Post by dickflem on Nov 19, 2008 13:50:52 GMT 8
Recently I've had to team teach a few evaluation/demonstration lessons.
This involved at least one planning meeting, an audience of teachers watching the the class, and a "post mortem" of the class involving the teachers who were present during it.
I have 2 teachers at different schools who both "use" me in the same way. Usually I don't get any communication from them about lessons until the day of the lesson. Also, they have opted to ask me to come to their class for the last 10mins to do either a rehearsed Q&A with their students or occasionally, an activity which I have prepared.
I have tried various ways to change these methods but as yet none have been successful.
So, when it comes to a "demonstration lesson" I feel a bit frustrated that there's a big fuss made. 2 weeks in advance we had preliminary planning.
Close to the day of the special lesson we had another meeting (one which required me cancelling dinner, a kickboxing class and staying in work until 9:30pm!!).
During the lesson, English was used 80-90% of the time by the JTEs (as opposed to 20-30% during normal lessons). I was asked throughout the whole class, for feedback, pronounciation advice, one to one interection with students, the whole lot.@
This is my problem; that the classes are unrepresentative. Both of how the JTEs teach and how the students learn English.
I felt like the whole thing was just B.S. and that we were putting on this fake front for visitors who are being taken for fools.
The only saving grace was that one class ended 10mins early so the JTE (who is, at best, disfunctional) gave the students a writing worksheet he'd prepared for the next lesson.
The worksheet had his usual katakana subscript on it, and was full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar.
I didn't want to see the guy embarrassed but even with my limited Japanese, I could tell that one of the first comments in the after meeting was from a elementary school principal who was "a little shocked to see katakana pronunciation guide on a 2nd year junior high school english worksheet".
Anyone have similar experiences or care to ring in on what they think about these lessons?
This involved at least one planning meeting, an audience of teachers watching the the class, and a "post mortem" of the class involving the teachers who were present during it.
I have 2 teachers at different schools who both "use" me in the same way. Usually I don't get any communication from them about lessons until the day of the lesson. Also, they have opted to ask me to come to their class for the last 10mins to do either a rehearsed Q&A with their students or occasionally, an activity which I have prepared.
I have tried various ways to change these methods but as yet none have been successful.
So, when it comes to a "demonstration lesson" I feel a bit frustrated that there's a big fuss made. 2 weeks in advance we had preliminary planning.
Close to the day of the special lesson we had another meeting (one which required me cancelling dinner, a kickboxing class and staying in work until 9:30pm!!).
During the lesson, English was used 80-90% of the time by the JTEs (as opposed to 20-30% during normal lessons). I was asked throughout the whole class, for feedback, pronounciation advice, one to one interection with students, the whole lot.@
This is my problem; that the classes are unrepresentative. Both of how the JTEs teach and how the students learn English.
I felt like the whole thing was just B.S. and that we were putting on this fake front for visitors who are being taken for fools.
The only saving grace was that one class ended 10mins early so the JTE (who is, at best, disfunctional) gave the students a writing worksheet he'd prepared for the next lesson.
The worksheet had his usual katakana subscript on it, and was full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar.
I didn't want to see the guy embarrassed but even with my limited Japanese, I could tell that one of the first comments in the after meeting was from a elementary school principal who was "a little shocked to see katakana pronunciation guide on a 2nd year junior high school english worksheet".
Anyone have similar experiences or care to ring in on what they think about these lessons?