george does the opposite
You may not be in such a slump as poor George Costanza, but why wait? The life of a teacher is characterized by peaks and troughs, by breakthroughs, epiphanies, bad days, difficult classes, critical incidents and culture bumps. But these things are GOOD things, because the worst thing that can possibly happen to a teacher is stagnation. Early on in our teaching life, we are too busy figuring out the basics to worry about anything else. But after that? As Frances Fuller (1969, 1974) describes, our concerns change… from self, to task, to impact. We start by asking “Am I adequate?”, move on to “Is this activity working?” and (hopefully) end up with “How are the learners?”. Achievement of a state of stability is a both a blessing and a curse, however.
Trainers spend so much time with pre-service or novice teachers that those of us later in our careers (and I speak as someone who has actually only been teaching for ten years) are left to our own devices. Which is fine. I am happy to direct my own development… why would I be sitting here writing this, otherwise?
Part of the way we can continue working happily as a teacher is by shaking things up before we get bored. In my research into teacher development during changes in context, I was very interested to see how often ELT professionals moved on – from one institution to another, from one country to another – to fend off the impending stagnation. Any anxiety and difficulty created by the change was compensated for by the invigorating power of ‘the opposite’.
I recognise the fact that TEFLers don’t always get a choice in these matters. But I would tenetively suggest that some of us are grateful for the chance to wipe the slate clean and start anew. Do those of us attracted to the industry have shorter attention spans than teachers in mainstream education?
But if you don’t fancy moving to a new continent, or you have ties and responsibilities that make that difficult, how do you avoid getting into a rut? Well, George’s advice still holds good. Try the opposite. If you usually stand up, sit down for your lesson. If you are a great whiteboard artist, leave it blank next week. Don’t give any homework, or set loads. Teach a class without a textbook, or fire-up a laptop.
But, whatever you do, don’t let yourself get bored!
Hi Darren,
Nice video and nice thoughts. I often think about these things about moving on but somehow still manage to re-invent myself in my own context in Budapest Hungary where I’ve been for the past 14 years. If David Bowie, Madonna and Billy Bragg can do it…:)
Before Hungary I was in the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic. I find though that teaching new courses, getting into new things like blogging and tweeting (thanks very much Darren, by the way, for your kind comments about my blog) and yeah, doing the opposite from what I did in a previous lesson is good advice!
Greetings from the Danube and a wee gift on Vivaldi’s birthday in my last tweet https://twitter.com/marekandrews
I enjoy your blog a lot Darren!
Thanks for coming by! Love your blog (see sidebar – classrooms on the danube – very clever stuff)
Self re-invention is a wonderful thing. I often think that all the research, the dogme, the technology, the (insert your schtick here) that we do…. it’s basically there to stop us getting bored.
I’m not in a position to up sticks to a new country right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything new. I could never fathom those teachers who use the same lessons year in year out. Painful!!
Great clip from the greatest sitcom of them all, and great advice too, I think. Actually, this is why I love all these blogs – there’s so much invention and so many new angles and ways of doing things that boredom just doesn’t come into it. In that regard, I don’t think people in TEFL have short attention spans as such, I just think we go deeper and explore the same thing (learning English) in a million different details. The job itself is also endlessly interesting as it involves interacting with people from so many walks of life on every topic under the sun.
Hi, thanks, this is great
Fine advice, although I don’t know if George’s sandwich choice truly represented an opposite. I’ll be checking out Mark’s blog, too.
Lovely clip. Variety is definitely a good thing to keep burnout at bay. Sure we have a shorter attention span, and so do our distinguished students!I’ve dabbled in many different styles of teaching out of curiosity and to keep up to date with what’s going on in the world of training in general. Each has given me an idea or approach that I can use when I notice a student is stuck. From Suggestopedia, NLP and acting school come some of the weirder activities that I’ve indulged in, but in the right place at the right time, they’ve been just the ticket.
Oh, this is a wonderful clip. I showed this to my trainee teachers this evening and we talked about ‘doing the opposite’, experimentation and trying things outside of our comfort zone. My favourite part of this post is when you refer to how our concerns change over a period of time: from self, to task, to impact. I think this is so true.
This afternoon I had a new class to teach- an ESOL community class. I’m usually based in a further education college. Anyway when I got there, there was no audio equipment (actually no equipment)- no CD player, no computer, no IAWB, in fact, no board at all:- just a flip chart with one blank page. I know that this is the teaching scenario for so many language teachers. I myself was accustomed to just having blackboard and chalk when I started EFLing in Japan. But I hadn’t realised just how quickly I have become used to and comfortable with my ICT, connectedness, Google-at-our-fingertips sort of lesson. So this class is going to be challenging for me in a very ‘doing the opposite’ kind of way (but should definitely keep me out of a slump…) I agree with Sputnik’s comment too. This type of blog (and the ideas and discussion on it) is endlessly interesting and challenging. I love our job! Thanks for the great post Darren.
Thanks all!
Anne – I love a bit of suggestopedia. Just a bit, mind you…
Angela – I find the world of UK ESOL and FE, with it’s acronyms and frameworks and national standards, endlessly fascinating from the outside. Perhaps it’s time you started a blog of your own, it’s dead easy you know ; P
Yes but Darren, the thing I like best is the lurking! ;
….but don’t you want to try the opposite?
Touché!
Hey Darren,
Great video and great advice! I really don’t know how you keep coming up with so many great ideas, but keep them coming!
As for doing the opposite, I’ve decided to hold all my classes in the computer room instead of the classroom this coming semester. I even have a website set up through the university where I intend to post my activities for each class. I’m also going to try more focused individual listening exercises, ie dictations rather than the group listening activities I’ve been using up to now. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m sure there will be ups and downs, but I’m looking forward to the change, and I hope the students will benefit, too.
Cheers,
eisensei
@Eisenei,
I started doing giving classes in the media lab a couple of years ago and find what works best for me is combining the online and media tasks with “very off the grid” parts, viz. starting the lesson in a chair circle away from the computers and complementing the lesson with games and walks in the park and sessions in a tea house around the corner from the uni. The students seem very energized by the variety.
Sounds like some real action research
Hi Anne,
Thanks for the comment on my comment!
I think disconnecting students would be a great idea and I think I will have them do that. What I mainly intend to have students do on the computers is the listening activities because when you have a class of 20 – 40 students, group listening tasks, ie listen to the class CD and answer the questions, is not always, or perhaps never, the best, especially when one student is seated in one corner of the classroom and the other right next to the CD player. This way, I hope that everyone can get equal practice, and I intend to have students work more or less at their own pace.
As for your idea of getting them out and about, while it does sound like a great idea, and something I could do with a class of 5 or so, attempting to take 30 or 40 students outside for a class might not be so easy. Have you been able to do this with such a large class?
Cheers,
eisensei
@Eisenei, the most I’ve had were 30, but then I love large group mixing and role play activities. My compact courses are smaller, 15 to 20. These past two years I’ve only taught compacts at college, 30 hours spread across 5-10 days. That really invites projects, group work and so on. We’ll have about half the days at the lab – very much in demand – and the other times we’ll be moving around in other rooms. So the students are already in “Where are we meeting next time?” mode. It makes the English class far more about us as a group, getting ourselves organized and productive. Students generate more language and ideas than in a staid “class is at 4 in room X” setup. In the lab, we use the technology and make the most of it. I don’t know whether it’s me, maybe I’m just not the best techie teacher (though I try), but in feedback the students always tell me what they liked best were the before and after activities. Hmm, you’re getting me thinking: I should collect my about teaching large classes. Have a good one!
Good advice Anne, and good luck with your project Eisensei ; D
Great advice, Darren, and – as a great example of a teacher stuck in one place/context for a considerable period of time on account of family commitments – I can say this is very relevant and important.
Some of the “George does the opposite” moments in my own time have included:
- Taking on exam prep classes when I and none of my colleagues wanted to
- Taking on kindergarten classes when I felt it absolutely couldn’t be for me
- Spending the occasional class saying absolutely nothing at all
- Revamping a huge part of a curriculum so that there were no pre-set coursebooks
- Not doing any corrections for essays, and handing the entire task over to the students themselves
- Going whole days without doing a lick of prep (not even previewing the coursebook units) and forcing myself to teach “on the fly”
In every one of these cases, a lot of good came from the experience. In some cases it just helped to shake up the monotony of things. In other cases it resulted in sweeping changes in my teaching and thinking that affected me greatly from that time onwards.
Great post, Darren – loved it!
~ Jason