There has not been a school year in which I would not actually go to school, not since 2007, anyway but, somehow, every year is different, in its own way. This year I went back to teaching a lot of students individually, online, and then back to groups of preschoolers offline.
The classroom and the resources
Long story short: Nothing happens overnight, nothing happens in a blink.
Naturally, I hope for all of us teachers out there, that we enter the classroom in a kindergarten, in a language school, in the student’s home or in a language studio and everything is just as we imagined and the classroom is just perfect, teacher and student-friendly and we have all of the resources and organised beautifully.
In case it is not (and, most likely, it will not be so, in about 99% of cases), it will take some time to get it into shape.
During our sessions on the course I keep telling teachers that it is the most precious thing, to have this ideal pre-school classroom at the back of your head because it will help shape the real environment in which we find ourselves with our students.
This year, it has taken me about two months, to turn the classroom into a place that we all enjoy being in and which works out logistically, with our routine and with our numbers.
It is not a very big place and we have to share it with some other classes, groups and adults, but we have enough room for the small chairs and the hello circle, one big table for our writing and craft and a bit TV and room in front of it for dancing and singing. We have two small cupboards for our resources and lots and lots of walls for our posters and materials.
I have already figured out the layout of the resources and I have organised the flashcards, too. I am not using a basket this year but I have a box for all of the resources for each group where I keep all of the resources for the unit. It makes preparing for each group a bit easier without putting them all away every single day. And, at the same time, I can put them all away not to get in the way when someone else is using the classroom.
The teacher
There is only one thing here (a word from an old hand): dear teacher, be good to yourself. We want the best for our students, we work hard, we teach, we prepare, we reflect and do a better job next time. No two groups are alike and but, with a little bit of time and patience, we can get good results. Kids Can! Teachers Can!
The kids
My students are, of course, amazing. Some of them have been with the school for some time, studying with some other teachers in the past, some of them are new to the school and to learning English. The approach is just being open-minded and working, step by step, towards the routine that I would like to have.
The older group have got used to it pretty quickly and it was relatively easy to just work effectively, with an established routine.
The younger group is still work in progress because we get new students joining in. As a result, wee have been at the stage of ‘building the routine’ since September, simply because every time I think ‘oh, I think that’s that’, there is a new student and, in a way, we go back to square one.Everyone needs a fair chance and the time necessary to figure things out, to get to know the other children and to learn the ropes. It does help a lot that the ‘old’ students (aka those who have been in the group since the start of the year) are our beautiful role-models and we are catching up again.
The activities (and the pairwork)
Our hello circle is quite a long one and in every lesson we talk about all of the following:
- Homework check
- My name is…and I want…(kids introduce themselves and ask for something, I draw it on our mini-whiteboard)
- What’s the weather like today? (asking and answering questions and then putting the relevant pictures up on the board)
- Hello song
- Clothes: Who’s wearing jeans?
- Christmas Words Advent Calendar (only in December)
- Literacy practice (only the older group)
- A revision game (based on what we have covered so far, different, depending on the group)
The older group have started doing pairwork and it has worked amazingly well.
- They have been in one group for two years already and they know each other very well
- They have had a chance to lead certain activities
- I have used the seating from the hello circle (small chairs in a circle, we only moved them a bit for the kids to face each other)
- We have used an activity they already know well (a set of flashcards and a question – answer: Are you scared of…? – I’m scared / I’m not scared /I’m brave / I like..). We have done this activity a few times with the teacher leading and with a student leading for the whole group.
- If you are interested in setting up pairwork with a beginner group, have a look at the earlier post here.
The other activities that have been a hit this year:
- Secret words here
- Soft toys: for body parts, for prepositions, counting and colours
- lots of adjectives for emotions (now we have 16 to choose from) for our hello circle
- Funky Envelope
- Little hearts for ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’ and a very big heart for ‘I love’ which the kids requested))
Happy teaching!