Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Wrench]

Well Not sure if any one has these where they work. Unfortunatly I have to bear with this extra in my school. If it wasn't bad enough to have my director sit on my classes, now I have to have 65+ parents sit on my classes. Not only do I have to make the class fun for kids but the parents have to have fun as well (I have no clue why the parents have to have fun). On top of that kids behave like little turds around their parents which makes my job all that much more fun. I have to make a game, sing a song, have the kids say special lines etc.. Where is the Korean teacher puts in a CD with phonics on it and tries to teach phonics, (we all know that Koreans should be barred from teaching phonics, we all know that Zebra is Gebra)

Sigh.. Oh well, at least they pay on time

[zappadelta]

My open class was a lot of fun and I got a lot of praise from it. My principal was there, about 20 teachers from my school, and the other English teachers from the public schools in the area. Just have fun, smile, don't forget anything, and they will love it.

[d503]

Tomorrow and Thursday are my open house days.

THe only rule being that they don't want me to use any of the books I normally teach. I think that is stupid

But We will sing, play a game, dance a little.

We rehearsed this week and some last week

I am crossing my fingers and thinking of sacrificing some sort of Yu-gi-oh or Dakchi thing to the gods for a good preformance.

[plokiju]

I had an open class a couple of weeks ago. We didn't do any of the stuff we usually do either. I was supposed to concentrate on 'fun english' and we did fun little activities instead.

The kids were either much better behaved than usual or were too excited and did a few bad things. I also had a student who'd only been there for 1-2 weeks and he was throwing off the class dynamic. I only had 6 in my class before. I've only been at the school a couple months so I got a few negative comments but it was better than expected. I'm glad I only had 30 minutes worth of mommy time though. I would've been a lot better without them sitting in the back row.

[canukteacher]

Had my third open class a couple of weeks ago. This was with my "new" male co-teacher whose English is crap. This one included principal, VP and teachers.

They loved the class. On the way out the Principal stopped and gave me the thumbs up sign, with a big smile on her face.

BTW............as I've said before in other posts. I don't believe in rehersing for these things. The co-teacher and I reviewed the lesson together several times. We made sure we knew what we each had to do. However, the material was brand new to the kids. This approach has always worked for me. I find the students are more natural and spontaneous, and don't get bored.

CT

[NightSky]

So glad I don't have to have open classes.

[plattwaz]

You've mentioned you have to encourage the parents to have fun as well....a few things that I have done in the past to make my Open Classes more "inclusive" so that the parents weren't just sitting there snapping photos and videotaping the "show" ...

One class I did had my students learning how to express past times (That was last month, that was six months ago, etc) as well as reviewing possessives that they had learned a few weeks earlier (his, her and 's). One of the activities I had them go to ask someone ELSE'S parent "When is your birthday?" Then when they came back to their chair they would say "I spoke to Jenny's mother. HER birthday is in March. That was three months ago." We went through this one at a time and after they answered they would turn to another person and ask "Who did you speak to?"
(I only had 6 or 7 students, but with a bigger class, you could have them go in twos, and say "WE spoke to....." ????)

This also left lots of space for laughs and cute little "kid things" like someone piping up with "THAT's MY MOM! She's 46 yeras old!" when someone talked about another student's mother....the parents actually LOVE that stuff - or at least mine did...

The other thing that I do is photocopy the lyrics to the song we will be singing and glue them onto nice coloured paper. I add a few pictures and decorations including the date, school name, "Welcome to Our Open Class"etc, and photocopy the students signatures around the outside edge. I put one on each chair and then when it is time to sing, I invite the parents to sing with us -- it adds a few voices and the kids aren't as shy. Plus, it leaves a nice little souvenir for them at the end of the day.

Good luck -- and honestly, it won't be nearly as bad as you think it will be. The parents WILL be happy, and if they aren't, it's most likely that they are unhappy with their child and not with you.

[I_Am_Wrong]

My first open class was last October. Many of the teachers from my school along with the principal and vice principal were watching. In addition, there were about 30 other school principals and English teachers from Gyeonggi Province and an official from the Gyeonggi Ministry of Education. It was incredibly nerve racking to have that many people outside and inside the classroom. Lots of people were taking pictures and they were video recording it. The students I teach are absolutely rad, my former co-teacher was the best ever and our open class was an incredible hit. Later in the evening the Principal and Vice Principal took me out for dinner, got me wasted, and hooked me up with a private. haha.

[Derrek]

Has anyone ever heard of one of these going bad? I've done two now, and both went off well.

[jajdude]

I've got some of those coming up in July/August. They asked me if I have any ideas. I don't know. Maybe let the parents teach? I figure a regular follow the book, play a game, do a puzzle or whatever?

but I suppose they are designed to impress, and attract more money for the boss.

Personally I don't give a crap if they go well or not. Some classes do, some don't.

[bourquetheman]

Last year I had an open class for the high school that I teach at. Kyonggi officials, teachers, etc. were there. My co-worker (Korean) and I were supposed to demonstrate our "team teaching" which we did and the lesson went over very well, high praise and everyone was happy.
This year I have a new co-teacher and while her English isn't as good I thought we could still pull it off. She had many grandiose ideas but they just weren't practical so literally a few days before I suggested we use the same formula (obviously not the same lesson) as last years which went over well. I guess playing it safe was not such a great idea as the judges thought the lesson was good but they were expecting something more. It amazed me how the year before (with different judges) the formula was highly praised but this time basically they thought it mediocre.
One thing I'd like to ask everyone who's working at a high school, how do YOU team teach? The concept sounds great but how do you put it to practical use? So far I lead the lesson, and have the Korean teacher help me model the conversations, perhaps explain some vocabulary, etc. One of the judges said to me in private that he was surprised that the KOREAN teacher wasn't the "main" teacher in our lesson. I expalined that the students see her 3 times a week but me only once, therefore they should get as much exposure to me as they can. Any suggestions on team teaching folks? I'd actually like to attend a workshop on team teaching but last year's Kotesol conference I don't remember there being one.

[casey's moon]

I have one of these babies tomorrow -- or actually 18 of them. I usually have 9 classes aday, but all classes will be split in half tomorrow. It's going to be nuts, I tell you, nuts.

I agree with CT who mentioned having new material for the classes -- but I think I'm going to introduce the material today anyway, because that is what my supervisor asked me to do. However, I'll try to keep one or two little details out for now. Something should be new tomorrow. The fact that the student number will be reduced to half should have some effect on how the kids behave, but I wonder if it will be more positive or negative.... hard to say at this point.

I also wonder how I'm going to be able to keep my voice for 18 classes!!!

BTW, the original inclination of the director was to make this into some sort of crazy performance class, like teaching fruit by making fruit salad. I convinced her that it was too hokey and nothing like what we normally do -- and that I could do a much better job just teaching.

Truth be known, after making 10 or so fruit salads in one day, chances were I'd mess up and cut off a finger some time during the last 8!

[crazylemongirl]

[jajdude]

18 classes in one day? 15 minutes each I hope.

[hari seldon]

Prep the students and yourself to make a good sales pitch.