Firstly, I apologize for the hiatus. Life has been getting pretty crazy around here. Since my last post I have started my extra English classes. For most people in this program that means they have a few private conversation classes with one or two people after work. For me, that means I now have actual classes. When I first arrived, two schools asked me if I could teach a class for five year olds to prepare them for next year when they start English classes in school. I agreed to do it and the teachers told me they would help me with the curriculum. After a long period of waiting for the teachers to figure out what my schedule would be, I finally received an email one night with a finalized schedule. As I opened the document I was surprised to find that I not only had classes with five year olds, I also had two primary classes and a group of sixth graders. Ok, not what we talked about but I figured I could handle it considering it was only a few hours per week. On my first day of teaching I had a kindergarten class and a primary class. I prepared a few games and songs to play and I felt ready. The kindergarteners were great. They all listened and were very responsive with what I was teaching. I was setting up for my primary class when my first student walked in, Vicente*. Vicente seemed quite large for a primary student, but I just attributed it to him being big for his age. As a few more students trickled in, I started to realize that someone was mistaken. At the beginning of class we went around the room and introduced ourselves, saying our names and how old we were. These are the responses that I got, “My name is Vicente and I am 12 years old,” “My name is Juanita and I am 15 years old”, “My name is Carla and I am 15 years old,” and “My name is Yolanda and I am 15 years old,”.
Awesome.
So what I thought was the primary group was actually secondary and they ranged from 12 years old to 15 years old. It’s extremely difficult to keep both of those age groups entertained at the same time. But anyways, let’s recap:
1. I was asked to teach a group of five year olds
2. I now teach children ranging from age 5-15 plus I have a private lesson with a guy who is 28
As far as teaching the classes, some days are better than others. Let’s talk about my primary class. This class has students ranging from Third grade to Fifth grade and they are EXTREMELY talkative. The first day with them was insanity. Something I’ve noticed in all of my classrooms is that Spanish children love to talk and they talk the entire class period, no matter how much the teacher tells them to shut up (And yes, they actually say “shut up”. I had to talk to some of the teachers about that haha). So on the first day with the primary group, I had no control; but I had planned for the worst with all of my classes so I wasn’t too stressed about it. My mom had given me a great idea about what to do with an unruly class.
Step 1: The bribe. I got some fun toys from the dollar store (they’re called Chinos here) and put them in my “treasure bag” aka a shiny green gift bag.
Step 2: Motivation. Each kid gets ten tickets per week. When they speak in English, they get a ticket into the raffle for something out of the treasure bag. When they speak in Spanish, their ticket goes into the trash can.
Step 3: The Payoff. Hold a raffle at the end of each week. Two students win per week and they can’t win again until the next month.
Step 4: Praise God for having such an amazing Mom.
On the second day of class I walked in with my treat bag and explained the rules to the kids. Suddenly I heard this wonderful sound, possibly the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It was the sound of Silence. Yeah, just let that soak in.
Of course there is still some talking, but it has definitely helped to calm them down. And now, they are much more motivated to speak in English, which is the whole point of the class.
I will leave you with some food for thought. After years of saying I don’t want to be a teacher, I am now not only a teacher, but I am a kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school…..TEACHER. Ironic isn’t it?
Thanks for reading!
~Arisha~
*All names have been changed, of course.*
Awesome.
So what I thought was the primary group was actually secondary and they ranged from 12 years old to 15 years old. It’s extremely difficult to keep both of those age groups entertained at the same time. But anyways, let’s recap:
1. I was asked to teach a group of five year olds
2. I now teach children ranging from age 5-15 plus I have a private lesson with a guy who is 28
As far as teaching the classes, some days are better than others. Let’s talk about my primary class. This class has students ranging from Third grade to Fifth grade and they are EXTREMELY talkative. The first day with them was insanity. Something I’ve noticed in all of my classrooms is that Spanish children love to talk and they talk the entire class period, no matter how much the teacher tells them to shut up (And yes, they actually say “shut up”. I had to talk to some of the teachers about that haha). So on the first day with the primary group, I had no control; but I had planned for the worst with all of my classes so I wasn’t too stressed about it. My mom had given me a great idea about what to do with an unruly class.
Step 1: The bribe. I got some fun toys from the dollar store (they’re called Chinos here) and put them in my “treasure bag” aka a shiny green gift bag.
Step 2: Motivation. Each kid gets ten tickets per week. When they speak in English, they get a ticket into the raffle for something out of the treasure bag. When they speak in Spanish, their ticket goes into the trash can.
Step 3: The Payoff. Hold a raffle at the end of each week. Two students win per week and they can’t win again until the next month.
Step 4: Praise God for having such an amazing Mom.
On the second day of class I walked in with my treat bag and explained the rules to the kids. Suddenly I heard this wonderful sound, possibly the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It was the sound of Silence. Yeah, just let that soak in.
Of course there is still some talking, but it has definitely helped to calm them down. And now, they are much more motivated to speak in English, which is the whole point of the class.
I will leave you with some food for thought. After years of saying I don’t want to be a teacher, I am now not only a teacher, but I am a kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school…..TEACHER. Ironic isn’t it?
Thanks for reading!
~Arisha~
*All names have been changed, of course.*
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