Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Techniques in Teaching...
I've had to learn how to be an EFL teacher. Thanks to Charlie and my own creative genius, I have come up with a few techniques which seem to be working.
-making students create questions from reading and having them switch papers(actually not a popular one but it kept them busy during class)
-creating teams and giving them options to challenge each other with such as word and/or sentence scrambles, missing words/sentences, define the word, or read the article out loud
-write everything out on the board so they know what I am doing
-write explanations out on board in English so they can practice
reading/interpreting English
-write anything they do not understand on board in any way I can to get them to understand which actually implies not writing but drawing(so far no laughs about my bad drawing-gonna have to work on that)
-bring in extra incentives to do work in class like candy but use this frugally since kids LOVE candy and will eat one out of one's checking and savings account!;-)
-model my instructions on board(this has worked beautifully)
-bring in games on paper such as crosswords and word searches(big success with this)
-bring in props such as engagement rings..;-p or anything that will give them a visual
-have them come up to the board and do activities such as spelling, drawing or explaining themselves to me
-take them to the computer room and have them listen to audios on the computer(I find this not a very fruitful activity since most of the kids know I can't be everywhere at once and start playing around with other websites-they know the two screen trick)
-learned some commands in Korean such as ANJA seo...I usually forget to be polite and just use the command form...they were very impressed by my Korean skills and obeyed!;-)
-walk around the room instead of just standing in front of it
-relax a little and give them play around time which to Korean kids means either pop songs or hangman games
-do a lesson plan( I know-like DUH!)
-treat Korean kids like Dennis the Menace and just go with the flow-maybe I'll get out of my classes alive in a day or not...;-) But there is always tomorrow...actually my kids are getting used to me finally and really getting into learning stuff now...but no matter how much I want no more bumps...I do still have my bad days with students...sigh...something I learn is true with ALL EFL teachers... ¶ 4:45 AM
-making students create questions from reading and having them switch papers(actually not a popular one but it kept them busy during class)
-creating teams and giving them options to challenge each other with such as word and/or sentence scrambles, missing words/sentences, define the word, or read the article out loud
-write everything out on the board so they know what I am doing
-write explanations out on board in English so they can practice
reading/interpreting English
-write anything they do not understand on board in any way I can to get them to understand which actually implies not writing but drawing(so far no laughs about my bad drawing-gonna have to work on that)
-bring in extra incentives to do work in class like candy but use this frugally since kids LOVE candy and will eat one out of one's checking and savings account!;-)
-model my instructions on board(this has worked beautifully)
-bring in games on paper such as crosswords and word searches(big success with this)
-bring in props such as engagement rings..;-p or anything that will give them a visual
-have them come up to the board and do activities such as spelling, drawing or explaining themselves to me
-take them to the computer room and have them listen to audios on the computer(I find this not a very fruitful activity since most of the kids know I can't be everywhere at once and start playing around with other websites-they know the two screen trick)
-learned some commands in Korean such as ANJA seo...I usually forget to be polite and just use the command form...they were very impressed by my Korean skills and obeyed!;-)
-walk around the room instead of just standing in front of it
-relax a little and give them play around time which to Korean kids means either pop songs or hangman games
-do a lesson plan( I know-like DUH!)
-treat Korean kids like Dennis the Menace and just go with the flow-maybe I'll get out of my classes alive in a day or not...;-) But there is always tomorrow...actually my kids are getting used to me finally and really getting into learning stuff now...but no matter how much I want no more bumps...I do still have my bad days with students...sigh...something I learn is true with ALL EFL teachers... ¶ 4:45 AM
