Korean Job Discussion Forums

[eid]

I see a lot of positions at Hagwons where you teach both Kinder and elementary level students. Could those teachers who teach the former share a few of their experiences of this, good and bad points please?

Thanks,
eid

[Hotpants]

The younger the age group, the more energy you will consume. You do a lot more TPR and physical handling of the students to get them into position and help them hold things, etc. Teaching kindy is more about how to keep their attention span (maybe true of all age groups!), permanently speaking in silly voices, singing lots of songs, turning everything into play or games. It's fun if you like really young children and don't mind the odd wet diaper, runny noses, tears, and over-anxious parents. Bear in mind, though, that kindy experience will count for little when applying for other jobs later on.

[tardisrider]

It's a lot like teaching kindergarten, but without all the pesky spelling exercises.

[iggyb]

Class size is very important when they are that young. More important than other ages. A class of 25 3rd graders is very different from 25 of kindy.

The keys, at least to me: High energy, shorter activities, keep em busy and keep it moving, be prepared and structured - even if that means they are running around - as long as it is under your prepared direction...Walk in without confidence or a game plan, and it can be painful...

Energy is important. I avoided teaching kids when I first went to Korea. I eventually had to cave in, but it was a nice surprise. You can have fun with kids. You can have fun with kindy --- unless you naturally don't like children. I always liked kids, but I didn't want to control a classroom full of them. I'm glad I gave it a shot.

But I couldn't do kindy now. I couldn't do a full class of regular elementary in the US for more than a year. It takes too much energy and it takes the right fit to do it year after year. I'm a secondary school teacher by nature...and I'm too old (41) and too low on patience to do kindy for even a month now.

But kindy for a year can be fun or at least tolerable if you aren't kiddy-phobic.

Plan on shorter activities. Keep them busy and keep them moving. Again, the difference here between kindy and even lower elementary is sizable.

Planning ahead is also more vital. Maybe if you have a few years experience at this level, you can naturally adjust to them day to day without it being painful, but it really helps to feel confident with what you are doing...

...and to keep the class structured and moving along.

Their low level of English makes this important too.

Survival and low beginner English can be easier to teach in some ways - because everything is new to them - and even the most common items that are boring to other levels is useful at the lowest level.

It is a little different for kindy, though. You can keep the attention of 3rd graders when doing basic role-play and such. It gets harder to do that the younger they get. They are more antsy and harder to control like that.

The fact they can't read at that age - much less their level - also hinders doing things you could do well with 3rd graders...

I've had a lot of luck with phonics at that age. Very simple stuff. Just getting them use to putting sounds with characters. It's early reading, but it also connects with basic vocabulary, and you can make a lot of simple games that are fun and useful.

But in general, some kind of hand's on craft tied to the ESL learning is good with them. Keep them busy. Keep their hands and minds occupied.

Whole class mimicing and Total Physical Response works best with them than with other ages - though it works with other too.

[iggyb]

Like someone noted above, exaggerated bodylanguage and humor a long way - and it makes the work fun for you too.

My younger students (and lower level classes) sometimes called me Mr. Bean.

The think I like best about the younger kids is, they don't naturally reject the idea of learning like you start getting around 4th or 5th grade.

If you put fun into it, the little ones will do whatever you say. If the learning activity is enjoyable, they don't care or even notice that they are learning --- they don't realize that an activity is really a drilling exercise...

[northway]

I enjoyed my time teaching kindy. That said, believe it or not, this question gets asked pretty frequently. Follow the link for a wealth of threads on the topic: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=esl+cafe+kindergarten+thread. Alternatively:

[iggyb]

Also, signup and checkout waygook.org - the other Korea-related TESOL place. There is much less snipeing at each other over there and a lot more collaboration.

You can find people sharing activity plans.

If you teach in a Korean public school, you can find specific activities for the commonly used textbooks.

You have to register and login to see the download links in posts for material people are sharing.

[Skippy]

For some people, they like or love Kindergarten students. Me, hell on Earth. I can do Elementary and Up. Kindy would result in deaths.

[soomin]

Like the others said, HIGH ENERGY! The hours are a lot longer, but the pay is better.

I worked at a kindergarten and the kids were okay for the most part~ Unfortunately, parents are really protective of their kids and will call and complain and such at the slightest provocation. We had one teacher who would scream at the students until they cried, and he did this every day. Because of him, they made a "no emotions other than happiness" policy and took away any kind of punishment or reward systems. Students ran around, fought, slept, and so on, but no one was allowed to say "don't do that" or even to frown. This attitude is getting more and more widespread, so if you end up in a situation like that, get ready. You will be super-drained at the end of the day. You will also need to teach a variety of subjects, like math and science. Teaching math to students with no math ability is hard... but then teaching it in a foreign language? Mind-numbing. There were also a lot of game and fun activity classes, but as the main foreign teacher, I wasn't allowed to teach any of those... There were also field trips, but I almost never got to go on those because they had me sit alone in the building and make worksheets and such at that time... Add to that some bad coworkers and... *sigh* Also, forget breaks... I've heard people say they didn't get many breaks, and know from experience that I got 0 breaks. Lunch time was "force-feed the children" time and I ended up getting a kind of 20 minute break during lunch after complaining about not having any break times...

If you get in a good situation, are an early-riser, love kids, and have tons of energy and patience (yay!) then you can do it and potentially thrive! If not... get ready for a bad experience.

[iggyb]

Dealing with the outside of class issues is a whole different thing and common in any of them - maybe more so do to the age of the kids.

I got to teach all levels in Korea, and I am now certified to teach K-12 ESL back home in the US, and I've taught middle and high school in the US.

It is interesting how the system does match development and personality:

I've known good elementary school teachers who freely admit they couldn't handle kindy as a career. Most high school teachers couldn't do elementary and vice versa. And I can see why they have different programs for 1st-3rd and 4th-6th.

For a year or two in a typical Korean ESL setting, most people can do any age - unless you already know you really don't like children.

But if you stay at it longterm, you come to see that you have a calling for one age group or another...

The good thing about ESL where I live in the US is that class size is limited by law - 11 max. So I can readily do K-12. I can handle any age with such a small class size, but I'm definately a high school teacher of a regular class...

[Skippy]

[furtakk]

kindergarten would be much more manageable here if it wasn't paired with afternoon elementary which nearly all kindy schools are. i prefer younger kids. happy/lots of energy beats horrible attitudes/exhaustion from middle schoolers.

[northway]

[thunderbird]

It can b horrible, some of the kids can total hellians everyday but the good thing is the parents r totally clueless. just make friends w/ them n u cant go wrong plus some of the mums r seriously hot

[sml7285]