handing out P.E. uniforms to lower level students. So she handed me an exam and sent me off to proctor the test.
When I arrive in class, they are running around, acting like average 10th graders. I try to get them to settle down as quickly as possible, especially since I am already 10 minutes late for class (pee Mam had no inkling of the time). Step 1: tell the students to put their notebooks away. I only want to see pencils and pens on the desks. No response. We are having a test today. <Waves tests in air> Put everything away so we can begin. Finally there is some shuffling and groaning, as understanding sets in.
I finally get everything off the desks (this takes longer than it should) and begin to hand out exams. There is tons of talking. Step 2: "No talking!!!" The students quiet down for a moment as I continue to pass out the tests, but the conversation quickly escalates again as I move about the room. I have to stop again to remind them no talking. I really should have thought this through a bit better, but I hadn't known about the test or planned for any of it.
The test begins, all heads are down and for a brief moment the only sound in the room is that of pens scratching on paper. And there it is again. Talking. I notice that here and there throughout the room there are two, three, four students looking at each other's tests, sharing answers and pointing. Really? So I walk over to a group of three chatty girls in the front of the room, slamming my hand on the desk. It startles them. "Stop it!" They nod guiltily, and actually they do stop for the rest of the test. Others are not so respectful. I have to tap 2 girls on the shoulder to tell them to stop sharing answers, and when they continue after that I take down their names. Yet another girl copies form both her neighbors. I tell her to stop and loom over her, not leaving her side. She then proceeds to cheat off her friends again. Welp, another name for my list. How can you be so stupid? Or do they think I am that stupid? Apparently so.
It was an incredibly painful 40 minutes. There were others who cheated, but not enough that I could catch them. Never again will I allow something like that to happen. Reah always puts her students as far apart as possible when testing so as to discourage cheating. I will be doing the same in my classes. This co-teaching is difficult--you have this odd shared authority and the students feel they can get away with anything since you aren't the "real" teacher. Although maybe they pull the same crap with the Thai teachers...I doubt it.
But back to the real story here. I graded the tests today, and the results were eye opening. I would like to say that the students failed, and some of them certainly did. Some of them just didn't study--I can't tell you how many times we discussed the definition of a primary producer (i.e. plants/algae...not the sun). But some of it was definitely me. We need to go back to square one with parts of the lesson--the concept of detritivore, decomposer, and scavenger was completely lost on the majority of my students. So yeah, time to reevaluate.
Step 1: Speak slowly. Even if it seems too slow, it isn't. Even if they say it's ok, they are probably lying. Think whale speak.
Step 2: Continue asking if they understand--maybe you will get a truthful answer at some point. It is better to ask than not.
Step 3: Try to determine if they actually understand. Usually easier said than done. This step often causes extreme frustration--proceed with caution.
Step 4: Show students you are in control!!! You are the teacher, not them. This means no blatant cheating, no talking during exams, and no paper airplanes (yet another treat from today). Being a foreign teacher means you have the novelty factor, but also means students will test the boundaries in ways they never would with a Thai teacher. Keep order in the classroom--death stares are good, but blackmail with grades and/or reporting them to their parents is always best.
Step 5: Keep calm. Take a deep breath. Tomorrow is a new day.
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