Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TheQueenIsDead]

Flying to Ilsan next week to start a public school job. I arrive on Tuesday and apparently I get a week to settle in, which is ace. I'm still massively apprehensive however, I've never led a class before, I've only assisted a teacher for a month. I'm hoping it'll come with practice though, like most things!

But generally, what does your lesson consist of? 50 minutes seems a vast amount of time to fill, so if you could break it down into segments I'd really appreciate it.

I'm still not clued up about the curriculum either... is it fairly rigid and already set up, or will I be expected to 'freestyle' and do my own thing? I'd be more than happy to do the latter, just not in my first couple of months.

Any opinions would be great!

Cheers

[Robot_Teacher]

Ilsan? Lucky duck, it's near Seoul and has the Rosenbrau microbrewery which is German beer in Korea as well as plenty of new friends to associate with. Since you said 50 minutes, you must be going to a high school. I'm elementary which are 40 minute classes and it goes like this most classes, but I'm finding it not to be an issue to fill time with a variety of activities. With high school, you got a lot more possibilities and materials as it's much higher level.

5 minutes - Introduction such as greetings, asking what day and month it is, and how's the weather to teach basic conversation openers.
2 minutes - Karaoke song such as, "Days of the Week."
About 3 minutes - Review of last lesson
1 to 5 minutes - Introducing today's lesson
20 minutes - teach
Last 5 to 10 minutes - wrap up with a game or a few karaoke songs such as, "BINGO," and the alphabet song.

This is very basic material compared to high school, but I think I'd still teach using this sort of routine if I were in a high school. I often throw out quiz questions of material previously taught for points, stickers, or lemon magnets where 5 or 6 groups compete. It doesn't require lots of candy, in fact, I use none, and the students still learn and have a good time. They just need recognition and to prove they can do in a competitive setting. Some classes already have it's reward system already in place by the Korean teacher or you create one. Some classes are taught using the national curriculum if your Korean co-teacher speaks English and wants to teach it. I don't teach national curriculum alone as it's not designed for only the foreign teacher to teach and has many errors so I use things like bogglesworldesl.com as a source of lesson planning material and ideas.

[WendyRose]

I teach 40 minute classes for elementary aged students. They usually break down as follows:

-3 to 8 minutes: warm up (review a song, speaking practice, TPR)
-5 minutes: Review last lesson (usually Powerpoint, flash cards or short activity)
-15 minutes: Teach the lesson (use visuals, incorporate songs/chants, listening and speaking/repeating, etc).
-10-15 minutes: Game or activity (lots off ideas out there on the internet)
-3 to 5 minutes: closing (review material one more time, short quiz to check for comprehension, short activity, etc.)

I think in most schools if you're a little under or over the allotted time you'll be okay - timing can be tricky sometimes. It's better to have more than enough material than tons of time left over. I always fall back on word games and stuff if I find that the lesson went quicker than I thought.

Good luck!

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]