English Should be Fun!

So over the past couple of weeks, I have improved time management in preparation for classes, which is a huge time saver. Like anything else in life, perfection is still miles away. One cannot be satisfied with what they are doing because then they just limited their ability to improve. As I keep trying to improve the way I lesson plan, I have realized that English should be fun…which is something that was never easy for me when I was in school, so how will I make it fun for my students?

I am blessed to be working here, but even more blessed because I am constantly pushed and reminded to have fun. In a public school, or a more serious English school, the primary goal would be for kids to learn English. Now, I don’t want to say that we don’t think that’s important, but, my primary reason for being here is to share the love of God to my students…and how do I do that? One way is to have fun in class. This past week, my number one priority was to make sure my students laughed, be really loud, and border line rowdy. My classes are never out of control, and I understand this might be a bit of an unorthodox philosophy in teaching, but in my case, I want my students walking away looking forward to having fun next week. I don’t want them walking away with a brain crammed full of new vocab words. They already are busy enough with all the school and extra club stuff they do; the kids need to have some fun. So, as long as they learn a little bit, and have fun, then I’m satisfied.

Since I have many classes, and each class is at a different skill level, and a different age, my creativity wheels never stop turning. I can’t play the same games in my 6-year-old class and adult ladies class. So what kinds of things do I do? Well, with out getting into a lot of detail…for the elementary age classes I keep them entertained with a wide variety of matching/memmory games, and coloring different nouns we learn. I think I have become known for my weird and terrible pictures, so they always laugh at me when I pull out a new picture. In one of my classes I asked them to name the girl I drew, and one of the boys shouted out. “Ms. Scissors!” and then another girl shouted out “Mr. Magnet!” for the other person man I stuck to the board.

In my middle school, high school, young adult, and adult classes I have been finding some funny youtube videos to watch. In each class I have them write down a list of things they see in the video. I tell them to write down anything they see…including trees in the background, or the ground, etc. Then depending on the skill of the class, I will have them take a couple of the words, a clip, or a short scene from the video and write a sentence about it. It’s a good way for them to practice writing (obviously) and then I have them stand up and read their sentence. The one thing that I have found to be a struggle for every class is use of prepositions, use of past or present tense, even plurals. I have found that it is a great way to warm up all of those classes….except, the middle school class. I have yet figured out a way to reach them. I think they are scared of me, and everything I do. In the past two classes I’ve started each class with a funny video. One called “Stupid People doing Stupid Things,” and the other one was “Urban Olympics.” They did not even break a smile. I would look up at what I though were funny parts to see if their expression would change, but no. Sooooo, that is the class that I am most worried about. My plan for that class this coming week: Have class on the floor, play games, aka spoons. And my goal is to get them to laugh and or yell! They are all so quiet. I’ll keep ya posted ;)

Thanks for the prayers!
-Kris