Now, 2 hours isn’t bad if you’ve got a class full of students. You can have them work off one another, and any time you present it’s going to take 10 minutes or so, if not longer. With a VIP, one-on-one, or tutoring student that’s just not the case, however.
Everything that you plan for a one-on-one session will not take as long as you thought it would. In fact, if you’ve got two hours of stuff planned, you’ll most likely finish it in an hour. I planned nothing today, and I had no idea what I was going to do when I walked in the door.
Know What’s Out There
I decided to look on the computer to see what old files we had out there. I knew the girl I was teaching was using one of my training center’s old books, and we had lots of great PowerPoint Presentations that would work as review. I also knew that she was finishing, or perhaps had even finished since I saw her last, her old book. I knew that I could give her the listening, grammar, and vocabulary test that went along with finishing that book. I also knew that I could print out a couple worksheets that are normally designed for homework. I ended up having a large stack of papers when I entered the classroom, which is what a prepared ESL teacher will do every time.
Well, I only did a few of those papers. I started off by asking her what she wanted to do, and we made the following list:
- Play computer games;
- Do Review (my idea);
- Do Test (also my idea);
- Watch a video (my idea);
- Do paperwork (another one of mine);
- Go home (the last of my great suggestions).
This girl will talk, but she’s a quite a low level, even though she’s a teenager! They’ve been teaching English in Chinese schools for years now, so what’s going on?
To make a long story short, we did the things on the list, most of which are simply examples from the previous week’s posts. We actually had a good time, and we both laughed and joked around quite a bit. We finished up the last 20 minutes with a serious game of scrabble, and everyone went home happy, although I had to wait another 2 hours and get through a class of small children first.
Oh well. My weekend is here!