Job Discussion Forums

[Kurochan]

Hi all --

A teacher at my university was fired, and I picked up one of his classes. It's with juniors who are communications majors, and is an oral English class. Other than that, I know nothing at all about the students. I have no class list, etc. The semester has been going on since the beginning of March.

What do you suggest I do on the first day? I'll have to take names and other info, but I'm not too sure beyond that. I need to find out what they've done so far in class, so I was thinking about taking names and info, and then dismissing most of the class except the monitors and a few other people, and asking them what they had done so far in class.

Any other ideas? I THINK the students all know each other already --- I'm trying to think of an ice breaker that would be good, but not something they've already done.

[ls650]

I've been in the same boat. I'm teaching a class now that were previously taught by a teacher who was doing a terrible job and was fired.

I decided that my most important task was not to determine where the students were at, but to build rapport and to let them know I wasn't going to be the same as their previous teacher. I spent the first couple of classes doing relatively 'fun' activities. As the students got to know me and realized I wasn't the ogre their previous teacher was, I then started to go through their text/notebooks and asked them to tell me where they were at and what they had studied.

I wouldn't worry too much about repeating an ice-breaker they've already done; just be a decent human being and establish rapport.

[Moore]

It all depends on why the last teacher was fired: was it because of complaints from students, was it due to complaints from this class? I work in a slightly different sector: business English but usually I find when I'm replacing a teacher it's because the students complained that he/she was wasting their time with too much chatting, disorganised lessons, lack of a clear objective etc., so in such a case a more fun-type first lesson would be less appropriate.

[Kurochan]

I do know that the guy's Chinese co-workers hated him -- I overheard something about their saying he was a bully and they couldn't stand him anymore. I don't know about his teaching ... he seemed like a pretty abrasive guy.

[Iam]

Try to know why he was fired - the students will be curious/alarmed, unless it was for painfully obvious reasons known to all, as others have suggested.

Iam.