So while I get the point (and don't think teachers should suck up to their students) I don't entirely agree and actually, fully intend on being über-cool well into my 60's (like our Sensei
Jeremy Harmer) but what made Darren's comment worth blogging about, was that interestingly, it occurred just after getting home from class and recognizing that I'd way totally killed the joy out of something for one of my students...
He's an adult though, so I really do hope not forever.
Sidebar
We blogging teachers do tend to have a habit of only posting up lesson tips and ideas which have worked in our lessons - I mean, that's why we share them, because they worked so they'll probably work for other teachers too.
But what about the things that don't work?
The things we do that fall flat...
Aren't there lessons worth learning and therefore worth sharing in those things too? Or do we blogging teachers want everyone in the big old world to think that we're perfect teachers with perfect classes and what we teach is spot-on all the time and the students just love what we do all the time?
Not terribly realistic or truthful, now is it?
Anyhoo, here's my story:
One of my absolute favorite sites is
TED.com, the lectures are simply fascinating and very often there are short videos filled with incredibly rich experiences - sometimes I just go in there only to drown in the knowledge of others. Of course, because the lectures presented are often by important leaders in the business world, it also is a soucre of authentic content especially if you, like me, teach adult ESP students.
Phillip, the student of
the dogme-in-tech-movie fame, has an i-phone so one of my tips for him on developing learner autonomy was that he subscribe to TED.
And he followed through on the advice. SCORE...
He followed through on it so much so that in the last six months he has now watched more videos than I have, shares his favourites not just with me, via email, but also forwards them on to friends and colleagues he knows.
SCORE...
Feeling chuffed to bits that I'd managed to share one of my passions with one of my learners, I said to him, "hey, why don't you write up a blog post of your Ten Top TED videos." (Good so far).
But then I said:
"Maybe you can include a list of all the new vocabulary you learned."
His face looked a bit incredulous but I continued undaunted. "Yes," I said, "and maybe you could write about how you see TED as a great learning tool, how you were able to pick up these words from context, how you are then able to transfer that knowledge into the language you need in the workplace."
"Karenne," he replied in a slightly bemused voice, "I just like the videos. I don't know which words I learn. I understand some and I don't know what others are. I don't think about that I watch them on my way to work, they're interesting."
He shrugged.
Oh.
Oh.
OH crap. I thought to myself - now why'd I have to go and spoil his new hobby? Now, everytime he looks at his i-phone to watch the latest on TED he's probably going to think about my über enthusiastic English-teacher-suggestion and instead of enjoying his videos and soaking up some great vocabulary subconsciously, he'll now be thinking about what he's "supposed" to be extracting.
A lot of trainers will probably tell you just how important noticing is (including me) but noticing that you're supposed to be noticing - ummm - well, it's probably a distraction and probably hits all the wrong neuro-transmitting-signal-thingies in the brain.
Squoosh!
Best,
Karenne
image credit: diet coke by nesster on flickr.com
p.s. Have you ever gone and accidentally squeezed the joy out of something your students were enjoying doing by making it a way too learning oriented task instead of a simple life-experiential language experience? Ever brought something into the classroom which completely bombed because it was
your passion, not your learners'?
Useful related links
The
video Phillip sent me that launched this conversation. You'll love it :)
My delicious bookmarks:
TED videos for Business English
More video sites for Business English classes
If your teach General English: also see
Larry Ferlazzo's Best of TED videos.
Interesting articles on failures/successes in the TEFL classroom
Darren Elliot's The importance of failure
Jason Renshaw on Lindsay Clandfield's blog:
Six signs that you are on the right track
(There's a poll going on the Lexiophiles site to determine a list of the best language blogs, see my post about that here and if you haven't yet voted and you don't this it's tacky of me to ask, do please click and visit the site to let them know you rate my blog :-) thanks muchly).
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