Free Classes
...written on 02.23.04, @ 11:54 a.m.
Sun February 22, 2004
This month we are doing free classes to attract new students for our Kids English program. Last week, I had a classroom filled with 15 people. Seven of those were actual students, the rest, mothers or siblings.
Today as well, I did two free classes. One for the primary kids and one for the 1st and 2nd graders of elementary school.
You never know how it's going to go with the newbies. Some cling to the wall or their parents, some immediately bop the balloon around the room with me. Some barely whisper the responses while others scream them at full volume.
My first class today was on the shy side. I had seven little pre-schoolers. It was gratifying to see how far they came in twenty minutes, which was all the time I had to showcase my teaching skills. One little girl especially, said absolutely nothing during those 20 minutes, but afterwards, when her mother's attention was focused on the sales pitch by the Japanese teacher, she came out of her shell.
In the next class, I had three elementary school students. The focus was learning five responses to "How are you?" (I'm happy, mad, sad, sick, sleepy). I had planned to have them sing the song "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.", but decided to drop it after getting them through the initial preparation. However, I had plenty of other activities to use with the material.
I finished the class and had them sit down to color in some faces. I had paper plates with faces drawn on them taped to chopsticks and shuffled them until the students said "Stop!". The students were then to ask me "How are you?" and I would flash the paper plate face at them and they would draw in their own happy, mad, sad, etc. expression.
That little, quiet, four year old girl from the first class, had a sister participating in the second class, so she sat down with us. She was the first to catch on to say "Stop!" and loudly asked "How are you?" when the time came. Her drawing effort is below. She also surprised me by copying the words to each expression. Pretty good command of the concept for her age and experience!
