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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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spyro25
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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 Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:29 pm Post subject: good class bad class |
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how is it that i can have one class of 3 kids at 3:00 who just plain suck and another class of three kids at 4:30 doing EXACTLY the same thing, same book, page, level and everything - who are wonderful?
i swear these two classes are like night and day!
anyone else have this problem?
::rant |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:23 am Post subject: |
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Welcome to the world of teaching. Each student is different (in aptitude, learning styles, personality factors, motivation, etc.), and the group dynamics of any set of them in classroom will be different. Proof that it's not the materials, not the teacher that makes the lesson. It also why we can't expect particular lessons to work all the time, automatically.
What you need to do now is explore a bit why things aren't working with the one group, and see how you might adapt the lessons you have to that particular group to make them work better with them. Good Luck! |
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kimchi story
Joined: 23 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:56 am Post subject: |
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I had a spooky experience during winter camp. I had two groups, am and pm. I did the same thing with each.
Buggers'd take turns playing good class/bad class. C'est la guerrre, like Woland said, that's teaching for ya. |
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spyro25
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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me and my co-workers have explored the reasons why one class sucks all year (I've only got four weeks left at this place).
Now while every other class in the whole academy works hard, enjoys the lessons, learns something and likes their teacher, and one class of 3 doesnt (they dont like their korean teacher either, and their grades are the worst of any class, even the kindy's, despite actually being there the longest) - then me and my co-workers came to the conclusion that ......
wait for it......
these kids are utter **** with no respect for anyone but themselves with an attitude spoon fed to them by their parents and I can't wait to see the bacfk of them. we've tried everything (everything possible within reason, short of beating the **** out of them, which isnt something i would do, no matter how much i would LIKE to do it.) good riddance!
where do you draw the line? when do you just give up and actually begin to blame the child for his attitude? there has to, in my mind, be a point somewhere along the line where the child takes responsibility for the bad atmosphere in the class. i believe these children have found that point. |
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qcat79
Joined: 18 Aug 2006
Location: ROK
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:43 pm Post subject: UH |
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| kids need the $hit beat out of them every now and then. today's korean parents are a lot like today's american parents. they don't want anyone touching their children except for them, when in fact they obviously done anything themselves to make them behave better. |
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trubadour
Joined: 03 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| spyro25 wrote: |
me and my co-workers have explored the reasons why one class sucks all year (I've only got four weeks left at this place).
Now while every other class in the whole academy works hard, enjoys the lessons, learns something and likes their teacher, and one class of 3 doesnt (they dont like their korean teacher either, and their grades are the worst of any class, even the kindy's, despite actually being there the longest) - then me and my co-workers came to the conclusion that ......
wait for it......
these kids are utter **** with no respect for anyone but themselves with an attitude spoon fed to them by their parents and I can't wait to see the bacfk of them. we've tried everything (everything possible within reason, short of beating the **** out of them, which isnt something i would do, no matter how much i would LIKE to do it.) good riddance!
where do you draw the line? when do you just give up and actually begin to blame the child for his attitude? there has to, in my mind, be a point somewhere along the line where the child takes responsibility for the bad atmosphere in the class. i believe these children have found that point. |
I had a class of three to five teenage boys who were like that, at the place where I currently teach. They weren't exactly stupid, just hopelessly immature. But the classroom culture they created was persistently degenerate, and despite my various efforts to inspire, reward, bond and discipline with various ploys and games and everything that can be reasonably expected of a teacher doing 30 hours, these guys basically refused to learn, refused to try and refused to respect me, or each other. I got to the point where I had to ask my boss why they came to class as they evidently did not want to learn English.
The long and short of it is that the class doesn't exist anymore. Now we have an extra class for students who really do want to learn English and three of the boys have been integrated into other classes with older students and girls. So its easier for them to hide and its easier for me to control them because they actually care what there classmates think of them. They still don't really do much, but at least I'm not going to kill them.
So, in response to spyro25's question, I do think there genuinely is a line that needs to be drawn, especially as the kids get older. One way or another, all students should at least take responsibility for their role in the language learning process. Learning a language is obviously a two-way thing, which is why, for example, insist that all my students have English notebooks to write in. In my opinion and from my experience, a record of your learning is the third most important thing after showing up at the beginning of a lesson and participating in the lesson's challenges.
Tru. |
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spyro25
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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nice comments tru - i think those kids will be integrated into other classes at the end of the month, whereas i will be integrated into a new school 
if only korean hagwons werent so TERRIFIED of telling parents that their offspring is a horrible lil **** who needs a kick in the pants! We'd all be able to do our jobs properly and stop lying on the monthly reports that take 4+ hours to write!
/is still asleep, enjoying this particular dream |
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