Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Young FRANKenstein]

Okay, my previous experiences working in public schools have pretty much turned me off ALL present and future PS jobs, but I got wrangled into teaching at the local girl's high school for the next 4 weeks (well, only three weeks because of their exam week)...I could express my displeasure at the situation to management, but that would entail copious amounts of profanity, so I'll just suck it up for the next 4 weeks and be a good little soldier and do the damn class...

Problem is they are below beginner. I'm usually a uni and adult writing teacher, so I have NO idea what they are interested in, or what kind of class activities will fly in such a classroom (they have no textbook and "Springboard" was shoved into my hands minutes before today's first class).

I'm trying to think of projects that they are capable of doing, yet are interesting, too. I was thinking of a video project of some kind (a music video?) or some sort of poster project (food and recipes seems kind of lame, though). Maybe doing something with Google Earth and researching a country and present it to the class (I would choose the countries to be a little more obscure so I don't get 10 groups doing Canada)?

Any tips from GHS vets?

[Dan The Chainsawman]

LOLS.. not much I can to help you out with other than.. Drink heavily!

Maybe some songs? Britney spears comes to mind.. Other than that.. no clue... I avoid High schoolers and middle schoolers like the plague.

[Bibbitybop]

[yingwenlaoshi]

Blah, blah, blah then go home. Repeat.

[Chicoloco]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

3-4 weeks? You're a guy? What are you worried about? They love pop songs. Avril Lavigne is hugely popular at the moment. Start out with an intro excercise like:


Who is Avril Lavigne?


- Avril Lavigne was born in Belleview, Ontario, Canada, in 1984 to French-Canadian (프랑스계 캐나다인) parents.
- Her first album came out (발매되다) in 2002.
- Her second album, Under My Skin, came out in 2004 and contains (포함하다) the hit song, My Happy Ending.
- She has also had small roles (역할) in five films.
- She is a vegetarian (채식주의자) and her favorite food is pizza with olive toppings.
- She has a tattoo (문신) of a star on her left wrist and a tattoo of a heart on her right wrist.
- Last year in 2006 she got married (결혼하다) to another Canadian singer.


How much do you know about Avril Lavigne? Answer the following questions. If you don�t know, guess (추측하다).

1. What is Avril�s nationality (국적)?
- She is a _________________.

2. How old is Avril?
- She is ________________ years ______.

3. How long has it been since Avril�s first album came out?
- It has ________ _________ years.

4. Which of the following foods would Avril not eat?
- pasta / fried chicken / pizza / cheese / bread

5. Which of the following languages can Avril speak?
a. French
b. Spanish
c. English
d. Russian
e. Korean

6. What are the shapes of Avril�s tattoos?
a. diamond & star
b. heart & star
c. heart & triangle
d. triangle and star

7. Which of the following singers are Canadian?
a. Alanis Morisette.
b. Avril Lavigne
c. Celine Dion
d. Shania Twain
8. What does �Avril� mean in French? (Hint: it�s the name of a French month)
- It means ______________




Then do one of her songs as a listening excercise with some of the words missing. Then practice singing the chorus and if they're well behaved show them the music video.

Do puzzles - the dumb ones love word searches and the smart ones like crosswords.

Do different variations of bingo games with little candies as prises.

Teach them numbers usuing various sorts of games.

Practice simple little dialogues and then re-write them on the board, changing the characters to their teachers' names, with lots of themes about monsters and dying and going to night clubs.

And believe it or not, you may even be able to work in components of real lessons that actually involve real teaching of real English.



This should be a cake temp job, not something to dread.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Oh one more very important thing - final exams are coming up soon. The second to last week you'll probably do little if any teaching. The last week no one will be in a mood to learn. The KTs will either be doing reviews or showing videos or just letting their students goof around and perhaps not even going to class. Get a DVD player for the last week after exams. That leaves two weeks before exam to have some fun. Since you don't know what level they're really at plan a lesson with various components and various levels of difficulty, perhaps bringing a bit more so you can decide near the end of the lesson whether you should pull out some more challenging or simpler stuff.

[passport220]

Lessons based on "Text speak". ddeubel has some stuff on his web sitewww.ddd.batcave.net.

[cdninkorea]

This guy is good:

[Jizzo T. Clown]

Here are some topics I'm using with my very low level group:

Months and Ordinal #s (Birthdays, calendars)

Family, descriptions (a/an)

In the home (prepositions, furniture)

Food (menus, prices, food adjectives)

Jobs (titles & responsibilities, job application + interviews)

Weather (going to, numbers)

So far it's been taking us two lessons to get through each one. Guess I was a little ambitious!

[pkang0202]

I want your job.

[Rapacious Mr. Batstove]

[Rteacher]

I made good use of Disney's High School Musical DVD (copy sold on street in Itaewon - it hasn't officially been released in Korea yet...)

Korean high-schoolers' relate to seeing their American (well, Disney-Hollywood...) counterparts, and the sing-along version songs are very well done (Billboard awarded it for "Best Soundtrack" of 2006...) There are also several websites with ready-made quizes on the story-line...

Another musical aid for my classes is subscribing to www.ksolo.com - a karaoke site with thousands of songs (including Avril Lavigne, Britney, etc...)