Comments on: Celebrating Small http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/ The life and times of an English teacher in Mexico City Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:19:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Jamie http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-28 Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:25:22 +0100 http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-28 Hi Aaron, Most of my students are preservice teachers and considering that only about 15% of all applicants who take the teacher's employment examination in my prefecture in Japan pass, many will not work at schools after graduation. I teach an EFL Teaching Methodologies Course in the first semester(April - August) and second semester (October - February). Both classes have approximately 30 students. When demonstrating teaching techniques for large classes (most primary and secondary schools have 30-40 students per class), I find that it is best to do so in a class with many students. However, to learn about the students' own teaching philosophies and learning histories and make the course content more relevant, groups of 4 would be ideal. Unfortunately, my students must take 12-15 classes a week and in addition to this, most work part-time jobs. Last semester I used blogs in the class and it was a good way for students to critically examine what we did in class and exchange opinions. Hi Aaron,
Most of my students are preservice teachers and considering that only about 15% of all applicants who take the teacher’s employment examination in my prefecture in Japan pass, many will not work at schools after graduation. I teach an EFL Teaching Methodologies Course in the first semester(April - August) and second semester (October - February). Both classes have approximately 30 students. When demonstrating teaching techniques for large classes (most primary and secondary schools have 30-40 students per class), I find that it is best to do so in a class with many students. However, to learn about the students’ own teaching philosophies and learning histories and make the course content more relevant, groups of 4 would be ideal. Unfortunately, my students must take 12-15 classes a week and in addition to this, most work part-time jobs. Last semester I used blogs in the class and it was a good way for students to critically examine what we did in class and exchange opinions.

]]> by: Aaron Nelson http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-26 Wed, 19 Oct 2005 08:08:46 +0100 http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-26 Hi Jamie, Thanks for reading and leaving your comment. I have left the big group mode. Instead of a "one session for all" approach, I printed out a calendar for the month, highlighting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays - they were free to pick any of those days, at the time most convenient to them. (First person to sign up for the day would pick the start time for anyone else who wanted to join on that day - if that makes sense. Like if somone picked Monday at 10:00 a.m., then anyone else wanting to go to that session on Monday, would have to attend at 10:00.) So far I've been having around four to five groups of three teachers. The other day I gave all our teachers a survey to fill out regarding the change - training is for them, so I want to make sure they like it - It's interesting really, the response has been very positive. I had a dozen or so comments which said something like: "I really appreciate the option of ME choosing when to attend the training session." All teachers responded that they liked the new format - smaller, more personal and more attention to how to put book work into practice. Nobody complained about the smallness. So I'm loving the change. IT's less stress. Higher influence. Greater possibility for quality change in the classroom, and in teaching practice. What do you think? What approach have you been using? Hi Jamie,
Thanks for reading and leaving your comment. I have left the big group mode. Instead of a “one session for all” approach, I printed out a calendar for the month, highlighting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays - they were free to pick any of those days, at the time most convenient to them. (First person to sign up for the day would pick the start time for anyone else who wanted to join on that day - if that makes sense. Like if somone picked Monday at 10:00 a.m., then anyone else wanting to go to that session on Monday, would have to attend at 10:00.) So far I’ve been having around four to five groups of three teachers.

The other day I gave all our teachers a survey to fill out regarding the change - training is for them, so I want to make sure they like it - It’s interesting really, the response has been very positive. I had a dozen or so comments which said something like: “I really appreciate the option of ME choosing when to attend the training session.” All teachers responded that they liked the new format - smaller, more personal and more attention to how to put book work into practice.
Nobody complained about the smallness.

So I’m loving the change. IT’s less stress. Higher influence. Greater possibility for quality change in the classroom, and in teaching practice.

What do you think? What approach have you been using?

]]> by: Jamie http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-25 Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:43:57 +0100 http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/celebrating-small/#comment-25 Hi, I discovered your blog through the Effortless Language Acquisition site. I am a teacher-trainer in Japan read your entry with much interest. When you say that you work with trainees in small groups, do you mean that you have abandoned the class of 20 altogether and made it into 4-5 smaller-sized training sessions? Hi, I discovered your blog through the Effortless Language Acquisition site. I am a teacher-trainer in Japan read your entry with much interest. When you say that you work with trainees in small groups, do you mean that you have abandoned the class of 20 altogether and made it into 4-5 smaller-sized training sessions?

]]>