Work In France - Teaching English

Since October 2013 I've been teaching English to children at the Chambre de Commerce in Cahors. It's been a little bit far being an hours drive there and another hour back, but I took the job when I had no other work started up and felt I couldn't turn down the opportunity. This week it's my last week with the children and we'll be performing a little 'spectacle' for the parents and I'll be giving feedback about the progress of their learning.

It's been a small group of only 6 children but it has not always been easy. There were two lovely girls who were engaging, well behaved and keen to learn. Then there were 4 boys who individually were a pleasure to teach but together it often became a challenge trying to contain their energy for an hour.

I planned each class around a theme and there were two websites I found to be really helpful. Kids Pages has lots of free printable flash cards and worksheets all based around different themes. Activity Village again has lots of free printables from bookmarks (which I give to the kids to stick their end of class stickers on!) colouring sheets and lots of fantastic craft ideas.

The whole experience has been eye opening and I have a huge respect for teachers who do this daily with large groups of children. I won't be returning to the position next year because the travel time is not worth the cost and on top of all the printing I've done at home I've probably lost money rather than gained. I am instead concentrating on setting up English classes for children more locally. Mini Monde is all about making learning fun for children and I'm currently working on an activity based programme for teaching English as a second language to children.

Have you ever taught English as a second language? I'd love to hear about your experience.

Becky x