Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rusty1983]

Today i was asked to cover a class in the evening and I agreed, although hungover and tired. I was teaching a class about preposition collocation and managed, for over an hour, to tell them that 'to' collocates with 'start' as in 'I started to drive when I was 17'. And so on. COMPLETELY forgot that it is part of the infinitive form rather than a preposition. When they come to hear that prepositions are always followed by -ing theyre going to be almightily confused.

Jesus Christ as if I hadnt taught the same stuff yesterday and taught it pretty well. Moronic.

So, my question is, what's the stupidest thing youve ever done while teaching?

[seonsengnimble]

A couple of years ago, I had come back from home the day before and was teaching a one on one class my first day at my new job. I was using a conversation book that I didn't have a chance to look over before I started teaching, and I was being observed. The chapter was about pronouns. I see this and go up to the board to show what pronouns are and teach for about 20 minutes about prepositions while both the student and observer are giving me a strange look. I open the book again and see pronoun, turn red and say something like, "The thing you have to remember is that you use pronouns with prepositions the same way you use nouns." I then insert pronouns into the example sentences I had written on the board.

[withnail]

Had been teaching a group of Lawyers for about a week on a two week course about 10 years ago when I was younger and stupider.

One guy's name went straight out of my head. I had already started using their names when asking them various questions but when it came to him I had to resort to motioning "you next".

After a few rounds of questions he'd found me out and the following ensued:

He: "Don't you know my name?"
Me:"Of course" I lied
He:"You're sure?"
Me: "Yes"
He: "Really. Why can't you use it then"
Me:"I just wonder if I have the right spelling to help the pronunciation. Could you spell it for me one more time?" (tactic to get his name indirectly)
He: "You write what you think it is on the whiteboard and I'll correct you...

Game over.

(Actually his name was the extremely hard to pronounce and difficult to spell "Tim")

[Goku]

[rusty1983]

The other thing I do is Im chatting away when Im writing on the board; which is bad enough in itself, but because Im not concentrating I end up writing what Im saying.

[goodsounz]

I had been listening to a lot of funk/soul music one night. The next day I was to teach them comparatives and superlatives. We were doing exceptions to the rule and when "bad" came up the only thing that was running through my mind was "Bad Bad Leroy Brown the baddest...."!!
I corrected them after 30 minutes after looking up at the board from the back of the classroom. (Stand at the back of the classroom after writing stuff on the board - its always good to spot mistakes you make)

[rusty1983]

[sunnata1]

[antoniothegreat]

this one isnt horrible, but oh well.

i was playing a fun game where kids had to guess things about their friends. they already answered questions on paper like "what is your favorite food?" or " who is your favorite teacher?"

so, for an entire class, while trying to say "who is___'s favorite star?" I just could not talk, and everytime I would say"who is ----'s favorite starry?" I just couldnt say it. mustve done it like 8 times.

another one...
class is talking too much, i repeatedly warn them, and finally get upset and scold them.
one student: teacher, you...
me: i said "stop talking" that means dont talk
same student: but teacher...
me:no, sit!
student: teacher!
me: stop! (grab my stick)
student-points at my zipper that is down.

oops...