Job Discussion Forums

[cheekygal]

As I have already stated before, I am a kindergarten teacher. Above mentioned, I am collecting all sorts of material and experience as I am doing a research on teaching foreign languages to the pre-schoolers.
So, I really hope that you could share your personal experience with me and I could share mine if it's needed *smile*

-cheekygal

[Roger]

hello, cheekygal,

I taught at a kindergarten for two years. It was the best time of my teaching career! I quit, however, because the school was less accommodating in the second year than in the first one. I had to buy materials at my own expense, and when I quit, they had the nerve to charge me for materials they had lost in the first year.

Anyway, at kindergarten level you should NOT have to use a lot of materials as kids are not intellectually mature yet to handle books, texts and stuff like that. What they are learning at this stage is to develop their imagination and to get a good grounding in the target language. This means you should teach practical things that they can understand from a given context. Physical exercises are very good, as is drawing and learning the ABC.

The only materials I ever used were a set of VCD's and illustrated books that came with those VCD's (actually transcripts of the lessons on the VCD's). This series is called ENGLISH WONDERLAND, and can be bought from bookstores, or ordered from the publisher in Peking. It is an astoundingly good product that will keep your kids glued to the TV and prompts them to repeat dialogues.
Other books you might consider are drawing books and colouring books. I bought a magnetic drawing board which fascinated the kids a lot - you know there is magnetic dust under the drawing surface, and as you pull the "pencil" across it the dust attaches itself to the surface from the other side. You "erase" your drawings with the help of a special - and rather noisy! - eraser that's built in the board.
The board cost some HK$ 220 , but cheaper versions are also available.

[cheekygal]

Thx Roger ) I am really delighted to know more about teaching material available in China. I teach for a very good program and we are supplied with all those books and VCDs and flashcards and blah blah blah

How about your personal observations? Any interesting cases? What kind of creative approaches did you use? How about the situations where you had to make smth up? May be you could share some chants and simple games I could use )

-cheekybabe

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

i just got a new part-time (twice a month, one hour each time) job working at a preschool/kindergarten. i don't mind the five/six-year-olds but the three/four-year-olds are really tough for me to deal with---just don't know what to do with them. they don't seem to be interested, or disinterested, in anything. the headmaster told me i need to play more games with them. i'm digging this topic out of its grave for any specific ideas someone may have to entertain & teach these kids.

edit: i don't really have a budget with which to work. anything i do comes out of my own pocket, which is ok if it's a couple of RMB but i don't make near enough to spend a lot.

[thepreferrednomenclature]

moons- start with something easy. my favorite way to draw in the littlest kids is to play the most simple and fun game for that age group EVER. spin your fists slowly in front of you saying "slooow...." then whip them around quickly and say in an excited voice: "fast!" it's a cool 'hook' as i like to call them, and it works to draw the kids in. after three or four times, go slow and don't stop, look at them as if waiting for one of them to say "fast!" 9 times out of ten, one kid will get it really quick and take over calling out the speed changes. suddenly you're a cool and fun teacher! what else is this crazy foreign dude gonna do?

[hesterprynne]

www.kizclub.com

[Girl Scout]

I worked with children 5-8 for almost three years. My favorite activities were cut and paste. I had a lot of good books with pre-made materials at my old school, but it's easy to make you own. I found cut and paste builds eye hand coordination and prepares the kids for writing.

Physical (TPR) always works well. My kids learned prep. of positions very easily by running a maze. Very simply, the kids go around a chair, in a box, and under the teacher. (I was a little tunnel) As they get good at the first set I slowly add more.

I also like to write my own songs. Actually my own lyrics. I use songs simply tunes I remember from childhood and write my own word to focus on phonics. For example:

E has the e sound can you hear e e
E has the e sound can you hear e e
eggs, bed, hen, and net
elephants get all wet
E has the e sound can you hear e e

This is to the tune She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain

I created about a dozen of these songs.

I worked in a very strict enviroment in TW. I'm not sure if my experience will have relevence here on the mainland.

[vikdk]

The problem with pre-school - in fact teaching English to all children under 10 - is that good effective entertaining teaching over a whole school year can be an extremely difficult result to achieve - especially when the teacher has to take into account that the developmental differences between 3/4/5 and 6 year old children (if your classes are arranged on ages), which means that you'll have to have 3 different ranges of lessons.

Having been at this game now for 3 years we�ve found that we have to present our material in simple/medium/ and advanced formats where the lesson topics can mirror each other but are very different in complexity and desired result.

With this in mind we have formulated the following goals of teaching throughout a child�s stay at kindergarten -

English year 1 (3 year old) - colors, simple body, simple greetings, up/down, stop/go, family.

year 2 (4 year olds) - clothes, food, want/like, where, inside/outside (start of simple story telling), dirty/clean, I/you, I am...., greetings linked to conversation, Chinese and English as two different forms of communication (simple concept of language).

year 3 (5/6 year old) - places, people, he/she/it, I/you/he/she/it can..., give, have, who, why, doing, further inside/outside topics, story telling, conversation games, sentence games, question games.

of course effective teaching means that those topics from year one should be also broached in year two and year one and two in year three - since a small kids talents for memorising is only equalled by a tallent for forgeting - but remember after a small child has learnt something a first time, the second recap is a piece of cake and so an and so on untill language is internalised and can be used automatically

To make this kind of teaching effective we've found following certain rules help -

1. never force feed and make everything as entertaining as possible - with the best part of lesson a game or story the carrot, which is given at the end. Maybe thinking of the lesson as an activity or a happening helps in this area.
2. the art of success is often repeating subject matter many times - throughout the year but in a different way so that entertainment value stays fresh - by doing this try to intensify the children's motivation, which in turn helps them to mentally attend your teaching.
3. translation is a must especially with the youngest groups - it can be weaned away the older they get, and when the kids are old enough to understand that English is a language that they can communicate in/understand, and not a physical complaint.
4. try not to fall for the old kindy trick of having a quota of what to learn - sentences/songs per month - unless of course you are training parrots - some places have this linked to pay - avoid like the plague.
6. be prepared to make your own materials, but with imagination this can be fun and not too expensive - the crapiest things like wigs made out of wool or an extending tape-measure can be awesome classroom props that capture attention and get kids to learn.
7. songs like sentences are not that effective unless fully understood - also can be very boring to learn for smaller kids - stick to simple - or simplify the complicated.
8. prepare decent worksheets for teachers - so they can practice vocab with the kids - takes a bit of time for the teachers to catch on that a loawai actually can teach the kids English, but when you have them you can't do anything wrong - makes their life much easier as well!!!
9. teach with a philosophy that smells of - "these lessons are so f...ing good that if I were a kid I'd want to learn English" - to make this work sometimes try and think 3/4/5/6 to teach those age groups. Remember kids think in a black and white world - yes/no, good/bad - your method should reflect this in its composition.

This by the way is one of the toughest ESL assignments, but if done well and after experience can be one of the easiest and one where you can be treated like gold, since good kindy FT's who are willing to stay for a good amount of time are very few and far between.

[mandu]

I have been here in China (shenzhen) for 5years (just into my 6th year)all i have done is taught English in a kindergarten.
I do my job well and i care about what i do.Iam not only a teacher but a care giver as well hugs,noses wiped, helping children put on there shoes etc.I feel that being a kindergarten English teacher you have many other things as well a dad,a mother,friend,caregiver,a brother a sister etc.

i always try and make my classes exciting and fun.what i have found over the years that if there are good chinese teachers in the class then you can expect the children will be alot better.
if there are not so good teachers in the class then that will show in the class as it rubs off on the children.

i was working for a kindergarten and my k3 class was not good,i got told all the so called naughty children were from other kindys all in the same class,i tried everything i could do to make the class work.
i went to my team leader to ask for help,he told your problem you fix it.I went to the principle to ask for help she said the same thing.
I was on my own and was at a loss as to what to do.they took the class away from me and cut my hours down to part time.

what made me angry was here iam careing about what i do and trying to find ways of sorting it out,only to be kicked in the teeth.I saw chinese teachers in that class pick up the children by the back of there clothes and throw them a cross the room.

I find it funny as well that asking for teachers guide to help you with your lessons only to be told that you dont need one.

where iam working now i work with 5 other western teahers that makes a difference,having good chinese teachers makes a difference.
try and stay in a kindy job for as long as you can.Iam in my second year its taken 4years to find the right job.
seeing my classes leave kindergarten and go off to school is my plan.

my strengths is my childcare back ground,teaching parents and nursery classes.
i have many ideas and would be happy to share with anyone who wants help with owrking in a kindergarten.
its very rewarding job