He/she can give you more information on the abilities of the students you will face. The HOD would be a good resource to answer many of the questions you've posed here. So you took a 120 hour course but never did any practice teaching with a live group?Originally Posted by mazaa
Yes, I thought this as well, the only reason I posted this question at all was because we have been informed that we will be expected to teach some introductory lessons in the afternoon after meeting with the staff. I'm not sure if this will actually end up happening, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
And yes, the "120" hour course was all online and did not involve any teaching practice. But hell, I was low on money and it was cheap. I am not too worried about standing up in front of a classroom, creating lesson plans/activities, etc, I was more worried about what to prepare when I have been given so little prep time or info about the students I will be teaching.
Do you think the activity I stated earlier would be useful?
---Update---
Well, he asked....
I should also mention, however, that my girlfriend is not white (Indian), so this may be an issue, although the woman in charge with recruitment has already seen our pictures and Skyped with us so it shouldn't come as a shock.
You'll find out on Monday. An essential part of being a teacher is to self-evaluate your materials and your presentation and to make adjustments as you go. You will present your introductory lesson to several classes at each grade level, so you'll get better at it as the week progresses. If the lesson crashes and burns to every class, then you have a problem with your lesson, your presentation or your expectations.
^ Good point. Maybe I shouldn't say this but, I often feel sorry for my first class on Monday. It's like they are guinnea pigs for that particular lesson. If the lesson I've prepared goes well, then fine, but if there are any weak spots then I'm always prepared to tweak the lesson.
Don't beat youself up if your first lesson doesn't go as well as you planned. Learn from it and improve it.
It's your first lesson with these students, I would just plan something about introductions, or asking personal questions. Give them some class rules, so they are aware of the boundaries within you class.
Put them in pairs or groups and ask them to make up questions to ask you. Award team points for speech, grammar, etc.
Good luck.
It wasn't me............I wasn't even there.
yeah, but you answered it. do you answer every stupid question people axe you?
fred
Ha! I know that feeling.
Next week: Production Possibility Curves and Opportunity Cost.
"Alai?"
Same old, same old Monday morning. I swear to Christ that Prathom 3 just pretend that they don't understand me.
Last edited by Anna Key; 27th October 2012 at 20:42.
"Take this, brother; may it serve you well."
I can't believe the Thais are still throwing good money away like this. The OPs wages would pay a couple of good golf cub memberships. Really, you'd have thought they would have learned by this time...
In case anybody is curious, the first week went by pretty smoothly. I didn't end up having to teach on the first day. In fact, I didn't have to teach for the first few days and instead had to help host the school Halloween celebrations (which were HILARIOUS). I am teaching Matthayom 1,2, and an advanced 6 class. The animal game has worked pretty well for all the younger classes, which I'm not actually supposed to grade, so the advanced class is the only real challenge. The school is wayyyy overfunded for the caliber of teachers they employ (including myself) so there are projector screens in every room, which makes coming up with entertaining lessons fairly easy. My boss is this Chinese lady who yells pretty much everything she says, which, although off-putting at first, is pretty entertaining.
A really helpful way I came up with to motivate all the classes to participate (and shut the f--k up) is too give each student a note card, on which they write their class number, student number, full Thai name, and English nickname. I have the class leaders pass out these cards at the beginning of every class and the class passes them back to me at the end. Whenever a student answers a question, writes something on the board, participates actively or is the member of a winning team in some activity, I give them a stamp on their note card. If they show up to class (reallllly) late or I catch them on their phones multiple times, I strike off a stamp with a black pen. They go crazy for it, especially the younger ones. Little do they know that it's all just BS and I'm not supposed to actually grade them....
I am a little unsure of what to do with the Matthayom 6 advanced English class though. Obviously animal vocabulary games are beneath them. They were studying ASEAN a lot last quarter so I decided to open the first day with a game show style "quiz" on facts about ASEAN, but they knew way more than I expected and I ended up finishing early. To fill time I had them vote on what type of long-term project they'd like to do and they decided on watching an American movie and then each having a one-on-one discussion with me about it during my office hours. They all wanted to choose American Pie, but I told them (sadly) it had to be a school-appropriate movie...
I haven't been given a lot of info on their skill level, or what I am actually supposed to be teaching them and want to give them some sort of diagnostic test to figure out where they are at, but I'm not really sure where to begin. I am afraid they are already not taking me seriously because I am not challenging them enough. Also, I have been dealing with the fact that all the girls in the class seem to have the hots for me (think of the classroom scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark...), which, since my girlfriend is also teaching at the same school as me, is not exactly a plus. I'm also only a few years older than them so I get the feeling that they definitely don't see me as an authority figure.
Any thoughts? Especially on how to initially gauge the skill level of a rather advanced class...
The first week(s) for a new teacher are all about survival and getting through it. Thais are crazy for rubber stamps, even the M6 students, so you've established a good connection with your M1 and M2 students already.
I show a lot of movies to my students. I pre-teach vocab from the movie by introducing the vocab through lines of dialog from the actual movie. In this way, they understand the proper usage of the word and become familiar with the dialog before seeing the movie. I show about 35 minutes of a movie each class, then put the students in pairs or groups to answer study questions I've prepared for them in advance on a handout. You could ask students to go to the WB to write their answers for review/grammar/spelling correction. After finishing the entire movie, I will try to lead a class discussion on themes in the movie. Finally, I administer an exam based on the movie's characters (matching), multiple choice, true/false, and short written answers if the students are up to it.
Don't focus on girls who may be attracted to you. Since you are the teacher, it's hands-off and you need to project that.
I feel sorry for any of your students. clearly you have no business teaching.
I've been teaching for two days buddy cut me some slack.
I think the troll's comment was directed at me. I've got lots of movies ... let me know if you're interested.
hmmm, a troll with a computer fetish
...and a chip on his shoulder?
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Bookmarks