Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

[UncleAlex]

These 5 minute or so video clips can serve a useful purpose by allowing
students, who have to be at school from 8am to 9pm before going to a
hogwan until midnight, a brief moment to unwind and relax. The stuff is
good for their morale, and it's obvious, since my kids enjoy them and
noticeably get a lift out of them. Of course, these videos are shown after
the lesson has been completed and only sometimes. I do conduct pop song
English classes that are thematically based and formally structured about
once a month or after exam time just before vacation. My students look
forward to these classes and love them. And my co-teachers have complimented
me on them. I feel that one must incorporate a little art and culture into the second
language that is being learned, or else the students will be presented with nothing
but a soulless bag of skin and bones.

[Demophobe]

I agree that it is usually a bad idea to show anything before previewing.

There are only a handful of movies that I use in classes, and they are sorted not only for their overall content, but then again for each grade.

In the past, I often simply coughed to censor a song lyric, or fast forward the video past the questionable bit. I also test the kids on the movies they watch, so maybe I'm a bit that way anyhow.

Too bad for the OP. Koreans do have a fast, efficient grapevine, I will give them that, and especially mothers.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[UncleAlex]

No, I teach in a high school. The kids I showed the video to are nearing 18
years of age. Many of them are already kissing their girlfriends in some back
alley, if not smoking cigarettes with their friends in a neraby public washroom.
I would never show music videos to middle school kids unless it was
one with The Osmond Brothers or Partridge Family.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ddeubel]

I use Karaoke big time in the class.......run into problems sometimes. Kids love it and I try to do current songs. Run the original song first while the karaoke words play on the big screen. Then groups sing.

I wanted to do , "You are beautiful". Great song, simple lyrics, slower and easier to sing. Awesome . But he says that F U C K I N G word in it. I asked other teachers if I could just distract the students....they canned the idea. So bluntly, no Blunt.....

DD

[Big Mac]

I think you have to be so careful with stuff like this.

I remember a case in Leamington, Ontario where a teacher was convicted of sexual charges (I don't remember the exact charge) because he videotaped some girls in his class sucking on lollipops. He said he did it for a class project on advertising.

The school (and evidently the judge) thought it looked like the girls were performing oral sex on the lollipops.

I covered the trial as a reporter and saw the videos in the courtroom. I really think the whole thing was blown out of proportion. He'll never be able to teach again. He was married with children. His wife stuck by him through it all, and it was clear to me that this guy was no pervert. He clearly had no idea it would become what it did.

This guy's career was ruined because of what seemed to him an innocent thing.

Whenever I think about where the limits lie in the classroom, I think about what happened to that guy.

[periwinkle]

I think it sucks that your co-teacher ratted you out, even though you closed the window. God, I haven't ratted anybody out since first grade.

[Matt DuGhee]

On a related note, I have been taken aside on two occasions last week and told how it was "not educational" for me to mention that I was living in Korea with my girlfriend (another ESL teacher) from Canada. This was after I was asked to tell my new classes about myself and "how I find life in Korea". It seemed like an important aspect of my life, but I have since been told that I should be telling students that we are married.

[UncleAlex]

Matt, one needs the wisdom of Ms. Washington to tolerate many of the
circumsatances and incidents we have to face in a foreign country, let
alone back home. Despite our differences and disagreements, I feel we
are obligated to comply with our hosts' requests when their cultural
sensibilities come into question. All we can do is swallow our pride and
keep smiling.