Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chotaerang]

i've got to teach some kindies and I have pretty much no experience doing it. The stuff that I've seen so far looks like the kind of useless stuff we used to do in Toronto schools to learn French - sing Frere Jacques a bunch of times and hope for the best. Is there anything more substantive than songs and games that I might use. I was thinking flash cards with a mission to teach these kids a certain number of verbs, nouns and patterns each month. Are there any ways to disguise this as something fun?

[chotaerang]

Sorry, while I'm at it, I also have one genius kindie class. As in I ask them the square root of 144, they stare at the chocolate prize, start shaking and then spit out '12!!!. I want to read something useful to/with them but the parents don't want fiction and I tried a kids oriented Einstein biography but it was too difficult conceptually. Many thanks for any book suggestions.

[caribmon]

It does not matter what materials you use. What matters is that you must keep them under control by constantly asking questions and giving stars on the board for good answers and TAKE STARS AWAY for bad answers. Make them, "whoever is quietest for the next 2 minutes gets 10 stars!!!". They will say nothing. You can talk for 2 minutes in dead silence and they sit there squirming, but saying nothing because they want those stars (winner gets chocolate!!). That's especially good if the head teacher is watching. Always give them chocolates if they get lots of stars by the end of class. You have to manage them like employees otherwise they will drive you nuts with yelling and screaming, fighting and whining. they like games, like pass the kleenex box. RIGHT! LEFT! DIAGONAL LEFT! 3 RIGHT! BACK! FORWARD. Make it real intense. Throw candies all over the place and then first one back to their seat gets a star. They like barking like dogs. They can make insanely accurate dog yelps. they like drawing on the board. They like doing speeches infront of the class. Give 5 stars per speech. If they are unfocused/ noisy, 5-4-3-2-1 PRAY! I make them go NAMASTE, first one to have hands in prayer gets a star. the like doing yoga poses. They like doing shaolin kung fu animal forms, youtube them. They like doing math in their heads, like 20+32, 10-4 etc... they like animal things. Draw animals on the board, give each student 20 seconds. they will draw the animals pooing and peeing on eachother. They like singing if the song is good / funny. They like doing crafts, but hate drawing. They like games involving dice.

[zipper]

[tomato]

Hello, chotaerang!

Here is my collection of threads discussing problems in teaching little kids.
At least 41 other people have been in a position similar to yours.
These threads contain most of my own ideas, as well as oodlums of other ideas submitted by other veterans of the battle.

Enjoy:
41
40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The next time someone asks, this will become thread number 42.

[curiousaboutkorea]

As I'm sure you know, kindies like physical activity.

Play 'Simon Says'.

Sing 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' (mix it up with other body parts).

Nothing gets their attention better at the start of class than a round of singing 'B-I-N-G-O' ("Therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre....... Was a farmer who had a dog....")

Play the quiet game. They catch on pretty fast that they are allowed to talk when called on/answering and asking questions, but not allowed to talk otherwise.

'Old McDonald'

'If You're Happy and You Know it' (do all sorts of stuff like 'clap your hands', 'shake your body', 'click your tongue' etc)

If they're really acting up, you may notice 1 or 2 students are still being quiet and listening. Ask the class to do a simple task like "open your book to page 5." Give a sticker/candy to 1 or 2 students who follow your command. The rest of the class will notice and will be quiet and listen immediately, in hopes of a prize (which you have no obligation to give, of course). Just simply explain why those 1 or 2 students got a candy/sticker.

I don't like to be overly-dependent on prizes, but they have their time and place. E-Mart has some really cheap candies. There's E-Mart (generic) assorted fruit candies in a giant bag, a few kg, for like 8,000 won. It'll last you for months; keep a few handfuls in your bag all the time.

I find each time I have a new kindy class, they're a bit weary of me and a bit resistant. Give em a few weeks and they follow along amazingly well.

[lifeinkorea]

I run into the problem where student do nothing but cheat. It doesn't matter if I try to scold them or take some kind of point away. They don't want to get an answer wrong, so they have this group understanding to give each other answers.

Any ideas how to break this up and make them think individually?