Well,
I have to start with “teaching is not an easy work”. It needs patience,
knowledge and creativity in order to teach students especially younger kids. In
my experience teaching at SSE, it was a totally new environment in which I am teaching
3 to 6 year-old kids. Teaching kids at this age needs a lot of patience and requires
the teacher to do a lot of research on how to handle the class and how to
tackle their interest since some of these students are very shy and unable to
respond to the teaching. What I have been learning and experiencing with these
kids for the past few weeks is that the teacher needs to give them time to get
use of the learning environment because to some of them, it is their first time
in school.
Other than that, the teacher also needs to keep on teaching and not giving up even though by the end of the day, the kids can only say “Elmo” or “mimimi” or they just shake hands with you. To some parents, they might feel that the kids are not learning anything in class but this is also one part of learning especially to those who have never been to the kindergarten before. This minor development will later be developed into something greater such as learning effectively about body parts through songs that they heard repeatedly and music instruments played in the class – for example, one of our K1 students, who is only 2 years old and will only turn three years old this November. At her age now, her interest is solely on playing and making friends but for the past few weeks, she has been showing a lot of changes – she follows the teacher’s instructions, she engages with the media showed to her and she even repeats after the teacher and the host from the media! I honestly think that she is learning something though she might not be able to read or write anything yet.
Eventually, kids at this age should know that learning the English language is interesting and enjoyable. They should be exposed to the new way of acquiring the language through the usage of all their body-languages and hands-on activities. Teachers who allow students to respond even in their mother tongue language can also help students to gain confidence to acquire the language without demotivating them. This is also applicable to those who refuse to speak and only respond by nodding or smiling. Not to worry about that because from what I heard, some of the kids who refuse to respond in class, imitate their teacher at home in front of their parents. So, in my defense, I do believe that learning does take place by the end of the day!
Other than that, the teacher also needs to keep on teaching and not giving up even though by the end of the day, the kids can only say “Elmo” or “mimimi” or they just shake hands with you. To some parents, they might feel that the kids are not learning anything in class but this is also one part of learning especially to those who have never been to the kindergarten before. This minor development will later be developed into something greater such as learning effectively about body parts through songs that they heard repeatedly and music instruments played in the class – for example, one of our K1 students, who is only 2 years old and will only turn three years old this November. At her age now, her interest is solely on playing and making friends but for the past few weeks, she has been showing a lot of changes – she follows the teacher’s instructions, she engages with the media showed to her and she even repeats after the teacher and the host from the media! I honestly think that she is learning something though she might not be able to read or write anything yet.
Eventually, kids at this age should know that learning the English language is interesting and enjoyable. They should be exposed to the new way of acquiring the language through the usage of all their body-languages and hands-on activities. Teachers who allow students to respond even in their mother tongue language can also help students to gain confidence to acquire the language without demotivating them. This is also applicable to those who refuse to speak and only respond by nodding or smiling. Not to worry about that because from what I heard, some of the kids who refuse to respond in class, imitate their teacher at home in front of their parents. So, in my defense, I do believe that learning does take place by the end of the day!
Authored by,
Teacher Ila
LETZHOP Bandar Baru Bangi
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