This week has been very challenging in the academic realm. I teach five classes this semester, which is less teaching hours than what I had last semester, but I teach four different subjects:
- Speaking 4 (second years)
- Writing 4 (second years, two classes)
- U.S. Government Administration (third years)
- American Regional Cultures (fourth years) (I've never heard of this type of course, even in America)
I'll sum up my reflections according to each class.
Speaking 4
First of all, it's a challenge knowing that once the students return from Tet vacation, they will have to start military training, which takes five weeks of the school year. Once they return, we'll have to do make-up courses throughout the week and on weekends to make sure I'll finish teaching the courses by the time my grant is over. (Same for Writing 4.) However, given that I had a syllabus to work from for Speaking 1 last year, I was able to plan this class more easily than the others. On the first day, we did "Find Someone Who... Bingo!" to get to know each other better. Thanks to Jenelle, I had better directions this time around. Students weren't sitting with confused looks on their faces; they immediately got up and introduced themselves to others. We then went over the syllabus bit by bit.
Something different that I'm doing for each class this semester is that 1) I'm having them work from journals designated for the class, 2) we signed class contracts to ensure a positive learning environment (all thanks to other Fulbrighter ETAs' ideas!)
Sidenote: I had to buy the journals for the week, and I had the ridiculous idea of deciding to buy them while I had my bicycle as my mode of transportation. Imagine me not only clearing all of Big C of its Campus notebooks (200 of them, worth a total of $100), but lugging them all back to my dorm with a bag on each handlebar as they rhythmically knocked against my knees with each pedal forward.
Back to the topic at hand, for the journal, I'm having them complete daily journal writing and reflections, allowing me to see their progress week by week, and allowing them to provide me with feedback on how I could teach them better. For each reflection, they provide answers for the following:
- What percent of the lesson did you understand?
- What are (at least) 3 things you learned?
- Questions about today's lesson:
- Comments / Feedback
- You prepared everything sufficiently
- Sometimes I don't catch up with some words you talked
- I love class. My teacher is very funny
- Co Giang is very friendly, especially when you smile.
American Regional Cultures
This course has been the bane of my existence. For this course, I received a syllabus that was all in Vietnamese (actually, I also received the same for the other courses -- thank goodness my Vietnamese teacher Phuc had the patience to help me through that), and a "good luck" from the head of the department. No curriculum. No available texts. No clue beyond the resources that had been given to Amy last year, which was hard enough to work from.
So I started from the scratch I was given. I researched the given regions listed on the syllabus, looked up how to do project-based learning (which I'm grabbing resources for from Lesley -- thanks!), and scoured the Internet for ideas. In the end, I concluded that since they have no final and because it's such a small class (more like a seminar of 7 students), I would make it our class. The students and I will take turns presenting about each culture, and their presentation makes the bulk of the grade.
Now that I've established the syllabus, I'm really excited to facilitate this course. This is the first that I'm placing hella ownership on the students for their learning, and I can't wait to see where this goes.
Writing 4
This was also a difficult class to plan for. (Probably because planning for "Regional Cultures" drained me of all my planning energy.) But thank goodness Amy created a syllabus for the class and shared her resources with the rest of the volunteer teachers. However, what's most difficult about this class is that I don't know what the end result should be. What types of essays should they be able to produce for their final? Also, what skills are they starting with?
We completed the same activities as we did for my Speaking 4 class, except we added an informal diagnostic of their writing; I had them answer the question, "What has been your biggest challenge? How did you overcome it?" The first writing class had difficulty with the question because I didn't model how to answer it, and I wasn't specific enough, so after reading their feedback, I was able to implement the changes for the second writing class the next day. Sure enough, they were able to complete the question more easily given that they had more time and more explanations on how to complete the writing task.
U.S. Government Administration
This is my last class of the week, and something I can see myself enjoying given that I have some background information on it. Also, the students in this class seem to have a higher speaking level than in other classes, so they have been more comfortable with participation. Due to its seminar-like nature (only 13 students present today), I got to sit with them and get to know them while explaining the course expectations. After that, we played "How much do you know about American Government?" where I displayed pictures of different people in government and asked the students if they knew who they were. I was able to informally assess their general knowledge by doing so, and the quiz got them pumped about participating. (It was a Nguyen-Nguyen situation.)
The most challenging part about this class was assisting a student with a disability. As soon as I noticed her, I made conscious efforts to address her individually after addressing the whole class to make sure she was on the same page. I had been informed through the grapevine that she had gotten into a motorcycle accident that caused her to leave the university for a semester, and she had returned with general motor skill issues; she relies on a friend to walk her around. She also has difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the class. While the students were working on their reflection and journal entry, I made sure to check in on her to see how I could help her; I asked her questions in English, then Vietnamese, then realized she was better able to understand me when I wrote down my requests. I'll be sure to prepare and print the material for her before class, set aside time in class to check in on her, and see if she could have a consist friend to help her in class. (Working with students with disabilities prior to this has definitely given me a keener sense on how to handle this, but I still have a lot of improvements to make.)
Interestingly enough, my fellow Fulbrighter ETA / TFA / close friend Claire had posed this question to the rest of us: How does the university support students with disabilities? So far, I am unaware of how they are helping them. There was no special note on my enrollment list about her -- my students had to inform me that she was present since she couldn't hear me or see the board when I was taking attendance. I'll have to talk to my host to see how I could further support her.
In sum, I know I'll have a lot to think about and work on during and after Tet vacation. However, it feels so good being able to work from my knowledge of student lifestyle and course-load from last semester. I feel way more confident and ready to take on this semester, as I know what I'm capable of doing, and I also have a better sense of my locus of control. (Yeah, hella TFA of me to say.)
As of this Saturday, I'll be traveling with my mom around Mien Tay. I'm so excited to see her, then my sister and her partner the week after! <3
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