[jessteacherkorea]

I just found out what I'm going to be doing for teaching winter camp this January in Korea. I am kind of panicking about it. I teach for 3 weeks, 4 hours a day. The 1st week is 3rd graders, the 2nd week is 4th graders and the 5th weeks is 5th graders.

The problem I have is how do I keep the attention of 20 kids for 4 hours straight for 5 days in a row!!? If anyone has any ideas or has been in a situation like this, please I could use some help/ideas/advice, anything!

[mesmark]

Check out some of the summer camp ideas here:
Teacher Discussion Forums :: View topic - English Camp Ideas

The biggest thing is to break up the hours into focused segments. You don't have to do 4 hours of the same thing. You could have an hour of vocabulary, an hours of listening, an hour or reading and follow with the last hour of speaking, putting it all together for example.

[Eric]

Hi,

I taught at a camp one winter and we saw the same group of kids for 2 weeks at a time, 6 days a week for about 6 hours a day. While that sounds rough, it wasn't that bad.

The morning (or first half of the day) was the lesson. Just like any of the classes you are used to teaching.

The second half was spent practicing a play. I'd suggest spending half your time building up to something that they can present on the last day, preferably to their parents. This allowed them to practice their English in a more natural way (having a dialogue in a play), have fun and save you from pulling all of your hair out!

"The play" is a very common thing to do at these camps.

Eric

[Eric]

Hi,

I taught at a camp one winter and we saw the same group of kids for 2 weeks at a time, 6 days a week for about 6 hours a day. While that sounds rough, it wasn't that bad.

The morning (or first half of the day) was the lesson. Just like any of the classes you are used to teaching.

The second half was spent practicing a play. I'd suggest spending half your time building up to something that they can present on the last day, preferably to their parents. This allowed them to practice their English in a more natural way (having a dialogue in a play), have fun and save you from pulling all of your hair out!

"The play" is a very common thing to do at these camps.

Eric