As many of you may know, I recently accepted a job to teach in Tainan. My only concern right now is the idea of just being thrown into a certain environment with no training. I am confident I can be a good kindergarten teacher, but I have no experience in the classroom. My only teaching job consisted of teaching students 1 on one.
The job I am taking only includes a 2 day “orientation” , but no actual training. Of course, I addressed these concerns with the man who was going to hire me. He said that the most important thing to them is finding someone who is open minded and willing to learn. He explained that it will be a learn through doing kind of process. Also, I should include that I will always have an assistant language teacher in my classroom with me.
So, what do you all think? Am I in way over my head thinking I can learn how to effectively teach kindy “on the fly” ? Or, will this be an easier transition than I think? Again, I am open minded and have a willingness to learn…I just have no experience with developing classroom activities, etc.
It’s not that bad. Well, at least for you it isn’t, haha.
I found myself in a similar situation and was pretty nervous about it. If you put effort into it and genuinely care, you’ll be fine.
Figure out how much material you need to cover for each lesson (typically just a few pages) and keep a regular pace. Your boss might simply tell you how many pages, or you might be told “you have 16 weeks to cover this whole book” and then it’s up to you to divide. Keep in mind you’ll have to save some time for tests, which there will be A LOT of.
I’ve never had an assistant, so I’m guessing it can either be a great support if you have a good relationship, or a nightmare if he/she barely speak English and seems like he/she’s more here to watch over you!
Know one thing about little kids that I found out also on the go while teaching: Whatever comes out of your mouth is The Truth! Use this power responsibly
Thanks for the advice. I am hoping that it will be a lot easier and stress free than I imagine it to be… Yes, I am aware of the risks that come with teaching kindergarten. Thanks for the heads up
Everyone’s got to start somewhere. Try not to teach. Be aware of how to get out of the classroom and to the safe area if there’s a raid. Other than that there’s little you need to know (basic first aid would help but, hey, this is Taiwan).
But if you’re teaching little kids - run around the web looking for classroom management tricks. Put together little routines and schedules that you will teach and use every single class. Young kids thrive in a structured environment, they like knowing what comes next. You’ll regret not doing this right at the beginning if you don’t!
There are a couple of really good teachers on these boards with great classroom management. Hopefully they’ll duck on the help you out.
Also, remember it’s kindy…the kids are little. See if you can break up the material into more manageable blocks or other activities with them. I’m sure there’s plenty of early childhood educational things around for you to peruse.
Training or no training, it makes no difference here because any “training” you would receive would not be particularly useful anyway. People who are really trained in anything, including teaching little children, receive many, many hours of teaching, supervised practical placements, and quality feedback. Not going to happen here. At best, the chain kindergartens provide a couple of days of teaching, no supervised practical placements, and the/any feedback is provided by non-professionals. It is what it is. The bosses don’t care, and the parents don’t care either or they’d seek out more professional establishments for their children.
The illegality of it all has already been addressed.
I had absolutely no experience with 3-5 year olds when I started teaching kindy, and the school I work at gave me no training at all. Basically, a friend of mine was going back home and I was the only guy who could take the job. Up to that point, I had only taught junior high. Well, I found out that I love teaching kids that age! As long as you are good with kids, don’t mind acting goofy, have a lot of patience, and have a pretty high tolerance for noise and chaos at times, you will be fine! I actually have fun up there most mornings, and the most discipline I ever have to do is write the trouble maker’s name on the board and act like something is going to happen after class (take them to the office, call their mother, whatever) and they generally straighten up pretty fast. If I feel like their attention spans are getting low and they are getting restless, we just sing a song or I do something goofy to get their attention. If it starts to get too crazy, I just give stars or whatever for ‘sitting nicely’, stuff like that. Once you get in the groove, everything is fine. I’ve found kindy to be the most pleasant age group to teach, but of course everybody’s different!
