Dumb it down for vocational HS???

[Jasin]

At some point the government has to realise that this is just a big waste of money and time and that at technical HS English should just be an elective class.

I agree with you totally! I have my 1st years once a week and have the 2nd and 3rd years every other week. I keep trying to get them to change it to having maybe only the upper level students per each grade more often, but they don't want to do that. 7 our of my 30 classes are salvageable. They either can understand most of what I say in English or have the ability to learn English. 13 of the 30 classes can, but they don't care to. The remaining 10 classes are hopeless. They don't care to be there and they don't want to do anything.

The REALLY dumb thing is my amazing classroom. I have my own classroom and it has over $500,000 worth of equipment in it. I can't even use most of it. It just sits there, because there English levels are so bad or I don't see them enough to use it. I have a 70" touch screen TV, 11 new computers, a plasma TV, 2 computers for myself, surround sound, a TV-Studio with a camera, green-screen, lights, and I have a movie/tv library. ALL THIS FOR A VOCATIONAL SCHOOL? WTF?

AND you don't use this stuff?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WTF  lol you should totally use this stuff could be fun for the students and you. Experiment with a class or two that are not too highstakes if your ideas don't work. See what happens. Make em make a video about their city, have em do a "man in the street" videos (collecting data from random people on the street) give them the English they need to do this, even if you have to spoon feed them. tech can enhance a class... and a green-screen?!? awesome! hers an interesting link i found http://directorsseat.blogspot.com/ The cool thing about video is that you can prepare the students ahead of time (lines, practice and all that) and when the final product is finished it can be pretty impressive, and motivating for the students. idk, hope this may help. best of luck to ya :)

[Damien]

Do you fellow "Dumb it down" vocationals want to start swapping ideas/lesson plans? I have an arsenal of lesson plans, games, puzzles, etc. BUT I am slowly running low on ideas or ways to dumb it down enough lol.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

Do you fellow "Dumb it down" vocationals want to start swapping ideas/lesson plans? I have an arsenal of lesson plans, games, puzzles, etc. BUT I am slowly running low on ideas or ways to dumb it down enough lol.

I've got heaps of stuff but it's mostly in word docs with whichI used USB slideshows and Youtube vids, so there's not much in the way of visual material. Some of it also consists of handouts on which I'd write hints with pen.

[HurricaneJ]

This is fantastic - thanks guys!
The more ideas for vocational HS the better.
Lord knows they're a tough crowd to please at the best of times.  ;)

[HurricaneJ]

...maybe we could even get a section that caters especially for said vocational high schools, Mr or Ms/Mrs Moderator.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

I can't get over how much the third-year vocational students at my school seem to love me. I haven't taught them since they were in first year high school. I also taught most of them from first- to third-year middle school. After all those years of forcing English on them, punishing them, and making them fill out so many handouts and textbook pages that just ended up in recycling bins you'd think they loath me, but just the opposite seems to be the case. I still get 'Teachah herlo!!!' and 'Teachah I lub you!' from them like they were still in first-year middle school.

[ThulsaDoom]

Another vocational hs teacher here.  The first semester was absolutely brutal with about 2 or 3 classes that were a dream.  Granted, they weren't a high level at all but they were sharp, courteous and a real pleasure to teach.  The rest were monsters and are probably headed straight for factory work after high school.  My basic lesson format usually goes as follows:  Intro, one or maaaaybe two activities and then a game.  Once I stopped getting stressed about my lesson plan failing, one that I toiled over for hours, things became a lot easier.  This probably goes for most classes but keep it short, keep it simple.  I've found I need to stick to that much more than I did teaching elementary students surprisingly enough.

As others have noted, candy works like a charm.  Even the tough, supposedly young gang member goes nuts for an Anytime mint.  Also, if there's any sort of listening or vocabulary, I make a small worksheet that makes the students answer specific questions or translate the vocabulary.

Overall, things have gotten better but I dearly miss the exuberance and effort elementary students usually have.  Although, it is nice not having to worry about ddong chims.