Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Today I was helping out the new English teacher at my middle school with a special class she was teaching for the first time, composed of a mix of second and third graders. She can't really speak English so I sort of had to guess where she may want my help or how I could be useful. It's a music listening class, and as the bell was ringing I saw her wondering around the school with a CD player wondering which classroom she was supposed to use.

Finally some students showed her; we go there to find a disproportionate number of my naughty students, leaving me wondering if the other teachers had dumped them off on her. She doesn't appear to have a lesson plan and only has a one-page handout that looks like about 15 minutes worth of material for a 45 minute lesson. She only teaches the grade 1s and 3s so she doesn't know any of the grade 2s and we waste the first five minutes taking attendence.

Then she starts teaching and I can't believe how rude the students are being. Most aren't paying attention, a number of them are chatting away, one girl throws a note to her friend clear across the classroom and two others start flinging elastic bands at each other. Perhaps it's supposed to be a 'fun' class but if fun doesn't happen in an orderly manner very little educating will occur. I'm sitting at the back wondering if I should do anything and finally get up, tell one girl to put away her MP3 player and do a patrol of the rows making sure everyone's following her handout.

The lesson consists of a listening excercise with the song Imagine. The CD player is playing the vocals too quitely compared to the instruments and it's hard even for me to pick out the lyrics, and to top it off some repairmen are working on a ladder right outside the classroom. After ten minutes she's basically exhusted her handout and asks me if I can go over pronunciation and explain a few things. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, the students are way better behaved when I'm instructing them and I actually have most of them paying attention most of the time. Then there's nothing left to do but play the song again and try to sing along. A few of them are still into it. Then the KT tries explaining some more things with only one or two girls paying attention. I can clearly tell that she has no idea what to do for the rest of the lesson so I suggest we boot up Naver and watch the video, which she's all too happy to do. We kill the last five minutes by bringing up pics of the Beatles and talking about them. The bell goes and I have to stop a bunch of girls from running out of the classroom before everyone's come to attention and bowed to her.

What a waste of a lesson. There are so many more and beneficial ways one could use a 45-minute English song lesson, such as picking a song that students can actually sing along to easily. I haven't spent a lot of time observing the Korean teachers at my school but I have to wonder if what I saw today was the exception or the norm. The KT has an MA in English education and has taught before. After class she sent me a text message saying 'Thank you for me you have taken. See you tomorrow'. It's no wonder some kids get to grade 3 of high school and don't know a bloody thing. There are so many times I can only

[ThePoet]

Think back.....wayyyyyyyyyyy back. Remember when you were in elementary school...or worse, juniour high school, and in walks THE SUBSTITUTE TEACHER!!!!!

When I was a kid, that was just an advertisement for free class time, fun time and even cause the teacher grief time. I was bad!

When I was the substitute teacher after I graduated, I got the same treatment from the kids. I may have been bad, but kids nowadays are downright rude and disrespectful. When I was a sub (for 3 years back home) I actually refused work at 4 junior high schools in Edmonton after I had subbed there once or twice.

Temporary contracts (over a week, or as a replacement at the beginning of the year) were better but it still took time to establish limits.

So if this teacher is new, and young, it will be the same for her for a little while. Eventually she will set boundaries, limits and class rules and eventually they will follow them.

As for how good she is. I am finally coming to the realization that as far as technical English is concerned, most korean English teachers can do handsprings around native English speakers. but they fall short at practical usage.

Poet

[vox]

Although there is a content problem, it sounds more like a discipline problem. In my school, the teachers would rap the kids on the heads with rolled up papers or such. If that's not your style (I hope it's not anyway) maybe you could introduce a reward/punishment system like red stickers/blue stickers or special competitions for the best recitals.

Does your school also practice the correction methods like making inattentive kids raise their hands or hold books over their heads for five minutes? The funniest thing I've seen at that age for punishment has to be writing their names in the air with their bums.

But I don't want the focus of my response to be discipline. Motivation is clearly a bigger factor. Does the class or scenario have any mechanisms to foster movitation? Is motivation countered by the circumstances of the class? I would hope we could all come up with positive motivations (like line competitions or various kinds of line relays for reciting small bits) but at the risk of incurring the wrath of the ultra-sensitive on this board, I have seen negative motivations work too (no not physical, stuff like being made to stay and clean the classrooms, having the parents come in to meet the teacher or (God forbid, the head teacher) to pick them up so they could be spoken to before they leave...)

I could go out on other limbs but maybe you should talk a bit about the details surrounding the class itself. Is it late in the day? Do you think they're truly there because they got booted from other classes?

Music classes can be great. You can have so many rhythm and speed games with bits of text and you can always play variables with certain nouns or possessive forms.

Call me crazy but I think 'Imagine' by John Lennon is kind of mature for grade ones and threes. I'd be thinking more like the old workhorses like Do You Know The Muffin Man, or Baa Baa Black Sheep, or Peanut Butter & Jelly song.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ttompatz]

[HamuHamu]

I just can't believe that someone with an MA in English Eduction can't speak English fluently.


Well....I suppose, it's Korea. I can believe it.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Sody]

I'm sorry to say this but it kind of makes me glad to hear that the students are disrespectful towards a Korean teacher I get that in many of my classes and I've tried so many things to try and change their behaviour but it is futile sometimes. Especially since I don't teach with a co-teacher most of the time and the class sizes are so big. I have learned that Korean students are rude and disrespectful because they learn that from their society. They don't value education because it is forced on them in an oppositional way. For the last few months I have been beating myself up trying my best to be a good teacher but I've just realized that good teaching in Korea is not worth it sometimes. I wonder if teaching in Korea makes one an even worse teacher.

Sody

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Boodleheimer]

i have to "assist" in 6 classes during the week, so the KT is actually in charge, and i ... well, i read stuff aloud when asked or answer questions. it's boring and, in my opinion, a little demeaning. but, oh, well.

but the real problem is the number of mistakes the KTs make. what the hell am i supposed to do? correct them? i did that when the dude wrote "cheeze" instead of "cheese" on the board and the class erupted into "ooooooo"s. i don't want the KTs to lose face, but i don't want them to teach sucky english, either.

[Juregen]

[noguri]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ilovebdt]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Today the new teacher didn't ask me for help with her extra class, but I figured I should stop by just to check that everything's all right. I stop by and everyone's sitting around chatting while she's at the computer. She motions me over and tells me that the DVD player on the computer isn't working. Apparently she doesn't know that most of the classroom computers won't play DVDs and today is her first time finding out the hard way. Of course it would never occur to a Korean to go test things out ahead of time.

Anyways I run back to high school staff room to get my DVD player that we can just plug into the TV, and after about five minutes of fiddling around we get it to work. We're watching Finding Nemo without subtitles and she can't seem to pick up much more than the students. She's given them each a sheet of paper to write down random words that they hear and pick up on - not the most productive way to do a movie lesson but better than nothing.

Like last week, I have to go tell a girl to put her phone away or I'll take it away and go stand guard at the back to make sure they're following and not just goofing around. I don't know what kind of disciplinary standards she wishes to set for the class but they seem to be non-existant. She seems good at giving Korean translations of things I've given her ahead of time but has no control whatsoever. The grade 1s we teach together are still all right but the grade 3s seem to disregard her altogher. I have no idea how her own grade 3 classees are going but with the ones we co-teach I'm back to square one with confiscating notes and handphones, writing lines, chewing out students for coming in late, and making students who won't shut up go stand at the back with their hands over their heads. It's by no means chaos but the kids are really testing the limits all of the sudden.

Don't they give new teachers any practical training whatsoever?!!!