If there is one thing I have learned from teaching conversational English classes is you have to be flexible. There are many days when I plan all of my lessons, and by the end I have maybe completed half of what I scheduled.
That doesn't mean that I didn't teach anything new or wasted my students' time; they just didn't go as I planned. With adult classes students will sometimes bring in a topic or article that they want to discuss, or they have a question and it ends up being an hour-long conversation.
Children's classes present a different challenge. Some days the children don't want to focus; they find the bookwork boring, are not interested in studying, or they are feeling tired. So I've had to quickly learn how to create games and activities on the spot. Sometime it is as simple as using the white board to study new vocabulary. Other times it means I have to jump around the classroom acting silly to boost their energy level (by the way, playing red light, green light in heels is not easy ^^;>)
I figure as long as the students are learning new words and using them correctly, I can come back to the planned lesson next time. It is more important to keep the student comfortable and interested in learning English. And the unexpected lessons are always a lot of fun! I can never predict how my day is going to be. I just know that it is always interesting! ^_-
No comments:
Post a Comment