ESL with the 6 kids

So I taught my first ESL class last night! I´ll eventually have 2 more classes, but I haven´t been confirmed with those classes, yet.

It went really well, I think. I started off having them draw pictures of themselves so that I could see what body parts they know, where their level is there.. then they colored them, so I found out that most of them are pretty familiar with the names of main colors. We sang a couple songs (they´re really good at head-shoulders-knees-and toes). They ARE 5, 6, and 7.. so they´re VERY energetic and have a short attention span. I was told to only teach, and only let them speak, in English. HAH! I don´t know if that´s possible or even logical. Maybe it is the best way to learn a new language, but it seems that if I want to focus on them learning certain things such as body parts, animals, etc., if I speak ALL in English and try to get them to understand everything I´m saying, that´s throwing SO many new words and phrases at them that they won´t be able to remember ¨horse¨or whatever the focus word is.

I tried to say everything in English, then repeat it in Spanish, then say it in English again.. I just don´t know, I´ll have to try different things and see what happens. The kids are really nice, though, a couple get bored REALLY quickly with what we´re doing, so it´s hard to try to keep them all engaged at once. Maybe impossible.. but hey, it was just the first day :)