My Experience Teaching (Part 2)

I think it might be better because Wednesday and Friday are only two days apart, and maybe this is a more viable option. So I'm going to try this for a while. Today's show is a continuation of the last show, in which I spoke about my experiences as a teacher. I spoke about how I approached my classes in an incorrect way at first, and how eventually I realized how to correct my behavior. I gave some examples on different situations and how I would handle them.

And also I shared some tips for first-time teachers, specifically kids' teachers. I decided to split the episode into two parts and not make it one super long one because I do have a lot to say about this. So here's part two. You are listening to the eleventh episode of English with Dane. Hit it! And I don't think there is one single way to do it. So again, I want to repeat that this is just from my perspective, things that have worked for me. So I wanted to talk about several things today.

And the first one is improvising. I think that it's really important to know what you are going to do in a class. Walking into a class full of children without any idea of what you are going to do is a bit of a suicide mission. I'm sure there are people out there who can improvise for two hours and have a great class, right? A productive class. But I think that those people are extremely rare. But I do think that a certain level of improvisation is really important.

You have to know what you are going to teach and how you want to teach it. But I believe that you have to really read the room. To read the room is an expression that we use to say that you have to feel the energy of the room. And I don't mean that in a mystical way. I just mean understanding how your students feel at any particular time. You can feel when the class is going well, when it's going poorly as well. You can feel when your students are bored, right? You can see it.

Kids are really bad liars. And also, body language doesn't lie. I used to prepare my classes meticulously, timing how long I wanted my exercises to be, how long I wanted games to last, which game I wanted to play first, then second, and third. If I was going to make teams, I would decide ahead of time who would be on which team, etc. And to a certain extent, I still kind of do that, but nowhere near how I used to do it before, not even close. Nowadays, I read the room more than ever.

I have an idea of the activities that I want to organize, and I have an idea of the games that I'm going to play, but I don't force them into my classes. I also don't force how long each game lasts, how long we take to play each game. I know I'm mentioning games a lot, but that's because I use them a lot. But I'll talk about that after this. So what I'm saying about reading the room is that it's really important.

I often start by just putting the games on the table or the things that I use for different games on the table, and then I don't talk about them. I let the children ask what we are going to play, if we're going to play this game or that game, and I don't always say yes or no. In a way, I let them decide. I don't let them decide if we play a game or not, I let them decide between games, right? And I negotiate. It sounds strange to say that I negotiate with kids, but I do.

So what I'm saying is that I'll have three or four games that I think are good learning tools and I'll have them ready. And I'll sometimes wait for them to ask me if we're going to play. And then I'll say something like, I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Which is an answer with very little commitment. I haven't told them that we will, but I haven't told them that we won't. All I've said is that I don't know. I haven't decided yet.

At this point, a few students say, yes, let's play that game, and I ignore it. Then those students usually say it again, and then other students join them. So now I have more students wanting to play that game, and I feel like it keeps spreading. And then suddenly they all want to play that game. It's a bit of a snowball effect. All I need is for one of them to be enthusiastic, and then that enthusiasm spreads. And when most of them want to play, I'll say something like, okay, we can play.

And then they get excited. And then I say, But first, I want to practice something. And then we can play that game. And they usually accept. Oh, and that's another thing. I don't call things exercises or drills or work. I call it practice. Because I think practice sounds better to them because it makes you think of improvement. It doesn't suggest working, it suggests improvement.

So then I'm doing both things that I wanted to do, even though they think I'm doing them a favor by playing the game that they want to play. I understand that it feels a bit manipulative, but I think you need to be able to manipulate your students in a way for the class to go well and for them to have fun and for them to learn. Sometimes, though, they say they don't want to play that game. Sometimes one of the kids says, Oh, we're going to play that game, I don't like that game.

And then another one will jump in and agree. They'll say that it's a boring game, maybe, and that they don't want to play. In that case, then I'll say, No, I don't want to play that game. We might play another game, but we'll see. Now, in these situations, one of my students will usually jump in and suggest a game that they like. A game that we have played in the past, and then they'll get excited about that game instead. But again, after we practice some other things.

So it's kind of a win-win situation. They feel like they are choosing what we do, but in reality, I've guided them, I've led them into those choices. So I let them choose, but only from a number of things that I think will be productive for the class. So I'm talking about games a lot. I'm aware. But there's a reason for this, and it's a simple reason. It's because I play a lot of games with my students.

I use games to practice different grammar-related things, to practice expressions, to practice sentence structure, to practice vocabulary, to practice anything really. I think games are a great way to learn. And I know it's nothing new, but I think it's true. However, games in class can be a little bit tricky. And it's not really about the game that you play, it's about how you play it. I think you have to be careful because games can also derail your class.

To derail means for something to go in a direction that you don't want it to go. So this can happen for several reasons. A common reason is that you play a game for too long. It is tempting to keep a game going or to continue playing a game because your students are having fun. However, I think this is a mistake. And the reason is that the longer a game goes on, the longer a game continues, the more likely or probable it is that your students get bored of that game.

If you play a game that is really exciting and fun, and you play it for too long, they will get bored with the dynamic of the game. And then two different things happen, both negative in my opinion. The first thing is that they might lose interest and their energy level drops or decreases, which means that the rest of the class feels really long because they get tired.

And the other thing, which is worse, is that they won't want to play that game in the future because they will associate it with boredom. Even if they had fun at first, it ended with them feeling bored, and they will remember that, I promise. So I think instead, what you should do is to end the game when they're still having fun. And don't give in to the temptation to continue the game or elongating or lengthening the game. If you have to decide, cut it short.

That way, next time that somebody suggests that game, whether it's you or a student, they will remember that game fondly, and you will be able to use it for longer. I made the mistake of doing that with a few games, and they never wanted to play again. I even tried to reintroduce the games in a different way, but that didn't work. So remember, end the game when it's still fun, and next time they'll be excited to play it. Okay, quick music break, and I'll be back with more stuff.

Okay, this next thing I wanted to discuss, I think is really interesting. So I've had a lot of experience teaching kids and teenagers, but I've also had a lot of experience teaching adults, and I've realized something. Children really respond to being treated like adults, and adults respond to being treated like children. Obviously, not every child and not every adult, but I found this to be true. I don't treat my young students like children most of the time.

I mean, sometimes I have to because they are children, but most of the time I speak to them like I would speak to an adult. I'm not saying that I speak to them about adult topics or subjects, but what I'm trying to say is the way in which I speak to them is how you would speak to an adult. I don't give them silly explanations, I don't sugarcoat things. To sugarcoat means to make something difficult or distasteful appear more pleasant or acceptable, okay? I also admit when I'm wrong.

Well, maybe this doesn't have anything to do with children or adults, but I think it really helps. If they see that you admit when you're wrong, they are more likely to do the same, I think. I find that my classes with adults when I treat them like children and I tell them off for not doing their homework, or I correct them over and over again, and I say something like, Hey, after class, I want that perfect for next week. If not, I'm going to make the whole class repeat the exercise.

And things like that, they really like it. It's an interesting juxtaposition, I think, an interesting dichotomy. But I think this realization made my classes better and made me a more effective teacher. I wanted to say one more thing. I wasn't a great student when it came to behavior. I know teachers frequently complained about me to my parents.

My Spanish teacher at school used to tell my mom and dad that no matter where he sat me, no matter where I was, no matter who I sat next to, I would talk. I would start conversations and distract other students. He also told my mom that I had a fingerboard that I would use in class that would drive him crazy. You might know what I'm talking about. A fingerboard is a toy, and I think kids still use them today.

It's like a skateboard, but for your fingers, and you can do tricks and stuff like that. I wonder how I would have dealt with me, what I would have done if I had a kid like me in my class. And I think now that I have several years of experience, I would be able to. Not that my Spanish teacher was a bad teacher, it's just that maybe what he had to teach us was a bit boring, or at least for me. I think if I had a student like me, I would make sure that they were always entertained.

I would make sure that there was always an activity that we were doing, to not give enough time for chatting. That's something I do in my classes now. I try to minimize the time between activities and exercises in order to not give an opportunity to my more vocal students to get distracted. I wonder if that would have worked with me. I don't know. Okay, that's our show for today. Hope you got something from that.

And stay tuned for the next episode of English with Dane, episode 12, which will come out on Wednesday. In the meantime, don't forget to support the show by subscribing on iTunes, Spotify, iVoox, or wherever you listen to me. And remember, the best way to support the show is to leave a five-stating iTunes as well as a review. Okay, until next time. See ya, you know.