Korean Job Discussion Forums

[VanIslander]

Discuss.

[PRagic]

You started the thread, you discuss!

[dunc180]

You deliver lessons to teach students?

[Fishead soup]

I teach the room

[some waygug-in]

I stand to the side while the KT mumbles on endlessly in Korean. Every now and then she asks me to clarify some obscure grammar point or other, which I do. Then she might ask me to read a few lines to the class.

In truth, I am teaching nobody.

If there is any teaching going on, it's being done in Korean.

[Draz]

[Triban]

[outkast_3000]

Umm...such a bizarre statement.

I'd hope that if any of you are serious about teaching students, you're preparing principled lesson plans to facilitate their ease of learning.

I know that's not possible for you all (I've been there in elementary school as the English speaking monkey), but if you actually have the freedom to do your own thing, I'd hope you're not winging it. It's not to say people who wing things are incompetent about their craft, it's just that too much is left up to chance, and it's too easy to deviate from the intended objectives. It's easier to have a firm lesson plan in place with a clear direction of what you're going to do and what you're going to do with the students. Now, the lesson plan isn't Law, in that you can deviate from it if a "teachable" moment comes up - but you should still be able to return to it and finish off the lesson - or if you're out of time, return to it next class.

The problem with lesson plans is that it's easy to forget about the students, in that, you're not really gauging the mood of the class - you've essentially strapped them into the car, seatbelts tight, and have simply taken them along for the ride. I don't believe that's the point of lesson planning.

But, to be frank, if you don't know what you're doing, your lesson plan will suck, and the class will suck.

[tigershark]

A wise man once said "Everything in the classroom should be done with a specific purpose in mind. Otherwise, why are you doing it?" and the purpose doesn't necessarily have to be a specific grammar point . It could be...i want to grab their attention. Holler

[Ramen]

I teach meaningless lessons to my students.

[Fox]

I try to teach students as much as possible through the medium of lessons.

[Keepongoing]

[lifeinkorea]

I don't really focus on the students. I could never become a better teacher if I tend to every student that doesn't write an "a" properly or make it look like a slanted "u".

I work hard on developing good lessons, then students who are open to them will grow and learn. Those that aren't interested or won't put the effort have 2 things happen to them:

1) Parents discipline them, they do their job, and the student works harder staying in school.

2) Parents do zilch, the students meander academically from good to bad performance and drop out.

It's not my son or daughter, so I am not going to do parental responsibilities for 100's of students. So many single parents try to be the supermom or superdad to their child, they don't realize that one person can't do it all.

[The Gipkik]

It's a dynamic, oscillating process. There is a set curriculum, which needs to be covered and there are lesson plans to stay on course and get through the material. However, when interesting issues get raised, when problems raise their ugly little heads, I will break from the lesson and spontaeously teach to the students. This could turn into a 5 minute break from the planned lesson to elaborate or play with the questions, vocabulary, situations that get raised. Of course, when a lesson is going bad, and I can see that for a certain class it isn't working, I'll chuck the lesson and think it through on my feet in line with the general class feeling or what they need right here, right now.