Korean Job Discussion Forums

[edmiller2b]

hi all,

will be starting my first teaching gig in a few weeks and
one thing has been made clear to me...BE STRICT

was wondering what class rules you folks typically used,
how you communicated them, and what happened when
the rules were not followed.

did you allow any class input to these (the rules)? i'm used to teaching
adults and we usually come up with these things together,
not sure how applicable it would be to a middle school student.

this will be in a public school setting btw.

thanks mucho much.

ed

[BRYGUY]

Ed,

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to be strict and lay down the law on the first day. I teach in a public high school and I learned the hard way. I'll tell you what I just started as of today. I am using a World Cup theme since most Koreans love soccer. I have a type of contract that I'm giving to my high school students. They will be placed in teams of 4 and they will draw a country that is bound for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. They will design their own posters that we will display in the classroom and I will use a sticker system that I call "goals." I have made many yellow and red cards for the penalty system. They get yellow cards for sleeping, MP3 players, cell phones, speaking Korean, etc. Two yellow cards equals a red card. If they receive 3 red cards, their parents are contacted. If they get one red card, they simply come directly to my desk and take out an additional assignment from the "Red Box Assignments," take a chair out in the hall and begin working on it. It must be on my desk by 9am the following day or they are issued another red one and have to spend their lunch period with me and they work on their homework. If you're interested, I can send you a few things that I just used for the introduction to this. Like I said, this is new and I don't know how well it will work. I had so many problems last semester that I decided I needed something visible and structured. Also, it forces them to work together as a team as the team is also punished if a member receives 3 red cards.

Hope this helps.

Brian

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Hogwan, public school, what ages?

Things like that are very different from place to place. If it's a kiddie hogwan that's a play-centre masquarading as a school all the best intentions in the world concerning proper discipline might be useless.

[joe_doufu]

[bundangbum]

[edmiller2b]

it's a public middle school...and big classes...in bundang

i'm supposed to have a korean teacher in the
classroom with me but from reading some
posts, i don't know if that will be as helpful
as i'd like...

just preparing for the worst here.

[Mr. Pink]

Be strict from day 1.

Ideas on how to be strict:

DONT BE THEIR FRIEND. You are not there to be their friend. You are there to teach them. One good way to set that boundry is have them call you by your family name.

Don't be afraid to kick a student out of the class, or have them sent to their homeroom teacher for misbehaving.

Don't let them talk you into things THEY want to do. (Things like playing games or doing anything but studying what you are there to teach them.) You have a job to do, and goofing around with a class makes them think you are not serious.

Don't be afraid to tell them to shut up. I use this as a last resort myself, but if a polite "be quiet" doesn't work, a sharp shut up usually does the trick. Even better if you can say it in Korean.


I can't really think of more, as it is almost 3am hehe...good luck with the job.

[Yu_Bum_suk]