Mon, 29 Apr 2019

Top Qualities To Teach Kindergarteners

One of the most rewarding times of my life is my career of teaching kindergarten for the last fifteen years. These young learners bring curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm to the classroom. Five and six year olds are still accustomed to needing help, and making mistakes; therefore, they are less self-conscious and are eager to learn in order for them to become more self-reliant. My husband and I are embarking on a new adventure to Indonesia where I will be working in a school in the early childhood department. The information I learned from my TEFL course will be very useful.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate JoAnn S.

Create a Cheerful Environment

A kindergarten classroom needs to be a pleasant, cheerful and inviting environment. To combat the institutional feel, color needs to be prevalent in the room. Displaying posters, and the children's own artwork helps to bring a welcoming atmosphere to the space. There also needs to be adequate floor space for the children to move and play.

Lesson planning is of extreme importance in the early formative years. The little ones need a variety of activities to keep them engaged and focused on the learning objectives for the day. Story time is an integral part of the lesson plan. Reading stories and books is important to language development. Literature provides great examples of word play, vocabulary enrichment, sentence structure, and sequencing of events.

A great story has the potential to become the key component for an entire day of activities and center work. Activities need to include: songs, poems, chants, games, as well as worksheets and discussion or talk time; as little ones love to share and tell their own stories. Varying these activities is key to prevent boredom and discipline problems. Center time is a necessary and easy way to incorporate real life situations into the school day. Play acting is an excellent means to encourage new vocabulary usage and for the child to experiment with the English language.

Also read: Getting Student Placement Right - The Best Desk Arrangements for EFL Students

Be patient, kind, encouraging and observant.

The behavior and attitude of the teacher plays a vital role to the young learner. Therefore, a professional early education teacher needs to be patient, kind, encouraging, observant, and above all flexible. Young children look to their teacher for guidance and will model and imitate their caregivers. So then, a the teacher must speak slowly and enunciate clearly and distinctly, give positive reinforcements and feedback, and gently correct the mistakes and errors being made.

A good teacher will approach the children on their level rarely looking down on them from a standing position. The educator needs to be willing to engage with the little ones during games and playtime never passing up an opportunity to converse with their charges in English. Most importantly a teacher must be consistent. Consistency helps with discipline. When a young child knows what is expected from him or her and what their teacher will do; whether it's during a lesson, an activity, or even at playtime, some problems can be prevented.

Kindergarten is a perfect age group to begin English language learning. Their innate curiosity, and their ability to absorb languages makes teaching young children extremely rewarding. I am looking forward to tea hung English to young learners the near future.

Also read: 11 Fun ESL Activities for Young Learners