Job Discussion Forums

[mcloo7]

My classes will start in October because Im teaching all freshmen. I live next door to other teachers who were here last year, so they will help me as well. But I would like to use information that I get from here to supplement the other help and advice that I get. Non-Sequitor has been very helpful in posting his advice to newbies. Most of the of advice given has been general, such as, get the students to talk. I am looking for a specific account, with as much detail as possible, as to how to begin your first classes. Does it start with the teacher introducing his/herself and telling the students a little bit about their background? Does it start with the teacher asking the students to introduce themselves? Or both? Feel free to write a script, screenplay, or dialogue in your answer. I am not saying this so I can ripoff exactly what you say, but so I can have a sense of what is typically said and done. I am planning on observing classes of the other FT's, but not on the first week because one of my FT coworkers told me that an FT once told him, when he was a newbie, that it confuses students in the first week to have two FTs in the room.

[JamesD]

Just a start.

Introduce yourself - you can usually judge by the looks on their faces and general level of interest how much they understand. This will help set the bar for your speaking level/speed.

Lay down any classroom rules you have re: phones, attendance, participation.

Let them ask questions about your life/family/hometown/country; add tag questions to your answers. (My mom makes great spaghetti. What do you cook?) This is a good way to kick start open discussion.

Make a seating chart. If the class is small enough (20-40) have them each give their name and a statement about themselves. For large classes you might want to set up groups that will work together during the term. Do it by lots or by counting off or else you'll wind up with cliques of varying levels.

[Non Sequitur]

After you have spoken a few sentences, ask if they can tell from your accent, where you come from.
Once that's cleared up you may want to reassure them that having a Chinese accent is OK. The thing is that we use English to communicate and as long as that happens we're on the right track.

[LarssonCrew]

Here's some feedback of what I would do/try to do in my first class.

As long as your students are middle school and above, it seems to work and I enjoy it.

You want to try and make a connection to your students, so I like to get to know them, however you'll soon find out that they have a 'template' for answering, which goes similar to:

My chinese name is xxx my English name is xx I am x years old, my hometown is xxx it's beautiful and has delicious food. My family has x people, my mum, my dad, my grandpa. I like to eat xx[noodles or rice].

It gets boring, so I came up with an alternative.

Firstly, go in, lay down your rules, do a small introduction but not too much. Write your name on the board so they at least know it, explaining you're the English teacher, perhaps explain your teaching philosophy, and that you hope you can all learn something this year.

Then, tell them that self introductions are boring in China, but that you want ot get to know them. They will have to tell you their name and three things about themselves, two which must be true and one which must be fake. Then you will try to guess which is a fake and cna also ask quesitons to help you.

I give an example, such as:

1)My grandfather can speak Chinese
2)My father is a great cook
3)My brother lives in Brazil,

Then I will ask who thinks number 1 is fake, number 2 number 3, then reveal that number 2 is a lie.

Then I will generally spend 10 seconds to explain the other two, that my grandfather was in the British army in Hong Kong so learnt Cantonese and my brother works as a translator in Brazil.

Then ask who wants to try/or just pick and it's fun for the other kids to learn about each other too, and they tend to listen, and are interested in what you what you have to say about their answers.

Follow up questions like 'what is your dogs name?' 'Which city did you go to in Germany?' are great for testing their English too, if it's a lie they need to think of a possible name for the dog, or tihnk of acity they might know in Germany pretty quickly.

Anyways, I use it with candies, whatever te age, middle shcool hgih shcool or university, and if they can fool me and I cannot guess which is a lie, then receive a candy, ALL ages appreciate it and it's a great ice breaker to sohw them the class is not just fitting into the standard boring Chinese teacher class.

[chinatimes]

As you can see by the previous replies, teachers seem to do the same thing with different styles.

Instead of making groups myself, I allow the students to form cliques. That to me is what high school is about and in middle school students eventually branch off from their elementary "tribe".

To get around them only talking within their clique I have them pick a different group in a different part of the classroom. Even if you make teams and call on one group to participate, the group that is the furthest diagonally will go into sleep mode. You need to bounce around, this increases the chances the students will follow along.

I do a short introduction with larger classes, and based on the overall level of the class I do one of the following next:


1. Absolute beginners - routine (can be morning routine or just any type of routine to get them talking). Use pictures and hand gestures. You can then have students come up and mime an action for the class to guess.

2. High beginners - locations. This can go several ways. You show a picture of a compass with N, E, S, W. Go over what they mean and ask them to compare 2 cities in their country, use a map. For a drill, put A, B, C, and D in 4 quadrants after drawing a big plus sign. Then, they can say "A is west of B and north of D", follow this up with combining NS with EW "A is northwest of C"/"D is southwest of B". Randomly pick students and letters or have the students choose the next student. At first they are reluctant, but they get used to it and target each other. Can be kind of funny to watch. You can continue with "eastern part of" and explain "south" is pronounced differently when -ern is added. Then play a game where a person picks a place and either they have to say where they are using the target language you just practiced or the class has to make questions. After that, use a map of your country and do something similar. They can practice reading city names, states, or provinces. You can turn this game into a Marco Polo version where they ask "Are you __ of ___?"

3. Intermediate - locations. You prepare 2 levels for this lesson. Get pictures of places, could be famous places to visit or places in a certain area. If it is lesser known, then provide choice answers or more hints to get the answer right. Teams choose one person to read short a description of a place and guess what it is and possibly where it is located if your description doesn't provide it. Give the places point values and you can turn it into a game.

With the above ideas, always try to get as many people talking. Don't just allow the strong speakers to talk. Make them choose a new person.

I tried this with famous people, but students seem to either know the person instantly and the game ends too quickly or they have no idea and never get a point. With places, they might know what is but not from the description.

You can have them do introductions, but don't expect much from lower levels, just name, hobby, and maybe age or grade in school. Other students, can also introduce another person in class. This gets 2 people involved instead of just doing it one by one.

After you have done 5-10 minutes of this, bring up starter questions. Lower levels just try to make questions using W words (who, where, what, etc....). Higher level students should try to find other words to replace obvious ones. So, instead of "What is your favorite sport?", have them ask "Who is your favorite player in (name the sport instead)?". Instead of "What is your favorite music?", "Who/What is your favorite musician/band?"

This can definitely fill up a first class with students and you can get an idea of their levels.

For smaller higher level classes, sometimes I have them use frequency words instead of a routine ("I often ____", "I never ____."), and for questions you can start with "Do you ___?" with the person answering using a frequency word after answering yes or no.

Make sure to have a low level version and a high level version of your lesson prepared when teaching a mixed level class. Either have two separate lessons or make it so a lower level student could do something easier like read or ask general questions while having higher level students give more detailed replies.

Unless the class is small, I would save group activities for the 2nd or 3rd day you meet with them.

[Denim-Maniac]

How many students? How long are the classes? How often do you see them?

Knowing this can make a difference in the advice offered.

[mcloo7]

Thanks.

I think the classes have around 40 students. They are freshmen. I think, non-English majors but I will double check that. Each class is an hour and a half long, broken into two parts. I see each class once a week except for one which I see twice, but apparently I am supposed to teach them basically the same thing twice every week, although I will have to change the activities.

[Miajiayou]

I not only have them guess where I'm from, I have them guess the state I'm from, the month of my birthday, my favorite color, how many siblings I have, whether or not my parents are still married, where I went on my summer vacation, what my favorite TV show is, etc. This can last pretty much as long as you want.

They freaking love it. Plus, it is a way to answer all their dumb questions about you without just standing at the front and talking, talking, talking.

Then, I put them into groups and lead an activity to choose a group leader. Then we go over my rules and how they will be graded. For me, this takes awhile.

The end.

[Bud Powell]

I am planning on observing classes of the other FT's, but not on the first week because one of my FT coworkers told me that an FT once told him, when he was a newbie, that it confuses students in the first week to have two FTs in the room.

A more likely scenario is that it makes the other FT feel uncomfortable with his own abilities. If you enter the class after the class' FT does, he should introduce you as an observer and a new addition to the staff who is present to learn as much about the school as possible. The intro should end with "So please welcome Mr.XXXX."

Everything that has been said so far , I think, will work for you.

Keep this in mind: first impressions are lasting impressions. Speak slowly. (You will have to keep this in mind for as long as you work in China).

Keep it light. Get them to talk about themselves. If you have a white board or a black/green board, just put a few questions on the board for them to answer. In my experience, that single reference of three questions alleviates anxiety to a large degree.

Let them know that you are approachable, that anyone may talk to you after class or in class. One thing that always helps me through stressful/foreign situations is for me to take the focus off me and put it on the student(s). Make them interact with each other in English.

One of the few "games" that I've played is this:

The student writes three statements about himself, one of which is a lie. The students must figure out which one is the lie and each student must explain his choice. I usually start off with myself:

1. I have nine girlfriends.

2. My parents were not born in the USA.

3. I don't like rice or beef.


You will get some very interesting responses.

Good luck!

[mandu]

play with play dough

[Non Sequitur]

If you have a text book get started on that. They might as well get used to it.
But get your student records sorted before any activity. In 18 short weeks you are going to be awarding marks that are fair and defend-able.
If you get a system in place early that end of semester hurdle will be a breeze.

[Bud Powell]

If you have a text book get started on that. They might as well get used to it.

On the first day of class? I'd rather make a good impression first, then start working with the books.

[Non Sequitur]

Assuming the class is 2x45 mins that's a lot of territory to fill. In the first class there is the one off record taking and intro but beyond that I feel the first class should show the scope of what is to come.
I'm not sure that making a 'good impression' would top that.
BTW That one class the OP sees 2x pw is a bummer. Otherwise it looks like the same lesson plan will cover all classes for one week.
Can we be enlightened as to the difference between the 1x and the 2x classes?
There's such a lot of preferential non-exam entry stuff around nowadays that students or their parents are bribed by additional access to a FT.
One semester I had one such class I saw 5x pw. It was MURDER for them and me.

[Denim-Maniac]

I have to say, reading this and the other newbie university threads ... I cant believe the common opinion is university is the way to go for newbies. It sounds horrendous to me!

New teacher coming to work at my training centre would get at least a weeks orientation which would include observing at least 3 classes of students, and at least one of those observations would be of a class the newbie would teach. Access to lesson material and textbooks is there if needed, access to other teaching staff is also readily available.

And the newbie teacher would also meet and interact with most or all of his students in a non-threatening, away from the classroom situation so said newbie would have a very clear idea about their English levels and how speech patterns would need to be adjusted before stepping into the classroom.

When the new teacher starts teaching ... they would start on a reduced schedule for at least a week until they had settled in. It would appear (based on my experience and these threads) that suggesting university work for the newcomer should be a major no-no.

[A593186]

This is exactly the reason that China now requires (nearly) some sort of teaching certificate (TEFL, etc.). There is no reason a teacher, for a first job, should be coming online and asking how to do the job. This should have been learned long before doing it. That's why 2 years of teaching experience is required as well.

"Making a good impression" on the students is more important than teaching? Interesting method.