When you complete your TEFL/TESOL training you’re met with options. Do you want to teach group classes or work with private clients? Do you want to work with adults or children? At a school or in an institute? When I chose to apply for teaching positions in Thailand, after graduating from my online TEFL course, I never thought I’d be caught dead teaching Pre-K. Somebody is always screaming and a dozen dirty diapers provide a less-than-refreshing aroma. Welcome to my life as a Pre-K teacher abroad.
In Thailand, teaching Pre-K means teaching 17 two-year-olds for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. Managing such a young age group can be a struggle but luckily I don’t have to do it alone. I have a wonderful Thai co-teacher and at least one assistant. Teaching Pre-K takes patience. And as a new teacher, I’m still learning the ins and outs. But I’ve learned a lot in my first few months. Here are a few tips that have made me a better teacher.
1. Build a Relationship Based on Trust and Respect
Taking time to build relationships with students is always better, no matter how young they are. When I started teaching midway through the school year, my students already had a strong attachment to my co-teacher. But I was new and I was not treated with the same love. There was a significant lack of respect and some students flat out disliked me.
The fact that I don’t speak Thai didn’t help. One student in particular was very scared of me for the first few months because of my foreign tongue. She was difficult to connect with but I never gave up. Then one day I broke through. She said my name for the first time and slowly but surely I began to earn her trust.
Once my students started to like me, trust me and see me as an authority figure, running the classroom became significantly easier. You’ll always be the boss but your approach makes a difference. Making students laugh and showing them kindness helps form a bond between student and teacher. But remember, it’s equally important that they see you as an authority figure.
2. Trial and Error
Two-year-olds don’t compensate for your mistakes. Unlike teaching adults, a Pre-K class will not courteously carry on if your lesson is unengaging or ill-suited for their level. And they have shown me plenty of my mistakes, such as making lessons too difficult or managing my time ineffectively. Starting any new job takes some trial and error. But this is especially true when you are dealing with young children and a wide range of personalities.
Some students respond better than others to certain teaching and disciplinary strategies. For example, some of my students will stop misbehaving if I give them >the look. Others need to suffer forced isolation: time-out. It takes time to learn how each student will respond to a situation. In the meantime, it is important to pay attention to detail and learn what works and what doesn’t in all aspects of the job. Doing is often the best way to learn.
3. Get Creative
Toddlers have the attention span of goldfish. So coming up with “lesson plans” for Pre-K can be challenging. When I first started teaching, I had trouble translating my training into age-appropriate activities. It took a while before I was able to design lesson plans and projects that met the ability and focus period of the students. Two-year-olds love paper, glue, paint, anything hands-on. Simplifying lessons while still making them fun and educational is vital.
It’s useful to incorporate internet resources and your students’ basic knowledge. Websites such as Pinterest have great ideas for crafts, lesson plans and teaching methods. For ESL-specific activities iSLCollective is a life-saver. Creating lessons that appeal to the interests of your students also goes a long way. For example, I’ve created puzzles that require my students to put the numbers one through five in order. When the students completed their puzzles there was a picture of Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty on the other side. This had nothing to do with the learning objective but it motivated my students to sit through the duration of the activity.
4. Maintain Order and Enforce Rules
If you let your students make their own rules, your classroom will deteriorate into Lord of the Flies. A mistake I made early on was not establishing a sense of order the moment I walked through the door. It’s important to be consistent. Enforce rules from the very beginning of the school year. Help your students develop a daily routine and praise them when they achieve it. With most students, it’s difficult to accomplish anything without the parameters of a set routine. As teachers we have job expectations so why wouldn’t we give our students classroom expectations?
My students know that in the morning they wash their hands, sit at the table, go through attendance and sing a few songs. Maintaining the same routines means there are less instructions that need to be given and things can get done quicker. In the framework of set routines, students are also given the stage. They get to do most of the talking. But it is still necessary to enforce rules and discipline your students. Students need to learn at an early age how to treat their peers (e.g. no hitting) and act appropriately in daily life. When you teach Pre-K, you’re not just an English teacher. I teach my students to be polite and do things on their own, such as throwing away their own garbage.
5. Relax
When you’re 2, life is chaos. The biggest piece of advice I can give future Pre-K teachers is to remain relaxed. Your students are no longer babies but they are still developing their independence. You will likely be tying shoes and wiping a nose or two. And I had several strong personalities in my class, ranging from serial wardrobe changers to the flight risks to the biters. I remind myself on a daily basis to stay calm because the chaos will carry on with or without me.
All I can do is my best. And as challenging as Pre-K is, it is also very rewarding. You watch your students change and grow so much more than you would with an adult class. It has been incredible to watch my students go through so many developmental phases. Next term, I will be moving to K-1 with my students. We will have a combined class of 25 kids. Along with new faces, I am anticipating new challenges and new rewards.