PARROT CLASSROOM ADVICE

Age Range: 6 – 9 years
Average number of students per day: 11 – 13 students

Teaching Methods:

What activities and methods worked well with these students?
• Reviewing: go over material students should be familiar with. Consider
starting each classroom by reviewing with group activities on the board, and
practice writing worksheets (made on writingwizard)
• Games: students like to get involved in interactive games such as the ones
listed below
o “Find me”, where they run around the classroom finding something
that is the color I have yelled out (e.g. if I say “find me something
red”, they have to get up and find something red).
o Puzzles, where I take an image and cut it up into pieces and they put
it back together. We then talk about the images to introduce the topic
of the week. It is a good activity to start the week on a Monday.
o Cut and stick activities, where students put words and pictures into
columns on a worksheet (e.g. Summer/winter columns with images of
snow, bathing suits, the sun, mittens etc.)

What activities and methods were problematic with these students? Why?
• Word searches: students get tired trying to find the words and will often give
up
• Reading long text: many of the students have trouble reading in both
Spanish and English. Walking through smaller text would be most effective
What routines did you have in your class? Why?
1. Lined up students outside of the classroom to settle everyone down.
2. Began with an introduction activity to familiarize students with weekly
classroom themes and agenda for the give day (feel free to go over the
topics using repetition activities such as flashcards).
3. Followed up with games to review new vocabulary and solidify new terms.
4. Distributed individual worksheets and activities to complete (often matching
activities to do on their own, handwriting practice, or cut and stick activities).
5. Had students clean and line up in the classroom by the door to review how
the class went.
6. As they left, students were presented with two stickers: one for good
behavior and one for cleaning up.

Discipline:

What was your overall discipline system with the class? Was it successful?
• Sitting out: With the worst behaved students, sitting them on a chair in the
corner for a few minutes and then discussing what happened with them
works very well.
• Seating arrangement: Move children elsewhere in the class if they are too
chatty, and I don’t give them a sticker at the end if they are really bad and
don’t then improve as the class continues.

What specific discipline problems did you face? How did you handle them?
• Hiding in the bathrooms: students will skip class by hiding out in the stalls.
The best way to approach this situation is by keeping them in for the second
hour rather than sending them to cancha time.
Other:

Were there any supplies you used in this class that were difficult to find in
Peru?
• Cool stickers, erasers, & sharpeners: keep them in your pocket and make the
kids for ask for them in English!

For any further information reach out to Elizabeth Hamilton at Lizziehamilton97@gmail.com