“Count on Me Like 1,2,3”
Guess who sang in class even though she is tone deaf? Me. I can’t believe I just did that. But they say teachers are multi-talented individuals but I don’t think singing is one of my best talents. I hope my students appreciated it. Today, the topic that I discussed in class is a song. Song comprehension to be exact, which is a very important technique, used in ESL and EFL classes. For it to be in the English curriculum is such a wonderful thing. In the Philippines, using songs in the lesson serves as an energizer or motivation but here, there really is a whole entire topic of understanding the meaning of the lyrics of the song.
The class day started out great. We only had one class for the day so the entire morning before class, I was double-checking the lesson plan and the materials that I made yesterday. When I discussed the song “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars, some students already knew the song so it was a relief when they sang along. The only challenge that I faced was simplifying an already simple song, in my opinion. The only way I did that was dissecting the song and explaining it in a way that is simple. I acted some lines and gave them scenarios. It gave me flashbacks to the days where we had to do theatre in school and in some Professional Education classes. I asked myself why I had to do it whenever our teacher would let us do role-plays. Now I realized that as a teacher non-verbal communication is vital in the teaching-learning process, as well.
I think they enjoyed the lesson. I hope they did. They responded well to my questions, of course with the help of my mentor, who translated some parts whenever they do not understand what I am saying. I try to make my classroom as interactive as possible but somehow the language barrier hinders it. My use of nonverbal gestures has helped me a lot today and it could be one technique that I will use in my future discussions. Until then, I will continue to push myself towards my best and improve on things that I have to work on.
