Korean Job Discussion Forums

RR · Joined: 28 Jan 2003

I slack by posting on Dave's on my notebook. Give 'em a test that involves coloring or something.

Ooo... gotta go, someone just ate a crayon...

Zed · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Shakedown Street

You're teaching an awfully late class. Shocked

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Gotta be careful about slacking. Some of the quick-whip students report any especially long, lame 'class activity' to mom and then guess what, no more quick-whip! It could be you were just out of a conflict over some stupid thing with the boss and, mad at him, you gear down in class to get out of the huff.
Heard a good one from a Uni teacher originally from California; 'the more you're 'in it for the money' the worse you'll be treated'. The Korean female teacher, 25, has made me inclined to think it's all about keeping it coming for the kids. New angles, new-fangled approaches, cutting out stuff and laminating etcetera. But not so much that by the time the seven hour block shift rolls around you haven't much fizz to bubble over with. There's always the standard teacher approach (we are teachers, aren't we?) of having a lesson plan/objective and alligning activities to hit on that theme.
I had an arduous time at a Kids Herald which put me off prep period for awhile. Kindy in the am, 'free lunch', then elementary three hours later, after that time doing 'prep'. Gak.
We are teachers, aren't we? I know the Korean female teacher, 25, feels like one. But being a foreinger it feels more 'jester'-ish (no, never buffoon).

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

The Man known as The Man · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:29 pm Post subject:

kimcheeking · Guest

Butterfly · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Kuwait

The Man known as The Man · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:08 pm Post subject:

Dr. Buck · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Land of the Morning Clam

I think the questions are:

Is it worthwhile to be professional in an unprofessional environment?

Is it worthwhile to be an ultra-professional teacher when you recieve no feedback, either positive or negative from the administration?

Is it worthwhile to put much effort--mental, physical and emotional--when you know that Korea is a short chapter in your life, and that deep down you know that "professionally teaching ESL in the Korean system" is nowhere to be found on your life's mission statement?

Everybody has a different answer to those questions.

Kimcheeking is obviously a hard-core, no-nonsense ESL teacher. One of the few.
I like Buttercup's attitude about being professional to exploit the lack of professionalism in the Korean ESL industry.
And Shawner's and Bucheon Bum's posts make the point that most of us are working in moronic, corrupt and very unprofessional environment, where sometimes professionalism as a teacher is actively discouraged, so why rise to the occassion and spend the mind-numbing energy to be Uber-English teacher.

kimcheeking · Guest

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

corporal why are you getting so worked up about this. No one accused you of being a slacker, or in any other way commented on your teaching abilities. the op admits to slacking, which in most cases, is considered a bad thing. Yet you get upset when someone says that the op is wrong to slack or says that slacking is bad.

Some one asked the question is it worthwhile to be professional in an unprofessional workplace? I think it is worthwhile. I am not as professional as i would like to be. I like to think that i am improving. I know one teacher who was professional. Was always prepared for his classes and never slacked off. Eventhough he had disagreements with the management and he left before the end of his contract, they gave him a glowing reference.

kimcheeking · Guest

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

shawner and BBum, here is a possible suggestion for your classes. I'm not sure whether you have books which you are supposed to be teaching from. Also I am assuming that you are teaching conversation classes.
my suggestion is to teach a topic based curriculum. for each class teach about a certain topic. like At the pet store or something. introduce new vocab and whatever gramatical functions that might be useful. then have the kids role play conversations. YOu can have all your classes for the week do the same topic and adjust the difficulty of the grammer to suit the level of the class. each week is a new topic so you don't need to worry about continuaty as much.
go to an english book store and you might be able to find some books that will help you out with planning these types of classes.

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

darn it chris, why didn't you tell me that idea a year earlier? Smile

. You brought up a good suggestion. Uggh...

This was my curriculum: a story-book, which the kids basically memorize. In other words: zzzzzzzzzzz. my job is basically ask them questions about the book and have them talk about it. Exciting right?

So basically what i do with the young classes is get them to learn how to form basic sentences with the vocab from the books. I also expand a bit on the books. One focuses on prepositions, while another is about the body. So I do excercises involving those things.With the older classes, I ask them questions using the vocab from the book. I also have them write sentences using the vocab. What else? There are a few other things I do. Basically everything revolves around the vocab. Its the Korean teacher's job to focus on the grammar.

I've come up with tons of worksheets and think I've done a decent job given the circumstances. I just get bored doing the same type of thing over and over, as do my students.

So yeah, had I gotten your suggestion a month or so ago, it would be have been a god send. Since I'm going out of town this weekend, it'll be hard to check out english books, but maybe I will follow your suggestion the last two weeks. I will also pass it along to my replacement. Thanks