Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yo!Chingo]

Hey all. I've been teaching here in Korea for about 2 weeks now on a part-time basis and quite honestly I'm already dreading some of my classes. My boss and co workers are great but it's a new school and I'm a new teacher and some of the kids just won't listen to me. I feel like a failure because they won't listen. They're good kids but for some reason, they just won't sit down and do what they're supposed to do. I'm afraid I'm gonna get fired and I've never been fired before
I know in Hogwan's there's a fine line between teaching and entertaining the kids. How do I get them to learn while keeping them happy? Then the question arises how happy can these kids be sitting in class 12 hours a day?!? The only reason I'm working is to keep myself busy to some extent and to earn $ for an upcoming vacation, so I don't really need the job, but I want to work and be normal person here. Any advice on how to get these kids to listen?
Thanks in advance!

[voth]

What is your teaching style? What age range are you teaching? Have you tried adding group learning or games into your lessons?

Another thing is you've only been there for two weeks, for most it take a lot longer to get acquainted with a teachers style. Give them some more time, in the mean time mix up your lessons.

I'd really like to know how things go for you. Keep us posted.

[The evil penguin]

Ahhhh ha ah ha ha ..... FRESH MEAT in KOREA!!!!!


Sorry...... I feel your pain...

Um.... I'd help you if i could....

guess the best advice i can say is try and relax... don't stress about so much if you are doing a good job. As a very wise fellow daveser once advised me... just try and ....be. Love the kids (in a legal and non physical way) and try and forget about the shit going on around you...

Of course, advice coming from me is to be taken with a sceptical sneer... (somehting akin to a great white shark describing the virtues of a vegetarian diet). I'm burnt out, jaded and bailing outa my (third) contract early.....

But you see my friend, I can do that.... I've served my time. Get to the three month mark and then see how you are doing... Sorry this isn't very helpful.

It's a hagwon. It's not designed to be an effective educational system.
Roll with the waves of frustration... just get to the 3 month mark. Things will improve. (of course, things will also quite possibly get worse... but as i'm trying to encourage you here I won't mention that...)

Ummm... where are you located?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My Korean's terrible but knowing 'Jo-yang haseyo!' (be quiet), 'An-jusayo!' (sit down), 'Da-ra haseyo' (repeat), and 'Hajima!' (stop it) really helps. I think a lot of it is how you conduct yourself - if you don't come across with much confidence no one will pay much attention. Discipline at a hogwan is usually an ambivilant area, so it's hard to know what to do with trouble-makers; discipline two kids for the same thing and probably one mother would thank you and the other one would complain. When I taught hogwan I could have all my classes under control if that meant having a few kids out in the corridor or just sitting at their desks sulking. Only about half I could keep under control and actually teach something that showed results over time.

It's really hard to be in your position but don't be afraid to be assertive, aggressive, and use your own initiative. Don't expect much clear advice from K-staff.

[Grotto]

It is tough.

Try some of these:

Stand at the front of the class until the students sit down and are quiet and looking at you......glaring a bit helps sometimes.

Reward any students who are working and paying attention and ignore the others...they will catch on after a while

Put the chairs of students who arent working or paying attention out in the hall, sitting is a privelige, not a right

Bribery always works to some extent...bring in candy and only give it to those who work hard.

Hang in there.....the first month is both the hardest and the one that passes most quickly.

[Yo!Chingo]

I teach in Incheon near Songdo, and the classes that I teach are early elementary. My director's said to glare at the kids until they behave, but I'm just not the glaring type. It's also been recommended that I make them stand until they behave. I'm gonna try that.
The funny thing is...I worked in the regulatory world for 5 years before coming here with my hubby and didn't have the headaches that I do here. At least in the States they literally understand English!!! I come home, make dinner, and have a stiff drink when I walk through the door. Self medicating I guess. I know it's gotta get better!!! Thanks for the tips!

[Sooke]

Some tips:

Positive Reinforcement: All my elementary students had to bring certain things to each class: a pencil, their workbook, notebook, textbook, crayons, and an eraser. If a student brought all these things, they get a star. On fridays, if a student has five stars for the week, they get a little piece of candy when they go home. I also had the students divided into 3-4 teams, and if all students on the team had 5 stars for the week, they each recieved a little school supply (an eraser, nifty pencil, etc.) This is effective because the other students would pressure the forgetful students to bring their school supplies. Sounds like bribery? Damn straight!!

Punish everyone: If one student is acting up, punish everyone. Do not relent. Things like toe-touches, holding their heavy bookbags over their heads, etc. works very well. Bonus respect points if you do the punishment along with them. (For unruly middle school boys, the punishmnet was PUSH UPS!-As long as you do the push-ups with them, I don't see a problem.) Again, other students will pressure the misbehavers into behaving.

Try to remember things that you thought were fun and put an English spin on them. I personally did a lot of crafts with the kids on fridays, as a treat. Older kids enjoyed english games, such as scrabble, wheel of fortune, etc.

I always acted like an older brother, so good natured ribbing seemed to work really well. And mimicing the students (no book, teacher game!)also shows them how stupid they sound.

you can make some nifty class related puzzles at
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/

Throew in a few spelling words they have to study and voila!

Anyway, hope this helps

[sheba]

Try not to wory so much... I found that almost every class went through a rebellous stage - weather it was from day one or a few weeks in once they got used to me or a few months in once they got sick of me.... Pretty much all my new classes since I started have done the same. There was one class that I spent all week dreading.... I posted on here about them asking for help.... now they are one of my favourite classes!!

Once you develop personal relationships with the kids (even if its a negative one) you will learn how to control their behaviour. I turned military style with my worse class, keeping them late and being strict and they either respected me or loathed me for it. However, once their behaviours changed (they didnt want to stay late) then I started introducing games and such and they love me now!!

Even if you only have finve mins between classes, I find that letting the good kids go straight away and making the naughty kids wait even a minute longer, it changes their behaviour.

I feel your pain, but try to stick in there! It does get easier!

(That being said, there are still classes I dont like now, but I can handle having to teach them).

[bosintang]

[mindmetoo]

If the student becomes a problem, kick him out of the class and make him stand with his nose to the wall in the hall. A kid cooling his heals for the balance of the class with zero stimulation, being the "outsider" literally and figuratively, is the best punishment short of calling their mother.

[tomato]

Hello, Yo!Chingo!

I could have written a similar letter six years ago, when I first came here.

Here are some of my favorite disciplinary techniques:

�� positive reinforcement: Sooke is right. Rewarding your benefactors is at least as important as punishing your malefactors.

The hard part about positive reinforcement is not understanding it, but remembering to apply it. If you were on a battlefield, you wouldn't pay attention to the enemy soldiers who weren't threatening you, would you? Of course not! You would pay attention to the enemy soldiers who were threatening you.

If your inner brain tells you that you are on a battlefield, that is exactly what you will do: pay attention to your worst enemies.

If "they just won't sit down and do what they're supposed to do," comment on those students who come the closest. Say, "Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Stephen."

When you recite the text and only a few students repeat after you, do likewise.

During each class, keep a list of students whom you have to reprimand. Once every fifteen or twenty minutes, look at that list and cheer for all the students who are not on that list:

One, two, three, four,
Who are we for?
Barbara, Barbara, Barbara!

�� setting the scene quietly: I know it is tempting to yell,
"Quiet!"
when the class is noisy. But that only fuels fire with fire.

Rather, call the class' attention as quietly as you can. If you can whisper, whisper. Here again, apply positive reinforcement: "I think Bill is ready to start. I think Matthew is ready to start."

If that doesn't attract the attention of the loudest offenders, calmly walk over and approach those loudest offenders: "Carl, are you ready to start? Lina, are you ready to start?"

�� physical proximity: Whenever possible, correct misbehavior without interrupting the class. If you approach a child who is reading a comic book, chatting with a neighbor, or twisting a girl's arm, approaching the child might be enough to stop the behavior.

Sometimes it's enough just to pace back and forth across the room.

�� seating rearrangement: When two students are holding their own little conference, ask, "Am I going to have to move one of you?" Then if they persist, deliver on your threat.

This is one area where I am weak. I usually threaten two or three more times. If I threaten once and deliver once, they students will soon notice the pattern.

�� focus on the desired behavior, not the misbehavior: Instead of saying, "Robert, stop talking!" say, "Robert, I would like for you to read the story with us."

�� persist in repeating until an offender behaves:

"Once upon a time there were three bears."

Mark is flipping rubber bands, so you say, "I don't think Mark heard me. Once upon a time there were three bears."

This time, Mark is pulling a girl's pigtail, so you say, "I think I lost Mark that time also. Once upon a time there were three bears."

By this time, the other students will be tired of hearing the first sentence and will be eager to go on to the second sentence. So they will join forces with you against Mark's misbehavior.

�� group rewards and punishments: Sooke is right on this one, too. If the class behaves tolerably well, spend the last part of the hour on a bingo game. If the class misbehaves, forego the bingo game and explain why.

If a large class behaves exceptionally well, you can divide the class in half and run two concurrent go fish games. I had been teaching for over a year before I could get a class behaving that well. See if you can do better.

The name of the game is creativity. The more fun educational activities you can come up with, the easier you can punish them by returning to the textbook.

Here are some of my favorite classroom activities:

�� alphabet blocks: During my first year, I found some small tiles which were being discarded at a construction site. I gathered them up, painted capital letters on them, and arranged them in a plastic box. I have been using them almost daily ever since.

Choose a new word from the textbook page. Arrange the appropriate tiles in the right order, mix them up, and ask for volunteers to spell the word.

�� Braille: After spelling a word the conventional way, drive it home a level deeper by spelling it in Braille. I have an appartus consisting of:

--a small flannelboard, consisting of 6 white conterminous squares, 2 across and 3 deep

--6 brown flannel circles made the right size for those squares.

I demonstrate each letter by putting the circles in the right places. Then I take the circles off and call on a volunteer to put the circles back on.

The down side to calling on volunteers is that the rest of the class is waiting. I don't know if I believe in the Devil, but I have found it figuratively true that "the Devil finds work for idle hands."

I minimize this danger by calling for a spoken chorus after each child volunteers. We all beat our desks and say, "Thank you, Cora! Thank you, Cora!"

�� sign language: A sign language dictionary would be a valuable investment. When the textbook sentences follow a repeated pattern, it would be easy to make those pattern sentences in sign language.

This is not my first time pushing Braille and sign language on this board.
If you are interested, check this:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=39890&highlight=sign+language+TPR

�� picture books: You can find oodlums of children's books which could help reinforce almost any topic. Colors, numbers, animal names, shapes, members of the family, parts of the body--you name it.

The easiest picture books are those with one sentence per illustration, and written in a simple pattern:

Pikachu gets up.
Pikachu goes outside.
Pikachu runs.
Pikachu falls down.

If the subject is the same for all sentences, you might be able to personalize the book for the students:

Norma gets up.
Norma goes outside.
Norma runs.
Norma falls down.

And don't stop with books written in English. There are oodlums of delightful Korean picture books which are easy to translate into English.
Here are a few of my favorites:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=38947&highlight=

�� humorous variations: Here are some ways that you can repeat the required text:

�� loud
�� soft
�� high
�� low
�� whining
�� growling
�� frightened
�� haughty
�� puzzled
�� singing
�� shy
�� angry
�� crying
�� giggling
�� greedy
�� surprised
�� monotone
�� staccato

If you have a metronome, ask the class to repeat the text in various speeds.

�� a primitive pipe organ: This may be a good one if you have musical skills.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=29112&highlight=primitive+pipe+organ

�� handmade games: Yes, I know that there are bingo games and card games already canned for us, placed on the shelves at the English book store, and looking for a home. But you can make games for your own purposes, and the illustrations are as close as the Google search engine. 'Most any topic can be applied as a bingo game, go fish game, old maid game, or concentration game.

Do you hear your students saying, "Teacher, game"? I do, and apparently so does Sooke. If the students don't behave, threaten to revoke their game privileges. You will usually have to deliver on that threat only once.

I'm in greater Seoul, too. Why don't those of us from the Seoul area get together for a brainstorm session?

[Demophobe]

Outstanding post tomato! Great ideas.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Reading Bosintang's and Tomatoe's posts is a lot of fun - it reminds me that there are teachers who actually have to go through such ridiculous routines, and then still get undermined or get complaints.

Have fun!

[mindmetoo]

[Yu_Bum_suk]