Korean Job Discussion Forums

Randall Flagg · Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject: Kindergarten Open House

In a couple of months my school is having its annual kindy open house day. On this day the mothers and fathers come in and observe one of your lessons. This is the most dreaded day of the year for the kindy teachers at my school because it is usually just a day for parents to complain about what they see.

But not this year. This year I am going to blow them away with my awesome teaching. The only problem is......I have no ideas on what to do.

I need to find some activities that I can do that will get the parents involved. I'm hoping this will take their minds off of watching for any little faults I may have.

So if anyone has and ideas about some good activities to do in the classroom, please let me know. It can be about anything. I need to do at least one phonics activity but other than that I am free to do anything.

Thanks for anything,
Flagg

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Don't sweat it. Dress up and plan a flexible lesson. The kids will behave completely differently in front of their parents. Practice a song the parents might know and invite them to join in. I'm the sh*ttiest kindergarten teacher possible and the parents were still all very pleased and impressed with me.

Randall Flagg · Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 5:17 am Post subject:

Thanks.

I'm not too worried about it yet though. I have some good kids that are capable of a lot. I'm just going to try to do something different this year that past teachers haven't done. Like I said, if I can find something to involve the parents then maybe they will enjoy themselves a little more and not be so critical.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

Use props! In my Taiwan experience, parents want to think the school is well-equipped. In one open house I used a toy telephone, for instance, and a bicycle bell, and had the students simulate making and receiving telephone calls.

Another secret: teach the exact same lesson you taught the day before the open house! The kids will know every flash card and will call out the words loudly and with enthusiastically. Every parent will think they have a little Einstein!

PS: I did not do that in Taiwan... all my students were geniuses... *wink*

d503 · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Location: Daecheong, Seoul

How long will your lesson be (our open house days the lessons are chopped into 20 minute sessions)

but if you have a decent amount of time try doing a game the parents and kids can do together.

Picture card bingo

Teach a hand clap rhyme (practice with kids before and have them help teach their parents in class)

read a story that requires the kids to call out sounds (like a farm story that the kids have to say the animal sound when they hear the name, so the parents can call it out together)

Kimchieluver · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

I pity you. Sad

Tiny_Tibbo · Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Location: In My Skin

have you or are you required to demonstrate your whole class in front of your korean speaking only co workers? thats what i was told i must do today for "grandparents day" on friday.and we're making kimbop so i had to stand and tell my coworkers all the names of the ingrediants and utensils.....which i was constantly told i was "presenting" it wrong.....with my invisible ingrediants....lol.....and here i was thinking that doing a cooking class with the parents would be simple... Rolling Eyes

Billy Pilgrim · Joined: 08 Sep 2004

One of the many, many reasons why I'll never teach kindergarten again.

nev · Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Location: ch7t

I had something similar last year. I had to teach four kindergarten classes in front of their parents, though only for half the time of a normal lesson. Two were gym classes as well. Our director had us practice a specially prepared lesson. I have quite good class control but I was still a little concerned about all the things that can go wrong, especially when you have 3 and 4 year olds in a gym class.

However, they went like a dream. In front of their parents, most of the kids were angelic. My only problem was some of the kids being too well-behaved, thus I had to try and get them more enthusiastic.

My advice would be to rehearse a lesson you know the students will respond to well. Don't worry too much about discipline. And dress well. Shirt and tie may be too much, just something smart.

I wouldn't try to involve the parents, unless your school specifically request it.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Randall Flagg · Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject:

I actually really enjoy kindergarten. Its my favorite part of the day. Usually it is totally stress free, except for in July and again in March when we have to put on a play.

For this open house we are required to teach for the full 40 minutes so I need to be overly prepared. We are expected to practise for at least a month so things can run smoothly. Its too bad though. We will spend at least one class a day doing the same thing over and over again in the hopes of impressing picky parents. I can think of about a million other things that would benefit the kids more than doing the same thing day in and day out. But, what can you do? The parents want to see where there 600,000 won per month is going.

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004