Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

I've got a few students I don't like much. I guess everyone does. Mainly they are elementary. Some are rude. Some do not want to be there. What can ya do? A few classes are painful. Sometimes the material is lame or not appropriate. Gotta come up with stuff they can relate to. I hate getting angry. I don't think it's effective. Need some new ideas I suppose.

Ah, just had a couple of unpleasant classes Friday.

[OiGirl]

I don't know if this will work for you... I had one student I COULD NOT STAND! Finally, one day, I told him exactly what I did not like and why. It broke the tension and now we are buddies. There are still days when the things about him I detest rise to the surface again, but we have an understanding that I can call him on it, he gets grumpy for 10 minutes or so, and then things are fine.

[the eye]

man! elementary schoolers aint nothin!!
them middle school guuuurls get MY colors goin. nothing worse than pre-pubescent adjumas who think you should bow down and kiss their feet for a simple 'hello'.

for the elementary schoolers, jajdude, i think you solved your own problem in your post. you gotta find stuff they can relate to. and you gotta use a variety of activities in the lesson. those little buggers have about a 10minute attention span for any particular activity.

start off the lesson with some vocab from the lesson. ask them some questions with it. make the questions as silly as possible...use subject that make them laff. for the students who give you a hard time, use extra silly questions on them. get them to ask similar questions to each other.

now you can move into the text lesson. just use it as a guide, you can improvise with it.

oh, they are drifting....play a game. simon says. pictionary. 3,6,9. whatever.

they are getting bored of the games. give them a word search. give them a 'where's the vocab in the picture' picture.
reward the fastest buggers with a sticker or candy.

works for me.

[bucheon bum]

[TheUrbanMyth]

On the first day of class I always reach a understanding with my students. They behave and they can have the last 5-10 minutes as a "free talking" (in English) session. They misbehave and ALL privileges including games are removed for a week (the next time it's two, then three and so on). Plus they have to write out lines. And if even one student steps out of line, everybody gets punished. Nothing like peer pressure to keep students in line. Works a treat with elementary and middle school students.

[schwa]

6th-graders are a problem system-wide & experienced Korean school teachers often lose control of them towards the end of the year. King of the hill syndrome, maybe. (I was offered 5th or 6th grade for my vacation classes, went with 5th -- cute & biddable!)

Funny thing though, those same grade 6 kids revert (by & large) to being open & innocent again as 1st-year middleschoolers. Then 2nd & 3rd year present new sets of growing pains & problems.

Speaking generally of course. At any age level youre going to encounter both eager learners & troublemakers. Bear in mind that a child's character is a work in progress. I've seen some really bright kids change over time into hellions, & conversely, I've seen devil's spawns turn into some of my favorite students.

[DavePuff]

I know this is probably going to sound a little harsh but Korean students seem to respond well to threats and firmness that might be considered over the top in Western countries. I don't mean hitting them or anything like that, just a good shout, and if that doesn't work sending them outside to sit in front of the directors office and let them think about whether or not they want to come to the school.

Its neevr failed for me regardless of the problem child. The worst thing you can do is let them take advantage of you ALL the time. A bit of room is ok now and then, but you have to draw lines and make limits for them. In the end everyone will be better off.

[Blind Willie]

[captain kirk]

Man, this really freaked me out in a very subtle kind of way. Like, welcome to reality.
Yahoo class, worst class of misbehavors for ten kilometers, 100 kilometers, the whole kooky country maybe. Shoving stuff up their nose, a boisterous gang of remidials. I was very bad at highschool trigonometry. They reminded me of that one remedial class for trig, back in highschool. Cutting up all the time.
Me Rock, I face off with them, teacher man of stone. Loud teacher man, put them in their place, demand order and respect. One student, Bill, looks like he hates me in that simmering, seething teenage way, mucho resentment. Dad and all that, usurp.
I keep being teacher of stone, going to show them reality, make order.
Bill becomes suddenly very mannerly (I'd told them, a couple of times, that they were 'the worst class in the school'). In the hall, in class. Whenever he saw me in the hall he'd say, gently, politely, 'hello' and 'how are you?'. Constant, considerate respect, polite acknowledgment.
And I looked at him, then. And realized that he was being completely, I dunno, 'real'. And that, along with that, he wasn't the best student. He might even be a little bit, a little bit, slow. Since he was being so consistently respectful I had to thank him by really 'seeing' him. Maybe more than any other student. And I think he 'saw' me see him as not the best student, with an uncertain future that way. I'm sure he did.
So 'God's speed', Bill. Good student, good guy (was a heller, now reformed).

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Interesting thoughts from everyone. My best class is all sixth-grade boys, so I guess I lucked out. It's the kids who think they're special that really annoy me. It just doesn't seem to occur to some kids that if there are five in a class they're only going to get to answer 1/5th of the time. Then if they're not getting all my my undivided attention they work at other ways to get it. It really boogles my mind how some kids can be so unselfish and patient whilst others...

(sorry but the computer screen I'm using is getting very fuzzy and I can hardly read what I'm typing.)

[VanIslander]

There are only two students I would have said I don't like (I've tried to like them all) but since I've been away for the month, I even look forward to seeing them again.

It's hard not to like any kid you interact with two times a week for two years.

Children are great. I like them all.

(I might feel different if I had high school students or if the adult students stuck around for more than a few months at a time.)

[whatthefunk]

The students I didnt like have suddenly dissapeared. God bless my many Yakuza connections...

[some waygug-in]

Funny how what works for some groups utterly fails with other groups.

I had a class of 5th or 6th graders last year that had me close to packing my bags many a time. Their favorite stunt was to suddenly, on cue, move all the desks to the edges of the room and then start shrieking and hollering.

I tried the "firm" approach, but it just made things worse. They all started giving me the finger and saying 'buck you', every time I tried to speak. Perhaps it was me............ I was rather inexperienced with kids.


The hagwan director finally allowed me to switch classes with another teacher. That lasted until the other teacher quit.

When I got them again, I tried a different approach: I didn't order or boss them around, I just gave them some worksheets to do on their own and then when they finished we played a game for the rest of class. I think they found out that I wasn't such an ogre and I found out that the strict, angry approach is not always the best.

They were never a great class to teach, but I actually got to like some of them by the end of the year.

Funny how that works.

[bucheon bum]

[jajdude]

It was weird. Like an example of cultural conformity. A 3rd grade kid who had been really quiet, nice and eager to listen to me (or scared of waygook), suddenly adopted class personality and turned into rebellious, self-important little pain in the arse.

Fortunately only 2 or 3 classes are giving me a bit of a razz. Most of the kids are sweet. Koreans teachers are more strict. Actually even us foreigners at my hagwon now can keep the troublemakers after hours, aka detention. Weird.

I doubt I'll ever impose that, but maybe if correctional behavior is needed?