Today I took my camera to one of my afternoon classes. I spend so much time taking pictures of my preschoolers but I think I should mention my older students. I teach a class of students in the afternoon that we call 'super gifted' or SG. They're the students that have been coming to my school for something like four years - two years of preschool and then around two more years of English classes every afternoon. They bus straight to my school after they finish at their respective elementary schools. These kids have the best English of all of our students, even most of the middle and high school students, because they started to learn English at such a young age. Basically, the preschoolers at our school learn English almost as native speakers. They're still so young and they learn so quickly. Most students have only a little bit of an accent. And one thing I've found that I think is so interesting is that they have learned to speak and write in the same way that native English speakers have. When I ask my preschoolers why it's right to say 'They have' instead of 'They has' or why we put an -s at the end of verbs if we use he, she or it, they aren't really able to give any reason except that it's just the right way to do it. I don't know about most of you, but that's the way I think of grammar. I don't know why I use the words I use, it just sounds right!
I have another class of older students after my super gifted class and, though they're older and more educated in all other subjects, their English is nowhere near the level of the super gifted children and actually I think my second year preschoolers might have better English. But it's simply because these older kids weren't in an immersion program at such a young age. These students could probably explain all grammatical rules to me and my preschoolers and super gifted students because they are learning English as a second (or third, etc.) language and they have to constantly fall back on the rules. I'm sure if any of you recall your lessons in a non-native language, you know what it feels like to constantly have to really THINK about what you want to say, hoping that you used the correct tense or sentence structure. I know I'm averaging about two minutes per sentence during my Korean lessons!
I don't know if that made sense but when I think about these students that can so easily converse in English, a second language, at the age of 8 (!), I am blown away. Almost daily, I sit back and marvel at these babes. And I also can't help but compare what I know of the education system here to my experience in the US. My preschoolers are writing full stories and filling 100-page workbooks every month. And they're SIX YEARS OLD! I don't know if I was even reading at that age. My super gifted students are 8 years old and they're learning about main ideas, topic sentences, using context clues to find meanings of new vocabulary words, giving speeches and presentations. It just amazes me. They're little geniuses. Every one of them. Even the 'slow' kids are still pretty smart, if you ask me. I really don't recall when I learned these concepts but I have a feeling it was closer to third or fourth grade so probably around 9 or 10 years of age. And in my native language.
Amazing.
Anyway, here are some videos of my SG class. Right now I have only three students. I started with six but one student moved to Singapore with his family and two others transferred to an English school that I hear is more science-based. It's been great with just the three. It was challenging with six kids because they weren't all learning at the same rate (I know US teachers probably average something like 30 students in a class - don't know how you do it!). But these three students - John, Ellie and Heesoon - are all on a similar level and having such a small class has allowed for in depth discussion and lessons. And we get through things pretty quickly with fewer people adding distractions. ;) I introduced Mad Libs last week and these three went NUTS! Now we use the last ten minutes of class to play around on the web version of the game. They type in the verbs, adjectives and nouns on their own and read the stories aloud. The first video is a little long but I love Heesoon's choices of adjectives and plural nouns. And the second video is my favorite because of John's choice of name for a famous person at the end. Hilarious. I hope you enjoy them!
Introducing Ellie as videographer.
And sorry for such a long post! I probably could have gone on for another ten paragraphs. Teaching is such a fascinating/frustrating/uplifting/unpredictable/rewarding/difficult job. I can't believe people do this for years and years. I think if I stayed at this school for ten years, I'd still learn something new every day. And I'd never, ever have a dull day at the office. It's just not possible with these kids. Even if sometimes I want to scream obscenities and send them home. They seem to know when they're pushing the limit because JUST when I've had enough, they turn around and say something hilarious or funny or sweet.
Another video of John. He is a smart, sweet boy. I'm really going to miss these kids.
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