Yesterday I had one of the best classes in my entire teaching career.
It was because I was too tired to teach. So when I found Soyeon (a third grader) sitting at my desk, and she announced that she was the teacher, I said, "OK, you're the teacher."
She looked surprised, and actually a little worried, when she saw I was serious. Her smile disappeared. I handed her my basket-o-markers-and-alligators and said, "You need this." She held it gingerly.
We went down to the classroom, and I showed her how to run the computer for the CC class, and then I sat down at the back of the class room and let her "teach" the class. The CC classes play a video and then the students work out what the characters are saying – it's essentially a structured, long-form listening exercise. I follow a very consistent pattern when I teach the class, and Soyeon was able to replicate that pattern quite accurately. She called on students, kept track of points, ran the video through starts and stops and replays as the students figured out what was being said, and in general conducted the class exactly as I might have. When the students argued over points, she said exactly what I sometimes said, "Oh, but that was too easy. So teacher says 'no point'." I had to laugh.
I participated by adopting a "role" – as a sort of recalcitrant student at the back. I deliberately "didn't know" the answers to questions when called on, sometimes. A few times I "broke character" to assist her with the technical aspects of running the video program, but other than that, it was completely Soyeon's class.
What's truly remarkable about this class is that it was the first class in a long time where no one broke into tears over the inevitably competitive nature of the Korean classroom. These are high-ability but quite young kids: second and third graders but in the top 10% in terms of ability in the whole hagwon (including middle school). They all want to be (and are accustomed to being) number one.
Soyeon, especially, has been a very problematic student. She has almost-native ability (I think she lived abroad for some time) but she is a bit naive about the world, immature for her age and is almost a bully as far as wanting to compete with her less-proficient peers. Putting her in a teacher role was a surprisingly and rewardingly brilliant move, because she was forced by the nature of the role "teacher" to be fair and level-headed. Besides, she got to be bossy to her heart's content.
My question is, if I put one of the other students in charge next Wednesday, how will Soyeon handle it? My suspicion – based on the experience yesterday – is that it might go well, because she will have empathy for her peer at the front of the room. I'm going to try it – I'll let you know how it goes.
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]