I HATE teaching the Winter Camp classes. Would much prefer just to do regular classes. I feel these are set up really poorly and are a struggle to get through. There are many grammar mistakes and its painful to try and engage the kids for 25 minutes with insufficient material to cover.
Posted Feb 2, 2018, 1:21 AM UTC
In a FB group someone said they sent in a ticket to get their WC certification removed and they were told to take some time and reconsider. And then they were told that several more times after they said they were sure.
Agreed... and as someone else commented I feel like the kids aren't getting much from it. Does anyone know when it officially ends?
I just saw I have two major courses booked for tomorrow and felt so relieved!
I sent a ticket 2 days ago asking to have Winter Camp certificates removed. They replied and asked if I was sure. I wrote back saying I'm sure. They replied asking me to say why I don't want to teach WC classes. I replied with my reasons (students not in appropriate levels, grammatical mistakes) and got a response that they removed the certifications!
It's only like another month right...? :'(
Some of mine have been awful but others have been great. I really like the chance to just chat with the upper-level students but I dread the beginner WC lessons.
I am noticing I have like none of my regular students for WC but seeing brand new ones. Anyone know if they're forcing new teachers on students for these lessons? Or maybe it's just their regular teachers didn't get certified.
I don't know about removing the certifications, but I do have a suggestion. For the higher levels you can just extend the lesson by engaging in conversation, but that obviously doesn't work for the beginners, and the beginner levels are the ones where I was finishing way too early. I realized I could just read them a simple children's picture book in English for the remaining time. It works well with rhyming books like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." They like looking at the pictures and they get exposure to the language; it doesn't matter if they can't understand everything. This has made winter camps much more enjoyable for me!
I hate the winter classes also. There are basically 14 slides to cover for each 25 min lesson. I end up asking the students so many questions to extend. I feel the kids learn nothing from the winter camp as well.
I've had a couple really great classes, but the kids have to be fairly advanced. If you can actually have a conversation with them it's not bad at all... but I've had so many with kids who are not ready for Winter Camp. They're getting nothing out of it if they can barely even repeat what I'm saying, let alone answer a question.
I think next "Camp" time I won't do the certification.