Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marista99]

I've been teaching for about 3 months at a hogwan for children age 6 to 14. It's going pretty well, with the exception of my younger kids classes. I have a 6 year old class, a 7 year old one, and an 8 year olds one. Now, I know that kids this age can't be expected to have long attention spans, but I literally cannot hold their attention to one activity for more than 3 minutes at a time. With 50 minutes of class to fill, it isn't easy to plan a new activity for every 3 minutes of class. Is this normal for kids this age, in Korea or anywhere else?

I do not have any formal teaching training or experience, and I am doing the best I can, but the kids of course do not want to study. Not only that, they don't want to play games either. If I say "now we're going to play a game" they go "yaaay!" and once we launch into the game they have fun with it for about 2 minutes and then it degenerates into random running around the room, punching each other, doing cartwheels, basically total chaos. Same thing happens with songs, stories, and pretty much any other normal kids' activity.

I've tried ignoring it, which is impossible, being a disciplinarian and giving time outs or "arms-up" punishments, rewards...all the class management strategies in my admittedly meager arsenal. Nothing works for more than one class period.

Conversely, if my boss or my assistant come in and teach the same stuff, the kids pay attention, behave themselves, and do just fine. Is my lack of success with the kids due to the fact that I don't speak Korean, that I am a foreigner, or because I am a sucky teacher? Or some combination of all three?

Any advice would be appreciated. Is there anything that I could do to improve this situation? If your advice is that I quit now and accept that I am a teaching retard, I'd rather hear that now than wait till I get fired or something.

[Bunnymonster]

OK you're not alone in having this exact situation (though mine are younger). Not that it makes your life any easier, but when I am less tired in the morning I'll give you any pearls of wisdom I can come up with from my 8 months of Kindy Terror.............

[margaret]

I taught kindy and the oldest kids were the worst (6 and 7 year olds) They also would behave with their Korean teacher and ignore me. I think it's a combination of not being able to communicate and thinking that I was a realation to Micky Mouse--fun and interesting but without any authority.
My solution was probably unique as my boss was very kind to foreigners (but not nice to the Korean teachers) and I told her I couldn't teach them without a Korean teacher there for discpline, which was actually part of the contract.
Margaret

[manlyboy]

At most kids hagwons where they give you training at the start, you learn all about curriculum, paper work, materials, rules and regulations, etc, but it seems like they never give training in regards to behaviour management. And this, at least for me, is the hardest part about teaching kids.
My co-teacher just screams at them like they're all a bunch of miscreants. It's very effective, but of course they all hate her guts. And I refuse to go down that path.
I don't even know if it's possible to keep 40 kids in line at all times. Is it?

[OiGirl]

If the problem truly is with their attention spans, one technique I find useful with kids of that age is to make sure some physical activity is built into the lesson about every two or three minutes.

This doesn't necessarily mean changing the activity, but one kid needs to go across the room to get another flash card, write something on the boad, point to an answer on the poster, etc. keep them active, especially the ones with the highest energy who are giving you the most trouble.

Any ideas for getting through to a 7-year-old who screams loudly throughout the lesson? I know he's listening to me, because he will integrate parts of the lesson I'm teaching into his tirade. But he won't participate appropriately in the lesson and he won't shut up!

(I am looking, of course, for classroom interventions I can put into place on my own. I'm not interested in pulling someone else into the classroom to deal with this kid.)

[quiksilver]

marista99

I'm going through the exact same thing. I've been at my hogwan for almost two months and the kids are insane when I get in the room. They basically stop doing everything educational (put there books in their bags sometimes) and go crazy. I get a Korean teacher to come in and tell them to settle down and then they are good for a day or so and then it's back to normal. I've decided that all I'm going to do is teach, and whoever wants to listen can and whoever doesn't want to can pick their nose for all I care. I agree that it is not possible to control a large number of kids, even if you can speak the same language. I know I've only been here two months but I feel more like a "baby-sitter" than a "teacher". So you are not alone. Just find something that works.

quik

[peemil]

Put your foot down. Make sure they know that you are the boss. I started a few years ago just letting it run right over me. But after a while I wanted control in my class room. It's a long process- Especially because they are so used to the foreign teacher being a walk over. You have to discipline and punish.

I don't have problems any more. I'm just a drill Sargeant.

[peppermint]

if there are kids that are interested in your class- even a little more than the others, use that. Peer pressure can be a useful tool in this culture. TRy to get the bigger or louder kids on your side. They'll tell everyone to sit down and be quiet, for sure.

[marista99]

Thanks for the ideas. I should add that the classes have 10, 5, and 7 kids respectively. So it's not like I'm trying to control dozens of kids. This is all the more reason why I feel like a failure--I feel like with such small groups it shouldn't be this difficult!

As far as punishment, I think the kids are crazy. They actually WANT to get punished. Like I say "Kenny if you do that one more time it's arms up" and he says "okay" and goes in the corner and puts his arms up. Sometimes he even goes "yes!" instead of "okay". What is UP with that? How do I discipline kids who think the punishment is fun/a joke?

And what do I do with the kid who mimics every single thing I say? He also thinks time outs and arms up are a whole lot of fun.

In any event I'm SO glad to hear I'm not alone here. Thanks again for the help

[d503]

I too have problems with a class of eight year olds. They used to steal my stuff, brawl in class, and generally not listen. My boss tells me, you need to control your class. So one day instead of saying, please be quite, sit down, give my money back, and all other forms of nice things. I stand up and count to ten. And when they don't shut up, sit down, or in any way behave. I pass out pieces of paper that are lined front and back. As in your class this got the kids attention. Then I right clearly on the board "I will be quiet in class" and tell the to write until the page is full. They got the idea and began. If any of them started to act up I walk up to them tell them to be quiet and sit down and handed them a second sheet. The first day They spent about 30 minutes doing this. And the rest of the class I did the lesson and they listened. The next day they were crazy again and so again with the writing lines and This time I stopped at about 25 minutes in. And by the fourth day the kids all yelled at the obnoxious ones to shut up. I now also use a sticker system to help reinforce the good behavior and it is working so far (Knock on wood) . Hope this helps some

[Grotto]

control techniques.

I believe there have been a fair number of posts on this board concerning this arena.

Here are some ones I remember and use myself

Write a big X on the back of the hand with an indelible black marker. They cant wash it off and beleive me mother and father will ask them about it when they get home!

Hands up can be effective. Variations on it are: put a book in their hands.
put a ruler lengthwise between their hands and if they drop it big trouble! It is harder to do than it sounds.

kneeling is one I use for older kids. Kneel with hands up at the front of the class. The second time a student comes up the have to kneel on a peice of wood it is quite painful. even a pencil will do.

Toss em out in the hall, wait about 5 minutes and then go out and tell them that if they misbehave out they go again.

for a kid that parrots everything you say tell him it is rude. who knows maybe his parents have told him to be a good student you must say everything the teacher says I have read that some teachers tape the kid to the chair or tape their mouth shut(I dont think I would want to go there)

Biggest tip for classroom management: it is much easier to be draconian early on and ease up than a marshmellow at the beginning and try to crack down.

On positive thing I do is I carry a soft cloth ball to class, about the size of an apple. If the kids are restless I will walk around with it in my hand and toss it to students who arent paying attention and fire off a question. Its a great simple way to get them involved and keep them alert. It is also useful for testing understanding. Example: toss the ball to a student and ask a question pertaining to the lesson or a lesson from last week/month. What day is today? Whats the weather like? Who is in your family? What day is tomorrow? How do you feel? Where did you go yesterday? What do you want to do? etc.............

One of the nicest things about my current gig is that I have a Korean co-teacher who handles 95% of the discipline and I just back her up.

[captain kirk]

Those little buggers are my favourites, if they know I'm the boss, and they do. I'm LOUD with them and keep things running my way. Don't feel bad, even the K-teachers 'can't handle them' sometimes. Taewon, when I took the baton from the k-teacher 'wouldn't copy out lines', his punishment. Alyssa, the k-teacher, took him away to look over his shoulder while he did his lines, took him out of class.
Rambunctious, definition of.
But hilarious. If I had that age all day I'd be dead. Enormous amounts of energy and voice just about gone in forty minutes.
I don't know what you do, but all the elementary we just follow the book. And review it three or four times, all this in 3 or four months. There are no 'new activities'. They are 'outlawed'. Funny, aint it. But the boss knows the mothers want it 'by the book'. We all have to cope, then, which means no lesson planning .
We use Let's Go 1 for these little villains, which are half boys, half girls.
Two rambunctious boys I get to stand in the corner, arms up sometimes. Fifteen minutes, then welcomed back into the fold.
I get them to circle words and write down the Korean equivalent in Hangeul. And give them new words, like 'pond/yun mote'. And 'what's the baseball bat made of?' 'Namu', they scream. So I pretend, arms up, I'm a happy tree in the forest then grimace, making saw sounds, as I'm 'cut down', when I become dead, and 'wood'. So the baseball bat is made of 'wood'.
I give them new words, not in the book, they write in the margin with the Hangeul. They need them to make sentences and respond. In a few months they can. Trees are made of wood, for example.
And they need to make sentences.
There are two teams in every class, including middle school. If there are nine students I ask someone for a coin and we flip to see which team number nine goes to. Or it could be five girls to four boys. So they get a dash on the white board each time someone gives an appropriate response.
At the end the winning team gets a 'green po do' Candy. A sour grape, green candy ball they love. And everybody gets a sucker. I do that with every class, including middle school. I toss the suckers up in the air, bounced off the ceiling, and they get a huge kick out of that commotion. Because they're different coloured wrappers and flavours. When they're bouncing off the ceiling and the down to the desk, they're following the colour of their favourite flavour. Where's the chocolate, where's the grape, and trying to grab it. It's a free-for-all to end class with, they've earned the candy.
About the book, spin off questions. What's it made of (steel, iron, plastic, paper, wood). Where are they going? What are they doing? Where are they? Why is he/she doing that? What's his name? Etc.
If some kid is as loud as I am he's trying to over-rule. If someone's throwing bits of eraser, NO. Or kicking the table like a bongo, uh-uh. Or 'surfing their chair'. No, because they'll deliberately let it tip back, them riding it to the ground, as a class-distracting amusement park ride. Like one of those 'bucking bronco machines'.
They get the hang of it, and the rules down, and it becomes sweet.
Hope this helps. I'm no master but I do my job.