My goal is to become a more efficient teacher. I've been teaching at a Korean University for five years. A semester is 15 weeks, five classes are non-instructional classes assigned for review and exams. Therefore only ten classes, two hours each (grand total 20 hours) are designated for instruction. English fluency isn't expected with such limited exposure but it would be nice to improve student retention and self motivation in this short time. This course seems ideal for such a task. Number 6, Creative Communicator, of the latest ISTE Standards particularly spoke to me. I'd like to become a more creative communicator and provide my students with a variety of tools in and out of the classroom. Basically lead a horse to water.
One attempt has been to assign my Culinary students with the task of joining MeetUp, a site geared towards finding hobbies in your area. They join three, one must be food related. Low level English speakers find this task particularly scary, therefore I'm proud of my students for making bold steps and building on their experiences learning about these groups and ultimately sending messages to the organizers in attempt to communicate with total strangers. I'm particularly proud of Yu Jung, a low level speaker, who showed growing interest in her MeetUps throughout the semester. This is her first contact with the organizer from Cooking Class for Health and Making Money. Unfortunately this was overwhelming for some students, hoping to discover a better variety of tools in this class.
I love the MeetUp idea for your students! Other than dating someone who doesn't speak your native language, I think meeting up with others who share a passion is probably the most motivating way to learn another language. I have a friend who is now fluent in Hangul due to his love of rock climbing and having joined an all Korean club when he first arrived here. Authentic use of the language is great for learning.
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