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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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 Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:57 pm Post subject: O! public middle school teachers... |
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I'm switching from public elementary to middle school,  so I 'm looking for some tips/advice/heads-up for this age group and matters concerning materials. First, some questions:
1. Is there a website where I can grab files of the national curriculum/teacher's book? Also, has it changed in the past years at all? With that said, do they (generally) encourage teachers to plan their own curriculum, or (force) emphasis on the national curriculum?
2. Do the schools hold mandatory camps?
3. I heard that in middle school, English lang. education is somewhat less important because the kids are preparing for admission into high schools; does this mean my classes will be canceled on a whim?
4. Anything else of importance...?
For others in my position, I've looked at this thread: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=198702&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
...and this one helped a bit at the end: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=191114&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
Thanks in advance for helping me out! Should be interesting...
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mellow-d
Joined: 07 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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I'm teaching middle school and I can tell you about my experience, though this can change from school to school.
Curriculum: The Korean English teachers have a curriculum to follow but I was asked to plan my own lessons. They actually told me they don't want me to use their textbooks or provide supplementary lessons for their curriculum.
Class size/composition: My classes are generally pretty large. I usually have 38-40 students in each class ranging from low to high language abilities.
I teach 23 classes and one after school class.
Motivation: I find the grade 7 students are way more motivated and respectful but they change once they get into grade 8. I don't teach the grade 9 students but from what I hear from other NETs, they can be pretty hard to deal with. Try your best to lay down the law with the grade 7s to make your next year with them easier.
The pros: I have ultimate freedom to plan what I want in my class and I don't have any expectations academically from the school. My co-teachers for the most part are pretty helpful. It's nice not to have to figure out a lesson plan based on a dialogue from their textbook. I hear this complaint from other NETs who have to use the textbook in their classes.
The cons: The students don't view my class as important as other classes because I can't give them grades. Last year, I was able to convince the school to allow me to submit questions on the English exams. This has helped. Next year there is a possibility that I'm going to be given like 20 points or something and I can hand them out how I see fit (i.e. participation points, being prepared for class, tests, etc...)
My advice: When you find out about your situation, try to get some grades for your class. Grades are what the students care about most. |
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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| mellow-d wrote: |
I'm teaching middle school and I can tell you about my experience, though this can change from school to school.
Curriculum: The Korean English teachers have a curriculum to follow but I was asked to plan my own lessons. They actually told me they don't want me to use their textbooks or provide supplementary lessons for their curriculum.
Class size/composition: My classes are generally pretty large. I usually have 38-40 students in each class ranging from low to high language abilities.
I teach 23 classes and one after school class.
Motivation: I find the grade 7 students are way more motivated and respectful but they change once they get into grade 8. I don't teach the grade 9 students but from what I hear from other NETs, they can be pretty hard to deal with. Try your best to lay down the law with the grade 7s to make your next year with them easier.
The pros: I have ultimate freedom to plan what I want in my class and I don't have any expectations academically from the school. My co-teachers for the most part are pretty helpful. It's nice not to have to figure out a lesson plan based on a dialogue from their textbook. I hear this complaint from other NETs who have to use the textbook in their classes.
The cons: The students don't view my class as important as other classes because I can't give them grades. Last year, I was able to convince the school to allow me to submit questions on the English exams. This has helped. Next year there is a possibility that I'm going to be given like 20 points or something and I can hand them out how I see fit (i.e. participation points, being prepared for class, tests, etc...)
My advice: When you find out about your situation, try to get some grades for your class. Grades are what the students care about most. |
Thanks! That was helpful. I have heard that making the English classes graded a bit really makes a difference. I'll try to make that a priority when I meet the P/VP. |
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Epik_Teacher
Joined: 28 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:30 am Post subject: |
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Every school is different, I'm starting my 5th contract in EPIK and can say from experience, it varies widely from school to school. The schools have a set of about a half dozen (?) books published by the Korean gov't they can choose from. They try to cover the basics and have actually gotten better in the last few years. But English is one of the most dreaded/hated subjects by students.
A lot depends on how many students in the school, and your co-teachers. You may get good or bad ones. I teach at 2 very rural schools. One teacher is near retirement and is pretty worthless, the other is a very good co-teacher. The school w/the good teacher only has about 80 students and we can spend lots of time with them. We are actually in the beginning stages of putting all the reading parts of the book on Moodle, so the students who want to study can do it online. We are planning to have English only, English/Korean and have random tests and TOEIC type exercises as well.
I have an MS Ed in Online Teaching and Learning and actually want to do this. Lots of work, yes. But I want it on my resume because I want to do the DELTA and specialize in online/blended learning. It would work at the smaller school, but probably not at the other school I teach at. It's 150 students who are the children of bigshots who are moving in to constuct the factories going in in the area. Many of them ar spoiled, rude brats that we spend more time just getting to be quiet and stay on task. At that school it's more babysitting than teaching. The smaller school more than makes up for the larger school, tho.
The bad thing about middle school is they hit puberty and "turn cool." They don't have the discipline of HS students and as a result, is probably the hardest level to teach. At least in my experience................ |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:51 am Post subject: Re: O! public middle school teachers... |
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| MollyBloom wrote: |
1. Is there a website where I can grab files of the national curriculum/teacher's book? Also, has it changed in the past years at all? With that said, do they (generally) encourage teachers to plan their own curriculum, or (force) emphasis on the national curriculum? |
Curriculum depends on the school. I do encourage to make your classes mark dependent. One of my middle made my material worth about 5% of every midterm and final exam, that school was by far the best behaved.
| MollyBloom wrote: |
2. Do the schools hold mandatory camps? |
That depends on where you teach and the local and provincial board of education. Although at one of my past middle schools that I had good working relations with made it almost a mission to get out of any english camps, since they absolutely hated having to cut short their own vacations.
| MollyBloom wrote: |
3. I heard that in middle school, English lang. education is somewhat less important because the kids are preparing for admission into high schools; does this mean my classes will be canceled on a whim? |
You may find that 3rd year middle school classes may be cancelled on occasion, since they do have to write tests to get into high schools.
| MollyBloom wrote: |
4. Anything else of importance...?: |
I have observed the background (gyopo, white, asian, black, adopted) and the gender dynamics between teachers and students to differ depending on the situation. Being a male in my early 30's and in okay shape, my favorite groups are all girls. Boys, in my experience, are difficult to keep in line. Also, I think 2nd years are the worst group to teach. 1st years are great until late in the year and initially are very enthusiastic in willing to do various activities. 3rd years will usually be harder to coax, since they have gone into the full 'too cool' mode and don't want embarrass themselves and are already resigned to their future being positive or negative. 2nd year students are just a hassle. |
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dyc
Joined: 16 Dec 2010
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't mean to hijack this thread, but would people w/ Middle/High school experience recommend that a potential teacher have at least a year of teaching exp before wandering into a Public School Middle/High teaching setting? |
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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Wow! Great info and thanks for sharing. A few years ago I taught middle schools kids at a hagwon, so I have experience with their behavior, but not so much with the curriculum. My hagwon was very selective, and all of the students were fluent and advanced, so I developed literature, debate, and creative writing classes. I'm hoping I might be able to reuse those lesson plans and fix them to each grade and level. Do you think I might be given the green light to teach these three areas? Obviously I'll have to gauge the levels of my students and see if they could handle them, but I'm wondering if the admin will allow it. I have some awesome lessons on tongue twisters, group creative writing, and acting that my previous students loved!
What about vacation time? Are we given breaks around the time of the school vacation like elementary school?
I'm curious to know if other teachers are given a budget/compensation for teaching materials... |
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n�fara
Joined: 14 Jul 2007
Location: The Island
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| dyc wrote: |
| Don't mean to hijack this thread, but would people w/ Middle/High school experience recommend that a potential teacher have at least a year of teaching exp before wandering into a Public School Middle/High teaching setting? |
I didn't, and it was a bit rough at first as it was more like a "drop you in and hope you can swim" situation with little support. If you do some research beforehand and develop a few lessons that you feel comfortable with it should be ok, though. Probably the most important thing (besides a good lesson) is to have confidence in front of the class of students. For some people that only comes from experience.
Middle school can be a bit tough, especially if the first school you teach at isn't so supportive. So if you have the option of teaching elsewhere first it might be beneficial, but I'm not sure if it's necessary.
| MollyBloom wrote: |
| My hagwon was very selective, and all of the students were fluent and advanced, so I developed literature, debate, and creative writing classes. I'm hoping I might be able to reuse those lesson plans and fix them to each grade and level. Do you think I might be given the green light to teach these three areas? Obviously I'll have to gauge the levels of my students and see if they could handle them, but I'm wondering if the admin will allow it. I have some awesome lessons on tongue twisters, group creative writing, and acting that my previous students loved! |
Vague answer: It depends on your school. Or more likely, your co-teachers and what their expectations are. Some teachers, especially the younger ones, are very enthusiastic about things like debate and creative writing and will be thrilled that you want to do these activities. Other teachers can feel that it is "too hard" for the students and will actively discourage it.
There can be a huge mix of levels in your classes, from students who don't even know the alphabet to those who've studied overseas and are pretty much fluent. The two far extremes are less common but still there can be a wide gap. As long as you can accomodate for this I think your lessons should be pretty fun for them.
| MollyBloom wrote: |
What about vacation time? Are we given breaks around the time of the school vacation like elementary school?
I'm curious to know if other teachers are given a budget/compensation for teaching materials... |
You can schedule your vacation time during winter and summer break, however your school may require you to come when you are not on official leave even if there are no classes.
I don't have a budget for teaching materials, but whenever I've asked for sometime for class I've usually been accommodated. However, my school is currently classified as a "special school" so I think funds are more available. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| n�fara wrote: |
Vague answer: It depends on your school. Or more likely, your co-teachers and what their expectations are. Some teachers, especially the younger ones, are very enthusiastic about things like debate and creative writing and will be thrilled that you want to do these activities. Other teachers can feel that it is "too hard" for the students and will actively discourage it.
There can be a huge mix of levels in your classes, from students who don't even know the alphabet to those who've studied overseas and are pretty much fluent. The two far extremes are less common but still there can be a wide gap. As long as you can accomodate for this I think your lessons should be pretty fun for them. |
Spot on. If your experience is only with advanced middle school hagwon classes, your lessons will require a major rethink.
One more suggestion. I've observed dozens of classes by newish middle school teachers & a common pitfall is thinking a single activity will engage 35 students & sustain a 45-minute period. Nine times out of ten, it will not. Far better to plan 3 or 4 connected but various segments for each lesson. Pacing really matters. |
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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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| Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Concerning the Nat. Curr.: We are creating lessons to compliment the lessons that the homeroom teachers are teaching? Meaning, we are not expected to teach THE book, correct? I have heard this is the homeroom teacher's job.
Also, I am interested in hearing about camp experiences and what to expect.
Thanks everyone for your input!! |
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smartwentcrazy
Joined: 26 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| MollyBloom wrote: |
Concerning the Nat. Curr.: We are creating lessons to compliment the lessons that the homeroom teachers are teaching? Meaning, we are not expected to teach THE book, correct? I have heard this is the homeroom teacher's job.
Also, I am interested in hearing about camp experiences and what to expect.
Thanks everyone for your input!! |
It varies from school to school. One teacher's experience can be completely different from another, which is what I've seen after speaking with several other middle school teachers. Some teachers had the entire semester to make lesson plans that were totally unrelated to the book, while others were asked to strictly follow the guidelines of the book and make lesson plans based on them. I was told to teach out of the book, which included listening, speaking, and vocabulary exercises. You will never know until you start teaching at your own respective school. |
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