Teaching 40-Year-Old Kids E-Book

Yuval Shomron

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 157

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

This is a book of teaching tips for adult learners. It includes a selection of short stories about life in Switzerland

Das E-Book Teaching 40-Year-Old Kids wird angeboten von tredition und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
Stories, Education, short stories, english, poems, language, Games, Teaching, Switzerland, teach, adults, Yuval Shomron, languages, tips, ideas, how to teach, CEFR, teaching adults, English language, Klettgau, PHD, ELT, encouragement, different levels, A2, B1, B2, C1

Leseprobe

Teaching 40-Year-Old Kids

by Yuval Shomron

COPYRIGHT 2021 YUVAL SHOMRON

ISBN: 978-3-347-29348-9 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-3-347-29350-2 (e-Book)

Publishing & print:

tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44,

22359 Hamburg, Germany

Forward

In his unique communicative style, Yuval shares in Teaching 40-year-old kids his experience and insights into the art of being an English teacher in Switzerland which he has gleaned ‘at the chalk face’. A quick browse through the Contents pages offers the reader a smorgasbord of varying topics, tasks and anecdotes from his past from which a teacher might select a new idea for a lesson activity or use a story as a prompt for a writing or speaking task.

Most teachers I have met could share similar stories and experiences, and Yuval has kindly compiled a few from his vast experience to encourage and inspire wannabe educators and newcomers to the field of teaching adults. Although some of the content has been used in classes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I believe most ideas could be adapted and used among English language learners around the globe.

Dr. JoAnn Salvisberg

Intro

This is a short book based on my own experience. The Book of Proverbs implies that, “In few words there is much wisdom.” I’m not going to quote many great thinkers or other people’s writings.

I’m going to let you read between the lines and fill in the blanks. If you are a teacher, you can do that.

The student levels in this book refer to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)

A1 (basic) - C1 (Proficient)

There is a section at the end filled with original stories and poems I have used to teach.

You will notice a little bit about me because of my egotistical need for affirmation.

But most of it is about teaching adults.

What is an adult?      An adult is a tall child!

CONTENTS

Why teach?

They All Started Out As Children

“Die Runde”

Couples

Unlocking Shy Adults

Ticking All the Boxes

The Difference Between Studying and Learning

Sparking Imagination

Open Discussions

Field Trips

Encouragement

Grill Parties

Anyone Can Write a Poem

A Recipe for Fun

Using Music and Videos

Games

Evaluation of Methods

Short Story Section

A Cycle of Double Meanings

A Wooly Fantasy

Back to the Drawing Board

Bed-Time Stories

Beer-B-Que

Cherries Jubilee

Circle the Wagons. We’re Surrounded!

Cold Feet – Warm Hearts

Dogwoods and Daffodils

Doodads Thingamajigs and Whatchamacallits

Do’s and Don’ts

Eve of Vacation

Festival-Liebhaber

Gifted Giving

Grüezi Mitenand

H2O – The Great Equalizer

Harmony 2019

If a Tree Falls

If Christmas were Today

I’ll cry if I want to!

Inspiration

Jewel-Eye

Let the Sun Shine In

Let There Be Light

There’s No Business Like Snow Business

Ode to the Klettgau

Pick me Up

Pleasure before Business

Renovating Home and Heart

Revelry, Remembrance and Respect

Seriously Though

Simply the Best!

Smokin’ Weed

BOING! - Spring has Sprung

Summer, wherefore art thou?

Veni Vidi Vici Vespa

Whatta Beach

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Wooden You Know It

A poetic treatise

Epilogue

WHY TEACH?

Is teaching in the blood? I don’t think so. As far as educational psychology is concerned, I am a stalwart behaviorist. I’ve seen many of my acquaintances with oodles of apparent talent fail in their chosen profession, and others who simply worked hard and had sufficient motivation succeed beyond their dreams.

My decision to be a teacher came when I was in the seventh grade. There were no teachers in my large extended family, and I was even the first to complete university. DNA had nothing to do with my life path. Only blood, sweat, and tears played a role in my efforts.

It is safe to assume that most teachers had some wonderful role models somewhere in their youth. And I have heard many of my colleagues affirm this theory.

In spite of his funny name, my band teacher, Mr. Melvin Gilhaus, was the one who inspired me to pursue my dream. He was always encouraging, patient, and had the balance of expecting greatness from his students while at the same time showing mercy for their failures.

There are some letters after my name, but for me at least, and I’m pretty sure everyone would agree, university is only a nest for you to be kicked out of into the real world. Experience is indeed the best teacher and, contrary to what HR people might think, the most important requirement for the next job.

I have been teaching for 45 years. There was one hiatus for eight years when I was a journalist. But if you do it properly, journalism is only another form of teaching.

Many mistakes tweaked my learning curve during my various roles from the teacher on the bottom rung of the ladder up to my several stints as department head, and even in three cases, creating a department that didn’t exist before. Thankfully, my right decisions far outweighed the wrong ones.

On one hand, you only need to know more than your students in order to pass on new information to them. On the other hand, your delivery makes all the difference. It is common knowledge that we educators have eyes in the back of our heads and can read minds. But that’s not all. If we have enough years under our belt, we can assess the students’ needs, anticipate outcomes, and predict the future for our wards.

A few experiences with both ladies and gentlemen who stood in front of a classroom because it was a job clutter my own learning time. They tended to be dull and boring and often grumpy individuals who had rather been doing something else.

Of course, there is the old saying, “those who can’t do … teach”. One hears this a lot in reference to music, sports and art as well as the sciences. But when someone falls back on teaching because they couldn’t make it in their competitive world, their unrequited dreams may forever be a cloud over their effectiveness.

I love teaching, but I’ll share a little secret with you: I still sometimes walk into a lesson scared shitless. (Sorry, that’s how it was described in my home state of Missouri.) Perhaps I didn’t sleep well, or didn’t do enough preparation, or just looked in the mirror in the morning and said to myself, “What the heck am I doing?”

Improvisation has always been one of my strong points. I sometimes think I should have been a stand-up comedian. But teaching makes room for that dream as well, albeit I’m usually sitting down.

Imagination is also a prerequisite for teaching. If you have none, you will lose the battle with freshness and your students will soon be looking out the window.

Personally, I have the added advantage of having a long-term severe case of ADHD. I can’t sit still. I go to sleep planning and wake up scheming. I write poems in my head while picking cherries in our garden and file complete lesson plans in my inner folders while driving to work. And my school is only 7 minutes from my house. My wife sees me staring at the wall and thinks I am just lazing in my nothing box. Actually, I’m squarely planted with both feet on the planet of fascination walking the streets of curiosity.

All of the above may explain why I started teaching, but why do I keep doing it? Simple. I see a sparkle in the eyes of those staring at me across the desks as they grasp a new idea. I read homework that amazes me in its use of the language. I observe students helping one another understand something like little disciples of the great me. (Only joking. I think….) I get a call or an email from a former student who has found success and credits me with at least having a small part in it.

Teaching is not the best paying job in the world if you are talking about money. But in terms of satisfaction, I’m a millionaire.

THEY ALL STARTED OUT AS CHILDREN

Have you ever met anyone who was born an adult? Perhaps Adam and Eve were the only exceptions. But not even I am old enough to have met them face to face.

A person’s childhood, whether good or bad, will establish the foundation for adulthood. My job as a teacher is to draw out the happy moments and pleasant memories and build on them. Sometimes I can be over positive, but firmly believe that everyone must have had a few wonderful minutes, hours, days, months or even years when they were young.

When an adult first walks in for an interview before beginning classes, I try to assess two things. First of all of course, is their current level of useable language knowledge. But I also attempt to see into their eyes and heart, asking myself a couple of questions:

1. Why does this person REALLY want to learn English? They may have told me it was for travelling or their job. But their eyes may say they are lonely and want to use language classes as a means to meet people or to just get out of the house.

2. Is this potential student basically sad and grumpy or happy and satisfied with life?

This doesn’t mean I would reject them; and I have almost never refused to teach anyone. It is just in a way preparing myself for the task ahead. Obviously, it will take a while for me to get to know them and be able to make more accurate judgements. But that first impression is often very telling.

If they seem to be a closed book, I will discuss how to open it up in other chapters.

My first 20 years in the field of education were spent exclusively teaching children from age 10 all the way up to 18. Now at my age, I’m tempted to describe anyone under the age of 30 as a child. And those after 30 as being in their second childhood.

Children are amazing little creatures. With any emotions ranging from wide eyed enthusiasm to tight lipped rebellion, they tend to do everything with their whole heart.

When they have questions, they eagerly look for answers. When they get a new toy, they vigorously inspect all the possible things they can do with it. When they meet a new friend, they slowly warm up and make their own decision as to whether the relationship is worth giving a try.

Perhaps I should insert here that I have three adopted children who are now adults. So many of my opinions about kids were formed at home as well as in the classroom.

Adults NEVER EVER lose their inner child. He may be locked in a cage. He may be gagged and tied. He may have been told to shut up and listen to the grown-ups in the room. But he is still there, begging to be let out to breathe.

This book is about that kid under the lid. That brattish little boy and excited little girl from long ago can receive more and give more than their adult body has told them is acceptable and rational.

As a kid I learned from scraped knees, bloody noses, muddy shoes, and a damaged ego. Adults have decided that learning comes from books and lectures. I agree that they have their place. But if we let ourselves experience new schooling through the adolescent still residing in our soul, we will be more teachable and ready to let the pedagogue fill our empty tanks.

“DIE RUNDE”

We start every lesson with a round of small talk. Each student takes a minute or two to say what he or she has been doing since the last lesson.

I should point out here that I give only one lesson per week and do no intensive courses. Adults seldom have time for it.

Each pupil receives a small spiral bound notebook to keep as a diary during the week so that they can actually remember what they did over the weekend, or in their holidays.

For the A1 to B1 classes, their book gets placed under the projector for everyone to see and each of them in turn reads their lines out loud. After they finish, I go back and fix spelling or grammar mistakes, trying to NEVER interrupt them in the middle. In doing so, they learn from each other, have a few harmless laughs, and encourage one another to do better the next time.

There is a multifold purpose in doing this. First of all they get to know each other. They usually start out by saying innocuous things like, “I took Sammy to his piano lesson on Thursday afternoon” or “We invited neighbors over for a grill on the patio on Sunday”. Little by little, as the class begins to become its own entity, they open up with more personal admissions like, “My husband and I had a fight on Friday night, but on Saturday he brought me flowers and we made up”.

In my opinion this is more useful than talking about Herr und Frau Mueller or the Schmidt family in a book. We naturally do this also, but the personal stories are more easily remembered, as well as the corrections.

The second reason is to unlock the shy adults. I will dedicate a whole chapter to this later.

The third reason is that this is a mini presentation. It slowly prepares them for later exercises when they need to stand up in front of the class and give a longer demonstration on a more expansive subject.

I have found that these little times of sharing are the catalysts for the chemical reactions between the students and the glue between the different levels. Have you ever had a class where everyone is equal in their understanding? The small talk unites everyone in a common denominator called life.

When someone is fresh back from a personal vacation, I give them the floor for a longer time. They often bring photos on a USB stick and stand by the projected images and tell us all about the highlights. I quickly learned to limit the number of pics, so they don’t go on and on. When the class has been together for a while, they never resent the solo presentations. They will all eventually get a turn. One of the prerequisites is that the others can ask questions along the way. So, the presenter also gets some exercise in spontaneous answers.

The last reason is because of my own experience. Over time I have taken three intensive daily German courses for three months each. I never got to know the other people in the class more than perhaps their name and occupation. Maybe I was the only curious one? I doubt it. And after class we all went our separate ways. I seldom saw them in any other situation unless I happened to bump into them at the supermarket.

My own students stand outside on the sidewalk after class and have conversations about their families or other subjects of mutual interest. Sometimes they become friends and the relationship goes on well after their studies have ended.

COUPLES

Teaching couples is a special pleasure. Sometimes with only the two of them in a lesson, and sometimes in a class with other students.

“Die Runde” is often quite different than with singles. As in politics, there is a sort of balance of power. In the case of couples, I always ask the husband to go first, as the wife inevitably makes corrections. And sometimes, the classroom becomes a convenient confessional.

Here is an example: (Not a real one in case some of my students read this book, but a typical one.)

Me: “So guys, what is new this week?”

Julian: “Well, let’s see. Friday night we went bowling with a couple of old friends. I won all three games. Saturday we just sat around the house, then in the evening we had a pleasant raclette with our neighbors with a nice white wine. Sunday, we slept in and had a late breakfast. Then watched a film on TV and had an early night.”

Samantha: “What? Actually, the raclette was on Friday night. And you had TOO MUCH white wine and started arguing with Hubert the neighbor about politics. Sally and I had to escape to the kitchen for some peace and quiet. Then on Saturday, YOU just sat around the house. I did the shopping and house cleaning, entertained the kids, and did the laundry. Did you forget that in the afternoon we had to run to the hospital because Johnny fell off his bike and had to get stitches in his knee? Then it was on Saturday evening that we went bowling with some NEW friends, not old ones. And you only won one round out of three. Your ball visited the gutter more than the pins. On Sunday YOU slept in. I got out of bed early because you were snoring like a 1939 Hurlimann tractor. I made breakfast and the kids had to DRAG you to the table at 10:00. And we didn’t watch a film. YOU watched football while the kids drove me crazy. Early night? We finally flopped into bed exhausted at midnight.”

Me: “It’s always interesting to see different perspectives. No one remembers all the details. Sorry Julian, but men especially tend to have selective memory.”

Julian: “Oh, I DID forget something. On Friday afternoon I had my photo taken.”

Samantha: “Here we go again. Who took your picture?”

Julian: “A radar camera.”

Samantha: “Where? And how fast were you going?”

Julian: “Don’t worry, I was only going 65.”

Samantha: “In a 60 zone?”

Julian: “No, in a 50 zone. It wasn’t my fault. I had to step on the gas to avoid being hit by a tram.”

Samantha: “A tram? Where were you?”

Julian: “Downtown Zurich. I had to go shopping for a present.”

Samantha: “Oh, OK. That’s nice. What did you get me?”

Julian: “It wasn’t for you. It was for Suzi, my boss.”

Samantha: “And WHY exactly did you buy a present for Suzi?”

Julian: “I’m sure I told you. She is retiring and I’m getting a promotion.”

Samantha: “No, you didn’t tell me. How could you not tell me about something so important?”

Julian: “It slipped my mind.”

Samantha: “Just like your bowling ball slipped into the gutter!” (insert a few seconds of tense silence.)

Me: “Open your books please to page 53.”

The good news is that not all the conversations with couples are like the one above. Mostly they tend to help each other and even sometimes relive romantic memories. More than once I’ve seen a man and woman fall back in love during English class. An experience which is extremely satisfying for this wise old teacher.