Getting Organized as a TEFL teacher January 19, 2011

As a newly qualified teacher I was a mess!  It was like a Blue Peter craft day gone wrong with papers flying everywhere.  This meant it was a really stressful start to my TEFL career.  With each new group I started from scratch so I spent hours preparing and planning.

It was during my first Easter break that I realised there was another way and I had to get organized.  Below are some tips that will make your first few months in your new TEFL job a much less stressful experience:

• Create a folder for each group you are working with so you can keep your plans, notes, timings and photocopies.
• Have blank pages at the beginning of each folder so that you can write notes that arise in the class. It may be that Juan’s grandmother is going into hospital,  write it down so you can mention it in the next class. It may be that a grammar question comes up and you don’t know the answer – write it down, find out the answer and go back to the student with the answer next week.
• Have a master file for each level. Copy the teacher notes for each class you are teaching and annotate the notes at you go ie activity needs a different start, tell Ss the story about my trip to China etc. Once you have finished that class, add this back to your master file so it is at hand the next time you teach that class so you don’t have to redo the answers, ideas notes etc –  it will be all ready to go
• Have an emergency teaching pack.  Fill a plastic folder with games, handouts, role plays etc that cover a range of levels.  If you prepare a group class and only one person turns up or if you forget to take a handout with you that was needed for that class, you have a back up from your pack.
• Recycle –  you will always have to adapt to the individual needs of each group but you should be able to recycle a lot of what you do with other groups as long as you have kept it all in your master file
• Laminate everything that doesn’t move!  A set of verb cards is invaluable, print them and stick them with clear sticky paper so they last forever.  Any board game and cards should be done as well so you can resuse as many times as you want.
• When you have sets of cards make sure you mark them.  If there are twelve cards write 1 of 12, 2 of 12 etc.  this means you can quickly flick through them and see if any are missing before you teach the class.

Getting organized will make  your life as a teacher much more pleasurable and ensure your students get well planned classes.

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