Korean Job Discussion Forums

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

My school district has informed me that for one month, I will be teaching a teachers' class at the district's board office of education. I start tomorrow, but I will be going in their blind (I don't get to see the textbook in advance). Someone told me that the teachers mostly want to focus on conversation, and that in all likeliness, they won't want to follow the book all the time. I will teach them 4 times a week, and each class is 2 hours long (really long!).

I've never taught adults before. I've only ever worked with elementary aged children.

Does anyone have any tips for how to make the first 2 hour class go smoothly, especially since I've never taught adults before, and it's much longer than the 40 minute classes I'm used to teaching.

Any activity or conversation activities would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
SS

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I start this tomorrow... uggh.

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Okay, well seeing as how this is this afternoon, this is what I have so far:

- Quick introduction about myself, and allow any questions about me they may be curious about.
- Get them to introduce themselves, including where they have studied English previously, and where they studied education.
- Ask them what they want to focus on in for the month, and what they hope to get out of the class.

Then depending on the book maybe I'll do stuff from there? Or find a newspaper article to look at?

I just don't know what to do for TWO hours. That just seems like a really long class to me... I'm afraid I won't be able to fill it.

Whistleblower · Joined: 03 Feb 2007

"Find somebody who ...." is a great activity that will swallow up 45 mins to 1hour depending upon the number of students. You could then move on to another great activity.

Write down four sentences about yourself. Two are true and two are false. The students have to guess which is true and which is false. Then get the students to do it to themselves. Ask the class what they found out about their partner.

So the lesson could look like this:

1. Introduction
2. Find somebody who
3. Quick summary and ask students questions about the class
4. True and false statements
5. Summary
6. Students true and false statements
7. Summary
8. Q&A Time (Grammar, vocabulary, etc)
9. Finish and goodbye

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Ohhh thanks! The true false thing will work well I think!

Whistleblower · Joined: 03 Feb 2007

I have thought of one more activity if things go too quickly. Take a soft ball with you into class. Get all the students to stand and move all the chairs and tables to the back of the class.

Write down on the whiteboard the following as a header, "Introductions". Brainstorm together as a group and ask what kind of information people want to find out when they meet someone new. After brainstorming ask students to stand in a circle. Students must throw the softball to other students and ask a question (related to the brainstorming session). Next students must answer the question when asked. Play and observe for 15 to 20 mins. You could then play oppositely. Get students to mention some pesonal information about the person they are throwing the ball to. It is fun and will eat up time.

Steve Schertzer · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Location: Pusan

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Wish me luck! I'm venturing into the unknown...

Whistleblower · Joined: 03 Feb 2007

Let us know how it goes.

hugo_danner · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Location: korea

I got stuck with this on Wednesday, 3 hours in a row. It gets me out of the school one day a week, but blows my easy 3 hour Wednesday. I usually use discussion books, there are many on the market. One thing you might want to do is go early and talk to whoever coordinates the classes and find out if they have a book yet. If not, buy your own--but make sure they'll pay for it first.

If nothing else, find out what they are interested in, and download topics from the internet.

elliemk · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Location: Sparkling Korea!

I taught adults the last time I was in Korea. I loved it. I had them tell me their impressions of Americans (most of which are gotten from the movies). I covered holidays (at Halloween, we bobbed for apples and they loved it). I covered controversial subjects, such as hitting children. That class produced one of my more memorable moments in Korea - the day after that class, one of the students brought in a letter he'd written to his son. It said that he had decided never to hit him again. I almost cried.
Find out if you can take your classes out on field trips. Take them shopping, to the river, lake, beach or whatever. Do a lesson about the environment. There are so many things you can talk over with your students. Good luck.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I'd look at either of Andrew Finch's books for some activities, Teaching reflections or Visit Korea. Both ideal for teachers, esp. the first, with lots of questioning etc....but they should be atleast intermediate level.

www.finchpark.com/books

I have them somewhere online, have to look it up....

DD

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Thanks for all the help. The first class went well! They were all intermediate to advanced level, and many of them had traveled abroad before. There is only one student who I feel is slightly below the others, but he is at least giving it his best shot.

The textbook looks dreadfully boring, so I've told them that for the first hour we will work from the text to get the crappy stuff out of the way, then the second half of the class will be spent doing more personalized activities. The students have told me what they hope to get out of the class, so hopefully the second half of their lesson can be set to their expectations a bit better. If anyone has any links to websites for teaching adults, I'd really appreciate it. I think this is actually going to be quite enjoyable.