Well.In Norway,this is the first many intelligent teachers do.Before any inside class activities.And they do it with great luck.But i also do agree in what you say.I Norway i think they have this "field "experiments" as an obligatory in their teachers studies.

In reading your response, for some reason a situation from my own past popped into my head. I had been teaching for about 2 years, and the school I was at had a wooded area behind it. I found out who owned the area and asked for their permission to take my kids back in the woods for an earth science lesson (there was a small stream there){.

All went well.

About a week later the old lady who owned the property stopped by the school and asked me how my field trip went. I told her it was fine and that I'd be contacting her again the following year. She said, "I'm just glad you didn't have any problems with the quicksand or the copperhead snakes!"

Heh heh- talk about learning by doing!

Norwayeagle, in many school systems it has become in vogue to ask the teachers to do some kind of research- whether 'action-research' or connected with larger scale research projects by full-time research programmes.

Try some TPR (Total Physical Response) - it's used for instructions. You say, they do (stand up, sit down stand in a line - commands that you will need to organise and manage the children). Make it a game by putting them in teams/groups, thus encouraging competition. Offer a little prize/token for the winning team each lesson. You can give or take away points during the lesson for good participation or unnacceptable behaviour once the competitive ethos has been established. One thing to remember - nearly all kids this age will want to please you and do well to recieve praise. If they're misbehaving, it's you not them. The fact that you want to do better shows that this situation can be fixed. Well done for looking for help and good luck.

"....And on more serious note i agree that qualifications are important and give the basic tools to build on but what matters more is right attitude and devotion to the job. With 7 years olds it might be even better to have a young guy without qualifications to get the kids interested of learning the language than force fed them with grammar and the teachers ego...."


I have 10 years of teaching experience including in early days being a substitute teacher while looking for a full-time job.

I agree 100% with the above post. Certainly formal training and a teaching internship help but in the end who you are and your talent at working with kids is what counts.

Any native speaker of English who is intelligent, kind, energetic and creative can teach kids to speak English.

Just have fun and make flash cards, get the kids to interact by actually talking instead of sitting bored in their seats
.

Example:

Class opens speaking only English you quickly take control and have the kids sit down with a couple of kids as volunteers stand up.

You have an easy dialog ready - model it get the two volunteers to repeat and then the whole class - you walk around and help.

This post has been edited by Sam125: 2009-11-08 13:05:03

I have removed a few messages which were heading flame-wards; let's keep the temperature down.

I would plan your class in five minute blocks. Find things that they like. You must grab their attention and then keep it. One thing you can do is break your class into eight groups of five. This means you only have to watch eight places instead of 40. I do a lot of board rushes to start class to get their attention. I also use a lot, and I mean a lot of flashcards. Keep things very simple. If you can get them giving right answers, they will pay attention. They will still be on the edge of chaos, but at least they are learning.

Tim

This post has been edited by troehr: 2009-11-08 16:34:56

Over the course of nearly 20 years as an administrator in the States, I probably hired well over 200 teachers. Yes, most people can learn how to teach. But, every once in a while someone comes along that simply hasn't got what it takes...and never will.

In regard to native speakers. I have to go the other way, and I'll give you an example. Real interview with a native French speaker applying for our French teaching position in grade 8:

Me: "So. how much homework should students have a night?"

French Speaker: "About 3 hours is right."

Me: "And of that 3 hours, how much of that time should be spent on French homework?"

French Speaker: "Oh you don't understand that there is no subject more important than French. The three hours of homework is in French. After that the students can begin their other homework."

While that may be an extreme case, it demonstrates why any native speaker cannot necessarily teach their language.

Well done. I hope you keep it up because lots of people just love typing, and instead of helping out, they always turn a simple plea for assistance into a charade of useless rants.

I suggest you talk to the head teacher or your supervisor to see what they can do because the assistant Thai teacher in your class may have her hands tied.

This post has been edited by Scott: 2009-11-09 21:28:47

I think, at face value, this is very good advice. I do, however, think back to my very first full year of teaching back in Maryland (I'd had a half-year the previous year). My new principal thought I was just wonderful. I'm not sure why she thought that...I truly thought I was drowning and expected to go right down the drain. But, I did not feel I could go to any of the administrators because I feared the consequences of basically saying, "I don't know what I'm doing." Looking back, I'm quite sure I could have gone to at least two out of the three admins, but that's not how one feels when one is going through it.

The safest way to seek that kind of help -- at least in the States -- is to go to an admin and say, "I'd really like to expand my repertoire of strategies. Is there a way I could observe some other teachers? And who would you recommend?" Makes you look proactive and open-minded, but the result would be the same.

Observing is a very good idea and in my experience, the Thai Admin like the idea. Especially if they pick out teachers for you to observe. It also gives you a good idea of how they want you to do things. You might also take a quick look at people who seem to know their stuff.

I encourage a lot of this at our school. Even very good teachers can pick up some things that work.

I wonder what happened with the OP, he hasnt reported back since the 4th. I'm hoping nobody took his request as the title of this thread, literally .

hi guys,
sorry for very little response from me as i have been very busy doing lesson plans to keep the kids interested. their attention span is no more than 20 seconds before they start to nod off from the heat in the class room. i took them to an air conditioned room and played an english speaking cartoon about germs and the super heroe fights them. thai subtitles were present. 1 minute in they ask me to put it on in thai speaking as they dont understand, i explain we are trying to learn english words. they lose interest and start playing up again. so its back to drawing,colouring in with words describing whats happening in the picture.
i say the words or sentences and they repeat back. 55 mins into the leason i write the word on the board,ask what it says and all i get is blank stares.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
this is going to be hard but these little terrors are not going to win. they are going to learn something even if it kills me.
anymore suggestions to keep their attention is appreciated.

regards.

JFK,


Did you try modeling dialog and breaking them up into small groups liek I suggested?

I have done this a thousand times - it works....

jfk it sounds like your lessons need to be a lot more energetic and upbeat. Colouring in, watching cartoons...these are all quiet activities that any 7 year old will struggle with for a long period of time. I suggest activities like this should be used in the second half of your lesson after you have tired the kids out with all your games. Don't just chop and change things according the children's reaction, plan your lesson carefully in advance. Search on the internet about how to create lesson plans...your activities should be relevant to what you are trying to achieve and to the stage in the lesson.

With younger students it is also a good idea to have some very quick games that you can throw in to keep the children energised, but ensure that your activities themselves use lots of language, body language and kinetic activity. Try to understand that at this age kids are thinking a thousand to the dozen...you need to keep up with them, don't try and slow them down to a pace they are not adapted too...you will never win and will feel dejected. Think games, songs, energy, action... and then a wind down activity.

Be firm with them, but have fun. You gain authority by being even tempered and fair, not by being over-emotional and reactive. Have a corner children who misbehave sit in or some other punishment, and be very clear about what you have to do to get put there. Make the rules of the class a game - get the students to help you run through them at the start of every class. Children this age respond very well to routine and consistency.

I don't advocate giving the students prizes during normal games. Thai children are naturally very competitive and it is unnecessary.

If you like the kids, then they will like you back. If you really cannot enjoy teaching them, then it will always be a struggle and maybe you should think about teaching an older age group. having taught both Ps and Ms...Ps are definitely the most exhausting, but also the most rewarding. If you are not getting any rewards then it isn't for you.

Brilliant!

A lot of teachers don't remember what it is like to be 7 years old. I certainly didn't when I first started teaching. If you try to get students to learn spelling, grammar or teach them sentences by writing (in something that looks like hieroglyphics to them) on the blackboard, you are destined for misery.

Because I have been there, and I feel your pain, here's one of my emergency lesson plans for when I have to teach wee tikes (I usually teach M4-M6 and Uni Students):

You'll need to prepare flash cards with people of appropriate ages:

1 card - a picture of a family

1 card - Mother

1 card - father

etc. etc. etc.

Drill these cards until the students are yelling them back at you. Be patient, when the kids start to learn it it will surprise you how involved they will get. They will all want to prove to you how smart they are. Also, mix it up a bit. There are tons of ideas on the net for drilling flash cards for kids... ways to make it fun, mini-games, etc.

Next, play a game with them that gets them up and moving around. Put the cards up on the board and write "father" next to the father picture, etc.

Divide your students into 4 teams.

Each team has one student facing the wall at the back of the classroom. You yell out a word, like "Mother!!", and the students race to the front of the room to touch the picture of the mother. The first team there wins a point. Laugh while they fall all over themselves trying to move each others hand and likely rip the picture off the board. Put it back up, smile and prepare for the next round.

Once they have gotten all of the pictures, make it tougher... take down the pictures but leave the words on the board (low enough for the kids to reach them).

Next, give each student from each group a piece of chalk. When you call the word the students have to run up to circle the correct word. Expect there to be a few superstars, a few kids who run quickly but then just stand there staring at the board and mostly kids running to circle random words. You will need to keep an eraser and piece of chalk in hand to correct their mistakes.

Finally, erase the board and make a Vocab list, writing all the words you have just used in large, legible letters on the board. The students should recognize most of them by now. Make each team say the words after you. If their pronunciation is good, give the team a point. The idea here is to get it into their heads that the words they need for the next exercise are already on the board. That way, you won't have 40 kids asking you how to spell "brother".

This should take you through the first 30 minutes of class. Now you have drained them of some of their energy, so hand out some blank paper and have them draw a picture of their family. Show an example on the board by drawing one member of your family well (as well as you can at least), then write that persons name next to the picture ("Father" or whatever). Afterwards, draw a quick sketch of the remaining members so that the kids get the idea that you need to draw the whole family. Point to the vocabulary list you've just made at the end of the last game and tell them they need each person in the picture. Handing out paper should be the LAST thing you do by the way, unless you want them all drawing rocket ships and monsters instead of their families.

Expect dozens of kids hanging off of you in the next 10-15 minutes trying to get you to sign or check off their pictures, or at the very least acknowledge their artistic abilities.

I have done this lesson several times with several different classes and the students always have a great time with it. Of course, how much fun the kids have is directly related to how much you smile, how much energy you have and how patient you are with them. I know this lesson seems really simple, but that's the point. There is a great disparity between the syllabus that some administrator writes and what you are able to teach 7 year olds. I've actually seen a Farang teacher forced to teach the periodic table to 8 and 9 year olds... so if you are getting pressure from your administration to teach things that are way to difficult for your age group, then either speak to someone about it or find another job.

It also doesn't hurt to speak Thai quite well. There is no way to tell 7 year olds to divide into 4 groups and for one person from each group to stand facing the wall in the back of the room but to do it in their own language, immersion fanatics can bite me. If you don't have a Thai assistant, invest 2-3 hours with a Thai tutor learning some "control" language for your classroom. Think of 100 phrases or words you wish you could say to your students and learn them!!

Good luck and have fun!!

This post has been edited by Nash: Yesterday, 2009-11-20 09:46:10

You have had some good pointers here. You can do it. Good luck.

Buy a magic trick book and/or Google. Show them a new one every few days. It will be 15 minutes you will have them under control.
Get them playing games!!! rock paper scisors,,, hide and seek,,, I spy with my little eye...

put a 'simple' crossword on the black board and / or anagram