Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nate2008]

Okay so last week I had all of my 1st grade (middle school) classes, and while maybe half of them were good, the other half were just awful. I should mention that my co-teacher in these classes is terrible; she sleeps, reads comic books, and just does nothing to help me control the class. This in turn sends a message to the kids that it's okay to ignore me and do whatever they want, because whatever I have to say is not very important.

I think that most of the kids in these classes are either at a lower level than they should be, or just don't care enough to participate and do anything to get better at English. I'm thinking that I am definitely going to have to do some different kinds of activities with these classes than with all my others, but I don't know exactly what to do. I need something that will keep them interested, but also be simple enough so that they can do it and get something out of it. Also, this is public school we are talking about, so I have 40-45 kids per class.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[EzeWong]

I find with the 1st grade middle school kids most of them don't have a good sense of shame or obligation (sometimes a good thing). Which is why threats and raising your voice doesn't work. Because effectively that creates an US vs THEM mentality.

In addition, I USED to be like your kids. The one who caused trouble. So I know exactly what they are thinking. They are rebels, they are optimists, and they don't want to hear anything bad so they'll ignore it. If your message is bad or critical they will go "la la la la" I can't hear you.


ALL my 12 classes of 1st grade students are well behaved in my classes (not other korean teachers) because I took the time to know them individually and as a class. And I sort of forced them to learn about me. With some... "interesting" games.

I effectively know of BigBang, Starcraft, Homeworld, etc... I spent a few days researching what they like and I too have really started to like this stuff. They know I love basketball, jogging, and Lee Hyori <3 <3 <3


The way my class usually runs is that I've gained the respect or at least the admiration of a few key people in the class. These are usually the popular kids or ones that are loud and obnoxious. This works in 2 ways. Usually, it WILL be the kid who cuases problems so now with their trust the won't act up. Also, that kid will usually police the other kids to shut up so they can hear what I have to say.

As long as I have one person that I can say yo homey and give fresh prince of bel air handshakes, then the class is golden.

And like you said, class has to be interesting. I goof off, embarass myself as much as I can, take things to weird extremes and we all have a good time while we all learn english. All without the help of my co-teacher. As an example, if theres a speaking activity where theres a group A and B, I will dance between the aisles and sort of sing the dialogue with them.

Embarassing? yes
Funny? Even more so.

You can try games that incorporate racing.
Theres one game where students have to read an english passage and have another student transcribe it. I've never used it but I heard it works well. I'll try to post a site with some game ideas you can use, I have to get to class now though. GL

[nate2008]

Thanks a lot for all your advice

I have heard of the racing/transcribing game, it sounds solid, so I think I will give that one a try next week. I have to admit I'm not real good at the whole embarrassing myself thing, but I guess I could give it a shot. I haven't quite figured out who the key kids are yet but I will find out who they are.

Thanks again.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It's that time of year when first-graders are starting to slip out of new-to-school, goody-goody mode. Actually, it's probably already happened for many of the Korean teachers - you're just getting it now because the novelty factor lasts longer when you only see them once or twice a week. You're probably screwed because your co-teacher doesn't have them taking public school English seriously. Are some classes much worse than others or are they all problematic? If they're all problematic it probably has something to do with your approach and perhaps you need to use a wider range of activities while getting them into a good routine (very difficult to do both at once, I know). If it's just one or two classes it might be necessary to find some way to crack down on the worst troublemakers and perhaps go over your useless co-teacher's head and involve the homeroom teacher.

If you feel more confident with discipline (and it sounds like you don't) you may want to give your CT something to teach / translate / explain and have her come up to the front to do it. While she's doing it you can demonstrate what the second teacher should be doing in terms of trying to keep the students focused on and paying attention to her and what she's covering. How old is she and how long has she been teaching?

[yingwenlaoshi]

I have one class like this of maybe 17 students. I only teach them once a week. I've decided that the best thing to do is to surf the Net, go for a coffee or a smoke, etc. I try to teach in the beginning, tell whatever students who are being distracting to be quiet, and give up when I have to say it a second time. I put a lot of effort into teaching, but if no one else is going to do anything about it, I'm not either.

You're co-teacher should just get off her lazy fkg ass and do her job. If not, do what I do and see what happens.

Good advice, eh?

[nate2008]

[xCustomx]

Powerpoint is your friend. Usually, the more time I spend preparing a decent presentation, the more they pay attention. Use text boxes, different colors, backgrounds, arrows and anything else to simplify things. I hate writing on the blackboard and showing how to do substitution exercises. It's much easier to show them visually how to move parts of sentences around to construct grammatically correct sentences.

I'd recommend trying a running dictation the last 10 minutes of class. Find a rhyme, or other short dialogue, no more than three or four sentences. Tape three or four copies on the blackboard. The first person in each row must run to the front, read and memorize as much as they can and then relay that information to the next person in their row. That person in turn tells the next person, all the way to the back. The last person in the row will write everything down.

Another fun game is 'hot seat.' This game is the same as Taboo. I looked in the index of their textbook and found easy vocabulary words they should know. I made a powerpoint with pictures on each slide. One person will sit in front of the TV and their team must describe the item in English only. Since your students' ability is low, I wouldn't add any taboo words. The kids love this game and it gets really competitive.


You've got a challenge in front of you, and even though your students sound lazy, don't give up on them. Get your co-teacher involved. I tell all of mine that I expect them to stand in front of the class with me, otherwise they may as well just stay in the teachers office. Good luck

[D.D.]

I give them homework and I check it at the door. The ones that did their homework get to enter the class, the other ones get to stay outside and finish their work.

I like this because I now how a class of 16 students that want to learn. I have thought a lot about how to teach. I have come to the conclusion that they bad students are ruining the classes for the good students.

I wish that these bad students were given some extra work so they can catch up to the rest. If they don't try I wish that they could be put into a class for lazy students.

In our school the lazy students have started to ruin the classes in second year. Maybe if they were sorted out in 1st year this would not have happened.

I deserve the karma though as I drove my French teacher mad when I was in junior high.

What I really hate is that the lazy students just ruin my classes for the other students. They don't try so they don't understand and then they get bored and start acting up.

When I sort the classs into ones that want to be there and ones that don't the learning curve goes up exponentially.

I am a big believer of putting my time and energy into the good students. I also hold the space for the others to become one of the good students.

I don't think the 1st year students can do well unless the are held accountable for learning the basics. If they are too lazy to do that I wish they were not allowed in my class.

Attention span is also a big problem in Korea. By making classes that are more exciting we are actually feeding the attention span problem. More bells and whistles means that quiet things will become boring.

I try to teach my students to focus even when things are not exciting. There is a huge problem with this in Korea. The students need more quiet time and less info pumped at them. The problem is over-stimulated people initially feel tired in less stimulating enviroments.

My solution is to demand focus like a zen master. I can only do this with the kids that want to be there.

Having 32 students in one class is just too many. I know it is not the best solution but I try and weed the poor students out my classes. At least this is my present attempt, maybe next month I will try a new tactic.

[D.D.]

I hate when I see teachers talking about the kids practicing dialogues. Can people really learn how to talk that way. Come on start teaching the kids how to use their own words and think. Dialogues are junk.

[nate2008]

[ddeubel]

[ardis]