Classroom Tip #3: Having Students Grow "Smart Brains"

Goal : Make your lessons challenging but not too difficult. Learn how to give them more without it being too much.

Everyone wants to feel like they're growing smart brains. Everyone wants to be challenged. While no one wants to feel too much difficulty or struggle in their lessons, they do want to feel like they've earned their rights to meeting the next chapter with some competency. People want to know they've earned the doggie bone and with a little struggle and challenge, they feel they worked for it.

Use your Smart Students to Teach the Class

The reason why I like the Give Me More technique is because I've seen it work in my classes and this is great when you have students of all different levels.  When the advanced students reach for adding more to what they give me in answers and responses, they actually end up teaching and training the rest of my class for me. Why? They have already role modeled the feat of learning as being possible. 

You can use the smart kids set the standard goal of excellence for the rest of your class to work towards.




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4 Tricks for Getting Slow ESL Learners to Start Learning Fast.

picutre by http://justicebuilding.blogspot.com/


1. Always get the bad student on your side and the rest will fall in line.
No one wants to be the absolute worst student of the class but when you have one, he sets the bar for the rest to act wild. But what happens then, when your worst student gets better? No one wants to wear that crown...

2. Kids will rise to the expectation you set for them.
If you expect them to be stupid or bad, they'll meet that expectation. But if you see potential in them, they'll see it in themselves.

3. Give them higher challenges but don't make them unreachable.
Everyone appreciates a good challenge. Give a student something easy, they'll get lazy and lose respect for it. Expect too much of your students and you'll only succeed in
alienating them from what you want them to learn. Somewhere you have to play the grey line of challenging tests. Give them a chance to define their own challenges; occasionally, you need to let them set their own bar or a bar that challenges their unending potential.


4. Always focus on the special skills and talents they have to encourage confidence.
Sometimes, it's hard to find redeemable qualities about a bad student, but it doesn't have to be big. It could be as small  "Hey, you write very nice "S"'s". Whatever it is, point it out... in front of everyone. Make that student the role model every once in a while and you may see a silent pride and a giant shift called confidence. Why? They need to know they're good at something. This is called the sweet taste of success and it gives them confidence to want to be better! An achievement, no matter how small is an achievement for kids.

During one of our recent classes, I played a brilliant Powerpoint game I found on Waygook.org called the Olympics (awesome awesome game on comparisons-I'll post it later!)  Students work in teams and must send up an athlete they think can win the event, like who is the strongest (arm wrestling)? Or who has the longest hair? ...

We were short on time so my CT wanted me to stick to the textbook vocab words. "Biggest" was on the list, BUT the ppt had the event -- Who has the smallest feet? Knowing Chanhyuk was our smallest student and the one most challenged by learning, I switched in the small feet event and when it came up, the kids all roared with laughter and cheered his name. Little Chan hyuk was so proud he was of his tiny feet! But it encouraged classroom recognition and confidence for little Chan hyuk.

Can you transform bad students into Good ones?

If looks could kill, you'd be his next victim. Welcome to 6th grade...

Always get the bad students on your side and the rest will follow.
No one wants to be the absolute worst and if you have one of those student like that in your class, he/she will set the bar for the rest of your bad eggs to go crazy.

This is advice from my mom, a retired elementary school teacher. She offered me this tip as one of a list of many, as she laid it before me and my 6th grade co-teacher after visiting my school and sitting in my 6th grade classes last spring.  Whoever thinks the kids of school teachers have it easy, think again... My co-teacher got the polite version. I got the accusatory and disgusted one when my mom couldn't understand how I could be her child and still not know how to manage my 6th grade classes. She actually has a reputation with other schools and teachers as the teacher that turns bad students into good ones.

But what can you do when your co-teacher does want to implement strong classroom management skills, yet insists on being THE teacher the students look to? Well, you get dragged around like a kite pulled by a long string on a day when there's no wind....


Things have changed since, but at the time most classes felt manageable, with the exception of one class... 

"Sometimes I wanted to tell my students--'You make me want to die'." 
-- homeroom teacher of Class 6-3

Shocking quote, eh? But if you had this class, you might think the same thing too. Class 6-3 always emitted a deep and agonizing groan from me- an "Oh my god...Why?" ... I obviously wasn't alone. Were they that bad? By Korean standards...worse.

I'm a hardened ex-New Yorker, who's dealt with bigger things in life, but this class was horrible! My girls were more bully than boys, I had kids I thought could be future Korean mafia (or the sons of them) and who would say curse words to me in Korean and laugh at me cause I couldn't understand it, and my slow kids wouldn't lift a disinterested finger to try. At one point, I actually yelled at and walked out on them. The class was like a house of cards. If one twitched, the entire balance would tumble down. 

What did we do to change them?
Aside from my co-teacher threatening them with the lie that "Christine actually understands Korean, so she knows what you are saying to her", I honestly don't know. We tried many things. I gave my attention to many students and spotlight praise has been a great dangling carrot. However, there are two students that we worked with, whose change I feel affected the whole class.

Chan-hyuk, the Mouse
Chan-hyuk was the absolute king of this nightmare class. He isn't a big bully, tough guy or have a loud voice; in fact, he is tiny and soft spoken. He is our class mouse. But when he wants attention his tiny stir can be disruptive -- kicking the back of student desks, turning around trying to get others to play with him, throwing things and generally, faking absolute disinterest throughout class. Speaking-wise, his tongue always got in the way of comprehensible pronunciation. Even if he tried, he'd slaughter his attempt with his tongue. Instead, he took the easy route of I'm stupid; leave me alone.

My co-teacher and I spent some time with him and to my slower kids, I occasionally speak a few words of Korean to remind them they can't get away with things.

Encouragement is the key to confidence. Every student craves attention and essentially wants to be your model student. For Chan-hyuk, pats on the back and grand gestures of praise in front of the class has given him a ladder to climb towards confidence. I also find, he's one of the students who likes the speed games I play with them (whispering) (and I occasionally rig the games so that my slow students have time to prepare their answer or get something we've worked on together!)

Chan-hyuk's progress is fickle but I can see him developing visible confidence along the way, such that he actually focuses, pays attention and TRIES. These days, he loves to participate, he tries to do speaking games correctly and when we have the class repeat words, he's not just faking a moving mouth. Okay, sometimes... But I've never seen such a 180 degree change in someone.

Hyojin, our strong man with a mysterious burden

No one can explain to me what's wrong with Hyojin, other than he had a mental illness last semester which had him out of school for a couple of months. Since, I think the class labeled him as the "class nut," but Hyojin is our gentle class giant with an infrequent and uncontrollable twitch. He's not a bad student, just a little slower due to his illness or mood swings.

Hyo-jin's always been one of my favorite students from the start, but I couldn't tell you why. Probably because he was one of the handful of obedient students who'd participate well when  our class was possessed by other devils.  And when he's confident, he tries to "big brother" the more troubled students, like Chanhyuk.   At times, he tries hard; and at times he completely shuts down. His learning curve isn't as great as Chan-hyuk's but because the kids don't like him much, his vocal participation in class helps.   Like Chan-hyuk, Hyo-jin is one of the students I keep an eye on when I make my rounds in class. They're the ones I spend time working with.

Last semester we held a "special kids class", every Tuesday after lunch and for 20 minutes. It was too short but all our weaker students got a chance to review with more attention paid to them. I think this encouraged Hyo-jin. He'd try to make each class religiously and if he couldn't, then he'd actually look pained.  While Hyo-jin still occasionally shuts down, he does do a lot better than he did before. These days, he participates with confidence!

In fact,... 95% of the students in our "special kids class" have gotten stronger in class participation and have been consistently raising their hands to give answers during normal class! It's as if a bit of attention has given them all confidence that they can improve and succeed.

Can two good apples can sweeten the barrel of bad?
Um,... yes. These days, due to the fact these two students are making improvements, the entire energy and mentality of the class has shifted. The mafiosos are shaping up and are more attentive in their learning-- they try and participate. My girl bullies are showing themselves to be intelligent "girlie-girls" and my slow students are making visible improvements.  My worst class is now my best class of the semester-- my diamond in the rough.

Always get the bad students on your side and the rest will follow. 

I guess my mom was right after all...   Have you ever had a bad class go good?

Public schools get a bad rap over the hagwons

Korean teachers know there's a high pressure on students to study but I hear there may be cutbacks in the public education system with their English programs...

Bad test scores

My co-teacher was in a panic last year when we found that 6th graders scored the lowest in the district. Our principal and vice principal weren't happy. The low scores didn't surprise me. Between the constant underestimation of students' abilities and the concern that our students are overburdened with family pressure and homework from hagwons, there was actually little challenge being inserted into the lessons. My 2nd and 3rd graders in the afterschool program learned more advanced stuff than what I got to teach my 6th graders! They got more culturally fun and fast material, while my material got constantly scrutinized and censored as "too fast, the kids won't be able to follow it".

Public schools get a bad rap over the hagwons

At the time when I mentioned giving our students homework, I was told, that we can't do that. Why? They were getting them from the hagwons and this was where the parents would prefer the students to get them. Perhaps its because parents dole out top dollar for private education that that's where all the focus is.  And maybe that's why there's never a lack of job positions at hagwons. The business of educating Korea through private lessons is thriving!

I hear word this sentiment is gaining rise today in Korea and that public education system is being discounted. But if the system continues to defer to the hagwons, then the schools shoot themselves in the foot.


Shoot for the moon and you're bound to hit a star. Shoot for the ground and you'd as well wish for dirt. 
That's where we were at back then. We were dirt.  The teaching sentiment with Korean teachers that I was around was-- shoot for the ground. Of course, I always aim higher for my kids despite what i'm told.

But challenge of the public school is having multi-level learners in one class; instead of separating students by skill level. And a bonus for hagwons is the external pressure and reinforcement they get from parents; with money being spent for accelerated performance, the child knows they need to take their studies seriously or get chewed out by their parents.

Notes from a Talking Recorder

I try to make it a point to talk to my students outside of class. Sometimes I can tell if it's working; sometimes, I can't. I hear Korean students were shy about talking and I know from experience that it takes a lot of courage to talk to your teachers- foreign teacher or not. Saying Hi to me in the hallways is one thing... it's automatic and an expression out of respect. But if they come up to me at lunch while I'm eating amongst the other teachers to say Hi, that's a different level entirely.


If they do initiate a greeting to me while I'm eating lunch, I do what's probably impolite to the teacher who's talking to me or the group at the moment; I turn around and tell the student Hi and answer their questions if they have any. I've not asked my co-teachers if this is rude or annoying to them, I probably should. But getting my kids familiar or confident with using English outside the classroom on a casual basis is one of my priorities.

... Even though it's been a little over 8 months, some of them are still shy.

What happens when the words run out?
Good question. Sometimes, I get tired of the monotonous Q & A routine-

Student: Hello Teacher.
Me: Hello,...Good Morning,... Morning,...

Student: How are you, teacher?
Me: I'm Fine, Great, Fantastic, So-So, Okay, Awesome, Tired, Not bad

...I've used them all. Now what? Anyone know of any more?...

I know my vocabulary is larger than that (I think,..) and I can't stand that I'm sounding like a broken record.

Solution: Why not ask them a question back?
Or maybe not... I've tried it. My students are great at initiating a question but responding to one is a different story.

Me: How are you?
Student: (deer caught in the headlights look, embarassed, shy... giggle and runs away)

Me: How's your lunch?
Student: (stunned, shy, looks around at other students, doesn't know what to do...)  Uh, mollayo. (aka: the Korean "I don't know")

I haven't found ways to deal with that yet, so I lead them with:

Me: Good? Delicious? Great?
Me again:... Chowayo? (Korean: You Like?) Mashisoyo? (Korean: Tasty?)

It's on the last two words, I get that  Ding! Idea is now registered. They laugh and nod, embarassed. But they still ...don't answer. We practice Hello, How are you today? (Lesson #1) at the beginning of each class, but outside of class they either don't know or are still too shy to apply it!  A bit frustrating and I'm not sure what to do to get them to feel more comfortable with using English outside the class in other situations.

Help! If anyone knows of any solutions or anymore responses I can give them, please let me know...

Why I think Speed Games are great for my slow students

I'm a big fan of speed games, especially when it comes to using them as class warmups on a Monday morning.

For me, there's nothing better than a surprise attack that will pop open my elementary students' crusty eyes and get their little hearts and adrenaline racing with a game, which forces them to think on their toes.