Usually, my goal for this page is to add lesson plans and materials to help make your lessons just a little bit easier. Today, however, I'd like to talk about something that's been playing on my mind over and over for quite a while.
How important is it for your students to "have fun" during lesson time? And what does it mean?
I have seen, more than once, teachers who feel that if their students aren't laughing and smiling the entire lesson that their lesson was a flop. I have also seen, a multitude of times, teachers who only care if their students can regurgitate what they are supposed to have learned. In both cases there are problems.
Always Laughing and Joking
I love seeing when students laugh and joke with me! It makes me happy to know that they trust me and like me enough to want to laugh with me. This works well because my students have learned that there is a time to be serious and a time to have fun. But my students are 4-6 years old! Shouldn't they be having fun and laughing all the time?
Short answer: no. But why?
Being a jokester is exhausting for teachers and sets up a dangerous precedent for students. What happens if you are tired or sick or are just having an off day? The jokester teacher still needs to be able to control the class and move it forward when they aren't able to keep up their 110%.
Overly excited students are prone to injury. They wiggle too much in chairs. They tend to jump and run in unsafe ways. Our student's safety has to always be on our minds and if your teaching style is potentially putting students at risk then your teaching style needs to be adjusted.
It doesn't fit all students needs. A lot of children have a hard time with loud noises, sudden movement, or constant go go go. You can't make every student happy all the time, but making one student unhappy all the time is an issue.
It is not helpful to the students growth in the non-school world.
Laughing and bouncing kids can't write, read, draw, make, etc.
Most importantly:
6. Laughing and bouncing kids aren't outputting. They're listening to you be funny.
Teachers who are jokesters tend to focus on what's fun for their students and not on what is best for their improvement.
The Drill Sergeant
The Drill Sergeant is not worried about how much children enjoy their lessons but how much they remember, even if it is only short term. Can they pass the test? Can they say what they're supposed to say? Can they do the homework successfully? If the answer is yes, then they're happy.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. Again, again, again.
They do the same activities, get the expected outcomes.
"Great!" you might think. "That's exactly what we need!" But is it? Ask yourself this:
Do your students take pride in their work or gained skills?
Do they express excitement about their successes?
Does the average student ever voluntarily improve their skills?
Do your students show off their skills?
Are they excited to leave the lesson or come to the lesson?
Do they remember what they've learned long term?
Drilling has it's worth, but if it's your main teaching method then you've got a problem.
Drill Sergeant teachers focus on the required outcome and ignore how to make the lesson interesting to their students.
So What Should I Do?
There is a difference between "having fun" and "enjoying yourself" and it is important.
Having fun is for parties. It's for play time and free time. Enjoying yourself means finding worth in what you do and finding excitement in day to day activities.
This is how I lesson plan, short and long term:
For example, let's look at some science lessons I planned recently. We were working on color mixing. Primary Colors to Secondary Colors.
What's my end goal?
For kids to understand the basic three color mixings.
Red+Blue=Purple. Red+Yellow=Orange. Blue+Yellow=Green.
How can I tie this in to my long term goals?
My long term goal for science lessons is to develop an interest in the world around them.
My long term goals for general lessons are to improve their language skills (EFL) and writing.
How can I make my lessons engaging?
My students already know their colors, so spending any length of time reviewing color names will not be interesting.
Starting with a show of mixing colors will grab any visually interested children.
Following with expanding primary with secondary color mixing allows children who already know primary mixing to see something new.
Allowing interested children to continue with mixing in a bit more red or a bit more blue on their own encourages children who are interested in the lesson to expand on their own terms.
Follow up lessons can expand and review - cutting small bits of colored film and overlapping them on white paper or laminate lets children "rediscover" the mixing colors with their own hands. Write color names in the books around the mixed colors.
For a fun lesson at the end, we made paper. A plastic bottle, some ripped up tissues (unused!), a bit of finger glue or white glue, some water. Then add in a bit of tissue paper - but only two from red, blue, or yellow! Let the children shake it up and see the colors mix. Dry it out on wire grating. When it's done, we can paste it in our books and write what colors we mixed.
Three lessons. Through each lesson, the kids were engaged. They learned about color mixing. They learned new words and practiced making new sentences. They wrote/copied words.
My students laughed. Sometimes. They drilled. Sometimes. But the main goal was for them to ENJOY THEMSELVES WHILE LEARNING. They told their parents about what they learned. They showed their friends in other classes what they learned and made. And today, when we started the next topic (changing seasons), they flipped back and looked at their mixed colors. "Look! It's purple! Look! Red and yellow! Orange" I actually had to pull them back into what we were doing today instead of what they did last week.
Are all my lessons fun and games? Nope. Are all my students laughing all the time? Definitely not. But even in serious lesson, we play games. And even in "fun" lessons, we learn something. Finding the balance means finding the place where your children want to learn, you want to teach, and you can all improve your skills. And any teacher worth their beans knows that improvement is a never ending battle!
Next week, I will be posting new lesson plans focused around classic children's songs but include worksheets that are *not* lyrics. They include counting, writing, coloring, vocabulary, games, and more! This takes a little time, so I wont be posting much this week.
See you all soon!
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