Teach English in Taoerhe Nongchang - Baicheng Shi

Lesson 1. Lesson one started confusing. I thought that teacher needs to come earlier so he/she can prepare materials and arrange seats. After he entered the room he just said "hello" and jumped into questions. On the second lesson, he wrote his name on the desk, which made me think, that this is their first lesson. But at the end of the second video, when they had activity, questions made me think that they know each other. He started their lessons from questions, without even mentioning today's topic/theme. He had some materials, but they seemed non-organized. There was no proper engage phase at all. I would feel confused too. Because he saw that they are not getting a question and just asked more question, just confusing theme. The whole atmosphere in the class was confusing and maybe intimidated. Students were interested, but they just didn't know how to answer his questions. His voice tone is the same, monotone and without any tone changes. It was not even interesting to listen to his "explanations". He saw that it is hard for them to understand, but still, he didn't try to use a different technique. Even pictures that he showed were strange. It would be better to find the easiest pictures for them, as it showed in the second's video. When students were suggesting answers he just cut it with straight "no" without any explanation (around 2:20). From previous units, I know that we are allowed to point, but still, I don't think that the way he pointed with one finger was professional and necessary. He should use more eye contact. Plus we were wiping his nose with hand few time, which is t otally interoperated. He had 3 girls being late on his lesson, and he didn't take care of putting their names in front of their desks. A student was telling an answer "you can" few times before the teacher noticed that (around 05:18). He was using a drilling technique which is good, especially with a group of beginners like them. Drilling will help them to memorize the right structure and how / when to use it. When he was unpleasant with them he keeps repeating "nobody gets me". That's not the right way to say that they are not understanding him. It seemed for me that he was trying to make them pronounce "can't" with an accent, which is not suitable. Then he moved to the study phase. He gives them a worksheet, without any explanation and he didn't ask them if they got it. Even if the task will last 2 minutes, we should give proper explanation and be sure that students understand it. And check it without a simple question "do you understand?" He said "2-3 minutes, something li ke that". I think there suppose to be a proper amount of time for the task, especially when you know that this lesson is hard for them and would take much more time to complete this task. We need to motions them while they are doing tasks, but we should not interrupt them asking continuously "you finished?". And while they were doing their task, he was making some corrections on board. We read about this in unit 5, but how correct it is? Students may not pay any attention ( which they actually did) to any of this corrections, even if that was a simple correction of the short version of "do not". Around 13:50 he said "you do nothing" just in front of everyone - that's inappropriate to say it with these words and in front of the whole class. And when they were checking their answers, he just put numbers of exercises and symbol in front of each. He supposed to write the whole answer because not everyone could make that in time and understand about which answer they are talking about. Finally, they started the study phase. One more time he didn't properly understand the rules, because of his explanations. Because of that, students were talking in their L1 language a few times. Around 24:17 he said, "are you special?" , "you go away", it's not right at all. At the end of the game, he just said " I can not take it anymore" and just left. I guess, that it was straight arrow structure that he tried to apply, but There were no conclusion of the lessons, checking if they understand everything or maybe they have questions. Lesson 2. After the first video I really had some kind of negative feeling towards this teacher, but at the end of the second one, I really sympathized him. Because at this lesson he was smiling, joking and building a connection with students. That's why the performance of students was much better. He spoke clear and slow. At least not they can understand what he is talking about. He still came after his stud ents, is it right? But he started with introducing his name and writing it on the board. He greeted when everyone by their names. Plus-circle way of sets was perfect for this room and gave the treacherous great position of observing and monitoring. The whole atmosphere was positive and energetic. This time explaining were correct and he was encouraging them to answer. He was still using gestures, but this time a different one. I'm still wondering, is there any other way of gesturing? This time everyone had their names in front of them, but there was a man, who was late. Should the teacher be harsher on the one students that were late? These time his materials were better prepared, examples were easy to understand. He was giving student tips when they had problems with answering questions. And he was marking each part of a sentence with a different color. It was visualization using colors, so they can memorize it better. He still used drilling, pictures, he was asking questions, some follow-on questions and used gap-fill, as well. He had really smoothed transitions between stages. As I understand, it was 3P structure - presentation, practice, and production. At the study phase, he explained conditions of the worksheet, even used one sentence as an example on the board. Checked if they understand him, gave the proper amount of time for solving. Even if they didn't have a proper deadline, At the end he said "don't worry if you missed one or two last questions, we will solve them together" that's the right motivation and encouraging them. They had a lot of pair work at this lesson. Which is good, because pair works help students with different levels supporting each other and build up communications. This time he was writing on the board too, but now it was for reducing time waste, he just prepared everything for them, when they will finish their tasks. He wrote all the right answers on the board, in front of each question. They finished with gro up work, which was a fun and interactive way to memorize material.