Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

A few weeks ago I was talking about what to do with a class of 4 very happy 11-year-old girls. I decided to get them to make sock puppets, write a play, and then perform the play on video.

It's pretty low res. I used my web cam to tape it. The lighting sucks and the sound sucks. But it's the thought that counts. They had fun. I think. I was rushing to get done before the end of the semester. I had only three classes to do it (class 1: make puppets, class 2: write play, class 3: set up and perform two plays). If I had more time, I'd have done a better version, hunted around for a friend with a digital cam corder, better lighting, better sound, and make them practice their lines more�� I think I end up making it seem like I'm long on clever lesson planning, short on actually teaching English speaking.

Anyway, the videos can be found here:

http://www.geocities.com/sockpuppetkr/

I stress again these are 11-year-old girls, so anyone looking for spank material go hound that guy who was video taping students from his all girls high school dancing with fire back a couple months ago.

I edited it with Movie Maker 2, a not half bad freeware tool from Microsoft. I burned each a copy of their plays on CD so they can haul them back to their parents.

The site itself is pretty minimal. Next week I'm going to doll it up a bit.

[ryleeys]

Very cute... good activity... good job man.

[jaderedux]

That was so cute. Good job! Good thinking!

Props! Nice to see someone out there taking interest in their students and making an effort to make "learning" fun.

Jade

[lush72]

Bravo!

That was cool-

[JongnoGuru]

I've never had any experience or interest (or ability, most likely) in teaching English. Happy with my own career, income and life. Not that it was ever a consideration, but I'd never trade it all to be a teacher -- of any subject, in any country, for any salary.

I've read a lot of utter horror stories from ESL teachers here in Dave's Cafe, and they've only reinforced my opinion. I've read some posters say things like, "I loathe my school, and I REALLY hate my director, and so I'm leaving. But I truly love my students (some of them anyway!) and I that's what I'll miss most about Korea."

A foreign friend once told me, apropos of I can't remember what, that should anything happen to the parents of two of his two private-lesson pupils, rather than see them hauled off to an orphanage, he'd find some way to take care of them if no family member stepped forward. Believe me, this guy did NOT have what you might call a famously charitable streak, or even a soft heart about kids in general. Not at all. (Nor was he "closet pervert" material, so don't even think about going there )

I confess I didn't credit those comments much... I guess I saw it as a cheap ploy to deflect criticism that the teachers were money-grubbing, heartless and self-serving. (Please, that's not my criticism... it's just what I thought the teachers were trying to defend themselves against by claiming to really love & care about their students)

These two little videos are the first time in a long time that I've seen Korean children using English in some way other than screaming "hello's" at the backs of passing foreigners (me included) and other unprovoked forms of verbal harrassment. And I've never seen Korean children in a classroom setting before, other than on TV news or dramas. Yes, I know they're being unusually well-behaved in the videos, and what? --- we're only seeing 4 of them... what's the rest of the class like?

But having watched these short clips, I am now beginning to understand and believe what the posters and my friend were saying. These kids are adorable. So why is it they all grow up into such odious, hideous, unreconstructed... (joking!! )

I'm not the sappy sentimental type. But this classroom effort has gone some ways toward restoring my faith in Korea's children and, to an extent, my hopes for Korea's future. I also wish to say that I consider people like the OP to be my new heroes.

The Guru

[katydid]

Awwwww...this was so cute! What a great idea! Your girls look very bright and fun to teach.

[Alyallen]

Hey mindmetoo!

Your students did such a good job with the sock puppets. It was worth the 20 minutes it took to download and view it (Stupid 56k modem )

Kudos to you and your students!

AlyAllen

[mindmetoo]

Thanks for your kind comments. Hope the parents appreciate my hours of effort

I can just see some being chearleader moms... why didn't my daughter get more lines