I was tutoring when the pandemic hit during Spring Break 2020, but I talked to a lot of teachers about their struggles, not only because I wanted to help them but also because I knew I might be teaching in the Fall. I don't have all the numbers or the inside scoop, but I wanted to talk about the enrollment problems I've been hearing about, especially when it comes to our ESL students. Last I heard, 90% of the classes we're offering for Fall 2020 at my community college is either Live-Online or traditional-Online (your time). Unlike the university, our usual online numbers are never like that! Most of our students are, well, from the community. They're usually nontrad (short for nontraditional), which means that they're coming back to school after five, ten, sometimes twenty years after high school. As you may expect, they prefer the in-class experience. But like I mentioned in a previous post, teachers and students are getting used to the "new" normal of online education, so our general enrollment is as good as can be expected. (Any school is better than no school, right?) According to my department chair, students have been a little hesitant to enroll, but they're coming our way. Incoming Freshman Incoming freshman might be a different story. My heart goes out to anyone who graduated high school this year. I can only imagine what it was like to finish your Senior year with the chaos that was happening March-May, 2020. There are a lot of uncertainties right now (for a lot of us!), and I imagine these incoming freshman might be feeling burdened: Is college a good choice right now? Wouldn't it be better to get a job and support my struggling family? Can we afford tuition right now? Three weeks before the semester started, we were 45% down where we were last year in enrollment from this group (freshman comp, that is). A week later, we were only about 29% down. It seems that they, too, were hesitant to enroll, but seeing that college is a long-term investment and will overall help their families, they're (also) joining us online. *Phew!* Now, let's talk about ESL ESL students are usually a mixture of trad and nontrad. Generally speaking, advanced ESL students learned English in their home country, usually in high school (sometimes before that). They are usually international, which means they don't plan on staying in the country. They're here to immerse themselves in English, get a degree/career and go home. They're usually sponsored by their government (more on that soon!) and are incoming freshman (traditional). Again, generally speaking, most lower level students have lived in the country for years and years but don't know English very well. They pick-up words and phrases here and there, either from the TV or from their kids who are much better at English than they are. They live in language pockets, which means that they speak their first language at the local grocery store and in their neighborhoods, etc. Some of them, I admit, go into college wanting a degree/career, but most of them just want to improve their English enough to get promoted at their job and/or get a better job all together. They are almost always nontrad. So what's happening with ESL enrollment? Along with the uncertainty that we're all feeling right now, our international (F1-Visa) students have some additional hurdles, namely sponsors. (These are those higher-level, career-bound ESL students I was talking about.) It seems that a lot of the sponsors are no longer wanting to pay for them to be here. It isn't ideal to have these students sitting around their apartment taking online classes. I mean, that's not why the sponsors send them to study abroad! Thankfully, it sounds like some sponsors are becoming more understanding of the situation and we'll be seeing more enrollment from these students soon. Most likely, our college will have to create new sections a week or two after regular classes begin (something we call late-start). Even then, I don't know how long these understanding sponsors will tolerate the situation. They could pull these students at any time. As for that other group I told you about, our nontrad, job-seeking ESL students---no one is really talking about them. You may remember that I was assigned to teach a level one writing course. Well, this week I had only four students enrolled. (Pretty sad, huh?) I talked to the chair of my department and he said he wasn't going to cancel any ESL classes unless he absolutely had to. I felt better after he said that, but a day later (today), I got an email from the secretary that said they had to cancel my class. I'm pretty heartbroken, but it didn't surprise me... Surviver Mode
If you had been living in a country for years and years and your first language got you everything you needed (food, housing, job, friendship), would you learn a new language? It's easy to say, "if you live here, speak English!" but have you tried to learn a language? I have, and I failed! ha ha! I wasn't motivated enough and every time I tried to immerse myself, I fell back onto English because it was comfortable. Well, here in Arizona, we have a lot language pockets (not just Spanish). As you may have guessed, these neighborhoods are often lower income, so jobs and food take priority over higher education. I'm not saying that these lower level/job-seeking students aren't motivated to learn English and improve their situation. They are! But I wouldn't blame them if they went into survivor mode right now: feed the family, get the kids' schooling figured out, and try not to get Covid! I don't mean to sound sour in this post, but I wanted to let you know what I know and why even though online education is booming, a lot of ESL teaching at the college is at a sudden standstill. It may be that we just need to wait another semester for them to figure out their "new normal," but who knows? Maybe this Covid will blow over by Spring. All I know is that I heart ESL, and I hope they find me as I tutor online this semester.
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I was tutoring when things first "went down" with Covid-19 and schools closed, but I am teaching an ESL level one writing course this fall, which begins in three weeks! When I was offered the teaching gig, I wasn't sure if I wanted it. It's a pretty stressful time (for everyone, I know!), and I wasn't sure if I wanted to add to the stress I already have. After some debate, though, I decided to take it on. After all, I'm an extrovert and I could use all the social interaction I can get! Teaching Live-Online As you may remember from an earlier post, the class I'm teaching this fall has a Live-Online format. That means I will meet with my students in real-time twice a week. Naturally, then, the first question I asked my teaching supervisor was which online platform should I use for my Live-Online course? I knew I'd be posting homework on Canvas, but what about those live-online meetings? Should I be using Zoom, Webex, CraniumCafe, or something else? "Level one, right?" he asked me. "Yep!" "Go with Google Meet." This answer surprised me because my college has been offering tons of training for Webex, and our in-person-tutoring-center-moved-online uses CraniumCafe. For church and such, I usually use Zoom, so I asked my supervisor why Google Meet? Why Google Meet? "I had to move my in-person classes to online last semester," he told me. "And I tried them all! Google Meet was the simplest because students didn't need to make an account or download any software. You just give them a link, and they click and enter!" That made sense to me! ESL, especially level one, tend to overcomplicate things. I suppose that's true for any college student, but I often imagine myself doing the tasks I give my students as if I were doing them in a second language. I don't speak any Arabic, for example. Would I be able to create an account or even know what to download if it was told to me in Arabic? Probably not! I was also happy to hear about this recommendation because that's what the English department used when we all went online. They had several optional hangouts every week, and instructors (full time or part time!) could talk and ask questions. I went to those not only because I was the tutoring coordinator at the time and wanted instructors to know that tutors were available online to help their students, but as an extrovert, I needed that social interaction! Anyway, what I remember most about using Google Meet was how there weren't any unnecessary bells and whistles. It took a minute to figure out where to access stuff, like the mic and video (etc) because the options hide when you're not hovering over them (I will need to explain this to students!), but otherwise, the chat is clean and for an ESL class, the most important thing is being able to access video and audio.
I asked the Internet, and it turns out that you shouldn't have that problem if you slide your presentation to an extra monitor, but I just have my good-old trusty MacBook and no extra monitor, so that wasn't helpful to me.
Someone else suggested opening Google Meet on two devices. The one on your computer, for example, could control the presentation while your phone would allow you to see the other participants. But don't do that! I got a crazy screeching sound, so I turned off the volume on my phone, but there was a funky echo because the computer and phone were both still picking up my voice. I was discouraged that I couldn't figure out something so simple (yet important!) and was just getting over it (maybe I wouldn't present any power points!) when I found the awesome video I'm sharing with you in this blog. It made me super happy because I love using google slides. Now I know I can present power points with lots of pictures (which is key to teaching level one ESL) and be able to see if someone is confused or if they left the meeting for whatever reason, and they will be able to see me while I'm presenting. Yay! I'm sure there will be other challenges and bugs to work out while I'm teaching, but I thought I'd share out this helpful tip, especially to those of you wanting to teach online with Google Meet. Happy teaching! I don't know about you, but when my college announced that we had to work from home, I thought it would only be for a couple weeks, maybe a month. I guess that shows you how clueless I was about this whole Corvid-19 thing! But I don't think I'm alone in this. We live in strange times, and a lot of people don't have "answers" or know what's going to happen. These are uncertain times, for sure! Emergency Online Teaching Back in March, the English department at my school did what they called "emergency online teaching." Thankfully, I wasn't teaching a class at the time when everything "went down," but I saw what it did to these students that had signed up for in-person classes and were suddenly thrust into online environments. In short, they panicked. They struggled. They dropped out. (Super sad!) Same for a lot of teachers, too, though. They over corrected, tried to keep the same in-person lesson plans and activities, and struggled to figure out video conferencing and other essential technology that they hadn't been required to learn before all of this. When I was tutoring and students complained about all the changes in their syllabus and flip-flopping of assignments in their (now) online classes, I reminded them to have patience and told them, "we're all in this together!" We pulled through this "emergency online teaching" somehow and finished up the Spring semester. Yay! High Hopes I think we all had high-hopes of returning to campus this Fall. (I know I did!) But with a spike in Covid-19 cases in my state, many of the departments at my college have decided to stay online for the Fall semester, just in case. There's rumor that we'll be offering some in-person services, like cashiers, financial aid, etc. But the English department says they're having us stay home, and our tutoring center said the same thing. To quote my English department chair, "we're no longer responding to emergency online teaching." Yes, there are still learning curves to tackle and added training we need in order to teach effectively online. (FYI: I completed the first of three accreditations for teaching online during Spring break. I had a feeling to do it!) But we've (hopefully!) learned from our crash course in moving everything online in Spring. Now we can take that knowledge (as well as other training) and make Fall online even better! Our Summer semester, by the way, has been online. I didn't get a class to teach, but I'm tutoring, and I'm noticing that students are (also) getting the hang of this online-stuff, including interacting with classmates and instructors via video conferencing. What Fall looks like at my college Below is an image of our learning options we're providing at our college this Fall. I haven't heard of any departments doing in-person or hybrid. I suppose those would be reserved for subjects that require a lab (like Chemistry, for example), or hands-on learning (like auto-mechanics). The English department (which includes ESL!) is only doing Live-Online and Online. To teach or not to teach? Last week, I was offered to teach a Live-Online ESL, level 1 writing course this Fall semester. I told them I had to think about it. Was I ready to do this? I'd learned a lot from the tutoring aspect, but could I handle an online class? A live-online, no less!? It would probably be easier cheering my colleagues from the sidelines, wouldn't it? I mean, online tutoring is my jam, not online teaching... in real-time? I've taken online classes, but they were not for the Live-Online format. What would that even look like? I told my husband that if I ever taught a class during this pandemic, online, I'd want to do it asynchronously (online, your time). How can I be certain that my students would always have access to wifi and/or be available to attend a class at a specific time? Covid-19 has created a lot of uncertainty. What if a student loses their job and/or has to get a new one and their schedule changes? What if they thought that time would work because their kids were planning to go back to school but now they can't do that time anymore because they need to home school their kids? It's a level 1, though. Would they be able to navigate an online course without having the chance to meet with me via video conferencing at least twice a week? Maybe they need the interactions with their peers. Actually, now that I think about it, they will! If they're like me, they'll be starving for human connections while they learn and grow. If we can't get it in-person, I suppose the Live-Online option is the next best option. Besides, these level 1 students will want to ask questions, and sometimes they're often more comfortable speaking in real-time (where they can use hand motions, etc) than writing a formal email to an instructor. Anyway, long story short (too late!) I accepted the teaching gig! Coming to a theater near you...
So stay tuned! I'm planning on giving a play-by-play of my first-time teaching a Live-Online ESL class. It's been a while since I've taught level 1 students, so that will make it doubly adventurous. ha ha! Level 1 ESL students are sweethearts! (I work with them in tutoring, so I know that hasn't changed since the last time I taught level 1!) They often have sincere motivations to learn for the sake of learning and usually make excellent improvements throughout the semester. Man, I love working with ESL students. I can't wait to meet them! You know, that feeling---the one that says you're not making a difference in the classroom, that you're no good at this teaching-thing and that some students, no matter what you do, just aren't going to pass your class? Yeah. It feels a lot like a dementor, doesn't it? Sucking your teaching-soul right out of you, making you feel like you'll never be happy... as a teacher... ever... again... This post is somewhat in response to a two part blog a wrote awhile ago, which you should check out if you haven't already. Dementors are Real Dementors are one of the reasons I constantly fall back on tutoring to give me a confidence boost, although tutoring can have similar moments of doubt. (More on that another time.) Hubby says I care too much. I don't know how not to, though. Every absence, every tardy, every missed assignment, every bombed quiz is a stab at my heart. I know how much those things hurt their grades and how doing the homework and practicing in and out of class would help their English and their confidence in writing. I like being the "best" teacher or the "favorite," teacher, or even the generally, "liked" teacher. (Who doesn't?) So when I get a student that is angry with syllabus policies, is lazy but still wants a good grade, or flat out hates me, I get a bit drained. Like a dementor is standing over me.
I felt so much better, taking a moment to myself. Then, as I savored the last bit of chocolate, I thought about the students that were progressing in my class. (There's actually quite a few of them.) Nancy, for example, wrote a paragraph with unity. In all the time I've known her, she'd never been able to do that. Jorge told me that he loved the Book Talk Assignment and couldn't wait for his presentation at the end of the semester, and Vy was practically bouncing when I told her I liked her revised thesis for her essay. Like Harry Potter, it's important to remember those happy-moments in teaching.
Pray I don't talk about religion too often on my blogs, but something else that has really helped me combat my dementors (especially lately) is prayer. When I know a difficult student is going to talk to me during my office hours or after class when everyone else has gone, I say a quiet plea for help. I pray that I can see things from his/her perspective, that I can convey the concern and love that I have for him/her, that I'll be able to stay fair and stick to the policies that are in place. God helps me during those tough times when I ask. When I don't ask, I'm often SOL, and I regret the exchanges I have with these difficult students. I'm sure there are other ways to combat dementors. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below. Just in conclusion, I think it's also important to recognize that we don't have to face these dementors alone. We have family (boy does Hubby help me!). We have coworkers and friends. Teaching is tough. Don't let anyone tell you differently. I haven't done a ton of private teaching, I'll admit, but I've learned some things from the little experience I have, and I've heard "horror-stories" from friends of what not-to-do. I'm an optimist, so I'm going to focus on the things TO DO or must-knows, as I like to call them. But first! Let me explain that I, personally, prefer working for a university or college. Recruiting students can be a challenge, especially if you're wanting to make private teaching your main source of income. Sometimes students "fall into my lap," just from being an instructor at a university or college, so I sometimes end up private teaching. (That happened to me this summer. I'm teaching two Chinese students, referred to me by a fellow ESL instructor). Each time, it's adventure! My first piece of advice when considering private teaching is... For example, I'm used to teaching college-age, so I wouldn't feel comfortable teaching anything younger. If I'm not comfortable, I won't enjoy the teaching. Of course, you want to be open-minded, but it's still a good thing to think about and consider when you're thinking about private teaching ESL. 2. Know what you are good at. I like reading and writing, so that's what I offer for private teaching. I'm qualified to teach Listening and Speaking, and still do a bit of that, but I tell students straight-up that my strength in teaching ESL is reading, grammar, and writing, especially academic essays and creative writing. What are your strengths? What do you enjoy? 3. Know how to assess needs. You're assessing what they want to learn and what they already know. The first day I meet with someone for private teaching, I give him/her a little form to fill out. The first half asks general questions: how long have they been learning English? What kind of skills are they hoping to learn from me? I have them tick boxes for some of the questions, almost as a shopping list for what I can offer. The second half is a little grammar and vocabulary assessment. Then, if I know he/she wants help with writing, I give a little writing assessment. (It usually takes about 20 minutes). I'm including my latest drafts of assessments at the bottom of this blog. My assessments don't end there, though. People like to know they're getting what they paid for. This summer, I've started using "exit tickets," which is something you give student at the end of each lesson. It's a quick card that asks what the student liked about the lesson, what they'd like to learn more about and/or what they think would improve the lessons. I also fill out one, telling them where I think they're starting to improve in. 4. Know what to charge. Every state and country is a little different, but most private teachers (right now) are charging somewhere between $20-$75 an hour. If you have a TESOL certification and/or degree, AND you have experience in teaching, you can charge on the higher end. Of course, if you're nice like me, I usually land in the middle ($40-$50 an hour). The best advice given to me? Have a contract and ask for the payment upfront. It's not rude. It's business. This summer, I'm teaching a Chinese couple, and I tell them to pay me for the entire week on every Monday. Of course, you can have them pay for the month or two months in advance, depending on how you want to do it, but always get payment upfront. Middle-Eastern students, by the way, will negotiate the price and form of payment. Other students will as well, but Middle-Eastern students are notorious for bartering. My advice is to only negotiate if you feel comfortable with it; otherwise, just state the price and stick to it. If they want lessons bad enough with you, they'll pay the price you ask for. 5. Know your personal limits. Private teaching is unique because you're basically tailoring the learning to meet the individual. In that way, it's quite rewarding. It can, however, consume a lot of your time. Again, students want to know that they're getting their "money's worth." Your lessons need to be organized, professional, and thorough. Don't take on too many students, especially if you have other commitments. BONUS: Know where to meet. If you're meeting with students via Skype or some other online mode, make sure you clean-up your room and dress professionally. It can be easy to just "go to work" in pajamas, but that can lower your credibility with students. If you're doing it face-to-face, know where you're going to meet. My friend had a spare room in her apartment and set-up her private teaching in there, but not all of us have that luxury or feel comfortable with "strangers" in our homes. I suggest a library or some other study space. Most libraries allow you to reserve a room. Right now I'm meeting my private-teaching students on campus in one of the study lounges. That works for us. Choose somewhere that works for you and make it consistent. Try not to change the location and time of lessons too often. That's about all I have for you today. Enjoy the documents below. Tweak them to your needs. Happy teaching!
In part 1 of this blog post, I talked about calculating grades. It's something they didn't teach me when I became a teacher. I think they don't teach it because it's stressful, subjective, and sometimes boring.
Actually, I remember having a teaching coach (an experienced teacher to answer my questions) my first semester. I started as a full time instructor in an intensive ESL program. When I asked about calculating grades, my assigned teaching coach showed me how she "did it." She might have explained the whole points-thing and percentage-thing, but I just remember feeling overwhelmed with the task of navigating and entering in those grades on Blackboard and SIS. (Canvas is better, by the way!) The first time I calculated grades for my students, my hands shook; I wanted them to get A's, but some hadn't done the work, so I'd probably have to fail them. I stressed about being unfair. I worried what would happen to these students that I had to fail. I thought about the students who worked hard all semester. Was I entering in their grades in a way that would reflect their good work? I cried at my computer desk until a coworker (thank goodness) saw me crying and put her arm around me. I called my dad (who used to teach), and he talked me through it. I got them done in time, but this first experience in calculating grades has never entirely left me. My students' grades are important to me. I'm glad I've developed a better way of calculating grades because my students can know where they stand earlier on in the semester... and maybe do something about it. However, there are a lot of students, I've learned, who, unfortunately, don't think about (or care about) their grades until it's too late. STUDENTS WHO CHALLENGE THEIR GRADES Again, it's something they didn't teach me in my Master's degree. We never had a unit on "what to do or say if a student is unhappy with his/her grade." Thankfully, when I started teaching, I had a roommate offer this important mantra: Teachers don't give grades; students earn them. I inhale this statement every time I calculate grades and/or conference with students about grades. I've put it in my email signature, adding the phrase: I'm here to help you earn the best grade possible. Because that's how I see my job as instructor. I want my students to earn good grades. I can't force them. I can't make them do it. But I reach out as best I can throughout the semester. I've developed a "how to calculate your own grade" handout so they can experience the kind of hard work I go through every time I sit down to enter in grades. (I think students think I randomly pick a grade for them.) I'm not sure how many students utilize this resource, but I make it available at the beginning, the middle and the end of the semester. Luckily, math talks. Most of these upset students do the math at home (or with me), and they gulp the news down okay. They may not be happy with it and try to get me to accept late work (which I don't), but they, at least, understand where the grade came from. No wasta The majority of the students that argue their grades with me are Arabic. I didn't understand why for a long time, but I finally learned an Arabic concept. For many of the Middle East countries, they have what they call wasta which is loosely translated as "nepotism" or "who you know." They often feel that they can negotiate or "talk" their way into the grade they want. It works in their country. Why not in the USA? I remember that a teacher at the intensive program I started at had a mug that said, "NO WASTA." She'd put that on her desk during finals week as a reminder that that's not how it works here. I seem to always forget it in the heat of the moment, but there's also another Arabic phrase that helps students to accept their grades. That is Inshallah, which means, "if God wills it." It is something that tells them that it's "out of my hands now," which it is when they're asking the last day what they can do to get the grade they want. I always tell them that's a great question... for 8 or 9 weeks ago. It's too late now. Sorry. Inshallah. Sob Stories Hubby is quick to point out sob stories to me. I'm getting better at it, but I tend to believe that my students don't lie. (I know, weird, huh?) The problem with sob stories is that even if they're true, there's usually not much I can do to help, especially if a student didn't communicate about it earlier in the semester. I often want to ask, "Why is this just now being brought up, the last day of the semester?" I get sob stories from all cultures, by the way. And they just make me feel horrible because, like I said, there's usually nothing I can do about them. I hate it. There are probably other things that I wasn't taught about teaching, but grading and conferencing with unhappy students was the number one thing that I realized quickly that I never learned in grad school. The rest--- tweaking lesson plans, building rubrics, crafting assignments, etc.--- is talked about but just needs practice. I complain a lot about teaching to hubby, poor guy, but the truth is--- I love teaching! It's probably one of the most important professions. I'm a little biased, but it's true. In all my years of studying to become an ESL teacher, not once did they teach me how I should calculate grades and what to do if a student challenges his/her grade.
The thing I struggled with in my teaching (probably the most) was figuring out grades. If I could just teach, and students could just learn and not have to worry about grades (and specifically not having to conference with students that earned an F in my class)--- I'd enjoy teaching more. It's the number one thing that I dislike about my job, and it probably has to do with the fact that no one ever taught me how to do it. I'm not going all hippie on you (don't worry). I'm not saying that we should do away with the standard grading system, which at the college I work for is: 90-100% = A 80-90% = B 70-80% = C 60-70% = D < 60% = F Grades motivate students. They inform advisors what kind of scores they earned in the past and/or what subjects they struggle with, and it's a way to earn scholarships, etc. That's all pretty straight forward. Let's not change that. CALCULATING GRADES I'm not a fan of the math, but even that isn't too bad if I have a clear plan for how many points I want to award each assignment, which, until recently, I didn't. When I started teaching, I just made up assignments as I went, assessing my students on what I taught (which they did teach me to do in my Master's degree!) whenever I felt like I needed to know if they were learning things. I'd usually try to keep the points simple, like 10 , 50 , or 100 points, depending on how crucial I thought the assignment should be. Then, at the end of the semester, I'd add up all these assignments, plug them into Canvas or Blackboard, and bam! there's my students' grades. It took a long time because I'd do a lot of "little" assignments, and my eyes would get crossed from looking at the computer screen for so long. Thank goodness for Hubby who read my grades off for me (which I always recorded by hand). About two years into teaching, I decided I needed a better way to calculate grades because students often wanted to know where they stood not only at the end of the semester, but in the middle or at any point, so I started plugging in all these assignments into Canvas/Blackboard earlier. Every Thursday or Friday, I'd spend a good hour or two plugging them in. In a way, this was better because I was spreading out the data entry, but I still felt like I wasn't very accurate in grading. I always felt like I could do better. I felt like I was doing it the "hard way," but I had never been taught any way to calculate grades, let alone a simpler or better way to do it. The 1,000 Points System I'm embarrassed to admit, but it was only last year that I decided at the beginning of a semester to have a total set number of points to award my students. Hubby suggested 1,000. It's a good large number, but not too difficult to work with mathematically. This has allowed me to say stuff like, well--- writing projects are super important, so I'll have all of their essays (collectively) add up to 450 or 500 points. Participation is important, but shouldn't outweigh their writing because the majority of objectives for this class is writing, so I'll have that worth 100 points, etc. I could confidently tell my students up front that they would be working towards 1,000 points. It made it easier for them to calculate their own grades, which was really great! I still did quite a bit of data entry, but I soon learned to cluster assignments in this way, so students could see where each assignment belonged (i.e participation or writing project, etc.). I still don't like the math, but it seems a lot more manageable and more accurate as well. Now that I had figured out a 1,000 point system, I just needed to learn how to deal with those students that wanted to argue their grade. That is, also, something I didn't learn before jumping into teaching... |
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