Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SweetBear]

What do you do to keep lighthearted, especially when you're teaching boring books? I don't mean activites or games, I mean goofing around.
I ask this because my fellow Korean teacher and I are at our wits end with a middle school class. They are miserable, the book is boring, games are boring, everything is, well, boring to them except talking to each other or using their cell phones. Need to lighten things up a little.
Thanks,
Sb

[discostar23]

I use pop songs. I bring them in some tune they would know (like britney spears etc) and we study the lyrics. as long as its got a good beat usuallu keeps the kids entertained

[peppermint]

try working in ten minutes of freetalking once in a while. Ask them about moviesand things

[SweetBear]

Thanks for your suggestions. Just to be clear, I'm looking for goofy, amusing slap- stick type stuff. Ideas like the ones you mentioned have been tried and failed. I do have to stick to the book too. Appreciate it anyhow and will keep it in mind.

[Michelle]

It sounds outdated I know, but see if you can find some basic scripts for funny fairytales, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes or anything they might be able to act out while being funny. Add some slapstick ideas once you have a general idea of the skit or short play.

You might have to come up with some sort of example to spur on the creativity a bit.

Try something they can relate to.

One guy I know had the student making up roleplays. He gave them a topic about Miss Korea, now high and mighty, embarassingly running into her pre Miss Korea boyfriend, while with her new boyfriend.

To his surprise, one of the student groups made the Professor the old boyfriend and took him off!

If you think this is silly, it might be but I once had an adult group take a comical Red Riding Hood skit on for a christmas concert by choice. and do it all themselves. It was hilarious!

[Zyzyfer]

This seems to be one of the things that I've picked up successfully during my time here. I know how to connect with students.

Crack some jokes. I'm not talking "The horse walked into a bar" stuff, but poke fun at the book, at yourself, even at the students (if they seem receptive enough to handle jokes). I'll freely admit to my students that a boring lesson awaits them.

This, of course, is also dependant on how willing your students are to look at you as a real comic entity. If they've set it in their hearts that you're not amusing, that's a hard sentiment to change. At my school, I'm getting along with all of my students from my classes, except those from my first class in the morning...this was the first class I had taught in four months, and I missed the boat for warming them up to me.

[katydid]

I don't feel like a circus monkey or anything in class, but I do know I have to hold my students interest. All 40 of them. So I have been known to draw silly pictures on the board, tell horrible jokes, throw in random non sequiturs, make weird faces. It's all related to the lesson at hand of course. If I "discpline" a student in class, it's usually done good naturedly. I teach the same lesson over and over 10 times a week, so I try to have fun with it myself.

I think my students think I'm a mixture of nice and odd.

[osangrl]

I stick board markers up my nose. They love it, then chase them around with it.

[schwa]

I dont think acting goofy is the answer -- it could have the opposite effect of reducing their respect for you.

But consistent good humor, yes. Be cheerful -- enter with a smile & do your best to maintain it. Joke, banter, tease.

Start each class with the most basic questions imaginable, involving answers they mastered in elementary school & can respond to without thinking. It helps their confidence. Their spontaneous production level is nowhere near whatever youre studying in the text.

Ask about their day at school. What subjects did you study? What did you learn in history today? What did you do in PE? Who's your favorite teacher? Why? Who's your worst teacher? -- that last one's almost guaranteed to get some english out of your most obstinate students. These kids dont have much life outside of school so a lot of their thoughts revolve around it.

Ask each kid the same question. Choose a better student to go first & the others have time to think of something to say. Ask an easy follow-up question or two or just drop it & move on if the student seems flustered.

Silly running jokes can help lighten the mood. I frequently ask my students "Why?" in unexpected situations (eg How's the weather? Its sunny and hot. Why?) & it always gets a laugh & sometimes they try to answer too. Nice try is my standard response to a wrong answer -- they appreciate the irony, & embarrassment is replaced with amusement. I suppose I have a dozen other mannerisms that give the kids a sense of what to expect in class from me. I think it helps reassure them that we're getting through the class hour without too much pain or stress.

Try to show some interest in each of them as individuals. If you can coax a bit of personal or family information out of them, bring it up again in subsequent classes. If they sense you care, they might start to care too. It might help to be a little forthcoming about what you do outside the classroom too (simple things they can relate to) to humanize their view of you a bit.

Buy them icecream once in a while, for no special reason. They do respond to kindness.

Theres some small ideas off the top of my head, maybe something useful for you.









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[Toby]

Juggle.

[Paula May]

When I had first started teaching my middle schoolers, I was having the same problem that you were Sweetbear, so I tried using more humour in the classroom. Exagerated voices when reading, trying to act out scences, using sarcasm about the situations in the book, if it was questions that they had to answer, pretending to be a news reporter etc. After a while, they started enjoying the class and became more engaged in the material. If I got my students to enjoy a class, I considered it a good day!

Good luck with your classroom!

[schwa]

[Crois]

Just by being me.

[mog]

Not surprised Crois.

I got a laugh doing a bad Dracula impersonation, especially the "Blahhhhhhhh." Maybe it sounded too close to "Blehhhhhh."

[waggo]

Try having slow motion fights with them.