Summer camp madness

[con's fly is open]

What do you do when your brats louse up your home while they're on summer break? Why, send them to camp, of course. Who all's teaching one right now?

I'm taking on hoards of new kids who were getting on their parents' nerves, and the two lame classes I teach for grade 6/middle school are swelling.

And my textbook is a piece of poo.

The problem with a child is that
it grows into a pre-teen brat.

Starting to hate kids. 26 more days until vacation.

[Canuck]

I started a class of teenagers this week.. oh, my god!!! I want to finish this class and be able to say that the students learned something. I must have been spoiled here teaching mostly adults or university grads who have been out of school for a few years and know what life is about. I've never seen a less motivated group of people in my life.

Does anybody know of some good conversational English games. I am having some difficulty keeping them occupied and entertained long enough so that I can slip in something useful once in a while, without them catching on.

definition of a teenager: Someone who knows everything and is quickly going about proving that they don't.

[George61]

Teach them to play cards......they can do that! Teach the English names of the cards and give them a game where they have to speak....Snap, Fish, Black Bitch, Chase the Ace....

[Shane]

Guys, welcome to my world- I've been teaching nothing but young kids & teens for the past four years! After a while you become desensitised to it. Sometimes, I simply stand there at the front and teach them in the same way they 'study'.

Anyway, I like to get them to do some kind of class speaking activity, like stand at the front and introduce themselves. At first, they're horrified about standing at the front, but once the first kid has done it, you ask him or her to choose the next 'victim'. after that, they all want to do it, so they can drop their friends in it. ;D

[con's fly is open]

Clever! I'll try that. I write a tongue twister at the top of the board: every time one of them makes a mistake, they have to recite it. Leading up to the break and the end of class, I tell them that they can leave... as soon as they get a difficult problem done correctly. Then the little bastards pay attention.

That all consumes 15 minutes; the other 60 are the problem. Adding to the horror is the fact that there are new students in every class, their ability varies widely, and most of them are painfully shy. I'll go like I did this week: ask them an open-ended question that can't be answered in a monosyllable, after writing out the appropriate grammar on the board. I need to get them talking more, and more easily and freely.

As for the middle schoolers, I just don't know. I taught them all of last year, and I'm all out of stories and topics.

[gengrant]

i played a game with students called 'hot seat.'

person sits up front and the students (randomly) ask them five questions (can be general or personal...I like the personal ones better...makes the hot seat hotter)
one at a time...and out of the five, they may choose not to answer one of them. I've had students who answered all the questions, but it's rare.

The trick here is that if they choose not to answer question #1, they don't know what the next 4 are, and they must answer them. Usually it's the 'real' personal ones they don't want to answer, but if they don't know when it's coming, it does make it a challenge for them.

Questions must be deeper than 'yes or no' and must always be in complete sentences. I always asked them to be as honest as they could...and they could share as much or as little detail as they wanted. I told them as long as it wasn't harmful or illegal, I would not tell their parents or my bosses.

The kids actually loved this one...especially cause they could get some good 'dirt' on their classmates...but they did have to take their turn on the hot seat too...

[con's fly is open]

GG, that's brilliant! Especially for pre-teens, who are embarrassed about EVERYTHING. I'll mull that over.

[Roger]

I LOVE pre-teens - sorry Mr Fly-is-open! No problem handling them! They are my preferred darlings that beat "adults" sitting on their poo-pots!
I know of the dilemma teaching primary school kids, of course; I say: loosen up! Don't think they "want" to learn English! You must guide them rather than give them options!
No need to teach them how to say "Hello!" correctly - there are so many remedies needed: overcoming their pronunciation and accent troubles; the 'schwa', ingrained grammar glitches, intonation...

[con's fly is open]

By "pre-teens" I mean grade 6 and middle school. They're marvellous kids, but I have a lousy textbook with little real curriculum; left to my own devices, I've run out of topics to discuss, stories to tell, games and activities...

And their rather difficult behaviour inevitably ensues. Younger kids are easy: good textbooks, songs, activities...

[woza17]

Hey Roger
how are you I have to go with Roger on this one. I love this age group. Task based learning is the way to go. Give them something to do.
Focus them. I have been sitting in on a few classes, Chinese and FTs and I see the same problem, not enough involvement from the students which should be teacher directed.
I don't want to sound like a smart ass but I am learning all the time, what works. Teaching is the most creative job I have ever had. It allows me to express myself and be the biggest idiot ever which would be frowned upon in the corporate world.
I can show my love and feelings and be recognised for that .
I really think teaching is a vocation. I have seen Roger with a student and respect.

[George61]

I have seen Roger

You have seen Roger?? He really exists??
Yep.Primary kids is the way to go in China.

[acjade]

At home my favourite age group was the tinies. But the littlies here all seem to be on some form of speed. In my opinion it's the TA's who hype them up.

I'm waiting for the water to come on so I can shower before heading off to the 2-day camp.
This will be an interesting experience. I really hate it when the organisers of these events say, 'This will be easy for you.'
He rang again last night and repeated his mantra so this time I replied, 'Yes. At 100 kwai an hour it will be ok. Do I have a private room?'
'Yes. It's a hotel ....'

Now I have visions of being turned out of bed at 5:ooam and driven miles away from the hotel. If this happens I will take long bush walks by myself after my two hours teaching.'
But perhaps I'm just scaring myself.

[Mr Nobody]

I live in fear of all those under the age of 18.

Logic and (Highly limited) experience tell me they aren't too bad in China, but my heart remembers Oz Kids.

[Decurso]

I teach kids ages 5-18 in my classes and I really dread the classes with kids under 13.You are expected not so much to be a teacher as an entertainer.And the texts just make me groan.

I too may be shipped off to summer camp hell in Shandong.10 days of babysitting duty is not my idea of a good time.I'm praying they send my wife instead...she likes camping...I do not.She is good with kids...I'd prefer to stick with the 13 and ups.

[Canuck]

I have a class of 18 students aged from 7 thru to 26, mostly middle school kids from 13 to 16, in a 20 day summer schedule class.. (not a summer camp exactly). Of course the different age groups have different interests. I am using New Interchange it is new to me and I find it is rather limiting . I turned my students onto crossword puzzles to get them to review vocabulary because they had little interest in it. They love them and have started to focus on learning new vocabulary, now they pay attention when I go through vocabulary exercises and usage in the beginning of the class. Last night I went out and bought some dice and made up some boards for playing ask and tell. I introduced this game today and it got everybody talking, in groups. A break through for this class.

[con's fly is open]

A crossword puzzle! My kingdom for some graph paper...

[Canuck]

Thanks Nate..

natem said:

I just found an online, crossword puzzle creator that people might find helpful if they're looking to kill some time in class.

www.varietygames.com/cw/

If you have access to a computer, printer and lots of paper you are set..

[Decurso]

I actually like the New Interchange books.The problem is they are often used for kids who are so not ready for it.It is very advanced...and I have had to teach it to 13 year olds who don't know the meaning of "biggest" and "longer".I don't know who deems people ready for this kind of material...but they seem to screw up a lot.

[Canuck]

I've taught in a few training centers here in Beijing recently that have left me wondering if they even evaluate the students.. one really bad one has zero beginners, intermediate and advanced in the same class studying a beginners book. Naturally the advanced students leave quickly, and the zero beginners struggle to complete a spoken sentence. The summer schedule class that I teach has too broad an age range and I'm beginning to think the book is a little advanced for them in terms of vocab.. the middle school students have the grammar down pat of course (I don't teach grammar directly).

[con's fly is open]

My special summer classes:

High school grad: It's a grab bag every morning, of students I know and/or don't, whose English is powerful/sucks bag. I have to be prepared for anything, literally anything. It means I have to have several lesson plans on deck every day, and sometimes use parts of more than one, as students leave or show up for the 2nd half. Challenging, to say the least. But the school's cleanng up.

Middle school: to a lesser extent, the same thing: i'm rarely getting strangers, but how many show up, and how good their English is, is a card drawn from the deck.

Grade 6: The spread in ability is daunting, and discipline is bad. Today I resoved to keep them busy with activities: I had them write "1. My favourite toy _____" on a piece of paper, finishing the sentence of course, then switch and write "2. One of my best friends ________"; repeat until 10 sentences were complete. Then I collected, shuffled and returned the papers, and we went around reciting the answers one by one. Since I was facing them instead of the board, I could crack down on the chatter; since they were busy they couldn't make much trouble; and I got to review their reading, listening and writing skills. My findings:

1. Most of their grammar is, what's the adjective? Fecal. I'm gonna be a bully about it.
2. Their ability to follow instructions is dreadful. I'm gonna give more orders from now on.
3. Their spelling, on the fly, is bad. Same in Canada, so what's a guy to do?
4. Being busier makes them happier. Activity-based lessons are the way to go.
5. If I'm gonna make each of them talk, the answers can't be long- the others don't pay attention for long.

Christ, teaching is work! I'd forgotten. Now that the honeymoon's worn off, and I've been teaching every day for almost a month, I'm earning my money.

Somehow there's a way to teach well with little effort. I haven't quite figured out how yet, but one day I will. 22 days until vacation.

[Canuck]

I spend the first hour going over vocab, conversation from the text, grammar exercises etc.( I give a few examples of sentences using the grammar in the book then get the students to make a sentence using the structure.) and role-plays as I have an oral English class. I'm trying to get a collection of games they like and that they can get something out of for the second 1.5 hours. And send them home with a crossword puzzle to review the days vocab, word meaning and usage as clues. Sometimes I give them the crossword puzzle in class. I've started to use two activities at the same time in the free speaking part of the class so that I can keep everybody busy. 11 days left. How can you succesfully teach a language level in 20 days, two and a half hours each day?

[amewupp]

Well, tomorrow is the last day of my first summer session. It went well except for the fact that I have a mixture of levels and ages and only 4 days at 2 hours a pop to teach each "theme". The curriculum was mostly planned out already, and I think that if my school *honestly* expects the kids to have retained everything or even the majority of) we've covered, they're crazy!
So we'll see how week 2 goes. I'm thinking some changes are in order. But at least the kids were pretty good and the topic not too bad.

Oh and Decurso, I like the New Interchange books also, though I use them strictly for adults. Have you seen the VCD's the go with them? They're terrible and amusing all at the same time

[woza17]

Vey insightful. I find new interchage limiting and only use about a quarter of the stuff, I like to bring my own resources. My thinking is and Lotus will back me up on this is that I want the kids to retain what they have learnt and so a lot of reviewing using good games until it is drilled into their heads.
Con you Matyr, next year come and do the summer camp with me. I know you would really love it.

One of the things I do every day is a weather report from different countries I have a map of the world. I write a weather report on the board get 2 students up the front one reads the weather report and the other puts the name of the country and capitol city in the right place and the weather symbol I also do the time. It's a very good drill and the kids find it interesting. I like aq lot of structure in my class the kids know what to expect and are ready for it

[con's fly is open]

Thanks, Woz, for reminding me! I taught weather reports to one class, and they caught on like gangbusters! I should make this the opening feature every class: a different student will give the report every time. Only kills 2 minutes, but what a gimmick! All I have to do is find a website that will report this area in English...

Compared with this grind? Yer on, woman! Make room for me next summer.

Good day today: 4 classes, all winners. I've turned some of the lemons around: crap students are actually learning, some averages are catching up to the pack, and the atmosphere was good. Actually a good week all around: vowed to shake things up in the good classes, and fix the stinky ones. So far so good...

I just jinxed myself for tomorrow, the Sunday meatgrinder. Off to prepare...

[Canuck]

Wow, my brief stint with summer schedule teenagers is almost over, 2 days left. I admire all those of you who have the right talents and skills to pull this off, kudos. I am feeling a bit of a failure 'cause I don't have the right stuff for it.