Korean Job Discussion Forums

[panda_bear1982]

Hi i be coming to korea soon and would just like to know from all you teachers out there what things could i bring for the children (kindergarden and elementary) for the classroom? The school obviously has their curriculum but what have you guys found to be good ideas for little extra touches in the classroom?

Thanks!

[Gorgias]

Looking back now, I wish I'd brought ten dollars in pennies. A penny is just a penny, but if you give it to a kid, "it's the penny panda_bear1982 gave me!" All sorts of little things like that are nice. A pencil with an australian flag on it or Canadian or where you are from, little stickers, just cheap stuff that you wouldn't find here. If you're from Canada bring some totem pole stuff. Or little maple-syrup candies, those things that don't mean much to us back home are real cool for kids. Cool for me too. If some one gave me a pencil from Korea, I'd keep that pencil for a long time, "see the Korean letters on here!"

Good luck in Korea. I'm sure you'll have a lot of great and interesting times!

[peppermint]

Stickers! They're very very cheap here, but my students think the ones from home are way nicer

[Grotto]

Dr Seuss books. Bernstien Bears, anything along those lines work well. I would read the book to my class and then we would take turns reading it...by the end their speech patterns and rythms had greatly improved.

[mindmetoo]

Pencils with your country's flag on them. Those are highly popular. It's less about educational materials and more about neat little presents. I second what the other user said about coins. Kids love foreign coins.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I recently got my friend to bring back 250 pennies from Canada to use as prizes for my middle schoolers and they really liked them. Just try to get new ones so that they're all shiney and the kids don't go fighting over the shiney ones.

A set of Monopoly money would also be useful.

So would a full set of CDN, US, and UK currency.

Some DVDs with English subtitles.

Books with simple but educational puzzles.

A travel video of your country / province / city.

A good picture dictionary (they have them here but it might take you a while to find one).

Manga comic books in English. Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers are popular.

Teen magazines like Cosmogirl, Ellegirl, and Seventeen. The articles are too difficult but their shopping guides and quizes and things like that are lots of fun. Discoverygirls is great for younger kids.

Scrabble chips. Just bring lots of chips - there are lots of games you can play with just these in medium-size classes.

[panda_bear1982]

I never thought about currencies, i didn't know kids liked that sort of thing but its a good idea and i will bring those!

Sticker wise, any suggestions on styles these kids like? I seen some with captions like 'excellent', 'good' etc with cute pictures, these will do right? Do any of you guys have a certain system that you follow in deciding who is rewarded with sticker etc. I am trying to think how many sheets i would need over one year so i stock up.

Really appreciate all the suggestions, been so helpful.

[Qinella]

Hey, Panda Bear! You be coming to Korea soon? And you be teachin kindergarden? Hellz ya.

First things first, bring yourself a dictionary and take it to class witchya.

Secondly, don't even worry about stickers. You can walk into any stationary store here and find really cute stickers for a very low price. I personally be addicted to them, and have a huge stack in my desk drawer. Also, the kids couldn't give a flip about them. I put them on tests and things, but it's more for my benefit than theirs.

Thirdly, bring over some candy like not skittles, jolly ranchers or sour worms. Something they ain't been havin over here in K. And then you gotta give it to the kids when they deserve it. Don't let them turn you into a candy dispenser!

Other suggestions in this thread were good. You don't need much, because the kids generally don't appreciate anything anyway. You give them a piece of candy and they will say ONE MORE! That's how it be.

[tomato]

Hello, Panda Bear!

A few years ago, another teacher asked a similar question.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?p=79387&sid=24be0ee37bb48cec1ad6eedf2f1ef936

I started to write a response to your question, but it wouldn't have been any different from the response which I wrote to this other teacher.

[justagirl]

stickers like this: http://stores.ebay.com/Discount-Specials

This is where I got mine and the students LOVED them. They are so unique--they haven't seen anything like them.

I gave a sticker for every child that got 100% on their homework (capitalized their letters correctly, remembered their periods, etc). It definitely worked.

After they got a certain amount of stickers, they got to choose a prize from the "American prize bin."

Unless you're teaching high-schoolers, or apathetic middle-schoolers, it should work like a charm.

I also gave extras for good behavior (only in difficult classes), and took them away for bad behavior (after 2 warnings). They all knew my systems, so it wasn't a surprise.

I found that behavioralistic approaches worked best with the elementary-aged kids. Because of the language barrier, it was easier to have a system of rewards set up to control behavior.

justagirl

[panda_bear1982]

Thank you everyone, i am really thankful for the replies and suggestions. I have taken them onboard and have gathered many of them already before my flight this week. It best to be prepared huh!

Thanks!!

[keithinkorea]

I think one of the best things I brought back this year was a couple of packs of 'top trumps' cards. Very useful for all sorts of things.

Most stuff you really need you can get of the internet anyway.

Coins are a really good idea though, you can plan a whole 'cultural type' lesson around the symbolism on a coin.

Enjoy teaching here.