Job Discussion Forums

[maj0915]

I've noticed that a lot of people on the boards are opposed to teaching children in this range. Would anyone be willing to share their experiences with teaching children in this range, including whether or not they liked it and why? It seems like a lot of my current job offers/interview requests are to teach children in this age group.

[rogerwilco]

Do you enjoy singing and dancing ?
Many schools will expect you to sing and dance with/for the students.

[creeper1]

Yeah you have to sing and dance. But at least you may get a few smiles and some participation.

Compare that with middle school. Many of those kids are apathetic. It can be an uphill battle trying to get any enthusiastic response out of them.

There are plenty of people that would choose young learners over middle school students.

[lemak]

I still think my favorite group to teach is kids aged around 8~12. In many cases their level is actually more advanced than my English majors, and they still kind of have that authority figure worship thing going unlike 19 year old Fu Duo who thinks he's too cool fo' school with his dirty cheap suit, fake iphone 6 (?) and Limahl styled hair (remember him? ). Often loads more energetic, not so self conscious about making mistakes and you can do a lot more games and fun stuff that the big kids find kind of lame and childish. They *almost* have adult level competence at basic functions like walking, listening and breathing.

I don't like the kindy kids though. Find them extremely high maintenance and often very few coping skills. I did teach a few classes to this age in the past since there seemed to be a lot of $ in that range, but an hour long class tended to always feel like 2 hours. Hard work for me....having been said others absolutely love it. They're certainly cute, generally happy, alas the adorableness wears off quick after one gets too excited and pinches a loaf in their pants and another sneezes their swine flu straight into your eyes.

Keep it fun and change the activities frequently. They don't have a lot of focus generally to stick with the same topic for more than a dozen or so minutes. Bribe them with candy, preferably the ones that take forever to eat so it keeps them busy. Raise your voice even slightly and expect a tsunami of tears.....Good luck!

[Non Sequitur]

I've taught that age group in two settings.
1. A small village language summer school in rural Liaoning (summer '04) and loved it. Kids fresh motivated unaffected and up for all the fun you can give them.
2. A Kid Castle franchise in Dalian - Saturday mornings. Kids hyper, belligerent - verbally and physically.
So whether town or country could be an issue.
Be prepared for parents and grandparents observing.
Right in the classroom in my village classes and through glass partitions at KC.
I treated the village parents as class members and had them spouting the 'Nice to meet you' stuff along with the kids.
I found it a nice change from the tertiary students I taught in term time.

[Jellyfish666]

No need for suggestions. The scholl will make you sing and dance like a monkey for sure if you're teaching kids in China!

[lionheartuk]

I teach that age range now. I have gone from grades 7-10 to grades 2-5 ( this year) in six years at this school. I find it difficult teaching this age, even though the kids are lovely and no trouble and have better English than many of my middle school students, it's not really my cup of tea.

I do have an assistant in class and they are very helpful if I have any problems and some of the kids will even translate a lot of the words.

I, or any of the F.T's, don't do any singing or dancing but I do have the students sing a song before each class and do a little dancing to the video if they want.They enjoy it and it settles them for the lesson.

The kids are always lively and cheerful and willing to learn in class. But regardless of how difficult it is it's my job to teach in primary so I have to do it.

[Kysorb]

This is all I have ever taught, and I love doing it.

The curriculum is very important though, and you can tell a lot by what your going to be expected to do from looking at it. If the school you are getting an offer from only concentrates on teaching the students oral English as opposed to O/R/W or doesn't follow a solid course plan with a text book and homework then I think you will find yourself in a dancing-the-time-away-monkey situation.

However, I don't really agree with everyone being so hostile to this type of teaching. There is a obvious difference between being a clown and being an interactive teacher with a fun lesson plan. Children are very easy to educate using singing, and dancing through fun activities and games. If you can make a child smile and get him to believe you are "cool" he or she will want to participate in the class and to mimic and repeat your actions. This should make achieving your lesson objectives as simple as making toast.

If you are boring or don't know how to make a child smile and have fun this would be a terrible choice of age group to teach. You would find teaching very stressful and your students will find putting up with you tedious.

[mandu]

I teach kindergarten from 2 -6 years old Iam a bit of a clown in class and i like it its fun fall off my chair,do some pretend farts etc

[hilena_westb]

I'm at a loss to understand why the OP is concerned what other people do. Why do their likes/dislikes and experience influence what the OP is capable of doing or interested in doing?

[Non Sequitur]

[Kysorb]

[SledgeCleaver]

[kungfuman]