Korean Job Discussion Forums

[davec]

I'm having trouble disciplining some of my students. I've only been teaching for a couple of weeks and am having mixed feelings about the whole experience.

Just over half of my classes are brilliant and have confirmed my aspirations to get into teaching as a career (in English primary schools).

The rest of my classes are driving me mad!!

I just cannot get them to behave, listen or stop talking to each other. This is really annoying my director (and me!) and she has told me to use the chair (hold a chair above their heads) as a punishment. I have told her that I will not do this as I do not agree in physically punishing children. I told her that in England you would get sacked for doing such a thing and she said you are in Korea and it is fine to do this. I don't want to be rude to her but i just dont agree in this sort of punishment.

I said that if I could let the parents of these children know that their children are being little s0ds it might straighten them out as they wouldn't want to pay lots of money to have their children just messing around in English accademy. She said it is up to me to stop the children behaving badly (she is obviously scared that she may lose students and in return lose herself money). I can understand this but as I wont do the chair and I cant speak Korean I cannot figure out a way to get these classes back in order.

One thing that cheeses me off a bit is the way she tells me that I don't discipline the children but she lets them run around the hogwan climbing all over things and shouting around. I really feel for some of these kids. Some of them are really rude and disrespectful but I really cant blame them; being at various accademies and school 6 days a week. I know I'd be playing up all the time if I was in their shoes. At the same time though I dont know if I can work somewhere which is so much about getting money off the parents and not about the standard of their lessons.

This is my first time teaching and I know I have a hell of a lot to learn to improve my lessons but I really am trying my best and when I have a group of students who arent being rude to me I try so hard to help them and push them to be better. It's a tough job but I can see how rewarding it can be; not just getting the good students to do better but helping the ones that are struggling to learn simple things.

I don't really know whether my hogwan is good or bad. I read lots of posts on this site before embarking on my trip but the things that are bothering me were not really mentioned. I'm not too sure about a lot of the textbooks we use.. Backpack, New Parade, English Land and spotlight and Smile? In some respects they can can be ok but they have aspects that must be so confusing when your language ability isnt very high. The tapes that accompany them are confusing and just seem pointless at times. We also have to prepare scripts which we will use in phone conversations to the students one night a week. It just seems a bit pointless. My pre-prepared phone conversation consists of hello, how are you, wwhat is your favourite colour, what is your hobby. It will give me the chance to sit down for half an hour twice a week but I cant see what it will do to improve their english ability. We also have a role play which is a story of the wolf and the dog. It is really boring and they are meant to memorise the whole thing off by heart. Again it seems pointless.

Can anybody give me any discipline techniques or point me in the right direction? I know it can take a bit of time to get used to new jobs/countries but its really getting me down and making me think of doing a runner. Me and the director are not getting on too well because of this and I'm dreading going to work on monday.

Cheers

Dave

[semphoon]

[ttompatz]

[kat2]

turn everything into a competition. Put the kids in groups. Over the course of the week award stars or stickers or whatever to groups that answer well, pay attention well, are quiet, etc. Take stickers from the groups with bad behavior. Never take stickers from groups for not knowing the answer. At the end of the week the teams with the most stickers gets some kind of reward. One piece of candy is enough to motivate. Having them on teams will help b/c the kids will get pissed at the one kid on their team who was acting like a jackass when you took thier sticker.

I'm pretty much a drill sargeant in class. The first month can be tough until the kids learn the rules, but after that they are a dream. Set some rules that are simple and stick to them.
1. Stay in your chair
2. Don't talk unless the teacher gives you permission.
3. Don't touch other students (covers hitting, kicking, pinching, etc.)
4. Bring your books, a pencil, and an eraser to every class
5. Be respectful to teacher and students.

Have these translated into Korean and posted on the wall. When a kid offends make him get up and read it. Then take the sticker from the team.

Kids like boundaries and rules. It works really well for them.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[kat2]

With older kids, writing lines works really well. There friends are playing soccer outside while they are writing "I will listen to the teacher. I will speak English" 50 times. I've gotten at least 2 weeks of good behavior off that one.

[oldfatfarang]

If they are being really non-co-operative, and noisy, talking too much etc, and nothing seems to work - show them the door. I've only had to do this once. Those boys had to sit in the secretary's office (oh, the shame). When the Director wanted to know why they were not in class I just said, "too noisy". Word that you have limits will sp