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Babysitting/Clases Particulares

ycooper — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:39:33 GMT

Hola a todos! I was offered a position taking care of and tutoring 4 kids, ages 2-12, 4 days a week and I'm wondering what would be a good price to charge per hour. I know it would be less if it were just classes but since I'll be doing extra work, I figured I should charge more. However, I don't want to take advantage either. Could anyone give your opinion? Thanks!

Teaching Ideas

Savannah86 — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:52:34 GMT

Hey all! I have been keeping track (for the most part) of my lesson plans throughout the year. Here they are, although the format from googledocs has not exactly been copied over to be exactly as it should. I hope they help!

Lower/Beginner Groups

I like/dislike activity and "my name is": A Good introductory game
1. get a ball or prop, or you can just point to the students, although the ball is more fun
2. write on the board "My name is Savannah and I like dancing but I dislike meat."
3. Throw the ball to the first student and ask them to tell the class the model
4. when they finish, they have to throw the ball to the next student until all of the students have answered

Create a story with 3 words
1. make 3 cards with an adjective, a noun, and a verb in present tense on each card
2. give 3 different cards to diff groups of students
3. the students have to take 20-30 minutes to write the story
4. when they are done they have to read and act out the story for the rest of the class

Restaurant/menu activity
1. Start off the class by talking about your favorite foods, and what you like to eat
2. Draw on the board what a typical American menu looks like with the title of the restaurant, appetizers, main course/entree, and dessert.
3. have the kids get into groups of 2 or 3, etc. and have them create their own menu in English with descriptions of the items. Ex: The American Salad with corn, olive oil, beets, tomatoes, etc...
4. At the end of the class the kids have to present their menus

Song lyric fill-in-the blanks
1. Print off lyrics to a popular song but with blanks for the students to fill in the spaces with the missing words
2. I used Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You." They loved it
3. Play the song 2 or 3 times and go back and replay parts per request by some of the students
4. Finally, have them underline the words they do not know
5. Ask the class what they had for the spaces, and then tell them the answers

Parts of the Body
1. Have the students get into pairs and draw the other student
2. They must draw the whole body from the head, with ears, mouth, nose, etc. to the feet
3. After they finish drawing they must label the parts of the body: the head, nose, mouth, ears, feet, toes
4. They must write down a verb for what each part of the body is capable of doing: for instance, for hand, the verb "to wave "
5. You can put them in groups or teams and have them compete for which team has the most verbs
5. Then they present their drawings to the class and the kids laugh at all of the funny pictures, etc.

Getting to Know You Activity
1. Make the students brainstorm and think of activities that people do
2. Give out a sheet, or write on the board, a list of activities that students in the class may be interested in such as: Who has gone horseback riding, likes to swim, plays an instrument, etc.
3. Get them to write down the questions in their notebooks
4. Make them go around the room to ask every student in the class the questions with the name of they asked, and what their response was (yes or no)
5. Have them share by asking them about the responses and how many people responded yes or no to each activity

Valentines Day Activity
1. Print out a worksheet or puzzle with words and definitions having to do with this day
2. Write out several famous quotes, sayings, or song lyrics in English, all having to do with the theme of love. For ex. ¨All you need is love.¨
3. Cut up the phrases and mix up the words to each saying and have the kids get ino groups, with all groups having the same quotes.
4. The group who has put together each phrase or saying correctly wins a point, and the group with the most poins wins.

Telephone Dialogues
1. Put the class into pairs after giving them different telephone scenarios using the eslpartyland website´s printout.
2. Have them respond to the different scenarios that are presented to them, having 1 student be the one who is calling (person A.) and the other person being the one who is picking up the phone (person B.)
3. After they have all had the chance to think of conversations, and practice, make each pair come to the front of the room to show the rest of the class the conversation they have created.

Show me a picture and I will give you some adjectives
1. Cut out pictures of models, people, or celebrities from magazines, newspapers, or print them off of the internet.
2. Use a model picture to explain what you think the person is the picture is like, ie. smart, adventurous, fun, thin, etc.
3. Have them get into groups or pairs and with each picture they must write a list of adjectives describing the person or people in the pictures.
4. When everyone is finished (I used 16 pictures for a class of 13) have them explain to the rest of the class the impressions they have of the pictures.
5. Then, provide them with synonyms for the adjectives they had used, ie. thin (skinny, bony)
6. If there is time remaining, or you want to continue using the pictures in another class, have them describe what the people in the pictures are doing, or what they have finished doing, or what they are about to do.

Advanced, Proficient, and Fluent Groups

Printing off interesting articles
1. Print off interesting 3 articles about popular television shows, entertainment, music, etc.
2. Have the students read the article
3. After a first read have them underline the words they are unfamiliar with
4. Discuss vocabulary and word use that may be confusing for them

Song lyric fill-in-the blanks
1. Print off lyrics to a popular song but with blanks for the students to fill in the spaces with the missing words
2. I used Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You." They loved it
3. Play the song 2 or 3 times and go back and replay parts per request by some of the students
4. Finally, have them underline the words they do not know
5. Ask the class what they had for the spaces, and then tell them the answers

Conversation topic about food
1. Ask the students about what kind of foods they like?
what kind of foods are romantic?
would they ever eat snakes or insects, or a dog?
what kinds of food do they find disgusting?
2. With an advanced group, with a good command of the language, these students can really get to talking about all kinds of food and what they like and don't like

Martin Luther King Jr. Day/Civil Rights
1. Have the speech of MLK printed out, but especially the part that begins with "I have a dream."
2. Talk to the kids about segregation and how in the U.S. Blacks and Whites could not attend the same schools, etc.
3. Pass out the printed out speech to the kids and have them read it and underline words they don't know
4. Have the kids write their own speech that consists of "I have a dream that..."
5. At the end of the class they should have up to 10 sentences using this model
6. You can use Spanish at first to explain: "Tengo un sueno k un dia..."
7. You can also print out the history of MLK Jr.s life and scramble up the order of each paragraph so they have to put the text in order

Rudyard Kipling, If poem, in Spanish and English
1. Print off this poem in English (called IF) and in Spanish (Si)
2. Have the students translate the poem from Spanish into English

WEBSITES
http://www.englishbanana.com/free-advanced-english-worksheets.html HAVE PDF AND WORD DOCS. GREAT FOR MONTERROSO.

Teaching activities:http://www.actiludis.com/eventos-y-festividadades/cuadernillos-para- el-dia-de-andalucia/

Spring activities for younger kids: http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/signs_spring.php

A long list of activities to help improve your students pronunciation: http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Pronunciation

Great for conversation ideas and includes printouts as well http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/conv.htm
http://esl.about.com/od/advancedgrammar/Advanced_Level_Grammar_for_ESL_Learners.htm

And here are some ideas of conversation games and practice...debates are always fun!
http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/conv.htm
http://www.eslflow.com/speakingandcommunicativeicebreakeractivities.html

All Ages/All Groups

The Feel-Good Adjective Game
1. Tape blank pieces of paper on the back of every student with tape.
2. Have everyone go around the room and write at least one positive adjective that describes that person on the paper, and also write one thing that you think is true about the person. When everyone is done writing, the students will take the papers off their backs and look and see the positive things everyone has written about them.
3. Then, everyone must share if the things the people wrote down were true or not.
4. Itś fun and everyone enjoys it!

20 Questions
1. Write names of different famous people on sticky notes and attach them to the heads of students.
2. The student has to ask different questions of the students to find out who their person is, but they can only ask questions that elicit yes or no responses.
3. Whoever finds out who their person is without using the maximum number of questions wins the game.

Pictionary
1. Have the students get into teams
2. make strips of paper and write different words, such as celebrity names, objects, places, etc.
3. give them to each student that comes up from the diff. teams and help them if they don´t know the word´s meaning in English
4. the team whose fellow members guesses the correct word gets a point and the team with the most points wins the game

Check out Taught magazine and be inspired!

teachmatt — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:41:25 GMT

Remember the alumni contest that was running at the beginning of the program? Taught magazine is the result of the collective submissions from last year's contest. Check it out and pass it on. www.taughtmag.com

Do you have any mind-blowing stories from your time so far? We will be looking for more material in the near future, so keep living it up over there and get the creative juices flowing. We may try to create a theme next time around, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Best of luck,

Matt

Working with groups of fluent students and highly advanced students

Savannah86 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:13:41 GMT

Good evening! I work with small groups of students on my own completely. I have one group that has lots of students who have British parents, and they are fluent, but they come to my class bc they aren´t being challenged enough in their regular classes. I also have a group of just 2 girls I work with and they are very advanced. Any suggestions for working with these advanced students? Any information would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Savannah

Ideas for working with pre-schoolers

annacfletch — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:38:55 GMT

I need help. I'm with 3-5 year olds almost half of my work time each week and I'm feeling pretty unqualified to teach them English. They know so little Spanish, it's hard to know how to begin to teach them a second language. There's also the additional trick of classroom management at such young ages. I studied elementary education, so I thought it would come a little naturally, but they're just so little!

Any ideas for specific games or vocabulary builders for this age range?

I have found some success in using songs, dancing, and actions to go with vocabulary items, but more suggestions even within those areas would be useful!

I find it helpful to break the hour I'm with each group down into many smaller sections so we don't stay on one activity for too long, but that just means I need all the more activity ideas to begin with!

Please let me know of any teaching and/or management ideas you have.

We have a Facebook page!

valmoniz — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:45:30 GMT

Hi everyone,

Become a fan of our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Malaga-Spain/CIEE-Teacher-Mentoring-Program/285810262982

Thanks in advance for your support!

Val

Great Website for Adult Learners

valmoniz — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:07:05 GMT

Hey guys,

Thought I'd post this website which I've found useful for my private classes for adults...not much out there for adults and I'm sure at this point we're starting to run out of ideas!

http://bogglesworldesl.com/

Enjoy!

Val

Martin Luther King Day

valmoniz — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:36:38 GMT

Hey gang,

Don't forget MLK Jr. Day is Monday, January 18th - and important day in our history and culture.

Some ideas:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/mlk_day.htm

Present Simple and Progressive

valmoniz — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:40:32 GMT

Hey all,

Thought I'd pass along this useful website I found for present simple and progressive games.

http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/grammar/Simplepresandprog.htm

Happy New Year!

Christmas/Holiday Ideas

valmoniz — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:10:42 GMT

What are people doing in their schools to teach Christmas/the holidays? Might be neat to incorporate things other holidays as well since the USA does not only celebrate Christmas!

Thanksgiving Ideas

valmoniz — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:43:13 GMT

Post your Thanksgiving ideas and questions here.

Private Lessons-Young Children-HELP!

peterjduran — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:45:37 GMT

Hi, I am starting up my private lessons here in Algeciras and am finding it difficult at times to meet the demands of parents while keeping the kids' attention. The problem I have had is, oftentimes, the parents expectations weren't clear right away. A word of advice, if a parent wants you to start the moment you walk in the door, take a moment to ask them what they would like out of the lesson (i.e. immersion/playing, homework help, etc.)

I was wondering if anyone had any methods that they thought were effective in building rapport with children right away (3-7 years old), while assuring that they are learning at the same time. Games, etc. that are effective...

I know this is somewhat of a vague topic at the moment, but I was hoping to get some ideas flowing.

I hope everyone is having a great time!

AMAZING Games Resource

valmoniz — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:35:38 GMT

Hi everyone!

Just thought I would share with you some community building games from an approach I used to use called Responsive Classroom. Not all are ESL appropriate, but there are some great ideas to get your students talking.

http://www.originsonline.org/rc_classroom.php

Look out for an upcoming email with an ESL games resource I've been working on in the next few days!

Cheers,

Val

social studies for primary

ycooper — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:43:27 GMT

Hi! I'm having a little difficulty with planning lessons for my 4, 5, and 6th grades classes. The classes I have are either science or social studies but they're just in English. It's hard trying to find any fun lessons plans, games, & activities online for me to use with them for whatever particular topic (so far we've done energy, landscapes, learning about rocks, the water cycle, etc) and I'm not the least bit creative on my own. Does anyone have any ideas that could help me?

Thanks!!!

Halloween Ideas

valmoniz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:30:12 GMT

The season is upon us. Ideas, anyone?

Conversation Ideas

Chelsea2887 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:03:19 GMT

Someone emailed me with the problem that although her teacher gave her free reign to come up with topics for conversation for her students, she was was having trouble thinking of ideas. I responded with the following:

I think it's cool that you teacher is giving you free reign to talk about anything you want, but I can understand how this could get frustrating. What if you brought in some articles for your students to read? Your school may have some materials in their English Department. Anything with a few paragraphs of basic English on any topic will do! Have your students read the article and talk about unfamiliar words. Then, have a few prepared questions for them that will not allow them to answer with yes/no answers. Sit with your students in a circle so that they may be more encouraged to speak because you will be sitting and conversing like one of them.

If your articles are about current events (or even if they aren't) you can encourage conversation if you make it into a debate. Most kids feel passionate about something, so if you have them choose a side, pro or con, and have the pros and cons sit in their respective groups facing each other and have the groups take turns speaking about the topic, they may enjoy that. This way, you only have to do minimal class prep: find a few paragraphs in your English Department or online, and come up with some probing questions. Speak Up is a good magazine with easy articles for English learners that my school has in the dept. but yours may have some too. If you do a google search for any articles in basic English or for ESL articles, you will probably find some that interest you. You could even use random mini-articles from their textbook if they are interesting.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you need other ideas for conversation in class, or if you want more game/activity ideas. Please feel free to add to this topic with conversation ideas of your own!

Chelsea

British English vs. American English

valmoniz — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:03:05 GMT

Hey everyone - thought I'd pass this on, as it was something I noticed while teaching today.

The books that they use here for teaching English will probably use British English (BA). If there is something you say differently, by all means, don't change the way you speak! But let the students know that neither way of speaking is "wrong," they are just different!

For example, today the teacher explained writing the date as "2nd October," when I would write it as "October 2nd" in American English (AE).

Just some food for thought!

Making the students speak!

elizabethp — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:21:51 GMT

Hi! So I just started some private lessons with a 8yr old and 10yr old. The 8yr old is very receptive to my teaching and enjoys learning new vocabulary through my games. The 10 yr old, however, already knows a lot of vocabulary, but has trouble with spelling. How can I deal with this? I learned in my TEFL course that scrambling words and having the students unscramble them is a good idea, as well as hangman. He seems to think that he simply needs to be quizzed over and over again, in order to get it. Are there any other options? I just want to be able to do different activities each time. Also, the 10 yr old is quite reluctant to talk and be creative. I was trying to get him to write down silly sentences using our vocabulary, to work on his spelling, and he either a) didn't understand what I was asking, or b) thought it was stupid. Is there any way around this? Thank you.

clases particulares

cerenajohnson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:41:26 GMT

I am going to start giving clases particulares later this week to a 15-year-old girl. Supposedly she is in the fourth course. Does anyone have any idea what types of grammar topics they cover in schools here at that age?

Breaking It Down

valmoniz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:51:55 GMT

Hi everyone!

Yes it's me again. Thought I'd share some (hopefully) helpful advice about an experience I had teaching clases particulares.

I have two students who are in the bachiller level who are preparing for the Erasmus exam. Their levels of English are VERY low (they did not know the phrase "do you know?") So you can imagine my panic when I saw this test they have to pass in February.

Many of you will probably teach some test prep type stuff, since there are so many language tests to pass here. I would suggest (a) having a look at the test first and (b) focusing on some "shortcuts" and testing strategies.

Here are some things I taught them today:

1.) Read and circle words you don't know. Then use what you already know from the sentence (context clues) to figure it out.

2.) Use prefixes and suffixes to figure out word meanings.

3.) When finding synonyms, make sure the words are the same part of speech.

4.) Use Spanish-English cognates (words that look alike and have the same meaning)

Though simple, these four things made reading an otherwise very daunting text much more simple for them.

Good luck everyone!

First Day of School

valmoniz — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:17:00 GMT

Post your thoughts on the first day of school here! Good luck everyone.

Welcome to the Teach Abroad Forum!

valmoniz — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:39:21 GMT

Welcome to the Teach Abroad Forum, everyone! Remember to register before October 1, when the system will lock up!