Hyundai Senior High School Student, Teacher and Self Evaluation of Teacher: Alex Walsh Spring Semester 2012-07-04

Section 1 Structured Student Responses Section 2 Unstructured Student Responses Section 3 Co-Teacher Evaluation Section 4 Self Evaluation Notes Page 2 Page 3 Page 9 Page 10 - Page 11

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Section 1 Structured Student Responses

Totals
You were given clear information about what you could hope to achieve in this course. The lessons helped you prepare for the assessment. The level of the exam was appropriate. Started and ended classes on time. Provided organized classes. Used different methods of presenting activities e.g. audio, visual, and written. Provided opportunities for students to practice creative thinking, divergent thinking and critical thinking. Provided students with enough time to complete activities. Gave instructions clearly and repeated instructions. Made students feel free and comfortable to ask questions and to ask for help if they didnt understand an activity or expression. Encouraged all students to participate in class. Gave students a chance to practice using the key expressions in class time. Was enthusiastic about teaching.

Strongly Disagree
2

Disagree Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree
53

Total

28

58

148

2 21 1 0

4 23 3 1

24 27 20 11

65 43 38 38

53 34 86 98

148 148 148 148

41

98

148

27

53

65

148

21

51

72

148

14

43

91

148

13

41

92

148

58

81

148

16

47

84

148

36

105

148

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Had clear rules for the classroom. Provided praise when students completed an activity well. Offered advice on how students could improve on their performance in class. Was available outside of class hours to talk to students and offer advice. Treated all students fairly. Made you feel comfortable in the classroom and created a good learning environment. Did not provide answers, but helped students discover their own answers. Provided opportunities for individual work, pair work and group work. Made students feel appreciated for their hard work. The teacher displayed students work. Created a bright and energetic looking classroom that encouraged learning.

0 0

0 1

8 7

39 27

101 113

148 148

10

51

84

148

2 0

4 3

34 12

46 35

62 98

148 148

34

101

148

0 0 0 0

1 0 3 0

12 7 13 6

41 34 37 17

94 107 95 125

148 148 148 148

0 30

3 71

8 349

35 1008

102 2094 58.9527

148 3552 100

TOTAL
PERCENT

0.844595 1.998874 9.82545 28.3784

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Section 2 Semi-Structured Student Responses Note These questions were optional, so if a score, for example, is 23%, that does not mean 23% of all students, but 23% of the students that responded to that question. Questions:

What would you like more of next semester? What would you like less of next semester? What type of activities do you enjoy the most? What type of activities dont you enjoy? What type of activities do you learn a lot from? What type of activities dont you learn from? Any further comments?

Student Responses (see next page)

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Songs 2% Writing 1%

What would you like more of next semester? Sports

Pronunciation Outdoor Work 7% 1% Games Speaking 4% 1% Creative Activities 14% Role Play 3% Related 1%

Key Expressions 1%

Culture/Places 5% Group Work 9% Films 51%

What would you like less of next semester?

Group Work 2%

Homework Creative 27% Writing 19% 15%

Nothing 15%

Individual Work 10%

Films 2%

Role Play 2%

Vocabulary 8%

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What type of activities do you enjoy the most?

Quiz 1% Sports Related 1%

Creative Activities 30%

Films 49%

Group Work 19%

What type of activities dont you enjoy?

Homework Nothing 24% 13%

Individual 3% Films 3% Creative Activities 14% Writing 13%

Key Expressions 30%

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What type of activities do you learn a lot from?

Presentations 1% Games 3% Everything 8% Key Expressions Creative Activities 11% 29% Speaking 3%

Group Work Films 29% Divergent Thinking 3% 13%

What type of activities dont you learn from?

Homework 22% Key Expressions 22%

Writing 11%

Drawing 45%

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Any further comments?

Easier Test 12%

Teacher Praise 88%

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Section 3 Co-Teacher Feedback He presents clear objectives before the class begins. He knows how to motivate students. He controls students very well and knows when he must be very strict and fair. His class is well-organized and goes as planned in advance. He encourages students to do creative and divergent thinking. In every lesson students are needed to speak, listen, and write. Through group activity, students learn how to cooperate to complete their task. He uses a variety of educational teaching materials. He is always concerned about how to make his classes helpful and interesting to students. He pays careful attention to each student while they are working in groups, especially to low-level students. He involves Korean co-teachers in classes and is very open to get opinions from them. He finds and uses proper video clips for the class topic. He gives the students more than three chances to practice the target expressions through a variety of activities.

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Section 4 - Self Evaluation The feedback from both my students and co-teachers has been overwhelmingly positive, however there is still a huge amount to learn from the feedback I have received and my self-assessment of the lessons I have taught. Im going to split this into four sections: firstly, Ill look at things I need to keep doing (that I have started doing and have worked well), secondly, Im going to consider things I need to start doing and finally, things I need to stop doing! 1) Things I Need to Keep Doing (Im going to concentrate here on things I dont feel I did so well in previous semesters.)

i) Use of Short Films The response to the use of short films in class (usually between 1 minute and 10 minutes) indicates that students are really enjoying them and seeing the benefit of them. I think there are a number of reasons for this: 1) Teenagers now live in a much more visually stimulating world. Everything is on computers or T.Vs, and this is what the students are used to. 2) Some of my classes are very mixed ability. Short films allow my extremely low level students to understand the general gist of what is happening, what information they get visually can help them understand and contextualize the language that is being taught. For my highest level students videos often come with very natural pronunciation and expressions, this presents a great opportunity for them to hear language how it is naturally used. 3) Videos allow students to absorb culture as well as language. I find my students genuinely interested in other cultures around the world and video present a great way for them to explore that. ii) Praising the Students and Displaying Their Work It has really become apparent to me this year just how important praise is to the students. My girl classes visually show how much they want positive feedback and so it is easy to find opportunities to provide them with positive feedback and praise. At this age boys cant really be seen to desire positive feedback from the teacher, I think this is especially apparent if the teacher is male. This means it is harder to find opportunities to provide them with positive praise and feedback. From the student feedback it seems I have done this successfully with my first grade boy classes, but not my second grade boy classes. The classes are much larger and the boys are naturally much louder and more boisterous, so it is harder to find opportunities. Next semester I really need to actively find opportunities to provide them with positive feedback. Weve done two activities this semester purposely designed to give the students opportunities to make some really great work that can be displayed all over the class. The feedback shows the students have both acknowledged and appreciated this. Other than this feedback I have noticed the students really taking a keen

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interest in other classes work that is displayed around the room. It seems to have created a kind of competition between the classes. iii) Having Clear Rules Although I have the same rules this semester as last semester, I am working at a different school that provides more levels of support when enforcing rules. This semester has shown just how important the support of the institution is in enforcing rules. As an example, last year if a student walked into class 5 minutes late eating cake nothing was done about it, although I disciplined them, the institution itself took no interest in this. This semester there are clear consequences, both from myself and the institution, regarding the consequences of a students actions. It has become very clear how important having your institution on your side regarding discipline is. iv) Multiple Intelligences & Learning Styles Something that has been made absolutely clear in the feedback from the students is the variety of learning styles and preferences the students have. The students indicated that they recognized the use of many different forms of activities, but when asked what they would like more/less of next semester and what they enjoyed/didnt enjoy, other than wanting more short films, there was a huge variation. For me, this clearly shows the importance of providing students with a range of activities and stimuli in order to keep all students motivated and interested in class.

2) Things I Need to Start Doing i) Giving Students More Time to Complete Activities Although the students rated me favorably for this it was still one of my lowest scores, and I have to say that on reflection I absolutely agree with them. For the majority of the semester I was at conflict with my institution. They wanted me to teach key expressions every class, I wanted to teach skills. This meant I was trying to fit both into a 50 minute period and the classes felt a bit too rushed. Ive now reached a compromise with my school; we are going to have spread topics over two classes, meaning half the compulsory amount of expressions and more time for skills. This will hopefully result in the classes being less rushed. Its amazing just how observant the students are. ii) A Better Introductory Lesson I started at a new school this semester and my directives were to start teaching my syllabus from the very first class. They asked me to only take up 10 minutes for introductions etc. and I used this time for making the rules of the classroom clear and introducing myself. I think this was a mistake and something I should have strongly objected to. The students have shown in their feedback that they werent sure exactly what they were supposed to achieve from the course, something that should have been made clear to them in the introductory lesson. Although almost all the classes adapted well I think this could be partially responsible for the behavioral problems one class faced at the beginning of the semester. Quite simply they werent sure why they were there. This is a

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mistake I wont be making again. iii) Explaining the Reason behind Activities On reflection something I hardly did this semester is tell students why we were doing the activities we were doing, what skills were we practicing, what could they achieve from the activity, how is it useful for them in real life etc. This is shown in the relatively low score for providing students with opportunities to practice creative thinking, divergent thinking and critical thinking. Although I strongly believe these skills were practiced in almost every class I didnt make the students aware of this. This is definitely something for me to bear in mind next semester. 3) Things I Need to Stop Doing i) Compulsory Homework Feedback from the students is quite clearly against homework, and on reflection I think they might be right! Why am I giving them homework? The honest answer is Im not sure. Maybe because its what my teacher did when I was at school, maybe because I want them to see my class is serious, maybe it just felt right. What did I achieve from it? Probably not much, the students who wanted to do it did it, and I hope gained from it (it was usually to interview someone, in English, on the topic we had done in class), but by forcing students to do it who didnt want to meant that all they were probably doing was either copying their friends answers or making it up. Next semester I will make students aware of the reasons for doing the homework, but make it optional. This will also mean I have fewer to grade and so can do a more thorough job. ii) Presuming I Can Motivate 2nd Grade Boys with Stamp Sheets! The 2nd grade boys have made it very clear to me this semester they really dont care about stamp sheets (a technique that works very well with my other classes). So, Im going to have to think of something new, something sports related. At this point Im not sure what, but I have a month to figure it out! Notes i) This is the first time I have performed such an extensive self evaluation and the amount I have learnt from it has been invaluable. I wasnt required to do it by my school or regional office, and it took a lot of time to put together all the data, but I highly recommend doing it. The main reasons I have never done this before is firstly, because Ive never been required to do it, and secondly, because I was nervous that the feedback might be negative. However, I really encourage teachers to do this once or twice a year as you will be surprised how much you will learn, both about what your co-workers and students appreciate in your work, and what you can improve. In terms of professional development, it seems essential. ii) The low score for the level of the exam was appropriate is something I havent mentioned as it is not

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something I had much (or any) control over. The results of that question have been fed back to the institution I work and it is something that we are going to work closer together on next semester to rectify.

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