Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ch1can3]

I'm a green gills newbie. No experience/TEFL and i'm really struggling. My co teachers have been riding my ass for sucking at this job, and I really need some simple advice. I'm teaching at a high school, and they gave me a bunch of books, but no clear goals. Some teachers say my topics are too simple, and others too hard. They say that because the korean students can read so well and understand high level stuff, I need to be teaching it. But my students can barely form a sentence! I thought I was supposed to teach conversational English, stuff you can use, you know? Am I doing something wrong? Anyone have any ideas? They told me to create a good curriculum or I'm fired. I've only been here a week and a half to boot. I'm through EPIK.

[Ramen]

[Fishead soup]

MOD EDIT Also find out why your classes suck. There's a good chance you are making simple mistakes and a seasoned veteran would spot. Try to get another foreigner to observe you teach someone who's been around. I would also suggest using the material from Andrew Finch" Tell Me More". Put your students into groups have them move their desks together so you can get groupwork happening. I would also suggest using 'Interchange . I would also suggest making lots of powerpoints that have pictures of famouse celebrities like 2NE1 and Girls Generation. This kind of stuff really gets the students attention.

If most of your problems are related to discipline and classroom management . Find the biggest instigators and take them to the teachers staff room. They will get beated but in future they will think twice about goofing off in your class. I've even resorted once to dragging a kid into the teachers staff room. Respect is very important in this country and either you have it. Or you don't. If you have it it's very hard to lose it. If you don't have it it's very hard to gain it.

Don't always rely on your co-teacher some of them quite simply don't want us here. You have to step up to the plate and empower yourself. If you want respect you have to gain it. There are students in every class that really want to learn. You can use them to gain control of the class.

[Busanjon]

I feel ya big time OP. I've been here only 4 days. My Co-teachers are REALLY trying to help me. I have 4 total... I have to make lessons for 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and a Parents class

It's really confusing because they are all different skill levels... some of the lessons I make are way too simple... othert are too hard. I can't figure it out. It's also so many lessons. I don't have internet at home so I can't really work on my lessons outside of school. I'm kind of going crazy. I'm lucky I'm at a good school.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Hit the net...

Sift through websites that offer lesson plans, lesson ideas, sample learning activities, classroom management techiniques.

These days there are tons of these online resources and they are free to boot!

You need to bear down and research so you can get some factual information that can help you be a better teacher. Talk to your co-teachers about this or to more experienced foreign english teacher.

The ball is in your court.

It is normal to feel lost because you seem to have zero experience and zero training as a teacher and teaching is a pretty demanding job.

Focus on activities for multi-level classes, there are tons of those on ESL-TEFL dedicated sites.

[shifty]

OP, you have to find out how to cross-drill...post haste.

[teedram]

What skill do the co-teachers and school want you to focus on?

I'll guess that your students can read and write well, and you're there to help them with their listening/speaking skills. If that's the case, you can try having the students pair up and practice simple dialogue. Explain to them their scenario, use a power point so they can follow what you're saying, and the co-teacher can further explain or translate. Or you can come up with role play exercises based on a topic, from a textbook for instance.

I would create a lesson based on something students can relate to and be interested in. My high school students are eager to drive, so one of my lessons focused on driving, transportation, safety. Another one is shopping. I like for my students to practice phrases they can use in real life.

[Illysook]

I've been struggling with largely the same thing for most of this year, plus I've had 4 different bosses in 10 months. Do your best, try not to make too many waves, and they will settle down eventually.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

It's kind of hard to comment when I don't know exactly what you're doing... but could it be that you're not focused enough? Usually if you're either too hard or too easy, then you're not focused...

[ch1can3]

OP here. My classes are seemingly all mixed levels throughout all the grades. I know I should be teaching harder material to grade 3, and easier material to grade 1, but they all seem to be about the same level, and then they are split in half again in each grade by academic track or vocational track. Generally the academic track is quite decent, but the vocational students just want to sleep.

The website you provided is great, and I'm definitely going to use it. Should I make separate lessons for each grade level, or just one lesson for all? I'm not lazy or anything, god knows I've been trying to figure out what the problem is since I've got here, and I put in extra time at my desk so I'm not distracted.

If it helps, I'm in a really rural area, so I'm having trouble judging language levels. Their vocab is fine, but they are incapable of forming sentences, or just don't want to. They use Korean grammar with english words, basically. No articles or concrete phrases either. All of my classes are kind of like this. My co-teachers kind of just shrug when I ask for help too.

[Fishead soup]

[ch1can3]

I need to research a curriculum, and to do that I need to find out what the end goal these teachers have for their students are, right? What do they want me to accomplish? Then I can iron out a curriculum, but my question for you guys is whether or not you generally use basic conversation topics (shopping, etc) or complex dialogs about textbook stories or something.


Also, to the guy who has only been here 4 weeks, if you have some time, maybe we could chat and try and figure this out together.

[methdxman]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

[Auslegung]

OP, I know exactly what you're talking about when you say they can read and write well, but can't speak a sentence to save their life. English words + Korean grammar = me, yelling at children. Asians try to learn language like they try to learn all subjects--brute memorization. In short, you can't memorize a language, so they tend to grasp English on an academic level, but never move much beyond that. I have a friend who was in America from 7th grade through college, went back to Korea only a handful of times, and still has an accent and makes regular mistakes.

If you try to catch them up on what you and I feel they're lacking (i.e. real application of speaking), the other teachers will think you're trying to teach them something they've already learned, and that you're wasting time and resources. But trying to decide what they "need" in the other teachers' eyes is hard because you know what the kids truly need, but you're wrong, of course

In a perfect world I'd say keep on trying to teach them what they lack, regardless, and drill it in to them every moment of every day, hard and fast, so that they improve quickly enough that you won't get fired.

One thing that even my 1st graders could do was to fix a jumbled-up sentence. Try that with a few useful sentences that you feel they might screw up in a real-world situation, then immediately after that have a few act out a short scene that can use those sentences, or something similar.

It's going to be a tough decision, but I agree with the others who have suggested you communicate well with the other teachers and make sure you partner with them. Good luck.