Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Julius]

My Public school "teachers class" has finally done my head in today, and i refused to teach it anymore. This class is easily the biggest pain in the a*s of all my classes. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do?

it started off so well. I taught in my own classroom with projector and materials, all the other teachers. I started with some basic topics: asking directions, eating out, etc etc. My basic plan was: present the topic with relevant new vocabulary, practise/roleplay a dialogue, use a fun activity to exercise the material. 50 mins. It "appeared" to work very well.

But these teachers are a tricky group. The attendance varies wildly, the level varies wildly: they all want to study different things: some won't do activities, some will. Some see it as a social occasion, some are serious. What got to me was the "feedback" channelled to me after every lesson. Always "change this, change that. Mrs blah didn't like that".

The final consensus was that all teachers were equal, on the same social level/status, so they didn't like being taught/ submitting to a foreigner teaching them something. Even saying "repeat after me" became a touchy thing to say.

It was then decided that everyone wanted a conversation class- a lets sit around and chat approach. But then all my attempts to lead and direct the operation got objected to by different people.

Finally i just stopped and refused to continue. I told the supervisor I had no more desire to take the class and can she ask the principal to drop it from my schedule. I almost refused point blank and challenged them to fire me, but that would have been a bit much.But i did suggest that they just watch English Time TV programme and be done with it. So now i've just left work and the supervisor was in tears.

What to do, what to do. How is your "Teaching teachers class" going?

[ChuckECheese]

I feel for you dude. Teachers, especially, Korean public school teachers can be very stubborn and absent minded sometimes. They are the robots from hell.

If all fails, you should teach them to curse.

Maybe that'll get their attention.

[mack the knife]

Teachers' classes at public schools are a joke. Half of them can't understand any English, let alone speak it. It also became my most dreaded class over the course of my public education stint. Just refuse to teach it. Or, hand pick a group that actually wants to learn and just do conversation classes. That's what I demanded (and got) during my second year. A good starting point would be to pick up the book "Express Yourself". The vocab will be over their heads, but the conversation topics and questions should be enough to get you through 50 minutes.

[Julius]

[kermo]

I've taught teachers before (at the public school) and I can sympathize with the crazy attendance and participation, though I found they were mostly cooperative.

I have had a group of adults in the evenings while teaching at this college, and the first group was gregarious and game for anything. This semester, they're much pickier, much more reluctant.

They objected to having to make conversation with each other, even though they are lively and open in small groups, and virtually mute when I ask them direct questions. They requested that I interact with the class one-on-one, because they wanted to "hear my pronunciation." This seemed way too passive to me, so I explained that 80 minutes divided between 8 students is only 10 minutes (at most), and that's probably not worth the money they're paying for the course.

The reason I'm telling you this is that I'd like to share the compromise we came up with. It seems to work quite well.

We moved the tables to form a circle. One student (an older guy) strenously objected, but everyone else said they liked it much better. I brought drinks and food. Everyone had some juice but almost no one tucked into the cookies (weird!) I sit at the table, at eye-level with the students, and say "please" when I give directions.

I explained that their language production had three components: vocab recall, grammatical structure, and pronunciation (I'm not TESOL trained-- I'm just making this up based on my experience .) Their small groups are for warming up, and activating the vocab recall and grammar. When I call on them individually, I ask them the same questions they've been reviewing with a partner, and so we have a chance to focus on pronunciation, or error correction if necessary.

The book I'm using is "Jazz English" which is a whole lot of fun. When I get tired of the question-answer routine, we go over a list of "Cultural Differences" in the book, comparing experiences and discussing reasons behind different behaviours and practises. So far, so good!

[Julius]

[quote="kermo"]

[kermo]

The reason I dig "Jazz" is that it helps to structure freetalking by giving model answers. E.g., "How long have you been studying English?" Sometimes the student will understand, but can't remember how to use the present continuous participle, so the model answer prompts it: "I've been studying English for..." and the grammar gets practiced in context.

Thanks for giving my suggestions a look, and good luck with whatever you decide.

[kimchi_pizza]

There are plenty of good points. The biggest is the saving of face. Being in an Enlish language class when they are already "professional" English teachers is slightly embarrassing for them and the stress is above normal.

I had the same problem before as well. So I did the circle/group thing and I sit at the same eye level as well. AVOID being condescending in every way! This will only set them off. I basically try to "keep it REAL". "This isn't a classroom. This is downtown L.A. or the Austrailian outback." whatever, just get'em outta that teacher/student mindset and it kinda puts them at ease for myself as well as them.

As for being a teacher, be THOUGHLY prepared but teach'em like it's a back yard BBQ. Forget activities unless they are especially young teachers. Pick current topics but obviously be careful. I like to bring up things I find confusing about Korea or problems I have myself living here. They usually make for great topics. Once they are settled and gained a certain rapore(sp?) you can even show them this forum and use it to talk about some of the discussions. My teacher/students were highly interested in THAT one!

I can give plenty of more tips, but got another adult class now. PM if ya need any help.

[Milwaukiedave]

I agree with Kimchi pizza about being throughly prepared in terms of teaching them.

After reading the first few posts, I have to say that I was a bit scared hearing what everyone said. I'm going to start teacher classes in October and they will last 12 weeks.

The book I'm using is Basics in Speaking by Michael Rost

[inspector gadget]

Besides my second grade middle school girls classes, my teachers classes are my favorite.

I look forward to teaching the teachers, they are consistant with attendance, very eager and pretty darn good at speaking english after 8 months of teaching them.

The levels vary a little but the lower end teachers stopped coming after a month or so.

Be creative, my group is from 3-8 teachers depending on schedules and I started with formal lessons but now we are just sitting around and chatting. The laughter and good times on occasion disrupts other classes in the school. Depending on the numbers try to do it in a social environment like the teachers lounge.


My teacher students are really pissed off if our class gets cancelled cause they are so eager to learn.

give it time, it may become a great class like mine.

[jajdude]

I think I'd want out of that class as well, they sound unreasonable and it's impossible to please everyone when they whine about everything.

So these are public school English teachers who barely speak English, yet no doubt in their minds are experts on the language because they can read at a grade 6 level and explain grammar using Korean almost all the time in their classes, right?

The hell with 'em, they are not a sensible bunch if they cannot admit and accept that they need help learning to speak the language they teach.

I think this is a case of pride, not intelligence or realism. They hate that you are an authority, but the simple fact is you are only an authority because you speak English well, and they do not.

They will help create more people who have studied English for years and can barely put a few words together.

[happeningthang]

[EFLtrainer]

how about working with individual teachers on their lessons for teh upcoming week? Say, two to four teachers come each week on a ratation basis and your sole job is to assist them with their class prep, whatever that may be?

You get real English, fully contextualized. You get English fully meaningful to the learner. You get out from any pressure because they set the agenda by their planning needs.

Hell, make it fully voluntary, too, so that only motivated co-workers show up.

[OiGirl]

Have you tried presenting them with a very specific syllabus outlining your plans and learning goals for them?

[Roch]