Practice Month Part 3

Hello, my friends! I promised to tell you about my teaching experience more. Do you remember my first practice day? It was a nightmare! The next day I was supposed to have 5 (!) classes as a teacher. Their duration is not 40 min like at schools but 1h. So, I was supposed to have almost 8 school classes that day…

I had groups in the age range 6–11. Yes, I had another group of pre-school children… if you remember my first class, you’ll understand why I anticipated the worst. I was on cloud nine when I saw three little timid angels! They had nothing in common with the previous one. I had such a pleasure to be their teacher. Those little cuties could understand and even speak English! Well, still kids are kids, and sometimes very queer ideas come to their mind. In a nutshell, I ended up explaining exercises and checking their work on my knees, because those playful kittens decided that they wanted to have this class under their desks… they all just got down onto the floor and refused to get up for anything in the world. I understand that kids want some fun once in a while, so I decided to be a cool teacher and played along. I just let them stay with one condition — they had to listen to me and do their job. They didn’t expect me to be so permissive, and at first were rather taken aback, but in the end they got so excited that they joyfully answered all the questions and accomplished all the assignments. I just remembered one phrase of a wise teacher: “they can do whatever — sit on the desks or on the floor…and it’s okay as long as they do their English work. Also: allow them to talk! Yes, they can talk to each other as long as they do it in English”. So I learned an essential lesson — it’s right to let your students express themselves. Some fun won’t impede the studying process, vice versa — it’ll increase the productivity.