Type to learn kindergarten5/15/2023 ![]() ![]() The only time I would strongly punish badly behaved students is if they hurt other students, and make them take responsibility. I’m not saying that it was easy, and I definitely had days where I was livid because he had totally messed up classes, annoyed other students (who I also had to tell to just ignore him if he was being a nuisance). From the worst kid in the class to one of the best, I have replicated my experience with Sora to dozens of children and it is always the best way to go. He became one of the best students in my class, and his mother wrote me a letter at the end of the year saying that Sora was so kind at home, that he was helping out with his little sister and had become a really sweet boy. Whenever he misbehaved, I would ignore him, but when he behaved well I would give him tons of smiles and encouragement and hugs. I was ready from the start of every class to have a fight on my hands with this kid, but after thinking about it I had a lot of realisations and made a plan for this student. Sora’s mother took the ball of clay, said a quick “sumimasen” to the mother of the little girl… and then gave the clay back to Sora without a word! Not two minutes into our talk Sora threw his block of clay at one of the girls in the younger class, and she started crying. I was warned about him by the previous teacher of his class, that he was spoiled and his mother was really permissive and that I would have my hands full stopping him from being a menace to the class.Īt our welcome sit down with all of the parents, we gave the students some clay to play with so they wouldn’t be restless and their mothers could actually hear all the things we needed to tell them. I had one three year old student in my class named Sora. They would run into his classroom and be greeted with hugs and positivity, and children respond so well to that.Īll you need to do is be positive and loving, and this is especially true with the badly behaved children. He was always really positive with his students, and so they loved coming to school to see him. I learned so much from a coworker at the international preschool I worked at in Nagoya. What’s nice about this is that it isn’t hard to get kids to like you. ![]() This is the number one most important fact about teaching kindergarten that I hope you take away from this article. Otherwise you have lost, and you will never teach them anything. They need to know that you love them and care about them, and they must enjoy being around you. If you don’t like the only person in the entire world you know who speaks English, then your motivation to learn the language is going to be next to nothing, right? That is why I have always prioritised building positive and caring relationships with kindergarten students. ![]() The answer depends entirely on whether you like that person. Do you want to learn how to talk to them? You meet someone who speaks English and you can’t understand a word they say. You speak Japanese as your first and only language. This is the most important skill that will change everything for a kindergarten teacher. Rule #1 – You Must Have a Positive Relationship With Your Students Here are the top skills I’ve learned that help me to not only survive this age group, but actually love teaching kindergarten aged students. While completely scuppered lesson plans will always be a possibility with young learners, you can master a few critical skills to become a kindergarten teacher that all your students (and maybe some of the other teacher’s students too) will love and listen to. ![]() Over the years I’ve become really good at having a successful class in all but the most trying of circumstances. By the time I started teaching at Fuji Youchien in Tokyo (the one with the TED Talk), I’d had more than my fair share of monster classes. I taught kindergarten in Japan for 5 years, and was definitely thrown in at the deep end at both my first eikaiwa job and my third job at an international preschool. ![]()
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