What to do when teaching a five year old....

So last Friday was the last class I had with the five year old and here is a list of things that I would do differently/should keep in mind for the next young child I teach one on one:

1. Find a bunch of activities to do during the lesson. Activities that might work:
Hop-scotch with flashcards
Flashcards-repeating until they know them, ask them first, then have them ask you
Go fish (I found a toy fishing pole and magnetic fish that I could put the words of the day so that he "fished" for the words then identified them.) As above, switch roles.
Use the worksheets found on ESL-kids.com-the drum, word match and bingo were a hit
(This one goes really fast though, five activities might take up five minutes.)
I did half of the lesson using the ESL-kids and half of the lesson using the worksheets from Starfall.com
(When using Starfall: at first, I had him do the activities, but then just started to print out the handouts because he wasn't retaining the information enough to tell his parents what he was learning-although I could see him improve. What I did instead, was to really emphasize one story and then do the worksheets. Next time, I would do one story per week and each day do a different worksheet. Thus, one week would be "short a," the next "short e" as opposed to one story per day, which works better with the older students. This way, it is repeated a lot and they can integrate the information.)
"Find me"-hide flashcards around the room and have the student find them-switch
Matching
Shoots and Ladders (helps with counting)
Go fish with flashcards (works with older students)
Simon Says (again, for older students)
Coloring (He was able to color the story we read)
Songs? (This one really hasn't gone over well with any of the students I have.)

2. Along with choosing one story to do per week, I would also choose one theme to do. I thought I could switch up the theme every few days, but I think it would be better to work with one theme for a couple of days. This way, I think I could keep the activities we did each week relatively similar, but the "newness" would come with the change of theme. For really young students, I might have to do a few themes every few days.

3. Start out strong then go soft. I think one of the mistakes I made with the five year old, was that I wasn't authoritative enough from the beginning. I think it worked to have him choose some of the activities, but I should have been more structured to start. I hope this would have saved me the stress then of loosing him towards the end. In other words, I gave him the power too soon, I should have had him earn it more (especially in Thailand where the teachers are definitely seen more authoritative than in the States.)

4. Planning really, really, really makes a difference!

I think that's it. Moral of story: I learned A LOT from teaching "Bee" and, despite the fact that he was the most challenging student I've had, there is a part of me that's sad to have the lessons ended. He was exceptionally bright and on his way to becoming trilingual. Although I'm not sure that I could have kept him engaged for one more class, I'm going to miss him.

A departure from the usual.....

So I wanted to take this post to briefly address some of the concerns that have come my way regarding the political situation in Thailand.

Basically I want to stress that what's going on in Bangkok right now is in no way shape or form affecting us down south (i.e. in Kamala or Phuket even). And it certainly has nothing to do with foreigners. As someone recently pointed out, what is going on in Bangkok has to do with the Thai people expressing their rights as "democratic" citizens. It would be like being from another country during the protests that were taking place in 2003 in LA against the Iraq war.

In Kamala, the situation is even further removed. If I did not teach in a house that had a tv-I wouldn't even know there is a problem.

Please, everyone, thanks for your worries, but there is really no need. Kamala and Phuket are sound, beautiful and safe.

Changing of the Seasons...

So last week (to the day as a matter of fact) was my last lesson with Sophia. Although the classes didn't "accomplish" her parents' goal for her (i.e. passing the interview to continue onto second grade), I hope she got something out of it by the end. I know I certainly did. '

The last few lessons were extremely fun for me, mostly because for the last two weeks, I went to her house instead of having her come to the school. Although the first lesson was really awkward, I think this ended up being a pretty good thing. For one, Sophia's sister (or cousin, I never was able to figure it out) was able to sit in on the lessons with us. With the added person, the class became way more entertaining for Sophia and it was easier for me to just step back and let the two of them interact-as opposed to feeling like I had to keep her busy the entire time. Not only that, but I think Sophia felt more comfortable and as she opened up, it gave me an opportunity to just have fun with her. It was really great to see her laugh and joke around and I think some of the walls came down.

The roles of "teacher" and "student" have been interesting (to say the least). Unlike the states, the people of Thailand (and most of Asia I'm told) still hold teachers in the highest respect. Of course, I, for one am in no way opposed to this, but it's been kind of weird for me to interact with the students in a much more formal way than I am used to. Really, what I love most about teaching or watching kids is that I get to be one!!! Thus, it was a nice change at the end when I could just play with Sophia and let down my guard. Needless to say, I have no idea what her parents thought, but I hope she learned something!!

I certainly have missed her and her family this week.

In other news, last week also marked the addition of a new student, and, in doing so, has presented me with a whole slew of new and exciting challenges. I will try to update soon with an account of my "adventures in teaching English to a five year old!!!"