Korean Job Discussion Forums

[politica]

Before I lose my mind!!!! (and my voice!)

Okay, so its my fourth day teaching. I'm at a public elementary school, teaching grades 3rd-6th, and I really love it so far.

That being said . . . HOLY HELL, what is up with the discipline issues? My co-teachers do NOTHING about discipline. Kids are hitting each other, running around like maniacs, screaming at the top of their lungs DURING class, and worse. Now, I've seen some pretty bad schools in the U.S., but in my neck of the woods, kids will see one of the three for such behavior: principal's office, detention, or suspension. None of these are really options for me. I've browsed through the discipline ideas in the Idea Cookbook- but here's my problem. It seems like they mostly involve embarassing/shaming a student. You see, that's not going to work in my classroom. If I draw attention to one student, or if he (and I do mean HE) draws attention to himself, then entire rest of the class erupts into laughter (well, perhaps just the boys, but they FEEL like the whole class anyhow) . . . and the class is twice as loud as they were before.

Today I tried the "mean teacher" approach- Lots of yelling, crossing my arms, stern facial expression. Which worked . . . excepted it lasted for only about 30 seconds each time, and now my voice is cracking like a teenage boy's.

Also, on a side note, what is with boys not being able to keep their chair legs on the ground?!?!?!?! Yes, I know that this happens everywhere, but I swear I see about three chairs tip over per class, if not more. And once that happens, good luck getting the class back.

Please help. *sad puppy face*

[xingyiman]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Thanks for making me feel so much better about my class this morning, which took three fucking minutes to re-arrange their desks into three rows like I asked and settle down with their textbooks opened to the right page.

I'm sorry that I can be of very much help with elementary but I must say thanks for those Dave's posters who never cease to make my students look like absolute angels.

[climber159]

Welcome to public education in Korea. Your description seems to be par for the course. Discipline here is mostly a lost cause. Something that works, to some extent, for me is to hold some item of value (phone, pencil case, book, etc.) ransom until the end of the school day. If they want it back they have to do some cleaning in the classroom after school. I don't have any control of their grades; but, if you do, then you may have some discipline leverage there.

[mnhnhyouh]

And here I was thinking that maybe I would consider the jump from high to middle school. My students are fairly well behaved, they just talk too much.

I would consider a dual approach. Make a make on the board everytime they piss you off. Each mark means 10 seconds out of their break, for the whole class. It will take about 3 weeks to get on top of them, if you are only seeing them once per week. But then it will be easier.

Any kid who really pisses you off gets to spend the rest of the lesson staring at a dot on the wall.

Dont smile in class for 2 months. I know these things sound horrible, and they are. But once they are in control you will have lots more fun, and they will learn lots more.

h

[Stormy]

[mnhnhyouh]

[politica]

Yu_Bum_Suk- anything I can do to help.

and . . .

Stormy- do I know you? Weird, cause I feel like I know you . . .

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Scouse Mouse]

Lay out the rules, and make sure the students (and co-teachers) know them.

Then you could simply stand and do nothing until they settle down. It is not your job to discipline them. That is the job of the co-teacher. Let them do their job so that you can do yours. If they complain, simply tell them that you have been told you should not discipline the kids and that it is their job. In Korea it is apparently disrespectful to do another persons job

If you want to do something yourself, try peer pressure. Draw a chart for each of the group tables and give a yellow card for first offence, red card for second offence. Make marks for each subsequent offence after that.

After class, let all groups go except for those with red cards. Make them stay in silence for 1 minute for each card or mark. Get a stopwatch and use it. Reset it for every noise you here. If you have a TV and use a computer, have the clock on screen for them to see.

Do not explain any of this. Let them figure it out for themselves. Simply put a time on the board for each group. eg:

1 - 2 mins
4 - 3 mins

They will figure out what is going on. If they continue to act up, say and do nothing, just keep resetting the clock. This works especially well if you have an English Zone classroom. Keep them there for as long as it takes, and they will be more severley punished by the home room teachers when they are late back to class. Be prepared to lose some breaks and lunch time for this to work. By the third class they will be angels! This works well in my school for the second and third grades, as I taught them last year. They are petrified of my yellow and red chalk!

The first grade I let act like savages. I'm done working my arse off for this school, so I will let the Koreans deal with them.

[xingyiman]

You've gotta watch discipline in any of the Asian nations. By law a foreigner cannot touch a Korean student and that includes any kind of physical contact. Now we all know that contact occurs (high fiving, etc) I am just stating the laws as they are written. You can also get into trouble for yelling and excessive discipline. My old boss told me that if I ever needed to discipline someone to get a Korean teacher and let them do it. They can hit the kids and do all sorts of other things that would land a NET in the slammer. It also varies whether you are rural or in the big city but I know you can get away with a lot as far as personal discipline here but it only takes once to get you in trouble. Best action - take a deep breath and go and get a Korean.

[dean_burrito]

go to the store and buy a pack of shiny stickers. flash it to the class and tell them they get one if they do their work. i've not met a korean kid yet whose soul can't be bought this way.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[pugwall]

Law down the rules. Have TPR actions for each. Get the kids to write them down in English and the co teacher to translate into Korea. Repeat TPR every class for the next month.

[xingyiman]