Korean Job Discussion Forums

refikaM · Joined: 06 May 2006 Location: Gangwondo

I've just been transferred to a rural elementary school after teaching 2 years in middle school. I'll teach grades K-6, and the bulk of those classes will be after school activity classes. I have some experience with 5th & 6th grades, but none with the smaller kids. I'm willing to pay the price for a website or two worthy of the cost... for ideas. Can anyone recommend some sites that you've used or are using? I've heard good reports on GenkiEnglish... Any others? Thanks so much in advance!

woodstock · Joined: 15 Feb 2007

Join EFL Classroom. It has a great deal of resources for all levels and they're free. Bogglesworld is another site I use too. Lots of good stuff.

Morgen · Joined: 02 Jul 2008

Depending on what you need, I'd say eslhq.com is a great resource for worksheets, flashcards, games and forums. You can use their premade material or customize it, as with most tefl sites. Mes-english.com also has good ideas for projects and listening activities, and also has a comprehensive links page. Both these sites are free, but if you're determined to pay for something, the Cambridge series of language teaching handbooks has some useful titles (e.g. Games for Language Learning), and you might also try the Let's Go series teachers' manuals, which will plan your lessons for you pretty much down to the minute.

refikaM · Joined: 06 May 2006 Location: Gangwondo

Thanks to you who have submitted some sites! I am not determined to pay for sites.. just determined to find ones that will suit my needs.. free or otherwise! I'm familiar and used some of the sites suggested above, but just wondered if the cost required to access some of the others was worth it. Hard to peruse the sites to find out without paying!

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Hey refikaM,

EFL Classroom 2.0 will always be free and without ads (that is important also). Try out scribd resources http://www.scribd.com/people/documents/1005075 , without a doubt the world's largest source of EFL material. I still haven't put up the hundreds of instructional ppts , find those on our Resources pages...

But I am like you -- I believe education should get a pass when it comes to resources and access to materials. Our children are that important and education is that important.

Find lots of sites that have been culled - in our Bookmarking areas
http://www.diigo.com/list/eflclassroom

I'm presently building a very nice, Prof. development site/place. Take TEFL tests, watch other teachers, get advice....Look forward to it arriving Oct. 1st.

Cheers,

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

sojourner1 · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:18 pm Post subject:

DDeubel you are such a valuable member on Daves. Thank you for the helpful advice and resources. We need some proven strategy and materials of some sort as many of us don't have curriculum and books in our public schools and we have no clue what is the best to approach this problem. I found stuff like mentioned in this thread, but I've no curriculm or syllabus as a semester or annual program guide. I want a book that includes great detailed lesson plans that are great to use one after another in sequence. A book that does NOT lack in content like the way so many books do.

Since we have little resources, foreign teachers just do whatever they want to do and I'm amiss on the best way to do it without falling flat on my face. Many have a great sense of slapstick humor which takes them all the way to the end of contract while others struggle and a few actually know how to teach. I have to admit I don't know enough about teaching to be all that good at it, but I could be a lot better with some proven lesson plans and other materials to use. It's too easy to bore or confuse the students so using proven material and strategy is important. I only wish Korea recognized this issue, but they just think having some handsome white dude is enough to call it an English teacher with an English program.

I think them students are worth it, but PS fails to invest in any sort of English program materials outside of bringing in a foreigner. They do look really funded and adequate when it comes to Korean books and materials, but not anything a foreign teacher can use other than the video system and chalk board. I bet the video systems are seeing a lot of use in public schools. I like them for music, kareoke, and showing things, but it would be a waste to just show videos and movies all the time out of not having good curriculum nor proven lesson plans that work quite well. You can talk and try to get students to talk, but if they won't listen, because you don't have good proven lesson plans and materials, then it's a waste. I just hate the idea of having to invent something I'm not good at on account of not yet knowing it. Will keep searching for that great lesson plan and teaching strategy manual......

beast · Joined: 28 Jan 2003

just use your brain. Teachers fifteen years years ago had no use of the internet and did just fine. Don't be so lazy. Create something yourself.

Hotpants · Joined: 27 Jan 2006

I created an A-Z categorized listing of such websites here:
http://esl-teaching-resources.blogspot.com
Most of the sites listed are free to use.
It would also be a good idea to get out to a big city bookshop one day and grab a load of books there to use in your classes - there is a good selection of books in certain stores, especially in Seoul.
Also, you need to learn to develop stretching out what resources you do have - there are an infinite number of review games that you can play out with minimal resources. In addition, try to get the kids to make their own materials - they're pretty good at making flashcards and boardgames, and once you've got a decent set of flashcards, you can keep going infinitely...

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005