[mesmark]

how long are your classes in general?

I teach all of these 60, 90, and 120. (in different settings.) 2 hours is just a little too long for one sitting and often 60 minutes seems too short, esp. with young adults to adults.

[clivehawkins]

Interesting question.

I do the following:

60 with the kids
60 with individuals
90 with classes at my school
120 at the university.

I have done 150 with high school kids, but with a good break in the middle. I've even done 180 with a group of engineers - it was a nightmare. The person organising the course obviously knew nothing about language courses and was convinced that 3 hours was fine and that his 'boys' as he called them could happily concentrate for that amount of time. You could smell their brains frying from the other side of town!

Going the other way, does anyone do less than 60, and if so, what do you manage to get done?

[jenniferp]

does anyone do less than 60, and if so, what do you manage to get done?

I do, but I teach Kindy. I have morning classes of 20 mins then afternoon classes of 30 mins. It has taken a while to get myself accustomed to the short time span and to be able to plan out and gauge how long I have or would want on each activity. While they are still very young and shouldnt really have to sit in a classroom for a long time, I wish I had a little longer with the 30 minute classes as the kids are smart and can learn a lot but with all the faffing that goes on at the lesson start, I do usually end up with only 20 minutes teaching time.

[susan53]

I find 60' is enough for a 1 to 1 (in some cases more than enough!) but I prefer 75' or 90' for groups. 120 is fine, as long as they want to be there.
I've done up to 6 hours on intensive courses -again fine if they want to be there, and as long as you vary the methodology so that it's not all the same.
I'm talking about adults though, not kids.

[livinginkorea]

I teach some kindy class too so 20 minutes a class there. One school has 45 minutes for one class which is so hard as the kids are getting so bored but I interacted with them a lot more last week and was extra funny (I'm a funny teacher ) and it seemed to work. I was so tired after the class though and still had another 4 hours in the afternoon to teach!

The rest of the classes are elementary and middle school students which are all under 50 minutes in length. I'm not teaching any adults at the moment and I really want to but for the money I'm teaching the kids. I feel that if I don't teach any adults soon then I'll become a kid!

For adults and one to one classes they were usually 50 minutes or 90 minutes long. I taught a special government class before when I arrived in Korea first for 120 minutes for 2 months. That was the longest class I had but I had two co-teachers with me in class (20 students, 3 co-teachers) which was great for the kids.

[simplyesl]

I've done a few different lesson times, because I get contracted out to many different schools. I've taught lessons 15, 20, 30, 40, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes in length. Some 40 minute classes had a break in the middle and so did some of the 60 min classes, but not generally.

[clivehawkins]

Quote simplyesl

I've done a few different lesson times, because I get contracted out to many different schools. I've taught lessons 15, 20, 30, 40, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes in length. Some 40 minute classes had a break in the middle and so did some of the 60 min classes, but not generally.

Wow - 15 minute lessons! I've never done them that short. I don't mean this question to sound rude, but what is the point of that? What did they expect you to achieve in such a short time?

With my kids classes it takes me that long to get them to find their books, get their pencil cases out, sit down and stop stabbing each other with colouring pens.

[simplyesl]

I guess their thinking is 'a little is better than nothing'. One of the 15 min classes that I used to do felt like forever. Teaching these kids was like trying to get blood from stone.

[cabst90]

At the school where I teach, the Spanish teachers teach 20 minute classes. It is new thing this year, but they have adjusted very well (I assist in some Spanish classes). Mostly, they have time to introduce a new subject/vocabulary, play a short game to reinforce a language point, or do one activity/dialogue. They have very small classes though (3-7 students).

I have taught 3 hour 45 minute classes with two breaks, 5 days a week with people who are in the U.S. on student visas. They are hell, especially considering most people work full time. However, as they are not supposed to work if they have a student visa, we are not supposed to give them any leeway or be understanding because we are not supposed to know that they work. With adult students, I played as many games as I would with elementary school students; i just adjusted the games to make them more subtable for adults.