Tips for teaching large classes in government schools

[Bangkokbaby]

I've read similar posts, but any new tips would be great.

I've just arrived in BKK and start work at a government school next semester. I'll be teaching M1 and M2 students. The classes will be 45-50 students. What games have you had success with? What games simply do not work with large classes? What kind of lessons work well for you? How do you disipline and keep control of such large classes?

Wish me luck. I think I'll need it!

[MatteoBassini]

If you have a choice, you should teach M4-6 instead of lower levels. It's much more quiet and mature.

My teaching experience only extends to kids, teenagers, and adults who voluntarily sat in the class because they themselves were eager to learn (work places, English camps, private classes). I'm not sure if you can change the minds of young teenagers who were forced to sat in class.

Easy way to keep control is shout all the time. If you talk normally, chances are the kids at the back won't hear you at all, especially if this government school you're talking about doesn't have aircon and they keep the doors opened.

Don't sit all the time, walk around the class WHILE shouting. Shouting tells the students you aren't a doormat to be stepped on; the art of teaching is keeping a balance between a friendly personality and an authority figure.

If you have the chance, make some friendly jokes related to the topic you're teaching in class. Say something in Thai, ANYTHING, your foreign accent will make them laugh and make them feel comfortable, it won't give them the impression that you're an oldfart sex tourist who is just teaching to have an income to supply beer Chang and bar fines.

[MaeJoMTB]

^^

Completely wrong,

Never raise your voice, always speak softly, else they just shout you down.

Never act like a clown, clowns are not worthy of respect.

[lostinisaan]

You’ll be dealing with 13 and 14 year olds. Most of them have a cellphone and will also use it in class. I assume you’ll have each class for only an hour per week? “Teenagers” this age aren’t really up for games, no matter what you might have “learned” in a TEFL course.

There might be between three and six kids who can actually understand and speak some English, don’t expect too much, and do not set your goals too high. First, you’ll have to find out how good their English is. You’ll be shocked once you know the truth.

Ask them easy questions, for example: “Where do you live?”- “What’s your favorite subject”. Etc...

Keep your lessons funny, try to figure out who the bosses in each class are. Once you’ve got them, you’ve got the whole class.

Never jell at them, or shout, you’ll only make a lot of enemies who’ll hate you. To discipline them is something where you should read plenty of older topics here, or on other websites. There’s no such thing that works for all.

You have to adjust your English in a way that they can understand you. It doesn’t work vice versa.

Always have a backup lesson, should the so long planned “fantastic ESL lesson” doesn’t work out.

Divide your lesson into sections, a funny warm up, then the actual lesson and at the end a topic related word search, or similar.

You should never forget that no students fail and they’re the ones who’ll evaluate you. If they don’t like you, you’re out.

Then the superiors would tell you a fancy story, but never the truth.

Be always well dressed, never wear flip flops, or jeans. Treat people with the same respect you want to be treated and you’ll be fine.

I’m certain that you’ll need a long time to understand how to deal with for Thailand normal circumstances. Try to learn the language and don’t get drunk in the center of the city/town even if it’s your private time. Eyes are everywhere. You might not see them, but they’ll see you.

Wish you a good start.

[Happy Grumpy]

Buy a green wig.

Red nose.

Take juggling lessons.

[SheungWan]

The question I would ask the OP is have you done a CELTA course or are you winging it from the off?

[asdecas]

What is "jelling"?

[Too]

Hello,

I do hope you will have a Thai assistant in class. You're supposed to

if you do E.P.

Good luck.

[recom273]

There's nothing wrong with projecting your voice - you need to with 50 kids.

I figure, it's good to be cool, get the kids on your side - and they will send the message to other kids and your supervisors. "Look s'mart and hansum", don't smell of smoke, don't fall into their traps about masturbation and drug references; be a good role model.

Get into a routine, outline grammar / vocab - teach for 15 mins, let them do some gap fill activity with their buddies, do some role play, divide the class up in your mind then walk around those groups, sit down and teach further, maybe start with the worst students but go easy on the students and the obvious visual discipline. If you watch TT's sometimes they ignore big pockets of kids and let them watch YouTube with their headphones or play games on phones, don't be like this - but just understand what your up against.

Every 2-3 weeks arrange some kind of oral test where the kids memorize the conversation and role play in pairs, this means they have to try. Don't be too serious, but let them compete against themselves. Record those scores as the school will probably require some grade after 9 weeks ( mid term ) and it's good to have something to show. If you can swing it, during these test days get half the kids to turn up half way thro' then give them an early day after testing. 50 unsupervised kids in a room while you are testing doesn't work.

Games don't really work, but keeping the kids entertained does, act and use drawing to model, get the kids who understand to act and draw to model.

Do everything slowly, aim low. Don't start teaching hard on the first week - 10 minutes to intro yourself, appear organized, get their names, assess through "hi my name is .." - explain the simple class rules with drawings - make them laugh, then explain 5 examples of classroom vocab ( how do you spell that ? what page ? Etc )

Find out about the school procedure, if they skip 20% of the classes they may fail, so get a register together, take attendance, you will learn names and you will appear that they shouldn't mess with you, but on the same token, be cool, let kids slide, don't worry if they show up late ( climbing through the window ) praise them for showing up but use the 20% as your sword ( am I wrong ? ). Lay the law down, let them see you take the register 25 mins into the lesson as routine, they will learn.

If your school lets you photocopy, PM me, I have lots of my own A4 sheets which you can run for 2 weeks, another way to keep them busy ( if the school doesn't pay too ) .. Copy 25 sheets yourself and let them copy into their books. It's not very ESL, I know, but it's what they are used to with TT's then award points for presentation.

I have kids now in vocational college that I taught in the worst classes of M2 and M3 or I know their bad brother, they are cool kids, I always make time to stop and chat even though I may not teach them, the word will spread quickly, it shows that you and what you teach are relevant and you aren't scared of them.

Edited October 10, 2015 by recom273

[tonray]

I currently teach M1/M2/M4/M6

By far my best classes are M6...in their last year of school...they know the deal....if they act up and cause problems there is no benefit for them. M1/M2 still little boys and girls testing you every time, M4...some good and some bad...the good ones a pleasure the bad ones....like a trip to hell.

The best tip is teach to the students who want to learn. Of course make an effort for all but some kids (wanna be tough guys) don't want to learn and you'll waste time and energy on them. Do not shout....never works. Walk around and make sure they are taking notes...if not mark them down for the day. Break lessons into board work (copying), discussion and then put them on the spot and make them stand for speaking dialogue practice...if they know they must stand in front of peers they will settle down and behave better...so let the bad kids go last...they will be waiting for you to come around.

[recom273]

And good luck.

Teaching mathayom age is far more rewarding to me than teaching the real basics to pratom kids, it's only as stressful as you make it. Do your prep before class, get organized, relax in class and good things will come to you.

Edited October 10, 2015 by recom273

[smotherb]

If you have a choice, you should teach M4-6 instead of lower levels. It's much more quiet and mature.

My teaching experience only extends to kids, teenagers, and adults who voluntarily sat in the class because they themselves were eager to learn (work places, English camps, private classes). I'm not sure if you can change the minds of young teenagers who were forced to sat in class.

Easy way to keep control is shout all the time. If you talk normally, chances are the kids at the back won't hear you at all, especially if this government school you're talking about doesn't have aircon and they keep the doors opened.

Don't sit all the time, walk around the class WHILE shouting. Shouting tells the students you aren't a doormat to be stepped on; the art of teaching is keeping a balance between a friendly personality and an authority figure.

If you have the chance, make some friendly jokes related to the topic you're teaching in class. Say something in Thai, ANYTHING, your foreign accent will make them laugh and make them feel comfortable, it won't give them the impression that you're an oldfart sex tourist who is just teaching to have an income to supply beer Chang and bar fines.

What if they think you're an ignorant young punk who can't even write English properly?

[bazza40]

^^

Completely wrong,

Never raise your voice, always speak softly, else they just shout you down.

Never act like a clown, clowns are not worthy of respect.

While I agree shouting in Thai culture is a no-no, the teacher has to command respect somehow. The best teachers I've had either commanded respect by force of personality ( one was a direct descendent of Rob Roy McGregor) or can light up a class with their sheer love of their subject matter.

Poor teachers are just going through the motions, and kids can pick that up in seconds.

[Sparkles]

Bankokbaby you will need some luck but more importantly patience.Its impossible to provide adequate teaching to classes that size.Its not education, its crowd control.

I would suggest stick it out as long as you can ,get some "experience" and move on to a job that enables you to ,at the end of the day,to give you some job satisfaction and the students

have gained some momentum in skills.

Thailand is not down the bottom of the Asian pile for nothing as far as level of student achievement levels are concerned.Its a national disgace with no sign of it ever changing.

www.ajarn.com is a teaching site that may help if you havent already found it. Chok dee

[carlyai]

Before i started teaching at international schools, I had a bit of fun teaching at a Thai private school on tanon Sathorn.

Phatom 6 from the bottom to the Queen's and King's classes.

From memory there were up to 60 kids in the class, all boys.

The King's and Queen's classes were no trouble at all with all the very smart kids and extremely well behaved.

The farangs team taught with a great Thai teacher who had this long piece of bamboo.

When the boys in the lower classes became noisy and troublesome, she singled out a couple and wacked the crap out of them, which bought crowd control for the next 20 mins.

This method worked very well and made for enjoyable teaching and students did learn.

So my tip would be: always team teach with a strong Thai woman, and weild the bamboo ...... Wack! wack! wack! ........ nice and quite now.

[Bangkokbaby]

Thank you so much for all of your replies. Some great advice given. Plenty of food for thought

[Stevemercer]

Get the kids to stand up when you are ready to begin. They will say 'Good morning teacher' and you will say 'Good morning class'. Introduce yourself and write your name on the whiteboard, where you come from and your age. Get the class to say it out aloud a few times. Young kids are normally taught be rote and love to repeat things. You can still do this with M1/M2. In fact, if you get stuck, or the class is drifting away, going back to repeating after you is a good way to get the class on track. You will do this whether you are doing days of the week, months, numbers, parts of the body, jobs or whatever.

For the first class, you should ask each student to come up the white board and write down their nickname, sex and age. You have to try and move the students along quickly as the rest of the class will start to get restless. Pick the rows or desks using 'iny minnet moe, catch a tiger by the tail etc'.

Whatever you are teaching, it is good to get students to come up the front and repeat something to the rest of the class. For example, 'My nickname is ____. My age is 13. I am a boy'. Use a fun way to randomly select students to come up the front. I often get them to pass a marker pen (with the top off) and yell out 'stop'. The student with the pen has to come up to the front. That student, when finished repeating, turns to the blackboard while the pen is passed to yell 'stop' and select the next student. Another way is to ask the student to pick someone of the opposite sex. This always causes great amusement and kills a few minutes while they agonise.

If the classroom has audio-visual girl, search for Thai popular songs or English songs with Thai subtitles. There are plenty on YouTube. Get some Mr Bean short clips from YouTube (these are silent so don't require a grasp of English. It's good to finish a class on a high.

I've saved a few M1 classes from utter chaos by challenging the students to noughts and crosses on the whiteboard. They will know the game when you draw it up. Deliberately lose to the first volunteer. And then stand back and pick the next challenger. Thai students love competition, whether it is row against row, boys against girls or whatever. The simplest is 'guess the word, phrase or movie' where you write the number of spaces/letter, and each row gets to guess a letter etc.

Try to learn a few mimes. For example, 'guess the sport' - mime taking a golf swing, playing tennis, soccer etc.

Anyway, you can spend the first few lessons with the students writing their profiles in their work book (name, age, sex, favourite sport, favourite food, telephone number, what job I want, etc) with the main lesson centred around the key topics (eg examples of jobs, sex = gender = male/female = boy/girl = man/woman = gentleman/lady etc).

After the first few weeks you can start doing 'conversations' where the students write down a simple conversation you have made up and must answer questions. Copying things from the whiteboard will keep the class quiet.

I once made the mistake or 'grading' students on the spot (writing 'Excellent work' on their workbook in red ink). The students love this and you will be mobbed in the rush to get your signature in their workbook, but it is too disruptive!

Edited October 10, 2015 by Stevemercer

[mrwebb8825]

So OP, you've bought a new pair of trunks and decided to lean how to swim by diving off the highest diving platform into the deepest end of the pool huh? I was snickering a bit reading through most of these posts as most don't seem to know the difference between teaching and entertaining/surviving the class.

I presently teach M1 and M2 students in a government school with 40 - 50 kids in each of my 20 classes. The 1st thing I can say is Thank God and Buddha that it is NOT in Bangkok. These are the "raging hormone" age groups so try to remember what that was like and take many of their actions with a grain of salt.

It's hard to tell you what to do as I have no idea of your age/experience/education/etc. There's just so much that can be said but you'll learn as you go. There are NO hard and fast rules that will work for discipline, lessons, elicitation, etc. The things I do come from 15 years of teaching in Thailand and may or may not work for you.

Be patient, understanding, able to adapt to any given situation in a moment’s notice (there will be many), learn your students (actions, emotions, personalities, etc.).

The level of difficulty you can expect corresponds directly with the class number (as a 95% rule). M1/1 and M2/1 will be a dream while M1/10 (and higher) and M2/10 (and higher) will require the use of a whip and a chair.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

ps. starting next semester, many government schools are stopping lessons at 2pm

[JGV]

Break the class into groups of 8 Assign a captain to each group preferably the best student in English - 4 girl captains and 4 boy captains

Give all the kids English nicknames - use 2 bags one with girls names and one with boys

These groups will be used for vocabulary games - I use letters A B C etc with vocabulary groups - jobs.places,verbs etc

First get the class to list the vocab and then later play time limited game - say a minute or 30 secs to recall what lists they wrote the week before

Control: You must walk around the class and have a loud voice - cocky loud mouthed students need to be controlled - get them out front at blackboard and usually theyy know little and aren't are not comfortable and try to avoid a repeat

Expose the cheats - assign jobs to particularly naughty kids - clean classroom at end of class etc

By using groups to plan games which earn points - individuals can gain or lose points for their team dependant on their positive or negative contribution

Trouble makers don't want to lose face with their team

Anyway good luck and don't be too sensitive if students try to belittle you

JJGV

[off road pat]

You’ll be dealing with 13 and 14 year olds. Most of them have a cellphone and will also use it in class. I assume you’ll have each class for only an hour per week? “Teenagers” this age aren’t really up for games, no matter what you might have “learned” in a TEFL course.

There might be between three and six kids who can actually understand and speak some English, don’t expect too much, and do not set your goals too high. First, you’ll have to find out how good their English is. You’ll be shocked once you know the truth.

Ask them easy questions, for example: “Where do you live?”- “What’s your favorite subject”. Etc...

Keep your lessons funny, try to figure out who the bosses in each class are. Once you’ve got them, you’ve got the whole class.

Never jell at them, or shout, you’ll only make a lot of enemies who’ll hate you. To discipline them is something where you should read plenty of older topics here, or on other websites. There’s no such thing that works for all.

You have to adjust your English in a way that they can understand you. It doesn’t work vice versa.

Always have a backup lesson, should the so long planned “fantastic ESL lesson” doesn’t work out.

Divide your lesson into sections, a funny warm up, then the actual lesson and at the end a topic related word search, or similar.

You should never forget that no students fail and they’re the ones who’ll evaluate you. If they don’t like you, you’re out.

Then the superiors would tell you a fancy story, but never the truth.

Be always well dressed, never wear flip flops, or jeans. Treat people with the same respect you want to be treated and you’ll be fine.

I’m certain that you’ll need a long time to understand how to deal with for Thailand normal circumstances. Try to learn the language and don’t get drunk in the center of the city/town even if it’s your private time. Eyes are everywhere. You might not see them, but they’ll see you.

Wish you a good start.

Yes, sound correct,..I would add,...never associate with prostitutes or dodgy people....it would lower every esteem they might have for you...like " lostinisaan '' said eyes are everywhere.

Best of luck,

[Songlaw]

You’ll be dealing with 13 and 14 year olds. Most of them have a cellphone and will also use it in class. I assume you’ll have each class for only an hour per week? “Teenagers” this age aren’t really up for games, no matter what you might have “learned” in a TEFL course.

There might be between three and six kids who can actually understand and speak some English, don’t expect too much, and do not set your goals too high. First, you’ll have to find out how good their English is. You’ll be shocked once you know the truth.

Ask them easy questions, for example: “Where do you live?”- “What’s your favorite subject”. Etc...

Keep your lessons funny, try to figure out who the bosses in each class are. Once you’ve got them, you’ve got the whole class.

Never jell at them, or shout, you’ll only make a lot of enemies who’ll hate you. To discipline them is something where you should read plenty of older topics here, or on other websites. There’s no such thing that works for all.

You have to adjust your English in a way that they can understand you. It doesn’t work vice versa.

Always have a backup lesson, should the so long planned “fantastic ESL lesson” doesn’t work out.

Divide your lesson into sections, a funny warm up, then the actual lesson and at the end a topic related word search, or similar.

You should never forget that no students fail and they’re the ones who’ll evaluate you. If they don’t like you, you’re out.

Then the superiors would tell you a fancy story, but never the truth.

Be always well dressed, never wear flip flops, or jeans. Treat people with the same respect you want to be treated and you’ll be fine.

I’m certain that you’ll need a long time to understand how to deal with for Thailand normal circumstances. Try to learn the language and don’t get drunk in the center of the city/town even if it’s your private time. Eyes are everywhere. You might not see them, but they’ll see you.

Wish you a good start.

The voice of experience, and/or reason. Ignore this advice at your own peril, OP.

[mrwebb8825]

On another note that lostinisaan touched on: Smartphones; I encourage their use in class, BUT, I encourage their use as an educational tool. Most of these kids have no idea that the smartphone has more than 4 apps.

With where the country and the world is headed, the age group you're getting will NEED to know how to do research on the fly, especially by the time they reach university level. My only rule, "Players Will Be Had" meaning they lose their phone for the duration of that class and are then forced to find someone willing to help them do things correctly. It takes a few classes but they catch on quickly and soon learn to save the "playing" for the thai teacher's classes.

Being in Bangkok you may fair better than most of the provinces but don't be caught off gaurd if many can not even spell their own nickname in English let alone understand what you want them to do outside of "Copy". The quickest way to understanding is familiarity of subject matter. Nobody in Thailand, especially young students, give 2 craps about how "Little Tommy" gets along with life in the UK. (most textbooks are British based with some of the new ones coming out of Singapore) Another thing to be aware of; you may NOT have ANY books for the students so make friends with the "Copy/Print" staff for quick return times on your handouts.

Be very flexible in your timetable as most government schools have around 118 holiday days off, 40 - 50 days of "Special Activities" for the holidays they don't close and other assorted activities that you may or may not know about beforehand. You'll show up to your classroom to find it empty only to learn later; "Oh, police come. Students learn about drugs today".

[yougivemebaby]

If you teach at a government school, do you get any of the same benefits as the teachers?

[recom273]

If you teach at a government school, do you get any of the same benefits as the teachers?

Of course you don't .. Your just as dispensable as any other establishment.

I have found a direct contract with a government school to be worse than an agency gig ( just my experience )

[jaiyenyen]

I think it depends on the school. I worked at one government school where we, the foreign teachers were included in most of the English department freebies. Example; We were included in the schools accident insurance plan, and were given member cards. We were included in teachers weekend breaks to the beach, with free hotel accommodation. Free shirts for special days.

On the other hand, the school where I work now give us nothing..

[timber]

So much depends on the school. Can expect almost anything. Have to feel out the chemistry of the class. Maybe for a day or do, do some introductions and word searches while you get a feel. Identify the leaders, and get them on your side and assisting. There will be fifteen or twenty percent keeners that are there to learn. There will be fifteenth to twenty percent duds that don't care, The rest depends on your teaching. Talk to the teacher, if you can, that taught them last year to get a feel for what they know and what you should be doing for the first couple of weeks. Pray with sincerity.

[timber]

Some government school treat you OK, Most think of you as a backpacker who probably won't be back next year. Don't assume anything.

[comeondoit]

I have been asked to give some English in a Matayom school (it is one which has only first to third grade) out in Isaan. I was just there to make some fun with them. I prepared pics for me and was drawing them myself at the board. The first day I had about 20 interested kids, the second there were 50 coming and on my third day about 100 kids were sitting in rows on the floor before me. The girls on one side and the boys on the other. Some had some paper but most had nothing. The teacher there could not provide me with a book, or some plan what to learn in which session.

What could I do???? I learnt them to sing "Mac Mac doodely had a farm" which was a big fun for them and all helped with it.

and then we worked on the words, so they could understand them. I am speaking some Thai and I am a Swiss national speaking and writing German, French and English.. After that the teacher said they learnt something from me. I do not know what (:-. They wanted me as a regular teacher (I do not need money and do not get paid). However I am retired and do not want to work and need my freedom, so sometimes I am just doing there some hours for the fun of everybody and some English my be sticking with them.

It will be very hard for you, forget everything you have been trained for, follow your instinct and do not forget, if you blame a kid for not beeing able to do something you have been asking......That is the worst to do, the kid will loose his face. And you must know most of them are very shy, not only the girls the boys too. To overcome that shyness is the hardest task you will have. Another advice, speak as simple as you can. Never ride on grammar things like an "s" if they do not say it, so what? they knew the word, then they can speak it !!!

Thai language has no declination and conjugation...so do not loose your time with explaining them such things. Later when they got more familiar with English they still can learn it. Try to overcome shyness and make/let them speak. Our daughter is now Mathayaom 4, she can read English and understands most of it, but she cannot speak and is to shy even to me her stepfather to talk. The English teaching Thais teach them writing and reading...but speaking, no, because most are not able to speak.themselfs

I wish you good luck. Thailand needs passionate teachers, who understand how different their culture is.

[Stevemercer]

I agree with the above post.

My conclusion from my short stint as a teacher was that Thai kids desperately need practice in speaking English. I got them to individually speak loudly in front of the class. However, in a class of 40+ students, the class can get restless while someone is speaking. I found that, even in Matayom 4, many students has trouble saying their phone number out loud in English. In the end, I had to just randomly choose students to speak out loud otherwise the rest of the class would get too restless.

[SuwadeeS]

I have done it, for a very long time. Never again.

Here are some facts:

1. The most students do not respect foreigners.

2. All of them like to play with their smartphones during class. (You should walk around with a basket before class, and collect them.)

3. I that age the boy get naughty and lazy.

4. I had to give all the students a score of min. 75%.

Good luck for you. .... I would never do it again.