Teaching.

This week, I began taking groups of kids to do English classes. Even though I had only had one of the two weekends involved in the teaching course, it was decided I should start and get some experience.

Overall impression - pretty good. I'll be able to manage this for a year I think.
On Monday I had a group of 8. Tuesday a group of 6 then a group of 4. Wednesday a group of 6. Thursday a group of 6 then a group of 7.

What I did on the first three days seemed to be well received by the kids. I did the hello song then taught them the colours using coloured beads, which I handed out after repeating the name several times. Then I had the colours lined up at the end of the room and had kids trying to find what I was looking for, eg. "Yellow. Find yellow. Where's yellow?" Most of them managed it just fine, and if they didn't, I still turned it into a lesson for them and the other kids. After colours I finished off with a couple of rhymes using actions and the goodbye song.

On Thursday I did the exact same routine, except, well, the first group were pretty awful. Three kids especially. They would not shut up, stay seated, refrain from hurting each other... and the other three weren't helping, just laughing or joining in with the rubbish. I tried using a stern voice. I tried raising my voice. I tried talking to kids with their names and getting down to their eye-level and saying stop, be quiet. etc. Eventually I tried just sitting there waiting for them to get bored and cut it out. But nothing worked. Half-way through the colours activity, I just called an end to it and took them back to the group room and asked the teacher to have a bit of a chat with them about it.

By the way, I speak only English in all my lessons. That's one of the rules of the course I teach. You use movements, songs, plastic figures, etc. to help the kids understand the words you say. But when it gets out of hand, sometimes it would be really convenient to just use German. And I'm not allowed. Oh well! The second group I took on Tuesday had listened to the lecture from the teacher about the first group, and were more well-behaved. At least I was able to get through the full lesson with them.

I spent Friday and yesterday (Saturday) at the English course. On Friday we learned more songs and games and yesterday, each of us students had to present a half-hour Pat's English class in front of Christine (the teacher) and the head of the parent company that runs all the Pat's Kindergartens. We used our five fellow students as the kids. I went first and did colours, slightly differently, followed by Incy Wincy Spider and If You're Happy and You Know It. I got mostly good feedback, the only thing was I could have done more in each activity because I only made it a bit over 20 minutes. Christine said that wasn't a big problem though so I was happy.

Now the course is over, I've met some new friends because of it, and it's up to me to pass the wealth of knowledge onto the children of today! Wow, that was epic.