Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

How do you deal with kindy kids asleep in class?

I've only had this happen once before (the girl in question was snoring )

I had one of my three year olds drift off today. Usually this kid keeps me on my toes (or should it be backside to the wall and hands over the chest?) and he always comes up and has very earnest conversations in korean to me while I just say 'yeah'. Today he wasn't looking his perky self and was dropping off. I tried to rouse him once or twice, but decided to let him be.

The korean teacher for the class comes yells at me, shakes him awake, takes his chair away and makes him stand up while the other kids are eating lunch.

This kids is, at times, the evil kindy kid we all love to hate. But he can be really sweet sometimes (eg conversations in korean). He looked so tired I didn't feel there was any point in waking him up to colour by numbers today.

So what do the rest of you do when your three year olds are suffering hagwon burnout?

CLG

[waterbaby]

aw poor little fella

I had one girl asleep and snoring today... she told me (well mimed) she'd been throwing up... she's probably 5 or 6. I just let her sleep and dealt with the only other child who'd bothered to show up for class... I love summer & school holidays

If it's the same kid over and over again... I generally try and wake them up - if we're playing games or not focused on the course, I just let them go.

But if it's a one off, I let them sleep. No problem. Poor little things can't communicate that mum and dad dragged them over to Imo's house last night and they didn't get home until 2am... there's probably a story behind it. Or they might be in hagwon overdrive.

I hate that your co-worker did that - yelling and forcing the child to stand up. I don't think my co-workers would ever do that.

However, if the child is just being lazy I definitely wouldn't just let them sleep. You can usually tell who's genuinely exhausted and who's being lazy. But I'd never be so harsh as to take their chair away

[anae]

I let them sleep. If a kid is that tired, what are they going to learn? IMHO 3 year olds should still be having nap time, but who am I to say.

When kids were consistantly tired, I had Korean staff phone home or I mentioned it in report cards.

I had this one kid who was tired and cranky for the first few months I taught him. He had difficulty learning and getting along with others. At parent-teacher interview time, we talked about his bed time which was 11:00! When I told the mom that children at his age (under 6) need at least 10 hours per night, she was shocked. She eventually put him to bed around 8:00 - and presto - he started learning at a phemonemal rate.

I really don't like telling parents how to parent since I am not one myself, but sometimes everyone can benefit if it is said in the right way.

[crazylemongirl]

Actually that wasn't a good class. I had one kid in a full on temper tantrum because I made him sit in the naughty chair because he wouldn't stop rocking on his chair, he was still crying through lunch.

CLG

[wendysue]

I let them sleep. My kindy kids always fall asleep on the buses on field trips and I've had a couple of incidents of class room sleep and I really just thing they need nap time or more rest at home. I figure that if they are tired enough to fall asleep in an uncomfortable school chair they aren't likely to be in a place to be learning a lot if they were awake.

The Korean teachers at my school would probably wake them up though.

[whatthefunk]

Yes, I say let them sleep. They've probably been up since 6 am and they won't learn any English if they're that tired anyway. I always have one or two asleep in my class, and Im fine with it.

[Catalina]

Hi y'all

Given that I am Korea's most reluctant foreign kindy teacher I can't believe I am posting on a kindy thread but I acutally have had a similar experience.

Happened to me once too - the monster kindy kid fell asleep. This kid (our youngest at 3 years old) full-out crashed during some video/story lesson. At first I checked the vitals to make sure he wasn't dead then I rolled him into the recovery position and tucked him in the reading area and proceeded with the rest of the lesson.

I figured if a three year old is asleep there must be a good reason - waking him up would be like shaking a bomb. Why would I invite trouble? After 1.5 hours he came around on his own.

And yes - the Korean teacher would have woken him up right away.

Catalina