Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Epik_Teacher]

One thing I might add, is that if you lack materials, go to somewhere like PirateBay.org and do an ESL book search. You can download tons of books for worksheets and ideas. I have about a gig of ESL books in PDF format.

[tideout]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

It depends on their level... if they're mixed up, it's going to be hard, pointless and annoying, but if they're streamed you can do a lot more with them.

Here's what I'm doing:

My low levels are doing selected lessons out of the books I bought for next year... I haven't used them yet so I can get away with teaching them what I would have been teaching them last year if I had these books then.

I'm doing creative writing with my advanced students, and it is going really well. I'm taking them through the process in stages-- so the first day we talked about the setting, then the characters, then the plot, the mood, etc... and I gave them worksheets so they can think about their stories/look up words/get the right corrections before they start writing. Most of it is really simplified... and I have dictionaries for them if they need to look stuff up. They weren't sure at first but now on day four they're really getting into their stories.

I found a decent story elements powerpoint online and added some of my own stuff to it-- just showed them pictures so we could talk about what different characters look like, how different settings make us feel, kinds of stories, tragedy vs. comedy, etc. There was actual discussion as well-- they didn't know if King Kong was a protagonist or an antagonist, so we had a little impromptu debate happening.

I also bought some materials for them to make book covers after they're done (this was not cheap, but hopefully it will be worth it). If we get finished that, we also have a play and I thought up some debate topics (we've done one debate already and it also went well).

I haven't really even tried this before, but now I gotta say--this is one of the most satisfying things I have done as an ESL teacher in Korea.

[nathanrutledge]

My class had five students in it, all TOEFL kids, most of them juniors, one senior. Three hours of class today.

Hour 1 - the topic was computer games. I brought 5 articles, two about Koreans who died in the PC bang, one opinion column about computer gaming in Korea, and two about the couple in Suwon who neglected their baby while they raised a virtual baby online. We got an hours worth of reading and discussion out of these articles, and they weren't bored/not doing the work, so... success!

Hour 2 - we discussed how to write a news story. Short paragraphs (1-2 sentences apiece), a quote, who/what/when/where/why/how, etc. Their minds really started to wander at this point - they knew it, but didn't really seem to care.

Hour 3 - we played Scrabble. They didn't want to write articles, and after 3 hours TOEFL in the morning and 2 hours of winter camp, I said screw it, they're burned out. So we played scrabble where I played three different words for poop, they played sex and "doingit" (didn't count, only single words allowed in Scrabble).

All in all, it went well.

[tideout]

[Illysook]

Let them tell you what they want, but take it with a grain of salt. They tend to tell you that they want conversation, but it takes a lot of prompts to make it happen. Selecting a topic each day and covering some reading, writing, and listening exercises in preparation for a conversation can be helpful.

[SCAshley]

Hey guys-any advice/help would be greatly appreciated! Ok, here's my situation:
I got to my school last Tuesday and I will begin my first winter camp next Monday the 17th (I teach PS). Last week and this week I am supposed to be lesson planning, but last week they didn't have a computer for me to use so I just sat and read my Kindle all day. My co-teacher is the only person at my school who speaks SOME English and she didn't come to school Friday or today, so I'm not sure when she's coming back. They have not given me any instructions as to what kind of lessons they would like me to teach or what format they need to be in, if they need to approve them first or anything. The only thing my co-teacher asked last week was if I had any ideas for winter camp. I have NEVER taught before and have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. And to boot, no one to ask about anything. I've checked out Waygook and stuff, but can't make my own documents because they only have a program for documents that is in Korean and give me blank looks when I ask to use a program in English, since that is the language that I speak. I am not the first NET to come to this school, so I'm not sure why they don't understand that I'm not fluent in Hangul. Any tips on how to get this party started? [/u]
P.S. I have grades 3 and 4 (how am I supposed to know what their English level is in order to plan appropriate activities? Also, if we need supplies for crafts, games, etc does money for that come out of our pockets?)

[southernman]

Its really lucky you didn't have to provide all the details to the VP for your winter camp. I've had to have everything ready a month in advance at the 3 schools I've done them at. Detailed Lesson Plans plus the book I've made up for the camp.

That being said It's just a Pirated copy of the Seoul Emementary camp from a couple of years ago. Any NET out there that made it cheers and I take it all the grammatical and spelling mistakes were on purpose because I've made a game out of the first person to spot the mistake gets candy.

I've had just a 5th grade class last week and 6th graders this week. It's all really easy. For some strange reason my school bought 240 000 Won worth of Candy for these camps so I've literally got a banana box of candy to go through each week.

Needless to say the kids are loving it...

[SCAshley]

@southernman-it's entirely possible that they did ask me for a detailed lesson plan, but since I don't speak Korean and they don't speak English, it all may be lost in translation...hahaha. We'll see how it goes next week.