Who cares about long-term when I can't even get them to undestand it in the short term?

[tsukikage]

You know, the problem with my teaching right now isn't whether or not I'm teaching in such a way that they'll use these things correctly in the long term or even necessarily whether they're developing communicative competence. Right now I can't even get most of the class to understand what's going on now. Like, when there's a chart on the board and in their packets and I've gone over things in detail, and (try to) explain how to do a worksheet, they're just... they don't even know what's going on. Maybe I'm just not explaining what the worksheet is asking for well enough? I tried a worksheet-free TPR activity to explain/work on come vs. go, and although they didn't seem to be fed up with it, per se, they did get tired of it and start moving to sit down before I felt they understood it. (Also, I couldn't get anyone to ask someone to come to where they were, thus I really couldn't get them to use "come" at all, which sort defeats the point.)
And although I probably use longer sentences than I should, or maybe speak faster than I should, I feel like I monitor myself for simplicity fairly well. Now I understand why my Japanese teachers would occasionally record themselves teaching... *wishes I had a video camera*
Rargh, this is so frustrating sometimes.
Oh well, I had fun anyway. And to be fair, I honestly do think that this class went better than my past three.

For some reason the eclipse tonight is making me feel uneasy. How primitive is that?
1440 calories worth of animal crackers for a dollar = wonderfully cheaply eating Nastassja. Although I have to wonder why mace is one of the ingredients. (Apparently it's a spice.)

[EDIT: I thought my second reflection paper for TESL was due tonight at 11:59, but it's actually due on Friday. w007! That'll give me a good thing to work on during MAS or on the bus. *moves on to revising my syntax homework and doing other readings*]

Comments

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

TPR can be a really great technique, but students can also get really sick of it really quickly if it's the wrong length for their age or attention span or the time of day or... @_@

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

This is true.