Korean Job Discussion Forums

[adopi]

HI, I have been teaching for 3 weeks now, tomorrow. I'm 29...and very outgoing....so far I feel as if I'm getting away with murder....it's so easy..and then again it's hard. My experience has so far been simply getting used to my surroundings...entertaining myself...and experiencing everything that I see. I usually just go into a store..and try to play charades...you should of seen me at the local grocery store...which doesn't have any english writing on anything other than the cheap ottogi boil in the bag meats...which I honestly think are dog food....but then again..I have no idea. It all tastes like chef boyardee. My hagwon is absolutely wonderful...the director speaks English, and I am trying to incorporate my own style into the lesson plans, yet then again...I really don't have any laid out plan when I enter a class. The hagwon wants me to teach certain pages..and I just roll with it....if they feel I did a good job...they tell me...when I do a bad job...they just give me suggestions..or try to make comments...but all in all there's nothing been said to me that was or is negative. My issue right now is not of controlling the classes....because I have the whole candy....bamboo noise stick...and making sure everyone in class is paying attention. I can control my kids, yet unlike bigger hagwons....mine doesn't punish the kids. I have heard of other hagwons making examples of the kids that don't pay attention...and yet when ours don't...you just emphasize the point....there's no doing push ups..or standing in front of the window.....no corporeal punishment you could say. I know I'm getting through to the smarter kids...yet whenever they feel they dont' understand what I'm saying they run to the director....as if they have no patience......and still nothing is said to me...so anyways....

People on these forums have said play games...yet I need some ideas...I've played hangman, bingo, scrabble....I make up sentences and have them write the appropriate words in....I have them write vocab lists...and every friday we have to give a quiz or a test....a daily diary...and many different enhancing english skills. I know that when I was learning japanese and spanish...that the only real way of knowing what i was saying was constant attention to what I was studying....I would write papers...and essays....and practice with the many mexicans dishwashers that were working in the same restaurant I was in. Practice makes perfect....yet even if I do give a quiz or an assignment...they understand what's in front of them...yet when I ask them to think...or to give answers without using their book....it's a no go. They all fail..and I've been told to tell them their rank, and start assigning them grades...so I've been passing out F's for the past couple of weeks...and C's....still there's no A's. The girls are smarter...and I guess some of the boys.....

the younger kids are smarter than the older ones...or at least have a better grasp of the language....

I've been given the advice to just keep repeating...yet when I'm teaching 1st grade....it's too damn simple...and yet they can't write anything...they are learning basic words...like, she, he, it, the, listen.....

I just have no clue how to dumb it down anymore than I have already....it's a big Pavlovian experiment it seems...


either way...maybe some words of wisdom from one of the viewers...


also....if anyone else is in Gyeryong City and reads this....get back with me.....I'm in Samjiin Apts....


OK...hope someone has some insight..