Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dan The Chainsawman]

How in the heck do you get a bunch of zombied out middle schoolers to enjoy themselves?

Particularly when you are enslaved to a shite book, and worst when you have very little classroom freedom as far as curriculum goes?

Control of class room is not a problem they are in a coma most of the time.

[I_Am_Wrong]

excitement, competition, humor, involvement, candy, and...oh yeah....carry a BIG STICK.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Are you allowed the freedom to use Word Searches, Scrambled Letters and Spelling Bees to teach spelling of new vocab words? On the game section here at Dave's is a great game called Monster Bingo. I adapted it to use with practicing new vocab with my high school boys. They really get in to it.

Have you ever used TPR? (Total Physical Response) It's a great technique to use with beginners. It's especially good for practicing the continuous tenses and Yes/No questions.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

All those things are known to me Ya ta.

The real problem is I have these crappy books I have to use.

ICON 1 and 3 for my lower levels and the Pagoda SLE 3A and 3C for my upper levels.

The Icon classes are so sunk in work they can not even have time to even stand up in class. I hate giving them homework as I know how much they have to do from the rest of the maniac coworkers I have. You would think that these darling little academy freaks would realize that the kids have homework from their real schools, but apparently this is not the case.

My SLE classes have the same problem but worse as they just don't have a fricking clue what anything is being said in these pagoda pieces of crap.

Now normally I would get all sneaky smile at my wonjon and say, "Yessa massah I is usin' dem nice books likee you asked me tah!" Turn around and only cover the bare minimum of the books and do some other stuff that is of more interest.

Unfortunately this is one of those hogwons where style is much more appreciated than substance. They have choosen these new books because they can reassure the parents that the books their children have are challenging enough. This however leaves the kids with mountains of homework and even more confusion.

I was wondering earlier to myself why the hell does a conversation teacher have books in the first place???

Then I stopped wondering and looked at the esl cafe job's offered section.

I think I just answered my own question.

[robot]

i hate that.

i understand the director's desire to satisfy the parents that their children are actually studying and not simply playing hangman all class.

however, crappy books = bored students = kids leaving the hagwon.

when in this situation, i've kindly explained this to the director, saying that the books are a complete waste of class time in comparision to what we could be doing. maybe bring in some alternatives and see how your boss takes to them -- at least they could be used as a supplement to the textbook.

if your school still insists on solely going with worthless textbooks, then it is a school that cares more about money more than educational quality, and it is a complete waste of your time as an educator.

ROBT.

[SPINOZA]

Sorry Dan...you're screwed basically.

Middle Schoolers could fall asleep and be bored for Korea at the Olympics...unless you dispense with the book completely and do something - almost anything - else. I remember what I was like when I was their age and I don't blame them.

My job would be a nightmare if I *had to* stick to the book.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

I wouldn't say screwed, but I am testing the very limits of what needs to be done in a day or not. If they don't like it they can fire me. HELLL YAH!!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

What an opposite situation to my (public school) middle schoolers. Is there no way you can bring in any supplementary materials? Can't you turn some of the grammar and vocab into a trivia game? What about dialogues - couldn't you make some based on the vocab in the book?

[Dan The Chainsawman]

You mean my students actually speak english?

No but seriously that is the plan. I merely intend to pay lip service to the books in a token sort of way while sneaking in all the supplementry materials I can cram into one day. Still bear in mind this is the sort of school that frowns on games, and wants the teachers to use the books. So I plan to develop my own curriculum that hopefully is far more usedful than this putrid book.

Next week one of the chapters is about a two guys in a bar. One of them is egging the other on to cheat on his wife. When I look the material over it appears to be oriented to an adult audience as some of the questions in yesterday's chapter were related to, "What did you do in University etc?"


Hopefully if they get pissed enough I can get fired. That will save me the hassle of having to repay my visa run to japan, and it will land me a letter of release easy easy.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[crazylemongirl]

You can always make the books fun and interesting... just make funny voices.. funny handouts etc.

Although if you are teaching in a hogwon your screwed. Just remember that you are just a small part of a very long day for your middle schoolers. If they view your class as irrelvant (which it is because there is no real speaking tests here), then they are just going to sllepp.

[denverdeath]

[Dan The Chainsawman]

Oh my boss knows. She knows full and well that the books are for a university. However, since they buy them discount and sell them at a steep mark up you want to make a bet that they aren't gonna change them?

[denverdeath]

[Dan The Chainsawman]

No dice... the classrooms are wired for sound and video and they actually do watch the damn things. Apparently the school draws two types of people. The kids who have parents who are misguided sadists. The teachers who are to dense to try and read between the lines when they do a tour of the school and shadow a class before signing a contract.

Shite on me I passed up a sweet gig just outside of sinchon for this dumb butt job also......