Job Discussion Forums

[smellymelly]

does anyone have any easy/interesting/fun ideas to make class more exciting. my classes are 2 periods long so i intend to teach a lesson the first half and then i want to do some fun things...but I am not creative at all!

[suanlatudousi]

Check the Dave's Links at the top of your screen - e.g. Stuff For Teachers

[roadwalker]

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Games

I agree with suanlatudousi, there are lots of good ideas in the idea cookbook. Not all will match your class, but some will. In general, not being creative myself, I let my students be creative. I write out broad situations and give them to my students, already divided into groups. They have to figure out a skit and then perform it in front of the class. Some are horrified at the prospect and others are natural hams. Be sure to have a pen and pad ready to note the worst mistakes for correction after performance.

Chinese students don't have a lot of experience in the world, so try to keep the situations within their world view and maybe just outside of it. A news broadcast is good for a class or two. Family issues, dating, cars, sports, celebrities, music, crime, all tend to make decent skits. Oh and doctor dramas.

[Hansen]

Flash cards work well in my class. One provides a problem, the other an answer. Pass them out to the class and then they must find the matching card. Can be used for vocabulary, grammar, and so forth.

[Sonnibarger]

what age are the students?... 1 thing i do for a break is.... talk about mp3, mp4... then break students into groups... have them design an MP15... have them describe function, draw a picture, price, advert, ect... simple no prep and most kids will love it... i usually design one myself..

[LongShiKong]

When it comes to problem solving, I've always thought of creativity as a thought process rather than some innate skill. If you start with the objective clearly in mind and work backwards, you'll come up with solutions more easily. I find keeping in mind students' Background, Interests, Goals (BIG) is useful when conceiving of classroom activities that'll stimulate your students--regardless of age, level or attitude.

[Babala]

What age do you teach?

[platinum peyote]

Well, these days a lot of my students are into what they call 'yellow books' and 'A pian' so maybe start off by telling them that your hobbies are reading yellow books and watching A pian, and I can almost guarantee they will be highly receptive and attentive, and might even start initiating conversations, too.

All the best, and good luck with education our future leaders!

[Sugar Magnolia]

I like to use what I call "Mix & Mingle" every now and then.

Basically, give each student a piece of paper and tell them to write down 3 things that they like or think about the topic you covered before the break and then pass them out to a different student, have them stand up and find their paper. "Hi, my name is Bob. What's your name? (make some small talk) and then ask a question - "Do you like to ...?" If not, move on and talk to someone else until you find your paper.

Then, ask a few students to tell the class whose paper they had and what they wrote. Today, one guy wrote that he liked girls and making love, which is what I wish I was doing now!

Encourage them to be loud is my motto.

[Revenant]

Derailing posts and posts lacking civility have been removed.

[alter ego]

Making a class fun and exciting is often a challenge for even the most experienced of teachers. A lot depends on your class, the kind of students you have. Games and activities that work for one group might bomb with the next, depending on the "personality" of the class as a whole. Do your research, try different ideas, and use spontaneity as much as possible. Most of my students (uni age) get a big kick out of doing fashion shows to practice clothes vocab and Q's like "what are you wearing?" Letting them strut down an improvised "catwalk" area as model couples (one boy and one girl) sometimes gives them their biggest thrills of the day.

[eddy-cool]

This isfor FTs that care both for an interactive classroom as well as for enhancing the students' grasp of the subject they are studying under an FT:

Think of teachers as life-long students and you will understand that the more someone can teach himself or others the better that person is at studying. Thus, you can perhaps rope in students as teachers.

I have two to five students prepare a unit for next class; we use a college-selected Business English textbook that introduces the world of producing, marketing and selling to its readers. My students are English majors so I can expect them to have a better grasp of the language.

Thus one of them will introduce the KEY VOCABULARY from the text; she (fewer 'he's than she's) will check relevant sources for the proper pronunciation of new words (remember, our students are familiar with the IPT!), the word category each word belongs to, and a definition or some examples; very rarely do they resort to translating these items.

Another student will introduce the general topic: What are 'multinational companies'? "Parent companies', 'franchises', etc., usually with some noted examples.

A third one might have to introduce a grammar structure - i.e. the use of the present perfect as opposed to the use of the past simple tense. Again with examples.

Each of the speakers will stand in front of the class for between 3 to 5 minutes. Thus between 20 to 30 minutes are taken up in a most productive way. Students are encouraged to voice questions for clarifications, and these do come.

The rationale behind this is simple: Students don't like doing homework, poring over lengthy chapters in a foreign-language textbook (that is not even really targeted at business majors), but they appreciate having things explained to them, and who's better for doing that than one of their peers? It raises their self-esteem in no small way.

The rest of the time I have to dwell on some gaps uncovered by the presenters. This week we read about 'Competition', in particular a 'race between Pepsi and Coca'. Race? That wasn't a 'key word' at all, so students had to guess (from the context) what it stood for; in every class a minority of students guessed right: a synonym for 'competition'. The text furthermore used a phrase I supsected was 'new' for my students: World War II. My students actually knew that 'II' was the Roman number '2'; when challenged to write '2009' in Roman figures none could oblige.
Another fruitful and entertaining digression. Thus an otherwise inane textbook passage became a highly entertaining and informative piece of an article.

[killian]

"yellow books" ! LOL. nothing like a kid telling teacher that pornography is fun.

teach to their interests, teach to their greed.

visuals are always nice.

how many kids, what level?