Job Discussion Forums

[gmjones]

HI...

I have been teaching EFL for over 4 years, in Germany and Ecuador, but have never taught one class of children. The youngest student I had was 16. Now I'm off to Spain and 10 of my 25 hours a week are going to be with kids. I don't suppose anyone could recommend any materials/books which they've found useful to amuse kids. Any other tips would be recommended...

Thanks, Gabrielle

[nolefan]

[go_ABs]

...and mine was a soft toy dog named Peter. I threw him at the students who I wanted to answer a question. If they weren't watching, it hit them on the head and everyone laughed at them. If nothing less, it gets their heads up and eyes on you.

In terms of mental materials - just be patient. Kids are a real treat to teach... sometimes. Other times they're a pain in the neck. You've just got to be patient enough to work with the bad kids while keep on keeping on with the good ones.

I feel like stealing these lines:
"Don't worry. Everything turns out for the best in the end."
"How does it?"
"I don't know. It's a mystery."

[Sekhmet]

I tried the soft toy thing, and it worked for a bit. Unfortunately, then the students decided that once they had answered my question, it would be a whole lot of fun to try throw it at my head... Or at someone else... Or out the window... Any suggestions on how to fix that little problem?

Another one that is working well for me at the moment is having an attainment chart. Each student has his/her name on a big sheet of laminated paper, and every time they do something good, they get a mark on one side of their name. Every time they do somethiong bad, a mark goes on the other side. At the end of the week, I count up the good and bad marks, and the person with the most good gets a small prize. At the end of every month, the person who has improved the most also gets a prize. The kids love it, and they go out of their way to be helpful and polite!!!

[august03]

I'm currently teaching kids aged 3 to 11 and at times, no most of the time they drive me crazy . Then again sometimes you will get a piece of paper with a personally drawn picture of you and them on it with something sweet written in Chinese that I can't understand, they hand it to you with one hand while picking their nose with the other, and well what can I say, it just melts my heart . Then they tug on my hair, steal stickers from my desk and I'm ready to scream .

This site at Dave's has come in very handy for ideas http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/sefer.cgi?Kids and another is http://www.genkienglish.net/ which is also very good.

Good luck and remember "Don't let the *astards get you down"

[marblez]

I haven't taught kids but I've taught people with NO English skills (Hello, goodbye, yes, no). I found pictures helped the most.