Korean Job Discussion Forums

fizban · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Location: Bucheon

Hello to the folks of Dave's ESL Cafe,

I wanted to know if anyone has taught public high school and would share.

Experiences.

Opinions.

Teaching aids / styles?

Resources?

While I've gotten a pretty good conceptualization on how hogwons and public school operate at the younger ages, the older group I don't see nearly as much information available.

Any illumination would be greatly appreciated.

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

I taught at a snotty place in Bundang. I handed in my resignation after 3 days and then was fired after 6 months. Thumbs down.

cruisemonkey · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject:

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

I said "I don't want to work here". They said I should try. I did and it was a bad scene. I met a few cool teachers but other than that, it was a bad scene.

fizban · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Location: Bucheon

That's discouraging to hear. So why was it so horrible exactly? Bundang is suppose to be kind of a well to do suburb/satellite of Seoul isn't it, so the location seems fairly nice.

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

Sure, rich=snotty. Government worker on top of government worker under another government worker. 40 students per class, all demanding "A"'s so they can get into Columbia and acting snotty to me when I didn't give them one. I had 8 co-teachers, 5 -6 made all the class preparations, the others did nothing. One teacher did a great job but it involved watching and singing along with Pink videos and me having to dance around like some hip-hop kid.

teachergirltoo · Joined: 28 Oct 2006

It really is true that if you get the right job in the public system it can be wonderful. I teach at an all boys high school. The Foreign Language Department gives us foreign teachers a lot of freedom to create our own curriculum and materials, without interference, but we work hard to gain their trust. My advice to anyone looking at a public contract, would be the same as a private contract - ask a lot of questions and negotiate on points that are important to you.

In our classrooms we create PowerPoint presentations for every class to guide the students through what we want them to do - task by task. The Korean English teachers at the school of course teach the language structure classes, and the native English teachers are supposed to get the boys to implement what they have learned. To inspire my young men and hold their attention I use a lot of pop music in the lesson plans. For example, this week the boys were taught their lesson focusing on pronunciation, listening, phonemes, and phonetic spelling by using the Bryan Adams song IF YA WANNA BE BAD YA GOTTA BE GOOD. Mission accomplished, and the boys had a great time, as I did too. Next week we will be moving onto some grammar points reinforcement and pronunciation and listening skill using the song BEAUTIFUL by James Blunt.

Anyways, I feel the key to success with the older students is, treat them with respect and make their lessons interesting for them, and age appropriate. If you can get their feet tapping, and their heads bobbing, then I think the time in the classroom will fly by for them, and you.

Hope this helps a bit.

rothkowitz · Joined: 27 Apr 2006

formerflautist · Joined: 30 May 2006

It depends on the school. I like high schoolers because they are less needy than the younger kids. At my school, unfortunately, I have have squat for resources. I don't even have a book. But the internet is a great resource and I've resigned myself to the fact that I don't teach at an academic high school so it's not like the kids are expected to learn anything. I also only teach sixteen classes a week. And my apartment rocks. It really does depend on the school you're working at. If you have good co-teachers and a good administration then you'll be fine.

teachergirltoo · Joined: 28 Oct 2006

Those were only examples of songs that I have found that work in the classroom. As you know the key is to find music that the students can have fun with, and can learn language skill from. It doesn't have to be modern, or any particular genre - as you can tell by the examples I gave. The boys will often give me suggestions of songs that they have heard and were wondering if we can work into a lesson, which is great too. We also work with some Jimmy Durante, Louis Armstrong, and Elvis Presley music - and country music too. I find that some of these artists, old as they are, sing in a key and with vocal clarity that is easy for the boys, which makes it much easier for the boys to get involved when it comes time to sing together.