Korean Job Discussion Forums

[poeticjustice]

I teach High School students and generally my classes go alright. Sometimes I have a day where all my classes are perfect, other times I have a day where they're total [Mod Edit] and they would've been better off with free time.

For example, my students are divided up by level. At the top are the advanced classes, at the bottom are the low-level classes. I had all low-level classes yesterday.

I went in with a box of flashcards that I bought. They had basic words on them like "don't", "isn't", "as" and "because." I tried playing a simple game that was a cross between Wheel of Fortune and making simple sentences using the flashcard words. The kids didn't budge. I couldn't even get a hand raised, even after I offered candy for every thing that was said. My co-teacher for that class is new and she just stood there.

My English got simpler and simpler, I started using Korean (which never really gets me anywhere because once they realize its Korean I'm speaking they're all "aww ki-op-da!" etc) and I started making my newbie co-teacher translate everything I said. Still nothing. I don't know what the point of teaching the low classes is... Apparently most of them can't read, they don't know simple English words like "because" and they can't understand anything I say unless its really simple and Konglishized. The low classes are always painful. I can't even go any lower in terms of stuff to teach them and they still don't respond. Its like trying to teach a monkey Spanish.

Anyway, similar problem with my higher level kids. I can have the best class in the world then take the lesson plan to the next class, with the same amount of confidence (maybe more) and the class will completely bomb. All the kids will have their heads down, it will take a huge effort to get them propped up and listening then it will take double that effort to get them to participate in anything that isn't a candy-throwing videofest. I start getting really awkward after awhile because, especially in boy's classes, all they do is sit there and stare angrily at me for waking them up. Some of them will scream "*beep* you" and "PLAY VIDEO!!!" on occasion. When I shush them, they go back to sleep. When we wake them up, they get angry.

I'm in my third year teaching and my second year at my High School. I'd say about 30% of my classes are PAINFUL in every possible sense of the word.

(I teach at an academic, public High School. My students vary between complete retard and Stephen Hawking).

Got any advice/feedback on this?

[Fishead soup]

The OP is trying to hard just listen and repeat. This isn't rocket science.

[Clockout]

Just write some stuff on the board for awhile.

Do some listen and repeat.

Hand out a worksheet.

End class.

[xingyiman]

Just be an advertisement. That's what you were hired for.

[poeticjustice]

[Draz]

Yah, the responses are depressing but you can take something from them. Listen and Repeat is a beloved favorite of Korean students. It's easy, everyone knows what to do and you're not put on the spot speaking in front of everyone, but you can still feel like you're learning. Don't do it for the whole class, but it can be a good warm-up.

Use the same format every class. That way they know what's coming and have one less thing to avoid figuring out. They know what is coming, and can focus on the lesson. Using a different game every class is hard for lower levels.

It can always be simplified more. If making a sentence out of one word is too hard, try giving them a word scramble.

[poeticjustice]

[Aelric]

I'm sure you've heard all the basic advise before, considering it's your 3rd year. You've been in this oat before and your really trying to get some advise to break the cycle. Unfortunately, I can't help you much.

You're always gonna have those bad days and your always going to have a few idiot lost cause kids along with some snot-nosed English prodigies. Those are the kids you shouldn't even think about. The prodigy will be just fine, just let them draw in the corner if they are so bored with the lesson. The lost cause never stood a chance in this culture anyway. If they are in high school and they still don't give a crap, then just let it go and let life sort them out.

Disconnect. That is all I can say. You will be in this state again but you'll also have the good days and even the occasional event that might just convince you that you are doing right by these kids (unless you really aren't). And if you really can't take it anymore than maybe it's time to go home. I certainly couldn't see myself sucking it up for more than the end of my next contract.

[D.D.]

The listen and repeat advice pisses me off- what a joke you guys are. Find a topic they like and show a few clips of it and get them to make up 5 sentences.

If they can't make sentences , do mind maps.

This week I put a picture of Bugs bunny up using youtube.

The kids made 2 mind maps and 5 sentences.

They were told speed was the goal.

1st mind map was just list 10 things- carrot, book, ears, legs, ect...
2nd mind map was decribe 10 things about bugs bunny-long legs, white and grey fur, reading a book, eating a orange carrot.

then they made 5 sentences from their descriptions and we talked about them in class and I corrected their sentences.

This gives all the students a chance to do something and they are learning how to think quickly and structure language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUYZYJ7XueI

Here is the video and it was stopped at 1:17 and the kids just talked about that frame with him reading a book.

This is a lot better than some idiot who thinks language is about listening and repeating. Teachers who teach like that are more interested in their hangover cures than cures for the low level of spoken English in Korea.

[Clockout]

I run my middle school classes like a high school class.

5 minute review.

25 minute lecture + participation of some kind.

15 minute individual work time.

Never got a complaint.

[RufusW]

What's with these 'lecture' parts of the lesson? I thought TEFL teaching was about getting the students to speak for 90% of the lesson. Is it just because they simply won't?

'Because' seems quite hard, maybe?

[Clockout]

[nathanrutledge]

I decided the other day to scrap the text book and do my own stuff. Today, had two classes, my number 1 and number 2 dumbest and worst behaved classes. We talked about movies. PowerPoint presentation with a few vocab words, a few key phrases, and two model conversations (ticket booth, snack bar). Asked the kids what the vocab words were in Korean (had words and photos), i read the phrases and conversations, they repeated. Underlined the things we can change, discussed what to change them to. Then, they took 20 minutes (the first part only took 10 minutes) and wrote their own conversations based on the models. The low level people copied it word for word, replacing only the underlined things, the high level kids wrote their own original ones, and everyone else was somewhere in the middle. And I'll be damned if they didn't all participate, write things down, understand what we were talking about!

LAST WEEK

The classes were the total opposite. We did a review of basic tenses we had already covered. They couldn't/wouldn't write a single sentence. They didn't know a single pronoun. They were idiots!

We all have those days/weeks/ even months. Stop, take a step back, look at what you're doing. Are you using low level language to explain/teach? Are they so low that you have to teach elementary level stuff? It's a lot of work, but once you figure out what these kids need/want, you'll be in like Flynt.

[Fishead soup]

[RufusW]