Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Starla]

Okay, I'm a new public school teacher and I've been told I will need to teach winter camp in the school. I met with three other Korean teachers to discuss the curriculum this Wednesday. One of them I will be co-teaching with. First, they told me I need to make up a curriculum and have it ready by Wednesday so we could pool all of our ideas and then come up with one set curriculum. Then I was given this past year's winter and summer camp workbooks. I asked the teachers if I'm supposed to use them as guides and make up my own curriculum. They said yes but I can also copy what's in the workbooks. They even went so far as to joke that copying old curriculums is what Koreans do.

Please educate me on this because I can't get with the way Korean teachers are. I can never get a straight answer from them and I certainly can't ask them to tell it like it is because I don't even know if they know how to do that. Almost every Korean person I've met has a roundabout way of explaining things that ends up with me being confused. So I was poring over these workbooks today and trying to find fresh and interesting materials but I really don't want to have to do this if it's not necessary. Sometimes, I get these mental blocks and planning for 20 different lessons in a week is not something I can do quickly and easily. What has everyone else's experience been with these camps? Should I just be photocopying things from the workbook and submitting that as the curriculum? How much new and fresh material is needed?

[daz1979]

Check out the projects on MES ENGLISH

[moosehead]

well first of all, I'm surprised to hear you will have a cot at your camp - that's not always the case - will they be teaching the same class or a different one? you need to know that, of course

also you need to know which students are coming - levels, etc. usually the classes are much smaller and there may be students from other schools coming

don't overstress on the planning - just go w/the flow and find out what they are doing - ask one specifically to help you and I'm sure she/he will - do it away from the meeting - Ks don't seem to want to stop meetings to explain things - wait until it's over and ask to sit down and talk more in depth with someone -

mostly if you don't know what's going on and what is expected of you then you need to speak up and say so - don't be shy -

[KYC]

[Perceptioncheck]

I think if I were you, I'd probably try to throw something together myself rather than photocopying from the workbooks, although get me in one of my chronically lazy moods and I'd probably tell you the opposite.

There are heaps of resources on the internet and I think planning winter camps yourself can also make your camp a little bit more enjoyable. I've seen the worksheet books from the last camps at my school. . .talk about boring. At least with lessons that you plan the kids (and you) can have a little bit more fun.

I second the MesEnglish idea. I've used the superheroes project with great success and it can be easily tailored to suit different levels. Eigomon is also quite a good card game and the kids really enjoy it although it's a real pain in the arse to cut out all the cards and laminate them. For elementary, crafts can also be good; http://www.enchantedlearning.com has some great crafts that can be done on a fairly low budget. There's also http://www.kizclub.com for lower level students and an extremely low budget. http://www.genkienglish.com has some good games that are fairly simple and but involve lots of movement.

My kids are super low level country kids and my lesson plan progression usually goes; first I pick a theme, introduce the language and reinforce it with several games (listening then speaking). Then we make a craft or poster or project related to the language. Then we watch a video related to the language and fill out a worksheet or go to the gym to play one of the games from genki-english like the harry potter game. It's pretty simple and easy to prepare as well as low budget.

But like Moosehead says, try to find out the level of students/budget/number of students. If they're anything like my school, they won't know yet but it doesn't hurt to ask. I say this because I finished my winter camp lesson plans yesterday only to be told we have a huge budget I must spend.

[Starla]

Thanks for all the info. I spoke to my head teacher about it. She said I can copy things from the books, especially considering I've been at this English teaching gig for only 2 1/2 months. The only problem is the books are too advanced for the 2nd graders I'll be teaching so I'm crunched for time to find teaching materials. I've used MES English before like others suggested and I could use it for some teaching but I have to teach other subjects like geography, science and crafts and I don't have the resources for that. I was told I need to discuss this with my co-teacher and I will do that tomorrow. Thanks again.

[Xuanzang]

[Starla]

[Xuanzang]

Some second graders (elementary, I`m assuming) went to English kindie or have academy lessons. Some on the other hand...little monsters. Good luck. Maybe just get maps with blanks in them. Show them some pictures of famous sites or places in your home country.

[Perceptioncheck]

Yeah, I have a day of first graders and a day of second graders as well. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them (besides pull my hair out).

If they want you to do science, why not make a volcano? Get them to draw a city on a cardboard base, mix flour and water together and then use that to make a cone around an empty bottle. You can use food colouring to make the cone look more like a volcano and less like a big pile of dough. Then take them outside or put a whole lot of newspaper on the floor, pop the volcano crap in the bottle - I can't remember exactly what it is but there's a tonne of recipes on the interwebs - and there's your eruption. That's probably as much science as you can teach to second graders without a language in common.

You could also teach them the names of the planets, play some kind of game with flashcards and then get them to make a model of the solar system. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/solarsystemmodel/ That's science AND geography, albeit on a big scale.

[maingman]

Starla


http://ecamp.unesco.or.kr/program/program_ce.html

good luck !

[maingman]

http://eslholidaylessons.com/

[maingman]

http://eslholidaylessons.com/

[maingman]

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