Help with first day. pleeaaaaassse

[Jollyjunklass]

Hi guys,
I'm wondering if you could help me out. I'm very nervous about the first day of class and unlike my friend Bond the sound of winging it scares the daylights out of me.

Will they interact on the first day? I am talking about University students in particular, but any other info will be helpful. If you have the patience could you tell me a bit about your first day.

I really need to gather some ideas, I have checked out a lot of ice breakers on the net but still wouldn't mind your views. What could go wrong, what can you do with silent gaps. I don't think I have the nerve to go on for 40 minutes straight.

Also, if I choose this University she wants me there on the 26th of July to teach some smaller kids. Any help here would be appreciated also.

Thanks,
Millana

[George61]

;D ;D

Shaking in the boots, are we??
I think we should let you shake a little longer.

Dum - de - dumm.....
Sorry, what was the question again??


I think you should write your lesson plan on the flight over. It'll take your mind off cigarettes.


Nothing can go wrong!!
Murphy's Law doesn't apply in China.


Who told you about silent gaps?
They only happen when you ask a question.




Pretend you're a teacher.
Treat them like students.



26th of July?
Ha! plenty of time..a whole 20 days!





Have you done your packing yet?
Checked your checklist?





Feeling better yet?







Piece 'o piss!
Introduce yourself.
Tell them a bit about your flight.
Tell them you only arrived in China 20 minutes ago.
Tell them how beautiful China is.
Ask them to ask you questions about Canadada.
Ask their names.
Try to pronounce their names.
Ask them how to learn Chinese.
It's not a lesson.
It's a conversation.












You'll be fine.
Don't panic. ;D


;D ;D

[Jollyjunklass]

What a pal

By chance, can I smoke in this classroom. A smoke to go along with my 10 vodka shooters before entering, especially with friends like you.

[Jollyjunklass]

And did I forget to mention, I think I'm a little behind schedule. How do they deal with promptness?

[George61]

How do they deal with promptness?

Urally there is a person who checks each classroom on his/her floor to make sure you are in on time. Down in the little black book if you are late!!
Sorry, no smoking in the classroom. The students will nag you..."Smoking is bad for the health"

Behind schedule, already? That is sooooo bad!

[gengrant]

Millana, as I told you in my PM, you'll be fine...just relax...use that stress ball idea!

How do they deal with promptness?

I bought a little thing for my wrist called a 'watch' that actually keeps decent time and tells me (figuratively) the time when I want to know! and if i run out of time, then so be it...

[Jollyjunklass]

A watch eh, hmm good idea, I think I'll pick me up one of those little gadgets. Might see a big improvement. While I'm at it I think I'll try to score an alarm clock, are they plentiful in China or should I pick one up here.

[Mr Nobody]

Is this some kind of a wind up thingy, this watch?

[Jollyjunklass]

LOL, maybe in OZ they are, but hey, we are way beyond the wind up thingies here. We have real watches with real batteries.

[con's fly is open]

Write "What's your major?" on the board, explain what it means, then ask them. small talk is valuable in any language.

Aqnd George is right: pretend you're a teacher. They're suckers. And you're older and craftier. Just have fun with the first class. OH! Tongue twister! Work on their pronunciation. "Wow" and "Vow" are good for the v-w split, which is child's play to explain and has an immediate effect. Same with "How now, brown cow?" It's that transition sound, /ae/ to "oh".

Yeah, a little voicework will show them your worth right off the bat.

And have fun with it! The early classes are easy- it's later on, when you start running out of ideas, that the real challenge comes.

[con's fly is open]

Oh yeah, kids. Teach them a simple song. "Baby Ducks" oror better yet "Head and Shoulders". Do the routines: How are you? How OLD are you? What's your name? Ya know. And find out their level of English and teach them a couple of words. If you go in knowing nothing, stick to body parts, figure out in class which ones they know, and throw in a couple of new ones: fingernail, eyelash, knuckle, penis, whatever.

They'll love you- you're foreign. Smile a lot with the kids.

[gengrant]

And have fun with it! The early classes are easy- it's later on, when you start running out of ideas, that the real challenge comes.

can I get an AMEN? oh, wait...wrong thread...

just make sure you have more to do than time to do it...as I said before in my PM, if you have empty space, the students WILL find a way to fill it...usually in ways that you won't like.

And some students love to try and be the teacher...each class period ask one student to come up front and be the teacher...have them prepare a short lesson on any topic (maybe not?) and have them teach in English for 5-10 minutes...some will love this...others won't. Plus, it gives you a chance to find out some of their interests.

[Jollyjunklass]

Thanks, and just for you AMEN, HALLELUJAH, ALMIGHTY, GLORIA and THANK THE LORD and GOD ABOVE, now may you REST IN PEACE. Okay will they talk on the first day. These were my thoughts. I found this tell me if you think it will work. I kinda like it, but will they have the nerve, and is it too complicated.

Start the first class by telling the students your name only. No other information about the teacher should be shared. Then ask them to write down 5 questions they would like to ask you, the teacher, about whatever they may be interested in knowing about you.

As they are doing this, write down each student's name on the board. Once they've written down their questions, ask one student to come to the front of the class and explain that this student will now play the role of you, the teacher, and will answer 5 of the students' questions, to the best of their guessing abilities. It is important to divulge the way the ice breaker works only after the students have finished writing their questions so as not to have any impact on the type of questions they will write down.Give a "point" to the student role-playing the teacher for each correct answer (or "close enough" answer) and an 'x' for an incorrect one.

Each student takes turns guessing the answers to the students' questions until each student has answered 5 questions. Encourage the students to re-ask questions which were previously answered incorrectly to gain more information about you, the teacher. Once every student has had a chance to role-play the role of the teacher, volunteer or answer the questions about you which were left answered incorrectly.

At the end of this activity, the students have accomplished many things. Firstly, they have learned a lot of info about you. Secondly, they have asked a multitude of different questions, learning new question-expressions from each other as they go along. Thirdly, they have been both asking AND answering questions, the key to any conversation class. Fourthly, it makes them more comfortable, since they aren't saying anything about themselves, which some students may be reluctant to do during the first class. Also, they are learning each other's names.

This is also beneficial to the teacher, as it puts the students at ease and makes them feel better about talking about themselves in later classes. Secondly, the students get used to doing most of the talking, some of which aren't used to this type of class dynamics.

This can also set up another activity where the students learn about each other.

Every time I've used this activity, the students have enjoyed it very much, laughing and sometimes providing funny answers. One time, one student's question was "how old are you", to which the student role-playing answered "47". I'm actually 28 yrs old. The students laughed, and I pretended to be surprised and angry (for a fleeting moment of course - all in good fun), before putting a HUGE 'x' on the board next to her name.

Is it too overdone?

[gengrant]

i could see it working as long as you don't have a class of 40+ students...if so, that could be a week's worth of lessons...

shalome and oy vay to you too...

[Jollyjunklass]

Okay, GG thanks, maybe I'll get lucky and some experienced Ft at the school will help me when I get there. Please do me a big favour though, lol, PRAY long and hard k , you know those recital type prayers. I'll focus on my scrunch ball, you focus on the aura. I will fill you in with exact dates and times.

[con's fly is open]

Such a good idea that I think I'll steal it.

Cheers! I'd say good luck, but you won't need it.

[Jollyjunklass]

Thanks Con, you pray too k lol. If I make it through the first day without fainting drinks are on me. Literally!!

[Arlis]

You're teaching Uni kids right? English Majors or just studying English for the CET tests? If they're English majors then perhaps an actual lesson might give you some credibility with the minority of students that actual know real english teaching ...

Well I remember my first day teaching university kids (first time I taught english in a classroom situation) and my god was I nervous. With no experienced FT to prevent the shakes happening and to give some good advice (hell I wasn't even an alcoholic at that time so I didn't think about drinking), I immediately started looking up all info I could about first days and what's good to do on first days.

So I settled on a "good" lesson from someone who wrote it up on the net and went on my merry way full of confidence.

Mistake 1): Lesson plans work best when you've had experience with them. Your own lesson plans work best because you've probably watched it blow up in your face before and worked out those kinks. Other people's lessons plans can easily blow up in your face (unless you're very skilled and confident) - just like me on my first day

Mistake 2): Unless you've done it before, facing a classroom of 50+ students will freak you out. Uni students right? Not sure what your numbers will be, but be prepared for the worst. Oh, as an added bonus, facing 50+ students makes you forget your lesson plan - especially if it wasn't yours - just like I did!

Mistake 3): Students may can have a slim chance of being your onlymost valued companion/s. So squeezing blood from a stone with their listening skills may just bite you in the ass ( barkeep, a long island iced tea please). Let me further explain what happened. (note: I'm sure you know all this already, I'm just echoing what's in your head)

If I could re-do what I did last year, it would be to drop my lesson plan in it's entirety and spend the whole class greeting my students, talking with them, and just rambling all about myself. All of those things George mentioned. Why? A number of reasons.

Mistake 1) & 2) are a couple. Also, you'll probably be teaching these kids for however long. You might probably will meet them out of school hours and you need to build some rapport with them if you want to teach them (especially those non-english majors). I mean, think about it. If you're about to move into a dormitory with a room full of strangers, or even take a 3 day trip with a bunch of people, do you really want to lay down the law straight away?

Why not talk to them for a bit. They'll be shy, but the ones who respond will be your biggest advocate in the classroom (or your enemy) and you can hunt them down for answers later on whenever there are silent gaps. Ask them easy questions first, like their name, their majors, which hometown they're from, their hobbies - easy stuff that easily rolls off people's mouths. Questions like what George wrote.

What about you? Not sure what to say about yourself? Why not search for those English Corner questions and answer them there in the first class (cause God knows they'll hunt you down and ask you anyway). This way you can get them out of the way for (hopefully) some better questions later down the track. Or answer some of George's questions.

Not sure what else I can add - umm, just relax. You may be freaking out, but it's really just a conversation amongst people you don't know. Think of it like a social gathering. Sure, everyone's looking at you, but all you really need to do is relax, be friendly, and smile a lot. I mean that's really what your students want from you on the first day - really.

[MK]

'Getting to know you stuff' will be great. The fact you are even stressing about this instead of just turning up and winging it, or turning up drunk and winging it, or not turning up at at all, proves that you are better than 90% of the so called foreign teachers already here.

But, as I have said before and will doubtless say again, This web-site's stuff works great for oral English in China if you are really stuck.

[Jollyjunklass]

Thanks,
I hear ya Arlis, I am as afraid as you were. I can picture a total freeze. The more interactive, the better I'll be, do I ask them questions one by one or just throw them out there. What if I tossed them a bean bag or something, just to get it going and to relieve the tension.

I definitely know I am not capable of a straight 40 min biography, especially in that state of mind. Is it much better for you know, how long did it take to jump over the hurdle.

Thanks for the site MK, what if I ask them all to write a small journal so I can get a feel for them, like to hand in the next day type thing. Also, will I be asking their Chinese names or do they have English names. I have a Chinese friend I have met and I still can't pronounce her name correctly. I would like to give out name tags. Also, is there usually some type of premade seating plan or class list?

[Jollyjunklass]

Not sure, but I think I may have just come up with a bit of a game plan. Upon taking Jade's suggestion, I started to collect my pictures, labels and things. For years I have been collecting really colourful images, anything that catches my eye. I have some real nice calenders, and many many photos of stuff I love, magazine clippings and such. A lot of it's fruit, veggies, and just different poo.

So here is my plan . All criticism is welcome ;D.

I will hand out around three or so images to each kid, along with index cards and little name cards, HELLO MY NAME is ...fill in the blank, stickie type things. I will begin a discussion related to these pics. Ask them if there are any questions for me. Surely they will have many ( I hope), curiosity killed the cat. Or if they can tell me what the pictures are. I will walk around with my perma smile, hand out the pics and gleefully say nice to meet you, that sort of deal.

I will also ask them 4 specific questions to answer on the back of their index cards for my future reference, with their name badge thingy on front. I would like to get some photo loving guy to take a pic of them all so I could attach this to their name. However, that might be pushing poo. Maybe second day. Just so I can take them home in an effort to analyzetheir faces names. I can make small 2by 2" and print them out for them. I have poo loads of photo paper.

I will pick up their index cards at the end, and then the next day they have to retrieve them from me, more reinforcement to get to know them.

Well, how does it sound, is it doable. This wouldn't be too bad for me to carry off. I think it might work, do you?

For a few days I will ask them to leave these folded index cards on their desk, for my sake. Do they go by English names or Chinese names. Or will we decide then?

[George61]

Thank you Arlis!!
See folks, some people think I don't always talk poo!
Millana, the bean bag is good....They probably can't say "catch"
Secondly, depending on how many in your class, walking around and giving nametags individually is probably a bad idea. You will run out of time, and thus will have wasted the idea. Do it "en masse"...THEN talk individually if you want to. I have always fornd they don't keep the name tags, but if you have cute li'l re-useable sticky ones, it might work.
Don't go getting them to actually "work" on the very first lesson
A.. you will have wasted a lesson plan
B...they want to know all about you.
Generally speaking, they don't.......or won't....so your job is to get them to open their mouths.
By all means have something planned, but don't rely on it.

[Jollyjunklass]

Okay,
Then I will toss around the bean bag. Whoever, I toss it to has to ask me a question, they can toss it on to the next and so forth. What about if I get to ask them one question also, like silly things like favorite colour or something simple. It is hard to grasp in my head their level of English. If they are in Uni, will they have studied it before? They must know how to say catch. I think it's one of those you need to see it to believe it type deals.

Watch me get ousted for bean bag toss. They'll think I'm some kind of psycho.

Thanks everyone, sorry to dwell, but I have a bit of paranoia stage fright going through my mind

[Crippler]

Just lighten up and breath dear lady. You will do fine. Just remember that many of the students will not grasp spoken English very well in the beginning unless of course your accent is exactly like their previous instructor. Keep it simple and tell them things about yourself and your country. They all pretty much enjoy hearing about different cultures. The bean bag is great but don't push the envelope. Find out who is willing and form your relationships there first. You won't win them all the first day but there is generally a few who really want to learn and they are your potential best friends. And above all, RELAX DAMMIT! And Enjoy!

[Ruth]

Millana, the bean bag idea is a good one. Keeps the conversation flowing. I like your idea of them asking you a question and then you asking them a question. Keep it simple, though.

For my first ever class (about 65 high school students) I had them give me introducing yourself kinds of questions and then I wrote the questions on the board. Then I answered the questions pertaining to me. Also gave me the chance to let them know that culturally women in the west don't usually like being asked how old they are. After that I went around the room and asked each of them one or two of the questions on the board. Actually, this took two periods to get through the whole class (wish the classes were smaller. Large classes make 'conversations' extremely difficult). That's where the bean bag idea could have improved my idea.

Have a back-up topic in mind in case you get the silences George was talking about. He's right. They occur every time you ask a question. I still get them and have had one class of kids for a year and a half now. You'd think they'd be comfortable with me by now. I must be doing something wrong

I've found that they are very curious about school in the west. I rambled on for ages about high school and the life of a teenager in Canada or America. You could do the same and throw in uni life as well. Kids here go to school 16 hours a day 6.5 days a week for high school. NO JOKE. They are flabbergasted and fascinated that our kids go to school 5 days a week from 8-3, have after school jobs and drive cars. Essentially have a life.

One crucial piece of advice that I was given as feedback AFTER my first class was to s-l-o-w down my speaking. You really must. At least until they get used to your accent. And we all speak faster when we are nervous, so you really have to focus on slowing down and ennunciating clearly, especially since you feel so nervous already. It feels stilted. You can speak at your natural speed after a few classes. They will catch on.

Really - calm down. You'll be a hit just because you are the foreigner.