I was in a spin class this morning and all the cyclists and the instructor were of one mind. We hunched over our bikes and drove it hard for the one hour session. We all wanted the hard workout and we got it. The instructor reminded us to rest when necessary, but most of us have our workout goals, our fitness goals, and so most people in the room took our effort to the varying high levels requested by the instructor.
Most of our students don’t come into our language classes with that same kind of motivation. For most of them our classrooms are just places where they have to be. No blame on them – it is just that way. However, I wonder how the spinning instructor would have reacted if all the people in her class this morning had just perched themselves on their bikes with their hoodies up looking bored.
It might therefore be prudent that we remember, in the day to day of our teaching lives, that our students, for the most part, don’t really want to be in our classrooms. I chose to go into the cycling room today and I paid for the training and the use of the bike. Our students are not paying for our instruction and they therefore don’t value it in the same way. Nor are most of our students planning a trip to Montreal or Paris or Dakar in the near future. Their goals are not clear in the way that my goals in my spin class are.
We simply cannot afford to forget the fact that there are differences between levels of interest in unforced vs. forced classes. We can’t afford to burn out. My prayer is that none of us burn out now, in this hard time of year.
We would not burn out teaching superstar kids with good communicative skills, would we? I wouldn’t. I’d love to go to work with kids like that. Why? Because this work of teaching CI is just about the most fun thing I have ever done, when the mojo that motivated kids bring is there in the classroom.
But burning out when teaching kids who are too young to grasp what we are really offering them, now that we offer them something of actual value (vs. the old way), that is another matter.
You don’t need anyone’s approval on this planet, and if there is some nasty ass kid giving you a hard time, don’t burn out because of it. Take a deep breath, disengage, quit thinking it’s your fault, and get somebody in power to either get the kid out of that room or get the kid to change (they can’t).
And for the run of the mill unmotivated ones, quit trying so hard to get them to learn. Hold them to your behavioral norms, don’t let them slouch or show disrespect in any way, do the job you are being paid to do, but don’t try to do the impossible. Duh!