Job Discussion Forums

[Ping Jing]

I will begin a once a week part-time job on Tuesday at a kindergarten. I\\\'ll teach 4 groups of about 10 students for 20 minutes each. I have a few ideas, but am hoping some of you out there with experience or interest in kindergarten teaching can help me with a few more.

Thanks.

[vikuk]

This is copy of a couple of PM�s I sent to poster asking me about what they could do in the first week of lessons �

Concentrate at first on gaining confidence - and amusing the kids - especially the really young (a few of them will be scared and crying)
A good prop is a an expanding tape-measure - you know the type you can pull out to 2 or 3m length, that has a spring and snaps back into its housing when you let it go. You can buy them either in a supermarket or those small shops that sell building/home repair stuff (cost under 10yuan). What you can do with this is practice the words - up down.

You pull it up - in small steps - saying up up up up - it will get to certain height and then it collapses and falls down - so you can then you can get the kids to say down - let the tape spring back (they love that bit) - and start again.

With a bit of imagination - you extend this simple up and down lesson to -
sit down/stand up - lie down (sleeping)/get up

You can also use the tape to illustrate long/short - which goes onto long hair/short hair - which of course can be used in boy/girl.

Then of course you have the tape for big/small - big boy/small boy - children/teachers - big hand/small hand etc etc

I know all of these ideas look a bit flimsy when expressed in words - but believe me when you're new and the kids are either nervous or bored then the simple act of taking that tape and extending it to that point where it collapses is a real small-kid attention builder (a bit like building a card house - just waiting to see when it falls) - and most importantly it breaks the ice.

To fill out 30 mins every week - if you have to do lessons and cannot just concentrate on activities - a good idea is to devise a warm-up (stays the same for 2 weeks- month until it becomes boring) - revision of language (practicing old stuff) - new content (the weeks new words).
Remember the real secret of teaching kids to speak English is to keep on teaching the same vocab - but in different ways (don't let it get boring) - otherwise they forget just as quickly as they learn.

Getting that first week out of the way helps no-end
points to remember - at the beginning focus on entertainment with an English flavor rather than outright English teaching

- remember that those bits of lesson that work well can be used again - but maybe with some sort of variation - to make them exciting.

- kids enjoy some sort of repetition - like singing songs they know - or replaying a popular game.

- to make a lesson fun for small kids, think small � as in what small kids find interesting (that can sometimes be difficult for adults) - and don't make lessons too complicated just to please parents or your boss!!!!

- try to avoid at the start too many games, since it can be hard to manage kids in these activities (they tend to go wild) - this kind of stuff works better when you know the kids and how best to handle them.

- it helps if you have an assistant who can help you manage the discipline side in Chinese. We use a lot of Chinese with our smaller kids (even to teach them English) - otherwise confusion and toddler anarchy can take over. The older kids get the less Chinese we use!!!!

Look for lesson props - taking a few objects into the class - for example two bags (maybe one small and one big) and a cup and bottle of water (a cup in one bag and a bottle in the other) can produce a wonder lesson. What�s in bags (kidding them its something scary) - and then eventually drinking the water from the cup - after attempting pull the bottle in half or put a hole in it to get the water out and then when trying to drink it out of the bags, your hands, or even off the floor - can be great fun. This is a typical yes/no exercise where the children shout no at all the wrong things you do and yes at all the right things - so simple but so effective and easy to build on (as the children get older their commands get more complicated than the simple yes and no).

Looking at the PM�s it does look pitifully devoid of tips that can carry you through a whole year � but if nothing else its directs you to look for props (and than doesn�t just mean flashcards) that not only can illustrate English language � but can also be interesting for small kids. Teaching this age group is incredibly difficult � difficult just to keep your kids happy weekin week out � even more difficult if you really intend to teach English!!!!

Then again you can get a whole lot of nursery rhymes, normal kids songs we use back home, sentences, a big pile of flashcards � and whole lot of stuff that doesn�t contain much useful language for the small kid and in fact doesn�t really teach language but get kids to memorise English-like sounds. For this kind of work you need to jump up and down an awful lot � and be a real monkey � but you don�t have to think about much apart from how long is it to going home time.

By the way it is possible to teach kindy kids to gain fluency in English. The secret is to train the Chinese teachers to cut down on the vocab they try to teach to just a range of important basic words, which can be put together to form phrases, in a conversational setting (question and answer environment). At the moment most CT�s try to get kids to memorise a vast range of words/sentences that, although a few of them are good at reciting, become just a blur of abstract sound!!!!

[therock]

20 minute lessons seem a little short. You are not going to be able to do much in that time. Your best bet would be teaching them some songs.

[sheeba]

The Rock. Are you sure about that. Have you taught Kindy?

I found 20 minutes if anything too long for a group of kids that age.

[therock]

[latefordinner]

Each time I teach kindies I love it but find it so draining that I vow "never again". (Then I forget and do it again) I found that with pre-kindie and kindie (ages 4 to 6) a half hour is the maximum you can get them to work for, and even that requires a lot of preparation and energy on the teacher's part. FUN FUN FUN! Keep changing your activities, have lots and lots of flashcards and songs and games and novelties to surprise them. I won't agree with everything Vikuk writes on other topics, but here he has given excellent advice. He knows his stuff.

[SnoopBot]

[Anda]

I use DVDs cartoons etc and interact with the kids with the DVD playing. You can use the pause button to show something to ask what's happening etc. You need good epuipment but.

[johnchina]

A few ideas I have used:

1. Set out a few items of furniture, etc. - chairs, mats (get those coloured jigsaw-type ones from virtually any large store), large boxes. Teach the kids phrases like "stand/sit in the box", stand/sit on the (green) mat and "(hide) under the chair". Issue commands like "Boys, sit on the chairs". Boys who do the wrong thing (or don't do anything) are 'out', as are any girls who move. Choose one of the kids who is 'out' to give the next command. Whittle down the numbers until a winner remains.

2. You can get flashcards from bogglesworld - suitable for all ages. Download, laminate and use in class. One game my kids enjoyed was "What do you eat?" Each kid gets a card with a picture of an animal on it. Then you show them food cards and ask e.g. "Do you eat bananas?" A kid with a monkey card replies with "Yes, I eat bananas". A kid with a lion card replies "No, I don't eat bananas." Can get interesting when the kid with the lion card figures out that he eats the kid with the zebra card!!!

3. Twister - but obviously only with small groups. You can use those coloured mats rather than making your own from a bedsheet.

I don't know about keeping the kids interested for more than 30 minutes - I was exhausted (but happy!) after that long.

[KevinT123]

The biggest problem with teaching kindergarten children in China is not the kids but their over bearing, sullen parents! They always insist on watching the class and interrupting. Most believe that teachers should only teach using a textbook in a very traditional way. Try to move away from this outdated, uninteresting mode and they start to complain that you are a poor teacher.

So you do as the parents say. The kids get bored within seconds as they would. The parents then take it out on the kids reducing them to tears. The children then fear learning English and hate the class. What a "fait complet"! Oh for the ability to hammer a bit of common sense into the heads of Chinese parents!

If you are allowed to do your own thing as I have on a few occasions, Chinese children love it if you dress up a little in strange but amusing clothing and pull a few faces. They will often join in and the environment becomes friendly and entertaining. Then introduce props, flashcards made using computer clipart or activities. With young children, I find it more accommodating to sit down during the lesson with the children in a semi circle surrounding me but you should also try to remain active maybe standing up occasionally and perform a small act.

[Anda]

KevinT123 is so right I started at an instutite with 70 students with mothers in the class and had no students at the end of a week. That's teaching how I have done for years in South Korea with great success. So much for Chinese mothers.

[Ping Jing]

Thanks. The 1st week was a success, now the real work begins. I have an idea which entails the kids running to find the flashcard, which I will use this Tuesday. First, I will teach the word and show the picture, then I will have boys against girls. I will place the cards around the room and say a word. Whoever finds the card wins.

I have an Opposites activity - stand/sit, walk/run, stop/go etc.. That should work.

Hopefully someone else out there will help me with a few more activities in which I can get the kids running around.

Thanks again.

[kev7161]

Don't forget, you can always take a handful of games/activities and then reuse them with different vocabulary and lessons. Once you've established, say, 10 different games and the kids know how to play them, your job in lesson planning and also conducting class will be 10X easier!

[InTime]

For many excellent practices...and important theory...check out
Journal of Imagination in Language Learning

Here's my Total Physical Response w/Story lesson
from the 1st scene of Disney's movie, MULAN.
Kids all over China respond quite well to it.

I've done it both with DVD and w/out.
I show/do the action...and then say the WORDS.
Below are the words:
Great Wall
Man...very Tall...very strong...very Brave!!!
Walking
Looking...sees no one
Listening...hears no one
High in the sky...a big bird
Flying down...down...down
Hits the man's head
He closes his eyes
He cries
He opens his eyes
He puts his hand on his head
BLOOD!!!

Kids here LOVE to do the fake crying!!!

Gradually...the kids are doing TPR as I tell the story...
Then...I say the TPR words/phrases w/out any sequence

[mandu]

how old are the kindergarten children?are you teaching nursery,k1,k2 and k3?