Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thu_tinh]

I am stuck. I honestly don't know what I am suppose to be teaching these kids. Every week I am suppose to have a meeting with the English teachers at the school to discuss the lesson plan for the next week. None of them ever show up. And the one that does can barely speak English.
I've talked to each and every single one of them individually so far saying I need them to attend these meetings and help guide me. They tell me to teach whatever I want. So I make up a lesson plan and they tell me it's too hard/boring/the students have done it before. Than I talk to them again. Still no guidance. But I know that they DO NOT WANT me to let the children out of their seats. Says its too hard to control. So the activities should be write and read infront of the class only. No other games. At this point I feel like I will keep doing what I have been doing until my contract is up.
For a public school teacher I was hired as an Assistant English teacher. So me asking for guidance and help is allowed isn't it? I am so frustrated and it's not that I haven't been trying to solve the problem.
Is anyone else having difficulties in the public schools?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

'Teach whatever you want' - that sounds wonderful to me. Do you even have copies of the students' textbooks and know what lessons they're doing every week? If so, you can plan your lessons around these. How much time have you spent looking around ESL bood departments for materials you can use? Do you have any picture dictionaries from which you could make hand-outs?

My general philosophy is that I should focus on the things that the Korean teachers can't or simply don't do, such as phonics, dialogues, listening skills, asking and answering basic questions, English songs, oral review quizes, and games that have real educational value that the KTs would never have thought up.

Trust me, you probably don't want their guidance and help because they probably have no idea how to use you. You'll have to figure that out all by yourself. Job titles on contracts are pretty meaningless in any event, and it's very possible that no one at your school has even read your contract.

[prince of hockey]

You are not alone at all. Co-teaching is a blank slate here and every
Korean teacher has a different opinion about what it means.

[thu_tinh]

i thought it was wonderful too that I can basically teach whatever I wanted.
But than the teachers were saying to me about how hard/boring/and the students have already done in my lesson plan and it puts me back at square one.
i'm really trying. I want to be able to do activities where the students can move around and like I mentioned the teachers have told me they wanted to keep students in their seats because they are noisy. so its either writing of drawing for them.
i'm not even allowed to have a reward system because they said it would conflict with the one they have already.
oh and the text books i have but i don't know where they are in the book. i've asked and they said i shouldnt be concerned with it.

[crazylemongirl]

I'm a middle school teacher and rarely let kids out of their seats, as the time taken to do anything that requires much movement is not really worth the results.

I think that you should be teaching from the textbook. Most textbooks have a dialogue section that you should be teaching.

The dialogues themselves can be sucky but use them as the base for your lesson. For some kids you'll be teaching a bit of vocab, others will be learning grammar.

Here's what I normally do in a dialouge lesson.

1. Greet students ask them a few 'ice breaker questions'
2. Introduce relevant vocab (hint use pictures, especially goofy ones).
3. Introduce grammar.
4. Listen and repeat on the dialogue, explain points.
5. Go to dialogue drill. I usally take turns with the students then they take turns with eachother. At the end of it ask some comprehension questions (put the questions in the work sheet at the end).
6. Volunteer time (students read alone) I usually bribe my with Candy to do this.
7. Have a worksheet that covers the important vocab, grammar, and comprehension points. note that many students my have trouble formulating answers so I give them a few hints in the question to give them some help.
8. Check answers.
Bye Bye.

From a teacher's persepective I think its really important that you establish a routine with your kids and stick to it. Keep your classroom comands simple and use them a lot, the students will eventually catch on.

Keep your lessons light and fun, have stupid jokes with your students. My students still think it's a hoot when someone says I'm beautiful CLG teacher for some candy. Then I put on a huge act of being surprised, thank them, then go 'no candy.' Even the most boring material can be made fun with the right material and attuide. Make sure you have lots of pictures on your worksheets and to help teach vocabulary (google is your friend), your students will at least have a giggle.

You sound very new to Korea and to Teaching. Perhaps you need to find some native speakers in your area to help out.

Also use the Korean teachers. Give them your lesson plans before hand and go through the lesson. Ask them for help on points you are going to have trouble with. Don't wait until the end of the lesson for these things to come up.

Also as a long term thing you might want to consider bringing in some food etc. to get to know them (local lingo is creating 'jeong'). Koreans can sometimes take a while to warm to an outsider, but in the long run the effort is more than worth it.

[ilovebdt]

This is quite a common occurance in public schools. I teach at a high school and I can teach whatever I want, but my main focus is listening and speaking.

What resources do you have available to you? CD player? Computer? TV?
Did the previous English Assistant leave any lesson plans behind?

Try and get a copy of the students text book and expand on those lessons.


Why not survey your students and find out what they are interested in and plan your lessons accordingly?

ilovebdt

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[passport220]

I use the theme of the chapter in the textbook that the students are studying to give a theme to my lesson. I have to say in our textbook it is not always easy to determine what is the theme is of a chapter, but I just use it as a step off point.

Example: There is a story in a recent chapter of the textbook about classical painters. Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, etc. I use it to work on the words Describe and Explain. I first have the students describe a painting. I ask them how the painting makes them feel. I have them explain how the painter achieves this effect.

Exercises: On a handout I have a picture of the famous Illustration of what could be viewed as either an old woman or a young woman. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html (I use the last one on the right)

I have the students first describe the old woman, and then the young.
I have the students explain how the artist is able to portray both in one drawing.

The handout next says: You are a world famous artist. The world loves you! Please describe what your next great painting will look like. Please explain how what you paint will change how people feel.

My point is, I think you can do your own independent lesson but tie it to what the students are learning in the Korean taught classes.

[xox]

i find it hard to get the lower level students involved. they just do a blank stare at me. and i try candy still nothing. i try to help them out but if i say the word they won't repeat they just read the words they know.

but usually you all just do discussions for 45 mins?

[crazylemongirl]

[bosintang]

If you posted a copy of a typical lesson plan, we might have better advice for you.

There's some good advice here I think. I'm kind of new at this game (in public schools in Korea), but I'll add my own.

I think a few things are important: - Get a routine. It's important the students know what to expect when they go to class. - Keep your focus narrow. Realise your limitations and don't try to do everything. - Aim to get your talking time down and student participation up. Don't talk like an idiot, but slow down a little and more importantly, enunciate clearly. Be conscious of the language you are using in the classroom, and be consistent.

One other thing. Find your own style. CrazyLemonGirl brought up having class jokes and using funny pictures and stuff, but if that's not you, don't force it. Be yourself and find what works for you.

My typical lesson:

- For lower-level student, I start with a simple common expressions warm-up game.

- After that I practice a lesson-target vocabulary warm-up game (quick group activity like wordsearch, word scramble, etc. then review using pictures).

- After this, using the vocabulary I have the students create some expressions (** "Guide them to a point that's obvious", someone once told me. I use miming, jokes, props, and communicative drilling to make sure they cover all the lesson-target expressions and maybe create some more on their own. **)

- I organise the expressions into a dialogue, dive the room in half and as a class I have them practice the dialogue using substitutions.

- I increase the amount of expressions and repeat

- Have students practice dialogue (from textbook or handout) individually with a partner. This dialogue might include some new vocabulary or expressions I previously would have decided was not core to the lesson.

- For lower-level classes, they just practice the dialogues using substitutions. For higher-level classes, I try to make a more complicated handout like an information-gap worksheet (two partners have different worksheets and must exchange information).

- Do the listening and writing exercises in the textbook

- If there's still time, if I have an easy cool-down activity that fits into the lesson, I'll use it here.

- Reinforcement worksheet for homework

And that's about the class...

[butlerian]

Personally, I just try to find typical ESL topics and download the relevant materials from sites such as www.bogglesworldesl.com and www.mes-english.com With the lower level classes, I focus more on vocabulary and pronunciation, and with the higher level classes I go through the vocab etc quicker and give them cloze exercises etc to do, which reinforce all areas. Mixed level classes require a kind of balancing act only jugglers are capable of, but I try

[thu_tinh]

this is becoming a good indication that I was not meant to teach. For Dialogue drills do you come up with your own? I'm looking at the textbooks and the teachers guide and I am still very clueless.
I'm sorry if I seem like I need someone to hold my hand but like I said I am clueless and discouraged.

[tiger fancini]

OP, it does sound like you're fairly new at this school (if not, sorry). I would say give it time, get to know your students and try to figure out what level they're at. This took me at least 3 months, and now after 5 months I am starting to find that some of my lessons are actually going pretty well.

I was also told "teach whatever you want!" Then this was quickly followed by "I don't think that lesson was very good because of X,Y and Z." What I tend to do now is use the textbook dialogues, and then choose 1 or 2 things from the dialogue (vocab and its use, grammer) and pitch it to my students level. Give it time, if you're determined you will get there eventually.

[passport220]