Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cerriowen]

It's incredibly frustrating for me to spend a couple of hours planning out a lesson, to go in there and totally tank.

I tried to make it interesting with variety, pictures, and activities...

But then about 10 minutes in to the lesson the kids are talking, sleeping, hitting... and completely bored.

I guess I'm learning. I wouldn't mind as much I think if I could just blame it on middle-school bastards for being jerks... but when I am boring myself as well, that's frustrating. Trial and error. Lots, and lots of error.

/end rant

[Bibbitybop]

Your co-teacher has a responsibility to control the class. You can plan excellent lessons and still not receive respect from students due to your non-Korean status.

[mrsquirrel]

how interactive is the lesson.

I hate looking at holiday photos.

It's hard to get through points quickly but you need to get through them fast and get the students doing something.

[fromtheuk]

The bit about boring yourself was very amusing. I often feel the same way about my classes. I can't blame my students for feeling bored, because I feel more bored than they do sometimes!

But seriously, it's not your fault, most Korean kids don't pay attention in class, if they can get away with it.

Don't take their boredom in your class personally. Just persist with it, and keep pretending you are a fantastic teacher, blissfully unaware of your own limitations.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It's funny how sometimes you can spend hours planning a lesson that bombs and other lesson you've just pulled out of your ass are a hit. One advantage that most of us have is that we can teach the same lesson to numerous classes of the same grade, so if it tanks the first time round we can re-plan / re-tune it for the next one. Breaking up the lesson into different components and using some A/V aids to break things up also help. If you have a co-teacher and if he / she's effective, that's great; however, you always have to be ready to take the helm and keep things in line. Of course that's easier for me to say with classes of 25-30 than some of you who have 40-45.

[earthbound14]

sometimes it's just the delivery too. If you get too bogged down with explaining what it is you're trying to teach (as in spending more time explaining rules of a game rather than playing it), whether or not the objectives are giving clearly (I think Korean students need clearer objectives), and whether or not you engage the students (the students have to like you and think you're amusing....you're not going to wow them with interesting information about English, unlike an English class back home). Every time I tank in a class it's usually due to the way I'm giving the class rather than the amount of time I've spent planning it......and Bibbity has a point. I don't get Koreans at all sometimes, for a bunch of over acheivers they often seem to be set on underacheiving. I literaly have to tell my students to bring pencils, pens and paper to class, I need to ride them to take notes and I need to ride them to practice. However, if you give your students a bunch of exercises to do, copy and re-write text, fill in the blanks exercises....very clear, cut and dried exercises, they are machines. When students don't listen I simply hand out work sheets and tell them to finish (I often tell them it will count as part of their grade...which is a lie). I try to use it as punishment (that still gets them doing something rather than sitting in the hall) in the hopes that they will realize working together and with me to improve their English is better than spending the class silently writing. This only works when I'm being a good teacher, when I'm sucking the students always choose the silent paper work over working with me.

[njp6]

I teach elementary, but I feel your pain with that trial and error thing. Once you get a few more hits, you can build off of those.

[jvalmer]

What I really find interesting, and mind-boggling, is that some classes are more involved and enjoy a lesson, while another class finds the exact same material boring. Even though you basically delivered it in the same manner. Sometimes certain classes just s-u-c-k and find everything you do boring.

[bovinerebel]

I'ts not rocket science to keep them interested. You just got to ensure things are interactive and you mix it up. Firstly have them in "groups" or teams and make everything...everything a competition or a game. Last year I made up charts and gave my first year high school kids stickers for winning activities...worked a treat. They could actively see their "progress" in relation to their peers on the charts and they are very competive. So while I use powerpoint presentations for the beef of my lesson , there's always a little quiz or something every few slides related to what we're dealing with.

I'm going to throw out the number of 30% at random to represent how much time you ought to be the centre of attention. If you motivate them the right way you can easily have them working in their groups creating little role plays to present to the class and such. They see us one hour a week so there really can be no excuse that we're over exposed and the novelty is worn off.

Credit to you for blaming yourself. I noticed a trend that my "worst behaved" class is always the last class of a long day/week. Obviously my input was the main factor in that trend.

The other thing is that you can only do so much and should manage your expectations. 50 minutes is a long time for a teenager , so don't be ashamed to throw them a crossword related to the lesson ( www.armoredpenguin.com is excellent for making them ) or a song for the last 15 minutes. If you can get 20-30 minutes of attentive/active/physical response learning you're doing an amazing job.

[bovinerebel]

[Cerriowen]

[Unposter]

First off, middle schoolers are just about the worst students to teach. I don't envy you there at all.

But, what jumped out at me was the I was bored too line. This is actually critical. If you are bored, your students are going to be too. You need to find a way to become interested in your classes or no matter how much prep you do, they are going to be flat. Your students may have even enjoyed or learned but you may not see it if you don't bring energy and interest to your own class.

The positive thing about all this is you care. Now turn that care into finding a way to be interested in your class and your students should follow.

[Fishead soup]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Sounds like you're doing a lot-- and is it the same thing every week? If so, maybe try longer games/activities with more variation from week to week, instead of a lot of the same things every week...

Do you have to do writing in your class? I let the K-teachers do the writing. and focus on only conversation... they seem to like that. But I'm not sure if your school is set up the same way. If you have to do writing, maybe have 'writing days' instead of doing writing in every class. That way you could ue the writing as review for the structures you've already studied, and they wouldn't be doing it every day.

You could also try doing listening exercises... get them to close their books and read the dialog before you let them see it-- give them a question to answer and then reward the person who gets it right.

Also, you could be doing more speaking drills and listen and repeat. Simple Q and A patterns (you give the question they give the answer, and vice versa) give you a chance to single them out... and if you want to add some extra humiliation (and who doesn't?), show them that the entire class can listen and repeat correctly whereas they can't.

I also think you should be focusing more on role playing the dialogs... I have a good group where we take the otherwise bland dialog in the textbook and do it as characters from whatever movie, as Romeo and Juliet, or as King Kong and what's-her-name, etc... so they have to pretend they love each other or want to kill each other while they say it. It's goofy and stupid, but they seem to like it... of course, this can also get boring, because they don't know so many different characters. Still, it's good because then they get a turn to do it... are you giving them enough time to really speak/practice/interact without you?

I've found that a really rigid schedule doesn't always give you much time to listen or interact or correct. I stretch out the dialog practice time and go around and kind of socialize/free talk while they're practicing... like listen in and correct their pronunciation or whatever, sporadically asking 'are you ready to go?' and then giving more time if the answer is no. This is also the time I use to save my voice when I am sick of talking.

I do this for about seven or eight minutes max... and then review it together for another three or four-- or do writing together to stretch it out. For the grand finale, I get them to do it with their books closed for another five or six, one by one, usually in pairs in front of the class. Sometimes I do a game beforehand and let the winner pick who has to go.

Also, using this system I tend to stretch out a single piece of dialog for the full forty five minutes. I'm not saying my system is better than yours-- just trying to give you some ideas!

[Cerriowen]