First of all, ohsnapzbrah above is spot on with all his advice so if this is tl;dr then go with that.
I started coaching young (~6 - 12yo) schoolkids only a couple of months ago, so I'm by no means a coaching expert, though I hope I can offer some help.
I have to say, I had a similar reaction to you and was rather discouraged by my first few lessons. To paraphrase a quote from a recent Bruce Pandolfini article: when lessons go well, they're great, but when they go badly, they go really badly. Though I tend to find that the handful of great lessons are enjoyable enough to compensate for the pain of the disasters (the money isn't too bad either). It takes at least a couple of weeks before you establish a rhythm and rapport with the kids.
So I've gone from hating it to kinda liking it - bad lessons are painful, but good ones leave you with a tremendous feeling. If that's good enough for you, read on!
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Originally Posted by tiger415
The skillset of these kids range from maybe 400 ELO to someone not knowing how a pawn moves or what castling is (which I find troublesome too, since not everyone is at the same pace).
A remedy that sometimes works for me is starting relatively simply (e.g. how pawns move and capture) and then moving logically onto more complex matters (e.g. what a doubled pawn is, pawn promotion, en passant, etc.) in the same lesson. Spend about 5 minutes on each half of the lesson to accommodate young attention spans. It's also possible to ask questions about simple matters that are somewhat challenging even for more experienced players, e.g. 'could a pawn on b2 end up on g8?' or 'can a pawn checkmate a King?' And the inexperienced ones will often surprise you with how much they retain.
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Originally Posted by tiger415
I have a somewhat dull personality and have no idea how to interact with children.
So do I. Hasn't stopped me. Besides, you don't want to be one of those teachers who puts on a fake smiley personality out of fear of the kids not liking you. If you're genuine in your desire to help the kids improve, they'll appreciate that even if you aren't a stand-up comedian. They'll warm to you as you develop a relationship over time - in that sense kids are no different to everyone else!
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Originally Posted by tiger415
One specific kid throws pieces and bullies others (can't seem to go on w/o attention).
Don't tolerate this sort of thing. Tell the kid off very clearly, letting them know what they did wrong and what you want them to do instead. Get them to sit in the corner or such if necessary. Really bad kids (who are thankfully very rare) can poison a whole class and you shouldn't feel you have to deal with them - usually the school's chess coordinator will be sympathetic if you want to get rid of them. Being a chess coach for young kids actually has a huge component (say 50%) of schoolteachery stuff as opposed to chess stuff. By that I mean you'll need to spend a surprising amount of time just trying to get the kids to behave and listen, to not throw pieces and wrestle each other, to behave like humans rather than savages...
In fact (or more accurately - in my opinion) if you want to be good at teaching young kids chess you're going to also have to take on the responsibility of teaching them to be acceptable members of society; a responsibility that every teacher of young children is taking on, consciously or not. Just getting them to e.g. shake hands before and after each game is not only inducting them into what I would romantically call an ancient ritual that is part of chess tradition, but teaching them about respect and sportsmanship.
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Originally Posted by tiger415
Should I just quit or try to improve in this area?
Your choice, obviously. No one can tell you if you enjoy teaching kids or not. All I can recommend is that you stick it out for at least a few weeks, then you'll know for sure. The feeling you get when just one little kid remembers something you taught them is really great, though.
Last edited by Funology2; 09-23-2012 at 05:20 AM.