If anyone stumbles across my blog and has an opinion, I'm anxious to know:
- How do you set goals for your lessons, and in what way to you present them to your students?
- Do you think your students see games as useful and not just for fun?
- How would you set up a 1 or 2 hour, once a week lesson to make it meaningful and not just "fun" for kids?
My comments are below...
4 comments:
What age groups do you teach? I teach University level and I have no idea how to keep it fun and interesting for them.
Hey, Angela...
There are a couple of comments of yours that I'd like to respond to, but I might send you an e-mail, if that's okay. Anyway, I teach all ages...my youngest was 3 and my oldest were retired. I have small groups of kids, teenagers, business classes, private lessons, adult conversation groups, and I *used* to have the BTS, which is like a 2-year degree after the BAC, I suppose. My most difficult one was the BTS, which are about the same age as your group. I would love to hear from other people who can handle this age group because the majority of people I have talked with have burned themselves right out. I don't know if I can go back to them because I feel like I get sucked dry. Let me calm down a little after today and I'll see what I can drag out about uni teaching.
Yes, I was going to send you an email with my questions but couldn't find your email address the day I wrote them. Sorry!
My students seem to respond to (not get excited) to anything having to do with American pop culture. The only lesson I had complete success with was one about the development of MTV. They really enjoyed that one, but I think it was more because I knew a lot about it.
I'm so happy you've set up this blog! A great idea as so many of us expats do teach.
My feeling on games is that the French are a little suspicious of them. You need to find a balance between 'serious" lessons and games. I'm talking mainly about "students" (BTS, etc.) which is my main teaching gig. I actually prefer the "student" groups to adults and have been pretty successful with them. But it took a lot of learning the first years.
I use them more as a way to get them speaking in pairs than as a way to really teach anything. They seem to accept this better.
Anyway, I've been teaching English here for 16 years, so I'm sure I'm going to have a lot to say on your blog! I'll also set up a link to it soon on La France Profonde.
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