Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi everyone,
Can anyone offer me any advice for a first class teaching kids? I'm in Spain, have no books and will have individual classes with 6 and 9 year olds to start with.
Medium term, I will use Oxford Ace! books, bt I'd love some ideas for the first class.
Any help greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Nick

Try to remember what it is like to be 6, 7, 8 or 9.

Keep low. Take a mirror and lean over it - you will shocked at your saggy face but that is what kids see if you are looking down at them, so don't. Have a low chair so you are eye to eye.

Smile a lot.

Look up some games on the Sticky under the Activities and Games forum and the sticky at the top of Elementary Education and ideas from Dave's boards. I like Bingo for the beginners - make up cards or buy them with pictures of things in groups - transportation, animals, etc. Card games are fun too but there are a lot of ideas in the Stickies.

Set up a routine so you do the same things in the same order in every lesson so they get used to you and are comfortable when you add things.
Introductions, weather, date, colours, animals, whatever the book is teaching, game, colouring, or making a story or video. You can use music and songs for any of the sections. Keep activities to 5 minutes and keep changing.

Use your digital camera to make them a picture dictionary with them in the dictionary. They can bring in pictures too.

Lot of stickers and stars for when they do well.

Let them move around as much as possible. Put things to read on the wall so they have to get up, play games that move around, drop things so they have to pick them up and name them.

Don't underestimate children who are small. Don't underestimate what they already know. Lots of kids have watched Disney movies or listened to songs and know quite a bit of English already.

Listen to them and treat them as people with valid ideas and feelings.

Participate as much as possible.

Relax.

Thanks Sally; you've made it sound so easy!

Never but it is fun and rewarding.

The best thing would be to prepare a wide range of materials. Don't rely on having just a few activities or games - have plenty of activities that can be amended to suit class various class dynamics and the changing moods of the students.

Have materials that can be easily adapted on-the-fly. It's important to be able to make things challenging if you find the activity is initially too easy. If an activity isn't working then move on.

By having more materials than you need will allow you to occupy students who may finish the primary set tasks faster than others.

There are some very useful hints for teaching young learners on the website www.esltoolbox.com. Their suggestion page is worth a visit.

Try and get a balance of games, speaking activities, drawing and writing.... Yes, even at that age!!

Remember that it is about having fun but don't lose sight of the educational goal

Good luck

Make it fun. Have lots of games, colouring, stories, pictures. Use your first few lessons to get to know them. Role play, questions and answers, treasure hunts, charades, matching games..... Google games for kids and adapt to the classroom, kids this age can't usually sit for long periods of time. Are they complete beginners in English? Coz I guess what you do really depends on the exposure and ability the kids have in English.

Best of luck.

As teachers we are blessed with the joyous opportunity of working with young learners. At the best of times they are cute, amusing and a lot of fun to teach. However, even the most adorable of little angels can have their off days. So here’s a look at some of the in classroom nightmares and some ways the teacher could go about dealing with them.

As per your new entry in teaching i will recommend you to appreciate your students frequently by giving them something. Any thing even a piece of paper with some good performance lines; You can also give certificates for achievements and awards. Making certificate is easy and free and not take much time. You can design some by using certificate template . Just fill it and print it. Your little attention to this activity will make you famous in students.

Hello,

teaching young learners is a wonderful experience: it brings back memories of your own childhood, makes you see things in a new and fresh way and makes you creative.
Unfortunately I had to teach young learners in a terrible repressive and threatening environment and by methods that were totally overcome - and frankly totally unefficient.
I used this link: http://www.teachingenglishgames.com (Also as an Amazone book): It´s full of fantastic activities to make children enjoy the English lessons. You can find traditional games like: ´What´s the time, Mr. Wolf?´ and ´Simple Simon´ to train any kind of language and vocabulary. You also find activities to train listening, speaking and writing.
Learning by playing games is the most natural way a child learns and learns a language. The create a friendly atmosphere in the classroom, create tension, make the child feel good in company with other children, create a sence of achievement and above all: provide the child enough practise to master the language. Good luck! Heike

Hello,

teaching young learners is a wonderful experience: it brings back memories of your own childhood, makes you see things in a new and fresh way and makes you creative.
Unfortunately I had to teach young learners in a terrible repressive and threatening environment and by methods that were totally overcome - and frankly totally unefficient.
I used this link: http://www.teachingenglishgames.com (Also as an Amazone book): It´s full of fantastic activities to make children enjoy the English lessons. You can find traditional games like: ´What´s the time, Mr. Wolf?´ and ´Simple Simon´ to train any kind of language and vocabulary. You also find activities to train listening, speaking and writing.
Learning by playing games is the most natural way a child learns and learns a language. The create a friendly atmosphere in the classroom, create tension, make the child feel good in company with other children, create a sence of achievement and above all: provide the child enough practise to master the language. Good luck! Heike

I think you should also consider to appreciate the students by giving them some awards or certificates. This thing always works. You can use award certificate template to design some of your own certificates according to the event and subject.

I will also recommend you to make a diary or a list of student’s homework so your student’s will not be confused about their homework. You can even use a very simple to do list template to complete this task but it’ll help them to understand and complete their work in the best way without any confusion.