Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Papa Smurf]

Hi,

i've been teaching elementary and middle school students for a year and i'm going to start teaching kindy soon.

I have plenty of experience teaching kindergarten age kids, but only special activities. I've never had my own kids, for 3 or 4 hours a day, which is what i'll be doing.

So, does anyone have any tips on disciplining and rewarding them. what has worked for you? any suggestions regarding anything to do with teaching kindy are welcome.

thanks

[Thewhiteyalbum]

Change activities often. They have the attentions spans of gnats.
Sing lots of songs to break up the monotony. Use props, puppets etc.

Stickers stickers stickers!!
Keep sticker charts.

How long are the lessons? Is it one big long continous one?

[Papa Smurf]

[Perceptioncheck]

Ha! I tried giving stickers out to one of my kindy classes but quickly put a stop to it when nothing could dissuade one of my little girls from eating them.

In Japan, I inherited a couple of nightmare kindy classes; these little forty minute slices of hell would leave the most well-adjusted adult a gibbering, shaking mess. There was very little I could do in terms of outright discipline as the little demons just wouldn't listen to any cajoling, positive reinforcement, shouting or stomping of feet so in the end I decided to just concentrate on giving the classes routine. They'd had a different teacher pretty much every week and this was something that was sorely lacking. . . and my God, how it worked! Those classes went from my worst to my best and I must say, at the risk of sounding pat, it was very rewarding.

So my advice? Routine. Routine, routine, routine. Eighty minutes is a long time for kids that age, so make sure you switch between active and seated activities. We would start by checking homework, then stand up and do and ABC dance, then sit down and introduce the target language, then stand up and do some kind of listening activity to reinforce the language, then sit down and do another activity. . .you get the picture. It worked like a charm and the class went a lot easier once the kids knew exactly what was expected of them. I hardly had to do any disciplining and when I did, the kids listened to me. The other kids even used to tell their peers off because they knew what the next activity would be and wanted to get on with it. . .

And I would finish my Sundays without the overwhelming urge to stick my head into a jug of beer.

Good luck!

[Zulethe]

I had a group of 6th grade girls who told me they would not listen to me and that they would do anything they wanted in class and that "they will win."

So my first step was to find out how they behaved with their Korean teacher. The answer: the exact same way.

I taught one class and that was all. The rest of the semester it was movie time.

I bust my but in classes that want to learn and show just the smallest amount of respect. But heeeellll no...not for what I'm getting paid.

The entire semester not one person commented on why I was showing movies in every class...ha

Moral of the story...the little punk can do whatever he wants....just don't touch me or throw anything at me and we're good.

Oh...and as for touching the student thing....I can't count the times that I kicked a student out of class and when they didn't listen, I picked their insolent but up and promptly removed them from the classroom. This resulted in hastier departures on their part in the future.

seriously mate...seriously!!!!

[toonchoon]

honestly, i don't know why anybody would want to subject themselves to looking after and talking to a bunch of 3 year olds.

just insane. may God Bless Your Soul.

[Dodgy Al]

For 6-7 yr olds:

No candy. Ever.
Rules.

[ajuma]

[Goku]

Observe an Alpha child. They can teach you more than any theory book can.

Controlling children is a subtle art. It's taken me a lot of time to learn.

Children don't respond to reason. They are, however, very sensitive to body language and "feeling".

Something I can tell you,
Never ever argue with a child. If a child demands something be done his/her way, ignore them and give them another natural option to choose by assuming they will do it.

I learned this from an alpha child in my class. I regrettably let the children choose which activity to do. The kids were arguing while the Alpha child just decided, on his own, to play the game. He didn't ask permission and he didn't ask anyone. Later the other kids follow suit.

I've adapted this for my own purposes. It works great. If kids say they don't want to do an activity or play a game, I act like an alpha child, I swivel my chair, and start playing the game and amusing myself looking like I'm having a great time.

Also, beware of kids naturally tendencies. This is obvious, but no matter how awesome you are, you can almost never get all children interested. You can design an activity to be kinetically fun, or visually, or auditory. But kids vary greatly on what interests them, even at this age. So like someone said change activities often. You will lose some kids doing this, but you will gain others, switch and make it often.