Korean Job Discussion Forums

[moptop]

The high school where I work has once again decided to divide the students by ability (WHY?!?!?!?WHY?!?!?!?) according to their mid-term scores.

I have just experienced the nightmare that will be my wednesday afternoon class. Thirty-six, don't wanna be there, zombie/hyperactive (take your pick), don't know the alphabet, male english-haters. All my students are low level but this is ridiculous.

The teacher is no help, just sits there smirking and drinking her coffee. DVDs are not an option at my school unless the teacher is dying from some sickness, because GOD FORBID you should be at home to not spread germs, or resting and trying to recover from your cold. These kids don't want to participate, learn, or try anything english. I have a lotto system in place for motivation for other classes, but I don't think this will work here.

Please help! What can I do with these high school kids for 50 minutes!?!?!? Last class they started chanting DVD! DVD! DVD! I thought I was going to lose it! I need to do something that looks non-educational, smells non-eduacational, and tastes non-educational, but that is acceptable to my "academic" school. Wha, wha, what?

[crazylemongirl]

There are presumably some advanatages to this. you only have to deal witht hem in one class and not spread out all over the place. But the problem now is they have a red mark and neither the teacher nor them give a crap.

Word finds, x words (make em really easy), popular songs that they'll like, can make a difference.

But I'm presuming that you haven't been there all that long. Boys won't instantly like you, nor will they instantly give you respect. You've got to be meaner than a snake to get that. All my boys' favorite teachers are the ones that hit them all the time. However I've noticed that my 'monster classes' have gone down drastically in number once I taught a year. I was seen as more a real teacher by them.

Do you get any test questions? This makes a HUGE difference.

Teaching guys is an Art. Being mean is imporant.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

What is this class going to be doing with English, and how far do you think they'll go with it?

They put all the third-grade students at my school who have already "passed" into a college programme in one class. By "pass" I mean they aren't thought capable of passing the uni matriculation exam in December and have been passed along to easier college programmes. There's one super-keen girl who really wants to pick up English but is a bit shy, half a dozen others who'll put in a reasonable effort, a bunch who are OK but would rather think of English class as free time, and a few who already think school is free time until February for reading books and listening to music. The biggest problem, however, is that it includes all the students who have spent years falling behind at English and they're not going to catch up with my weekly lesson.

Advantages:
- my other third-grade classes are more motivated, if sleep-deprived.
- if I let the uninterested ones do what they want so long as they're quiet I can concentrate on the good ones ... no one there has to take English for academic purposes anymore, so why not let them learn as much as they like?

I think I'm still getting more done with them than most of the Korean teachers who have either given up on them or just resort to threatening them but not self-motivating them, so as the conversational English teacher I'm really in a better position.

In your case, if you've got other classes that are really good, I'd sort of make a tacit agreement that as long as they're reasonably well behaved you won't push them to learn something they hate. You can't be expected to provide adequate remedial education by teaching them once a week. If they're horrifically behaved you could always pick one or two to make examples of in front of the class - that's a good attention getter.

[Freezer Burn]

Is it a conversation class or a general English class?

Go in there, greetings setle them as much as you can and then say "notebooks" and write the lesson on the board for them to copy into there notebooks.

Grammar, vocabulary etc....

If you can't give an exciting constructive lesson write it on the board, usually they will copy whats been put in front of them because they are trained in their Korean classes, less noise when they are writing.
You can follow it up with a wordsearch or worksheet, this owrked for my "monster classes" in China.

[moptop]

I have been here 8 months, so all the boys know me. Some of them like me, and some of them resent me because I won't let them sleep/goof off. I've tried being mean in my crap classes by singling out students, removing students from the room, having them write lines, etc. They treat it like entertainment. I won't resort to hitting, but that's about all that's left. (I've also tried positive reinforcement, but it didn't work) These students are the dregs.

They laugh at my 'mean' because we both know I have no power. No impact on their grades, it's just an elective basket weaving course. The problem is my school seems to think I can work miracles and want a really academic focus. Puleeeeeease! I can't just sit back and ride it out. I always have a co-teacher in the room who I KNOW reports to the administration because I hear it if I show any DVDs or try to do anything entertaining.

Their Korean teacher says she has the same problem, and that class puts her in a bad mood. I know how she feels!!!! She doesn't seem to do anything, though, and I think that's part of the problem. She has the power and doesn't do anything. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Everyone knows what these kids are like, and that they will probably never use their English. I can't come to an agreement by letting them coast or not trying to teach them something they hate. I have the admin on one side with a pitchfork, and I have the students on the other side with a pitchfork. It's torture the foreign teacher time. sigh.

Any suggestions would be completely welcome. What do I teach these numbnuts?

[moptop]

How do I make them write? They don't understand a lick of English. Simple words like pen and paper and notebook and sit down and get off the table are beyond them. They don't know the alphabet and they don't want to learn. They don't have the skills to do a word search. They have missed the training in their Korean class. They have no respect.

Good example:
Today in class I tried to assist their learning by saying "what's this?" an touching my hair. (trying to entice the word 'hair-raising' from their vocab stores, also before I knew their level was so NONEXISTENT). Apparently I have Simpson's hair. They thought this was hilarious. I got to hear about that one for 10 minutes. And my hair is not that big. I wear it in an ponytail but it's curly, so I guess it reminds them of Marge. At first I said "ha, ha, interesting connection" but they wouldn't drop it. Now if it was a joke I would have laughed it off, but these kids were saying it with malice. The little buggers. Their Korean teacher thought it was funny and was pointing and laughing, too. Great role model. I was gritting my teeth and trying to get them to be quiet, and it wouldn't stop. So I sat on the desk for 5 min because I didn't want to wreck my voice for demo class tomorrow by yelling. I'm just about to jump out a window here.

[nev]

What would happen if you, politely, told your school you refused to teach them, citing the above reasons?

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[thursdays child]

[sheba]

I had a monster class too.... I went in there tails blazing for a few weeks in a row - no joking, no laughing, just me yelling and whacking their desks occassionally with the 'love stick'.

Talk to the other Korean teacher and ask for help. Explain that you simply cannot teach them without some help. If she does nothing then go higher. Tell them you cannot teach them without help, and that the K-teacher isnt helping.

Ask a supervisor, or someone scary to the kids, if they can spare some time to supervise naughty kids. So instead of sending them out for a little while which has turned into a joke, you can send them to do work with the supervisor. The meer mention of this to my class changed their behaviour (if only temporary). Even if you only do it once, the kids will know its possible, and it can give back some of the power.

How big is the class? Also do you play games with them? I know playing games is the absolute last thing you want to do, but it can be used for bribery. Write GAME on the baord and tell them that they can play a game at the end of the class if they are good. Every time they are naughty rub off a letter. In some classes it's gone in about 5 mins... but it can work.

Are you allowed to give candy in class? Because I find that works wonders. Bring a bag of candy and let them see you have it - in fact show the whole class. Tell them that you will give them candy at the end of the class if they are good. Or alternatively, you could reward students with a single candy throughout the class each time they do something good. Like even if they are sitting there quiet (but not sleeping).

Also, I am allowed to use the leave early/stay late approach. Luckily the class is my last for the day and I can keep them as late as I want! The good students can leave 5 mins early. The naughty students must stay late. Every time they are naughty you can write a minute on the board, and just keep adding. This is the approach I used when I first took charge of my horror class, I only did it twice and they were mine! I put on a fake confident approach (really I was intimidated by them) and they have been much better ever since. I wouldnt even put this class in my top 5 worst now!

You just need to get their attention one time with some dramatic change... then you can work on bringing in other things as well.

[n3ptne]

oh man this is simple... next time they get rowdy just sit down at your desk and drink a cup of coffee, let them do it... let it escalate and make it look like you cant control anything... let them think that and let them start talking to one another an stop paying attention to you.... then


BAM clap your hands together as hard as you can, jump up and start pointing at the worst of the bunch and throw their asses out, get right up in their grills, point and yell, OUT, OUT OUT, YOU, NOW, then make a walking motion with your index and middle finger and point to the door. Straight up ambush their sorry asses by being the loud white man that you are, they've never seen anything like it... half of them will look shocked and promise to stop, the other half will laugh... throw them all out.

Next class? repeat process, only do it RIGHT as the class starts. I have a similar class but not so big, two weeks in a row i threw their asses out, dont let them take the books or coats so they cant go home. Make them sit outside and listen to the class.... then while they're gone have an easy class and reward them with a game, BS with the class and joke. By the third week you should be home free, atleast I am.

Divide and conquer my man, befriend half and the other half will have to follow.

[n3ptne]

If you've been a puss, no offense, for 7 months you arent gonna win with the aforementioned strategy... try this instead... talk at the worst ones rapidly in english, make stuff up and speak to them as if they're dumb... its all about tones... follow up each elaborate and long, quick paced sentenced with "you dont understand" as though you're shocked... other kids will laugh.

lower your brows, look dead in their eyes... "huh? no? no understand? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah! you understand? what? no??? no?" and THEN throw their sorry asses out.

move a bunch of the bad ones up by your desk, and then literally spend the entire class teaching just them in the above mentioned, fast paced, belittling fashion. let the rest of the class... the ones who like you, do whatever the hell you want, you can get them under control at a later date.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I see where you're coming from, n3ptne, but I'm not sure that such theatrics would be all that productive in a large high school class. I have my apathetic-cus-I've-effectively-graduated class this morning and if I let things slide out of control and then tried such theatrics I'm sure I'd end up with nothing but 30 confused 18-year-olds sitting there sulking (and I don't think my most challenging HS class is *nearly*as bad as moptop's). Instead I have a review of last week's lesson, 5 minutes of phonics, future-tense bingo, Halloween photos, Halloween vocab, a Halloween story game, and then we'll listen to the Monster Mash song if there's time. Since I'll be the last English teacher most of them will ever have I think it's a slightly more productive approach than being a bi-polar drill sergeant trying to cram English down their throats.

[deessell]

I also understand your situation. It might be a good idea to change your objectives and goals within the class. I think it's really difficult to have a communicative lessons with Public School and no co-teacher. I have given up on trying to explain the activity first, now I hand out the worksheets and move around explaining the instructions. I have also decided to make my classroom a survival zone. If you want to "survive" my class then there are certain things that they must do.

I had a very bad patch where I nearly gave up and was thinking of quitting. Instead of quitting I started thinking about how I could change things. It was a good opportunity for me to grow as a teacher. I decided to implement a zero tolerance policy. This resulted in a very physical two weeks. I literally kicked kids out on their asses. I pulled ears, pinched and whacked hands. I told some students that they were invisible, that meant that I didn't want to see them or hear them. After two weeks of hell, for both the students and me, things started to change.

Now things are pretty good. I enjoy most of my classes. The very noisy boys classes are still less productive but they are actually the most confident speakers now.

In conclusion I would suggest that you lower your expectations in terms of what you think the students should be learning. Try and enjoy your students and the time you spend with them.