Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bloopity Bloop]

Hi,

First time teaching high school and I"m not used to the whole lack of curriculum/book (at least at my school).

For the introductory class, I'll be introducing myself and asking each student in the class to tell me a few things about themselves. I've only taught about 4 of the 20 or so classes I'll be teaching and so far this has been successful in every way except that the lesson is too short--I'll have 10-15 minutes of the 50 minute period left.

What could I add to a lesson where we'll basically be introducing ourselves to each other?

Thanks.

[passport220]

From a related post I wrote in the past:

...If you can make a PowerPoint presentation, with slides of your hometown, hobies, family, etc. as a prop. The idea is not to set traditional learning goals but to let the students (and teachers) get used to listening to the quality of your voice, accent and pace.

After I introduce myself I play the well known ESL intro game where the I write 5 sentences on the board. 3 are true, 2 are false, I let the students guess which is which.
The five sentences that I use as an example:

I am the youngest child in my family.
I am a very good basketball player.
Pizza is my favorite food.
I have been to China once.
I eat rice everyday.

Next it is the students turn, have them write 2 sentences 1 true, 1 false (cut down to only two, just to keep within the time limit of class time). Then I have each student read the two sentences individually and I guess which is true. The main point is to have each student participate and get over the jitters of speaking with you. Keep it light and fun.

Overall my advice is to make your base lessons on the easy side and be prepared to expand and make them more challenging if you feel it is warranted on the spot.

If the lessons are too easy the students will complain, but they will participate.
If the lessons are too difficult the students will complain and shut down and do nothing.
It is better to start too easy.

The introduction lesson will get you through until you can get your feet on the ground and take a look at what the students are studying, you can then tailor your lessons accordingly.


Good luck

[Bloopity Bloop]

passport220.

Those are absolutely brilliant ideas and are invaluable to me as a (fairly) new teacher.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate the help.

If anyone else has any additional tips for an introductory class or high school in general, I'll take 'em too.

[waynehead]

Passport's ideas are great, I've used them as well. If you have extra time at the end of class you can do a powerpoint quiz about yourself. I usually use that as a backup in my lessons.

[passport220]

...

[passport220]

I did a PowerPoint presentation in the past for classroom terms about American school life that would work well as an end of class filler.

Some pp slides to include:

-A big yellow school bus
-Brief table of typical daily or weekly schedule
-Brief table of school holidays
-Breakfast / Lunch menus -pics of tacos, sub sandwich, pizza and be sure to include a slide of a tater-tots!
-Sports facilities
-Clothes students wear (K-students think it is wild that American students don't wear uniforms)
-High school students driving a car to school (very rare in Korea)
-School mascot � K-schools do not use mascots (logos of Wolves, Wildcats, etc. and the one from the '88 Seoul Olympics to explain / compare)

Just give some simple explanations of the slides and try to generate some questions and get the students talking a bit, just as a change for them to practice speaking.

One tip about fillers, make a log in what classes you use them as you likely will not need the filler always, you can keep it in your back pocket and spread it around to hit all the classes but you don't want to replete it.

[winterfall]

Is this an introduction class or a introduction / student level assessment class?