kids in the hall

a quick rundown on what my classes are like:

basically i have 2 types of classes. the first and easiest is whats called "free time lessons." basically these are lessons with 1-4 students and they have various levels. they are 40 minutes long. the first 5-10 minutes are usually intro games or questions i make up on the spot (unless i know the students, then its usually conversation about what we did this week) followed by a lesson for 30 minutes. before i start my shift i look at a schedule that says what students/levels i have in my free time slots.

example: lets say i look at the 18:00-18:40 time slot and notice i have three students for a f3 level. so i grab the explorer book (the text book for that level) and go into the room. i collect their ecc passports that show what lessons theyve done/havent done so far and choose one for them that they havent done yet. alot of the lessons are pretty lame (ie: q - what do you think about land prices in japan?...a - i think theyre crazy. houses and apartments are too expensive) but theyre really easy to teach. usually ill have 10 minutes inbetween free time lessons.

the second and more difficult type are the kids lessons. i usually have 2 per day to start off the shift. ages of the kids ranges from 2-4 (for an "al" class) to 4-6 (for an "am" class) to 6-9 (for a "bz" class). the easiest to manage are the 2-4 year olds because their guardians are in the classroom with them and if they run into the cushions or start crying then the guardians can deal with it. the toughest are the 4-6 year olds because alot of them either a: arent used to being without their parents, b: have had no previous exposure to english, or c: are spoiled rotten children who arent used to being told no. some are all 3 which amounts to a headache for yours truly.

the kids classes are 40-60 minutes long depending on the age. theres songs to sing, flashcards to chorus, games to play, attendance to take, homework to check, workbooks to write in, games to play, and activities to do (ie: last week in "bz" we had to make a kaleidoscope...having never made one before in my life i had some trouble). most of the kids are good and if theres problems my staff at my schools are generally very helpful.

on an unrelated note, i started group japanese lessons last week (every wednesday morning) and i will be fluent by next week.