It’s your first day of classes and you’re excited, and not just excited but full of energy and visions of how your perfect first day is going to turn out. You’ve gone through the training, you’ve made the transition of moving to a new country, and now the day that you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. You step into the classroom and are introduced to the students by your co-teacher or head administrator, the children who have also been waiting for this day sit attentively. They stare at you with curiosity wondering what their new or perhaps even their first ESL teacher will be like.
They are small and full of energy, or perhaps teenagers and full of angst. Yet, despite their different ages and backgrounds the one thing they have in common is that whether or not they like school or even English class in particular, they all share the common hope that you will be someone special, someone they will connect with.
This may sound like a lot of pressure on you, and it may sound like a heavy load to carry, but it’s really quite simple as all it requires is that you try your best- simple huh!? You do what you can to make English fun, you let the students be silly when it’s ok to be silly, you let them understand that at times it is challenging, you attempt to make a connection with them, and finally you let them know that it’s ok to make mistakes- that even you’ve made mistakes.
You see having a new class is like having a clean slate, one that allows you to move your class and their attitudes about what they are learning in the direction that you guide it. Keeping your enthusiasm and optimism in tact is a huge part of this. It also helps to remember that whatever headaches your students are giving you for one reason or another, they actually do want to please you, and they really do hope you will like them. With this in mind, it’s always best to think back to that first day and the excitement you felt at being chosen to be an ESL teacher. You felt you could take on the world, or at least 50 kindergarten students, and that’s something pretty remarkable!
You have an amazing opportunity. You have a very inmportant role. Get back to the basics. Make it fun. Make it engaging. Make it have a purpose.
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