How To Teach Children

So, I've just landed a part time job as a substitute teacher nearby my house area. It's a primary school from age 7-12 years old.

On the very first day, I got to handle the 10 years old and 12 years old classes. It was a great experience. They love me. Hahah. However, on the second day, I was transferred to 8 and 9 years old classes. It was hard tbh, especially with the 8 years old kid.

I am teaching English to them and I feel bad for them as most of them were very bad (they are the lowest ranked group in their batch anyway). I feel like I can make an improvement, a difference, yet I'm only substituting for one month only and we are reaching the final exams.

Therefore, edugames won't work anymore. I'm quite clueless of what to do with them anymore. Any idea? Plus they get distracted very easily.

Hello, fellow ESL teacher here!

I have found that age group to be easier than my teenage classes. With the younger ones you get messing about (pinching, drawing on one another etc) but it's less infuriating than teenagers where they'll continue talking despite being told not to. I guess it's that children are going to act as children, but the older ones are adults and are being very ignorant. Anyway with the younger ones, I do numerous things - there's three who show off in my class, so i'll say witty things back to make them laugh and they seem to get on with it. But I also draw a line and won't give way when they push - for example during writing tasks i'll play music and let them request songs, but the deal is only if they're actually writing. No writing = no song requests. And that can work.

I'm a good observer of people and in school I did it a lot, especially with my favourite teachers - so I know their exact techniques and what worked, and have used that in my classroom. Those techniques have been much more useful to me than any training in the books etc, so maybe try and think back to teachers you respected and the class respected and think of the mind games they played to exert control.

OMG! I just have the idea of playing musics during writing too! But I think my school won't allow it, so... XD

And I agree with copying our favorite teacher during school but tbh, the oldest memory of teacher teaching in school I have was back when I was 15. Lol. I don't think I can do the same with the children I'm having now T.T

I used to work with primary school and young secondary school age kids when I thought I was going to be a teacher so my advice is the following:

• PATIENCE!! It can be so hard to accept but kids do take longer to understand or accept things and it takes time to learn that patience.
• GAMES, REOURCES AND FUN ACTIVITIES! Especially young kids. They do NOT care about textbooks and the majority of them are not gonna learn much from reading. Finding ways to get them involved, if it's making something around the topic or acting out a scene or recreating something in a book is such a good way. There are literally SO MANY resources out there for all different topics - lots of museums have resource packs, lots of universities too as there's a huge push to doing more corporate social responsibility all round these days. You can even make up something yourself, there's some really great teacher blogs out there with creative, quick ways of doing certain things. I would suggest googling [topic] teaching tips or [topic] for teaching key stage 1 (or whatever age they are). Try using American and UK class levels too (like Primary, Years 1-12 for UK and pre-K to college in USA) to find content that might help you!
• PERSONALITY is so important. If you're gonna be that stuffy teacher they're gonna spend all their time rebelling or being mean/gossiping about you. With any age gap I think it's so important to make a personal connection with your student so they feel like they're working WITH you and not just doing what they say (this is why I think it's such a shame teachers aren't more supported and respected as class sizes are so huge it's just not possible to do this)

There my three main topics I'd say for teaching younger kids!!

I don't have any problem with being patient, thank God XD and I think they kinda like me because I'm a young teacher and I know they are talking behind my back saying that I'm cute and what not (they said, not me XD). So, no problem with them liking me.

The only problem I have left is how to make they really understand and gain something. I was given a module to be finished by the teacher I'm substituting for a month, but I kinda think they don't really understand it. I love the idea of recreating from textbooks. I'm gonna try to recreate something from the module so that it'll be easier for them to answer it. Gonna squeeze my brain thinking about it though :p

Thanks laura! Good one.

also if your country allows it a cane wouldn't go amiss

Hahah. There's a lot of canes in the staff room. I'd rather not use them though. Cause I pretty don't know much about the limit XD