Job Discussion Forums

[Bro D]

Will be meeting my prospective employer on the 13th of this month so am trying to get in the mindset of what my job is likely to entail. The job looks to be teaching in a public primary school in Shanghai, teaching kids aged between 5 - 10.

I've never taught young children before so am wondering what I should be expecting. Am I likely to be able to help them make real progress with their english or will the class degenerate into a paper-throwing session (as I've read in other posts about teaching young children).

Thanks in advance

[dragon777]

You'll be fine. If you are teaching 1st or 2nd grade just get to know their names in the first lesson. Even get them to write their names on a piece of paper. You should also get to know their English names and record them for future reference. Tell them about yourself. Especially if you are teaching older grades. Tell them about your family, your environment and country that you are from. The animals, children etc. Use your teaching assistant.

[Steppenwolf]

Chinese schools do not educate - they train, drill, rehearse all the time, usually in chorus; a class seldom has fewer than 50 pupils crammed into a room that should hold no more than 25. Think about these conditions and expect the obvious.
In the first year they often are manageable but repetition of the same experiences dulls their senses. The longer someone has been exposed to this form of teaching the dumber they get. Stultification.

Having been so negative, you can perhaps make that difference that rouses their curiosity and fertilises their brains.
But never expect too good results - you still have to cope with the inertia inherent in such an education system, and the parents who want their progeny to be roasted alive because that is Chinese "cultural tradition"...
Frankly, at this stage an FT can do very little of practical use.

[kev7161]

I'm sure there are several trains of thought on this one (as well-remarked upon in the "Corporal Punishment in Kindergarten" thread), but I'll tell you a couple of things that worked for me last year when I was teaching first grade (and now teaching the same group in second grade):

1. Kids like to play, of course. Make sure you schedule a little play time in each lesson: coloring, singing, movement, etc. If you have them for, say, 45 mintues, AT LEAST 10 minutes of the lesson should be some sort of fun and silliness. Tie it into your lesson if you can, if not, no biggie. If you develop this pattern, then the kids will realize they have something to work towards - play/fun time.

2. Have a variety of activities planned per lesson. A young 'un can easily get bored/distracted after about 10 to 15 minutes of an activity. In 45 minutes, you should have at least 3 different tasks for them to do (including the play time mentioned above). These can include warm-up exercises, listening and repeating, singing a song, in-class workbook assignment (then going over the workbook answers), role-playing, vocabulary introduction/review/pronunciation/meaning, Q&A for the older and/or more advanced crowd (What do you see in this picture? What color is the girl's dress? How many apples does the monkey have? etc.) - - there are more, but it's late and that's what I came up with off the top of my head!

3. Speaking of kids liking to play, if you let them, they'll play throughout your entire lesson. Yes, yes, an EXCELLENT teacher should be able to grab their attention and hold it through the entire lesson, blah, blah, blah . .. But the fact of the matter is, many of these Chinese students are a whole different creature than kids I've worked with in the past. One main reason why, I feel, is that they have no sort of parental control at home. They are the ONE child and thus get spoiled and catered to all the time. You WILL have to be strict and you WILL have to have some punishments at the ready. Implementing them may be another thing altogether. You should also have some rewards handy as well. Anything from oral praise to a stamp to put in their workbooks for a job well done to stickers, candy, or pencils. Some say these are bribes, I say they are morale boosters for kids that really try and show achievement. What about the kids that try and don't quite get it? Same thing, they should have some sort of boost because they are trying. It's just the knockabout kids that would rather play and disrupt the class that you have to be wary of.

4. Finally, if you are with these classes only once or twice a week AND you get little REAL support from the school (you'll know soon enough if this is the case, don't worry), then only take your job as seriously as you see fit. Certainly do your best, but don't sweat the small (or big!) stuff. It'll drive you crazy.

[Bro D]

I am kind of concerned about how I should react when kids are misbehaving. I guess if I have an assistant they will be taking care of most of the discipline. But in terms of punishment I'm not too sure what would be effective?

Most things I've read recommend rewarding good behaviour and withholding something in the event of bad behaviour. I guess something like "If you don't sit down, you don't get to play with the rest of the class", although would probably have to say that using my limited putonghua (don't have the faintest clue about shanghaihua) or the assistant would have to say it.

Looks like I should make sure I have an assistant

[Itsme]

You should determine whether or not you will have an "assist"ant.

It changes the teacher/student dynamic significantly. If no assistant then you must discipline AND have the kids like you . If you do have the assistant then you can always play good cop/ bad cop. The students will see you as the nice teacher who also wishes that class could be 45 min of uninterrupted play and the assistant as the law. They will listen to you because they like you and will listen to him/her because they don't want to be punished.

Stimulating competition is usually a good way to have the children discipline themselves. If one kid in a group misbehaves you take away a point from the whole group. so you have 14 kids punishing the 1 for being naughty without you having to do so.
The only problem with competition is that sometimes it gets too serious and the two groups come to blows!

It's up to you. Ultimately your career as a teacher will be determined by your ability to react quickly and correctly to all these little problems.

[Steppenwolf]

Just picked up from a conversation with a primary school pupil: before the winter holidays begin (next January) the teachers will determine with the students who will win a prize for being the "best student", the "friendliest student" and "the most helpful student".
"Helpful students" of course are those who enable their lazy classmates to copy from their homework assignments or during tests... an obvious area of disagreement between teachers and students!
In any case, no one likes to be elected first, second or third winner...because of the jealousy thus created among the anonymous crowd left with no prize.

This rewarding system doesn't seem to work too well! Nor does "praise loudly, criticise softly".

[kev7161]

I don't know Step - - we have group spelling bees every week as review before our test and these kids seem to really, really try to spell their words correctly so their team can get that sticker (granted, I have some pretty cool stickers brought from the US -- worthy prizes indeed!). Howls of disappointment if they don't win (but not anger). This year we're doing a couple of new things, speaking of spelling bees. We're going to have an actual bee in November or December, using previously learned words; prize will certainly be more than a sticker. Also, in our weekly contests, the students now have to spell the word AND use it in a sentence (the spoken sentence must be "mostly" correct English, with me reminding them of the proper way to say it - - such as using a modifier).

In my opinion, I wouldn't rely too much on an assitant to be the disciplinarian. If s/he does that all the time and you never do it, there will come a time when s/he is not in the room and little Ming Xi is not behaving as you hope he would . . . then what do you do? You are the fun, silly teacher with the stickers. Your face gets funny looking and bright red (oohhh, pretty!) when you get angry. That tickles the kids and you are no threat at all. Share punishment responsibililities along with the rewards.

[no_exit]

One thing I've found helpful when teaching that age group is breaking up the time and getting the kids into a routine, so that they know what to do when they start class and can get to work on their own.

For example, my lessons always used to start with vocabulary. The kids knew that they'd be quizzed on 5 words each week, so they'd be looking over their words when class started. When I said go, they'd put their stuff away and I'd dictate the words. While the slower ones were finishing up, I'd put the new words for next week up on the board and they'd get to work writing them down. This probably all sounds very mundane and boring, but it was so nice to have the kids already in "work mode" when it was time to start the lesson, and not have to settle them down.

Like Kev said, you've got to work "play" into the lesson. I'd usually structure my lessons so that the "hard work" came first, where I'd teach them new language and make them practice using it while incorporating review from the last lesson (having them ask and answer questions, partnerwork, etc.) They'd be worn out after doing challenging stuff for the first half and would be ready for something a little more fun. That's when we'd do a game or activity of some sort. I'd try to time it so that the kids wouldn't be leaving the class all hyper, and would give them something to cool down with (coloring, drawing, word hunt, etc) for the last ten or fifteen minutes, and make sure to review new things before finishing.

I think with primary students it is important to make sure that your lesson plans are fairly structured, with plenty of activities of different sorts to keep the kids interested. If you try to wing it with kids this age then the class will degenerate into chaos. You can do lots of creative things with them in the classroom, but they have to know what their task is at all times, otherwise they'll just find something else to do and you'll lose control. Since you probably won't have much time with them each week, then you have to make that time worthwhile.

As for discipline, I usually would put kids out the class, which was effective enough. Since I have good Chinese I can usually tell them off pretty effectively. Threatening to call their parents, or have their parents called by the school, is usually effective too. Kids at that age are most scared of their parents and know that the consequences of p*ssing off mom and dad will be harsher than what the teacher can dish out. If you make threats of any kind you do eventually have to follow up on them though, or else the kids will call your bluff. I once had a whole group of parents called and the next week the change in the kids was visible. Sometimes the parents are truly astounded to hear how their kids act in school, and since no one wants their kid to be the one who is exposing himself in class or mouthing off to the teacher (the parents lose face when their kids are little sh*ts too), usually they'll work with you.

In any case, I find primary school teaching really rewarding, and you can really make progress with them at this age and instill in them a lifelong love for learning languages. It is harder work than teaching most other age groups, but I've found that you get much more visible results at this age and will have a lot of fun teaching them.