Stanley’s blogworld

There are many fun ways for you and your students to introduce yourselves in the classroom. I like to keep it very simple.

When I ask students to introduce themselves I usually focus on very simple and basic information. I will ask beginner students and younger children questions like: How are you? How old are you? , What (foods, animals or colors) do you like?
Older children and teenagers can tell you about their school, hobbies, favorite school subjects and favorite superstar/ role-model.
I ask adults questions like: Are you a student or do you work? What are your hobbies? Why do you study English?
If a student gives short quick answers or struggle to give an answer you can prompt him or her with another easy follow up questions to avoid long silent pauses.

With my very young learners ages 7-10 I like to ”draw” my name on the whiteboard. I draw a snake and then elicit from the students what it is. Thereafter I will write an ’s’ under the picture of the snake. Next I will draw a table next to the snake and write ‘t’ under the picture and so forth until I have written my name on the board. The small kids really like it. I got this idea from Dave’s Esl cook book. It is a great tool for finding very practical ideas for use in the classroom. .

With older students I like to play “the paper basketball game” or “truth or false introduction” - sometimes I combine both methods and use it at the beginning of a lesson. 

A propper introduction from everybody helps to involve everybody right from the start of the course which makes everyone feel part of the class and helps to get the comfort levels and  self-confidence levels up high. 

The paper basketball game requires students to write their names on a slip of paper and then to roll the piece of paper into a paperball. I then put a paper basket at the centre of the room and let each student have a shot. This can be a very fun activity in itself. Afterwards I start by picking up the paperball futhest away from the basket, and read aout the name so that student can introduce him or herself to the class.

In the true/false game students must write two statements about themselves on a slip of paper. I always tell my students not to make the statements too obvious. Afterwards students get to read out their statements and each student gets a turn to say whether they think it is true or false and why. We continue until everybody had a turn to guess about every student’s statements.

Another favorite activity I have used in the past and that created a lot interest among my students was when I wrote a short introduction about myself containing all the kind of information I would have normally told the students. I would write a short introduction about myself, but omit the important bits so the students have to guess the answers. Can be very interesting when you ask them to guess your age (or you might just want to avoid that topic all together)!

The main aim of these classroom introduction methods are to get everybody to know each other better, to make everyone feel very welcome in your classroom, and to have some fun!