Lyndsey Pratt
- 2010-12-16
Hi,
I agree with Cunning Linguist on several points. The school seems to be, aside from giving you specifics on lesson topics, giving you free reign. This is a good thing and could really help you to develop the creative side of your teaching skills. There are SO many online resources that you could take advantage of for ideas including Scholastic (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp), TeAchnology (http://www.teach-nology.com/), and Discovery Education (http://school.discoveryeducation.com/). As well, the Oxford Seminars ESL Teaching Resources (http://www.oxfordseminars.com/esl-teaching-resources/index.php) web page is full of ideas and resources.
I would suggest that you make your lessons fun and that you use realia (objects etc. from real life) as much as possible. Group interaction, games, drama, music, and various types of competition all add anticipation and excitement in the classroom.
As Cunning Linguist mentioned, keep detailed records of all your lesson plans. This will not only "cover your back"; it will also serve as a reference point/source of ideas/launching pad for future lesson planning. I kept detailed records of my approx 5 years of teaching in Indonesia and it proved to be very helpful, especially when in a pinch when covering for another teacher or a last minute call from the school.
Take a deep breath and enjoy the ride.
Lyndsey Pratt
Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to the teaching game, but I have a bit of a problem with the school that I'm working at.
Lessons there last 2 hours and because I am the foreign teacher and they have so many classes, I have a different schedule every week. Because of this, the teacher of the class is supposed to email me the 'topic' for the lesson I will be teaching a few days in advance.
When they actually do bother to email me the topics, this is an example of one of them:
Topic:Hello
Key words:
afternoon evening morning night
Key sentence:
Good morning
Good afternoon
Good evening
Good night
I'm not being funny, but 2 hours on this? I have literally run out of ideas and I am running out of patience. Sometimes they don't even bother to email me the topic and when I complain to my boss she tells me that the kids will 'love' me because I am 'so gorgeous'. I understand this probably seems not so bad, but not when I need to stand in front of a class for 2 hours with practically nothing prepared!
So...I suppose I am looking for advice on 2 fronts, how the hell do I fill a 2 hour lesson with 'good morning' etc and is this normal??
Thank you in advance!