Korean Job Discussion Forums

TECO · Joined: 20 Jan 2003

Beaver,

I talked to a senior teacher I work with about this.

We both agreed that no matter what your paper qualifications are - attitude it most important.

We've had terrible PhD holders who can't teacher / don't even want to teach and don't use much of what they have even learned. They are lazy and look for the easy way out. On the other hand, we have M.A. holders who are great teachers.

A teacher has to have the right personality for the job. Teachers need to be flexibile, empathetic, have a sense of humour and also be patient among many other things.

If I thought about all of the roles that I have played in my classes during a semester, these come to mind: I need to be a cop, counsellor and a judge. I also need to be an academic and a helpful colleague who participates in several faculty meetings each semester and conducts research in a 'publish or perish' environment.

I also try to promote responsibility, caring and honesty in my classrooms. I always try to be a good role model.

I'm not perfect but I do my best to serve my students well and do what is best for them.

There's always room for improvement, though.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

I'm really trying to find ways to make students think English is fun. I do that by increasingly ignoring the textbook and focusing on real life. I want to help the kids get friends around the world and study the different countries of the world, so they will get excited and find motivation to learn English for their own non-exam purposes. But... I'm inexperienced and I'll admit I'm over my head. I have no idea how to introduce THE WORLD into the elementary curriculum.

peppermint · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:44 pm Post subject:

Bring in photos and souvenirs and even money from your home country or places you've travelled. If they've travelled anywhere, ask them to do the same. I brought in a 20$ bill from Canada a couple of weeks ago, now all my students know that Queen Elizabeth looks like their grandma or that's what they kept telling me. Razz

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

peppermint · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject:

Hard to say, but I regularly get airmail from the east coast of Canada in about a week. Tips for your family:

print, don't write the address, lots of Koreans fiind handwriting really difficult to read.
- have them write the address in Korean style ( from country to house address instead of western style with street address first)

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

The Man known as The Man · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:09 pm Post subject:

TECO · Joined: 20 Jan 2003

Tech is important, for sure.

But it'll never replace a good 'classroom' instructor.

ninjamonkey · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:46 pm Post subject:

Hanson · Joined: 20 Oct 2004

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

canukteacher · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul, Korea

It's strange to see this post here today. I have just been thinking about what I can do next to strengthen what I bring to the job. I have finished my Masters, and have relaxed for a few months. I am ready to add to my skills.

I have been thinking about improving my multi-media skills. I'm not sure I even have any skills in that area (haha). I can use a computer, not a problem. However, I don't know much about some of the fancier programs (not sure if that is the right word or not). Some posters here are saying that being tech savy is important, some say it is not. I guess it is really a matter of personal preference.

I am leaning towards the "multi-media skills" are important "camp". For the posters here who have strong skills in this area how do you recommend someone goes about learning these skills, and which programs do you use and like?

Thanks in advance.

CT

SuperHero · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout

I don't necessarily think they are "important" but I do think they can be an asset especially since so many teachers are technically challenged.

I would highly recommend getting familiar with audacity as you will easily be able to make audio clips (mp3) from audio books, movies, and other media to use with your students. audacity is relatively easy to use. The only thing I do with it, is change sample rates, cut and splice and export as mp3.

I would also recommend getting away from MSword when making handouts. It's clunky and never lets you layout things the way you want it to look. The program of choice here is Microsoft Publisher. It's easy to use and has a large number of templates that allow you to easily make slick looking handouts. It additionally has a color scheme thing that helps you choose complementary colors. This is very useful if you are color incompetent as I am.

If you want to make some slick graphircs for your handouts rather than relying on wordart then you need to learn a photo editing program such as photoshop. If you cannot afford photoshop and are not into piracy you may want to check out gimp..

If you are really keen and have the equipment and resources you might want to get into video editing to make some exercises for your students based on movies, trailers, or TV shows. Adobe Premiere or Pinnacle are good editors but expensive. There is an opensource (re: free) alternative that I havne't yet tried Jahshaka.

Finally you may also look into expanding your classroom with a web presence. Moodle allows you to run a virtual classroom with forums, chats, quizzes, assignments, downloads and more in a secure environment. It's also free. All you need is a good web host. I recommend Site5.com, which I use to run 4 web sites. If you have any questions about hosting or setting up a website feel free to pm me. I've done paid work for several teachers in Korea setting up blogs and moodle installations.

If I think of more, I'll post later.