So after working in Taiwan for over 5 years, teaching only 5~8 grade students at a public school I went home for a period to rest and take care of a few things. However, when I returned the school I was working in doesn’t want to hire me back at my previous salary or position (pressure from a PTA mom is what one of the CSTeachers told me). Therefore I had to find a new school and ended up in a small cram school, when they lured me in they promised a high pay and that my students would be older, similar in age to my previous school. In reality my pay is even a fraction of my old school the majority of my students are toddlers aged 3-5. On top of teaching kids not even in kinddy is the crappy books and complete lack of structure. The book is Cambridge young learners series (for the 6-8yr olds) and the few older students have the interchange series.
I’m still looking for another school and trying to get back into a public or private school but will be stuck until like august or September.
However my stubbornness is keeping me in this school. So since my experience with toddlers and very young children is limited I hoping someone can advise me on activities or lessons or methods to teach them. The classes are huge about 5-10 kid show up on any give day with a max of 15. Since mist of my prep work I’d tossed out in the first 15mins of the 90 min class I am at my wits end with the bosses partner telling me I should introduce some new activities and basically just be as loud as f’ing possible ( something that’s against my previous experiences).
So can you help a cram school newbie out?
Also please pardon my misspellings or rambling like writing as I’m using my iPhone and I’m tired from working.
The problem often is that they want you to do science for 45 minutes, then English for 45 minutes, then vocabulary for 45 minutes and it just doesn’t work. Try to alternate activities and do something new every 5 to 10 minutes. An activitytat reviews quickly what you dod an hour ago would be great. It should keep them engaged and it should keep you sane. Songs wth movement are great and you can do them at any time. Work out some easy rhymes for things like when you want the kids to go to the bathroom, look at the board, get their color pencils or crayons etc. If they start copying the rhymes, which they will, the parents will love you.
Something I will never get is how someone who works at a Uni (yes less hours) can earn the same amount of oney as someone who throws around a sticky ball in a kindy. Something wrong here.
Hope these ideas help a llittle and you get back your real job soon enough.
Interchange!
90 minute lessons for 3 year olds!
I’m afraid that I can’t offer you any positive advice.
90 minutes is LONG but this is what I would do. 9 ten minute sessions. You have to keep changing things up to keep their attention.
- basic greetings. Have them greet each other. Start out with the old standby of How are you? I’m fine, thank you. Yeah, I know it’s overused, but you gotta start somewhere.
- song + dance. Little kids love singing and dancing. Teach a new song every week. First couple of weeks will be slow singing the same few songs over and over again, but after they’ve got a bunch under their belt, you can up the minutes to 15 or 20 easily. Go buy a copy of Wee Sing.
- phonics. Do 3 letters a week. Start with lower case consonants. Again, slow the first couple of weeks, but it’ll pick up.
- a game. Teacher says is fun for that age group.
- numbers
- colors
- tracing activity. They sell a really big book for early learners at costco. This could be for 20 minutes.
- end with another song and dance
- contact books
Repeat every day. You should see results in a month.
[quote=“Gladiator”]Business or not, the law states you can not provide as a Taiwanese, Chinese or Foreigner; teaching of English for those under 7 years of age.
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Thanks for pointing that out, if anyone wants to discuss this aspect further, let’s do it here: Kindergarten laws
I am currently teaching 17 3-4 year olds. Here are my tips for you:
Be ridiculous. Do stupid things that make them laugh. Something as simple as blowing up a balloon, hitting them on the head, and making a weird noise will make them giggle. When you sing songs, make stupid motions. Teach them things they think will be funny. I got my kids to really nail down the you are / I am / he is etc by practicing saying “you are a gorilla” “you are a hamburger” and calling them stupid things they thought were funny.
Play lots of games, even short little stupid ones. Kids this age have a very short attention span and you need to break up teaching with fun games. Besides, these kids aren’t motivated by studying or being able to speak another language, they only think about what’s fun. Some of my best games are the stupidest and simplest ones. For instance, when I taught the word “volcano”, it just didn’t stick. So we crouched on the ground and “erupted” everytime I yelled the word volcano. Now they know that word, and it takes 30 seconds to play that game, and it brings kids to focus after jumping up and down.
Fall into routines. Every day, I start my class talking about the date, weather, and our feelings. It took a long time, but now they know the answers to those questions like the back of their hands.
BE PATIENT! These kids WILL cry, poop their pants, and piss you off. Remember, they’re only 4 years old and be patient with them. If you have any siblings/cousins/children, remember how they acted at that age.