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Teachers' Thread

All Acting Regiment

14:26 / 16.10.07

I will soon be starting voluntary teaching - teaching adults English as a second language, intermediate level, at an evening class. I thought I'd start this thread as a more specific one than the equally wonderful back to school thread. I see this as being for everyone on here who is or who wants to know about lectures and lecturing.

Just to start, I guess I'd like to know if there are any immediate, basic and obvious pitfalls to avoid? I've got my big black coat and my smart shirt, I've opened up windows in my alcohol schedule - but what are the things one should immediately be aware of and concerned with?

14:32 / 16.10.07

Congratulations! As I've never taught I can only pass along the most general advice, such as not to worry too much about being nervous, as your students are probably just as nervous themselves. Good luck!

*

14:56 / 16.10.07

Hurrah!

I've only taught test-taking shit for one of the many big "prepare you for big exam so you can do better than all the poor kids who can't afford our classes" companies. What I learned there is that it's a lot like acting, and that no approach will work for everybody.

15:24 / 16.10.07

Check yourself in a mirror before you go in. My friend had her first day of teaching teenagers (she's an attractive twenty something woman) and thought it went really well, then after the hour long lesson of her at the blackboard, one of the girls leaving leant over and whispered 'Miss, your skirt's tucked into your knickers'.
That's right. She'd done the entire lesson with her skirt in her pants and nobody had said a word.

Check yourself in a mirror before you go in.

18:30 / 16.10.07

If the young whelps come up quietly after class and say they'll do anything to get an A - they're lying.

Oh, yes. Vile little puppies.

All Acting Regiment

19:10 / 16.10.07

Oh, I know all about that. Used to happen to me with with requests for to copy from me, and so on.

20:54 / 16.10.07

No matter how well you plan out your first lesson, you will deliver all your material in twenty minutes and then stand there looking like a tool for the rest of the class.
Don't practice your lecture, practice making standing there like a tool endearing.

21:18 / 16.10.07

In sideways echo to most of the above: don't worry about embarrassing yourself. It's inevitable, especially on that first class. Just keep in mind that they're stuck with you, and try to, yes, make the embarrassing "endearing" and keep the functionality on the level.

Anything really shit you remember a teacher doing when you were a student? Don't do that.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:33 / 16.10.07

For your first class, prepare material for three different levels. For example, if you're told you'll be teaching an intermediate class, put together lower-intermediate, intermediate, and upper-intermediate lesson plans. Make sure you have some games or quick excercises to fill up any awkward gaps.

A first class can be agreeably and usefully taken up with getting-to-know-you games. Make sure to find out as much as you can about your students' backgrounds, hobbies, interests, and family lives, and also their reasons for wanting to learn English.

If you get really stuck, phrasal verbs are your friends. I keep bunches of cards with various phrasal verbs written on them, then challenge the students to pick cards at random and make sentences using those phrasal verbs. This is because I'm an evil bastard.

Yes, do check that yr skirt is not in your knickers (or trousered equivalent); also make sure that you haven't sat in gum or got jam on your tie etc. Do be aware of your general level of scrubbedness; we have to lean over people and breath on them a lot, so it ill behooves us to neglect our personal stench. (This is especially important with young learners--kids do not do smells and will kvetch to Mum and Dad if teacher is stinky.) No-one likes stinky teacher, so don't eat tuna sammidges at break, drink plenty of water, and carry deoderant and mints.

All Acting Regiment

14:04 / 17.10.07

Thanks again to all. Hmm, phrasal verbs sound like a very good idea.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

18:26 / 17.10.07

I will soon be starting voluntary teaching - teaching adults English as a second language, intermediate level, at an evening class.

wow, that's exactly what I've been doing this summer!

one easy teaching rule is that it's way better to have too much material than not enough. bring three times as much lesson as you think you can get through. if some is left over you can get to it next time, or not.

be loud. talk to the class, not to the white/chalkboard.

more specifically for the type of class:

my students seem to appreciate it when I bring in articles of current events. we read them together (practice pronunciation) and then go over new words (vocabulary). and they like the assistance in keeping up with stuff.

also many of my plans have been foiled because the students aren't kids. these people have jobs, probably long jobs, during the day. they may come to class late because that's as soon as they can get there. they may be tired, etc. they may not have time during the week to get any homework done. (I've found that assigning about a week to get homework done, with the weekend in there somewhere, is a good idea. Otherwise no one does the homework.) they may not have time to watch TV or read books to give reports on. keep this in mind.

my question for others would be this: easy ways to encourage more english conversation between the students? getting them to talk to each other (except in Chinese) has so far been painfully difficult and often unproductive.

All Acting Regiment

18:41 / 17.10.07

Good idea, I'll bring a newspaper in to class.

All Acting Regiment

17:12 / 22.10.07

I think that counts as a success. I got them talking about vodka.