Practicing with games!

Once again here we have a demostration of how useful the games can be in a TEFL clasroom to learn while pupils play!

This time the pupils are adults and the practice some vocabulary about the different rooms and objects in the house through these three games:

- In the first one we need some teams. In the blackboard there are the names of the rooms, the teacher will say an object and every time a person of each group have to run and point the right answer! The fastests win!

- The next game is about explaining things. The teacher whispers a word to a player and he or she has to explain it to his/her partner. If the partner gets wrong then the turn passes to the other group. We have limited time to think and explain the words. Sometimes you'll need to sharpen your wit!

- The last one is simple. The teacher says the name of a room and each one will mention any object that you could find there making a list among all of us. If you repeat a word or can't think a word you sit down.

Use your imagination and have fun!

Singing and playing!

Here we have the famous song "Ten green bottles". I remember singing it at school when I was a child, just that, to sing. Here we have a funny performance where the boys and girls previously drew some green bottles!

And here is a good way of practicing written vocabulary with the "Caterpillar crawl"!





Enjoy them!

Steve tells us...

Here is Steve Starry giving us some advices about 'how to organize yourself when you start teaching English':

He tells us a lot of useful and interesting things. I have tried to summarize them and here they are:

In class you are the captain of your boat. Your strengths and weaknesses that you take on to your boat are the things you will have to deal with. That's why he recomends to do an TOEFL course. It's required for working in english academys or english schools.

To learn on the job. Well, I think is here where the practice appears! You'll have to take up problem-solution approach and deal with situations as an elementary student in an uper-intermediate class, what could you do to be sure that no one is feeling like a fish out of water? Now is when your teaching skills are put into accion! You'll need a text book to feed everyones solutions but also individualize classes to make them more entertaining and dinamic changing things a bit. Maybe in this way you could keep students under your toes.

A double chek is important to make sure that you are doing the right thing.

Steve reminds us that teaching can be fun but it also has ups and downs, ins and outs. Actually it requires a lot of work. Try to be patience to yourself establishing a determinate number of hours to teach and leave a day for planning and researching materials. If you teach too much it's going to have an impact on your teaching. You are going to make mistakes and that won't benefit you!

You have the responsability to teach each day something new and something students need. But remember 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'. That's why you don't have to feel bad if a particular student isn't learning. To learn is also student's responsability.

Steve thinks that your number one problem is to get the students to learn english and advance. I also believe is our number one goal. Well, perhaps is the same thing but from a different point of view... Is there where we want to reach and it isn't easy. 'Don't lose track of what your goal is' and if it is the right one you will succeed, I'm sure.

We have been students too, don't forget that side of the story...

Do you want to play?

The next video is a song for young learners so that they will have the chance to practice question-answer while they are having fun! As you can see the pupils suggest some changes that the teacher accept.

Do you think this is a good teaching method for young learners? What other songs activities would you play?

These following videos are from a group of older children but they are also having fun while they learn! I really think is the best way of learning because the students get more information when they feel interested and enjoyable with the task.

You have to divide the class into teams. One person from each team has to look at some design you've drawn and tell the others how to reproduce it. There are only two rules:

1) Only English - otherwise you have to stop for 20 seconds.

2) The person describing has to put their hands behind their back.

In the next one, the students have to be guided by team members in order to reach the front of the class. There are three rules:

1 - English only, otherwise your team has to stop for 10 seconds.

2 - Only the blindfolded person can move.

3- If you touch any obstacle, you have to wait for 10 seconds.

If the class is very noisy and the blindfolded person can't hear instructions from their team mates then do it as a timed challenge and the best time wins.

These games are great to practice oral and listening skills. There are some simple rules, the most important: only English! If they speak in their own language they'll be punish so if they want to win they will have to make an effort!