first lesson ever, some feedback please!

[sanjajerem]

Hello everybody,
I had my first class yesterday. I am teaching 5 and 4 year old children who have never learnt English. I am using Cookie and Friends, and I spent so much time preparing and in the end it turned out so confusing, so much unexpected reactions in only 20 minutes! Oh, I am feeling so discouraged! I just wanted to know if you had similar experience, I know every beginning is hard, I guess I am still under yesterday's impression, I was really looking forward to working with this age ...I would really appreciate any whatsoever feedback.

thank you!

Sanja

[LouannePiccolo]

Hi Sanja,

Do you know that my first lesson ever was a complete disaster and I walked out of that class swearing I'd never go back. My teacher trainer hummed and hahed, nodded sympathetically and then shoved me back in again when I wasn't looking and here I am, 15 years later and a teacher trainer myself!

So, what I'm saying is, don't get worked up about it. It may not have gone as you thought it would but that's also to be expected. Students can't be programmed beforehand and there will always be reactions you didn't plan for.

That said, don't forget that you are the teacher and you can always pull things back on track if they veer too far off. Remember also, that you will always be learning, throughout your entire teaching career. Would it make you feel better if I said that sometimes, I walk out of a lesson feeling a bit put out because the games flopped or things didn't go as I thought they would? It happens.

So, what happened exactly that has you so discouraged?

[sanjajerem]

Louanne, thank you very much for your reply, and yeas it makes me feel better when I hear that someone had similar experience.
What exactly went wrong was that basically I failed to animate them. I was a bit chaotic I think because of some unexpected circumstances. It was some kind of promotion class happening as part of birthday celebration of the kindergarten and first I had a five year old boy who didn't to be there, than a two year old bringing me all sorts of things while I was trying to begin my class. Then I had a three year old who didn't want to close his eyes and I was supposed to hide something. I forgot to praise them to encourage them, I think that I didn't give them clear instructions for the activities and an action game I saw kids enjoining on youtube just fell flat.
Children were aloud to leave the class, and well I began with seven kids and ended with three.
Anyway thanks again for your support!

[Alex Case]

Here's a starter, on starting:

http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/fillers-w ... sh-lesson/

Will try and make a fuller list of my articles and game ideas for pre-school kids later tonight

[Alex Case]

Halfway through working on a list of links, remembered that I had already done one years ago. Here it is, slightly polished up to be easier to navigate:

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/teach ... ish-links/

[sanjajerem]

Alex, thank you very much!!!