Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to episode 1 of my VIPKID Classroom Crash Course Series, where I'll be giving you all the tools you need to teach successfully. In this episode, I will be focusing on effective time management because this was one of my biggest challenges when I first started working with VIPKID. So in this video, I will be showing you some tips about how to deal with your super advanced students, your not so advanced students, and all you need to know as a new teacher. Here are some general rules for effective time management. The first one being keeping an eye on your clock. Just remember that VIPKID lessons are 25 minutes long, so whether your lesson is 27 slides long or 63 slides long, aim to be at halfway through your slides at the halfway mark of your class, so around 12 minutes to 15 minutes max. The second one being gauge your student's level right from the start. You will know in the first couple minutes that you have with your students when building rapport, asking for their name, how they are, how old they are, how their day went, what their level is at. If your student is struggling with answering how old they are, you're going to know that you may need to scaffold down or simplify things throughout the lesson. If your student is answering your questions with perfect syntax and amazing vocabulary, you will know that you need to scaffold up or extend throughout the lesson. The third one being taking control of the class. Whether it be slowing down or speeding up the pace of your lesson, don't be afraid to do it. Sometimes you'll encounter a student who's in a level that's way too easy for them, and often I see teachers looking for ways to extend their lesson because their student blasted through all of the slides in 10 to 15 minutes. And my rule on that is not to let them do that by taking control of the class. I'm not saying don't let them do their best. I'm saying to use their advanced English skills to extend throughout the class using the slides that are within the lesson, and to finish right on the dot instead of whizzing through the class and then panicking at the end trying to think of what to do for the remaining 10 minutes of class. Here are some things that I do to extend. I ask my student to create sentences using their vocabulary words or sight words from the lesson. I also extend using rewards. Usually, I bring them in every five minutes of class, but if I have a student who's whizzing through the slides, I'll bring my rewards in more than I normally would to slow the pace down. I will also focus more on syntax, grammar, and pronunciation. Obviously, we always want to be focusing on all of these things, but when a student has clearly met all of the lesson objectives and has no issues with understanding any of the course material, I will be more attentive to how they say their words and the way in which they say their words. When my super advanced students say anything even slightly incorrectly, I will stop them, correct them, ask them to repeat, and do this as much as I can throughout the remaining slides. Another good way to extend is to go over anything that you wouldn't otherwise have a chance of reviewing with your student. For example, I have a student who is really, really advanced, has no difficulties understanding anything in the lesson, but has issues with sounding out unfamiliar words and has issues with reading her long and short vowel sounds. If we finish a lesson early, this is when I'll take that opportunity to work on this skill with her. Every VIPKid lesson also includes a text or a story. You can also take this opportunity to ask your student more comprehension questions or opinion-based questions to extend the lesson a little bit more. I also ask as many questions as I can on the free talk slide at the end to help my student review the vocabulary from the lesson as well as the sentence frames that they've learned. On the flip side, you can also spend more time with your student at the beginning of class asking about their day, asking other questions instead of diving straight into the lesson. If you're really anxious about this, you can always prepare some extension activities in advance. There are so many ideas on Google Slides or you can always just stick to the classic tic-tac-toe on the slide, students love that, and also hangman if you want. Sometimes you'll have students who are chatty Cathy's and go on and on and on when answering a question. So here are some things that I do. Using the timer. This is a super underrated tool in the classroom and is especially useful for students who speak in paragraphs instead of sentences. So using the timer will actually challenge them to keep it short and can be especially useful for when students have to retell stories in the lesson. The second one is switching slides. I don't cut the student off, I don't say anything, I just click to the next slide. And this indicates to the student that we want to move the lesson along. Just remember that you control the class, obviously don't be rude, but also don't be afraid to move your student along in the lesson because it is your job to fulfill the lesson objectives and to finish those slides to the best of your ability. On the other hand, sometimes you'll encounter students who need a little bit more help and take a little bit more time getting through all the slides. And this can be especially stressful if you have back to back classes and need to finish on time. Shared reading. If a lesson is particularly text heavy and I can see that my student is clearly having difficulties getting through the reading, I will hop in there and share the reading with them. And if I won't give a long-winded explanation, I will simply let them finish their sentence and then say, my turn, read what I need to read. And then when it's their turn, circle, highlight, and say, your turn, and have them continue. I will also mirror instructions. So sometimes, even when the instructions are super simple, many students won't understand what's expected of them on a slide and they won't know what to do. And this is especially true for younger students or those students who are new to VIP Kid. So instead of wasting time and saying more words that they probably won't understand anyway, I'll use my judgment and gauge my students level and do the first question or the first two questions to show them what to do, guide them through the next one, and then let them try to do the rest of the questions on their own. Turning off their mouse. With the interactive slides, a lot of students, especially the younger ones, get easily distracted with the movable objects on the screen, and this can waste a lot of time. So turning off their mouse will help you get through the slide faster while still allowing the student to reach the lesson objective. Limiting rewards. Just remember that your secondary reward system is just that, secondary. Your primary reward system is still the stars that are generally given every five minutes during class. If you're behind, don't waste time with your secondary reward system, finish those slides, and then if you have time at the end, go ahead with your secondary reward system. Just remember that it is your class and you control how you run it. I hope these tips will help prepare you for any given situation and will also help you perfect your time management for every class. And if you have any questions or would like more advice like this, I would love to mentor you and my referral link will be in the description.