Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TellyRules986]

I'm having a bit of an issue with my hagwon and I wanted to ask here because it looks like some of you have been in Korea for awhile, whereas I don't have anyone to ask for advice. The story's more complicated but I won't make the post too long.

I work at a small hagwon that's pretty new (in business for 9ish months) with 2 other foreign teachers. All 3 of us are new to teaching in Korea, so we aren't really familiar with how things are run here. We were all hired at about the same time and have been here for 2 months so far.

Before us there was another foreign teacher working for this hagwon. For the first several months he was here and getting paid but didn't do much work -- just helped open the school, decorations, etc. and he completed his contract and left. When the school opened, they didn't have a curriculum and they just told him to "go teach" with no books, etc. So he just babysat the kids basically.

This is important because when we were hired, they gave us a full curriculum with lots of textbooks, structure and whatnot. And our Korean supervisor hovers over us to make sure we're using the materials closely.

That said, since we got here the parents have been complaining that the school used to be good, but now all the classes are boring and they liked the old teacher better. They say the kids don't want to come to school every day. The director is telling us that #1 priority is that classes are fun and that the kids like us. The supervisor is telling us that we need to follow the books closely. I know that kids (we teach kindy) don't like books and that's why they used to like the school.

Last week the director told us that we must "change" or we will all be fired next month. I'm not sure what to do. Kids go to school to get an education -- it's not supposed to be "fun" all the time and books are boring. I'm going to ditch the books entirely in hopes of not getting fired, but I would like advice. What are we doing wrong?

[ACT III]

I'm making the assumption that you have little to no formal training right? Bridging the gap between "Fun" and "education" is always a challenge but in this situation I think you should focus on keeping your job- which is to keep the parents happy. Make the class more focused on fun, then clandestinely insert some "education" without making it the song and dance of a boring text book.

[johnyv40]

Forgive my newness, to ESL, but I have taught in the states for a year.
It is hard to make every class fun and exciting. Sometimes you just got to buckle down do the hard work. I had an old teacher tell me that the way to keep students interested in the subject material is to change every 10-15 minutes. He said he had a student in charge of keeping time. This was not ESL either, but it seems like if u have students who are getting bored try changing what you are doing.
This is just my noob $.02

good luck
or you could just start looking for a new job

[edwardcatflap]

It's difficult to give any advice without seeing the material you have to work with but I would say use the book but adapt it to make it more interesting to the kids. Turn the book activities into fun activities by making them competitive for example. Stick target language from the book around the class room and get the kids to do running dictations. Stick target vocab on the board and organise run and point games. give out target language on individual cards and organise TPR games when kids have to stand up when they hear their word etc etc.. there are probably a ton of these type of activities on the internet you can find. You should be able to satisfy both the supervisor and the boss in this way. Also Johnny is right when he says you should vary the activity type. Do a 10 minute running activity for example then the kids will be in a better state to do a 10 minute writing activity. They'll be happy to sit quietly doing this if they know there will be another 'fun' activity afterwards.

[TellyRules986]

To answer your questions, I haven't had any formal training although I have briefly taught english to adults in the US before this. So, this kindy thing is entirely different of course!

The materials are ok at best. The biggest problem with them is level -- I have too many books that are too hard for the students to understand.

Thanks for the advice. I've been searching on the internet and am trying to compile a big list of games that I will keep on me at all times. I'm also thinking of giving them candy once a week, etc.

[edwardcatflap]

Don't give out candy. I know Korean teachers swear by it, but it's wrong on so many fronts. Unless your kids are total lost causes you should be able to motivate them by giving out praise or points as rewards and not something that'll cause them to have their milk teeth surgically removed

[oskinny1]

Flashcards, drawing, games, songs, moving, moving, moving. Change it up every 5-10 minutes. If classes are 40 minutes have at least 7 activities.

what teacher does-
5 minute greeting, I ask 1 student "How are you?" and then have them go in a circle asking and answering. How old are you? How old is SunJin?
5 minute song. Lots of movements.
5 minutes days. Have 9 sets of flash cards 3 students, throw cards all over the floor and have them grab them and put them in order. Faster students help out the slower ones.
5 minutes review vocab and game with vocab. Just show them the flashcard, have them say the word and then throw a ball in a basket.
10 minutes new words...different game.
10 minutes work on writing, usually connect the dots with ABC.

Done.

What student sees-

greeting
song
game
game
game
coloring sheet.

Done.

[caribmon]

To make class fun, I would say, "is it hot or cold?"> they would say HOT because the a/c didn't work. I would then pour my water bottle on my head, which created a huge mess, they thought that was VERY FUNNY. I was dry by the end of class. Over time, they got into it and I would throw water at them when they felt too hot and it was a lot of fun. Not suggesting you do that but if you're desperate...

Just remember to go to immigration to cancel your visa before you leave.

[Troglodyte]

You're in a bit of a bad situation. The school owner's primary interest is in making money. Like most hogwan owners, he'd probably boot his own granny out on the street if it would please his customers and get them to sign up for one more class. The reality is that he WILL fire you if it's what the parents of the kids want. It's not a big expense for them to bring you over to Korea, and they'll try to recuperate as much of that as they can out of your last paycheck. From what I've seen and people I've talked to, businesses here are generally expected to go belly up eventually and the only trick is to make enough profit before that happens to not go in the red.

Education is only a secondary priority for the owner, and even then only because it's supposedly what he's selling and the schools reputation for providing it is what will keep bringing in the buck - back to priority one.

If you really want to stay, then just sit down with the boss (along with the other teachers) and lay out all the facts on the table. Tell him that you understand that they need to bring in and retain clients. Tell him that you are willing to please the kids and keep them happy, but that it's going to detract from how much they learn. But stress to him that you're ok with that because you realise that he needs to make a profit. Tell him that you can keep the parents happy too by showing them how well the kids have done the classwork (you give the kids the answers quickly before moving on to a game). Stress to him that he can't have it fun and entertaining AND highly educational.

Really, in your case I'd just give the book a minimal amount of time and then move on to a game, song, whatever that the kids enjoy. At the end of the day, the boss will appreciate THAT a lot more than whether the kids are learning because it keeps him in business. The parents will appreciate that their kids aren't complaining and don't have to be forced to go to the hogwan. The kids will be happy and cooperative. And if you have to show what the kids have learned, show them that they have correctly answered most of the activities in the textbook. They'll never know that you gave them the answers.

Bear in mind, that this advice will only work at a hogwan. Public schools will want you to actually teach (to some degree).

If he does fire you, it's not the end of the world. Just get another job. Since you're already here and have the E2 visa, it shouldn't be a big problem to get another job. If it comes down to being fired, then tell your boss that you're willing to leave as long as he gives you a release letter and a recommendation letter. If he doesn't, you can try to make problems for him. But if he knows that you're peacefully leaving to go to another school, he'll probably be happy to move you along.

[TellyRules986]

[Zulethe]

If you want to save your job, this is what you NEED to do.

Video tape one of your lamer classes and post maybe 10 minutes on here. I will be able to give you a lot of feedback as well as other more experienced posters.

Without being able to assess you in the classroom, all of the advice on here will mean dribble.

We all like to say it's the "material" when in fact that it's probably your lack of presentation skills.

[Fishead soup]

Get on the site EFL Classroom 2.0 Contact debeuls on this site.
It's full of cool Powerpoint games. Kids love them. Try Baam, Fling the teacher and Jeopardy there is also tons of cool Kareoke stuff.

[Juregen]

A nice example of incompetent people working for a bad managed business.

Sorry, I really have no advice to you except to look for another job ASAP.

[TellyRules986]

Thanks for all the tips

To update: I'm basically doing what ACT III said and mostly just fool around and play games while teaching vocab/phrases at the same time. I only spend about 10ish minutes on the books. Apparently the director likes this so far.

Another question: say, for instance I were fired tomorrow. What would be the steps I would take to find a new position.

I know that I always need a plan B.

[kingplaya4]

When I used to teach low level students, I would give them all English names the first class, and have them go around and meet each other. Then things would progress to "How are you" "How old are you" and you can progress to more complicated questions from there. I never spent more than twenty minutes on the books the hagwon would give me. If you're reading stories, let them spend time making their own stories. If you are doing vocabulary you can do bingo or hangman etc. Coming in even thirty minutes early or better yet an hour to plan out a few lessons should prove helpful, especially as a newer teacher. Let us know how things go.