Korean Job Discussion Forums

[adventureman]

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[crazylemongirl]

Stuff I've learned in my first 6 months in a public school.

1. KISS. Keep it simple stupid. Keep your lesson objectives simple. I have a tendency to want to cover too much material.

2. your goal should be to get the kids speaking as much english as possible. So try and give kids oppourtunties to speak english to eachother.

3. Peer Pressure is more effective at controlling students than you are. If a few individual students act up I make them do love hearts. If a class is acting up then I add a minute to their class at the end of a session (they really hate that).

4. It's better to come down like a ton of bricks on classes at first and ease off rather than try and reign in classes later.

5. Planning is important no matter what the class size. But it really becomes important as your classes get bigger. However don't be afraid to be flexible if you find that the kids are having diffculty with a concept don't be afraid to spend some extra time on it rather than slavishly sticking to the curriculm.

My lessons tend to follow this pattern.

Greetings.
Introduction of grammar/vocab
Comprehesnion summative assesment (usually it's a worksheet)
Communicatoin activity (kids are broken into small groups to practice the target language). This activity needs to varied.

presentation. I usally call on a few teams to present their findings.
Wrap up. Use the answers from the presentations to practice again. Asign homework if necessary.

[Toby]