Teacher Reboot Camp

Some of the Survival Tips

1. Channel in your inner child! Have the ability to act silly! I often dress-up when reading books, play charades, make silly voices and faces, and sing and dance!
2. Wear the right gear! Don’t dress to impress! Dress for a mess!
3. Use a variety of techniques to animate readings.
4. Children love to play pretend games!
5. Have lively music that is easy for the children to understand and that you will enjoy singing very loudly to!
6. TPR- Total physical response is a must for every lesson. Find out more by reading this post.
7. Puppets are great for children, especially when you incorporate the puppet in every lesson.
8. Play board games, physical games, and online games- We play Twister, bingo,English Raven’s games, and more!
9. Include stories from great children’s authors and make the reading time fun. Check out my class wiki for various books and the themes they support.
10. Use colorful flashcards and play games with the flash cards.
11. Color with a purpose! Give children a task to see if they can follow directions, such as telling a child to draw a circle and color it yellow. Without direction, I’ve had children color on the wall and on me!
12. Build your survival kit. Add masking tape, a ball, playdoh, a timer, etc.
13. Incorporate drama activities such as mime and improvisation games.
14. Felt boards are great for having children piece together what happened in a story or to learn new vocabulary.
15. Finger plays like the Itsy Bitsy Spider work wonders. Read this post on how todigitalize your finger plays using Blabberize.
16. Trust kids with technology! My five year-old students complete online activities each week which I put in a wiki. Kids love technology and will repeat what they learn.
17. Explore the outdoors.
18. Use realia- My students play Bingo with pennies from the USA. Introduce real world objects to students from an English speaking culture. Play Show-and-Tell!
19. When all else fails, have fun!

More Resources

These are more resources to help you teach young learners.

• EFL Teacher’s Kit for Surviving Kids– In this post, I explore more tips for working with young learners.
• Learning Beyond Walls- Games and Wikis!– In this post, I explore how to use wikis with young learners.
• Character Development Using Voki Speaking Avatars– In this post, I explore how to use Voki speaking avatars to get young learners to think about character development for digital storytelling.
• What Works: Cooperation vs. Competition– In this post, I explore how cooperative learning improved the culture and behavior of my young learners.
• Getting Children Involved with Edtech– In this post, I explore using Voicethread for class collaboration projects.
• Mobile Motivation: 17 Digital Storytelling & Literacy Apps/ Resources for Kids– These apps will have your young learners speaking English using a mobile device.
• Parent Release Form for Publishing Student Work Online
• Parent Release Form for Publishing Student Work Online PDF
• VoiceThread Tutorials and Tips for Educators
• Glogster Tutorials and Tips for Educators
• Voki Tutorials and Tips for Educators
• Digital Storytelling Tutorials and Tips for Educators