Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Wrench]

I am new to this board and to Korea, I would appreciate if some veteran teachers could lend me a hand.

For the last two months I've been teaching with Sha Sha English, which in my opinion are the worst ESL/EFL books on earth. Since the books lack any real substance I need to find some good complimentary material to make the lessons fun. Problem is I am running out of good websites with kindergarten level material. My school is adamant on using these books so we have no other books we can draw on either. So what links or books do you use in your lessons?(Thanks in advance)



Slightly off topic but is it normal to be sick for a month or more even when your on antibiotics?

[teachingld2004]

If you are new to Korea, it is normal to be sick for more then a month. Some people are sick for the first few months that they come here.

You just have to see the level of your students, and just use some common sense. Most of them can barely speak in English, and you should just teach basic things. You say, they repeat. They say, YOU can repeat. Use lots of props.

What exactly do you want to know?

[ashke516]

Here's some links I've used:

song lyrics:

http://members.tripod.com/~rosemck1/kids-corner.html

color pages:

http://www.kidscolorpages.com/coloringpages.htm

flash cards:

http://eslcity.com/english/

games:

http://www.genkienglish.net/games.htm

Right now I'm not using books, just lots of songs, games, flashcards, lots of simple questions and answers for the 6 years and 7 years.

The teacher before me used Sha-Sha and she hated it, so she made the boss promise that I could pick out my own books. In a month or two I will be starting Smile 1 with the 7 years and Tiny Talk 1 & 2 with the 5 years and 6 years.

I also have a ton of games that I have copied to my email. PM me with your email address if you would like me to forward them to you.

Oh and I was sick the first time I came here for the first three, almost four months. I took a three month break between contracts and when I returned I was sick for the first month and 1/2 (just got over it!).

[d503]

Hi, I can understand your pain. I too am stuck with a crap book for some of my classes. My solution is to find a book that has similar topics as the crap book but better materials (more work sheets, activities etc) That way i am still teaching the topic but i have better resources. I have to teach a series called Tiny Tots (only the main book) I pull all my materials from a series called Supertots (which I have the teachers guide for that has lots of crafts, flash cards, activity pages etc.) I also add story time to a lot of classes. I find a book that has a useful english topic (I get story books that are geared to native English speakers, eric carle has great books in my opinion) and then read that once a week in our classes. I usually change book every month.

Also get your self some song books. My kids love the we sing series. We sing for baby is really good for the 4 and 5 year olds because the songs usually involve moving and dancing around the classroom and are sung slower. The we sing silly songs are a big hit with my 6 and seven year olds, because their English is high enough that they can start to sing parts after a while, and they are usually easy to explain.

Hope this helps some. Also as you are new to korea, finding english text books can be done at almost any bookstore, if you need to know where any are just let me know.

[tomato]

Hello, Wrench!

Considerable wisdom on this topic has accumulated on this message board.
All of the following threads are collections of kindergarten ideas:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=34653&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=4422&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=29953&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=16204&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=14162&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=11817&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=5804&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

I'm keeping count.
Since I started, this makes thread number 8.

[Wrench]

Thanks for the replies and links I realy appreciate it.

I'm a male so I am not to particularly thrilled about singing and dancing but I am learning to swallow my pride. I will try to do more songs, I just hope that the kids like it because the Korean english teachers do a lot of songs. I do a lot of crafts and arts, I also love doing games in class and kids seem to enjoy that too. I have basic english phrases I teach to the kids, and I try to encourage reading, which some of my kids can do very well. My classes are 25 minutes long and sometimes I feel they are to short for some of the activities but I can't change that.

I've been sick for about two months now, I've had bronchitis, severe infection of sinuses and now, I am on pink eye and by the feels of it toncilitis. I was on anti-biotics for two weeks and I never got any better. My school is draging their feet on my insurance, its been 2 months and no insurance and I have spent about 160k won on visits to the doctor. The doctor wants to see me about every two days but it feels like I am a cash cow for him so now I ask for meds for 5 or more days.

My school has soap, and I wash my hands after every class. Problem is that my kids have never been taught to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze. ( I think I am going to do a class on covering your mouth some time.)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ashke516]

[Yu_Bum_suk]