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ajp
Joined: 09 May 2007
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 Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 1:15 pm Post subject: Which agegroup to teach? |
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I did a search, but didn't find anything.. at the same time this seems like it'd be a common question, so sorry if I'm missing something.
I'm trying to decide which agegroup to teach... Kindergarten and elementary have the obvious benefits of daytime hours, leaving the evening hours free for teaching privates, going out, crying in the dark, etc.
At the same time, I feel like middle and high schoolers would be better since they'd at least have a little knowledge of english and the teaching itself would be more interesting. Although I've read some experiences with middle-schoolers on this board and it seems that they can be a pain in the ass to teach... High schoolers I gather are ok as long as they respect you.
So perhaps basically my question would be is teaching kindergarten and elementary much worse than higher age groups? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject: Re: Which agegroup to teach? |
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| ajp wrote: |
I did a search, but didn't find anything.. at the same time this seems like it'd be a common question, so sorry if I'm missing something.
I'm trying to decide which agegroup to teach... Kindergarten and elementary have the obvious benefits of daytime hours, leaving the evening hours free for teaching privates, going out, crying in the dark, etc.
At the same time, I feel like middle and high schoolers would be better since they'd at least have a little knowledge of english and the teaching itself would be more interesting. Although I've read some experiences with middle-schoolers on this board and it seems that they can be a pain in the ass to teach... High schoolers I gather are ok as long as they respect you.
So perhaps basically my question would be is teaching kindergarten and elementary much worse than higher age groups? |
How about the most obvious question to ask yourself:
What age range do you communicate with best?
Do you like little kids? Do you hate little kids? Do you know anything about kids?
Do a google search on "TPR" or "Task based learning" and ECE so you can get an understanding of what teaching little kids is all about.
Chalk and talk may work for BIG KIDS but will give you nothing but blank looks and an out of control classroom with little kids.
Forgive my "morality soapbox lecture" here but if your decision is based on parties/night life and teaching illegal privates then you may have the wrong idea of what teaching is about.
Stay home, work for a year, save your money and come here on a vacation and have fun instead of putting yourself through hell as a hakwon teacher. |
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ajp
Joined: 09 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 10:35 am Post subject: |
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Hello, thanks for the reply.
In North America I've worked with both kindergarten kids and university students, so I've had a chance to experience both ends of the spectrum. I communicate effectively with both.. But what I particularly enjoy about working with university students is that you can have genuine conversations throughout the learning process..
So what I'm wondering is how much do middle and high school students in hakwons in Korea differ from this? Can you get actual discussions going (even if it is just about a pop star or something), or is most of the time spent trying to get them to connect the word "sun" with a bright orange circle? |
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MrSeoul
Joined: 15 Apr 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:44 pm Post subject: Re: Which agegroup to teach? |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| ajp wrote: |
I did a search, but didn't find anything.. at the same time this seems like it'd be a common question, so sorry if I'm missing something.
I'm trying to decide which agegroup to teach... Kindergarten and elementary have the obvious benefits of daytime hours, leaving the evening hours free for teaching privates, going out, crying in the dark, etc.
At the same time, I feel like middle and high schoolers would be better since they'd at least have a little knowledge of english and the teaching itself would be more interesting. Although I've read some experiences with middle-schoolers on this board and it seems that they can be a pain in the ass to teach... High schoolers I gather are ok as long as they respect you.
So perhaps basically my question would be is teaching kindergarten and elementary much worse than higher age groups? |
How about the most obvious question to ask yourself:
What age range do you communicate with best?
Do you like little kids? Do you hate little kids? Do you know anything about kids?
Do a google search on "TPR" or "Task based learning" and ECE so you can get an understanding of what teaching little kids is all about.
Chalk and talk may work for BIG KIDS but will give you nothing but blank looks and an out of control classroom with little kids.
Forgive my "morality soapbox lecture" here but if your decision is based on parties/night life and teaching illegal privates then you may have the wrong idea of what teaching is about.
Stay home, work for a year, save your money and come here on a vacation and have fun instead of putting yourself through hell as a hakwon teacher. |
Your advice is completely outrageous and stupid. Why don't you go home for a year, save your money then comeback and think about what you want to do with the rest of YOUR life?
Don't tell people to stay home because their not sure what age group to teach you idiot. Let her/him come to Korea if they damn well please. If you think you're helping Korean society by telling native speakers to stay home you're not.
Don't be an idiot. |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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| I see more variation from one class to another of the same age than I do between age groups. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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MrSeoul- Did you remember to take your medication? Stop flaming people and stop advising posters to break Korean law.
OP- You are the only one who can answer that question. If you do have experience  then you should already know your strengths/weaknesses and interests. |
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ajp
Joined: 09 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| dogshed wrote: |
| I see more variation from one class to another of the same age than I do between age groups. |
That's interesting, thanks.
| wylies99 wrote: |
OP- You are the only one who can answer that question. If you do have experience then you should already know your strengths/weaknesses and interests. |
As I said, I have no experience working with high school and middle school students. That's why I'm asking people for their experiences. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Korean high schoolers in uni-tracked programmes are great, and would be unbelievably fabulous if they weren't so burnt out and exhusted all the time. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject: Re: Which agegroup to teach? |
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| MrSeoul wrote: |
Your advice is completely outrageous and stupid. Why don't you go home for a year, save your money then comeback and think about what you want to do with the rest of YOUR life?
Don't tell people to stay home because their not sure what age group to teach you idiot. Let her/him come to Korea if they damn well please. If you think you're helping Korean society by telling native speakers to stay home you're not.
Don't be an idiot. |
Did it take you time and effort to become functionally illiterate or do you come by it naturally?
Only a troll would take comments out of context and make stupid statements like this.
How long have you been a troll or are you just a cheap sock used for flamebait?
Crawl back under your bridge like a good troll. We'll rattle your chain when we are ready to give your opinion to you.
and as a PS... wasn't it you that got the St. Andrews thread (among others) temp locked and posts deleted?
Last edited by ttompatz on Sat May 26, 2007 10:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Areut
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Location: Behind You!!!!
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 10:46 pm Post subject: Re: Which agegroup to teach? |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| MrSeoul wrote: |
Your advice is completely outrageous and stupid. Why don't you go home for a year, save your money then comeback and think about what you want to do with the rest of YOUR life?
Don't tell people to stay home because their not sure what age group to teach you idiot. Let her/him come to Korea if they damn well please. If you think you're helping Korean society by telling native speakers to stay home you're not.
Don't be an idiot. |
Did it take you time and effort to become functionally illiterate or do you come by it naturally?
Only a troll would take comments out of context and make stupid statements like this.
How long have you been a troll or are you just a cheap sock used for flamebait?
Crawl back under your bridge like a good troll. We'll rattle your chain when we are ready to give your opinion to you.
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ttompatz LOL leave us trolls and our homes out of this. We don't know Mr. Seoul and really don't want to. Now if there was a Mrs. Seoul then hey send her to the bridge. But for now give us trolls a break. LOL  |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| ajp wrote: |
So what I'm wondering is how much do middle and high school students in hakwons in Korea differ from this? Can you get actual discussions going (even if it is just about a pop star or something), or is most of the time spent trying to get them to connect the word "sun" with a bright orange circle? |
I work in a public middle school, so I'm not sure what it's like in hagwons. Most of my classes have about 35 students. In almost every class there are 1 or 2 students you can have good conversation going about some pop star. The rest might be able to blurt out some words like hansome, candy and lunch time. And then there are about 5 that won't know any english at all. Every class seems roughly the same, I think it's because the schools try to ensure every class has every level of student. |
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Canadian Club
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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I work in a hakwon teaching kindi in the mornings and 7-13 year olds in the afternoons. I love teaching kindi (mine are 4-5 NA age, 6 Korean age). The kids are all bright and (generally) respectful, they have unlimited enthusiasm for whatever you're doing, and show amazing progress from month to month. Walking into a classroom every day where everyone is infatuated with their teacher is great. They're not old enough to feel the stress of their parents' expectations, so they can still have fun at school. It's a lot easier if you can step back from yourself a few times a day and remember that they don't have the fine motor skills or attention spans to do much like an adult, so cutting with scissors, writing, or doing *anything* for long periods of time can be a difficult task.
They're also young enough that they don't realize what they're missing when they're sitting in a classroom. I love my older, but sometimes they'd rather be playing outside with their friends or at some video game place. I can't really blame them. It *is* nice to have kids that you can have conversations with though! |
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Oreovictim
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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I like my young kids the best. Most of them like you a lot. Teaching phonics classes can get a bit boring, but the kids are really entertaining. Once they start to get around 5th grade level, they start to change (for me, anyway). Some of them act really bored in class, some aren't as friendly, some downright hate me because I make them pay attention in class. (Gasp!)
Middle school's hard in my opinion. They're always really tired and with good reason. When I teach my middle school class, I always feel like a comic who's bombing on stage. Fortunately, I do have some middle school kids who rock, but most of them just aren't as interesting to me.
You can always get a job where you're teaching a wide variety of ages. That way, if there's a group that you don't care for, you only have them for a small part of the day.
Best of luck! |
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alabamaman
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| MR SEOUL HAS BLOWN HIS COVER AS BUKOWSKI I REPEAT MR SEOUL HAS BLOW HIS COVER AS BUKOWSKI! |
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oskinny1
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Location: Right behind you!
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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My high school boys aren't that smart (was recently told that they are the worst in the city) but I have a great time in class. Today we talked about skinship and guys touching guys here. I am always happy to help them learn about foreign cultures and they really like hearing about them (and I was told that my class should be more of a listening class so I get to talk a lot).
Anyway, it is like you think OP, you can talk a lot more with the higher ups, but the kids can be fun as well.
Anyone want my job in 3 months? |
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