Teacher training activities

[belle151]

Hi All

I'm running an ESL tutor training session on Saturday and I'm looking for some good interactive activities for the session. If anyone has any ideas, please please please post! I'm pretty desperate at this point! Thanks!

[ebijojo]

I recently ran a course where I gave all the teacher cards with problems they might encounter in the classroom. They varied from disipline problems to kids not doing their homework or students falling behind in class etc. The teachers were given 3 problem cards each then paired off for discussion after a while we got back together and discussed the the way in which each pair would solve each problem. It worked really well and we had some good ideas come out of it. I also intentional put in problems that I knew some of my teachers were having but gave the cards to a different pair.

The other thing I do (which was done to me when I was training) is I give a short lesson in Japanese to the native English teachers, I make it really hard and so they feel uncomfortable, I pick on the 'students' and treat them as if they are stupid for not knowing the answers. This only lasts for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then I give the teachers a set of questions to answer such as which 3 emotions did you feel during the lesson? if you were a child, how would you have reacted? etc etc. It makes the teacher realise how the student is feeling when they don't 'get it' . I have always had good feedback after doing this exercise.
Hope your training goes well

[rum hera ria]

I am teaching a group of English teacher trainees. one of the activities that could make the class alive was when I asked them to create an activity to be used for the first meeting. It was "getting to know a new class". they created games and presented them in class with their friends as their students. Some of them did create fun activities, using pictures, dolls, balls,etc. :

I think for this group of students,experiencing different interactive activities and then making / creating activities themselves ( after being given an example ) is a way to make them active and enjoy the lessons.