Korean Job Discussion Forums

Fishead soup · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Location: Korea

Are you a chalkboard monkey?

Do any of these activities rank as your top ten favorites?

Hangman bingo Jeopardy flyswat

Is Edutaiment one of your favorite resources?

Does lesson planning consist of hitting the print button every time you see a word find?

Do you ever write " World cup series" on the board and instruct your students to find smaller words within it. Do you employ similar time killing stategies similar to this.

Is teaching secondary to being liked and killing time.

Do you only use power point during the Open lesson.

gregoriomills · Joined: 02 Mar 2009 Location: Busan, Korea

Every teacher goes through a stage of this! Some never get out of it, most finally figure out what the hell they are doing.

BreakfastInBed · Joined: 16 Oct 2007 Location: Gyeonggi do

Very rarely in most regular classes, sometimes after a test or as a reward. After school is a different ballgame, it's about all I do. With a combined class of 3rd-6th graders I'm just happy if I can hold their attention while we have some fun using English.

I'm no Picasso · Joined: 28 Oct 2008

I deployed my first game in eight months today. Finals are next week and tomorrow is the school anniversary -- no school. Their little brains are fried, and attention is at an all-time low. We barely made it through last week, and I'm getting too far ahead of their other English teachers in the book anyway.

It feels pretty lazy to me, and I don't get to interact with the students as much as I do when I'm giving an actual lesson where they have to give actual conversational answers about their lives. I like hearing about what's going on with them, whether it's "What did you do this weekend?" or "What are you going to do this summer?" or "Why are you so worried?" And I think, for the most part, they like giving their answers and having an opportunity to talk about themselves, even if it is in English. And they feel genuinely proud of themselves when they're able to have a proper conversation in English, even if it is just a couple of sentences.

I don't think they miss the games too much....

However, the week after finals are done, right before vacation starts, it is definitely time to "movie movie".

rationality · Joined: 05 Jul 2007 Location: Some where in S. Korea

BS.Dos. · Joined: 29 Mar 2007

At one of my schools, yes. About 3 sticks an hour.

At my other though, it's strictly PPT and dazzling laser pointer acrobatics.

*edit*
Good blackboard technique is a skill in itself. Can't say I've mastered it though, but I've certainly improved. I remember in one of my first lessons I was trying to draw a squid for some reason and when I stood back to marvel at my chalkmenship, I realised I'd drawn a p e n i s. Thankfully, it was in one of my HS boys classes and not my MS girls.

VanIslander · Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:08 am Post subject:

to every single question of the op's the answer is 'no'

I'm no Picasso · Joined: 28 Oct 2008

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

Chalkboard devotee, yes. Re: timewasters listed above, no.

A chalkboard can be an engaging medium for instruction, used right. Key vocab writ large, occasional quick & funny drawings to make a point, scoreboard for team participation, etc.

More power to ppt enthusiasts but I figure my kids get enough exposure to screen info as it is (& tend to glaze over into passive viewer mode). Voice, chalk, & paper all strike me as warmer media & more conducive to my job description, which is promoting conversation.

Maybe its just me, but all my classes seem consistently eager to talk.

[Not a fan of whiteboards either. They get dirty & markers are always on the verge of running out.]

bundangbabo · Joined: 01 Jun 2008

I use the chalkboard - first of all - It is good for student interaction - you can get the students to stand up and draw/write on the chalkboard . I'm good at drawing and if you can draw decently on a chalkboard then that kind of seperates the men from the boys. Anyone can conjure up some crap PPT presentation - and then spend 10 minutes setting it up and another 10 minutes fiddling about with the apparatus because it has decided to play up - but lets see you draw a world map on a board with just a stick of chalk. Cool

Fishead Soup - Once you realise the students aren't all that interested in photos of your family and your hometown then the better an English teacher you are going to be!