Below one of SDE’s teachers have put together some tips for new ESL Teachers. This article was written by Kedesha Douglas. We hope you enjoy the article.
Let me start by saying Welcome to China! The minute you land at the airport you are officially ready to begin your journey to Teach in China. Are you excited? You should be. It’s a great opportunity and you should enjoy the ride. I always keep it real and I must tell you prepare for the culture shocks here as you would definitely experience being in any other country away from your own.
Here’s what I’ll share with you today as I want you to be confident and fully prepared as you enter the classroom. The most important thing you need to do is Get to know your students. Let me kick start by telling you that for your very first week of getting in the classroom you are not expected to just go in and start teaching. Take a moment, breathe, relax and set the tone of the environment by introducing yourself to your students and mist importantly get to know your students.
I played a game with them All about me and you. It’s really simple after using a circle and a dice just to let students share about themselves it was fun and also encouraged them to speak.
ESL Teachers Game – All About You and Me
To play this game I used a coloured dice that match the colours in the pie chart. A student would role the dice and whatever colour the dice stopped on that’s what they would share about themselves in a simple sentence. For example; the dice stopped on the white side. The student need to say I like ____( colour like ) or My favourite colour is _____(colour they like). It all depends on the age/grade level.
I cannot stress getting to know your students enough. After all, they are the ones you will be interacting with for most of the day, the entire semester or even the entire school year. You will be like their school mother or school father while you are it because you are in sole responsibility for them while you are in the classroom. Now I know stepping into a classroom with many students you might be a little nervous especially if you are new to teaching. Don’t panic you’ll be fine, just smile, be patient and confident that you can do this! At one point I felt like this but what did I do? I stepped in with confidence and only positive thoughts in my mind.
Another game I found that gets the students excited was the pass the ball game. It can be a real ball, a small box, a medium sized dice or even a puppet. You can play this game with music. Whoever holds the object when the music stops needs to answer a question; What is your name? How old are you? What can you do? It’s very simple, and while you are having fun you are getting to know a few details about your students.
In addition, to ensure effective learning is taking place be sure to know your students learning styles. Every student is different and therefore will learn differently in the classroom. Let’s just narrow it down to auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners. If you aware of these different learners then you are able to plan your lesson wisely and cater to all the needs in your classroom.
Utilize different resources such as charts, visual aids, props, audio recordings, get students to have more dialogue and role play etc. In return once the students learning needs are catered to you will see great results of students having fun while they learn. Of course you will have students being shy at first but overtime once you both get to know each other all will be well. Always encourage and praise your students. As you begin your journey to Teach in China, I wish you the best of luck!
A big thanks to Kedsha for her insight into teaching. Keep coming back for more yourself articles about teaching Englihs in China. Become an ESL Teachers today and see how it can change you.