Taking part in a lively conversation were \u2026.<\/p>\n
![\"eltchat](\"http:\/\/teflgeek.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/eltchat-participants.png?w=490&h=213\")
<\/p>\n
\u2026.. and apologies to anyone who\u2019s been missed out! \u00a0The chat took place on Wednesday 11th September.<\/p>\n
There were about five key themes that emerged:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Getting to know you \/ Icebreaker activities<\/li>\n
- Those first few lessons<\/li>\n
- Routines & Systems<\/li>\n
- Focusing on the learner(s)<\/li>\n
- Tech<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Getting to Know you activities \/<\/strong>\u00a0Icebreakers:<\/strong><\/h1>\n
The main problem most people confessed to here was in learning and remembering everyone\u2019s names. \u00a0Suggestions to help with this included taking a class photo \/ individual portraits (which could also then be used in any learning management system, e.g. edmodo), or using student generated namecards, or making notes in the register \u2013 though it was pointed out you have to be careful about what you write!<\/p>\n
Some great \u201cgetting to know you\u201d activities were shared:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Writing sentences about yourself on the board and students guessing which are true \/ which are false<\/li>\n
- Writing sentences about yourself up on the board and students guess the lie<\/li>\n
- Students guess what\u2019s in your bag<\/li>\n
- Writing six keywords \/ phrases on the board around a star \u2013 students guess the importance \/ relevance to you. \u00a0Then they do the same activity in small groups.<\/li>\n
- Taking in a selection of items of personal importance (realia) and students guess the importance \/ significance of the items to you<\/li>\n
- Creating fake facebook profiles for each other<\/li>\n
- Giving students GPS co-ordinates to your location in the town and having them track you down with their smart phones and introduce themselves<\/li>\n
- Students coming up with the titles for their autobiographies and then explaining them to each other<\/li>\n
- Finding things in common<\/li>\n
- Writing their likes and dislikes down on separate slips of paper, scrunching them up, having a \u201csnowball\u201d fight and then having to return the slips of paper they end up with to the original owner.<\/li>\n
- Sticking bits of A4 to the students\u2019 backs and having everyone go round writing adjectives on the paper that relate to the person they\u2019re writing on.<\/li>\n
- The ID cards activity (SS interview each other and perform introductions) from \u201cKeep Talking by Penny Ur\u201d (though I think Keep Talking was by Friederike Klippel, so not sure if the activity\u2019s in this or in one of Penny Ur\u2019s many other books).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Links from this section:<\/h2>\n
- \n
- \u201cUseful Back to School related links<\/a>\u201d by Lizzie Pinard<\/li>\n
- \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name in an ESL class?<\/a>\u201d by Lesley Cioccas<\/li>\n
- \u201cWho\u2019s your Googleganger?<\/a>\u201d by Karenne Sylvester<\/li>\n
- \u201cDon\u2019t Panic and Use Warm Ups<\/a>\u201d by Monika Kisala<\/li>\n
- \u201cLying, not boring<\/a>\u201d by Laura Patsko<\/li>\n
- \u201cPeople to People<\/a>\u201d from the Ultimate Camp Resource blog<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The First (few) Lesson(s):\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
There\u2019s inevitably a bit of crossover between this and the previous section, but there was more of a focus on establishing the class and putting everything in place for a successful course.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Start building group dynamics (it takes 8 hours of contact to effectively build a group rapport). \u00a0Students may not be used to working collaboratively or in teams of any kind, so it\u2019s important to establish group working principles early on.<\/li>\n
- Negotiate the learning goals for the class. \u00a0Find out what their expectations for the course are and help them to set achievable targets for the first week \/ month \/ term.<\/li>\n
- Get any Learning Management systems up and running and familiarise the students with the systems. \u00a0Tell students about any technology you\u2019ll need them to use during the course.<\/li>\n
- Negotiate the classroom rules with the learners \u2013 make sure everyone quickly understands what\u2019s acceptable or what\u2019s not acceptable classroom behaviour as this will impact the entire academic year! \u00a0This could be done as a classroom contract to be designed and written up by the students (outlining expectations on both students AND teacher) and to be signed by all. \u00a0Or younger learners might enjoy drawing up posters that stipulate the rules that have been negotiated \/ imposed (!).<\/li>\n
- Two books were mentioned: \u00a0Jill Hadfield\u2019s \u201cClassroom Dynamics\u201d and \u201cTeaching Unplugged\u201d by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Links from this section:<\/h2>\n
- \n
- \u201cMy First Lesson \u2013 Chinese Students<\/a>\u201d by Martin Sketchley<\/li>\n
- \u201cFirst Lesson articles, lesson plans and Worksheets<\/a>\u201d from the tefltastic blog<\/li>\n
- \u201cThe Marshmallow Challenge<\/a>\u201d by Tom Wujec<\/li>\n
- My post on \u201cStarting a Vocabulary Box<\/a>\u201c<\/li>\n
- \u201cTen ways to motivate the unmotivated<\/a>\u201d by Ken Wilson<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Slave](\"http:\/\/teflgeek.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/slave-to-routine.gif?w=490\")
<\/p>\nRoutines &<\/strong>\u00a0Systems:<\/strong><\/h1>\n
The beginning of a new course is that period where everyone is getting used to each other, working out what they can expect from each other and what is expected of them, developing the interactions and systems that define the community of practice. \u00a0As such it\u2019s important to remember that in establishing routines and systems \u2013 IT\u2019S NOT JUST ABOUT THE FIRST LESSON \u2013 and the key thing for any routine is maintaining it.<\/p>\n
Once a routine has been solidly established, then it\u2019s possible to build in more flexibility and variety within routines can be a key way of keeping students engaged and motivated. \u00a0A routine doesn\u2019t mean doing the same thing all the time, it\u2019s more about building a framework to operate in and to plug different activities, songs etc into. \u00a0(Editor\u2019s note: \u00a0this didn\u2019t come up in the chat, but Charles Rei\u2019s post \u201cI Only Have One Lesson Plan<\/a>\u201d is a great example of this principle).<\/p>\n
Routines suggested during the chat seemed to fall into three categories: \u00a0(1) Behavourial \u2013 timekeeping, acceptable behaviours, classroom rules (see above) etc; \u00a0(2) Administrative \u2013 setting up tutorials and the like; \u00a0(3) Pedagogical \u2013 developing study skills, learner training, incorporating activities into the lessons (public speaking \/ show and tell \/ vocabulary revision \/ etc).<\/p>\n
Focusing on the<\/strong>\u00a0Learners:<\/strong><\/h1>\n
There was a sizeable chunk of chat looking at the differences between young learner and adult classes and what the differences might mean for starting courses off on the right foot. \u00a0For example, is it more important for young learner classes to have routines than adult classes?<\/p>\n
The consensus was that kids need routines to feel more settled and that routines are therefore very important for young learner classes, though these routines might focus more on rules and procedures, and involve more ice-breaking or more warmers. \u00a0Adults on the other hand, need to feel more part of the process and not just passive recipients of an imposed system. \u00a0Everyone however, regardless of age, likes to know what to expect and routines can provide that certainty, though it is important to try and manage these expectations so that learners\u2019 previous experiences of education don\u2019t impose themselves \u2013 breaking dependency on the teacher.<\/p>\n
With adults, you can use the first lesson(s) more as a demonstration of how things might be different to their expectations and as a clear statement of how things on this course are going to be. \u00a0But don\u2019t set yourself unsustainable standards\u2026.<\/p>\n
Group work and project work are good ways of creating team spirit and building rapport within the class.<\/p>\n
Tech:<\/strong><\/p>\n
As mentioned briefly above, the first few lessons is also when you need to establish with the classes what, if any, technology or online components are going to be used with the course and to get the learners signed up and engaged with it all.<\/p>\n
- \n
- The class blog<\/li>\n
- The class wiki<\/li>\n
- The class Facebook group<\/li>\n
- Class Dojo<\/a>\u00a0profiles<\/li>\n
- Class Charts<\/a>\u00a0profiles<\/li>\n
- Edmodo<\/a>\u00a0groups and profiles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If there is going to be an online component, then it is also important to establish the rules and boundaries that go with that \u2013 in other words to negotiate (see also above) the netiquette.<\/p>\n
![\"ELTChat](\"http:\/\/teflgeek.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/qrcode-17065391.png?w=490\")
<\/p>\nOne other area of tech that came up was QR codes. \u00a0If you\u2019ve not met QR codes before, then the image on the right is an example:<\/p>\n
Essentially a QR code is a bit like a bar code that you can generate for pretty much anything on the internet. \u00a0(The one on the right, for example, will take you to the ELT Chat homepage). \u00a0They can be read by smartphones with a QR code reader app \u2013 not sure if they can be read by anything else\u2026<\/p>\n
You could, for example, generate QR codes for students to find out about you from your online information \/ profile. \u00a0Or use them as links to your online components.<\/p>\n
More advice here:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cThree ways to make useful QR codes for your students<\/a>\u201d by Richard Byrne<\/li>\n
- \u201cFive ways QR codes can enhance your teaching and your classroom<\/a>\u201d by Bill Pryce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strategies for a New Course \u2013 an #ELTChat\u00a0Summary The summary was contributed by David Petrie – @teflgeek on Twitter – on his blog \u00a0and is reproduced here with his kind permission\u00a0 Like the cuckoo heralding spring,\u00a0the first\u00a0#ELTChat\u00a0of the year has arrived. \u00a0As many teachers around the world are getting ready for their first lessons with…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[59,87,101,120],"class_list":["post-6081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summary","tag-games","tag-motivation","tag-professional-development","tag-teaching-methods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} - \u201cFive ways QR codes can enhance your teaching and your classroom<\/a>\u201d by Bill Pryce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
- Class Charts<\/a>\u00a0profiles<\/li>\n
- \u201cFirst Lesson articles, lesson plans and Worksheets<\/a>\u201d from the tefltastic blog<\/li>\n
- \u201cMy First Lesson \u2013 Chinese Students<\/a>\u201d by Martin Sketchley<\/li>\n
- \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name in an ESL class?<\/a>\u201d by Lesley Cioccas<\/li>\n
- \u201cUseful Back to School related links<\/a>\u201d by Lizzie Pinard<\/li>\n