I have a semla!
I just made a test on language history for one of my classes. This makes me feel like a real teacher! *lol*
Actually, I have my doubts about how much a test really says about a person's knowledge, but in this case, my supervisor said they should do something in writing. They're also going to make oral presentations on topics of their own choice, so writing a paper in addition to that would be too much work for them. So, I'll give them this test tomorrow. Luckily, I don't have to worry too much about not coming up with questions that are relevant enough, because they have written their own questions! I came up with this idea because my supervisor says tests make them very anxious, so I thought they'd feel better if they felt that they could "take control" a little bit. I told them to email me a question about something they felt was important to know from the lessons that I've had with them. Seven out of nine students have emailed me their questions. Two of them were very similar, so I combined them, and to the six that remained I added four more, because my supervisor said there should be ten questions. (I also emailed the test to her and she said it was okay.)
The first lesson, we talked about languages in general, about different ways of writing, and about "the language tree", that is, indo-european languages and germanic languages. That first lesson consisded of my lecture, discussions in small groups, a small exercise (and they wrote the answers on the whiteboard) and some quiet reading. There should have been some writing, but my supervisor actually ended the lesson before I had time for it! *lol* The second lesson was mostly on Norwegian and Danish. They were actually surprised to know that the languages are so similar! They found the reading exercise very hard, but I tried to explain how to make it easier by learning a little bit about the differences (that Danish words often have b, d, and g where Swedish words have p, t and k, for instance) and learning some basic words that are different. (Only 10% of the 1000 most common words are different.) The third lesson was about the history of the Swedish language. So, that's quite a lot of different things to cover in three weeks; of course I couldn't mention too many details about everything! But hopefully they found some of it interesting!
One thing that I have to learn is to find ways to make the students more active during lessons. Different activities, not just my lectures, a little bit of reading and some discussion... I also have to learn to use the whiteboard more effectively because I feel very awkward when I write something. I feel like I write so slowly and my handwriting is ugly so it makes me nervous. Today was the first time I felt more comfortable when writing something. Isn't that strange?! I never thought this was something you'd have to get used to! *lol*
Today, I told my other class some things about writing book reviews. All of them feel like they "know" how to do it, but seeing how hard it was for many of them to express their thoughts in the essays they have been writing, I doubt it. I think they think of reviewing as writing a summary and then telling if you liked the book or not; I tried to explain how important it is to explain your opinion and give the reader a hint of what kind of book it is by telling how it made you feel and why, and things like that. If it's just about writing a summary, anybody could be a critic. :)
I have also talked to the students one at the time about their essays. I've tried to explain the grades and what they can try to do better next time; most of them seemed like they accepted my explanations and it felt like I had good conversations with all of them. Well, maybe not all... there's one boy who always looks at me like I'm incredibly stupid and it makes me nervous. (There's also one who is perhaps trying to make me nervous by saying silly things, like "I haven't submitted my essay yet; are you gonna hit me? or pull my hair?" or "I'm just gonna go out and smoke some weed, it that okay?"... I really don't know how to respond to such things, but the good news is that it doesn't make me nervous, I just roll my eyes.) There's also another boy who has serious problems with schoolwork. Almost all of the kids in this class have some kind of diagnosis but only a few of them need/get help from the special aid teacher; I don't know why he isn't one of them. He was very sad when I told him we had to mark his essay as failed... but really, I've tried so hard to help him in any way I could think of except that I didn't try to write his essay for him. :( In this class, I feel that all teachers should have at least basic education in helping students with special needs/learning difficulties, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
Today is Shrove Tuesday, in some countries called Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. In Sweden, we don't have a special day for pancakes (although there's a certain tradition saying that pancakes should be eaten on Thursdays, especially if you had yellow pea soup for dinner). Here, Shrove Tuesday is called Fat Tuesday (last chance to get fat before Lent). This is the day when you eat a semla in Sweden! But bakeries these days start selling them way before Shrove Tuesday; I have already eaten three this year. Twice at the café where I meet the French conversation group, and then the other day mom made us some semlor. (Writing in Swenglish is really hard. -or is plural for nouns ending in -la.) Mom makes them better, of course. She put the leftover buns in the freezer, so we'll have one semla each today as well. :)
...And now she brought it to me. :) I should study now! I really should.
Actually, I have my doubts about how much a test really says about a person's knowledge, but in this case, my supervisor said they should do something in writing. They're also going to make oral presentations on topics of their own choice, so writing a paper in addition to that would be too much work for them. So, I'll give them this test tomorrow. Luckily, I don't have to worry too much about not coming up with questions that are relevant enough, because they have written their own questions! I came up with this idea because my supervisor says tests make them very anxious, so I thought they'd feel better if they felt that they could "take control" a little bit. I told them to email me a question about something they felt was important to know from the lessons that I've had with them. Seven out of nine students have emailed me their questions. Two of them were very similar, so I combined them, and to the six that remained I added four more, because my supervisor said there should be ten questions. (I also emailed the test to her and she said it was okay.)
The first lesson, we talked about languages in general, about different ways of writing, and about "the language tree", that is, indo-european languages and germanic languages. That first lesson consisded of my lecture, discussions in small groups, a small exercise (and they wrote the answers on the whiteboard) and some quiet reading. There should have been some writing, but my supervisor actually ended the lesson before I had time for it! *lol* The second lesson was mostly on Norwegian and Danish. They were actually surprised to know that the languages are so similar! They found the reading exercise very hard, but I tried to explain how to make it easier by learning a little bit about the differences (that Danish words often have b, d, and g where Swedish words have p, t and k, for instance) and learning some basic words that are different. (Only 10% of the 1000 most common words are different.) The third lesson was about the history of the Swedish language. So, that's quite a lot of different things to cover in three weeks; of course I couldn't mention too many details about everything! But hopefully they found some of it interesting!
One thing that I have to learn is to find ways to make the students more active during lessons. Different activities, not just my lectures, a little bit of reading and some discussion... I also have to learn to use the whiteboard more effectively because I feel very awkward when I write something. I feel like I write so slowly and my handwriting is ugly so it makes me nervous. Today was the first time I felt more comfortable when writing something. Isn't that strange?! I never thought this was something you'd have to get used to! *lol*
Today, I told my other class some things about writing book reviews. All of them feel like they "know" how to do it, but seeing how hard it was for many of them to express their thoughts in the essays they have been writing, I doubt it. I think they think of reviewing as writing a summary and then telling if you liked the book or not; I tried to explain how important it is to explain your opinion and give the reader a hint of what kind of book it is by telling how it made you feel and why, and things like that. If it's just about writing a summary, anybody could be a critic. :)
I have also talked to the students one at the time about their essays. I've tried to explain the grades and what they can try to do better next time; most of them seemed like they accepted my explanations and it felt like I had good conversations with all of them. Well, maybe not all... there's one boy who always looks at me like I'm incredibly stupid and it makes me nervous. (There's also one who is perhaps trying to make me nervous by saying silly things, like "I haven't submitted my essay yet; are you gonna hit me? or pull my hair?" or "I'm just gonna go out and smoke some weed, it that okay?"... I really don't know how to respond to such things, but the good news is that it doesn't make me nervous, I just roll my eyes.) There's also another boy who has serious problems with schoolwork. Almost all of the kids in this class have some kind of diagnosis but only a few of them need/get help from the special aid teacher; I don't know why he isn't one of them. He was very sad when I told him we had to mark his essay as failed... but really, I've tried so hard to help him in any way I could think of except that I didn't try to write his essay for him. :( In this class, I feel that all teachers should have at least basic education in helping students with special needs/learning difficulties, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
Today is Shrove Tuesday, in some countries called Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. In Sweden, we don't have a special day for pancakes (although there's a certain tradition saying that pancakes should be eaten on Thursdays, especially if you had yellow pea soup for dinner). Here, Shrove Tuesday is called Fat Tuesday (last chance to get fat before Lent). This is the day when you eat a semla in Sweden! But bakeries these days start selling them way before Shrove Tuesday; I have already eaten three this year. Twice at the café where I meet the French conversation group, and then the other day mom made us some semlor. (Writing in Swenglish is really hard. -or is plural for nouns ending in -la.) Mom makes them better, of course. She put the leftover buns in the freezer, so we'll have one semla each today as well. :)
...And now she brought it to me. :) I should study now! I really should.