Teaching children is a demanding and exciting assignment and it becomes more difficult to do it by videoconference.
The level of engagement has to be higher than in an in-person class.
There are a few tools and techniques that you have to introduce in your teaching style if you want to be a successful teacher for young learners.
I would say that this is the first tool that you use in a class with a child. There are some gestures and physycal movements that you have to add to your class, everytime you are teaching a lesson. Like if you were a performer in a Disney movie. It’s easier for them to learn the verbs and what instructions they should follow, like circle, type, point.
I always have a lot of toys to engage children. It’s an amazing way to call their atention. They want to know their names, what can they do, who they are friends with. You can work the alphabet, the colors, the numbers, the adjectives, all that you can think of if you show a child a toy.
Children love to see teacher real objects. When you show them a pen, a pencil, na apple or a banana they feel close to you because they recognize the objects that they also have at home. In a class about school supplies or food children become happy if you show them all your real school supplies and real fruits.
Specially important to work the alphabet and the first objects, words that the student is learning. You can also tell a story using flash cards or do a memory game, or a math game to teach the numbers. All that your imagination can think off.
I have animals, food, shapes, rewards.
You can do this at home with barbecue sticks and images printed from the web. It’s quite easy and it will be very helpfull in your classes.
There is another tool that is used when teaching online in some patforms, that is MANYCAM. This is a program that you can download that can help you to create a lot of different scenarios. I never used it but it seems very interesting.
Anyway these “old” tools and techniques are very eficiente and easy to apply in class.
On top of all this when teaching a child always bear in mind that you have to PLAY with her/him, letting him/her have fun, laugh and reward, you’ll have his/her confidence.
Speak to you soon!