Korean Job Discussion Forums

[young_clinton]

[watergirl]

Hey Young Clinton…how about providing some nice and 'helpful' answers..guess this board is different from real interaction (face to face) where you can get cues to whether your behaviour is just mean.

[young_clinton]

What is it with these posters that address you with your webname, when no other posters use quotes to address specific issues?

[World Traveler]

Young_Clinton, you are mostly a jerk on this board. Why all the insults? Try to say stuff that is insightful and helpful to others from now on.

[young_clinton]

[Milwaukiedave]

OP, can you give us an update on how you are doing? Hope things have gotten better!

[wanthony]

Curious about the update! Gotta DYB and do your best :p

[robbie_davies]

[Stain]

[young_clinton]

[jadepea]

To @milwaukiedave and @wanthony,

Things have gotten much, much better. I've come to realize that kindergarteners are kindergarteners, and they don't want to (and shouldn't) be studious all the time. In terms of their actual studiousness, though, that has improved. I feel like my whole disaster mode was a combination of the kids not knowing me, my not knowing them, my overall sense of overwhelm from moving halfway across the globe to a new place etc., being thrown into teaching with no experience, the vagueness in terms of what my director expected from me, my overly high expectations of myself and of my kids, my lack of familiarity with the curriculum and so on.

For the kindergarteners, I've since adopted sticker sheets and putting the word GAME on the board and erasing a letter each time a student does something unacceptable. These two things have worked pretty well. I also really like my kids, and they seem to quite like me, and I think that does wonders for discipline, as well as classroom environment in general.

For the elementary and middles, I've explained and reiterated clear rules and consequences for breaking them, and stuck to them, as well as using the same GAME thing for the younger elems. Most of these classes are pretty good, but I do have trouble with motivation on their part, and they usually aren't interested in doing bookwork. But again, I really like my students and they're funny and interesting, and they seem interested in me too, so that helps a lot.

That said, I do have one elementary class that is still nearly uncontrollable. They can be rude and disrespectful to a degree I still have trouble believing. They never stop talking to each other, even when I am trying to teach them something or say anything at all, which I find incredibly rude. They treat the consequences for breaking rules like a joke, they treat everything like a joke and they're just unruly. It's very difficult to get them to do their book work, and some days I really can feel my patience running out with them. They are really, really good about speaking English throughout the whole class though, even when talking to each other and even though their English is still broken. We have some great discussion classes because they are curious and interested in lots of things and are interesting kids. And while it bothers the hell out of me that they never stop talking to each other during times when they should be listening, I'm grateful that they're at least speaking English. They also are always joking and laughing, and I mean laughing HARD, which is actually a great thing.

So yeah, things are going much, much better. I still feel like not really a good teacher, or barely like a teacher at all, but I've adjusted a lot. Being prepared has helped a lot, too. I can never be prepared enough or teach that well because with 10 totally different classes, I don't have time to lesson plan, which I think would help immensely. But I do spend part of my Sundays prepping for the next week, and this at least is something. I'm also trying to get better at improvising. Anyway, yeah, thank you two for asking!

[schwa]

Nice post, jadepea! You're figuring it out. Yeh, it takes time, trial & error, & a bit of determination, which it seems you've got. Best wishes going forward.

[LPKSA]

Next time you want to have a cry, have a laugh instead. Laugh at the absurdity of it all. Laugh at the situation you are in. Laugh at the students, their parents, the administration of the school in which you are working. It's not worth shedding a tear. They are having fun (the students) and the don't want to do what you tell them to do. Laugh at them. You might get more respect out of them in the process.

[Snowkr]

OP

Maybe a bit late to be responding to this, but I agree with the other poster or posters who suggested that this type of work is probably not for you. I had an incident in China during my very first ever EFL stint where a student said something so disgusting and disrespectful, I wanted to cry. I didn't- but I never taught his class again.

What I learned from this? I am not cut out to teach spoiled Chinese middle school boys in a private language school franchise. I left that school less than a month later and ended up in Korea at a wonderful hogwan where the children were excellent. Had they behaved like some of the Chinese students I'd dealt with, I would have left that job too.

Maybe you'd be happier working with adults? Have you considered this?

[bmaw01]

It gets better. My suggestion would be to go online and view the many youtube teacher videos that are out there. We are very fortunate because we have so many resources now.

Good luck.