It’s Tuesday morning, i set my alarm just in case but I woke up at 6.00 am with the sun. In just over 3 hours time I would be standing up to teach my very first english class with on experience. Nerves, nerves, nerves.
I hadn’t managed to finish planning, partly procrastination partly not knowing what i was doing. So the plan was to head in early, school was supposed to open around 7.30. All 3 of us newbies are at the door at 7.30 am and it’s locked. Panic, followed by oh well, lets in get something to eat. When we get back from the Kedi store (similar to a 7 Eleven) the school is open and we pile in to get our last preparation done.
I finally decide on a direction for the lesson and collect some flash cards, sticky balls, a pink teddy bear mouse, some hula hoops, a cd player, some crayons, white board markers and it’s 9.20, here goes nothing !
The classrooms are all named after cities and I am teaching in London. (see pics below) Sure enough there little kids start arriving, some say hello, others look a little confused and a few parents are hanging around at the door not helping my nerves. With the really young kids there is supposed to be a teaching assistant in the class with me but there is on sign of her. I quickly run to the front desk only to find out she is running late – great start I think as I walk back to class trying to look confident and as if I know what I’m doing.
Where to begin? Names, yes that will help. So I go around the class saying “hello, my name is Rory, what’s your name?” and getting each student to answer with “My name is … “. Then I’d reply, “Hello Tim” and then repeat with the next student. Thankfully they have all been given western names. As I went round I wrote their names on the board in the arrangement they sat to at least help remember who was who.
Phew, so it had begun and I was still alive. But I still had 1hr & 25min to fill. Next I introduced the new vocab with Flash cards, stressing pronunciation and getting them to repeat as a group and individually. Then some games to review the vocab. Started to get a feel for who was strong and who was weak, quite difficult making sure they all have a chance without getting bored etc. Then it was 10:10 and time for a 5 min break. And then back for the second Actual Class Hour (ACH) 40 min session.
Ok, I’m half way through, everyone is still alive, I can do this. My teaching assistant has arrived which will make instruction giving easier and after getting all the 7 kids back into the class I start the next session.
They listen to a cd and have to identify all the new vocab (book, scissors, glue, school bag, pencil and pencil-case). Then an activity for them to cut out the items and stick them into their work books. This kept them occupied with the teaching assistant observing while I filled out the attendance, homework and behavior book with marks and smiley faces.
Some of the kids were just too sweet – one girl, Daisy, kept coming to show me each item she cut out before she glued it in her book.
After they were finished a final review of the vocab with flash cards and class was over. What a relief, I actually went back to the staff room with a smile on my face, it wasn’t as bad I had expected and it was done. Although I was all too aware that I still had to plan my class which was at 14:20 with slightly older kids but I felt a little easier having the first ever lesson under my belt.
Then next lesson went OK too, and major relief having my first day over. But it was straight back to planning the lessons for Wednesday with another Playway class from 10 till 11:30 and then High-Flyers at 12:30 to 14:40 (yes, that’s 3 ACH/40 min sessions) how on earth was I going to keep ten 8 year olds occupied for just over 2 hours?
But it was 8 pm and my brain was fried so we headed out with some of the other foreign teachers for dinner and a beer after our first exhausting day of teaching.
What happened at dinner however is a whole other post, suffice to say it wasn’t just one beer and we didn’t get home until the next day…
Rau-lee you little buscuit! Dominating that classroom, son. Showing those little pikanins who’s boss – I like it.
Hahaha – Sounds super nerve-wrecking, chine. Was wondering about that resources checklist in your first classs for a minute (some lesson-planning by beer, perhaps?) but see how it all fit together in the end. Nice one! Keep up the good work.
And while you are in the teaching and mentoring mode, just remember not to pass on your P & D strategies to the youngsters. Save that for the 17yr olds…
And really looking forward to your next post about dinner – some things never change… 🙂
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How did you find this organization to teach English for in China? Did you need any training before you left? What made you decide to do it? I have only taught english for four days and found it very hard, especially without a real curriculum.
I went through an agency in South Africa but English First (EF) is a huge international language company and you can apply directly through their website.
I did a 40 hour TEFL training course and you had to have a university degree for the work permit in China.
With the economic crisis and job markets quite slack it was a chance to try something different as well as aspirations of learning Mandarin which proved to be very difficult.
Great story!