Korean Job Discussion Forums

melvaughn · Joined: 11 May 2006

I'm only in my fourth week of teaching and what started out as a slight cold has progressed into the worst larangitis I've ever had. I mean, I cannot get a sound out of my mouth. A raspy whisper is the best I can do. I work at an ECC school teaching eight rowdy classes in a row without a break. Three weeks of yelling for six hours probably hasn't helped my voice either. The teachers here have to be dying to get a day off.
What in the world should I do for eight classes without a voice? My voice is so bad, I can't even 'explain' to the kids that I have no voice. 40 mins of charades for six hours does not sound fun....any advice?

K-in-C · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Heading somewhere

Write the instructions on the board...
Prepare some review quizzes...
Have the students do some reading-pair the students up and have them ask reading comp questions to their partner which you have prepared.

Buy some fresh lemons. Slice them in half and wash them. Squeeze the juice of the lemon half into a mug of boiled water, add the half a lemon into the mug as well as some honey. Drink this mixture for a couple of days as well as taking some anti-inflammatory tablets or capsules.

I hope you fell better soon. Smile

melvaughn · Joined: 11 May 2006

Thanks, I'll take up your suggestions. Too bad I live in such a rural area where no one speak english. The grocery stores are miles away from where I live and I've yet to find peanut butter, let alone honey, but I will do anything at this point.
I'm tempted to just sit in all my classes and do nothing. I have only two days left before the holidays and my kids are still at the point where they're 'pushing me' I have certain classes where I have to be 'on top' of them at all times to do their work. I'm stuck with some really bad kids at my school so I can only imagine what they'll be like when they find out I can't yell at them anymore Mad

I'll probably be stuck "leering" over top of them and miming when they're misbehaving. That's really going to scare them! Rolling Eyes

Oh well, at least I'll give them something funny to talk about in korean for 40 mintues.

Drew345 · Joined: 24 May 2005

I had a day like this earlier this year. Luckily it was the second day of classes so I put together 5 'ice-breaker' exercises. This worked well, but my students are rather motivated, and I could speak just a little. You can search 'ice-breaker' on the activity page of Dave's.
In my CELTA training, we were constantly reminded to talk less and let the students talk more. Think of this as that exercise taken to the extreem. If you can do it, one whole class without talking, I think it is quite an accomplishment and a learning experience.
Drew345

alinkorea · Joined: 02 May 2005

Wordsearches. All day. You'll be hard pressed to teach properly without talking. So give out the wordsearches. It has little educational value, but then again you shouldn't be at work

Fredbob · Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:11 pm Post subject:

Actually, I've had this situation, albeit with older students. Just tell them its a game of charades, they have to say what they think you are trying to get them to do.

If you want you can even prep the board according to there level and point at it to correct their grammar.

As for yelling, why waste the energy? A big slap of the hand on a desk, not to close to them but loud should scare the isht out of them if they are so bad that you have to go that rout.

Otherwise, a whistle or similiar annoying sound, even a rolled up newspaper.

Or burn the most annoying sound you can find onto a cd-(air raid siren, the sound of someone screaming in agony, a car horn etc..) and play it at time volume for 10 seconds everytime the class gets out of hand, the full ten seconds, even if they are quiet after the first two seconds.

Feeling a little sadistic today, I don't work with young kids so I don't have these problems.

Hope it helps.

Hotpants · Joined: 27 Jan 2006

I've twice had this problem lasting for 3 weeks each time. Fortunately, my schools were very sympathetic and let me play videos or at least relax the schedule. I think you need to save your voice as much as possible because being out in the sticks makes it impossible to get good medicine, and as I know, any Korean medicine at all can have zero effect. If you have rowdy kids, then actually speaking more quietly is often a suggested method to make others quieter too. Play board games, do pictionary, watch a video, get the students to do lengthy writing composition or complete straightforward worksheets that need minimal input that you can check in your own time. If you have computer access in your classroom, even better. Look at my link below for a list of internet sites that could help.

ThePoet · Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:40 pm Post subject:

go to www.bogglesworldesl.com and download all of the crosswords and find-a-words the site has.

that will help out. Bogglesworld also has a bunch of board games that you can pass out the rules for and then supervise.

Poet

melvaughn · Joined: 11 May 2006

Thanks for the links. Bogglesworld is a great site and should help. My supervisor actually let me have a day off, a first in years according to the other teachers.
But, now I'm finding out that laryngits can last for three weeks and that whispering can do more damage and put more strain on the vocal cords than regular talking. Not speaking at all is the only cure and unfortuantly my school is not easy going. I have eight dumb books to follow, along with rules on how to teach them. I can't finish a book too soon (have to spend a least a month on some of them) and I have to progress through one page a day and I can't go too slowly either. Basically, I have no options but to use their 'book material' and every book includes alot of talking and explaining.