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It’s your first day in your new job as a TESOL Teacher, and you’re worried. What on earth do you do? This article provides five tips to help you prepare your first TESOL class as a TESOL instructor.

1. Learn your ESL students names

If you have a small enough class, you’ll be able to learn their names quickly enough. If you’re teaching in a large class, get a seating chart set up with the student’s English and full name written on it. You’ll be able to call on students to answer questions, call to attention those who are not paying attention, and increase familiarity in the classroom. Never forget to tell them your name; but you will have to find out what local mores are for addressing teachers. In some cultures, first names are thought too familiar. In others, you may be addressed as ‘Teacher’. Find out what is expected, then decide if that’s how you want students to call you.

2. Relax, Smile, Speak

If you’re teaching your first TESOL class as a teacher, then smile, take a deep breath and focus on what you are doing. Once you are clear headed, you will be in a better position to determine what’s going on in the class, what English you need to teach, what the students need to learn, and you’ll start to build better relationships with the students themselves. Speak up, speak slowly, speak clearly. Once you determine what level students are at, you will be able to vary your English speed, vocabulary, style and volume as needed. But on the first class, you will need to speak to as many students as possible. A simpler delivery will help to achieve that goal.

3. Don’t be too ambitious

The first class in most schools and colleges courses don’t really cover much at all. This is normal. You will need to get names, hand out course books, introduce yourself, get introductions from students, tell students about the class and the rules. You may even need to hand out the course schedule showing class dates and topics, mid-terms/finals, expected contributions from students including homework, etc. By the time you cover most of this in an average class, you will be well through your class. If you have extra time, you may distribute a survey to students asking them about their learning, what they want to learn, and so on.

4. Set the rules, tone and atmosphere

It’s important to set the rules and tone of the class from the first day. Why? Because students do have learning issues and behavioral problems. Typical things you will need to consider as a TESOL Teacher include: cheating on exams or homework, failure to provide homework, absences from class, low grades, speaking first language in class, disruptive behavior, etc. Speak to other teachers in the school or college, and you will soon get a feel for what the typical problems are, and what standards your school applies. Make it clear from the start what you will tolerate and what is not acceptable. Then stick to it.

5. Assert your authority as the teacher

You are the teacher in the classroom, you are the authority figure in the classroom. You decide what happens, what is right or wrong within limits. From time to time, you may feel you are a fraud, because you don’t feel like a teacher. After all, it’s your first job teaching since college. This is a natural reaction to your situation. But you are being asked to teach, and you represent the role of teacher in the classroom. How you assert your authority in the classroom varies from teacher to teacher and role to role. Have confidence in yourself, and you will learn the role of teacher.

Hopefully these tips will help you become a great TESOL Teacher from day #1. Do remember, though, it will take quite a while to feel at home with your class.

Visit http://www.tesolteachers.com/ to get more great ideas and resources, subscribe to our newsletter, or buy great TESOL related products for your future career as a TESOL Teacher.

Kenneth is a successful teacher with many years of experience in ESL for both kids and adults in Taiwan. For TESOL Teaching advice and help, check out his newsletter at http://www.tesolteachers.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Dickson

Worth reading the comments.

Sometimes, our students make us laugh, sometimes they make us cry!

But one frustrated teacher went so far as to write:

It reads:

Description: I charge 1000nt per hour, and I am only available from 8 to 10 am on a Wednesday or Friday. You should have some actual kind of desire to learn and improve your English. I am not looking for a student who intends to not study, or who signs on a whim, or to use me as childcare, to cancel lessons when they are busy, or who just wants to argue with a foreigner. You must sign up for the whole year. Any cancelled lessons on your behalf will be charged at double rate. Any children you bring with you to the lesson cost 2000nt extra. We study exclusively in your home, where I will expect a fried breakfast. Sausages are best for the English. …To read the rest.

Adult students can be a real challenge if you find them. They are easy to motivate in some ways, but very difficult to direct. They have definite ideas about what they want teachers to do for them, even though they don’t necessarily want to take that advice.

One of my students claimed to be a really conscientious guy. He was a businessman who seemed to have an awful lot of free time. He always wanted me to correct his grammar and help him on his speaking. As a cooperative teacher, I provided that and more. In the end, he was unwilling to follow through on improvements he wanted to make, uncooperative on my own suggestions, and didn’t like my providing him with reading matter, feedback or activities. In the end, this rude fellow texted me with a message saying he didn’t want to continue class after he was ill-mannered enough to leave me waiting for him for an hour or more.

However, there are many great adult students… if you’re careful enough to select them, demanding enough to make sure they show progress, and charge enough to ward off the time-wasters…