Teach English in WanghuZhen - Rizhao Shi

I have been teaching in Japan for over a year now and it has been rewarding. My students are grade school and teaching them requires using different approach or technique every single day. They tend to get bored easily, especially their vocabulary is still limited. Explaining grammar points even if using basic English words still poses a problem. So, how can one be an effective English teacher to primary level students? At this point, I still can’t say that I am an effective English teacher but I think these are some of the ways one can improve his or her teaching skills. First of all, the best way of improving your teaching skill is to observe other teachers. Observe their homeroom teacher on how she or he interacts with his/ her class, in that way you may be able to read the atmosphere of the class. It pays to know the weakness and strengths of your students. If you know their interests or their inclination, you can personalize your activities to better suit their tastes. Also, do take note that there will be times wherein your activities are well received on some days it’s not. Not all of your activities will be positively received. During my first months of teaching, whenever I see some students yawning it broke my heart for it made me feel that I am an incompetent teacher but now I don't take it personally. Sometimes it is good to put your shoes in their shoes. Remember the time you were also a student? There were subjects you’re interested in and some are just plain boring to you. The same way goes to your students. Moreover, try to spend more time with your students. I think that is also a great way of improving your teaching skills. If you are friendly with your students they won’t have reservations to speak English, they won’t be scared of committing mistakes. The more friendly you are, the more they’ll want to speak to you and learn English. If they can’t express themselves in English, they’ll do gestures. Another thing, when you are teaching children you should always smile. Kids are a bit like animals. If they sense that the teacher is scary, they’ll be in their defense mode and put up a wall againsts you. If you smile often, it makes you look approachable and kids would want to get close to you. When making activities, try to make everyone participate. No exceptions. Act in a silly way, make over-exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, kids really love that. The more you try to make yourself look silly, the more you’ll capture their interest and will remember you. Lastly, when teaching the most important thing you should always consider is your students. I always ask myself before making a lesson plan, what do I want my students to learn? What can they take away from today’s lesson? Those are some ways on how to improve teaching skills but I think learning is a never-ending process. Just because you are a teacher doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your students. I have learned and improved a lot because of my students and my fellow teachers. Every day there is a vast opportunity for us to improve our teaching skills. Our profession is a noble one and really rewarding. It makes me really happy when I see my students having fun while learning English and when they say “Ah! Sou iu koto” or “wakarimashita!” which means Ah! I see and I understood! It makes me happy that somehow I’m able to impact their lives. There’s this sense of fulfillment that no amount of money can buy. I just love what I do and I will never stop improving myself so I can be a more efficient teacher to my students.