Korean Job Discussion Forums

[copperpot]

hi there! i am totally new to teaching in korea. i have a job teaching in a rural area at 6 different public elementary schools. i am having trouble defining my role - exactly what im suppose to be doing in class. The schools are quite new to having foreign teachers so i think they don't even know exactly what I am suppose to be doing. so far i have just been revising the textbook curriculum and practicing phonics and pronunciation. i have not received any other guidelines from the schools. kinda working in the dark. i am wondering if other public school teachers could let me know what they are doing? thanks bundles!

[jinju]

I teach Trig and Calculus to grade 4s.

[flotsam]

[riley]

Start by doing some research and looking for ideas on the internet. Type in what you're looking for in Google and you'll be surprised by what sites you could get.
I started there and am also using as resources some books with photocopy work in it. I make some exercises by hand also and if you pm me I'd be willing to send them to you to help.
If they haven't told you what they want, I'd reccomend working on getting the students to start talking. The schools probably want you to do some form of conversation work.
Also, do you know the students' levels, how good are they? Do some assessing so you know how good the average level is. Do some listening exercises to test them.
Are you new to teaching or EFL? If you aren't, I apologize if I'm giving you more info then you want. Like Flotsam said though, this situation of yours sounds a little worrisome.

[flotsam]

[copperpot]

well, i am employed by the ministry of education, and i get a pretty good deal, in terms of pay and travel allowance and all that. my role is "conversational english teacher", so i am presuming i am really there to practice the dialogues that the students learn in their textbooks. i have taught efl before, but in latin america, and things are quite different here. i only see the kids once a fortnight for 40mins, so its difficult to really teach them much. i guess really i need to sit down wih each school and clarify what they expect from me.

[flotsam]

To me it sounds like your position is expected less to provide incremental conversational development and more to get the kids used to whitey(or foreignery--don't mean to assume). There are a lot of people here that feel this is valuable(they may have a point) and you can't really be expected to accomplish anything more with the schedule you mention. But, they may act like they want more, and you may find yourself getting frustrated with both their misguided expectations for you and your role and the limits your schedule places on you.

At my school, I teach 17 classes for 45 minutes weekly, and 3 additional lessons for classes drawn from all grades across the school, who I meet just once a monthish. I and some of the English teachers have tried to convince the school that I could be better employed by teaching just two of the grades or using the extra three hours for teaching writing/TOEFL/interview or something to the more advanced students, but the school insists on me taking a sort of ambassadorial role and meeting all of the students at least once a month. I am a little disatisfied with it from a professional point of view(I like consistency and seeing development like all teachers & hate dog and pony shows like all teachers) but it is low-intensity teaching and the school is pretty flexible with me on other things for humoring them in this.

With these classes, I basically walk in each lesson, do my routine of asking three different students to tell my their names, then either the date, weather or time to create some sort of consistency and redundancy with these simple skills that can expand into mini-lessons on numbers, adjectives, greetings, cultural differences in name usage, etc.

Then, I teach them some "natural language" in a high speed and humorous way. My first lesson along these lines is to set up a dialog on the board with the "Hello.; How are you?; I'm fine. Thank you. And you?" nightmare and guide the students through transforming it into
"Hey.;What's up?; Nothing much." And so on. Throughout the semester I expand on this: When you are feeling bad. When you are decribing something new you bought., etc.

But I try to keep the consistent warm-up and the natural language mini-lesson to no more than 15-20 minutes--then it's game time. If anything works for keeping the kids enthused about English it's Pictionary, Monster or Jeopardy. As a result, the kids who see me once a month ADORE me while the kids who see me weekly treat me like a normal teacher: mixed bag depending on their mood.

Hope the input helps.

[SirFink]

Hang Man.

[schwa]

I teach them to talk about daily routines (basic sentences) & I pump up their vocabulary with thematic word games or picture handouts. I also promote spelling, which their K-teachers dont. I find that helps a lot with pronunciation & retention & broadens what we can do together.

[Gwangjuboy]

[jacl]

Not much because there are too many students and not enough time.

[Grotto]

One poor guy I knew was in the same situation. 5 different schools a week and no help with curriculum.

He went out and bought a guitar and when he came to the schools he played his guitar and taught them songs. They loved it and loved him. He stayed there for two years before returning to the states.

He recieved letters of recommendation from all the principals of the schools as well as letters of commadation from the Ministry of Education.

By the end of the second year he was ready for a change.

[snehulak]

I taught at 5 elementary schools last semester and the only thing that got me through it was Genki English. Like Grotto said, the kids love songs and especially love the Genki program which uses a lot of TPR as well. There are loads of games and worksheets to go with each unit, too. I told my local ministry of education about it and they agreed to pay for the books and CDs. The students and staff at all my schools can't wait for my classes.
I usually choose a Genki theme that corresponds to what they are learning in the state supplied text, then pick and choose things from their books to supplement the songs.

http://www.genkienglish.net/

[Alyallen]

The OP asked a great question...one that I was going to ask soon myself. I started working at an elementary school 2 months ago so I don't have much wisdom to share at this point. I just teach out of the government mandated textbook. I hate it and so I'm slowly inching away from those horrid books. I usually try to add alternate or additional lines to the dialogues in the books and when there is time I supplement lessons with songs from wee-sing for baby or children. But to be honest, the stupid state book takes up so much time, I often don't get to do addition material.

To the OP...SIX SCHOOLS? How often do you see your many many students? As for curriculum...it looks like you need to have a chat with each school and find out what kind of resources you have available. I hope everything works out well for you!