Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pet lover]

Free World, oh, so I only get one more kid? I thought I was going to have 18 come Monday. I want Hwa-Young as well!

[Mr. BlackCat]

I was tricked into teaching Kinder at my job. Was told I wouldn't have any, then when I arrived it became a 'favour' for a month or two. Nine months later now I have double what I had before.

The two classes I had when I got here were chaos. I managed with the help of another foreign teacher who also had to deal with them to get one class under control, though. I dreaded the other one. I had it just once a day for 40 minutes, but it would wipe me out for my other 7 classes in the day.

Everyone on this forum gave nice useful advice but it didn't really work. You can't punish or control a class of 11 screaming 4 year olds if they don't even aknowledge your presence. I'd go right up to their face and it was as if I wasn't there. The only effective approach I had was to use my strong overpowering voice to scare some of them (not all) into submission for a minute or two. After a few months I pretty much gave up and just went in there and gave my lesson even though 80% of them were running around, screaming, jumping, chanting satanic songs, etc. I just went dead inside.

I received little to no support and I know it was my failure as a teacher. But I was more concerned about not going insane for my other classes in the day which I really did care about and wanted to be with. And I made it pretty clear when I was talking with the company before I arrived that toddlers were not my thing and that I do better with kids 8+.

In March I started with two new kinder classes and I laid down the law from the beginning. They are the two best classes any teacher could ever ask for now and we have lots of fun together. But I don't think I'll ever teach another kinder class again if they don't start with me.

As for the class from Korean hell, another foreign teacher took over the class in March. He also had difficulty, but soon our supervisor placed a Korean helper in there with him to try to maintain order. Then the Korean parter teacher started to stick around to ensure discipline. He's had some progress and I'm really happy for him.

I feel your pain.

[Free World]

[pet lover]

Fine. I was GOING to offer to trade Nam-Soo for her.......

EDIT: Just realized.....now that I have:

Dong-On
Dong-Ho
and
Dong-Hyun

Why NOT give me Hwa-Young to go with Young-Hwa????

[Dan The Chainsawman]

Fart jokes.. its all about the fart jokes.

[Cerriowen]

[quote="ttompatz]
Make sticker cards.

Then make marks on the white board.
Good kids get stars. If they are bad then take away a star. If they have no star then bad kids get x's.

At the end of the class, if you have stars on the board you get a sticker to put on your sticker card.
If they have 3 x's on the board at the end of the class then take one sticker away from their sticker card.

At the end of the week, count the stickers and give candy prizes for everyone who gets more than (for example) 10 stickers.[/quote]

I don't even go that far... just hearts (or stars) written on the board after their name. At the beginning of class I write hearts after their name on the board for any good behavior. "WOW! You all sang so well, you ALL get a heart!" Act like it's a big deal. Then when they do anything, even their attention drifts, you act sad and dissapointed, and sadly erase one of the hearts.

If they keep acting up, and they run out of hearts, then you start putting red 'x's after their name. Once they get to 3 red x's... you make them stand against the wall with their hands in the air (or wall sit if they're older). Some people suggest sending them out of class, but it tends to humiliate them more to do it in front of their class mates.

The other "Kindergarten Cop" routine works well too... playing things like "Simon says" (run in place, hop like a bunny) teaches them to follow instructions, listen to your words AND it wears the little buggers out.

Usually as soon as they see you're serious about disciplining them they'll shape up. When I started I *really* didn't want to give out those X's... or erase hearts... but by goodness they've improved a thousand percent.