Korean Job Discussion Forums

[adamosity]

There is actually some truth in my case to the above title.

Essentially, my school received a batch of interns today for the next month, and one of them is an English teacher.

I'm sharing the training of the intern with a Korean teacher, but essentially I've been asked to teach him from the Western perspective, and things to help him work better in English-only classrooms and with native teachers.

This is what I have lined up so far:

week 1: introduction to the school
week 2: observations
week 3: co-teaching practice (I don't do any co-teaching normally, but we're going to do some for the purposes of training him)
week 4: English-only classes, with me observing.

If you're a middle/high school teacher, what do you wish your co-teacher knew? If you were training them, what would you make sure they understood?

His English is near-fluent, fortunately.

I have my own ideas where I want to go with this (basically 60/40 training split, I get the 40, with the Korean teacher being the official supervisor and getting 60), but I want to hear your ideas.

How often do we get to guide them for a change? *grins*

Yes, I know, I'm a bit lucky, but I'm in an unusually good situation and actually work as an equal with the Koreans.

I have co-taught in another high school before, so I'm not completely blind about it--but essentially, my question: what do you want out of a co-teacher?

--adam

[sinsanri]

To tell you the truth and this is not an insult---

I wouldn't want you or anyone else near my co-teachers. If they need to be taught anything I would prefer to be the one to do it.

[adamosity]

you've missed the point.

it wasn't meant to be towards your co-teachers--it was along the lines of 'what kind of training can we give korean teachers to help education and make things smoother for foreigners here?'

I'm lucky that I work with a great bunch of teachers, but I've also worked in hideous places.

I'm just trying to train this intern the best I can to be the best teacher he can be.

--adam

[sinsanri]

No i didn't miss the point, I just didn't use the word 'future' for some reason. I understand what you are saying and I would still want to do it myself.

A pre-trained teacher sounds robotic to me and I would like them to be themselves not trying to be something they are not.

[tomato]

First and foremost, make sure he understands that students learn English by practicing English, not by listening to the teacher speak Korean the whole hour.
If your intern already understands this, then he is an exceptional Korean teacher.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I just finished with a 3-week intern last week. The real challenge was getting her willing to do anything in English in front of the class, especially with me there. I got her to do a longer game, which I started out so she could see how it went. Since I only had five lessons with her in my classroom there wasn't a lot of opportunity. I also tried to get her interested in KOTESOL, the Asian EFL Journal, and other things that might help with professional development. But most of her training was with a KET who's good at teaching a bad curriculum, and I fear this is the teacher she'll end up becoming.

[adamosity]

The KET I'm partnering with is really, really good.

He's near-fluent in English, has a PhD, and would be a good teacher in any culture.

I've seen what he does in his classes and while he still teaches in Korean, he is a middle-aged teacher who has kept up with modern methods.

[Xuanzang]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

One thing I would stress is not to punish the kids for making a mistake. I'm not talking about not doing what they're told, but if they're really trying to do a good job but still can't do it right.

This might sound obvious to some people, but I've had co-teachers who would jump down the student's throats, barking at them, if they were having trouble with something that had already been explained.

Seriously, what do you expect this does to a kid's confidence?

[Fishead soup]

Make them watch two video's of a class. They have to distinguish between good noise and bad noise. One lesson will be a students centered class that is active and somewhat noisy. The other lesson will be a class that's just out of control.

They have to go throught the text book and identify and change all awkward sentences.

They have get used to giving and recieving feedback.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[oldfatfarang]

I always try and get co-teachers to stop giving the kids the 'answers'.
Most of my students have plenty of English, but are paralysed in fear during group work or when a K teacher is around.

Sadly, K teachers haven't a clue about 'guided discovery' - and just jump in and give the kids the answers. Nobody learns anything that way - it just re-inforces Confucian dogma, i.e., 'the teacher is smarter than the student.'

I also try and get co-teachers to recognise that we're trying to create a positive learning environment for the students - not just a class where students sit down and shut up. Students should be engaged during learning - doing something - and, yes, it can get noisy!

Younger co-teachers can grasp these Western learning concepts - but older K teachers, mostly, don't get them (or don't want to).

[some waygug-in]

This comes from an elementary school perspective;

Above all, if co-teachers want to work well with foreign teachers, they should try and schedule weekly meetings with their foreign teacher to discuss, co-ordinate and plan for the following week's lessons.

Expecting the foreign teacher to always be able to fly by the seat of their pants is naive at best, and just plain idiotic.

[Mr. Pink]

[Xuanzang]