Break the Mundane
I am just reading a post over at the Hello, my name is BLOG blog, and I really enjoyed it, agreed with it, and wanted to pass it along to you for your consideration. It’s called “The World is a Mirror, Part 13. M is for Mundane.”
Scott’s opening is great, in my humble opinion, and it’s something teachers…perhaps especially ESL teachers, should be thinking about constantly: How can we make mundane things memorable?
How can our classrooms be fantastic places?
If you’re a freelancer, I think “breaking mundane” is vital if you want to expand your practice. I don’t mean to pick on any company or way of doing things, but I’ve just gotta mention something I see almost every day. I always drive by a major language training center on my way to work. They’re a big time company, and can afford nice offices and classrooms. The classrooms that I always see, are on the second floor, and are completely glass. As a marketing ploy I suppose, you can see everything that is going on inside the classroom. Wanna know what I see? Pretty much the same thing every moring: Business people sitting around square tables. Their heads are usually down, working through some exercise in a workbook.
To be honest, I don’t know what the environment is like on the inside of the glass. Maybe they have lively discussions, and a wonderful teacher who excels at crafting engaging learning experiences. But somehow I doubt it. I’ve known a lot of people who have worked for/with this company. They often have similar opinions of the methodology: It’s boring, and there’s little freedom to go off the beaten curriculum path.
But even if you’re not a big shot company, I think you have to strive to ward off the mundane. Think about it for a while. Would your students describe your class as being: monotonous, tedious, irksome, tiresome, or humdrum? (Those words are all synonyms for boring at thefreedictionary.com. ) An even better question: How would you describe your classes?
According to Scott, killing mundane is vital for growth. Here’s how he sees the results of killing mundane:
Breaking the silence = breaking the pattern.
Breaking the pattern = mundane into memorable.
Memorable moments = increased comfort.
Increased comfort = increased approachability.
More approachability = strangers into friends.
Friends = people who become loyal, aka, fans.
Fans = people who love your stuff.
More fans = more positive word of mouth.
More people talking about how much they love your stuff =
HELLO, my name is BLOG: The World is a Mirror, Part 13
A week ago, I decided to do something different in one of my one-on-one classes. I arrived a few minutes before, and dropped into a nearby bakery. I picked up two AWESOME looking apple strudels, and took them into class. Food and drink totally transform most gatherings where people are involved, and classrooms are no different. While this particular class is almost always relaxed and easy going, the strudel brought the conversation even deeper. We had a great time, and our conversation ranged all over the place. Most of all though, there was greater comfort and confidence: key ingredients to successfully building language fluency don’t you think?What do you do to break the mundane?
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Breaking the mundane sounds fun, and hey! We all get bored of teaching at some stage or other. But a couple of considerations: 1) many of the above suggestions are culturally specific and may not work well in other (non-English-speaking, non-Anglo-Saxon) cultures or with students from those cultures. For example, bringing food and drink into class may be a breach of institutional regulations and might also be considered highly unprofessional and lower the teacher in the eyes of students.
2) Repetition and patterns, of course, play an important role in language-learning. Not everyone shares the obsession with the new and the different and its belief in these things as intrinsically superior in value.
3) Going off the “beaten curriculum path” sounds fun, eh? Adventure, excitement, the unpredictable, etc. Romantic stuff. But a) there’s a reason why the curriculum exists in the first place - to facilitate learning, particularly to facilitate learning for a group of people (if it doesn’t do that, time to re-think the curriculum), and b) whose boredom are we talking about really, here?
Comment by Marco Polo — November 4, 2006 @ 7:01 pm
I’m with Marco Polo on this one.
Comment by EFL Geek — November 5, 2006 @ 5:00 am
Marco,
Thanks for your ideas. You know, you have a really interesting point. Culture. It does make HUGE differences in how you do things doesn’t it.
I guess the main idea of what I was wanting to say was this: It’s important to look for creative ways to make every class meaningful, interesting, and memorable for you and your students. Too often, I think, classrooms fall into ruts and routines.
I totally agree with you though: you need to find culturally sensitive and correct ways to be interesting and NOT BORING. I would love to learn what that would mean in your situation Marco. Care to share??
2. I hope I don’t come across as someone obsessed with new and different, and that new and different are just right cus they are new and different. Not my intention at all. I hope I’m never the kind of person who jumps on whatever cool looking bandwagon that seems to be passing by at the moment. I hope I always offer a classroom that is effective, and relevant to my students. Period. That’s what I care about.
I’m a big one on repeating and finding patterns too. In class, I usually take weeks listening to the same podcast, or reading the same article. Repetition. Patterns. Deeper understanding and exploration of the content. Totally in agreement with you on that point too.
3. Yeah, going off the curriculum trail does sound romantic. I do think that the trails are there for a reason, and I don’t advocate the complete destruction of curriculum. I am, however, greatly in favor of meaningful curriculum. Students should be the curriculum. It should be a flexible creature that adapts to the classroom.
In my situation, the “curriculum” that I’ve experienced in most ESL schools is MOST of the time, meaningless to what students deal with when they step out of the classroom. There’s no connection to class and the real world. There’s something wrong with that. In this case, it was about everyone’s boredom.
So yeah, curriculum needs to exist. It serves a purpose. But we, the teachers, need to always make sure that what we do in class is actually connected to what the student does outside the classroom.
I’m writing from a business English perspective. Would there be differences in teaching university students English? I would love to learn what you think about this Marco.
Comment by Aaron Nelson — November 6, 2006 @ 6:49 am
I wouldn’t say you are “obsessed” with new and different, but, well, you live in the US - the country that believes “old” is an insult. Enuff said!
Students should be the curriculum. It should be a flexible creature that adapts to the classroom. Sounds great. Yeah. How does this work in practice? It’s a lot easier if you have classes of 1 or 4 students, but when you’re faced with 25+, it’s a different ball game entirely. I’m not trying to piss on your party; it’s just that the blogosphere can become an echo-chamber where you only hear your own beliefs and prejudices echoed back to you.
Yes, teaching business students is different from teaching at university: to always make sure that what we do in class is actually connected to what the student does outside the classroom just sounds so weird in a university context: what are you, Big Brother? Sheesh! What I do outside of class is none of your business (students talking, here); and if you’re trying to convince me that I can’t “succeed” unless I work outside of class, well, that just sounds like a really lame excuse, i.e. you don’t really know how to teach. Thanks, and, where do I go to get a refund?
Comment by Marco Polo — November 8, 2006 @ 7:15 am
Culture. It does make HUGE differences in how you do things doesn’t it. Yes, but I’m not sure that’s the point I was making. OK, so people do things differently in different places. Big deal. I’ll remember that for my next trivia contest down at the pub. My point is that, seeing ourselves from a different viewpoint, e.g. that of someone from a different culture, can provide us with a unique opportunity to re-view and re-consider our own ways of thinking, our own unexamined biasses and assumptions. Now “culture” doesn’t have to just mean someone from a different country: it can be anyone with a different world view, i.e. someone outside our usual “comfort zone”, someone whose point of view we don’t seek out, haven’t heard before. Yoko Ono said “Woman is the nigger of the world.” Whoah! There’s a smack in the mouth for a male, eh?! For example, Americans (particulary, in my experience) tend to assume that calling someone by their first name, and insisting that other person call them by THEIR first name will automatically put that other person at their ease, and bring the whole relationship to a more egalitarian, and hence more RELAXED, level. Really? Is this universal? Or is it a North American cultural value? It’s worth bearing this in mind, I think, when one makes statements regarding values, such as It’s important to look for creative ways to make every class meaningful, interesting, and memorable for you and your students. Too often, I think, classrooms fall into ruts and routines; what YOU mean by “meaningful” may not be shared by all of your students; what YOU mean by “ruts and routines”, with its derogatory assumption, may not be shared by all of your students. OK, perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a molehill; after all, you probably only teach in North America, and probably only teach North American white males, in which case you and your students probably share the same values, and nothing of what you have said is therefore problematic (at least, for you and your students). I just want to raise the issue because this is a blog, and as such is (or can be) read by people around the world, not just in North America; and not everyone shares North American values. North America (and my native land) have in common the fact that they are individualist cultures. The majority of the people on this planet, however, come from collectivist cultures.
Comment by Marco Polo — November 8, 2006 @ 7:39 am
Marco,
Ouch. You mad or what? First things first…some things to clear up before we proceed with the conversation:
1. I live and work in Mexico City. I’m Canadian.
2. I think I shared the context of my thoughts in the post, likely not clearly enough: I teach business English to small groups inside companies. I don’t teach in universities. Is it possible to shape curriculum in big learning environments…I don’t know. For sure it’s a much more difficult challange, and I have no idea how it would work. But what I am interested in Marco, is asking you to share with me about how you make your classes meaningful to your students? I’m aware of the fact that it’s easy to get lost in your own echochamber on the blogsphere, and that’s not what I’m looking for.
But isn’t being meaningful…in culturally sensitive ways of course, part of your job as a teacher? Do you need to think about this where you work? Or can you just throw down the curriculum as the school dictates it to you, any way you want without regard to your student’s response? Are you making an impact, or are you just giving another lecture?
“What I do outside of class is none of your business (students talking, here);” - No, the idea was not big brother. Speaking out of my reality, I have been teaching business English inside companies now for over seven years. Most of the time, we’ve used course books to facilitate a lot of that. What I meant by making a connection between what is done in class, and what is done by students outside of class, is that if you, Mr/Mrs. business student, are involved in explaining the ins and outs of Mexican tax laws to English speaking clients, then sitting through a class which does a role play on calling a colleague to complain about a faulty product or service sorta falls short of really making a difference. The connection to what the student does outside the class is simply about trying to help the student work on English skills that he/she needs to use on a daily basis, to do their job better.
“and if you’re trying to convince me that I can’t “succeed” unless I work outside of class, well, that just sounds like a really lame excuse, i.e. you don’t really know how to teach. Thanks, and, where do I go to get a refund?”
WEll, not too sure where this one is coming from….maybe from the post around obstacles to teaching?? If so, Marco, I really think that if the student doesn’t work on his or her own to improve, and that means OUTSIDE THE CLASS, then he or she should expect a very LOOOONNNGGG go of learning the language.
“what YOU mean by “meaningful” may not be shared by all of your students;”
I think that maybe I didn’t come across correctly, because that’s exactly what I meant by teachers needing to create meaningful learning environments. To me, that means that every classroom will be different because every student is different. You, no matter if you teach in Angolia, Africa, Aisa, or Atlanta, have to think about your student, and shape your approach to what will be meaningful for them. If it’s meaningful to me, it doesn’t mean it will be meaningful to you…but that’s what makes a teacher a great teacher: the ability to help students really understand stuff by adapting to what makes sense to the student.
Comment by Aaron Nelson — November 8, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
Marco -
I think you need to do some fact checking before slinging it -
re Aaron teaches and lives in Mexico City (NOT AMERICAN) and is Canadian by birth (NOT AMERICAN). As far as I know, his clients are NOT North American white males - from what I’ve chatted with Aaron, they are Spanish speaking Mexicans in terms of ethnicity and geographic location.
Some pretty big (and incorrect) assumptions there that really deflate whatever point you were trying to make.
Comment by James Matthew — November 15, 2006 @ 10:08 pm