1st Day of TKD class...

[IcemanSK]

Its the 1st day in your new Dojang. You have a one hour class. All of your students are brand new to MA & between ages 7 & 13. What would be important for you to teach them in that 1st class?

 

[terryl965]

Basic rerspect of the school and then the basic criteria: Proper stances and the right way to throw a punch from chamber and the first of three kicks being both front and back leg roundhouse along with the streching axe kick.
That would be enough for the first class and repeated for the remainder of the week.

Terry

 

[Gemini]

The entire plethera of kicks, blocks, punches and stances in addition to the all the Taeguek poomses up to and including Koryo.
*nyuck nyuck nyuck*

Okay, okay. Maybe that's a bit steep. Since you used the word teach, I'll leave the fun and games stuff out and second Terry's answer. Proper respect and school etiquite, followed by just a few basic stances, kicks, blocks and punches.

 

[AceHBK]

Basic rerspect of the school and then the basic criteria: Proper stances and the right way to throw a punch from chamber and the first of three kicks being both front and back leg roundhouse along with the streching axe kick.
That would be enough for the first class and repeated for the remainder of the week.

Terry

I totally agree. Big emphasis on the respect part. Have to start instilling that early and often.

 

[TigerWoman]

I agree about instilling respect ie. yes ma'am, yes sir, etc. I would go over the rules. Bowing as you enter and exit. No talking, no chewing gum, no running, no goofing around when you are told to do something. Ask permission to leave to go to the bathroom (so instructor knows where they are at and there is no line where goofing off can occur). Raising your hand for questions, or for help, and waiting your turn quietly. If it is a large class, an assistant instructor is needed.

After an explanation of the rules and the warmup exercises, then a fun active time. This could be races around cones, jumping over cones, monkey run, crab walk...these are to let out some of that energy too. If they don't remember it as fun, the parents would have a hard time bringing them back. After this, I would teach the basic kicks-front, round, side, and I would also teach long stance for their beginning form. If higher belts were there, they could practice their forms. At the end we usually do ab workout and stretches. TW

 

[Kacey]

I pretty much agree with the previous posters, but I would (and do) add a discussion on which situations they can use of the skills they are going to learn. Along with the discipline of formal address (or whatever rules you establish in your dojang) a discussion needs to occur between you and the students about just what kinds of things they'll be learning, and when they can use it. Realizing that there are more situations than I can ever cover, I elicit representative situations from my students and then we discuss what is an appropriate response in which situation - for example, it's okay to use TKD when an adult you don't know (or, if the kids are old enough to make the distinction, an adult you do know and have reason to distrust) tries to make you go somewhere - but not when a kid at school calls you a name - then we refine it from there. This discussion can get fairly heavy, so I always follow it with something fun - games such as crab walking, races, kihaping contests, and so on. I want my students to enjoy class, but it is my responsibility as the instructor to ensure that they know when, and in many ways more importantly, when not, to use the skills they will learn - but it needs to be done in a way that won't overwhelm them and drive them from class, while still making the point clear.