Teaching an Active Learning Exercise on Emotions (AKA the How to Keep Shining When the Bright Lights of Being a Fulbrighter Begin to Dim Lesson)

THEY ARE SO ALIVE!
The 10-minute breaks between classes are when I observe my students being most excited and energetic. They are alive! For 10 whole glorious (or terrifying - depending on your level of adjustment) minutes, students are out on the hallways making all sorts of noise - yelling [l'm sure lovingly] at each other, screaming out normal sentiments, loudly chatting, laughing in groups, seemingly sweeping through the halls with all kinds of evidence that they are, in fact, alive! Despite the chaos, I rejoice with them, especially considering the rigor of their school schedules. I wish the more, let's say, controlled version of this energy and excitement overflowed into the classroom. Or even just my classroom, a magical place where students are expected to actually practice speaking the English they learn from two other English classes they take! (Yes, my Korean students take a total of THREE English classes).

EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE NOT...
However, their energy level usually doesn't overflow. Many an internal battle has been waged, upon the battlegrounds of which I had to convince myself - again and again - that my classes' lack of participation (especially the lower levels) is not personal. Really, it's not.

Just some of the wide variety of emoticons now at our disposal
Credit: http://in.socialdaily.com/

THE WEEKLY CHALLENGE
I take these moments as reminders that my job as an English teacher does not only entail creating lessons that dispense cold, hard knowledge of things English, but creating lessons that dispense knowledge in a fun, memorable, and, hopefully, also interactive way! Wow.

THE TIMES I FORGET WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
Wow, because you forget. When your energy is low; when motivation is sparse; when feeling a tad bit homesick; when you're struggling with the question of, "Am I doing enough?"; when you see your graduating class move on to grad school, take permanent jobs, and even start families; when your family back home wants you, well, back home; and when even the bright lights of being a Fulbrighter begins to dim - you forget.

THE ONES WHO PAY WHEN YOU FORGET
And when you forget (why you're doing what you're doing and pursuing the things you're pursuing), every student that encounters you and sees through your facade is negatively affected. This is not what I want, so the reminders are good, pushing me to do better each week.

When I ask students slumped back on their chairs how they are, they usually respond with:

"I'm fine, thank you. And you?"

This, or some variation of: 

I'm tired. I'm sleepy 

(if they're more honest or are legitimately so tired that they can't even muster up the usual response above)

I can already tell from their faces and postures that they're tired and/or sleepy, so these responses don't do much in terms of acquainting me better with my students. I want to know how they really feel, and I want them to know that, when I ask this question, I mean it. 

I wanted to give them the tools to diversify their responses, so I created a lesson last week on "Emotions." Using an image-heavy PPP, I reviewed basic emotions and taught them the English words to less-common ones. I followed this up with a game at the latter half of class, where students had to act out certain emotions for their teammates to guess. 

Students reacted really well to this lesson! I was a very happy teacher meandering through the grouped desks and observing each team's "it" person do the acting. So much laughter was elicited from the students' acting performances. 

Here are some photos I took while going from desk-to-desk!

MY THURSDAY CLASSES ACT IT OUT

And have a blast!

I'm loving Sujin's laughter!

This group was SO into it! Can you tell?

This particular student was extremely competitive and expressive, which made the competition even steeper

Students deliberating how to act out certain words

More smiles :D

Jeongmin's very active group set the tone for the other groups in the class. Thank you so much, girls!

A student considering how to most effectively act out an emotion

I don't know what she's acting out, but it had all her team members laughing!

When students guess correctly, they keep the strip of paper and later count up the points

A student in the middle of acting out an emotion (I don't remember which but it was entertaining to watch!)

Desk-hopping to see students' own version of what certain emotions look like

I wish each week's lesson brought out this level of fun in my classrooms! Hearing my students laughing while deeply immersed in the activity was a huge energy deposit into my own system. These are the moments that I go to bed mentally crafting while half conscious the night before a school day. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it really, really doesn't! 

Being a Fulbrighter does not make me immune to the common challenges of teaching English as a foreign language in Korea (or anywhere, really); it does, however, give me more reason to remember everything that my single presence here serves to represent.