[barbara.tipple@gmail.com]

I am also in China but I am teaching at a very small school and only have Korean students. My largest class has 14 students in it. I can't imagine a class of 70 students. Nor the horror of being in charge of such a circus act, But what I get that for you anything would be better than nothing. So here goes my suggestions: You need to make friends with them, you need to know their names somehow, you need to boserve who are the kids that the others listen to and get those ones onto your side. You need to get to know what they are interested in, pop stars, movie stars, songs. You need to have something happening at the front of the class that they need to listen to. Maybe a karakoe machine. Or a video projector? I don't know what your resources are but if you told the kids this is what you wanted to do - you'd be surprised what they could bring, speakers and i-pad. You could bargain a chinese song for an english song. This might sound a bit crazy but if you can find something they want to do then you are one step in the right direction. More simple games are pictionary, have word cards, they have teams and draw the picture on the board. Card games, happy families is very popular - with all my kids, games that encourage kids to speak and ask questions. You could divide the kids into 7 groups of ten, one is a board game, one is cards, one is a movie on a laptop, one is drawing and making flashcards to test the others. One thing I know is that kids are competitive if you can identify the rivals and have them compete then the class will have its own leaders naturally. Divide and conquer. Befriend. Reward. Be smart, be interested. You may have 70 kids but believe me you don't actually have 70 kids who don't want to do anything - there will be 10 kids at least who want to work and learn. Remember strangers are only friends we havent met. for a bit of cheeseyness.