Korean Job Discussion Forums

Blanca · Joined: 19 Apr 2012

During the next couple of weeks, my middle school students are being consumed with thoughts of their midterm exams. This has some advantages (like having a half-day off yesterday because they were all at home revising) but some disadvantages (like having half a class at a time when the others have an exam looming).

My question is, when faced with a half class who have a test coming up, is it a good idea to just let them study for it (only study English though, obviously)? It seems a bit daft to go through what we're supposed to be going through in the book with half the class at such a time, especially when the schedule is so disrupted you'll end up redoing it at least twice more over the next couple of weeks. Even the boss has said not to bother moving onto a new book with one class until after exams. Then again I feel a bit guilty sitting a reading my book for 50 minutes when I've got a room with half a dozen students in it. The other day I put Toy Story on for 20 minutes and was looking over my shoulder the whole time in case I was doing something I shouldn't.

Advice please, I'm fairly new to this game. If it helps, I'm in a hagwon (a half-decent one), not public school.

litebear · Joined: 12 Sep 2009 Location: Holland

Skipperoo · Joined: 05 Jul 2010

soyoungmikey · Joined: 29 Jun 2009

Or make a lesson covering their mid-term material and help them review

luckylady · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Location: u.s. of occupied territories

also agree with the above posters and if it really is a half-decent hakwon, your dir might have some suggestions as well if you dare to ask (ok if not tho)

this will be a common event throughout the year, btw.

warmachinenkorea · Joined: 12 Oct 2008

If his kids come from different schools then they might have different text books. Making a lesson, for their mid-term, from scratch might be harder than you think.

Just make something for the kids that show up and go back to the other stuff when you get the full class.

soomin · Joined: 18 Jun 2009 Location: Daegu

You should really direct this question to your head teacher or your boss. I've had my boss tell me "You're not teaching this class because they're going to study for exams" tons of times, and I've had students complain because I didn't let them study for exams... I even had my boss give me a lecture for giving homework during exam periods

This is especially true for smaller hagwons... if the kids are happy, the parents keep paying. Just do what the boss wants and don't care about what anyone else says, imho

Zackback · Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: Kyungbuk

I would do what you originally did.
I've done it before and if given the chance will do it again.
I just let them do whatever they wanted. No problems.

YTMND · Joined: 16 Jan 2012 Location: You're the man now dog!!

If you are teaching the same students when they are divided, you can keep track of what you teach. If it is just a random group of students with maybe a few regulars, then you will have to make 2 types of lessons.

The first one is easy, just record online or in a book what you teach. You will want to continue in some order. Do lessons in sets of 3 or so. For the other situation which happens regardless, make sure to teach something new to the good students so they don't complain, and then organize your lessons in separate levels for the other students. Work your way up. If they answer level 1, move on to 2 and so forth.

jamasian · Joined: 01 May 2011

Even though they all have different schools and possibly textbooks, they are essentially learning the same things. Take a look at waygook.org and you can find out what phrases or situations they've been learning and make up review lessons based on that. This way your class isn't useless to them or leaving you feeling like you're doing a bad thing. As most exams should be finishing up I'd say try this out next time.

You could even have done a review of what you have been teaching them so far. Either way if it's all done in English it should be helpful.

ssuprnova · Joined: 17 Dec 2010 Location: Saigon

The way it works at hagwons: you get around two weeks of half-days during exam prep period. My students don't even show up during that time, so I've had a few really relaxed weeks. Don't worry about teaching them anything during this time. They'll only see it as a distraction from what's really important (i.e., midterms). Read some books, leave work early, enjoy the spring weather, etc.

That was the good news.

The bad news is that if you're in a hagwon, you'll probably be stuck doing intensives. This means working like an animal for around a month, twice a year.