Probably mainly due to personality, I’m not a huge improviser in the classroom. For me, going off the lesson plan mostly means knowing what all the stages will be but deciding on the order, the timing or ones to skip as we go along. I’ve also got about ten games I can add to almost any class if an extra stage is needed. In summary- stream of consciousness stand up comedian it ain’t!

Having said that, some of my best game ideas and variations have occurred to me on the spot and so thinking on my feet in class has fed change in my teaching at least as much as reading and sitting down to think about what to do. Great stuff that adrenaline- think I’m addicted.

This kind of improvisation has been particularly important in kindergarten classes, where you can rarely rely on any kind of plan matching their mood well enough to work, and you really need new ideas all the time to keep them (and yourself!) interested.  It is also in KG classes, however, that I’ve most noticed my personal biggest problem with changing my lesson plan off the cuff.

When I look back on my lesson plan at the end of the class, I nowadays find that rather than go off on a radical departure I’ve fallen back into an automatic routine and totally forgotten about the new game/ opening routine/ link between stages etc that I’d planned. In other words, improvisation seems to be as much a danger to my progress as a teacher as it is a tool, and is recently is one of the biggest of the things that make me go hmmmm.

Anyone else experienced the same? Any different problems with or attitudes to improvisation? Links to good sources on the topic? Comments below please.

Links

My latest article on no prep games you can add to every class – LINK FIXED

My reflections on the difficulties of teaching very young learners year after year