How’s that for a title??  Truth be told, private lessons are not that bad once you get there and are in the thick of it, but boy do I dread them before they happen.  Some of my students are great and I mildly look forward to them, but I also have students on the other end of the spectrum…

There are some classes that fly by faster than you want them to (haha, that’s a bitttt of an exaggeration), but! there have also been classes were I am looking at the little sports clock that the kid inevitably has in his room and willing it to go faster…or maybe I could just change the time when the kid is in the bathroom??  (Kidding, kidding….)

Private teaching is really not as bad as I am making it out to be and I usually enjoy it more than my lessons at school, but there are some things that I have learned to do to make the lesson 1000x more enjoyable (for you and the student).

COME PREPARED.  I almost always go to a private lesson with a bag full of activities that I have either planned specifically for them or just have for general use, but there have been times when I show up with nothing thinking that the kid will want to study for their upcoming test or do their English homework and then I arrive and say “so what are we doing today” and they look at me and shrug and say “no se!”.  Haha…shoot me.

Come prepared with fun activities.  There is a time and place for reading/ writing/ listening activities, like when the kid is preparing for a specific exam, but most of my students just want general help with English.  That means that they don’t want to sit through an hour of reading and writing because they might rip their eyeballs out too.  Bring fun activities and the lesson will be so much more enjoyable for them (and for you….more importantly, let’s be honest here).  I like to bring art activities, crossword and word search puzzles, coloring activities, or activities that allow them to invent stories or music.

Use the internet to find activities.  I’m not super teacher and I don’t plan to be.  I am not going to spend my precious free time creating activities when there is an entire cyber world of them ready for you to download and print.  The internet has loads of creative activities that I would never dream of creating, so use it.  Of course, tailor them to the needs of your students.

Don’t overload your schedule with private lessons.  It’s not fair to your student, but (again), more importantly, it’s not fair to you at all.  You will be run-down, frustrated, tired, and not patient with your students.  It’s not worth the money, trust me.

If your student doesn’t want to be there and continuously gives you a hard time, try talking to them, the parent, and if all else fails…QUIT.