Korean Job Discussion Forums

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I've become a bit lazy in my planning of late. I used to spend about an hour on some of my more creative lessons. But I'm a bit tired and grumpy lately so it's down to barebones stuff.

CLG

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

ah, university.. Then I don't care about your answer Smile

j/k.

Impressed you uni guys put so much effort into preparing a class. The question is are you avg. or above avg. for a uni. teacher?

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

kiwiboy_nz_99 · Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Location: ...Enlightenment...

How do you know you were average in teacher quality? Did you observe others at work? You sound pretty dedicated to me.

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

My hagwon keep telling me what a good teacher I am yet they have never observed me once. Neither did my previous hagwon. I have never received criticism, constructive or otherwise, on my teaching technique. Not since my TESL training course anyway. 3 years ago.

Are they asking the kids on the way out after class???? I hope not.

Hagwon teaching is based on the individuals personality. An affable, open person who like kids will do well in a hagwon. Actual teaching skills, i.e. skills acquired during training, do not really matter due to the pointlessness of the average hagwon curriculum.

Blue Flower · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:12 am Post subject:

I totally agree with that. Nothing i learnt in teachers college, is really useful here, apart from some of the behaviour management stuff, because i am in such a completely different environment, both language wise, and curriculum wise. I've never heard any complaints, and apparently my kids like me, and I am a little sure that there are a few of them with a bit of a crush. I would like to have majored in linguistics in college, and therefore know what the hell past progressive tense, or present perfect progressive tense is, and actually care about it, and think that in any way shape or form it is important for my kids to know. Instead i took the papers that interested me, which unfortunately aren't very suited to teaching. The total lack of observation, critiques, and reports on my teaching is rather unsettling for me, as it would prove beneficial two-fold - it would help me in my navigation of a totally different curriculum, and learning environment to what i was taught, and also help in my registration when i get back to NZ. I think that i have been rambling but i hope there is some semblance of literacy in here.

Eazy_E · Joined: 30 Oct 2003 Location: British Columbia, Canada

I like to try to keep up the facade of being a real teacher, but it's starting to fade. If I try to actually "teach" grammar I get a bunch of puzzled faces. I teach in a hagwon and it's the usual situation, ie. some kids get it right off the bat, and others struggle. The children are at many different levels within the same classroom. I can't speak Korean (at least not yet) so I just follow the 2 page a day rule, and try to integrate games into my lesson plan so that if the kids don't get it, at least they can have fun being confused.

I've only been on the job for two months and I really enjoy it despite that quasi-rant. I can understand why higher levels of teaching are more coveted and better-paid, because it is much more rewarding and enjoyable to teach subjects (especially languages) at a higher level. The lower levels involve a lot of frustration and confusion. But please don't think I'm jaded, it's an important job and I'm glad to be doing it.

Zed · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Shakedown Street

Is a BA with a CELTA certificate a 'real teacher with qualifications'? I couldn't teach in a Canadian public school with what I have.

matthewwoodford · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Location, location, location.

It's hard to be a real teacher in a hagwon when they want you to teach 6-8 classes a day. The hardest I ever worked as a teacher was at a place (not in Korea) where you had 3 classes a day but you really had to prepare for them. There's no way you can put the proper effort into preparing a class in the average hagwon in Korea when you probably have no resources and you definitely don't have enough time. It's the 'bali bali' attitude which leads to such an enormous waste of time in hagwons. It's unbelievable the amount of time and money they spend on English lessons in Korea for nothing - nice that it provides us all with jobs of course - and they all seem to know it's a waste of time and yet nothing changes. 4 hours a week of real study and the rest of the time running and screaming in the playground would be sooooo much better for the kids.

If you can build up a repertoire/menu/whatever of lessons to draw upon then you can keep recycling the same 'acts' for different 'audiences' I guess. Then you've got it made.

Am I a real teacher? Well I know I'm a lot better than when I started but there are still a lot of areas to work on so I guess I'm working toward being a real teacher. Call me a nerd but I like grammar, surely even those teachers who say they hate it have to teach some kind of structure at some point even for a task-based or functional approach...? Otherwise how do you teach? And I don't believe for a minute that Korean teachers *on average* are hot on English grammar, not for a single second.

Matt

Rand Al Thor · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Locked in an epic struggle

*bump* because I think this is an interesting thread.

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

i have two classes where i must do 4pgs a day (to stay on schedule). On a "good" day, i get 4pgs. On a day when students learn or have fun, i get 1 or 2.
I have 80pgs to go in a book (in series) i was team teaching. shatty.
So, no more learning, just books books books and pages pages pages. Luckily it's only long vowels and easy stuff.

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 5:22 pm Post subject:

azalea · Joined: 31 Jan 2004

I am not a teacher and I am not an English native speaker either, but I have a teacher's license (English) and taught English at public schools for a short time.

Sometimes I find Korean(my native tongue) is more difficult than English! (not that I speak English fluently but the grammar and the rules of Korean spelling are still very difficult and confusing).

I just wonder how many of the foreign English teachers in Korea are confident in their native language. Do you sometimes have difficulties answering your students' questions in class?