Job Discussion Forums

[Rhino]

I'm not lazy but with 30 classes a week I find it tough to plan for all of them. I often try to think of games and lessons while I'm on my way to class or I think that because they did'nt get it the first time I'll do the last lesson again. I dont know about you but with this many classes I'm just plain freakin beat. The 40 degree weather is'nt helping either. Should I be ashamed of myself? I usually have great classes except for the 1 or 2 where the students never talk. Those are torture and can turn a 40 min. lesson plan in to 10 minutes. am I alone?

[ContemporaryDog]

[quote="Rhino"]I'm not lazy but with 30 classes a week I find it tough to plan for all of them. I often try to think of games and lessons while I'm on my way to class or I think that because they did'nt get it the first time I'll do the last lesson again. I dont know about you but with this many classes I'm just plain freakin beat. The 40 degree weather is'nt helping either. Should I be ashamed of myself? I usually have great classes except for the 1 or 2 where the students never talk. Those are torture and can turn a 40 min. lesson plan in to 10 minutes. am I alone?[/quote]

There's no way you can plan for every class rigorously unless you want to have no life at all. I plan for most, but some planning takes me 20 minutes per class and involves a bit of scribbling, while other planning involves me drawing lots of pictures etc and does take a fair while longer.

[nolefan]

I am a believer in Murphy's law so I do not plan for conversation classes... I tried a few times but I had to throw the plan out the window halfway through!

I usually have a general idea of what the topic will be and then we take it from there. I find that whenever I plan things, I am the only one talking.... When I don't plan and let the conversation take us places, I get most of them to open their mouths.

I have a writing class and Culture/history/Litterature class that are pretty hard to deal with.... I cannot go through them without proper planning. I found that it helps to keep a few spare lesson plans and use them whenever s h i t hits the fan....if you know what I mean

[naturegirl321]

Don't usually lesson plan, for kindergarten. I'm in class all day. I have an idea of what I will do, but things never go as planned, so I stopped lesson planing.

[struelle]

30 classes is a lot!! If you can repeat lessons, that helps with planning. I do an hour or so of planning every two weeks, and tweak the lessons as I go. Each lesson tends to change with the class.

Sometimes I'm lazy and keep the same board work I made for the class before, but it's better to erase it and start fresh.

Steve

[Teacher Lindsay]

My employment contract requires me to submit lesson plans each week. I have 22 classes but only 3 levels:- Junior 1 X 3, Junior 2 X 3 and Senior 1 X 3. I prepare only 3 lesson plans each week.

As for the classes in which the students are reticent to talk, here are a few ideas;

WARMERS

I begin every class with a warmer, sometimes a game but mostly "Talking Activities" wherein I write a question on the blackboard and the students must ask and answer the question 2 times: firstly with the student seated next to them, and then with the student seated directly behind.

Samples of the questions I use:-

Who do you think is the most beautiful girl in this class?
I think ________ is the most beautiful girl in this class.

Who do you think is the most handsome boy in this class?
I think _________ is the most handsome boy in this class.

Who do you think is the smartest student in this class?
I think ___________ is the smartest student.

Who do you think is the best ping pong player in this class?
I think ___________ is the best ping pong player.

If your parents gave you a gift of RMB500, what would you buy?
I would buy ______________.

When you graduate, if you could have any job you want, what job would you chose?
I would chose to be a ________________.

I am a staunch believer in the use of warmers to assist students in crossing the threshold of communicating in English for a period of time.

PUNISHMENT

I take a water pistol (pump action) into class. Any student that does not participate in the "talking activity" gets it in the face.

When I ask a student a question, they have 10 seconds to answer or they get squirted in the face. The entire class counts down with glee.

If a student is late for class he/she gets squirted in the face.

Believe it or not, the students love the water pistol punishment (when they are not victims themselves).

Cheers

[Rhino]

Lindsay, I use warmers too but you've got some great questions to start with! I'm getting tierd of "what are you doing this weekend?" and "how was your day?" Thanks, I hope you dont mind if I steal some of those Ideas, but I'm sure you would'nt have posted them otherwise. When I posted this thread I was worried about getting a wackload of smart anus remarks, thanks to everyone, I feel much better now! Cheers!

[lagerlout2006]

Do you have the same class 30 times a week or very different levels???

Dont see how anyone would need 30 different lessons. I make 2 lessons a week. I have 8 classes I see twice a week so 2 lessons 8 times each. I am lucky I guess the levels are pretty close. Most grade 10-11..I have one very sharp class that I need to prepare more for. Lately though I am declaring it a FREE talking session---it is after all oral English...Good luck...

[Rhino]

I teach primary grades 3 to 6 at about 5 different schools. I was supposed to have the same lessons for each of the grades but after 3 weeks I realized that it was'nt going to work. The grade 5s at one school are on a different planet as far as English goes than at another school Thank God I love it so much! but I'm burned out. 2 months left! Cheers.

[Roger]

While teaching at a kindergarten,
- I had a lesson plan covering the whole semester; I think that's a must
and if you don't have it, you are not going to achieve anything. You
must understand your kids and their language problems, therfore you
must know what lies ahead of them, and you will oftenhave to add a
repetition and a recycling lesson. Plan carefully, and plan generously
anticipating learning difficulties. Fill time with fun activities. Easy to do,
and succeess is guaranteed!
- In Primary and middle schools, you too need a plan for a lengthy
period of time, say a whole month. Planning ad hoc is counter-
productive! Kids also want a little routine, yet enough variety to
keep them glued to the programme! I usually plan for several
months.
- At university you should know beforehand what you are going to
ask them in the final exam. Therefore, planning is inevitable.

In training centres, I follow textbooks, but I add dictation of short stories to improve their listening and comprehension skills. Planning is not too important because adults tend to be a little more lax with their attendance.

[Cowboy Pete]

Yeah, your lesson plan is like your gig set list.
You are an entertainer afterall

[Guest]

I seem to spend more time planning the lessons than actually teaching them. I know that this is because I am inexperienced, but the only way for me to survive was to know exactly what I was going to do and say for the 40 minutes.

I only have 14 classes and 7 of them are Junior 2, so I can give the same lesson to them each week.

Other teachers here however never planned their lessons - they simply went along and talked. I think this would be a nightmare as most of the students, in the teenager group, will not respond and you would end up talking to yourself for 40 minutes. I cannot think of anything worse, so I try and give them a word puzzle to do for 20 minutes and then have them talk or read to me for the last 20 minutes. They keep on requesting "games" because they think we are here to entertain them, but I try and avoid games with the 15 year olds.

[batman]

whats a lesson plan?

[Clancy]

Trick question?

Lesson plans are for real teachers teaching real lessons to real classes.

You are facilitating English conversation and can be replaced with an 18 year old high school graduate L2 speaker from Nigeria.

Know your place, and try to stay in it! lol

[Rhino]

clancy, I'm usually quite a positive fellow on these forums but every thing you just said was the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard. A Nigerian high school grad, hahahaha are you on crack? If you saw all my classes for a whole week you would'nt be able to tell which classes I had plans for because they all run smoothly and are enjoyed by my students! I Know that if you had my schedual you would'nt plan for all of them. I did'nt say that I dont plan lessons I just said I dont plan lessons for all 30 of my classes. Did you even read my opening post? I doubt it. You also had teachers in school that did'nt plan for EVERY class and you did'nt notice. Trick question? Why in the hell would you think that? Look...I have nothing against you personaly clancy, but I absolutely bust my rear here and when someone questions whether or not I'm a real teacher teaching real lessons to real classes-thems fighting words! I would suggest getting off your high horse.

Know your place, and try to stay in it! bwaaaahahahahahaha