Terrified New Teacher

[Longy]

Hi guys

Ive passed my TEFL. Im in China I start teaching tomorrow. My problem is writing lesson plans. They took me about a week solid when I took the course. Now I am told for my classes I can do what I want. Which does not sound right to me. So I have been given Pacican text books to follow. Unfortunately I feel I will struggle to explain some of these things to the kids in English. I hear that a lot of them wont even be up to the level im teaching.

Ive been sat for 2 days trying to knock one plan together. Ive had to resign myself to doing an intro lesson with next to no teaching. Just mild needs analysis and introductions.

I need to talk about family relationships and problems to my grade 6 and travel to my grade 7. I think ill be ok with travel even though ive not looked at it yet. Don't know how to get across vocab of arguments within families etc. Also even the pacican text didn't look very good.

Can anyone throw me a bone?!

Many thanks


S

[Lucy]

I would be tempted to do needs analysis and introductions in all the classes. Just to be sure of the levels before the classes really get going. After that, you could dedicate a short part of the lesson to reviewing the language of family (for level 6) and travel for level 7 just to get a feel of how much of the target language they know.

[Longy]

Thanks for the reply lucy, Its a good job I didn't stick to what was suggested because most of the kids were looking at me with blank faces. The time flew but in regards teaching I don't think they learnt anything. I find the warmers on the net that I find are far too complicated for my students and I will have to tone it down - but I am struggling!!
Is there any places where I can just pay to join and get this stuff free until I know what im doing?
I only have to do 3 plans a week and am finding it hard to do one!!

[Lucy]

I suspected their level would be lower than was announced.
I think this is an issue that all new teachers face: writing lesson plans.
You can get away with a less complete plan now. You can make brief notes to your self on how to manage each activity.

[J-Marianne]

Here are two sources: the British Council w'site; http://www.primary-education-oasis.com. Good Luck!

[pauldev]

Keep in mind that in your first year you need to put in a lot of work in terms of preparation but it gets a lot easier. File all your lesson plans so you will be able to pull them out in the future to use again. Once you build a better knowledge of classroom management and structuring a lesson your preparation time will be reduced.

If you are interested in some efl materials (including teacher training) which can help support your work as an efl teacher please visit the following link...a range of materials I have designed myself. I am a Director Of Education in a school with 12 years experience.

http://www.e-junkie.com/EliteEFLTeachingResources

I've used them a lot with great success. They can help you to have greater variety in the classroom and support a course book. Students find them very useful, effective and interesting.

Best wishes and good luck!

Paul Devenny
(From the UK)

[Awalls86]

Don't be scared by the fact you are told you can do anything... This is actually a good sign that the school recognises different opinions on methodology, and the freedom means that you can try many methods to see which work for you.
My CELTA lesson plans sometimes took 8 hours to prepare (for just 40 minutes of teaching). However, you are no longer preparing lesson plans for assessment, although you may need to submit them to your DOS.
Remember the patterns of lesson staging that you learnt on your TEFL - PPP or ESA for example. To begin with, stick with these and pick activities for each section, then focus on how to link them together. For the activities focus on what the students will do and how you will give instructions (maybe even script them for lower levels - this should not take too long... if it does then your instructions are too complicated).
With time you will start to remember activities you used before and perhaps even have the materials ready to go, or at least know where to photocopy bits you need. This will reduce your lesson planning immensely.
Finally, it's a good idea to start with the lesson objective (At the end of the lesson students will be able to) - think of one point that you want students to take home, if they learn nothing else in the lesson. I like to think of this as the take-away value. Your plan should then drive at this point, sometimes from different angles. Plus if you know what this essential point is, you can adapt far easier in class if the plan goes wrong.