Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Carla]

[Fishead soup]

Arts and Crafts work wonders. You get the students working quietly in their seats. You give them handouts lets say "A" has a picture of an Alligator. Give them colored crayons this kills a lot of time. This is ideal during the biggining of the lesson when you need them focus and calm.
Do all the crazy running style activities at the end. So just as you feel yourself losing control the bell goes off

Do you have a sticky ball and a black board. I think this is something that you can get them quite focused and calm work on some target style games with a basketball net and a ball. Student says word they get a chance to throw the ball through the net .

Do you have a coupons policy at your school. Kids get coupons for good behavour they teade them in for stickers.
Try to use simple Powerpoint games like hangman Baam Jeopardy.
Play Mr. Bean video's when you need to get them focused.

[ThingsComeAround]

I also suffer with kiddies from hell

I do storytelling at a library with a rotating class. No stickerboards for me.
But I do throw kids out for fighting. And the mommies can't do anything about it

Id recommend you up the energy in your all boy class. instead of doing structured things, dance, exercise, do the 'boing' from yogabbagabba

KIS

[MalFSU1]

I really feel your pain...literally. Got my finger smashed by some wild second grade boys two weeks ago. The second they left class I broke down and cried...not really from the pain, but for how disrespectful they are to me. I like you have tried all the traditional methods, but still rude as can be. Luckily I only have to teach them about 5 more times before leaving Korea. Good luck to you, and remember it's not your fault, it's their parents job to teach them to respect and act properly around adults!

[Dazed and Confused]

Your class sounds exactly like the class I had my first year in Korea. I resorted to a "NO GAME" policy. They learned the alphabet. We sang songs and did TPR activities but NO GAMES. After a couple months the worst little monster in the class drug a Korean teacher in to the class to translate. Guess what he said! "Why don't we play games? I want to play some games." With a smile I looked at that mini K-monster and told him "I tried to play games with you and you took my game cards and ripped them up. That's why we don't play games" The Korean teacher translated and all the brat could do is stand there will his mouth hanging open. We played no games till the day I no longer had to teach that class. The good thing is he actually improved his behavior and learned something.
I learned to tell my kindergartners at the moment they step out of line to "Sit down. Stop doing that" in a loud firm voice. I keep saying it until they sit down. I also keep them entertained with silly games like "show me the blue crayon" and "Where's the X". They can sit at their desks and still play the game.

[southernman]

Sounds like you're actually doing good things and theres also some good advice. If those suggestions don't work, heres something that worked for me

My situation was slightly different. I was at a PS teaching 1st grade students, so the same age. My co-teacher left the class for 10-15 mins. While she was away most of the students went crazy I got kicked and the invasive finger treatment.

She came back, I explained what happened said it was totally unaceptable. I said I had a headache and that I was going home (Also said that maybe I would have one tomorrow as well). I left for home straight away, first class of the day, awesome.... day off work

The next day at work went much better than I anticipated, apology letters, abeit very brief from several students. They became a good class.

Sometimes you've got to take a stand and stick up for your rights. Why not get your Director or someone to observe them, unknown to the kids or just say that you aren't teaching that particular class anymore.

It's not a failure on your behalf if the kids are total little sh*ts, so just get rid of that class or seek assistance in getting them to behave better

[nikki15]

I would also recommend the reward system, I use this in my classes and it usually works quite well. Make them a sticker paper, or get them a sticker book and once they have collected so many stickers (you can choose whatever number you feel fit) then they can exchange it for a small prize, like pencils, erasers, etc. You could ask your co-teacher to explain the sticker system to them in Korean so they understand.

Also, it is probably a good idea to find some games/activities that they can do in their seats until they learn to listen to you/control themselves better. For example, when my students are just learning numbers or colors, I go around the room and have them say one number each in order, if you make a mistake you are out and the remaining students continue until only one winner is left (winner gets a sticker). This is really simple and probably seems boring, but for some reason my class loves it and often asks to play.

I also have experience with both Japanese and Korean kids and the differences between them are insane. I did some work at an ESL pre-school in Japan and the kids basically only spoke English unless they asked to speak Japanese, and were so respectful and well mannered. In Korea, I have witnessed a mother watch her son beat another boy at the school and did not say a thing. When my co worker broke it up, she said the other boy hit first. Which I guess made it ok for her son to start hitting the other boy multiple times.

Good Luck with your class, I hope you find something that works to calm them down!

[gypsymaria]

You guys have been great with the suggestions and support, really. Thank you so much. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one having this experience, and that it isn't 100% my fault (though I take responsibility for not knowing how to deal with them in the first place-- I probably should have prepared better instead of expecting all of my classes to be easy).

I don't have access to stickers or candy just now (no idea where to buy them and VERY limited budget), but I'll start using them as soon as I can get a hold of some. Problem is, everything I need for my classes I need to haul up and down a flight of stairs, because the classroom I use isn't the same as my office, and I can't leave anything in the Library room if I don't want it stolen/moved/destroyed by some of the other after-school programs. I wonder how much time it would take me to create sticker boards or sheets for each of my 25 classes... Maybe laminated ones I can re-use every semester, and ones I can swap names out of when a kid gets transferred to a different class? I'll have to look into that. If not this semester, a definite MUST for next semester.

Also, bags of candy are apparently a good investment. I will keep that in mind. It goes against the very grain of my being as a nutritionally responsible nanny, but I suppose I'll have to give up some of my scruples if I want to be an effective teacher. Maybe I can find small, individual packs of fruit snacks or something? If I'm not just handing out candy as instant rewards and instead as a "trade in" item for stickers/points earned, I could probably spend the extra won for something that doesn't make my teeth hurt just LOOKING at the treats... Ooh, or little toy prizes. I could have a Treasure Chest. *is now full of fun ideas*

Hmmm, I'll have to make sure my Korean co-teacher or someone from the office is around on the first day to explain to the little ones how the system works, or it'll be kind of useless. :\

I wish I'd been more prepared at the start of this semester, but I had no idea what to expect, or even that I would be teaching Library Program until about a week beforehand-- during which my co-teacher and I were busy busting our asses writing ALL OF THE LESSON PLANS for the semester. From scratch. Which included coming up with games, crafts, etc. In advance. And we STILL don't have the proper source materials for some of the classes, so I've been using books that are far too advanced for my Book Club kids and not realizing it. Oops. No wonder they were so quiet.

Oh well. I'm a newb, but I'm learning. I fully intend to bounce back from this fighting.

The lady in our office in charge of curriculum and textbooks said she would come to my difficult class next week and explain to them the classroom procedures I've laid out, so that they understand my expectations for them and the consequences if they keep behaving poorly. She's super nice but can be strict when necessary, and has years of teaching experience, so I think she'll get through to them.

I'm thinking of making a huge, illustrated poster (or two: one for kindie level classes, one for my book club kids) of classroom procedures (in English, but perhaps with Korean subtitles so there's no excuse that a student didn't understand the rules) and laminating it. It'll have to travel with me up and down the stairs, unless the library gives me permission to permanently affix it to a wall, but totally worth it.

This thread has become more than a desperate plea for advice. Thanks to everyone who contributed to make it an inspiration!

Feel free to keep the suggestions coming. I'm sure others will find your advice helpful! (As will I!)

[debb199]

[coryallan]

you should have there mothers join the class since they are waiting outside and they can watch how their monsters behave.

[blackjack]

[mimi belle]

[gypsymaria]

Update:

Thanks to a lot of the advice I received here and a much sterner no-nonsense attitude, the boys behaved MUCH better for me today. However, there are still two boys that will not stop fighting, and one of those boys will hit anyone around him at the slightest provocation. I kept the two separated as much as possible, but beyond that I could only tell him "NO" when I caught him hitting someone.

I did bring in my co-teacher when the boys began flinging the flash cards around in their haste to run off to find the next card, and one of them struck me in the eye (I was crouched down to their eye level, which really did seem to help me connect to them better). Not a serious injury, thank goodness, though I wished I'd remembered to round the corners of this set of cards. Ow.

Naturally, it hurt, so I did holler at them for it. I held up the card, pointed to my scratched eye, and then pointed to the chairs and told them to sit down. They all did, realizing that they'd done SOMETHING wrong, and I got my co-teacher. She gave them an earful in Korean, and a couple of them were close to tears. After that, they behaved beautifully for most of the rest of the class (except for the aforementioned problem students).

Two of the boys behaved well enough to get a smiley face next to their name, and that meant they got a chocolate coin from me at the end of class. One of my other students (one of the nice ones!) had given me a whole bunch of the coins, but since they make my teeth hurt, I figured I'd test them as reward/bribes for my problem class. Worked very nicely. The two well-behaved boys were asked to come to the front of the class, where I handed each of them a chocolate coin very politely, pointing to the smiley faces and emphasizing what a good job they had done. I told the other boys to try harder next time.

Naturally, they whined to "Oma" about how they didn't get any chocolate. One mother asked, "Why my son not get a choco?" I smiled sweetly and explained that only the students who behave well, don't hit, and don't hurt teacher get a chocolate (at this point my eye was red and squinty and watery and I could barely open it, so I had a good example for "hurting teacher"). She looked appalled, then spoke very sternly to her son, and I think she was telling the other mothers what had happened as well (though I don't speak Korean, so for all I know she was bitching about me *shrug*).

Score 1 for me.

-1 for my eye. Ouch. >_O

(It's just irritated. I think there's a small scratch, because it feels like something is in my eye, but I checked and there's nothing there. Not much to do about it except let it heal.)

Let's see if Oma manages to knock some manners into these little monsters by the time next Wednesday rolls around.